Leadership Analysis Paper - Article Example

Leadership Analysis Paper al Affiliation There has been leadership and management revolution experience in almost every organization globally. Ken Blanchard in his book “The One Minute manager” introduced a new method of management using a fictional story of a young executive, Steve who is advised by a magician to own his situations. Cayla advises Steve not to fall victim by teaching him the three principles of self-leadership including challenging assumed constraints, celebrating points of power and collaborating for success that makes him the most efficient leader. According to Blanchard, Fowler & Hawkins (2005), leaders ought to change their style of leadership in response to the development of their followers. Tailoring leadership style to the individuals leaders deal with and further personalize leadership styles based the followers development level. Good leadership requires that decisions remain their prerogative and communication is two-way as this makes up a situational leader who exercises flexibility, diagnosis, support, and delegation. Understanding an individual as well as group’s dynamics remains significant in the organizational setting where people interact and various things come into play. Organizational behavior attempts to harmonize and seeks understanding of diverse background and cultural values thereby controlling the behaviors (Blanchard, Fowler & Hawkins, 2005). It is argued that it is also worth noting that job satisfaction and motivation are vital in ensuring efficient production and enhanced performance of an organization. Drivers of job satisfaction and motivation are still contentious and various scholars have pointed out at some debatable suggestions. According to Hellriegel & Slocum (2011), there are various theories put in place including expectancy theory, MARS model and motivation theory. Decision making is one of the significant roles of leaders as it is necessary in every aspect of management and administration. Decision making ranges from planning the work, implementing the decision made, and solving technical challenges in organizations such as investing in very risky venture. According to Blanchard, Fowler & Hawkins (2005), situational leadership is the ability of a leader to promote and make possible the involvement of others in making crucial decisions. Situational leadership is a democratic way in which people are encouraged to influence decisions that would have an impact on their lives. Situational leadership plays an important role in empowering the organization’s members as well as instilling perception that the employees can establish their work roles and achieve consequential work. Situational leadership is arguably one of the modern styles of leadership that emphasizes on follower’s perspective and creates a distinctive leadership style and approach. A number of theorists agreed on distinctive and meaningful decision making procedures namely autocratic, consultation, joint decision, and delegation (Blanchard, Fowler & Hawkins, 2005). It is important to note that the decision making procedures vary from non-participative autocratic decision making which is almost outdated to very participative decision making procedures. In participative decision making procedures, the members have great influence on the outcome of the decision made. However, there are both positive and negative influences of participation (Ricketts, 2011). Situational leadership offers an array of potential benefits such as higher decision quality and overwhelming approval by the participants. The participants are normally satisfied with the decision making process as well as having a good opportunity for developing decision making skills. Participative decision making process may lead to contribution and sharing of knowledge. Members of the organizations may have vital knowledge, talent or skills in solving the issue at hand which the leader may not have thus improving the quality of decision made. Participation in decision making can further make the participants perceive the decision as theirs by owning it thus boosting the implementation of the decision. This kind of leadership usually emphasize on avoidance of issues that bring conflict amongst members by either improving on the issues or eliminating them (Ricketts, 2011). Additionally, participative decision making process helps in developing problem solving and decision making skills. Participation in complex decision-making process greatly boosts skills such as diagnosing, evaluation and making the right choice as well as implementing the solution provided. The participants build confidence especially from the leader’s encouragement in participation. The quality of the decision is dependent on the decision procedures used which significantly affects the degree of acceptance (Blanchard, Fowler & Hawkins, 2005). Situational variables are very important in decision making process. It includes distribution of knowledge amongst participants and goal equivalence. The knowledge that is required in solving a particular problem should be relevant and applicable to the problem. Furthermore, time constraint especially the subordinates’ time should be greatly considered in choosing a decision making procedure. The subordinate member traits and values should equally be considered and their relevance to the decision being made. Nevertheless, various forms of decision making procedures are only applicable in Particular situations.  It is vital to evaluate the importance of the decision as well as identifying persons with relevant expertise. Additionally participants’ corporation and the likely acceptance without participation and finally the feasibility of holding a meeting should be evaluated. Participation can also be encouraged through encouraging people to express their concerns. Moreover, participation can be promoted by describing a proposal as tentative and recording ideas and suggestions. The management should come up with designed ways of modifying ideas and suggestions. It is also necessary to carefully listen to views without interrupting and apply tactics in expressing unease about a suggestion. Finally, it is important to appreciate suggestions and utilize them as well as dealing with concerns.  