Business - Leadership

Thesis

Though a brief study on the subject and topic of leadership reveals that its definitions are as many as the number of individuals who have attempted to define the same, yet the primary concept emerges from a definition of traits of a leader to the more complex processes such as interpersonal relationships, emotions, and learning. In addition, there has been practically thousands of books and literature published on the topic of leadership, majority of which addresses this particular discipline from an equally varied viewpoint, and according to the need of the respective organization wherever applicable.

Introduction

The Dietetics Association of America (ADA) states that leadership is the "ability to inspire and guide other towards building and achieving a shared vision". In addition the ADA has moved one step ahead and somewhat merged the disciplines of management and leadership, thus bringing out a breed of leader-managers with the responsibility as both a leader as well as a manager. However, later studies researches have practically dismissed this earlier approach as management and leadership have been clearly addressed as two distinct and totally separate disciplines. Thus, where management seeks to address the ability to perform a number of managerial and supervisory functions by their ability to communicate a vision to the subordinates, leaders take the responsibility for the decisions and actions on the part of their subordinates. A deeper study of the two disciplines reveals that managers seek order and control in order to excel in their respective responsibilities not only for diffusing conflicts, but accomplishing the day-to-day responsibilities falling under their respective domain. Leaders on the other hand prosper and surge ahead by capitalizing and gaining from the chaotic environment, as well as ever on the search out for newer opportunities and variations for accomplishing the goals of the organization. This line of differentiation between managers and leaders was first presented by Zaleznik writing in the famous Harvard Business Review, and later confirmed by Kotter J., writing in the equally famous Harvard Business School Press. Yet another clear distinction between managers and leaders was that leadership addressed the core issues of coping with change in respective organizations as well as serving to motivate and energize their subordinates, whereas managers practically controlled the employees by guiding them through correct directions (Barker et al, 1994; Zaleznik, 1977; Kotter, 1999).

Leadership As A Trait

Researches into the discipline of leadership have revealed that the number of definitions are perhaps as many as the number of concepts, yet the single common aspect which evolved has been the trait of individuals, later progressing to such complex processes as interpersonal relations, emotions and learning to the more advanced studies to the behavior patterns of individuals. Thus studies carried out in the early part of the 19th century show that the trait approach to leadership was more pronounced and remained concentrated to five leading traits amongst leaders. These included 'surgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment and intelligence'. In addition, these traits served not only as a basis for further studies in the discipline of leadership, they also provided a primary framework for theoretical studies in the same discipline (Zaleznik, 1977).

Leadership As A Behavioral Approach

From the theoretical approach and the five traits of leadership, as discussed in the preceding paragraph, one may observe that studies of this particular discipline further progressed in the decades of 1950s and onwards encompassing certain behavioral patterns. In this respect, one of the most famous of studies was carried out by the Universities of Michigan and Ohio, both of which presented its findings on behavior pattern in leadership. While the first study emphasized on the human interaction aspect of leadership, whereas the second study focused on the job element. Further studies into these two disciplines opened up new vistas as leadership behavior was given terms such as 'managerial grid', and 'leadership grid', suggesting that a successful leader not only cared for the people around him, but also exhibited equal concern for the nature of the job or work.

Power and Influence in Leadership

Yet another avenue found in a good leader included aspects of power and influence. These two characteristics gave emphasis on both the type as well as amount of power yielded by a leader and the influence exerted over the subordinates or those around the leader. In this respect, researches carried out by French and Raven are notable where both the gentlemen categorized various types of power, with each emerging because of the respective position held by the leader in an organization. These included power of legitimacy, reward, coerciveness, power of information, and ecological power. In similar context, other types included power of the expertise, and of referent or 'personal power', as each evolved from the respective individual's personal characteristics. Recent studies have however focused on the new methods or tactics as the term is commonly used. These include for example tactics of persuasion, consultation, ingratiation, coalition, either or all of which are effectively used by the new breed of leaders to influence those around or the work itself. (French and Raven, 1959).

Leadership - The Situational Aspect

Having discussed traits and behaviors, researches on leadership further progressed after realizing that both traits and behaviors provided only a partial solution, simply because of the absence of situational factors. Hence, situational factors opened up additional avenues to learn about leadership, resulting in such aspects as the role of the managers, subordinates, and the overall situation surrounding a particular organization. In turn, these studies led to findings that a particular type of leadership was not at all effective and applicable for all situations, as different situations demanded different approaches from the leaders. In this respect, works of Tannenbaum and Schmidt carried out in 1958 is of considerable significance; both of who suggested the idea of situational approaches to effectively handle the discipline of leadership. In similar context another study carried out by Fiedler revealed additional data and found that in addition to the situational factors, it was essential for a leader to be like by majority of those around him or her, had the ability to direct a well-defined assignment, and enjoyed a powerful position to enforce his or her decisions to the best interests of the respective organization (Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 1958; Fiedler, 1964).

Leadership - The Reciprocal Approach

Yet another type of approach studied by researches is the reciprocal approach, one that works on the basis of rewarding and punishing the employees as the case may be. In such a situation, leaders give emphasis on the interaction between themselves and the followers or subordinates and use emotional tools to arrive at respective strategies. Since this particular type of leadership pattern uses behaviors and the effect of the leader on his or her employees, the terms used here are transactional and transformational leadership patterns both of which differ slightly only. The first one in particular, transactional leadership addresses reward and punishment to influence employees whereas the second term, transformational form of leadership addresses the motivation aspect of employees. Later studies and researches however merged both the transactional and transformational approaches to arrive at a complete leadership model, suggesting that leaders in general had both types of behaviors, and utilized each according to the respective situations (Kotter, 1999).

From the above, one may observe that leadership cannot encompass a singular theme, strategy, or rule. Instead, it is indeed difficult to singularly categorize a pattern of leadership, as different situations and equally varied nature of individuals call for concepts that best suits the respective organization as well as the context of the job where the strategy or pattern is being applied.