Leadership And Organizational Development: Strategies For Success

Discussion

In every business, leadership maintains position of its own as an important function. A leader’s approach towards any situation influences the productivity of the staff and the rest of the organization (Strand 2014). Leadership is considered as the establishment of clear visions and communication of those visions with others, along with resolving conflicts between the individuals on whom the organization’s productivity depends. Leaders are directly connected to their organizations and its success through a cause and effect relationship. They determine the values, employee motivation, culture and change tolerance in an organization. They play a vital role in the shaping of institutional strategies and even their implementation and efficiency. Leaders are omnipresent in an organization, without just being sidelined to only the management department (Yammarino 2013). Successful leaders have one thing in common – they have the capacity to influence everyone around them to obtain positive results with the help of the resources, including one of its most crucial and expensive one: the employees.

It has been widely held that culture shapes leaders in the same way that leaders form, shape and embed culture in an organization. A look at an organization’s culture is what one requires to understand its rituals, customs, symbols, behavioral norms and ideology. In relation to this, a common hypothesis already exists that if any organization demonstrates possession of strong culture by means of exhibition of well integrated and efficient set of specific beliefs, values and behavioral patterns, then it is bound to display high levels of productivity (Erkutlu 2012).

Leadership and organizational development are all spokes of the same wheel – enhancement of organizational capacity and the people working in it to ensure better achievement of the purposes. This essay would be reviewing this relationship between leadership and organizational development. The different leadership strategies would be evaluated as well for organizational development (Northouse 2012).

The point of any organization is to survive and support its presence by enhancing performance. As indicated by Arslan and Staub (2013) with the point of addressing the requirements of the very competitive markets, organizations ought to build their performance. The part of leadership is critical for accomplishing the development of organizations. The creation and maintenance of a sustainable business asks for a leader who understands how to extract positive personal outcomes from the employees. It is important for the employees of an organization to remain happy and motivated. It is important for employees to have a meaning in their life and at their work organizations too. Simply concentrating on outcomes that are work related is not sufficient. It is important to understand the processes and strategies involved in enhancing the desirable personal outcomes of employees.

A supervisor’s leadership method is one of the most important elements, which have an impact on the life of his subordinates. A leader and his followers who are sharing a stimulating and engaging relationship result in a display of individualized consideration from the leader’s side. Leaders who take up on the job of sharing psychological empowerment come out successful in motivating the employees. Moreover, leaders who are able to make their subordinates feel more capable and that they are doing something meaningful are most likely to be enhancing the welfare of the employees. It is highly important for leaders to be in constant touch with the other employees so that the overall leadership impact on the organization improves (Humphrey 2013). Building of networks and relationships generally prove to be unproductive if the people working in the organizations lack the necessary knowledge and skills or competence for exerting influence, or finding themselves inside rigid and uncooperative organizational structures. One route in which organizations have looked to adapt to the expanding instability and turbulence of the external condition is via training and developing leaders and furnishing them with the abilities to adapt. These cases depend on the supposition of an immediate connection amongst leadership and organizational development. The most crucial link exists between the employee experiences, attitudes of the employing organization and the encouragement they provide in engaging in developmental behaviors (Strand 2014).

In addition to all these, effective leadership also counts in inspiration, remuneration and analytical skills. In the presence of these, organizations record an increase in employee satisfaction, which in turn influences the profits and productivity positively. A good leader promotes ingenuity and innovation, inspires the subordinates to defy their individual value systems and develop their individual performance so that the organization experiences development overall (Northouse 2012).

Leaders who bring organizational development stress on achieving beyond normal results and setting higher corporate goals. They set out on doing so by means of stimulating employees to reflect imaginatively about a crisis or task, inspiring a sense of magnitude about the team’s mission. Rational stimulus and inspirational enthusiasm were found to advance the organizational development. Leaders affect organizational development through their supporters (Madanchian et al. 2016). Leadership can greatly affect investment of workers inside the organization. It is the responsibility of the leaders, who are the main decision makers, to settle on the acquirement, development and employment of organizational assets, the adaptation of these assets into important goods and services, and the value deliverance to the stakeholders of the organization (Hurduzeu 2015).

Broadly speaking, since businesses attribute their successes to efficient leadership, leadership performance is widely considered identical with organizational development. The approach of supervisors is what has a considerable impact on organizational development. Compelling leadership is viewed as a powerful wellspring of administration development and supported upper hand for organizational change. Visionary leaders make a key vision of some future state, convey that vision through surrounding and utilization of analogy, model the vision by acting reliably, and fabricate responsibility towards the vision. This leader-focused point of view has given significant bits of knowledge into the connection amongst leadership and organizational development. Leadership ideal models will effectively affect consumer loyalty, staff fulfillment, and money related performance (Nixon, Harrington and Parker 2012). For today’s increasingly competitive and changing world, a different and all-inclusive form of leadership is required. Leaders in the past were given to handle complex organizations, but today’s globalised world has put in front of the leader a new reality.

