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Importance of leadership to an organization
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Importance of leadership to an organization
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Introduction
"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." -Shakespeare said in Twelfth Night
Most valuable factor that makes an organization effective and efficient is its leader. Strong, motivated, passionate, and a creative leader is who drives an organization towards success. The behavior that leaders exhibit to influence their subordinates is termed as leadership. Leadership, according to Bartol and Martin (1998: 415) is the process of “influencing others to achieve organizational goals”. Tannenbaum defines leadership as an interpersonal influence exercised in a situation through communication to attain goals. The goals may be personal, group, organizational or functional. Putti, Koontz and Weihrich (1998: 300) think of leadership as a relationship based on position, power and ability involving the individuals and the groups. This relationship is put into practice in a variety of styles.
Leadership Styles
A wide variety of leadership styles exist. Within the same organization, we can see different lead...
Leadership is a process whereby individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2013, p. 5).
Leadership is a communication process of a leader and individuals in which the leaders behavior or attitude directs individuals towards any goal effectively. It is widely believed that leadership creates the vital link between organizational effectiveness and people’s performance at an organizational level (Avolio, 1999; McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). The effectiveness of an organization depends upon the leader having an effective leadership style in order to effectively reach the goal of the organization; with it being one of the key driving forces for improving a firm’s performance. Scholars suggest that effective leadership behaviors can facilitate the improvement of performance when organizations face problems (McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). To effectively achieve leadership of individuals and organizational outcomes, four theories can be used; Fiedler’s Contingency Model, Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model, Vroom & Yetton Participative Leadership Model, and House & Dessler Path-Goal Theory.
Leadership has been defined in different ways, a definitaion of leadership that would be most commonly accepted would be “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization…”(House et al., 1999, p. 184 as cited in Yukl, 2013, p. 19). After a comprehensive review of different leadership literature, Stogdill (1974, p. 259, as cited in Yukl, 2013, p. 18) concluded that “There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept." Leadership can be viewed from two different angles one is shared influence process and other as a specialized role. Researcher who view leadership as a specialized role consider attributes as a factor in selecting a designated leader. On the contrast, theorist who emphasises on influence process considers “Leadership” as a social process or a pattern of relationship.
In business, leadership is defined as developing of a clear goal, involving others by establishing trusting relationships to share the goal, giving the information and tools to accomplish that goal, and leading and managing the differences between the members of the organization (MaRS, 2012). Harvard Business School professor and leadership author John Kotter said that leaders construct a bright future by associating people with the vision, and motivating them to succeed in spite of the difficulties. Efficacious organizational leadership can avail prioritize objectives for assistants and can offer supervision toward reaching the corporate goal.
“A manager manages using authority-or the right to get others to do things by virtue of their positional power. While a leader leads through the ability to influence other people to do things using a certain degree of personal power or charisma” (McLean, 2005, p. 16). By definition, leadership is about influence. Therefore, it is impossible to discuss the theme of leadership without including followers or to try to explain the idea of team building without explaining the influence of a leader. While each concept is unique, both have a direct affect on the other. A leader is not a leader without someone following him or her and a team will always develop a leader whether indirectly or directly appointed. However, leadership and team building are much like the preverbal chicken and egg; and many theories have developed over several years trying to explain the influence on each other and the successful development of teams and leaders.
Many organizational theorists concur that existence of effective leadership is one of the important contributors to the overall organizational success. Leadership is defined as “a process of social influence by which an individual enlists the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a task or mission" (Chemers, 1997). According to Stogdill (1957) he defined leadership as the individual behaviour to which guides a group to the achievement of a common objective. Lee and Chuang (2009) explained an excellent leader does not only inspires subordinates’ potential but enhance efficiency to meet their objective in the achievement of organizational goals. Chen (2009) collaborates with these statements by considering that leadership is as process in which various behavioural approaches are used to guide employees to a shared goal. In the process the leader influences the organization members through a series of interpersonal interactions in which they seek to inspire the organizational members towards attaining organizational goals. Fry (2003) explains leadership to be the use of a leading strategy which
According to Pearce & Conger, (2002), the action that leads employees in achieving its objectives or goals is called leadership. It has been proven in several researches that leadership in an organization plays a significant role in employee’s productivity and performance (Yuki, 2001). Leaders are one of the people in an organization who can influence the behavior of the employees in several ways. They motivates employees, sets a clear vision for the team or for the management, builds morale and guide their employees through the course of their work (Smirch & Morgan, 1982).
