The Position of Leadership - Book Report/Review Example

Organic Leadership Introduction In his book, Leadership: Theory and practice, Peter Northhouse addresses fundamental issues that define and influence leadership. He explains that leadership refers to the ability to influence the behavior and conduct of others. As such, leadership is a fundamental aspect of the society applicable in every aspect of the society. Northhouse therefore addresses numerous theories that define leadership. In doing this, he explains fundamental factors that influence and help develop leaders. Key among such theories is trait approach, skills approach, style approach, situational approach and contingency theory. The theories provide an exquisite approach to the topical issue thus helping addresses all the issues associated with leadership and management as the discussion below portrays. Just as the name suggests, contingency theory associates leadership to the uniqueness of every situation that requires appropriate guidance from the leadership of either an organization or a society. This implies that different situations often require different advice and guidance from the leadership a feature that help develop leaders. The theory asserts that leaders often arise at times of crises. At such times, iconic individuals arise with appropriate advice thus influence the actions of the people with the view to helping the people overcome the challenging situations. This helps either the organization or the society overcome such situations besides giving rise to appropriate leaders. The theory is fundamental in the development of appropriate and skilled leaders who can overcome tumultuous situations in the society. In his book, Peter Northhouse describes the advantages and disadvantages of the theory thereby providing an equivocal approach to the theory as he does with the other theories he addresses. Key among the advantages of the theory is the fact that it provides appropriate leadership to help overcome specific challenges. The theory provides the society with numerous leaders each of who can provide appropriate leadership capable of overcoming the challenges. The fact that the theory provides the society with numerous positions for leadership is yet another essential advantage. This helps the society develop as numerous individuals display their ability to lea unlike the situation in other theories that bestow the responsibility to overcome every situation on specific individuals. While the theory provides the society with numerous appropriate leaders, its key disadvantage is the fact that the theory is likely to cause conflicts within the society as the numerous individuals scramble for the position of leadership. The positions of leadership often come with numerous benefits. As such, it often becomes difficult to relinquish such positions just to let other people overcome specific challenges. This is always likely to cause wrangles within the society thus possibly splitting a society. The trait approach on the other hand provides numerous character traits that help determine an appropriate leader in a society. Among the traits are intelligence, determination, integrity, self-confidence and sociability among many others. The trait approach provides appropriate traits that readily influence the nature of a leadership thus ensuring that the society enjoys an appropriate creed of leaders. Through the analysis of such traits, individuals can readily develop their personalities thus becoming appropriate to lead whenever the opportunity presents itself. Just as he does with the other theories, Northhouse describes numerous advantages and disadvantages of the approach thus providing a clear understanding of the approach of leadership. The trait approach provides the society with appropriate individuals capable of leading the society. The traits Peter Northhouse describes in his book are portray a likable individual who will interact with every individual in the society thus influence their behavior. The theory provides appropriate traits that will help influence the behavior and actions of the entire society. Such traits help develop appropriate individuals capable of influencing the society. Social and likable individuals for example can readily influence their colleagues owing to their charismatic personality. Such individuals make appropriate personalities capable of influencing the behavior of the subjects in a society. The author further describes some of the major disadvantages of the approach key among which is the fact that it may contribute to the development of inappropriate leaders. As he explains earlier, leadership requires an individual who understands the technical parameters of the position thus develop and implement appropriate policies that will help protect the interests of the people. This is not always the case in the trait theory, which will result in the developme4nt of leaders with appropriate personality traits, but lacking in the technical and professional skills both of which are equally important in influencing the actions and behavior of the people in the society. Peter Northhouse further addresses the other theories that provide divergent viewpoints to the topical issue. He addresses the skill approach to leadership in which he describes various styles including the skills model and the three-skill approach among others. Such are appropriate approaches that have numerous strengths and weaknesses all of which the author describes in his book. The same is the case with style approach in which he describes the numerous styles of leadership as vouched by numerous think tanks throughout the history of the concept. Besides the numerous approaches to leadership, Peter Northhouse further addresses other contemporary features that influence leadership in the society. Key among such is women and leadership. The position of women in the society has improved with time as women continue to demand equal opportunities even in positions of leadership. Women in leadership are a contemporary social feature that continues to influence the future of societies globally. In retrospect, Peter Northhouse addresses leadership exhaustively by covering numerous fundamental concepts that that influence leadership in the current society. He does this by analyzing the numerous theoretical approaches to leadership thereby providing an exhaustive view to the topical issue. Furthermore, he provides specific examples, advantages and disadvantages among other essential features in describing the theories. This way, he provides a vivid view to the topical issue thus helping his audience understand the issues he explains in the book. Women and leadership remains a contentious issue in the contemporary society as women continue to struggle to occupy the positions of leadership even in some of the leading democracies such as the United States. Work cited Northhouse, Peter. Leadership: Theory and practice. New York: Sage publications, 2010. Print. Read More