Blog 5: The Benefits of Studying Leadership

 Leadership styles that are being adopted by leaders have evolved over the years due to the changes that take place in the business environment (Clark & Clark, 1996). The ever changing nature of work or business environment has made it necessary for leaders to continuously sharpen their skills so that they may be in a position to handle the arising leadership challenges or tasks. The management of the organization needs to possess the leadership skills that will enable them to get the work done (Clark & Clark, 1996).

            The study of leadership enables the learners to be aware of and understand the key attributes and characteristics that are required for one to be an effective leader. A leader requires some of the attributes that can be learnt such as listening, gathering a variety of opinion, considering effective strategies that lead to achievement of goal and generation of a clear vision (Vojta n.d.). The leader must focus on a shared goal. An individual is able to learn that leadership is a process of influencing the activities that are performed in the organization so that the organizational goals can be achieved (McCarthy, 2010). Effective leadership requires that a leader should possess attributes such as maturity, conviction, and expertise that will enable him to provide proper direction to the team. Such traits will also enable them to instill motivation, self esteem and teamwork among their team members. Learners are also able to learn that effective leadership requires that leaders have to be visionary. They need to be disciplined thinkers and think of the innovative ways that they can use to transform the situations that surround the organization and attain the vision and goals of their organizations (Vojta n.d.).   

            Study of leadership makes people able know what makes a leader different from a manager. They are able to understand that leaders develop visions and drive change for their organizations or teams while managers are more concerned with the monitoring of the organizational progress and giving solutions to the problems (Jackson, 2007). They are able to know that not all the managers are leaders and not all leaders are managers. This can be distinguished in the manner in which they derive position of power. For instance, in most cases managers derive their position power from their legitimate authority and control over the resources and work environment while leaders on the other hand, derive their personal power from their expertise, friendship and loyalty (Jackson, 2007). Managers exercise power of the people while leaders create and share power with the people or team.

            Leadership effectiveness calls for on to become inspirational to his or her followers. This enables them to accomplish their tasks. Leaders must appeal to the people that they lead and attract them to so that they may work towards the achievement of the shared vision (Boedker et al, 2011). They must have a strong charisma for them to attract large number of followers who he can inspire and motivate to achieve the common goals. Leaders who have a strong sense of charisma are able to provide energy and build up the zeal to work towards the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives. 

REFERENCES

Boedker, C et al. (2011) “Leadership, Culture and Management Practices of High Performing Workplaces in Australia: The High Performing Workplaces Index,” Viewed on September 21, 2012 <http://www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/WorkDevelop/Documents/SKEHPW.pdf> 

Clark, KE &Clark, MB. (1996) “Choosing to Lead,” 2nd Edition. Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, N.C.

Jackson, P. (2007) “Introduction: Why Studying Leadership Matters,” Viewed on September 21, 2012 <http://www.uk.sagepub.com/upm-data/15686_02_Jackson_&_Parry_Ch_01.pdf> 

McCarthy, C. (2010) “Global Leadership: An Analysis of three Leadership Competency Models in Multinational Corporations,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://doras.dcu.ie/15711/1/PhD_McCarthy_2010_TOTAL_20.9.2010.pdf&gt;

Vojta, M n.d., “Characteristics of the Effective Leader,” Viewed on September 21, 2012 <http://www.tnstate.edu/servicelearning/documents/Leadership%20Characteristics.pdf&gt;

 

 

Blog 4: Ethical Relationships between Leaders and Their Teams

Ethical leadership in an organization is viewed as a source of intrinsic motivation. It influences the leaders’ decisions in areas such as job design. The employees in most cases are influenced by the values of their leaders. The values that the leaders hold can be passed down to their subordinates or followers through various means (Piccolo, 2010). The methods or systems that successful leaders use to communicate their values should be able to motivate their employees or subordinates.

            Organizational leaders should create an ethical climate within the organization. Ethical environment and climate will give rise to moral climate on which the organizational decisions will be made (Pickett, 2005). The leadership must be able to maintain an ethical environment that promotes a moral behavior among the employees and leadership. In most cases employees depend on their leaders to help them handle different ethical situations. The positions that are held by the leaders or managers make them to be the center of focus by their followers or subordinates. Their followers are able to observe their ethical behaviors and learn from the leaders conducts (Ciulla, 2004). Therefore, the leaders have to portray good conducts so that their subordinates may also acquire the ethical values that they are able to learn from them. They have to treat the employees with utmost respect that they deserve to be accorded. This will make the employees to respect their leaders too. Some of the common traits that make someone an ethical leader are trustworthiness, approachability, fairness, and transparency and accountability among others (Ciulla, 2004). Ethical leader have to show high sense of morality and professionalism when dealing with their employees.

