Write an essay on “Leadership and its Impacts on Organizational Performance”.
Leadership is the process of influencing, motivating and driving other people towards ones predetermined goals, objectives and aims. However for a leader to do this he has to have the ability to persuade and channel the determination and commitment of his/her subordinates towards realizing their maximum effort and production in an organization (Ngambi ,2010), Jeremy et al.(2012). Therefore a leader is a person who is able to inspire direct and motivate his/her employees or subordinates into achieving certain common set goals.
Leaders are said to be people with some special skills either born with (innate traits) or acquired through education. These traits or qualities are the ones used to differentiate between leaders and non-leaders (mahoney et al., 1960). Even with leaders having different traits or qualities, they always have the same goals i.e maximizing profit from production of products or services by using the resources available in the organization. Nevertheless, leaders seem to choose different ways or styles of leading based on what they term as important to their organization. Studies have shown that the best style to do it is using the democratic or participatory style whereby even the employees are included in the decision making of the organization compared to the dictatorship style where only the leader (manager) makes the decisions ( Likert, 1961).
An organizations performance is influenced by the performance of its leader(s) (manager) and that of its employees. A leader’s performance is dependent on his/her leadership a quality while that of an employee is determined by their skills, experience, hard work and determination. According to Jeremy et al., 2011, the relationship between leaders and employees (which is influenced by leadership style adopted by the leader) is very vital in achieving the organization’s objectives. The leadership style chosen by the organization’s leader affects the interests, determination and performance of the employees in the organization (Obiwuru et al,. 2011). To increase an organizations performance, the leader should be in a position to influence innovation, productivity and stimulate the employees to improve their personal productivity. Also they should be able to be optimists always, positive, encourage team work; goal oriented and set high expectations for the organization (Burns, 1978). Since the main aim of every organization is to maximize profits from its production then it means that the leaders should be effective and efficient in their work of mobilizing the employees in their work to achieve that (profit maximization).
With leadership being important for an organization’s performance it also has its impacts or effects. Impacts are the results of an action carried out by an individual or organization with an aim of solving a certain identified problem. They can be either positive or negative impacts. Generally, leadership performance is directly linked to any organizations performance. Increased productivity and performance of any organization is associated with good, effective and efficient leadership skills and performance (Nicholls, 1998; Simms, 1997). This means that if leadership is negatively affected by any factor either positively or negatively organizations performance is affected too. Leadership is affected by either internal factors e.g organizational structure or external (environmental) factors e.g state of the country’s economy and position of the organization within its industry. However, the empirical studies about the relationships between leadership performance and organizational performance are hard to find currently (Quick, 1992).
Some studies have shown that leadership is very vital in increasing an organization’s performance and others have argued that it is not the most important element for an organization’s good performance. This makes leadership to have contradictory roles and therefore brings out the need for its study and that of its impacts on an organization’s performance. Other studies which address the links between leadership and performance coincide with the emergence of one of the best said ways of leading which is called “transformational leadership” (Bass and Avolio, 1993). A number of researchers have argued that transformational leadership is directly linked to organizational performance (Howell and Avolio, 1993). According to Nicholls, 1988; Quick, 1992;, transformational leaders have got visionary and inspirational skills which they use to motivate their sub-ordinates into improving their personal performance therefore the performance of the organization.
To summarize this, most of the studies are based on the advantages of leadership towards organizational performance ignoring its disadvantages. This inconclusive information therefore brings out the need to do more research on the impacts (positive and negative) of leadership on any organizations performance.
The main aim of this project is to understand the concept of leadership and analyze its impacts (both positive and negative) on the performance of any organization. Specifically, this research project aims at achieving the following objectives:
The following research questions are to be used to guide the study:
Leadership is a vital management skill, which involves the ability of one person to encourage a group of people towards achieving a common goal. It focuses on the employees or subordinates development, needs and the firm’s production. According to Michael, 2011;, leadership has got direct cause and effect on any organization’s performance and success. When leaders change their style of leadership i.e policy making ways, culture, values, way of motivating their employees then the organizational performance is likely to change too. Most employees prefer the presence of a specific leader than others who prefer to lead themselves (Berkowitz, 1953). Although leaders are needed to increase performance of an organization, the people filling these positions may not be perfect for them so they become a source of relaxation for the employees. However, most employees appreciate the availability of these leaders and are in a position to even get some advice from them (Stewart and Manz, 1995).
Some organizations have poor performance because of poor leadership while others have succeeded in their performance because of the good leadership applied in their operation. Leadership is usually faced by two factors i.e corporate (internal) and environmental factors. These two factors influence the application, practice, running and implementation of leadership skills in an organization to improve its performance. They both can affect an organization’s performance either negatively or positively. This shows that not only the concept of effective and efficient leadership skills have an impact on an organizations performance but also whatever other factor that comes in between the two of them. For this reason there is the need to conduct this research project in order to find out how leadership is related with organizational performance and the impacts or effects that it causes towards organizational performance i.e either to increase or decrease organizational performance.
This research will be able to help one understand the concept of leadership and how it is related with the performance of any organization. The inputs of this study will help the researcher identify and to study in length the impacts or effects brought about by leadership on an organization’s performance. This will be achieved from the responses that will be provided by different organizations and leaders (managers) who will have the chance to be questioned. It will also help the researcher in doing the analysis of the impacts and to formulate the solutions to the negative ones. This research will help identify the organizations with good performance and good leadership and even those with poor performance and poor leadership. The researcher will be in a position to know how leadership has contributed to the performance of those organizations and their way forward.
The research objectives and questions mentioned earlier in the proposal will be answered from the data that will be collected for the research. This research output will help the researcher in completion of the course work in their academics and it will be used also by other people/researchers who have the desire to know more about leadership and its impacts on organizational performance.
This research study is important to the researcher because of the following reasons:
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Lee, & Chuang. (1993). The impact of leadership styles on job stress and turnover intention. Retrieved from [email protected]
Lester, S., & Brower, H. (2003). In the Eyes if the Beholder: The relationship between subordinates felt trustworthness and their work attitudes and behaviours. Journal of Leadership and Organisational Studies Fall, 17-33.
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