A leader sets the tone for those they supervise. Having a weak or ineffective leadership style turns what could be a productive organization into one that lacks direction, is chaotic, and fails to live up to its potential. Incompetent central leadership can also cause a power struggle amongst the other remaining team members. Groups seek leadership; when leaders fail to use their powers others will maneuver to use the power left in the void. This can lead to a power-struggle and backstabbing (Morgan, 2007).
Averill, DeWitt, and Zimmer (1978), stated a person is commonly considered less responsible if their actions are interpreted as emotional rather than deliberate. While working for a previous employer as a Case Manager for persons receiving case benefits from social services, a popular and well-liked supervisor failed to provide consistent leadership for those in her unit. Her mood of the day, rather than policy dictated how circumstances were to be handled. Although most situations should be treated on a case-by-case basis, there should and must be a certain set of criteria followed to maintain program integrity. Based on this, as case managers, we assisted our clients based upon past practices; however, we were sometimes called-in to explain our actions. While we were working within the rules, if she felt our actions were not in compliance, we had to defend our decisions. To bolster the direction I took with my own cases, I would often use the supervisors past case actions as a precedent. Without a fair and equitable way to determine who received what, our program tended to rely on subjectivity rather than objectivity. Never quite knowing what was acceptable, even if it was within the rules and regulations, made for a fru...
... middle of paper ...
...etter leader now – I know what does not work, and strive to always remember the lessons learned from an ineffective, but very nice, supervisor.
Works Cited
Averill, J. R., DeWitt, G. W. & Zimmer, M. (6/1978), The Self-Attribution of Emotion as a Function of Success and Failure. Journal of Personality, Vol. 46 Issue 2, p323, 25p; DOI: 10.1111/1467-6494.ep7380419. Retreived from EBSCOhost
Drucker, P., 18 Famous Quotes by Peter F. Drucker. Retreivedon August 30, 2011 from http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Peter-F.-Drucker/1/index.html
Kotelnikov, V. (n.d.). 25 Lessons from Jack Welch. Retrieved 8 31, 2011, from 25 Lessons from Jack Welch: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_new-model_25lessons-welch.html
Morgan, T. (2007). Overpower Weak Leaders. Business Journal (Central New York), Vol. 21 Issue 16, p26-26. Retrieved from EBSCOhost
Izard, C. E. The substrates and functions of emotion feelings: William James and current emotion theory (1990). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Pierce, Jon L. and John W. Newstrom (2011) 6th edition. Leaders and the Leadership Process.
Kellerman, B. (2004). Bad Leadership: What it is, How it Happens, Why it Matters. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1987). Transactional theory and research on emotions and coping. European Journal of Personality, 1(3), 141-169. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=6af88033-cdff-4c3b-8b49-dadc2d302c35%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4105
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B., (2007). The leadership challenge, (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
Vroom, V. H., & Jago, A. G. (2007). The role of the situation in leadership. American
Tost, L., Gino, F., & Larrick, R. P. (2013). When power makes others speechless: the negative impact of leader power on team performance. Academy Of Management Journal, 56(5), 1465-1486. doi:10.5465/amj.2011.0180
Vecchio, R. (Ed.). (2007). Leadership: Understanding the dynamics of power and influence in organizations (2nd ed.). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Within leadership, there is the opportunity for many issues in itself. Leadership styles and practices, one of the most vital aspects determining productivity in organizations, is truly what sets the standard for every level of management within a company. If a proper leadership style is not chosen and followed to lead a team within an organization, there will be no one to follow and the team will certainly not be successful. The repercussions of poor leadership will certainly make a drastic difference in a company. This can include the needs of not only employees, but
Poor team leader will be free to share the weakness of the organisation, rather than putting more effort to resolve that problem and to spread the positivity in the organisation. These types of leaders always play favouritism within the workers and try to do best for their favourite ones. This favouritism will lead to jealously among staff and spoils the cooperation factor which is vital to work in any organisation. Poor team leader always try to avoid doing work most of time resulting into excess pending work causing decrease in productivity of any organisation (Impact of negative leaders,
Plutchik, Robert (1980), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1. Theories of emotion, 1, New York: Academic
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Howell, J. P., Bowen, D. E., Dorfman, P. W., Kerr S. & Podaskoff, P. 1990, `Substitutes for leadership: Effective alternatives to ineffective leadership', Organizational Dynamics, summer, (p 23)
Bennis, W. & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The Strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper Row.