Major Leadership Approaches - Essay Example

RUNNING HEAD: Leadership and Management Leadership and Management Client Inserts His/her Name Client Inserts Name of Institution Leadership Approaches Leadership refers to the ability to establish a setting through ability or talent so that everyone creatively contributes towards that course. The process calls for a lot in the organizer or leader. The leader in this case must be able to adapt to the prevailing conditions, modifies the conditions, empower or instil confidence in followers, act of people’s feelings, foster creativity, and foster contribution. There are different approaches or styles leaders use in directing, motivating and controlling the activities of followers. Empirical studies by Kurt Lewin and others in 1939 (Cherry, 2012) identified a number of different leadership approaches. Key the approaches are: authoritarian/ autocratic leadership, participative (democratic) leadership, and delegative (Laises-Faire) approach (Cherry, 2012). Each style is seen to be applied to different situations and by different leaders. Authoritative/ Autocratic Leadership In this model of leadership, decisions and directions are cantered on one person, the leader who is visibly distinct from the followers. The leader gives direction what should be done, how it is to be done and when to do it. The leader in most cases doesn’t seek advice from followers. This kind of leadership is common within the forces or in military controlled governments. Examples are leadership of world war dictators like Hitler of Germany and Mussolini of Italy. Nwlink.com (2010) argues that the application of this style is only appropriate when the leader has sufficient information on what should be done, lacks time, and/ or has followers who are already motivated to contribute. Participative / Democratic leadership This is a case in which the leader offers guidance to followers while he/she also participate in the task. In this design, his/her decision on an issue is final while he/she engages followers in decision making. A case of democratic leadership is the American system of government and other world democracies, where the president is a symbol of unity to nationals. This perspective of leadership is viewed as very effective in a number of ways. Nwlink.com (2010) argues that it attracts respect from followers; it builds a team, and enables the leader to make wiser and widely fetched decisions. Cherry (2012), adds that when this style is employed, followers feel valued hence become highly motivated to participate. Delegative (Laises-Faire) Leadership This is also called free reign style (nwlink.com, 2010). In this leadership model, the leader allows subordinates to make decisions while he/she remains responsible for the decisions. Nwlink.com proposes that this decision is useful when employees are competent enough to understand the direction and modalities of achieving organizational goals. The style, however, has shortcomings. Cherry (2012) observes that this style in most cases leads to poorly defined roles hence conflicts on interest, low motivation and little cooperation. Theories of Motivation Motivation means to activate or energize of goal oriented behaviour in humans. However, the term motivation is a complex and difficult term to define, thus a precise definition of this concept is elusive as the notion comprises the characteristics of individual and situation as well as the perception of that situation by the individual(Ifinedo,2003). He asserts that an organizations’ liveliness whether public or private, stems from the motivation of its employees, although their ability to play just as crucial role in determining their work performance. There are two forms or sources of motivation; extrinsic source or external motivation and intrinsic or internal motivation. Extrinsic motivation concerns factors from external environments that trigger a person’s behaviour towards a specific direction. Intrinsic motivation on the other hand refers to factors within an individual that energizes one towards performance. Several theories have been postulated to explain what energizes and direct employees towards specific goal – oriented behaviour. They include: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, Hertzberg’s two factor theory, and Adam’s Equity theory. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory According to this theoretical perspective, the behaviours of humans are pegged on the satisfaction of their needs (goldsmithibs.com). He says that when unsatisfied needs of humans are met, then their behaviour is modified. Maslow classified human needs into levels called Hierarchy. The hierarchy gives an order in which satisfaction of the needs elicit a motivation response. The needs include: Physiological, safety/security needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. It is important to note that, these needs vary with the degree of importance and the extent with which when met, they modify behaviour. According to this model, the area of the triangle occupied by each category of need reflects the extent to which it elicits a response. In addition, Maslow observed that, the needs are important from level 1 to level 5 up the hierarchy and that once a need is met, it is no longer a need hence cannot motivates, instead another need up the hierarchy will motivates when met. Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory This theory is built on the pillars that factors in existence in an employee’s environment can be classified as motivators and non-motivators (goldsmithibs.com). The motivators include: achievement and recognition. Demotivators include company policies, job security, pay and fringe benefits. Interestingly, this model suggests that those factors that motivate when present, will not evoke an opposite effect (demotivate) when not in existence and vice versa. It therefore concludes that demotivation is not the opposite of motivation instead, the two phenomena are independent. Adam’s Equity Theory This theory presupposes that people tend to compare their input and benefit relations of their work. It suggests that employees endeavour to strike a balance or equity between the two components of their work. When their work is balanced i.e. the rewards are consistent with their skills, competencies and agility, and then they become motivated to work. However, an imbalance in the two only evokes dissatisfaction. According to goldsmithibs.com, people who feel overpaid relative to their input (positive inequity) tend to increase the quantity and quality of their work while those feeling underpaid (negative inequity), give less effort to the work. The Process of Job Evaluation and The principles and procedures for rewarding Employees a) Job Evaluation Process Job evaluation refers to a process of assessing a job with a view of determining its effectiveness. According to