According to Blanchard, Fowler & Hawkins (2005), delegation is another way of decision making procedure that can be applied in the organizations. It involves assigning some duties to a subordinate who is also granted power to carry it out. There are important factors that are considered before delegating tasks such as the assignment’s timeliness and the expectations of the task. The person who is assigned the responsibility of carrying out the task should have appropriate qualification and competence of doing the task. It is a very appropriate method of assigning some work to a subordinate when the manager is overloaded (Lunenburg, 2011). Generally, there are skills or traits that an effective leader is required to have as explained by various theories both old and contemporary theories. Some of the main traits that appear in leaders are ambition, zeal, intelligence, self-directive, and self-confidence. At times, physical characteristics, capability, and persona may be important aspects used to summarize what a leader is (Greenberg, 2011). There are six distinct characters that popular effective leaders have such as honesty and integrity. In addition, drive, motivation, cognitive ability, and business knowledge are also other characteristics of leaders. These traits would definitely distinguish whether a manager will be an effective leader or not. Leaders are incredibly ambitious persons who are never afraid of taking inventiveness as well as people whom apart from willingness to lead, are especially ready to take charge. Organization’s background and the values and associated behaviors of whoever is being led are in fact imperative while considering the leaders skills. Leaders should be able to build trust to enable smooth and effective running of an organization. Effectual leadership earns and keep others trust, have personal integrity, inspires trust among their followers, and ensures steadiness with what they promise their hanger-on (Greenberg, 2011). Nice leaders define and set a sense of mission by setting goals, priorities, and standards and ensuring the communication and implementation of the objectives set for smooth running of the organization. Moreover, good and successful leaders acknowledge leadership as a responsibility rather than a rank by surrounding themselves with sharp and proficient people and do not blame others in case of failures. According to Lussier & Achua (2010), there is need for high performance work practices including employee involvement, job autonomy, employee competence and performance based rewards. Individual’s behavior in a work environment is very crucial and it includes personality, values in the work place, ethical values, and behaviors, corporate social responsibility, as well as values across cultures. Leaders are individuals who do not fear taking risks and are very assertive and influential that admits mistakes and promotes trust and commitment to a vision. Moreover, leaders are emotionally stable, intelligent, discerning, and theoretically skilled who are able to show analytical ability, good ruling, and the capability to think strategically. They need to think strategically about challenges affecting them. Unless an employer understands the five categories of employees as explained by Heid (2013), the management may not be able to motivate the employees and this may result to negative effect on employee productivity. According Greenberg (2011), an employee would make decision to act in a particular way due to motivation that makes them able to ascertain desired results. This theory illustrates the behavior process of which one is motivated to make a particular decision based on the expected result if a particular behavior. According to Heid (2013), a heavyweight employee will work harder if there is individual goal or target set while a workhorse employee will put more than 100%effort when assured of job security. If it were not for the respective motivations, the two categories of employees may not prove to be efficient. Lunenburg (2011) argues that motivation of behavior depends on the appeal of the reward and that the mental processing is done before making the ultimate choice. An employee is not only expected to be motivated by the reward but the confirmation that the reward will actually be received. An employer for an explorer type of employee must assure the employee that there will be constant change in responsibilities which would make the employee have numerous and new experiences constantly. It is therefore undeniable that assuring an employee that’s individual expectancy would largely motivate them and work extra hard on the directions that may make them get the rewards. Every manager should tie rewards closely to performance and ensure that the rewards offered are consistent with the employees’ desire (Lussier & Achua, 2010). Indeed organization’s performance is dependent on the MARS model, which is an acronym for Motivation, Ability, Role perception, and Situational factors that are very important when satisfied by the employers. According to Greenberg (2011), the internal influence and employee’s key motivator must be closely taken into consideration. For the effectiveness of motivation, an employee should possess the desired ability to accomplish the job offered. Also, the efficiency of the motivators and have the necessary tools and equipment would as well as understanding their role perception knowing exactly where they best fit in the organization. Success of applying best motivators requires that an employer must well understand their employees’ first and learn about what motivates them most (Lunenburg, 2011). References Blanchard, K. H., Fowler, S., & Hawkins, L. (2005). Self-leadership and the one minute manager: Discover the magic of no excuses! : increasing effectiveness through situational self leadership. New York: W. Morrow. Greenberg, J. (2011). Behavior in Organizations (10th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Heid, Markham. (2013, May 31). Are You A Good Boss? Mens Healthnews. Http://News.Menshealth.Com/Are-You-A-Good-Boss/2013/05/ Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. W. (2011). Organizational Behavior (13th Ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Lunenburg, Fred. (2011). Expectancy Theory of Motivation: Motivating By Altering Expectations. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 15 (1) 1-6. Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, Application, Skill Development. Australia: Southwestern/Cengage Learning. Ricketts, C. (2011). Leadership: Personal Development and Career Success. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar. Read More