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Fundamentals of leadership
Limitations of the trait theory of leadership
Limitations of the trait theory of leadership
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Leadership is seen as a process by which one individual influences others toward the attainment of group or organizational goals. It is a social influence process, which involves voluntary action on the part of followers and it is always purposeful and goal-oriented. Leadership deals with influence and is not the same as management, which includes planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. One of the first approaches to leadership is the leadership trait theory that people are born with certain character traits. The theory assumes that people are born as leaders or not as leaders because the traits are considered to be naturally part of a person 's personality. The basic idea behind trait theory is that effective leaders are born, not made. The trait theory was used in the 1930s, …show more content…
The behavior approach refocuses the interest from the traits to the leaders ' behavior. Leaders ' behavior becomes more important than their physical, mental or emotional traits. Ohio State University and the University of Michigan developed the two main studies of this approach in the late 1940s and 1950s. The studies have recognized two main behaviors: people-oriented and production-oriented behavior. According to the leader behavior approach, there are several behaviors that would be invariably effective for leaders, but empirical research does not show a strong relation between task-oriented or person-oriented leader behaviors and leader effectiveness. A new element has been introduced by the contingency approach, which takes into consideration the impact of the organizational or work group on the extent to which given leader traits and behaviors will be effective. The approach was used mainly in the late 1960s and 1970s. Fiedler 's contingency theory, path-goal theory, the Vroom-Yetton-Jago decision-making model of leadership and the situational leadership theory are the most popular contingency
The theory is based on the premise that leader behaviors are learned and not inherent traits in a leader’s personality (Kreitner & Kinick, 2014). As an example, the manner in which the leader communicates the tasks that need to be done is a learned behavior compared to the vocal tone of the leader’s voice which is an inherent trait. Ohio State University had a team of researchers study the behaviors of leaders beginning in 1946 and continued for ten years. The team developed a Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire with 150 descriptive leadership processes and asked how often the leader performed the process utilizing a scale of always to never (Halpin, 1956). From the results the team identified that there were two elements of leader behavior, consideration and initiating structure (Kreitner & Kinick,
Leadership is the ability that someone has to motivate, guide and empower a group of people, in the particular case the personnel of an organization, in order to achieve specific goals.
Leadership has always been a diligently studied subject; the art and science of being an effective leader is something that most people would like to successfully cultivate. However, reading every book on the subject does not guarantee successful leadership – it only assists in the understanding of how others flourished in their methods. A technique that worked in one situation may reap havoc on another – such as Spartacus taking over as the leader of the people in India instead of Ghandi. The key to leading is understanding the circumstances you are in and the kind of behavior that will secure covenantal followers. Furthermore, even if an individual was not born with specific personality traits that are advantageous to potential leaders, if
According to Business Dictionary.com, leadership is defined as the individuals who are the leaders in an organization, regarded collectively. It also can be define as the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leadership involves the establishing of a clear vision, sharing the vision with other so that they will follow willingly, providing the needed information, knowledge, and methods to realize the vision and coordinating and balancing the conflicts interests of all members and stakeholders.
The Trait Theory points out that there is a certain type of person making a good leader, with the decisive factor being: having or not having distinctive qualities of being a leader. Despite that, being an effective leader can still be a challenge. External and internal influences impact the effectiveness of the program and must be considered in order to succeed. Which leads us to the Behavioural Theory, thinking of what a good leader actually does. Kurt Lewin developed three leadership types, such as the autocratic leader who is a maker, someone who makes decisions without consultation with others.
There are different leadership theories developed throughout the history. Most popular ones are trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. The author of the post will briefly discuss two theories, Fiedler contingency theory and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and compare and contrast their strengths and weakness.
Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate and inspire others (Gill, 2006). It is therefore defined as a process whereby a leader influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2013). A leader has to make a decision for something to happen and provide his followers with clear direction (Rost et al, 1991). It will evoke feelings of challenge, excitement and involvement for the followers to proceed with the task (Gill, 2006).
There are lots of definitions and interpretations for the term LEADERSHIP. One is “A relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of other people” (Mullins, L.J. 2002, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 6th Edition, FT Publishing, p904). Another popular definition would be, “the process of influencing an organization or groups within an organization in its efforts towards achieving a goal” (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 7th Edition, FT Prentice Hall, p.519)
The learning obtained from the Leadership and Organizational Behavior course has been valuable. From this course, I have learned that while someone can be a manager or a leader, it is better to be both. The various topics discussed throughout the eight week course have provided the unique insight necessary to be an effective leader. The insight gained allow for the identification of the behaviors that an effective leader must possess and continually develop. By identifying these behaviors, I am better able to shape my leadership style and goals so that I can achieve my full career potential as a leader within my organization. Ultimately, I realize that it is important to both do things right and do the right things in all my actions within an organization.
Fiedler’s theory is a trait-based, leader-match theory, meaning that leader selection depends on that person’s compatibility to the situation (Kelly 200). The Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory model is based on the belief that “leaders and followers mutually influence each other’s behavior, and focuses on the dynamic interchange between leader and follower dyads” (Kelly 202). The Vroom-Yetton Contingency Theory is a behavior theory that mainly focuses on improving the effectiveness of leaders by encouraging their examination of situational characteristics (Kelly
(Blake & Mouton, 2002). The leadership grid combined the “concerns of production” and the “concerns for people” (Leadership, 2008) into five alternate behavior theories: improvised management, country club management, task management, middle of the road management, and team management. Improvised management behavior is when a leader emphasizes no concern about people or production. A leader with country club management behavior emphasizes concern for people but little to no concern for production, while task management behavior leaders stress on production and not people. The middle of the road management behavior produces a leader who tries to balance concern for production and people; whereas, a leader exhibiting Team management behavior is able to exhibit high concern for both production and people (Leadership Theories and Studies,
After understanding the theory behind both the trait and skill approach, I was eager to evaluate and reflect on my own leadership traits. It was interesting to see how the trait approach allowed me to better understand whether or not I have certain traits considered to be important for leadership, while skills approach allowed me to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses in the technical, human and conceptual skills. From completing the Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ) and the Skills Inventory, I was able to reflect more on how I behave towards others in a leadership context, as well as the skills that I currently possess. As a naturally extroverted person, I have been taking on leadership roles from a young age. The findings from these two
Trait theories are theories that consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders." Early results aimed at confirming this theory were inconclusive. Many research studies were conducted and each identified key traits supposed to differentiate leaders from nonleaders. The problem is that they didn't get the same results, thus failing to discover common traits, which should have shown in each research study. When applying the Big Five Personality framework (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience) to the study and research of leadership traits, results were more encouraging. They showed that the most important trait for leaders was extraversion. Still, this founding sh...
What is leadership? Leadership is defined as a process by which a individual will influence others to obtain goals. Leaders will guide, direct motivate, or inspire others. Leadership is defined by not only traits but actions as well. Leaders are inspirational, trustworthy and charismatic. Many people may think a manger is leader. Although leadership and management go hand in hand, they are not the same. Everyone has their own beliefs about what characteristics an effective leader should have. To me, communication skills, critical thinking skills, and having a vision are few characteristics of becoming an effective leader. A leader is not only born, but made. Some are born as leaders or some are made to be leaders.
There are many different types of theories on leadership. There is Fiedler’s contingency theory, situational theories of leadership and House’s path-goal theory. These theories are used to make an individual or manager a more effective leader. They can be used as a guide for individuals and help them achieve whatever goal is set out by their organization or group.