Organizational leadership requires in-depth understanding of the needs and wants of the internal and external environment. Specifically, globalization has made the entire business conduction process extremely complex, as it had to deal with diversified people on regular basis. As per the article by Antonakis and House (2013) religious viewpoint and political stance has created huge amount for challenges for the organizations to perform all the activities associated with the business process. In addition, technological evaluation has also induced employees to change the way business process has been conducted in the global market. For that reason, organizations need to identify the need to appropriate guidance to the employees for accomplishing the entire business processes (Krasikova, Green and LeBreton 2013). Globalization has also influenced organizations to include people from different cultural, religious and behavioural condition. Therefore, it has become necessary for the management to understand the different perspectives of the employees to maintain healthy work environment in a major way.

Many studies have mentioned different leadership theories including Great Man Theory, Trait theory, Behavioural Theory, Contingency Theory and Situational Theory that can allow organizations to perform at the expectation level (Parkay, Anctil and Hass 2014). Now, Great Man Theory has focused on the fact that leaders are born and cannot be made by any other external factors. For that reason, Great Man theory has focused on identifying the individuals with all the traits required for performing the responsibilities associated with the operational process. On the other hand, Trait theory focuses on identifying the prime traits of the leaders for fulfilling all the responsibilities associated with the operational procedure. Trait theory has mentioned that leaders need to have attributes like intelligence, maturity, vision & foresight, open-minded adaptability, fairness and self-confidence for performing all the responsibilities in an appropriate manner (Avolio and Yammarino 2013). Now, in the present globalize business environment, organizations look to recruit people with all the necessary traits for fulfilling the needs of organizational responsibilities. However, changing nature of businesses has induced leaders to acquire many other skills apart from the mentioned skills in trait theory for enhancing the performance level of the organization. For instance, modern day business demands technical skills, flexibility and adaptation for changes for handling business challenges in an appropriate manner. Recently, major players of soft drinks sector like Coca-Cola and Pepsi has faced huge challenges regarding the quality of the packaging or bottling products. Here, management of these brands have initiated different innovative strategies like approving quality from authentic packaging departments to maintain the trust level of the global customers (Lussier and Achua 2015). It has highlighted the fact that leaders need to remain aware about all types of internal and external challenges for maximizing the impact on the operational process. 

Behavioral theory has focused on evaluating the effective and ineffective behavioral pattern of the leaders that can have impact on the performance level of the organization. This theory has emphasized on the fact that activities of the leaders create actual impact on the organizational performance level rather than the kind of traits they possess (Day et al. 2014). For instance, Wal-Mart and Tesco has focused on developing effective employee orientation technique for enhancing the team bonding in a major way. Now, employee orientation heavily depends on the organizational structure and job role of the employees. Hence, management not only have to focus on increasing the employee enhancement perspective but also have to focus on other activities as well (Du et al. 2013). Conversely, contingency theory also focuses on assessing the best possible leadership style suited for an organization. It has mentioned that fact that there is no universal way of enhancing the leadership patter.      

On the other hand, Clarke (2013) has mentioned the concept of transformational and transactional leadership concept for enhancing the performance level of the organization. Transformational leadership reflects a relationship with mutual elevation and stimulation that transforms followers into leaders. Transformational leadership allows leaders to maintain dynamic relationship with the followers. It also helps to create morality among all the followers that eventually enhances the quality of the work environment. Now, present business environment has induced managers to remain flexible about their initiated strategies. For that reason, effective use of transformational leadership style will allow the leaders to make required changes in the business processes. As mentioned by Lian and Tui (2012) it is necessary for all the leaders to assess the perspective of the employees at the time of taking crucial decisions. Otherwise, it might discourage the employees to give their best at the workplace. Thus, leaders must have the charismatic personality along with the moral of value for accepting the suggestions of the employees in a positive manner.

