Organisational Leadership Theories And Different Approaches To Leadership

Leadership Theories

“Leadership is very important function of the organisation” Discuss this Statement.

Leaders are the individual that are responsible for leading and guiding their followers. Leadership cannot be practiced with the similar approach or there are no set rules for individuals to be a leader. Everyone has their own style and tactics. This is the essay that deals with the organisational leadership theories and the way different leader deals with the situations using different leadership approaches (Carroll, Levy and Richmond, 2008). Leadership is considered as the process by which an individual directs guides and motivates the other person to work in a particular way to achieve some of the specific gaols. It can be describes as the capability and skills of the person to deal with the people and helps them to perform effectively along with directing them.

Leadership is very important function of the organisation and helps to maximize the efficiency of the workers at the organisation by helping and motivating them to perform effectively (Northouse,  2015). Leaders are the one who knows what they are doing; they follow the path and let others to follow the same. This statement can be justifiable by understanding some of the leadership theories.

The first theory that can be discussed is trait theory of leadership. This theory suggests that individuals who become the leader can be born or can be made but have some of the common traits that make them the leader. Some of the qualities that is required to be there in a leader are intelligence, creativity, sense of responsibility, knowledge of the subject, emotional intelligence, motivator, capability influencing etc. as per this theory, it can be suggested that leadership is all about having these traits (Schein, 2010). Having all those characteristics that has been discussed above, it has been analysed that leaders can have the knowledge that mans they know the way, they have skills that means they goes the way and they have influential power that means they can show the way to other as well. Another theory of leadership that is behavioural approach suggests that there are two kinds of leaders as per their behaviour. One is the leader who is task oriented and other one is employee oriented (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Task oriented leaders are the leaders who believes in completion of tasks without considering the employee’s perspectives while the leaders who follow the approach of being employee oriented believes in considering the perspective of the employees rather than task. This theory suggests that leaders are the one goes as per their behaviour and also allow the employees to do the same. There is one more theory that has been postulated regarding leadership which is called path goal theory. This is theory that suggests that the leaders are the one who motivates the employees by clarifying their path and removing their issues (Robinson, Lloyd and Rowe, 2008).

Trait Theory of Leadership

This depicts that the leaders are the one who can shows the path to the followers and it is their responsibility as well. Transformational theory of leadership is the theory that deals with transforming the thoughts of the followers by the leaders (Bedford, 2012). This suggests that the leaders should have the power of influencing the followers and mould their thinking as per the leaders’ approach. This makes a leader transformational in nature. A transformational leader is the one who shows the way to the followers on which he used to go. An opposite theory has also been postulated by the theories is that is called transactional leadership theory. This theory suggests that the leaders have the power to take the structure that needs to be followed by the followers irrespective of their opinions. In this sense, leaders are the one who knows everything and their structures and rules are considered as the final decision. Recently a new theory has been released by the theorists as per the nature of the organisations and the followers these days. This theory is known as servant leadership theory. This is the theory that suggests that leaders need to be servant first that means they should come at the place of the followers and understand their needs in order to make the policies and structures.

All these theories of leadership suggest that leaders have different types of characteristic and thus have different style to lead their followers. Their leadership style suggests that in what way they can lead their followers. Some believes in making them follow them and some tries to bring everyone together and walk with the followers. This can be better understood by examining a leadership of a great leader known as Mark Zukerberg.

Mark Zukerberg is considered as the leaders who follow transformational leadership style. This is because he is the leader who believes in considering the opinions of his followers and also tries to mould their thinking as per his own views and not try to force the set structures and rules on them. It has been analysed that Zukerberg is the one who is very much passionate towards his work. He enjoys his work and thus makes other feel happy while working. His passion encourages his followers also to work efficiently with grace and zeal (Roueche, Baker III and Rose, 2014). As per Zukerberg, communication is the key to success and he is a great communicator. He believes in communicating openly without any hesitation and this is the reason why his followers or the employees feel comfortable in implementing their own creativity in their work and functions (Bums, 2016). The employees who work at Facebook are very much satisfied with the working environment that has been developed because of the leadership policies followed by Zukerberg. When a leader guides other individuals or the group of people, he become responsible for resolving all of their issues and this quality can be found in Mark as well. He is a great problem solver and solves the issues that his followers are facing very easily. As a transformational leader he acts as the motivator in the company and motivates the other employees to show their creativity at the workplace (Daft, 2014). This also enhances the performance of the employees at the workplace and also results in effective organisational performance. Emotional intelligence is also a part of his leadership which is very important now a day to keep and retain the employees. People are going through so much of tensions these days that they have to maintain the balance between their work and personal life. This is can be managed only when the leaders of the employees help them to manage the same (Dinh, Lord, Gardner, Meuser,  Liden and Hu, 2014). It has been analysed that leaders need to be very cautious about their behaviour in front of the followers because it really affects a lot on the behaviour of the followers. Practice what you preach is the phrase that needs to be implemented by the leaders that means every leader should practice what they team to others.

Behavioural Approach

Leaders are very much important and in the organisations, leaders have the play their part. It has been analysed that leaders have different parts at different situations and thus they have to follow a theory or the approach that helps them to play all their part. Leaders have to act as the communicator at times when they have to share some of the information to all the employees and this is very important for the smooth functioning of the company. Leaders also act as the manager at times when it is required (Chemers, 2014). Leaders do not always have to show the path to their followers but they have to act as the manager to manage the things properly in a team. They are problem solvers and the guide for the followers. Thus, leaders have to pay attention actively to the issues of heir followers and have to solve them without being biased. When any of the leaders has to teach the person about any process, it is required for the leaders to follow the same. This inspires the follower to be like the leader. If the leaders are not doing the same then follower may loss trust on their leader and the leadership fails at that time. All this discussion concludes that leaders should know the way to deal with the situations; they should go on the way they want their followers to follow and also should show that oath to their followers. All these three elements make a leader a perfect one (Humphrey, 2013). Leadership is defined as the capability of the person to guide, influence, motivate and manage the individual or the group of individuals and this capability can be learned through experiences. It is required by the leaders to develop some of the traits so that they can be the effective leaders.

References:

Bedford, D.A., 2012. The role of knowledge management in creating transformational organizations and transformational leaders. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, 13(4), pp.32-44.

Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Bums, J.S., 2016. Chaos theory and leadership studies: Exploring uncharted seas. Journal of leadership & organizational studies.

Carroll, B., Levy, L. and Richmond, D., 2008. Leadership as practice: Challenging the competency paradigm. Leadership, 4(4), pp.363-379.

Chemers, M., 2014. An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.

Daft, R.L., 2014. The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.

Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014. Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp.36-62.

Humphrey, R.H., 2013. Effective leadership: Theory, cases, and applications. SAGE Publications.

Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Robinson, V.M., Lloyd, C.A. and Rowe, K.J., 2008. The impact of leadership on student outcomes: An analysis of the differential effects of leadership types. Educational administration quarterly, 44(5), pp.635-674.

Roueche, P.E., Baker III, G.A. and Rose, R.R., 2014. Shared vision: Transformational leadership in American community colleges. Rowman & Littlefield.

Schein, E.H., 2010. Organizational culture and leadership(Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.