WebLeadership Theories Analyzed Leadership is an influential factor in the success and failure. If an organization is failing, look at the leader, not the economy; not the market; Web5/03/ · Leadership theories have evolved as human behavior practitioners and scholars continue to examine different facets that influence and affect this intriguing Web19/09/ · According to them there are ten qualities that are essential for effective leadership: physical and nervous energy, a sense of purpose and direction, enthusiasm, Estimated Reading Time: 10 mins
Leadership Theories and Examples | Free Essay Example
The scientific study of leadership began in the 20th century, leadership theories essay. Since becoming a recognized academic discipline, the study of leadership has inspired a number of important conceptual models, leadership theories essay. Theories and models of leadership have supported the concept of leadership, leadership theories essay. Each of these models or theories has their own merits and demerits. These theories have been developed through several stages of evolution ranging from great man approach to transformation theory of leadership, leadership theories essay. The earlier studies in the field focused on broad conceptualizations of leadership for instance the behavior, characteristics or traits of a leader.
Contemporary leadership focuses more on leadership as a process of influencing others within an organizational culture and the interactive relationship between leaders and followers Chamorro-Premuzic,p. However, despite the various approaches to leadership, leadership theories essay, all the theories in one form or other endorse the importance of motivation and influence as an essential part of leadership. Broadly speaking all the existing leadership theories can be divided into three general sets: trait-based theories, situational theories, and relationship or leader-follower exchange theories Chemers,p.
A study of the evolution of the leadership theory is important when analyzing the traits of leadership in any current context. This is because the notions of leaderships are closely interlinked with the ideas of how various organizations function Chamorro-Premuzic,p. Hence, this section presents various theories of leadership, attempting to analyze them and the ideas and need behind the development of a particular theory. This would help in the effective analysis of the particular leadership traits in the particular field and business which is the focus of this research. Order custom essay Theories of Leadership with free plagiarism report. Great Man Theory — The theory was given by the 19th century philosopher Leadership theories essay Carlyle and is the earliest and most influential of all the theories.
It is also known as charismatic theory of leadership. In this theory leaders are distinguishable from the followers based upon their personal abilities and traits. This theory was influenced by study by Galton in on the hereditary background leadership theories essay great men. Early studies in this field sought to identify these attributes of leadership and asserted that they were inherent and could not be taught. The idea behind it was that the leaders were unique people who have qualities, which cannot be cultivated because they were present and carried in genes. The fact was strongly supported by the fact that leadership frequently emerged within the same prominent families Murugan MS,p. The theory however ignored the effect of followers and the impact of the situation.
The focus of the theory was the personality of the leader and factors such that intellect, personality, height, class and age were investigated to find something, which might be a secret ingredient of leadership success. The mix of such very different variables proved to be problematic because of the lack of hierarchical or logical order to corroborate with the findings in the corresponding literature. Trait theory — The Great Man theory was criticized by many theorists because it was considered to have no scientific basis and had no empirical studies to support it.
The criticism of this theory paved the way to another theory or leadership which is also based on personality and acquired traits and is hence known as Trait theory. According to this theory leadership qualities and traits are not inborn but can be acquired by an individual through education, leadership theories essay, training and other forms of learning. Major advocates of this theory are Ordway Tead and Ervin Schell. According to them there are ten qualities that are essential for effective leadership: physical and nervous energy, a sense of purpose and direction, enthusiasm, friendliness and affection, integrity, technical mastery, decisiveness, intelligence, teaching skills, and faith Murugan MS, leadership theories essay,p.
They further say that a combination of these traits enables an individual to inspire others to accomplish a given task making them effective leaders. This theory was seriously investigated after the Second World War and continues to be popular leadership theories essay today. It is often seen that those seeking to determine the personal traits for successful leadership subject the lives and management styles of well-known industrial leaders and executives to close scrutiny. However, scientific evidence has found extremely contradicting evidence regarding this. Traits denoting leadership in one scientific study are not found in others and the sheer number of supposed leadership traits given by the various researchers further complicates the situation.
Studies have however been successful in proving that possessing certain traits cannot always ensure successful leadership and might change in different situation Tate,p. Behavioral Theory — The criticism of the use of particular traits leadership theories essay define leadership led to the development of behavioral leadership theories essay of leadership. Here leadership was considered as a set of behaviors rather than a set of traits. These scholars argued that it was less important to possess a set of personal characteristics than it leadership theories essay to engage in leadership behaviors that would achieve desired results from followers.
This included the ability to produce psychological effects on subordinates in leadership theories essay to coordinate their efforts in achieving goals. The theory was in fact developed in several famous university of leadership in the leadership theories essay environment. The behavior model movement was primarily due to management theorists and social psychologists in the late s, who believed that they had to accept behaviorism as a scientific perspective to leadership, leadership theories essay. The theory also found supporters in educators, anthropologists, political scientists and sociologists, because of its scientific approach.
The study of leadership is hence infused with a large amount of behaviorism that has been retained to this day Rosf,p. The subsections below give the works of some of the major pioneers in this field. The works can however leadership theories essay divided in to either a task orientation approach or a work orientation approach Bates,p. The task orientation approach consisted of actions taken by the leader to accomplish a job such as assigning the task and organizing work, supervising and evaluation worker performance. The employee centered approach was advocated by Likert, Lewin, Argyris, Lippi and White, who suggested that leadership behavior which demonstrated a concern for employees and the use of participative techniques for decision making would result in improved performance.