Role of Ethics in Building Relationship

            Ethics plays a very critical role in establishing the relationships between the leaders and their teams. Leader who behave ethical are able to develop trust among their teams (Lumsden, Lumsden & Wiethoff, 2010). The leaders are able to promote the virtues that enable them to connect with their teams such as fairness, power sharing and clarification of every individual’s roles. Every individual including the leaders are able to act responsibly towards one another and towards their jobs or tasks. Leaders who share power are able to empower the employees so that they are able to make decisions and become productive (Lumsden, Lumsden & Wiethoff, 2010). Members of the team are also able to conduct their affairs in an open and transparent manner. Ethical leadership encourages the emotional support and exchange of valued resources between the leaders and their subordinates (Walumbwa et al, 2011). It also promotes social identity that is; members of the team have a feeling of oneness and belongingness to the team. The employees will view leaders who behave ethically as honest and trustworthy. This makes them to open up with their leaders and share ideas.

Role of Ethical Leadership in Enhancing Performance

            Ethical leaders perform a very important role in enhancing employees’ performance. Ethical leaders who are transformational leaders and support the organizational culture to contribute to the employees’ increased performance (Bellingham, 2003). They have components such as idealized behavior, idealized attributes, inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation that promote the employee performance. The positive behavior that leaders show is able to inspire, motivate, mentor and coach the employees to become good performers (Sheraz et al, 2012). The charismatic nature of such leaders makes them support their teams to increase the employee performance. 

REFERENCES

Bellingham, R. (2003) “Ethical Leadership: Rebuilding Trust in Corporations,” 2nd Edition, HRD Press, Amherst, Mass.

Ciulla, JB. (2004) “Ethics, the Heart of Leadership,” 2nd Edition. Praeger, Westport, Conn.

Clark, KE&Clark, MB. (1996) “Choosing to Lead,” 2nd Edition. Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, N.C.

Lumsden, G, Lumsden, DL & Wiethoff, C. (2010) “Communicating In Groups and Teams: Sharing Leadership,” 5th Edition, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, MA.

Piccolo, RF. (2010) “The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Core Job Characteristics,” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31, 259–278. Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://ron-piccolo.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2010-JOB-EL-JCT-Piccolo-et-al1.pdf&gt;

Pickett, MC. (2005) “Understanding Ethical Leadership,” ASBBS E-Journal, Vol.1 No.1 Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.asbbs.org/files/2005/PDF/Pickett.pdf&gt;

Sheraz, A et al. (2012) “Enhancing employee performance through ethical leadership, transformational leadership and organizational culture in development sector of Pakistan,” African Journal of Business Management Vol.6 (4), pp. 1244-1251. Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM/PDF/pdf2012/1Feb/Sheraz%20et%20al.pdf&gt;

Walumbwa, FO et al. (2011) “Linking ethical leadership to employee performance: The roles of leader–member exchange, self-efficacy, and organizational identification,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 115 (2011) 204–213. Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/dmmayer/Published%20Articles/Walumbwa%20et%20al.pdf&gt;

 

Blog 3: Analysis of Leaders in Global Business

There are various global business leaders that have able to scale up innovation and success of the successful of these businesses. Some of the successful businesses that have changed the face of the global business are Microsoft, Google, Apple, Virgin Group and Sony among other organizations. These global organizations have been able to achieve high level of innovation due to the excellent leadership of the leaders such as Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Bill Gates and Richard Branson.

These global organizational leaders have been able to do the right things by deciding on the right course of action that their organizations need to take for success. After defining the right course of action, they determine what need to be done in order to get to where the organization needs to be. In other words, these leaders are visionary and hold great vision for their organizations. These leaders set clear goal and objectives and develop effective strategies that can be used to achieve them. Current globalization has placed new demands on the today’s corporate business leaders as they continue to operate in a more virtual environment (DeMarco, Lesser & O’Driscoll n.d.). The leaders need to take initiatives and provide guidance to the members of their teams in order to retain their competitiveness globally. The global business environment today requires that businesses conduct most of their businesses virtually. Global business leaders such as Bill Gates of Microsoft and former CEO of Apple the late Steve Jobs have revolutionized their industries such that their organizations are able to provide the best products to the global market (Cohen & Rath, 2007). They have been able to pioneer innovative information technology firms that provide solutions to the global needs or problems. They have innovated different products that meet the needs of the global customers.

The common factor that is common among Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin is that they are very innovative leaders. Innovative leaders are those leaders who are able to excel on different skills that may contradict one another and creativity (Cotton, 2010). They have been able to identify the opportunities that exist in different areas and develop them using the skills, attributes and abilities. For instance, Steve Jobs was able to create a technology company that has now become one of the leading computer companies in the world. He has also helped in the formation of other technologies during the time he was not working at Apple. On the other hand, Richard Branson has also shown his innovative leadership skills and abilities in the business sector by creating many successful business entities under Virgin Group of Companies (Cohen & Rath, 2007). These leaders are able to communicate with vision and make their employees to be part and parcel of the vision.