Now, transformational leadership allows influence followers to focus on providing best towards organizational roles and responsibilities. It has been assessed that effective use of transformational leadership directly linked with the five core job characteristics including identity, variety, autonomy, significance and feedback, which directly contributed to the intrinsic motivational level of the employees. For that reason, it can be said that effective utilization of transformational leadership will help to counter all the challenges associated with the operational process (Moriano et al. 2014). Thus, it would emphasize on the fact that management of the organizations will have to focus on developing effective strategies for providing different responsibilities as per the preferences of the employees. For that reason, it is necessary for the leaders to understand the strengths and weaknesses of all the employees in an effective manner. It would help to increase the effectiveness of the operational processes for fulfilling all the business aims and objectives comprehensively. On the other hand, transactional leadership focuses on performance and supervision aspect of the leaders for fulfilling the business objectives in an appropriate manner.

In transactional leadership both punishments and rewards has been used for fulfilling business aims and objectives. Transactional leadership also induces organizations to remain constant with all the initiated business aims and objectives. For that reason, use of transactional leadership will not allow organizations to handle future challenges at the optimum level, which eventually minimize the effectiveness of the business process.

After evaluating the entire critical analysis, it can be concluded that the two overarching term leadership and organizational development are inseparably related to each other. Organizations would never be able to gain international reputation without the best endeavor of employees (Choudhary, Akhtar and Zaheer, 2013). On the other hand, employees can never perform well without a proper direction of an efficient leader. Therefore, every business organization should hire an efficient leader who would guide every single employee towards the business destination. The entire study has focused to provide in-depth overview on how various kinds of leadership strategies have a major impact in influencing the organization for performing well.

On the other hand, creating a brand identity and brand image is highly dependent on the performance of the employees. Therefore, organizational managers tend to appoint an efficient leader in every single department. The primary responsibility of the leaders would be motivating the employees towards teamwork (Wang et al. 2014). The various leadership theories should also be implemented at the workplace. With the help of these leadership theories, the leaders would direct the team for meeting business target. Leaders by depending on the work environment intend to apply appropriate form of leadership theory within the organization. 

After evaluating the entire study it has been observed that organizational development is highly dependent on leadership. While running the entire business process the direction of an efficient leader is highly important. However, while analyzing the importance of leadership in developing the business process of an organization this specific study is not devoid of major drawbacks as well. In order to overcome those drawbacks some of the recommendations can be provided on how strategic managers should use different form of leadership style. The recommendations are as follows:

Kark and Shamir (2013) opined that an efficient strategic manager of a particular business organization tends to follow different form of leadership styles that include participative style of leadership, autocratic leadership, transformational leadership and so many. In participative form of leadership style both the employees and the employers intend to take collective decision regarding business success. This particular form of leadership enables the employees for sharing their point of views. Therefore, employees show their enthusiastic attitude for performing well for business organization. For this specific reason most of the business organization recommends to use participative leadership style at the workplace. Noruzy et al. (2013) stated that implies that this particular form of leadership style does not become suitable for every business organization. While taking an important business decision at the edge of major crisis, organizational business managers have to take immediate decision. Therefore, in this kind of situation, autocratic leadership style is the most effective. The business managers do not have sufficient time to take collective decision. Therefore, by maintaining autocratic form of leadership the business managers try to overcome the situation in taking urgent decision. Therefore, Nixon, Harrington and Parker (2012) recommended that transformational form of leadership style is most appropriate for handling any kind of business issue at the workplace. With the help of transformational form of leadership style the business managers are flexible to transform their leadership form as per the business situation. After evaluating different form of leadership style it can be recommended that organizations should use leadership style as per the business situation. A particular form of leadership should not be maintained within the business organization from the beginning to the end.

Yang (2012) stated that based on the organizational situation, strategic managers have to follow autocratic form of leadership sometimes. In autocratic style of leadership the decision of business experts are ultimate. The business managers like to impose their own decision on the employees. While facing any kind of crisis the strategic managers do not have sufficient time to make a collective decision by involving the employees at workplace. In this kind of situation the business experts should have the efficiency to take proper decision to keep a constant control over the entire business process. With the dynamic progress of business, the organizations have to change their business policies and strategies to meet the current trend of customers. As a result, business leaders can evaluate the progress level of employee performance.

While directing a particular team leaders have to handle some of the employees who can be considered under average performer (Birasnav 2014). Autocratic form of leadership style is appropriate for those performers who have to be dependent on their leaders while taking a vital decision. At the same time, the organizational managers may have to face innumerable challenges to successfully run the team (Bello 2012). The performance level of employees would be increased only when the leaders have the capability to deal with every single situation efficiently. Wilderom, van den Berg and Wiersma (2012) commented that without following autocratic form of leadership style the leaders would never be able to improve the performance level of average performers. Therefore, strategic manager are suggested to use autocratic form of leadership style in order to improve the performance level of employees.

