No One Way Is the Best Way - Case Study Example

The Study of Leadership Models Leadership is needed in business and other organizations throughout the world. In fact, it is so needed that it seemsthat everyone is looking for a way to do it. Most universities have a program to teach leadership and the concept has become more important since businesses are going global. When people are studying leadership it seems that no one way is the best way. This creates a variety of choices and opportunities. Leadership is important because it is what moves an organisation forward. Leadership also helps individuals learn to make better decisions on the job and examine their strengths and weaknesses. A strong leader will help employees find a path that creates specific goals for them in the workplace and helps them meet those goals. There are also a variety of different ways to look at leadership depending on the organisation that you are working within. Since there are so many ways to approach leadership, the average person will find that they are dealing with a variety of leadership styles and ways of looking at the world. Strong leaders will bring their employees together and help them learn how to work more effectively as a team. Some leaders are insecure though and think that the only way to lead is to tell people what to do and when to do it. This may not be the best way to help someone in an organisation. Although there have been leaders of various types since early Egypt, the study of leadership within the twentieth century after WWI. At that time leadership was done through empirical studies which only created more information. After the 1970s research in leadership became more theory based. Since that time research has given way to a variety of theories and perspectives (McGlone, 2005, p. 1, par. 3). One of the theories of leadership that is still used today is based on Trait Theories. This type of leadership says that there are certain people who have specific traits that are successful in leadership. Those people without these traits wont be successful as leaders (McGlone, p. 1, par. 4). Sometimes this form of leadership is referred to as "The Great Man Theory of Leadership" because some people feel that by studying great leaders like Iacocca, MacArthur, Kennedy and Martin Luther King, they have learned how to lead (McGlone, p. 1, par. 4). This approach to leadership also looks at these strong leaders to see how they were influenced by the traits that make good leaders. The traits take into account the "physical traits, personality, social background and ability" (McGlone, p. 2, par. 1) of each leader. A popular approach to leadership that is used in the Trait Theory is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This leadership approach uses personality traits to look at styles of leadership. Based on Carl Jungs eight psychological types, the MBTI shows a variety of styles that combine to create strong leadership. One of the ways this works is to have people fist look at their leadership style strengths, then compare them to the styles that will be most important to the teams they are leading ("Leadership Styles"). To do this helps people focus on the "needs of the situation, the criteria for success and the approach that will make the most impact in the situation ("Leadership Styles"). My opinion of this leadership approach is similar to a blog post that I found. It says that "the idea that leadership traits are inborn and unchangeable appears to be incorrect" ("Leader Trait Theory"). I think that people are not born with certain traits that do better than others because I know personally that some leaders grow into leadership by being taught. I think leadership is developed more on how a person sees the world, the environment they are raised in and how they perceive their self-worth. The MBTI makes more sense because it looks at different leaderships styles and looks at how they come together to assist a team. Behavioural approaches to leadership look at what leaders do and the actual tasks that they perform. This approach will observe daily activities and the behavioural characteristics of leaders (Walonick, n.d.). They also look at how considerate of other relationships the leader is within the framework of their leadership. This type of approach is based on a questionnaire called the "Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) [McGlone, p. 2, par. 1). According to this questionnaire a person who scores high in the areas of consideration and initiating structure will be the better leaders. An example of the behaviour approach to leadership uses Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. This is based on Maslows theory that "human needs are a very important part of human nature" (Clark, 2007, par. 1). Leadership breaks his theory into three human need categories: 1. Physiological needs that are the basics of food, shelter and sleep. 2. Psychological needs that are about affection, security and self-esteem. 3. Meat/being needs which are the need for justice, goodness, unity or order. (Clark, par. 5-6). The point of this approach is that by studying human behaviour leaders will understand what motivates their employees. When the leader understands where an employee is on the hierarchy, they can determine an effective motivator to encourage the individual to work to their best performance (Clarka, par. 12). Some people also refer to this approach as "motivation theory." Dilenschneider (1992) suggest that another approach to leadership is to loo at vision. He says that "vision periodically provides an organization with a feeling of unity in the sense of direction" (Dilenschneider, in Walonick, n.d., p. 5). He says that this unity of purpose only occurs briefly and self-interest is what really drives behaviour. Because of this a leader must develop a personal vision (Dilenschneider in Walonick, p. 6). He names three ways to develop a personal vision then says the leader must then communicate this vision to the rest of the organization. This approach seems to be important in the short-term but I think it would be difficult to work from it easily. I think it would be difficult to take a personal vision and move it into an organizational vision without bringing other people in to expand on it. I think leaders can become too self-absorbed when they are only working from their particular vision and I don’t think this would be good to the whole organization. This is a major leadership approached used today in many organizations and is considered the more traditional method of leadership. Another leadership approach that some organizations use is based on Situational Theory. This approach is called Situational Leadership and refers to "the belief that the relative importance of leadership behaviour depends on the situation" (Walonick, p. 8). There are several people who have a variety of ways that they think this leadership approach should be implemented. This approach primarily says that there is "one best way" or one "universal approach" to leadership (Thomas, 2001, p. 1). It further promotes that only certain people have the commitment, strength, vision and charisma to lead while others do not (Thomas, p. 2). One example of a contemporary use of this is Ken Blanchards model that has as its foundation a two dimensional model of coaching. This model says that leadership has to provide a balance between supervision and arousal in order to create "the best learning environment" (Clarkb, 2001). I found this to be an interesting theory but much like the trait theory this approach doesnt take