The Importance of Leadership

1817 Words4 Pages

As we all know, leadership is ubiquitous in our daily life. From nation to business, and even in family, leadership indisputably plays the main game. In the business world, as likely or not, leadership, which is the field of subject that most researchers scrutinise, is deemed as the principal vitamin for a robust organisation. Literally, what is the true meaning of leadership? According to the Blackwood Encyclopaedia of Sociology, leadership is depicted as the process of inspiring, directing, coordinating, motivating, and mentoring individuals, and/or organisations (Pitsis, 2007). With respect to leadership, leaders in an organisation have to increase the work productivity of employees so as to bring about improved employee performance. In addition, the term of productivity, which can also be defined as organisational effectiveness, is an efficiency concept that measures how effectively inputs are transformed into outputs in view of the Blackwood Encyclopaedia of Management (2008). Besides, performance outcome is referred to a variety of measures used to assess effectiveness at the individual or organization level in which profit, customer satisfaction and market share are the examples (Cleveland, Performance Outcome, 2008).

By means of theories and skills as part of the knowledge of leadership, this essay will talk about the three successful pioneers in modern management – Virgin’s Richard Branson , General Electric’s Jack Welch , and ABB’s Percy Barnevik . Later on, the essay would be discussing how transactional and transformational leadership do impact on managers and leaders in organisations. In the end, the topic on how leadership can motivate employees ensues, and a new mathematical approach as to employees’ work perform...

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...he Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management .

Davidson, P., Simon, A., Gottschalk, L., Hunt, J., Wood, G., & Griffin, R. W. (2006). Management - Core Concepts and Skills (Australasian Edition). Milton, QLD, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

De Vries, M. K. (1996). Leaders Who Make a Difference. European Management Journal , 14 (5), 486-493.

Humphreys, J. H., & Einstein, W. O. (2003). Nothing new under the Sun: Transformational Leadership from a Historical Perspective. Journal of Management History , 41 (1/2), 85-96.

Palmer, B., Walls, M., Burgess, Z., & Stough, C. (2001). Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 22 (1), 5-10.

Pitsis, T. S. (2007). Leadership. (G. Ritzer, Ed.) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology .

Zaleznik, A. (1992, March-April). Managers and Leaders: Are They Different? 126-135.

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