Discuss about the Principle and Practices of Leadership and Management.
This is a critical essay focusing on the role of the leaders in the organization. The essay has focused on the duties of the leaders, key components of the leadership, strengths of the theories i.e. strength of trait theory and contingency theory of leadership, and opinions of the theories for leadership. Leadership can be described as the ability in an individual to lead the group of the people. There are many analyses regarding the leadership. Some researchers argued that leadership is the idea for the employees and some argued that this is the process to encourage the followers for giving good efforts and attaining the targets in the career. So, fundamentally this is the procedure to influence and encourage the team members of the organization to attain the common goals (Samad. 2012).
The role of the leader is very important in an organization. With the effective leadership, the organization cannot achieve the future growth and success in the competitive market. Every organization has some future objectives and to achieve those objectives are necessary for the future success. So leadership in the organization is important to manage and encourage the people to attain the set goals (Stein& Nelson, 2003). The scope of this essay is show the importance of leadership by two different theories. The details of the theories and leadership has taken form the various researches and findings done by theorist.
In each and every organization, leadership is the most important factor to determine the success and growth in the industry. Based on the various researches, it can be said that the leadership is a significant fact for the success of the business. The leadership is also significant for each and every business. Basically, leadership is about managing of the people of the organization by the leaders. For this, leaders have to set some goals and targets to motivate the employees in the organization. Along with this, leaders also make plans for the employees so that they can achieve those goals easily (Williams & Foti, 2011). The leaders have very important duties in the organizations. Some of the roles or duties of the leaders are described below:
The key part of the leaders is to develop and generate the culture of the organization. It is the duty of the leader that employees perform well in their job role. If the set targets are not achieved then leaders develop cooperation between the employees and try to gather a group to achieve that mission. Further, a leader adopts the appropriate approaches and strategies so that the staffs in the organization cooperate with each other. So, the main duty of the leaders is to develop coordination among the employees in the organization (Marquis & Huston, 2008).
Ensure the group-effect-
Leaders make sure that the employees put their maximum energy and resources to perform the tasks. By the effective and proper management and leadership, leaders motivate the employees to attain the goals of the organizations. Along with this, by the effective leadership, the leaders make sure about the availability of the resources and best use of those resources by the employees for getting best results in the business (Goleman, 2004).
Planning for the business-
The leaders set the schedules and make plans for the effective operations in the business. Leaders deliver the duties, roles and tasks to the employees so that they can be able to complete the task of the organization. Along with this, not only for employees, but leaders also builds the tactics to ensure that organization can get more achievements and progress in the operating market.
Help to stay competitive in market-
Growth is very essential for the business process in the operating market. Due to globalization, almost every organization is facing competition in the operating market. So, leaders are very helpful for the organizations to gain competitive advantage over the competitors by encouraging the employees to do their best. Leaders develop effective strategies for the business and develop talent in the employees. In other words, leaders develop the ability to gain competitive advantage in the organization (Yukl, 2010).
Leadership is an important part for managing the organization. The activities of leadership include all level of management in the organization. There are many owners of the business who serve the organization as a leader. They have adopted new strategies and ideas for the business. This can be agreed by an instance of the company Amazon. In the Amazon, Jeff Bezos is both leader and CEO in the leading E-commerce site. He played an important role in the business having the revolution with new thought of ‘predictive analytics’. He is such kind of leader who cares about every customer in the company (Antes & Schuelke, 2011). So, it is clear that without strong and effective leadership, the organization cannot be able to get success in the market. The strong leadership grows the organization in the effective manner and ensures the success of the organization. Leadership is helpful for the organization to analyze the capabilities to achieve the goals and to gain advantage by the proper use of the resources. Leadership provides business objectives to the organization. Along with this, leadership gives the innovative ideas to achieve the goals to earn maximum profit in the market. The effective leadership creates great organizations. Strong leadership helps the organization to be competitive in the operating market which is crucial for the success of the organization. Strong leadership is also important to control the actions and movements of the employees and to motivate them for using the available resources in a proper way (Zhang & Bartol, 2010).
Leadership is the essential part of the organization. In each and every business, it is necessary to establish the goals and purposes for the employees of the organization. So, various researchers have given various kinds of theories for leadership.
Under this theory of leadership includes the study of the talents of a leaders based on some characteristics. This theory focuses on some characteristics of the leader s such as sincerity, inspiration, awareness of business, assurance and ability to execute the task in the business. Those characteristics make the leader effective in the organization. For the discussion, tow popular theories i.e. trait theory and contingency theory has taken. Further, the leader should have the capacity to operate the business operations. Leader should be courageous and unafraid to ask the queries which are important for the growth of the organization. Further, leaders should have the ability to encourage the employees to attain the goals set for the organization. Leaders in the organization should have the personality of bravery, confidence, aptitude and strong emotional intelligence. There are some strengths of trait theory of leadership (Roe, 2014).
The theory has several strengths. Leadership is the composition of leaders, followers, and the different situations in the organization. But trait theory mainly focuses on the leaders. (Puccio, Mance & Murdock, 2011). The strengths of trait theory are as follows:
Having lots of strengths, there are some weaknesses of the trait theory; there is the need to address those weaknesses for effective leadership. The weaknesses of trait theories are as follows:
Trait theory is applicable in many ways and in many levels. Basically, this theory can be applied to all the levels. The theory has clear directions of traits of leadership which is very useful. Trait theory can also be applied for personality test done by the leaders to identify their skills. Where leaders need to improve their skills, trait theory is applicable there.