REFERENCES

Cohen, E & Rath, T. (2007) “Leadership without Borders: Successful Strategies from World-Class Leaders,” John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.

Cotton, GL. (2010) “SWOT Analysis: A Leaders Role in the Business Intelligence Process,” MCC Global Network. Retrieved on September 20, 2012 <http://www.manhattanccglobal.org/common/mccnews/detail.cfm?Classification=Library&QID=7340&ClientID=11002&BrowseFlag=1&Keyword=&StartRow=1&TopicID=0&gt;

DeMarco, M, Lesser, E & O’Driscoll, T n.d., “Leadership in A Distributed World: Lessons from Online Gaming,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/g510-6611-00-leadership.pdf&gt;

Blog 2: Change and Resistance to Change

In most cases organization find the need to undergo changes in the processes and activities organizations find the need to incorporate some changes to cope up with the demands of the environment. The organizational change is often influenced by the factors that are external to the organization such as changes in market opportunities, changes in funding and changes in technology among other business environmental factors (The University of Adelaide n.d.). Most organizations undergo change in order to overcome the challenges such as increased competition from the international markets, global economic crisis and other external drivers such as government regulations. Therefore, organizations have to undergo the necessary changes and improve the way they deliver services to different customers or how they manage or handle different contingent situation that arise in the organization (The University of Adelaide n.d.).

Many organization face substantial changes and undergo radical transformation processes so that. Therefore, those organizations that intend to succeed in the dynamic environment have to ensure that they are able to adapt to the changes that arise so that they can maintain their competitive advantage and deliver on their strategic objectives. The change management should be comprehensive and lead to the achievement of the desired objectives and create a sense of ownership (Queensland Health, 1999). Effective change management also entails making improvements and building capacity that will help in responding effectively to the future change. The leadership of the change process is very significant since it can either make the change implementation process to succeed or fail. Therefore, the leadership has to play its role in ensuring that the change is effectively implemented. The leadership must inspire the entire organization so that they may implement change effectively.

Managing Resistance to Change

In most cases change is often resisted by the members of the organization. Many change processes that have failed are as a result of the resistance to change initiatives. Resistance to change normally contributes to the delays and added costs when implementing the change and should be taken into consideration when managing change process (Manuela & Clara n.d.). However, in some cases resistance to change is considered as a source of information that can be used to provide a platform on which an effective change process can be developed. Therefore, it has to be considered very carefully so that an organization can implement change more effectively. The main sources of resistance to change in an organization are wrong initial perception of the need for change, low motivation for change and lack of a creative response (Manuela & Clara n.d). During the implementation stage change is also likely to face some form of resistance. The main sources of resistance at this stage are political and cultural deadlocks to change and the nature of leadership such as leadership inaction among other issues.

The leadership has to ensure that change is effectively implemented amid resistance from the different stakeholders. Therefore, the change leader has to ensure that he understand the nature of the resistance so that it can effectively be managed to achieve the goals of change (Lee, 2011). The management should adopt the strategies that help in reducing the resistance to change. One of these ways is involving the interested parties in the planning of change so that their ideas can be incorporated (Harvard Business School Press, 2005). The members should be able to feel that they are part of the change process. The management should be in a position to effectively communicate the need and issues of change (Maltz, 2008). They should also identify the ways in which the needs of those who are affected can be addressed. The change process also needs to be open, transparent and honest so that each member is able to participate. There is also the need to focus on the positive aspects of the change so that people may be committed to change process (Williams, 2011).

Leaders or management can lessen the resistance change by employee by increasing their participation ion the change process. By participating in the change process the employees are able to increase their knowledge about the change and reduce the fear that may be associated with change or innovation (Baker, 1989). It also helps in building the confidence of the employees as they feel some sense of control over the change process.

REFERENCES

Baker, SL. (1989) “Managing Resistance to Change,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/7649/librarytrendsv38i1h_opt.pdf?sequence=1&gt;

Harvard Business School Press (2005) “Managing change to reduce resistance,” Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.

Lee, S. (2011) “Managing Resistance to Change,” Business Improvement Architects. Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.bia.ca/articles/chng-managing-resistance.htm&gt;

Maltz, M. (2008) “Managing Resistance to Change,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://triadllc.com/pdf/ManagingResistance.pdf&gt;

Manuela, PV & Clara, MF n.d., “Resistance to Change: A Literature Review and Empirical Study,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.uv.es/~pardoman/resistencias.PDF&gt;

Queensland Health (1999) “Managing Organizational Change: How to Guide,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.health.qld.gov.au/publications/change_management/man_org_chnge.pdf&gt;

The University of Adelaide n.d., “Leading Change, Transition & Transformation,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.adelaide.edu.au/hr/strategic/leading_change_toolit.pdf&gt;

Williams, C. (2011) “Management,” 6^th Edition, South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason, OH.

