A Leader is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal. Leadership is what a leader does. According to Felix A. Nigro and Loyed G. Nigro in this book ‘Modern Public Administration’ they said that the essence of leadership is influencing the action of others: the essential quality of leaders is that they are convinced something must be done and they persuade others to help them get it done.
According to Hersey and Blanchard, “Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation.
Studies of leadership have produced so many theories based on trait, power influence, behavior, situation etc.
The trait theory was the most important leadership theory in the early ages. According to this theory a person must have some traits to be a leader which are inherited.
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Then it was further developed by Robert House (1971). In 1996, it was again revised by Robert House.
According to House, the essence of the theory is “the meta proportion that leaders, to be effective, engage in behaviors that complement subordinates environments and abilities in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and is instrumental to subordinates satisfaction and individual and work unit performance”
The path goal theory identified four types of situation which are followers lack self confidence, ambiguous job, lack of challenging job and incorrect reward. This theory also identified four types of leadership behavior to cope with these situations which are supportive, directive, achievement oriented and participative. These four leadership behaviors are contingent to the environmental factors and followers characteristics. The main characteristic of path goal theory is its flexibility. The four leadership styles are flexible and a leader can adopt any of the four leadership style depending on what the situation
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Show MoreThe basic premise behind trait theory was that are leaders born or made. Leaders trait research examined the physical, social as well as mental aspect of a individual. In general these studies simply look for significant associations between individual traits and measure of leadership effectiveness. The initial result was that leader trait was that there were no universal traits that consistently separate effective leaders from other individual but in final result explain that that early research considered the impact of situation variables that might moderate the relationship between leader trait and measure of leader effectiveness. Therefore due to lack of consistent findings l individual traits to leadership effectiveness, studies of leader traits were largely abandoned in 1950. Contingency approach is also an important approach in leader subject, this approach was first to specify how situational factor interact with leader traits and behavioral which influence leadership quality and its effectiveness of a person. According to theory leader should make contact with subordinates goal attainment, strengthen subordinates ' expectancies that improved performance will lead to valued rewards, and provide coaching to make the path to payoffs easier for subordinates. Path-goal theory suggests that the leader behavior that will accomplish these tasks depends upon the subordinate and environmental contingency factors. But this approach has not been successful as it has been criticize on both theatrically and method approach However, it remains one of the better-known theories of leadership and offers important in stories of the interaction between subordinate and
First of all, I would like to define leadership by quoting Chester I. Barnard: “Leadership is the quality of behavior of individuals whereby they guide people or their activities in organising efforts”. In my opinion this statement is absolutely true and explains the term in its best way. Therefore, it would be logical to state that leader is the person who is at the center of the power structure of the group, the one who keeps everyone in the group together, forms the goals and motivates people to achieve those goals. Leadership is a very influential chain of actions. Only leader is to shape and regulate, control and change various things inside the group like attitude, behavioral norms, and performance. Mostly, leaders
Looking at a simple definition of each terminology, then we will know each force behind all leadership theories. To better understand the fundamental principles preceding leadership philosophy, we have to understand the theory of leadership development and its essential characteristics. Hence, some of the leadership theories are explained in this paper.
Path-goal approach to leadership by House (1971) mentions that the roles of a leader involve primarily increasing individual rewards of followers to gain goal fulfillment and make the path to rewards seamless by clarifying, removing roadblocks and increasing followers opportunities for satisfaction (Dessler & Valenzi, 1977). The theory, which primarily feeds off motivation, has conquered as an acceptably rational explanation for an individual decision-making process. The days when organizations were able to function and prosper based on their product, service, or structural innovations are no longer sufficient to keep them afloat. Nowadays, companies are required to pay extra attention to the leadership process that makes things happen.
Leadership and the study of it has roots in the beginning of civilization, Egyptian rulers, Greek heroes, and biblical patriarchs all have one thing in common-leadership (THE HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP FOCUS,2005). There are numerous definitions and theories of leadership, however there are enough similarities in the definitions to conclude that leadership is the effort of influence and the power to induce compliance (Wren,1995).The organizational focus of the leader has evolved over this same period, early organizations with authoritarian leaders who believed employees were intrinsically lazy transitioned into way to make work environments more conducive to increased productivity rates (THE HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP FOCUS,2005).
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).
A leadership theory is a clarification of some features of leadership; theories have practical importance as they are being used for better understanding, anticipating, and controlling successful leadership. Hence, the main principle of any theory is to inform practice(Lussier and Achua 2009). Leadership theories could be classified into eight main categories: Great man, trait, behavioral, contingency, Situational, Participative, Relationship , management (Cherry 2010).
The path-goal theory is derived from the expectancy theory and contains four types of leadership behaviors: directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented (Whitener, 2007). Directive leaders provide clear task instructions, timeline for task completion, and standards of expectancy and how to accomplish the task (Northouse, 2010). Supportive leaders are friendly and approachable, treat followers as equals, and attempt to make the work pleasurable for the follower (Whitener, 2007). A participative leader shares decision making with followers and integrates their suggestions and feedback into the task goals (Northouse, 2010). Finally, achievement-oriented leaders challenge followers to achieve excellence by encouraging them to work at the highest level of achievement possible (Northouse, 2010).
There are lots of definitions and interpretations for the term LEADERSHIP. One is “A relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of other people” (Mullins, L.J. 2002, Management and Organisational Behaviour, 6th Edition, FT Publishing, p904). Another popular definition would be, “the process of influencing an organization or groups within an organization in its efforts towards achieving a goal” (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 7th Edition, FT Prentice Hall, p.519)
What is leadership? Leadership is defined as a process by which a individual will influence others to obtain goals. Leaders will guide, direct motivate, or inspire others. Leadership is defined by not only traits but actions as well. Leaders are inspirational, trustworthy and charismatic. Many people may think a manger is leader. Although leadership and management go hand in hand, they are not the same. Everyone has their own beliefs about what characteristics an effective leader should have. To me, communication skills, critical thinking skills, and having a vision are few characteristics of becoming an effective leader. A leader is not only born, but made. Some are born as leaders or some are made to be leaders.
Some people believe leadership and management are one in the same; however, this is not true because management involves planning, staffing, directing and controlling and, a manager is a person who performs these functions (Leadership Theories and Studies, 2009). The term manager is a formal title given to a person who has authority by virtue of his or her position or office. (Leadership Theories and Studies, 2009) Leadership, by contrast, is about influence; leaders use factors other than just their formal authority to influence subordinates. There are three major leadership theories developed from the 1930s to the 1970s which attempt to explain why some leaders are better than others, these theories are: trait leadership (1930s and 1940s), behavior leadership (1940s and 1950s), and contingency leadership (1960s and 1970s).
We can divide the theories that deal with leadership in 3 chronological groups. First were the trait theories. Until the 1940's, research in the field of leadership was dominated by these theories. Second came the behavioral theories which were very influent until the late 1960's. Finally, contingency theories are the most modern theories about leadership.
According to Shockley and Zalabak (2009) "Leadership is a process of guiding individuals, groups, and entire organization in establishing goals and sustaining action to support goals.Leadership is like mapping out where you need to go to win". A Leader is a person who has a strong personality and who has an ability to manage people and work. He is also the person who is able to direct people .Usually a leaders has a lot of attributes that
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,
Many people believe that leadership is simply being the first, biggest or most powerful. Leadership in organizations has a different and more meaningful definition. A leader is someone who sets direction in an effort or task and influences or motivates people to follow that direction. The power point presentation explains leadership is the influence that particular individuals exert on the goal achievement of others in an organizational context.