into consideration that management characteristics would differ depending on the situation. It is still used today and as in the case of Blanchard, it has been adopted into the arena of executive coaching. Peterson (2008) looked at all the research on the various theories, studied them and then came up with is own approach. His approach has as its base that a business is a small group and should be approached in that way to create a more flexible team. He also sees personality as important. In Petersons approach the individual differences of the team are looked at and how these differences affect the team. The individuals personality differences will eventually affect the personality of the entire team (Peterson, par. 1). This leadership approach seems to be one of the best approaches because it takes into account that there are a variety of issues to look at when you are leading people. Peterson is also a professor at a business school so he continues to work in this area. This says to me that his approach will be kept fresh and he will keep building upon it. Leadership approaches today must also reach a multicultural audience. This is not easy for leaders because they tend to be taught in certain ways and these ways are not always appropriate for all audiences. Leadership classes sometimes forget that they must understand the cultural differences that are in their workplace with all the other differences. Bordas (2008) points out that most leadership approaches are Eurocentric in nature and they dont understand other cultures enough to incorporate them into the leadership programs. Specifically she says: For mainstream leaders, understanding the history that gave rise to ethnocentricity is perhaps the most difficult step in transforming leadership to an inclusive, multicultural form. You cant just go to a seminar for a day and come out understanding why the old Eurocentric leadership models wont work in a globalized world. You need to learn about these cultures in order to develop the clarity that allows you to incorporate multicultural leadership techniques into your organization. (Bordas, 2008, par. 7). She says to incorporate other cultures into leadership that Eurocentric styles will need to look at the various ethnic and racial groups and realize that their style is different. For instance, Eurocentric leaders must see that for some groups the ideas of "we" instead of "I" and generosity instead of greed are the way that multicultural groups lead. She also says that there needs to be a place for spirituality in there workplace because for many cultures, spirituality is a part of their daily life and that includes business (Bordas, par. 13). Barnett (n.d.) further discusses spirituality as an approach to leadership and says that: Spirituality in leadership implies that the focus will be less on formal position power and more on people; less on conformity and more on transformation and diversity; and less on controlling and more on partnership, collaboration, and inspiration. Spirituality in leadership does not require that the leader adhere to a particular religion or that he or she attempt to convince subordinates to pursue a specific set of religious principles. (Barnett, par. 5). I think it is very important to think about multicultural issues when you are looking at leadership approaches because I agree with Bordas that some approaches to leadership wont work with all people. I know that sometimes people get upset because they think they have to change their styles to meet a variety of needs, but sometimes it may be small things they need to change so that everyone is comfortable in their workplace. People can say or do things that are offensive to some groups and they need to understand how to work with a diversity of styles. I think that the way that Barnett describes a spiritual approach is important because it does have a place but it shouldn’t be of a specific religion. These two approaches are being used in workplaces all over the world. The multicultural piece is something that most companies are learning especially if they are going overseas to do business. There are a lot of things to take into consideration when you have so many different ethnicities working together. This paper has helped me learn a lot about leadership and I think I will continue to look for many styles of leadership in my studies. As I went through all of these many seemed to be so traditional that it made me wonder how people really worked within those constraints. As time goes on and companies become more global they are realizing that they need to understand the cultures they are moving within so that everyone can work together more effectively. Opportunities come in many different packages and to know more people creates a richness to any organization. Also, the more they interact with different cultures the more they learn about themselves. I also think that leadership has to be creative because it takes a good manager to bring together a variety of people and help them move forward. The more creative a leader is the better they and help people. The best leaders are people who are confident and open to new ideas and thoughts. They don’t hesitate to ask for help from their superiors and they are motivated to do the things that will make them successful. I think these are the things that make a great leader and when they are great, it wont matter what leadership approach they use because whatever they do they will be successful. Bibliography Barnett, Tim. n.d. Spirituality in leadership. Spirituality in Leadership Forum. Available http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Sc-Str/Spirituality-in-Leadership.html. [Accessed 06 May 2008]. Bordas, Juana. 2008. White men cant lead (everyone): Eight ways to practice multicultural leadership and gain success in the globalized world. Daily News. Available http://newsblaze.com/story/20070906054647tsop.nb/topstory.html. [Accessed 06 May 2008]/ Clark, D. 11 May 2007a. Maslows hierarchy of needs. Big Dog and Little Dogs Bowl of Biscuits. Available http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadhb.html. [Accessed 03 May 2008]. Clark, D. 2 April 2001b. Two dimensional modelling. Big Dog and Little Dogs Bowl of Biscuits. Available http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/development/modeling.html. [Accessed 03 May 2008]. Leadership styles based on Myers Briggs Jung typology. n.d. Team Technology. Available http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/leadership-styles.html. [Accessed 03 May 2008]. Leadership trait theory. 30 January 2007. Leadership 501. Viewed http://www.leadership501.com/Leadership-trait-theory/22. [Accessed 05 May 2008]. McGlone, J. 22 June 2005. Major approaches to the study of leadership. Academic Exchange Quarterly. Available http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ Major+approaches+ to+the+study+of+leadership-a0136071081. [Accessed 05 May 2008]. Peterson, R. 2008. A contribution to the study of leadership in small groups. 2008. London Business School. Available http://faculty.london.edu/rpeterson/ researchinterest/leadership.htm. [Accessed 03 May 2008]. Thomas, G.L. 2007. What you need to know about situational leadership: One leaders perspective. WeLead Online Magazine. Available http://www.leadingtoday.org/ Onmag/2001%20Archives/august01/gt-august01.html. [Accessed 05 May 2008]. Wilonick, D. n.d. An overview of organizational leadership and management. Survey Software Solutions. Available http://www.survey-software-solutions.com/walonick/ leadership.htm. [Accessed 05 May 2008]. Read More