Justice as an Important Leadership Quality - Essay Example

due: Justice in leadership Imagine living in a country where there are no leaders, everyone rules themselves. How will it be like? Leaders are quite important people in any organization. No organization can run without a leader or leadership. Not only does leadership apply to organizations but also to families, nations and any other form of organization of people intending to have a common goal or co-existing. Leadership is at times taken to be that process that facilitates social influence whereby one individual is entitled to the support and aid of others in the accomplishment of a common goal or task in an organization. According to Alan Keith of Genentech, leadership is about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen. An effective leader has many qualities and characteristics which help them in running any type of an organization. This paper aims at dealing with being just as an important leadership quality. There are many definitions of justice according to different scholars and books. Justice can be defined as upholding of what is just, especially fair handling and due prize in accordance with standards, honor, or law. In other words it is the principle of moral rightness; equity. It advocates on treating situations in an organization with fairness and equality (Spillane 28-23). Injustices in any organization may be based differently. For example, there can be injustice according to race, tribe, religion, gender, family relations, or even jealousy. A good leader must be totally unbiased. They ought to not have personal bests in their team, to whom they give more power or less labor. All the members in a team should be treated equally without favoritism and discrimination. Whenever group activities are mandatory, the appearance of a leader becomes imminent. A group always works efficiently when there is a leader to guide the members and keep them aggravated on their way to success. With no a superior head, a group will not be able to do to the best of its abilities. Nevertheless, as much is it essential to have a leader, it is also important that they have the right character and the required skills. Having a bad head is even worse than having no head at all (Zaccaro 17-9). In case one wants to be a leader, one needs to cultivate certain skills and qualities in them, one of which is justice. Having a leader who is biased and does not uphold justice may lead to conflicts in the organization and it may have many hazardous effects like drop in productivity of the group and the company at large. Injustice may occur in different circumstances like when dealing with ones family members and close friends if at all they work in the same organization. Many leaders tend to be biased and favor their relatives and friends on many occasions (14-10). A good leader does not perceive him/herself to be the superior person in an organization. Rather he sees himself as part of the team, equal to all other group members. It’s by this that he treats everyone in the organization as equal to each other and hence at the time of judgments no discrimination by race, tribe, color, religion or even family background is tolerated (Seligman 1988). Leaders who are team players usually gain admiration from the team members. Supporters will be more eager to help and give their finest as they have a common sense that the team is ‘one’ and each person is in it collectively. A just leader is an effective leader because he sets a good example to his team members and the other organization staff and hence he becomes a role model to them. If he is lazy, dishonest and avoids responsibilities, then how can he expect others to be meticulous and sincere? (Tittemore 2003). To add to that, a just leader will understand that patience is one of the most essential qualities he needs. As he has to direct his team, he must have the endurance to make them discover what they need and get the job done by them. This patience should also be used while executing judgments to make sure that there is enough evidence on whatever he is judging. Without patience, he might pass hasty judgment only to jeopardize the organization of his team. Moreover, a leader should always be receptive to new ideas by making the right judgment despite who presents the ideas and since he is the leader, this does not imply that the contributions made by others will be worthless. He ought to agree to the helpful ideas of his team members. Justice has to prevail in all situations in a team or organization (Lee & Eric 590-585). Additionally, an effective and just leader should have loads of understanding and always focus on the betterment of the group as a whole and not on individual members. Leadership requires utmost honesty, trustworthiness and above all approachability. All these qualities round up to being just and fair in all leadership endeavors. Productive response is one of the skills that the lead person should possess. He should at all times congratulate his team members if they do well. At the same time, if they do wrong, he should be there to tell them where they made a mistake and how they can put things back in order. On the other hand, the criticism should constantly be productive and not humiliating (McClelland 390-283). A good and just leader will always motivate his team so that they happily contribute towards team work. He should be aware of the reaction of different members and make judicious use of them so that when he leads and makes the judgments, he does it wisely and for the betterment of the organization. When someone becomes a leader, he needs to assign duties as well as everyday jobs among his team members. For this, he should be alert of their strong points and weak ones and allocate duties in view of that. Leaders set the goal for the organizations and help them achieve it. For them to reach their goals justice must be observed at all stages and fair treatment of members of staff would contribute to success (Hersey, et al 2008). The leader should possess a visionary mind and at the same time, be able to mobilize people towards those goals without harassment. Conclusion There is no organization that can run without sober leadership and no leadership can be effective without justice. Justice is an important trait to look for in a leader. Where there is no justice gender discrimination, abuse of minors, abuse of office and many others are very evident. A just leader leads his team to victory while an unjust leader causes more problems to an organization leading to poor productivity. Justice and leadership are inseparable, a just leader leads in the right way but an unjust leader leads people with malice and for the betterment of their own lives and selfish gains. Works cited Hersey, Paul, Blanchard, Ken & Johnson, D. Management of Organizational Behavior: Leading Human Resources. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. 2008.  Lee, Don & Tsang, Eric, The effects of entrepreneurial personality background and network activities on Venture Growth: Journal of Managerial Studies, vol 38. 2001, 583-602. McClelland, David. Human Motivation, New York: Addison-Wesley. 1983. Seligman, Martin. Learned Optimism, How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Pocket Books.1988. Spillane James P. et al "Towards a theory of leadership practice", Journal of Curriculum Studies. vol 36 2004, 3–34. Tittemore, James, A. Leadership at all Levels. Canada: Boskwa Publishing. 2003.  Zaccaro, S. J. Trait-based Perspectives of Leadership. American Psychologist. vol 62. 2007. 6 16. Read More