Leadership in a Group Context - Assignment Example

PART A Question Leadership is an act or process of influencing the activities of an organized group. The aim of leadership is to set goals and achieve them (Northouse, 3). In my experience working with past leader, he exhibited the influential trait as explained in my definition. Question 2: The first theme dominating the definition of leadership in the 1950s is that leadership is a process that involves a leader inducing people to behave in a particular manner. The second theme is that leadership occurs in a group context. Thirdly, a leader is responsible for influencing the behavior of a group if he/she is aware of the direction that the group faces (Northouse, 10). Question 3: According to the trait style, leaders are born, not made. This overlooks the character of individuals rather than the qualities exhibited by them. In addition to that, leaders gain experience from learning, hence they cannot lead without the experience (Northouse, 22). Besides, the trait focuses on the authority of an individual, whereas effective leadership depends on the leadership style of an individual. Question 4: Position power is the influence and authority that is given to an individual courtesy of the office or the position the individual holds in a particular organization (Northouse, 43). In my organization, the Chief Executive Officer handles position power effectively. Being the sole proprietor, he makes critical decisions concerning the organization and issues orders that guide the implementation of these decisions. Question 5: Self-confidence is the ability of an individual to make tough decisions and maintain the outcome despite the conditions surrounding it. Self-confidence is vital for leaders as it enables them to accept open communication, lead organizations with authority and encourage the employees to implement the company’s mission. Besides, self-confidence is critical in delivery of speeches, inspirational and motivational messages. Question 6: The five bases of power include coercive power, which is conveyed by the fear of threats. The reward power is conveyed through rewarding people for complying with leader’s wishes. Legitimate power originates from having position power in an organization (Parry & Bryman, 6). On the other hand, expert power comes for an individual’s knowledge, experience, and skills. Finally, the referent power comes from being respected and trusted for the manner in which one handles situations. Question 7: The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid is important in helping managers to scrutinize their individual styles of leadership. This is through the grid training technique. According to this theory, this process administers questionnaires that assist the managers to identify their ranking in line with their concerns for people and production within the organization. Question 8: Emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to understand his or her own emotions and manage them effectively (Lindebaum & Cartwright, 5). For a leader to be emotionally intelligent, he or she must have self-regulation, social skills, self-awareness, empathy, and motivation. Leaders with high emotional intelligence understand how other people feel. Besides, they analyze what their actions will have on the emotions of people. Question 9: The Five Factor Personality Model has the following traits: extraversion, emotional stability, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Of the above traits, openness is the most significant (Parry & Bryman, 12). For instance, it enables the organization to have creativity, informative discussions, insightfulness, and the curiosity to have a variety of experiences. This enables the organization to have positive working environments and adequate social support. Question 10: The task behavior refers to the grouping of employees according to their roles or technical qualifications within the organization (Northouse, 164). On the other hand, the relationship behavior is the grouping of employees depending on how they relate to each other. Pugh, Burns and Stalker, and Lawrence Lorsche used this theory to describe the contingency approach of leadership. Question 11: In accordance with the contingency approach of leadership, the proponents place the situational factors at the centre of understanding the role of leaders. These factors include the size of an organization, the operating environment, and the technology applied by the organization. Therefore, this model addresses the effectiveness of different leadership styles depending on the situational variables stated above. Question 12a: The Four Leadership Styles of the Situational Leadership II model include directing, coaching, supporting and delegating (Northouse, 7). This style of leadership explains the need for varying levels of leadership depending on the situation. Question 12b: My leadership style is the supporting role, being an employee in my organization. This leadership approach is appropriate when the followers have high ability to handle tasks, but have low willingness. Being a supportive follower, I will take up the task from the leader who has the ability but lacks the commitment to perform. PART B Essay #1 The Three Skill Approach of leadership emerged in 1955 after Robert Katz made a firsthand observation regarding the skills of effective administrators. He suggests, herein, that effective leadership and administration depends on three basic personal capabilities: human, conceptual, and technical skills. The above skill areas are the most critical skills that executives must have to execute their duties effectively. Technical skills are the relevant proficiency and knowledge about specific activity or work. This envisages the competencies