LEADERSHIP
The term leadership has been defined in many ways according to Howard Gardner (1995). President Harry Truman, an infamous leader could lead people to do what they do not want to do yet like it (Gardner, 1995; cited in Parker & Begnaud, 2004). Eileen Ford from a well established modeling agency defines leadership as the “ability to convince people to do what you want them to do as if they have thought of it themselves“(Karns & Bean, cited in Parker & Begnaud, 2004).
Leadership guru Warren Bennis describes leadership as “those who make a contribution makes a difference in the organization, thus giving meaning to his or her work” (Czarnecki, 2010). Leadership occurs when one tries to influence the behavior of an individual or group (Bennis & Nanus 1995; cited in Morley, Moore, Heraty, Gunnigle).
LEADERSHIP THEORIES
Early leadership theories were called universalism theories because studies focused on universal characteristics of good leaders – which are the personality traits or styles that make leaders effective ( Brain, 2002).
Trait theories suggest that certain individuals possess innate or in born characteristics that can be assigned to leaders and non leaders. Trait theory also suggests that personal qualities such as” physical” factors, for example, height, personality and other features such as extroversion, intelligence and communication skills are also a key feature of this theory (Guy, 2010).
Further research led to behavioral theories examining the behavior of effective leaders rather than their personal characteristics on the grounds that the secret to good leadership is in ones actions (Brain, 2002).
Modern research tends to lead to contingency theories, which emphasis the relationship...
... middle of paper ...
...
Daft,R,L & Marcic,D (2011). Understanding Management. (7th ed.) Ohio: Western Wengage.
Daniel primal leadership p.256 Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, Annie McKee – 2004 Harved School business press
Beer, et al. (2008) Psychiatric Intensive Care, New York: Cambridge University Press, p.333.Stepen M. Pereira, Carol Paton
The Fundamentals of Leadership: Essential Tools of the Trade By Floyd Sheldon (2010) Arizona U.S.A; P.46
Leading people: expert solutions to everyday challenges, London,England: Harvard Business School Publishing, p.9.
The Fundamentals of Leadership: Essential Tools of the Trade By Floyd Sheldon (2010) Arizona U.S.A; P.46
Daft, R. (2008) Management, 8th ed. Ohio,USA: Thomson south western, p.507.
”business balls,com acessed.
http://www.businessballs.com/personalitystylesmodels.htm#belbin%20team%20roles%20descriptions
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
Pierce, Jon L. and John W. Newstrom (2011) 6th edition. Leaders and the Leadership Process.
Yukl, G. (2002), Leadership in Organizations, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, .
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,
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B., (2007). The leadership challenge, (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
The trait theory prevailed until the forties, passing these characteristics to be studied within a universalistic perspective....
The term leadership often brings to mind people like George Washington, Ghandi, Dwight Eisenhower, or current day military or political figures. These people represent certain strengths, character, and moral behaviors that we attribute to the concept of leadership. At its core, leadership is the ability to influence others to work toward and achieve a common objective or goal. An individual can exhibit leadership at any level of society, not just high profile positions. In fact, leadership can even be witnessed among children and young adults.
As our text says, there is no one definitive definition that best encapsulates the true nature of what “leadership” really is. For me, I would define leadership as the ability to influence and share with others the understanding of how something is to be done in order to accomplish a particular goal, task, or objective. Leadership doesn’t necessarily mean “to lead”. As mentioned in our previous class, anyone can be a leader. You don’t have to be in a position of power to display active leadership. Leadership is an ability that we can learn, improve upon, and share as we grow as individuals. Leaders may not all share the same vision and purpose but they all have the power to influence others in the way they choose to act, behave, and make decisions. This is how I see leadership to be based on my own beliefs and experiences.
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).
The Traits theory, otherwise known as the Great Man theory, is the origination of leadership theories. This theory believes that there is a unique set of qualities for a leader, mainly: his intelligence and ability to judge, his knowledge power, self-confidence and dependabil...
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA 94103-1741: Jossey-Bass.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy (2009). Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (6th Ed). New York, NY McGraw-Hill Irwin
Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.
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,