As emphasized by Erkutlu (2012), the role of an efficient leader should not be restricted within a specific area. The role of a leader is to give a right direction to the employees so that employees can provide superior quality of services to the customers. In order to develop the entire business process leaders have to play multitasks at the workplace. Leaders should participate on team activities as well if the situation demands. For an example, in order to meet the clients demand the employees need the inspiration of their leaders. In this kind of situation an efficient leader should directly involve in the performance of employees so that they can get back their enthusiastic attitude for performing well.

Regional managers should have the proper skill of decision-making that enables the entire team to achieve the business success (Ojokuku, Odetayo and Sajuyigbe 2012). While taking decision making within the team it can be recommended that leaders can use participative form of leadership to gather collective opinion. Within a particular team employees are from different cultural and religious attitudes. Therefore, leaders can get the scope to communicate directly with the participants from various cultural attributes. In addition, the role of a responsible leader is to protect every individual team member from any kind of unjustified situation.

For an example, while performing within specific project employee has to face innumerable challenges in dealing with the project successfully. In this kind of situation, leaders by providing proper guidance and direction tend to provide the employees way of solution based on which the individual can overcome the challenge (Yang 2012). Maintaining effective communication with every individual employee should be the role of a competent leader. Without maintaining effective communication at the workplace leaders cannot identify the problems of team members. Therefore, based on the communication skill of a leader the performance of an employee is dependent (Zahari and Shurbagi 2012). At the same time, based on the performance level of the employees the success of a business organization is inseparably related. Therefore, it can be recommended from this particular point of view that leaders have to act versatile activities while working at the workplace. 

Transformational leadership style is one of the most effective ways to take appropriate business decision. With the help of transformational leadership style the strategic managers can follow particular form of leadership as the situation demands. At the time of any crisis the business CEO has to take immediate decision. As a result, autocratic leadership style becomes appropriate while taking any rapid business decision. The leaders should not show biased attitude at the workplace. While associating within a business process employees are from various cultures and attitudes. This kind of business decision affects the entire level of performance (Von Krogh et al. 2012). In order to enhance the performance level of employees, leaders should have the capacity to take transformational decision. Before forming a particular team, leaders should involve the people from different age group, different gender, cultures and religious backgrounds. People from different cultural backgrounds can get the scope to learn each other’s cultures and psychological beliefs (Men and Stacks 2013). Without the presence of transformational leadership style, the strategic managers cannot take the proper decision. Therefore, before implementing transformational leadership style the organization should recruit a competent leader first who would be able to direct the team member towards the right path.

Leader is the major source of employee motivation. While working within the team the employees have to face major difficulties in order to maintain a balance between customers’ demands and supply. Therefore, employees feel de-motivated towards providing good services. On the other hand, it is undeniable that employees are the key stakeholder for a business organization. Without having a complete contribution on behalf of the employees the organization can never reach the peak of success (Men and Stacks 2013). Therefore, leaders have to take the primary responsibility to motivate the employees towards service process. While motivating the employees, leaders can be recommended to follow some of the major strategies. Using democratic form of leadership style at the workplace is the most effective ways for motivating the employees towards business success.

While taking any kind of business decision the employers should involve the employees for sharing their own opinion regarding the business goal. In order to motivate the employees towards services the leaders can arrange group discussion session as well. With the help of group discussion session, the employees would be able to share their opinion among the group members (Zahari and Shurbagi 2012). The employees would become flexible to make effective communication with other. In this specific session, the performers would like to exchange relevant information with each other. This kind of group discussion would help the leaders to take business decision at the workplace. In addition, in order to maintain a face-to-face communication, leaders should organize interpersonal conversation as well. Consequently, the employees can share their organizational issues without any hesitation.  

Conclusion

The above analysis has established the fact that leadership is extremely critical aspect regarding the performance level of the organizations. Effective use of leadership allows organizations to maximize the utility of the available resources, which will eventually create positive impact on the operational process. However, the above analysis also has highlighted the fact that there is no best way for developing effective leadership style. In fact, organizations will have to focus on identifying the needs and wants of the operational process for implement best-suited leadership style. The above discussion has mentioned that improper utilization of leadership pattern can actually create major adverse impact on the fulfilment of the business aims and objectives. Moreover, technological evaluation, changes in the government rules and regulations and changes in international trade policies has increased the amount of challenges leaders face in maintain continues growth in the market. For that reason, leaders not only need have the leadership attributes but also have to possess certain amount of technical skills for guiding subordinates in an effective manner. To conclude, it can be said that leadership is dynamic concept that will continue to evolve as per the requirements of the business sectors.

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