managementstudyguide.com, job evaluation should be done relative top others in the organization. The aim is to establish a “fair compensation system” against other levels. Different methods are employed in job evaluation. Job evaluation follows certain principles. The principles include: Job definition, evaluation, job understanding, concern, and assessment. According to managementstudyguide.com (2012), jobs should be defined clearly so that they may be identified and distinguished easily. Secondly, an evaluation system must be designed and be used as a standard to all the jobs in the same company. Thirdly, job evaluators should be able to understand clearly the context of jobs in their company with a technical knowledge of what the jobs entail. In addition, the objectives of evaluation should be on the job and not the doer of the job. Finally, there should be assessment carried out in a competent environment based on judgement that are widely informed and are reproductive. It should be noted that, by the changing technological development, many modern organizations have developed modern job evaluation techniques that minimise time consumption. Other organizations, however, still engage the classical models. Employee evaluation process has the merit of protecting an organization from mismanagement of resources, ensuring professionalism in the employees, and ensuring that only the hardworking and productive members enjoy the benefits accrued to effective service. Principles of Monitoring and Rewarding Employees Rewarding of employees is a very important aspect of human resources management directly linked to motivation. Rewards inspire confidence and creativity in subordinates enabling them to improve their job input. Monitoring aspect of employee management involves open and regular communication with the employee regarding job affairs. Salem (2003), identifies that can be used in this endeavour. They are: use of “balanced score card, benchmarking and business process re-engineering” (p. 4). Upon successful assessment, rewarding of employees is important in maintaining a cordial employee-job relation. Methods used in rewarding an employee should be informed by the motivation concepts. This is because, the purpose of rewarding is to enable the employee to continue doing work and improve service delivery. The rewards should be able to solve the employee’s needs as enshrined in the Maslow’s motivation theory; the rewards should also balance the employee’s inputs so as to create equity in accordance with Adam’s Equity theory of motivation. Case Study of an Influential Leader in the Business world Eric E. Schmidt – The Executive Chairman, Google Company Erick is a celebrated figure in the business world. He currently serves as the Google company executive chairman after a sensational 10 year service as the company’s C.E.O between 2001 and 2011(Google.com). Eric Schmidt has helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley start up to a global leader in technology. The company is currently ranked by Alexa. Com as the second most popular worldwide. From 2001-2011, Eric served as Google’s chief executive officer, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside the company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation. Erick’s tenure at Google is associated with his possession of quality leadership skills. Some of the skills are: team play, aggression, customer centeredness, effective judgement, innovativeness, investor in the service. All these traits are evident in the level at which Google company operates, the services they offer, their level of hospitality, and the rate at which it has evolved. Erick can be classified as a participative leader. Effective Application of the Motivation Theories Three theories of motivation are identified in this task. They are: Need-Based Maslow’s theory, Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory and Adam’s Equity theory. Each of the theories is relevant is determining employee motivation in different situations. Maslow’s model is applicable in all employment levels and nearly all work places. The theory relates employee’s social, political and economic needs to job satisfaction and hence motivation. It should be observed that every human works in order to satisfy a need. The need here may vary among individuals. However, all the needs fall in any one of the levels of Maslow’s hierarchy. Therefore, if an employee’s present needs, regardless of skill level, age, gender, are met; they become more productive due to motivation. Adam’s Equity theory is applicable to all work contexts. This is because majority of employees will create a balance between the costs and benefits of their endeavours. This means that if the work environment demands a lot in terms of input and gives very little in terms of rewards, they are likely to withdraw or engage less effort. Conversely, if employees benefit equally from their jobs relative to their inputs, then they are likely to invest more energy in their jobs and become more productive. Hertzberg’s Two Factor theory of motivators and demotivators is also applicable to nearly all work conditions. It is known that all factors of a job that demotivate employees are present in all job settings. These factors will always elicit demotivation. On the other hand, factors of job motivation identified by this theoretical perspective are universal to job environments. They equally elicit positive response. It is, therefore, at the discretion of a progressive employer to ensure that the demotivating factors in a job setting are modified while the factors that motivate be enhanced. Modifying the demotivation factors does not call for reverting them, but calls for elimination. This is because; it is known that there exist no direct relation between demotivators and motivators according to Hertzberg’s mode. References Cherry Kendra . (2012). Lewin's Leadership Styles. Retrieved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/a/leadstyles.htm Goldsmithibs.com. ( 2012). Motivation. Retrieved from:http://www.goldsmithibs.com/resources/free/motivation/notes/summary%20-%20motivation.pdf Google.com. (2012) . Company Management Team. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/#section-board Ifinedo, P. (2003). Employee motivation and job satisfaction in organizations. A study of employees in Oulu region, Finland. Thesis paper. University of London Managementstudyguide.com . (2012). Principles of Job Evaluation. Retrieved from: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/job-evaluation-principles.htm Nwlink.com. (2010, June 13). Leadership Styles. Retrieved from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html Salem Hanine. (2003). Organizational Performance Management and Measurement. The Lebanese Experience. Retrieved from: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/unescwa/unpan010860.pdf Read More