Blog 1: Theories and Models of Leadership and Management

Leadership forms a very important part of an organization. It can be defined as the influence of others to do what the leader wants the people or followers to do in order to achieve some goals or objectives. Leadership has also been defined as a way that one takes the organization in a particular direction using the various techniques such as solving the problems, being creative, initiating new and progressive programs, building effective organizational structures and striving to improve quality such as the quality of products (Razak, 2012). For one to become an effective leader he has to possess certain leadership traits such as  ability to supervise work of others through controls and influence, desire for success, creativity and intelligence, ability to make sound decisions, and ability to find new and innovative ways of doing things (Gebhardt, Heinrici & Pavan, 2003). These features help the leaders to influence others to do those activities that fulfill a shared goal or vision.

There are different styles of leadership. One of the leadership styles is the autocratic style which involves the leader telling or giving the workers instructions on what to do. On the other hand, participative leadership is the case where leader allows the workers or followers to participate in the decision making concerning key factors that affect them. Under the democratic style of leadership the leader often seek the opinion of the majority and ensure that decisions made or resolutions passed are favored by the majority of workers (Adebiyi, 2007). In the leadership style of Laissez-Faire the leader allows the group or followers to make all the decisions.

There are varied forms of theories that explain the leadership in the organizations. The theories can be categorized in different groups such as management, relationships, behavioral, situational and trait theories (Razak, 2012).

Blake/Mouton’s Managerial Grid Theory

Managerial Grid theory is a behavioral theory that looks at the managers’ attitudes toward the human resources and other resources that are available in the organization (Lussier & Achua, 2010). It tries to establish the role of the leader and that of the subordinates in achieving the common organizational objectives. The model finds that high consideration of the roles of the subordinates creates high satisfaction among them (Molloy, 1998). The model has two major aspects which include concern for production or tasks and concern for people. The concern for production implies that leadership should strive towards achieving the results while concern for people implies that leaders ought to think of others as they exercise their leadership (Molloy, 1998). The leaders or management need to achieve high-high of the two dimensions so that the organization can effectively achieve its goals. At this level the managers are able to develop a relationship of trust and respect with the employees and other people they interact with (Lussier & Achua, 2010). The organization will also be able to achieve high productivity.

Fiedler’s Contingency Model

Contingency model is a situational theory and states that effective leadership depends on how the leadership or management is able to deal with the situation at hand. The model states that there is no one best style of leadership and leader’s effectiveness depends on how his style is able to favorably match the situation at hand (Antoine, 2005). The leadership style is assumed to be relation oriented or task oriented. The leadership style has to be marched with the situational factors and in cases where there is no match; the situation may be adapted to fit the style (Bryman, 1986). Under extreme situations, task oriented style of leadership seem to be more effective as compared to the relationship-oriented style (Antoine, 2005). For instance, task oriented will be favorable where there are unfavorable situations such as fire or floods among others.

Hersey-Blanchard Situational Theory

According to this theory a situational leader adapts to the leadership behaviors that fit the situation at hand. Therefore, should be flexible and able to adapt to the changes that take place in the business environment and in the needs of the employees (Gebhardt, Heinrici & Pavan, 2003). The leadership style that is adopted needs to match with the subordinates’ level of maturity. The leadership needs to be more relationship motivated than task motivated with the increasing level of employees or subordinates maturity (Gebhardt, Heinrici & Pavan, 2003).

REFERENCES

Adebiyi, MA. (2007) “Effective Leadership Management: An Integration of Styles, Skills & Character for Today’s CEOs,” AuthorHouse, Bloomington, IN.

Antoine, P. (2005) “Fielder’s Contingency Theory of Leadership,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/fied.htm&gt;

Bryman, A. (1986) “Leadership and Organization,” Routledge, London.

Gebhardt, A, Heinrici, F & Pavan, A. (2003) “Important Theories of Leadership and Management,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://home.hio.no/~araki/arabase/emne/frncangel.pdf&gt;

Lussier, RN & Achua, CF. (2010) “Leadership: Theory, Application, Skill Development,” 4th Edition, Southwestern/Cengage Learning, Australia.

Molloy, PL. (1998) “A Review of the Managerial Grid Model of Leadership and Its Role as a Model of Leadership Culture,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.aquarico.com/web-storage/Publications/Aquarius%20Grid%20Paper%20Mar%2098.pdf&gt;

Razak, J. (2012) “Blog 1: Theories and Models of Leadership and Management,” Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://culcrazakj.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/blog-1-theories-and-models-of-leadership-and-management-3-2/&gt;