in the ability to apply appropriate techniques and tools, the analytical ability and the sufficient knowledge of the area of specialization. On the other hand, human skills relates to the ability of an individual to work with other people (Northouse, 26). At the workplace, human skills enable the leaders to work effectively with superiors, peers and subordinates. Therefore, human skills encompass the ability of an individual to interact with other people within the organization. Conceptual skills are the abilities of a leader to provide, create, and direct strategic goals. The conceptual skills test the ability of a leader to work with new concepts and ideas. Besides, it studies how leaders apply their strategic, business, and cognitive skills in creating plans that direct the company. In addition to that, a conceptual skill is the most important skills for the top managers within the organization, as it ranks their ability to work with hypothetical situations. At the middle level of management, the technical skills are the most vital management skills. This is because at this level, specialization is the key to defining the role of each employee. The human skills, nonetheless, are universally important across all the levels of management. It requires the members of the middle management to work effectively with the other levels of management. Conceptual skills, however, are least effective in the middle management level. At this level, the managers carry out supervisory roles; hence implement the ideas of the top management. (Northouse, P. (2015). Chapter 3, Skills Approach In : Leadership: Theory and practice. (7th ed., pp. 20-43). Los Angeles, California: Sage). Essay #4 The style approach is a shift from the 1940 leadership approach that had focus on personal characteristics of leaders. Consequently, the style approach emphasized the need to study the behaviors of leaders. The style approach highlights the traits of people who become leaders, hence defining the traits that organizations should look for in selecting prospective leaders. The style approach focused on the behaviors of leaders, hence emphasizing the need for training rather than selection of leaders. The task behavior refers to the grouping of employees according to their roles or technical qualifications within the organization. On the other hand, the relationship behavior is the grouping of employees depending on how they relate to each other (Northouse, 16). The studies at Ohio State University focused majorly on initiating structure and consideration. Consideration denotes leadership that shows concern and responsiveness towards the subordinates, hence gaining their trust. Initiating structure, on the other hand, focuses on task oriented leadership, production, directive leadership, and cost of production. The importance of this study is relevant in the promotion of positive working environment. The University of Michigan study tends to focus on relationship and task motivation in the context of individual personality attributes. This states that if the orientation of leaders were relationship oriented, they would deal with ensuring good relationships amongst the employees. Similarly, if the leaders were task motivated, they would have their energy directed towards accomplishments of tasks. This study is important in highlighting the role of each employee in the workplace. As such, it eliminates the possibilities of clash of responsibilities and duplication of duties. (Northouse, P. (2015). Chapter 2, Trait Approach In : Leadership: Theory and practice. (7th ed., pp. 19-42). Los Angeles, California: Sage). Essay #6 Emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to understand his or her own emotions and manage them effectively. Leaders with emotional intelligence can influence the performance of their teams as they have self-awareness. With this trait, the leader understands the strengths and weaknesses of his team, thus handling each member with humility. Self-regulation is a facet of emotional intelligence that enables leaders to avoid compromising their values, avoid making emotional or rushed decisions, and avoid verbal or physical attacks on others (Northouse, 336). Through self-regulation, a leader can instill personal accountability amongst the team members and therefore influence their behavior. Motivation is a tool that enables the leader to encourage people to work towards a certain goal, consequently adjusting the working standards to improve the quality of work. Leaders with emotional intelligence help the followers to examine their jobs and maintain optimism despite the problems they encounter. Empathy is a component of emotional intelligence that enables leaders to put themselves in the situations of the group members. By doing this, the leader is able to challenge the actions of others, encourage constructive communication and fair judgment of team members. Finally, social skills are important in emotional intelligence, as they are critical in change management and diplomatic resolution of conflicts. Social skills envisage effective conflict resolution, communication skills, and appreciation language. (Northouse, P. (2015). Chapter 13, Leadership Ethics In : Leadership: Theory and practice. (7th ed., pp. 329-362). Los Angeles, California: Sage). Works Cited Lindebaum, Dirk, and Susan Cartwright. A Critical Examination Of The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Transformational Leadership. Journal of Management Studies (2010): no-no. Print. Northouse, Peter Guy. Leadership: Theory And Practice. 7th ed. Los Angeles, California: Sage, 2015. Print. Parry, KEN W., and ALAN Bryman. "Leadership In Organizations.". The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies. 2 (2012): 1-27. Print. 8 July 2015. Read More