Exploring Dynamics of Leadership, Power and Motivation

Did problems exist with Leadership, Power, Motivation, Communication or Perception?

• Leadership is the process of influencing and getting others to understand and agree about something that needs to be done and how to do it. It facilitates individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared goals. It sometimes involves driving through changes and new initiatives (like the proposal for ecommerce in the Case Study), therefore it has to be proactive, problem solving, looking ahead and not being satisfied with things as they are.

• It is possible to identify a range of approaches to leadership as follows depending on the use of authority by leaders and amount of freedom given to subordinates: -

i. An Authoritarian approach; involves a leader

Motivation can be considered to comprise an individual’s effort (how hard he tries), persistence (how long he keeps trying) and the direction (what he is trying to do) of that behaviour. Since it is part of a manager's job to get their work done through others, managers need to understand what motivates people do things so they can influence others to work towards the goals of the organisation.

• Goal-setting theory states that goals can be a major motivational source as when accepted, they can lead to higher performance levels. Goal theory (see Latham & Locke, 1964 and Locke, 1968) proposes that both motivation and performance will be high if individuals are set specific goals which are challenging, but accepted and where feedback is given on performance.

• Goal setting theory is generally accepted as amongst the most valid and useful motivation theories. Locke’s research showed that there was a relationship between how difficult and specific a goal was and people’s performance of a task. He found that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals. To motivate, goals must be clear (know what is expected), challenging (the goal