There are some issues in applying the trait theory in some areas. Due to different characteristics of and followers, there can be the issue of application of theory. Due to different characteristics of the situation in the leadership, this theory is not applicable so much. There are also some factors such as various demographics, and gender in which theory may face the issues.
On the other hand, contingency leadership focuses on the whole leadership style. According to this theory, there is no defined way to for the leaders to lead the organization efficiently. The way of leadership depends upon the situational factors in the organization. The leader must be a charismatic leader. He or she should focus on the employees and he or she must motivate its employees time to time. Further leader should provide the innovative and creative ideas based on the situation in the organization. Contingency theory of leadership describes the particular variables of the environment which determine the particular style of the leadership. The successes of leaders depend upon the various factors such as leadership styles, qualities of the followers and the phases of the situation (Northouse, 2013).
There is some strength in the contingency theory. According to the theory, there are two types of groups in the organization i.e. task motivated and relationship motivated. This theory is helpful for the organization to choose right leader for every type of work group.
Despite of strengths, there are some weaknesses in the contingency theory. Those weaknesses are as follows:
The contingency theory is also applied in various levels. The theory is also applicable in almost every organization as the theory does not focus on one trait. This theory focuses on the leadership traits based on different situations in the organization. This theory is also applicable in the different stages and process of the organizational operations.
Although the contingency theory is applicable in every organization and in every situation but there are some issues in which the theory might not be applicable. There can be different organizational culture, various structures in the organization, change in the system and process of the organization and different experience by the employees which can create the issues for contingency theory for the application.
Although, there are strengths in the trait theory of leadership but there are some weaknesses also. There are no limits of leadership traits in this theory. There are numbers of studies have been conducted over the past years but findings from these studies were uncertain at times. This is one of the criticisms for leadership theory. There is another criticism in the trait approach i.e. it is difficult to separate the set of traits and characteristics of leaders without analyzing the situational impact in the organization. Leaders in one situation may not be the leader in another situation. Not all the traits help the people to maintain their leadership over the time. In other words, situations in the organization impacts leadership. So, it is difficult to set the leadership traits for each person (Gill, 2011).
Further, the next criticism has derived from the above described criticism. There are many researchers who focused on the various traits and characteristics. For example, one author might identify the creativity and innovation as the important leadership traits and on the other hand, another might identify calmness and empathy for the effective leadership. There are various methods to describe important traits f leadership but those methods used to generate the lists of many traits.
Despite of having strengths and advantages, there are some weaknesses in the contingency theory. This theory has been criticized throughout the years. This theory has little or no flexibility i.e. it is a rigid theory. This theory assumed that there is a natural style of leadership and it is related to the personal characteristics of the leader. The theory assumed that the natural style leadership is the most effective leadership style in the organization but the theory did not focus that the leader cannot apply the natural leadership style in every situation. Leader would always need to identify the various types of situations and adjust his leadership style based on those situations. Further, the theory is failed in providing the reasons for effectiveness of the leadership in the various situations. The scale of the contingency theory is very debatable. It is very hardtop understand that how the evaluation of coworker can reflect upon the styles of leadership. The contingency theory does not provide the way of career growth of the leaders (Marquis & Huston, 2008).
There are many critical issues involved with the theories of the leadership. Some of the critical issues are described below:
Conclusion
This essay is focused on the critical analysis of two leadership theories i.e. trait theory of leadership and contingency theory of leadership. From the above discussion, it has observed that the trait theory is focused on the various traits of the leaders in the leadership process. On the other hand, contingency theory is focused on the leadership style based on the situation in the organization. The essay has shown the similarity and differences by analysis and comparison. It has concluded that the theories are the supplement to each other to become complete. No any theory is better than another theory as various traits of leadership can be used based on the various situations in the organization.
References
Antes, A. L., &Schuelke, M. J. (2011), Leveraging technology to develop creative leadership capacity: Advances inDeveloping Human Resources, 13, 318-365
Gill, R. (2011), Theory and Practice of Leadership, London: Sage
Goleman, D. (2004), Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business School Press
Gumusluoglu, L., &Ilsev, A. (2009), Transformational leadership, creativity, and organizational innovation: Journal of Business Research, 62, 461-473
Marquis, B., & Huston, J. (2008), Leadership roles and management functions innursing: theory and application, New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Marquis, B., & Huston, J. (2008), Leadership roles and management functions innursing: theory and application, New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Mullins, L.J. (2010), Management and OrganisationalBehaviour, (9th), Pearson Higher Education
Northouse, P.,G.,(2013), Leadership: Theory and Practices(7th), USA: Sage Publication
Pan, W., Sun, L., & Chow, I. H. S. (2012), Leader-member exchange and employee creativity: Test of a multilevel moderated mediation model: Human Performance, 25, 432-451
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011), Creative leadership: Skills that drive change, Thousand Oaks: SAGE
Roe,K., (2014), Leadership Practice and Perspectives, London: Oxford
Samad. S., (2012), The influence of innovation and transformational leadership on organizational performance: Procedia Social and behavioral science, 57, 486-493
Stein, M. K., & Nelson, B. S. (2003), Leadership content knowledge: Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 25, 423-448
Williams, F., &Foti, R. J. (2011), Formally developing creative leadership as a driver of organizational innovation: Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13, 279-296
Yukl, G., (2010), Leadership in Organizations, (7th), Pearson Higher Education: Global Edition
Zhang, X., &Bartol, K. M. (2010), Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement: Academy of Management Journal, 53, 107-128
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