Leadership in top management and organisations for centuries have fascinated humankind and even gathering more storm as organisations continually change in structure either through merger and acquisition, joint ventures, etc. 21st century organizations require good leadership to revitalise and survive in today’s highly competitive market; which is also critically important to nations. (Boloden, R., Gosling, J., Marlushro, A. and Dennson, P. :Leadership Theory and Competency).
There has been various theories on leadership by leading management scholars attempting to review, explain and define leadership. Cole (1996, p.51) defines leadership as a “dynamic process in a group whereby one individual influences the others to contribute voluntarily to the achievement of group tasks in a given organisation.” He further argued that leadership is not just personality or by accident or appointment but linked with behaviour, clearly a stand against the “great man” philosophy (Cole, G.A., 1996).
Most literatures, tracks its evolution right from the ‘‘Great man’’ notion of heroic leade...
There are those that suggest leaders are born, while others contend that leadership itself is a learned art. When researching or simply asking several leaders or followers to define leadership, although some responses may be similar it is highly unlikely that that they will be the same. There are a countless definitions used when attempting to delineate what leadership is. A universal definition of the word does not exist, as the concept of leadership can be very elusive and complex. However, for the purpose of this research effort leadership is defined as “the influencing process between leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change” (Lussier & Achua, 2015, p.5). It is important to note that the leader-follower relationship is a reciprocal process as followers also influence leaders. This is not to be confused with managing, as there is a clear distinction between the two.
Throughout this class, we learned that leadership can be defined in many ways by different authors. The definitions depend on many things and different variables. One way of we can attempt to define is through characteristics of the leader, the followers, and the situation (Yukl, 2013). Yukl, 2013 defines leadership as being “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives” (Yukl, 2013 p.7). The character of the leader influences situations and followers in different ways. The characteristics of the followers also call for a different type of leadership style
The topic of leadership has been explored and written about by thousands of authors who are considerably more qualified than I am to write about the subject. However, I’ve always maintained that developing, evolving and articulating one’s own leadership philosophy is an essential part of a professional’s growth. Through academics and experience, I’ve concluded that leadership is a “soft” skill, more art than science, and that leadership principles can be universally applied. As a topic of discussion, leadership can be ambiguous and seldom does everyone agree on a single definition. Organizations and the people they consist of crave leadership, even if not overtly. Undeniably, strong leadership is essential to achieving
Leadership has been written about millions of times in the past, and heading in the future, it will be the topic of many debates, books and newspaper articles asking, and in some cases answering the question, “What is leadership?” According to Peter Drucker: “leadership is lifting a person’s vision, raising his performance and building personality”.
The systematic and scholarly study of leadership consumed much of the twentieth century and continues to remain a vital topic of discussion today. Theories abound as to what makes one a good leader and, despite the continued efforts of many, no single operable expression of the meaning of leadership exists. In an attempt to address this issue James Kotterman wrote, “Leadership Versus Management: What’s the Difference.” The following review shall briefly summarize Kotterman’s article and follow with conclusions based on the experiences of this author.
‘Leadership’ and ‘Management’ are two commonly using words in nowadays organizations. The essential and integral part of productive management is leadership. Effective leadership is crucial to an organization’s success. Leaders can take a quantity of different steps to help keep projects from failing. The main and highly important focus of the leader is to make things happen. According to Griffin (2008), ‘Leadership, as a process, the use of non coercive influence to shape the group’s or organization’s goals, motivate behaviour toward the achievement of those goals, and help define group or organizational culture; as a property, the set of characteristics attributed to individuals who are perceived to be leaders’. Equally as management, that
Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.blackdiamond.dk/HDO/Organisation_Gary_Yukl_Leadership_in_Organizations.pdf
Bass, 1990, explains that the word ‘‘leadership’’ was initially used to explain political influence and control of the British Parliament in the 1800s. He further elaborates that leadership was based on heritage and appointment and used to take place often in Anglo-Saxon countries (Bass, 1990, p. 11). Katz and Kahn, 1966, p.334 expands that leadership is to acknowledge the skill to influence others on organisational relevance. Michener et al. (1990) described leadership ‘‘as a process that takes place in groups in which one member influences and controls the behaviour of the other members towards some common goal’’ (cited in Denmark, 1993, p. 343), signifying that the control of employees was a required aspect of effective leadership. The assumption therefore is that if someone is to lead, he should extend beyond influence. This comprises motivation and helping others to accomplish the goals of the organisation.
Seemingly, there is much confusion surrounding the use of the concept leadership, especially when defining how the different types of leadership have influenced HRM. Preedy (1993:143) views leadership as the initiation of new structures or procedures for accomplishing an organization’s goals and objectives. If maintenance of goals and objectives is more important here, then this aspect can be favorably compared to the definition of management provided by Westhuizen, V. (1991:39). He defines management as the "accomplishment of desired objectives by establishing an environment favorable to performance by people operating in desired groups. Leadership can be defined as the ability to persuade others willingly to behave differently. Leadership
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Kets de Vriers and Korotov, 2010 explains that if organisations do not have proper controlled leadership development processes in position, those organisations will be at a disadvantage. In other words it is assumed that if organisations take leadership development seriously, they will surpass competition. The world has significantly changed, they further explain, as a result, it is irrelevant to have one single leader (the "Great man" trait theories) however by the capacity to spur, work together and oversee systems. The Great man theory assumed that personal attributes of the great man determined the course of history (Denmark, 1993, p.344) In other words, he was believed to have unique and exceptional features and qualities that distinguished him from his followers (Bass, 1990). Under the Great man theory as further elaborated by Kets de Vriers and Korotov, 2010, leadership is born, not made and priviledged to that exalted personality who has the rare skill to direct and lead a group. However the changing environment of workers and the remarkable growth in organisational complexity has necessitated a more collaborative outlook organisational leadership (Covey, 1991; Kets der Vries, 2006). Furthermore, the greater dependency on technologies and the rise of distributed work arrangements have placed new demands on how leaders interact with their people. More distributed view of leadership is in the rise, thus shifting the focus from the traditional single leader to an intricate and complex web of leaders who possess a range of abilities and experiences necessary to ensure that the leadership function is carried out to the benefit of the wider organisation. Kets de Vriers and Korotov further ela...
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.
“On leadership” was written by John W. Gardner (The Free Press, New York, 1990). He used seventeen chapters to explain and describe essential components for the leadership should be in a successful organization. This book not only has significant influence now, but also for the future. Below are my understanding about this book, which was divided into two parts. For the first part, I will pick up some perspectives which influence me most from this book. For the second part, which is my comments and critique about this book.
Stroup, J. (2004). Managing leadership: toward a new and usable understanding of what leadership is and how to manage it. Lincoln, NE. iUniverse, Inc. Retrieved July 20, 2011 from http://managingleadership.com/blog/2008/09/04/great-man-theory/
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