The leadership is a privilege and it is such a privilege and an honor which will carry the tremendous responsibility which will inspire others to direct them to accomplish goals and vision of the organization. Leadership is about influencing the people, by producing direction, purpose and motivating in order to accomplish the mission, vision and improving the organization. The leadership philosophy is evolved based on the experiences, both positive and negative, in most of the initiatives and activities that we undertake. It is also one among the collaboration and teamwork within which the team members can utilize each other’s strengths to counter the weaknesses of the individuals. By observing, introspecting and experimenting we can developed a leadership paradigm which is inclusive, collaborative and proactive. We can develop the ability to recognize which will approach in order to reach the productive conclusion. The great leaders know their limitations and are capable at utilize their strengths and also the strengths of others to compensate.
From corporations to nonprofits and higher education institutions, leaders – the cornerstone and foundation of organizations – are ultimately responsible for its success. Nonetheless, leadership, often described as complex, can mean different things to different people. Given no standard approach to leadership exists, scholars focus on the process of leadership as opposed to the definition (Northouse, 2013). As a process, leadership is not simply possessing formal authority, traits, or attributes. Quite the reverse, leadership is primarily a relationship – engagement and interactive exchange – between leaders and followers (Morrill, 2007; Northouse, 2013). Effective leadership, commonly regarded as both a learned skill and innate ability, is
Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact organizational performance. The role of leadership is the most important part of an organization. Leadership is having the ability to influence people to trust, believe and follow the vision. There are several different types of leadership styles such as transactional, leader- member exchange, and authentic to name a few. Transactional leadership appeal to an employee’s self-interest which involves motivation in some way to get the employee to do what is needed. This leader mostly deals with employees achieving a goal, then being rewarded for accomplishments. “Leader-member exchange suggests that leaders develop different relationships with each of their subordinates through a series of work-related transactions.” (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2011, p.323) This leadership is a type of bonding between leader and employee or obligation to each other. Authentic leadership deals with a person’s knowledge of self, their beliefs, values, and acting on a clear faith system through honesty and communication with employees. This leadership is more personal than the others because it pulls from an individuals’ personal belief value system.
Leadership is defined as the action of guiding an individual or group of people. Effective leaders shape the behavior and thought process of the individuals around them. As a result, the success of an organization is often impacted by the leadership style and approach of its leaders. Even when engaging with multiple people, impactful leaders maintain their own style of leadership but occasionally change their approach based on the motivational needs of each individual. However, regardless of the style, leadership within an organization is designed to drive the performance of their employees and it is done through proficient communication. This guidance influences the culture of an organization, which subsequently, helps to shape its leaders.
”Leadership involves the exhibition of style or behavior by managers or supervisors while dealing with subordinates; leadership is a critical determinant of the employees ' actions toward the achievement of the organizational goals” (Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-Haq, & Niazi, 2014). Leadership is a strength that initiates, inspires, and guides the cooperation and attitudes of others on the way to set vision. Leadership is influential and involves several styles of approaches that involve trust, accomplishment and focus to reach a projected result. Using and implementing the ideas of others motivates new thinking and gains the confidence to build the trust and encourage everyone to work to the same goals (Northouse,
Leadership is trait that is extremely important in any society. Leadership is known as the way people attempting to make a difference in a situation. However, I believe that it is better said to be a way of influencing others actions. Leadership is usually connected to a great leader that affected his or her followers in a dynamic way. Throughout the semester for my leadership class, I have expanded the knowledge in numerous ways. I now have fully understanding of the purpose and process of leadership to a society. Being a leader one must maintain an image of being the role model. I believe that this is leader should be who is someone who has the ability to influence, encourage, listen, and nurture. They are able to inspire, stimulate, persuade, shape, and have an effect on others.
Leadership is the ability to inspire confidence, support and trust among the people who need to achieve organizational goals. (Chan & Maubourgne 1992) It invariably requires using power to influence the thoughts and actions of other people in order to create new approaches and imagine new areas to explore. This definition has emphasized on influencing people to achieve set goals. In other words, we can say, the objective of leadership is achieving goals, meanwhile, the application is influencing other people to motivate the energy and stimulate the potential towards the goals.
Many people associate leadership with a specific job title or form of power within an organization. However, through personal experience, I have concluded that leadership can come in many forms and position as well as from multiple sources of roles and job titles both with and without power. Based on the definition of leadership, anyone can be considered a leader as long as they have the ability to influence people to achieve a particular result or goal which benefits the organization or group as a whole. Individuals with a secure sense of self and understanding, acceptance of diversity within an organization tend to be the strongest leaders that not only make others want to follow, but they also encourage other leaders to gravitate to their