Leadership And Governance
Introduction
Like love, death, money, politics, and war, the subject of leadership
is one that is continuously under discussion. Yet, despite all the
attention given to leadership and its recognized importance,
leadership still remains pretty much of an unexplained and confusing
concept. There are innumerable theories that explain various facets of
the leadership phenomena but unfortunately there is no comprehensive
and general theory of leadership, which can make our overall task of
understanding leadership easy and simple. One of the best ways in
which we can enhance our understanding of leadership is to see how
various students of the subject have defined leadership (Dessler
2001).
All enterprises and organizations, for profits and nonprofits, which
conduct their business through genuine involvement and respect for
those who work in them, achieve superior results. This is one of the
critical aspects of management and leadership. Seeing that it happens
is part of governance. The process of change constitutes
organizational and personal development (Dessler 2001).
In this essay we critically analyse whether leadership is the essence
of fostering good governance and give theoretical proof whether it is
true or not.
Leadership and management literature is full of definitions of
leadership as almost everyone who seems to have studied the subject
has formulated his / her own definition. This thought has been
expressed by Stodgill (1974) who says, “There are almost as many
definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to
define the concept ". Not only have writers on le...
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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
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Sears Holdings is a company in transition. Now, faced with adversity and the threat of bankruptcy looming its leadership has come under scrutiny. “Great leaders not only have drive; they want to lead. Also important is a high need for power, a preference to be in leadership rather than follower positions. A high power need induces people to attempt to influence others, and sustains interest and satisfaction in the process of leadership. When the power need is exercised in moral and socially constructive ways, rather than to the detriment of others, leaders inspire more trust, respect, and commitment to their vision (Bateman, pp 399, 2007).”
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.
Although there are many outstanding, albeit necessary qualities of a good leader, it is the leader’s beliefs in which greatness is given its first breath, fostered by action, and spread throughout the institution. A great leader believes in encouraging, not destroying; in setting the precedence instead of yielding to prominence ; in collaboration, not division; in giving, not taking; and in having high standards and volunteering to be the first of many to be held to them. A great leader does not take advantage of the people being lead, but instead, creates an advantage for the people by giving them the opportunities to lead. Only when people take ownership of an institution will passion be cultivated, action be taken, and greatness be achieved.
There are certain essential elements that constitute the definition of leadership. It may refer to the totality of an organization’s top direction-giving functionaries, or the actions applied in providing direction that enables the organization or team to move forward towards a goal. In reality, there are very diverse definitions of leadership depending on the context. Grint’s (2010) summary of leadership definitions that includes the position, the person, the results, and the process, provides a comprehensive view of leadership. While not absolute, this view covers much of the areas where there is consensus on the definition of leadership.
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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.
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