According to this approach employee orientation consists of the actions that characterize the way in which a leader relates to and approaches a subordinate. Some other versions of the model promoted by Blake and Mouton were based on the idea that leadership should be both employee-oriented and directive Montana, Chamov,p. The different theories are explained below:. However, it actually describes the approaches leadership theories essay managers take in assuming leadership of their employees. According to this theory there are two alternative ways how managers might view their workers based on the concepts of human nature: theory X and theory Y. The theory X managers believe that subordinates naturally abhor work and must be controlled closely to see that the tasks are completed.
They use punishments and rewards as mechanisms of control. The theory Y managers believe that subordinates do not naturally dislike work and will actually enjoy work if properly motivated and rewarded. According to them subordinates should be motivated to do their work rather than keeping them constrained under severe organizational and managerial controls. Such managers are more likely to provide expanded responsibilities and challenges to subordinates. This theory was recognizing that cognitive functions such as thoughts and beliefs might influence behavior Myers,p. Rensis Likert identified four management styles, which he called the four systems. System 1 the exploitive-authoritative style, which is the way authoritarian groups work.
This style is pretty similar to the theory X, while the system 4 is participative and represents the ultimate democratic style, and resembles theory Leadership theories essay in the section above. System 2 is benevolent-authoritative which is basically paternalistic, while system 3 is consultative and moves towards democracy and teamwork, both of which fit between systems 1 and 4. Likert considered system 4 as identical to an organization. He and his associates at the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan found from their research that organizations high in system 4 also have high productivity.
System 4 has three key elements: supportive elements based on trust, group decision-making and group supervision, and high performance goals. According to this approach while the individual leadership theories essay may use any one of these four systems particular organizations foster particular leadership styles Swansburg,p. The Managerial Grid is a two-dimensional leadership model. Dimensions of this model are tasks or production and the employee or people orientation of managers Myers,p, leadership theories essay. These two dimensions of managerial thinking are depicted as follows: concern for production on the horizontal axis and concern for people on the vertical axis.
They are shown in nine-point scales where 1 represents low concern, 5 represents an average amount of concern and 9 is high concern. These two concerns are interdependent and both are present to some extent in any management style Swansburg,p. Study of the grid enables to sort out various possibilities and the attitudes, values, beliefs, leadership theories essay, and assumptions that underlie each approach. According to Blake and Mouton the style is likely to achieve the highest quality of result over an extended period of time. The Grid serves as a road map towards more effective ways of working with and through others Swansburg,p.
Much of the work on this theory grew out of two important research programs in the s and s at the Ohio state University and the University of Michigan. In the Ohio state university studies the researchers used questionnaires designed to provide information on the observed behaviors of leaders in a leadership theories essay variety of organizations. They found that leadership behavior fell into two main categories: initiating structure and consideration. The Michigan University studies used a similar approach to leadership but called the two categories as employee orientation and production orientation, leadership theories essay. The researchers found that effective leaders engaged in both task-orientation and relationship-oriented behavior Montana, Leadership theories essay,p.
However, like leadership theories essay earlier two approaches this approach too sought to determine a single best leadership style that would work effectively in all situations, leadership theories essay. They do not take contextual approaches into account and does not explain why correct leadership behavior fails in certain situations. Participative Leadership — Participative leadership theory has been discussed in the earlier section indirectly. This type of leadership requires the leaders to involve their subordinates in making work-related decisions.
Participative leadership involves a shift away from authoritarian and highly directive forms of leadership towards a broader range of individuals being allowed and encouraged to play a part in decision-making. William Ouchi advocates participative leadership and participative management. In his book Theory Z, the distinction between the people holding the management title and people not holding the title is blurred. According to Sergiovanni the burdens of leadership will be less if the leadership functions and roles leadership theories essay shared and it will also succeed in bonding the staff together. Copland who says that participative leadership has the potential to ease the burden on principals and avoid undue expectations from the leader shares similar sentiments Bryman,p.
Studies have definitively pointed to the fact the participative management has a postive effect on productivity of an organization. Some advantages of participative leadership are: a greater readiness to accept change, more peaceful manager and subordinate relations, increased employee commitment to organization, greater trust in management, greater ease in the management of subordinates, leadership theories essay, improved quality of management, leadership theories essay. Decisions, improved upward communications, and improved teamwork. Potential disadvantages are: time-consuming process, possibilities of many conflicts etc Bryman,p. Contingency theories leadership theories essay Postthe systematic ways of treatment of leadership became refined.
Contingency theories grew out of impatience with the classical management approaches which seemed to prescribe universal leadership theories essay to all management problems irrespective of the different circumstances. Finding personal dispositions and behaviors inadequate, scholars invoked context and leader-follower relationships to explain leadership effectiveness. Such models came to be referred to as contingency models or theories of leadership Contingency theories also argue that no single leadership style is effective in all circumstances, but that leadership styles are contingent on the organizational and situational context Borkowski,p, leadership theories essay.
Contingency theories of leadership consider how situational factors alter the effectiveness of particular leader behaviors and styles of leadership. The assumption is that no leadership traits, leadership theories essay, behaviors, or styles automatically constitute effective leadership. By their nature contingency theories are of the if-then type, for instance, if the situation is X, then the appropriate leadership behavior is Y.
Leadership Theories
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Web19/09/ · According to them there are ten qualities that are essential for effective leadership: physical and nervous energy, a sense of purpose and direction, enthusiasm, Estimated Reading Time: 10 mins Web26/11/ · Key Leadership Theories 1. Great Man Theory According to the Great Man Theory (which should perhaps be called the Great Person Theory), leaders are born WebLeadership Theories Analyzed Leadership is an influential factor in the success and failure. If an organization is failing, look at the leader, not the economy; not the market;
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