Leadership 1. Definition of leadership and how it differs from management. Leadership and management are two words that are commonly mistaken; the relation and the differences between them are often unclear. Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or a set of goals." Managers are there to plan, organize, lead and monitor employees' activities. Leaders also have to be able to guide an organization through change. As we will see later, vision is a crucial component in the success of this task. 2. Basic theories on leadership. 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. a. Trait theories. Trait theories are theories that consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders." Early results aimed at confirming this theory were inconclusive. Many research studies were conducted and each identified key traits supposed to differentiate leaders from nonleaders. The problem is that they didn't get the same results, thus failing to discover common traits, which should have shown in each research study. When applying the Big Five Personality framework (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience) to the study and research of leadership traits, results were more encouraging. They showed that the most important trait for leaders was extraversion. Still, this founding sh... ... middle of paper ... ...adership Practices in Relation to Productivity and Morale." In D. Cartwright and A. Zander, Group Dynamics: Research and Theory, 2nd ed. (Elmsford, NY: Row, Paterson, 1960) Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge in "Organizational Behavior", 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2005, p. 407 Ibid p. 409 Ibid, p. 410 Ibid, p. 414. R.J House, "A Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness," Administrative Science Quarterly, September 1971, pp.321-338; and R. J. House, "Path-Goal Theory of Leadership; Lessons, Legacy and a Reformulated Theory," Leadership Quarterly, Fall 1996, pp.323-352 http://www.refresher.com/!leading Other sources: http://www.saferpak.com/leadership_art6.htm http://www.refresher.com/!leading http://nucps.northwestern.edu/division/mt_leadership.asp http://www.fivestarleader.com/leading-through-change.html
In the movie We Were Soldiers Mel Gibson plays Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Hal Moore during the Vietnam War era. He takes command of the infamous General Custard Battalion 1-7 Cavalry and adopts some very innovative tactics to apply during battle. He exudes various leadership traits to motivate his men to go into battle. This paper will discuss some of the traits portrayed in the movie and how it carries over into the business environment.
Leadership is the ability to influence employees to voluntarily pursue organizational goals. Leadership is vision, enthusiasm, love, trust, passion and consistency. Management is to pursue organizational goals efficiently and effectively by integrating the work of people through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizations resources. Leadership and management are not the same. They are not interchangeable. Leadership is coping with change and management is coping with complexity (Williams 444).
1. Leadership is not only a talent. It is also a science that it can be taught, 2. Mobilizing others is the key world of leadership theory. Inspiration is the basic tool that a leader can use, 3. Leadership is not dictatorship. It is a common effort that aims to a common goal, 4. ethics is a significant issue in leadership theory, 5. leadership is interesting to the feelings of the employees who work in a project. People are not numbers but personalities with particular characteristics and wishes, 6. a leader does not need types to be respected by the employees. He gains them with his personality and they follow him because they agree with his recommendations and they trust him.
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).
Robbins , Stephen P. and Judge, Timothy, A. Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall. Pearson Custom Publishing. 2008 Print
Hoy, W. K., & Tarter, C. J. (2010). A Theory of Leadership: A Situational Approach. Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://www.waynekhoy.com/pdfs/theory_of_leadership.pdf
Schermerhorn, JR. jr., Hunt, J. G., Osborn, R.N. (2000). Organizational behavior. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Finally, in spite of lack of agreement on a complete list of leadership traits, there is some agreement on a few: intelligence, social maturity and breadth, inner motivation and achievement drives, and human relations attitudes. These traits are in no sense “universal” traits. However, as Keith Davis notes in his discussion of these traits, “Studies show that there is a better than chance probability that a leader will have more of these traits than the general population and sometimes even more than the average of his followers”.
First, trait theory of leadership development holds that a person is either born with, or without leadership qualities. According to this approach, it is the inherited cognitive ability that will enable
The leadership is a result of a combination of traits, with special emphasis on the personal qualities of the leader, which he should possess certain personality traits that would be special facilitators in leadership performance. This theory shows that leaders are born as such, there is no likelihood of 'making' them later with personal development techniques.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Early analysis on leadership was supported the psychological focus of the day, that was of individuals having, attention was given to discovering these traits, usually by learning winning leaders. Underlying assumption that if people may even be found with these traits then they could also become great leaders. Trait theory has a “Great Man” Approach which assumes the leader is different from the average person in terms of personality traits such as intelligence, perseverance and ambition.
Leadership and management are two fundamental concepts which are involved in the effective management of organizations. Leadership in my opinion is a complex concept, which includes association of human qualities and the result of their activities. To be a great leader means not only following own visions, but also work towards company’s goals.