The Need For Leadership In Organizations: An Analysis

Part 1

Leadership is vital element for every organization, government, group of people, etc. to attain the desired goals. It helps the members of the team, group or of any political party to execute its functionalities in one direction in order to reach to the desired destination as early as possible. Leadership skills cannot be learnt nor it can be studied, these skills are god gifted. Thus, an effective leader must have the ability to convince the other members of the group, building up confidence amongst them, as well as he should be capable enough to resolve their issues, queries, etc. in order to extract the most appropriate efforts from them for reaching to the desired targets of the organization.  

Leadership is required at all levels in the organization. Explain the need for leadership in the organization.

Leadership is a crucial aspect of the organization as it helps the organization to attain its desired goals and the objectives. Leaders provide the adequate direction to the team members of the organization for performing their actions in terms of attaining the adequate objectives for the organization. It is an important activity for an organization which is required to be performed at every level of the management. Top level management requires leadership in terms of development of the rules, regulations as well as policies (Kim & Mauborgne, 2017). The same aspect plays vital role in the functionality of the lower as well as middle level management. They implement leadership for implementation and execution of the plans and policies developed by the upper level management. Primary tool required for exercising leadership in an effective manner is the cooperation amongst the team mates and management. Another objective required is the guidance which provides an adequate direction for the organization in terms of accomplishment of the organizational goals and the objectives (Pruzan, et. al., 2017). 

Following are certain roles of the leaders at all level of the organization which makes the leadership required and important for the organization:

• Represents the organization: Leader is known as the representative of the organization or for a group of members. In every organization, certain number of departments exists and in every department, one leader exists for completion of the assigned tasks by the top level managers in an effective manner.  They have the capability to put the efforts of a group of employees in the same direction in order to attain the organizational goals and the objectives. Leader conducts various seminars, conferences, general meetings, etc. for motivating its employees, to represent the firm in front of the clients as well as to ensure the employees to perform in the same direction as required by the organization. They are also accountable and responsible for the outcomes generated by their teams (Mabey & Mayrhofer, 2015).
• Motivates the employees:This is the most crucial activity as this helps the organization to attain the set targets. Leaders adopt various techniques, tools and strategies through which they could motivate the employees. A leader through leadership traits helps in reconciling/ integrating the personal goals of the employees with the organizational goals. For performing this activity in an effective manner, they conduct various interactive sessions in terms of building a unique relation amongst the team members. This develops a team bonding as well as it leads to conduct the organizational functionalities in an effective manner. Ultimately it leads to the enhancement of the organizational performance and this also leads to attainment of the organizational goals and the objectives.
• Supports its teammates:Leader has the responsibility to convert the individual efforts into group effort so that the challenging tasks could be performed easily as well as in an effective manner. Every member of the team does not contain the same level of understanding, same level of work experience, etc. Thus, it is the duty of leader to build the confidence amongst the team members so that they could cope up with the standards developed by the upper level management. Co-operation, co-ordination and the team bonding are certain factors through which an organization acquires an effective and efficient position in the market (Ward, 2016).

Apart from the leaders’ roles within the workplace, there are certain qualities of a good leader through which an organization could attain its desired goals and the objectives. Below are certain qualities of an effective leader:

• Physical appearance: An effective leader must represent the organization into an effective manner. For a good leader, physique and health plays crucial role, thus a good leader is required to implement certain effective strategies in order to enhance the organizational performance.
• Vision:A leader should be clear with its vision and mission. This helps the organization and the team mates to execute their functions in the right direction showcased by the team leader. Team leader has the capacity to extract the best and potential efforts from the teammates for accomplishment of the particular task. Leader should carry an adequate vision through which the appropriate results could be ascertained through which organization would be able to develop a unique identity in the competitive business environment (Verbos, Kennedy & Claw, 2016).
• Communication skills: Leader should have the adequate communication skills through which leader should be able to communicate with its team members in an effective manner. Communication skills also plays vital role in uplifting the team bonding amongst the team members. Leader is responsible for transferring the crucial information amongst the team members and for this, leader adopt certain effective strategies such as interactive sessions, one-to-one sessions, etc.

Leadership is an important aspect for an organization as it helps in enhancement of the efficiency of the organization as well as it also helps the organization to attain goals and the objectives. Following are certain importance of leadership in an organization through which an organization could easily attain its desired targets:

• Initiates action: It is the vital factor under which the leader needs to communicate with its teammates with regards to the policies and the regulations of the organization. This is vital element of leadership as this develops a unique bonding amongst the teammates (Aziz, et. al., 2013).
• Motivation:Leader motivates the employees in order to build confidence amongst the team members. In terms of enhancing the efficiency of the employees, they adopt numerous strategies such as rewarding the employees for their good performances, providing them adequate benefits and fulfilment of the employees’ needs, etc. All these helps the employees to get motivated and to perform on the basis of standards of the organization.
• Guidance:Leader is not only responsible for describing and allocation of the tasks amongst the team members. He is also responsible for providing adequate guidance to the teammates in terms of accomplishment of the tasks. Apart from this, he is responsible for developing friendly and interactive environment so that all the teammates could easily communicate with each other (Nahavandi, 2016).   
• Confidence: Leaders direct the adequate way to the team members for execution of the tasks with relevance to the attainment of the organizational goals and the objectives. Along with distribution of the tasks amongst the team members, leaders are also responsible for building an immense level of confidence amongst the team members so that the execution of the tasks could be done in an effective manner. Another way through which leaders could build confidence amongst the teammates is providing them appropriate training and counselling sessions. This helps the teammates to understand the organizational requirements as well as it also helps them to understand the policies, rules and the regulations which needs to be considered while performing the activities for organization (Harper, 2017).
• Building morale: Morale is the term which denotes the winning of the employees’ trust so as to gain the co-ordination from the employees in terms of accomplishment of the tasks. This helps the organization to acquire the desired targets as well as through developing an ethical working environment which makes the employees feel safe and secure (Bryman, 2013).
• Ethical working environment: The major activity of management is to get thee work done from the employees in an appropriate manner. The basic element required for the same is ethical working environment. With the help of adequate working environment, organization could easily enhance the opportunities of growth and development in the competitive business environment. In this term, leaders are responsible for making appropriate relations amongst the team members. Along with these elements, leaders should diagnose the needs and the issues of the employees and they should also provide adequate resolutions. With this, organization would easily be able to develop an ethical working environment through which organization could easily attain its desired goals (Simon & LaCava, 2014).
• Coordination: This is the crucial element which could be attained with integrating the personal interest into the organizational goals and the objectives. Another definition of coordination is development of the mutual understanding amongst the team members in relation for execution of the tasks. With the help of coordination, organization could easily accomplish any task with team work in an effective manner. But till the time, organization will not be able to develop the understanding amongst the team mates, getting their consent on one point will be a difficult task. Thus, development of the coordination is another crucial objective of the leadership (Heath, et. al., 2013).

Above are certain importance or significance of the leadership through which the needs of the organization could also be fulfilled in an effective manner, Leader is responsible for attainment of the goals and the objectives by the management and through the way directed by them. Thus, it is the duty of the leader to extract the best from its teammates in relevance with the organizational rules, regulations as well as on the basis of the standards. Above all the points defines the need of the leadership as well as with the help of leadership, employees’ efforts could be combined in one direction in the manner to attain the outcomes as expected by the management.

Leadership is required at all levels in the organization. Explain the need for leadership in the organization.

Why is leadership getting tougher? Identify and explain the internal (micro) and external (macro) factors that cause challenges to leadership practices at workplace.

Leadership is the process of ruling the group of people in one direction with the motive of attainment of certain targets. The major reason through which the leadership is getting tougher is the unique thoughts of the teammates. It generates various issues within the workplace such as generation of disputes, etc. Apart from this, it also leads to generation of various types of issues within the workplace (Northouse, 2015). In a workplace, there are numbers of department exists and in those departments, number of employees exists. With the different understandings of the people in the workplace, choosing one option with mutual consent is a bit difficult issue. Apart from this, leadership defines the procedure of leading the employees in an effective manner with the motive to attain the goals of the organization. In terms of enhancement of the organizational performance, main motive of the management is to build the team bonding and it is also essential in development of the adequate relationships amongst them. This helps the team members for increasing their performance as well as it also ensures the organization to set up an effective place in the workplace. Leadership is a crucial objective for the organization in terms of accomplishment of the tasks while it also consists of various issues through which leadership also getting tougher (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

Leadership is a challenge itself and there are majorly two types of factors that cause challenges to leadership and its practices at workplace. Internal and external are some of those factors that generate various issues to the leadership. Some of the big challenges in relevance with the leadership and its functionalities are developing and maintaining coordination amongst the team members, controlling the activities of the team members and accomplishment of the tasks in relevance with the standards and the policies of the organization. Following are internal and external factors:

• Team Management: Team management is the activity which plays crucial role in terms of accomplishment of the organizational functionalities in an effective manner. Improper team management leads to disputes and misunderstanding amongst the team members. Apart from this, it will also leads to attainment of the unexpected outcomes for the organization. Team management is necessary and this could only be practiced by a team leader it helps the organization to attain the desired goals and the objectives in an effective manner. Team management also includes team work, communication strategies, reward programs, etc. Execution of these strategies helps the leader to direct all the employees in one direction as well as it also helps the leader to develop a team bonding through which the attainment of the organizational goals and the objectives becomes easy (Einarsen, Aasland & Skogstad, 2016).But in modern business environment, managing the team in an effective manner is quite difficult task because every member of a team has unique ideology, unique methods to execute the tasks, etc. In this situation, team leader find some difficulties in developing coordination amongst the team members (Anderson & Sun, 2017).
• Diversity: Team leader’s needs to adopt certain strategies through which the changes organization could be able to match up with the trends and the current business environment. Business environment is dynamic in nature and with changing trends of business environment, organization needs to adopt or invent advanced strategies through which organization could be able to match up with the conditions as well as with the changing demands of the consumers. In the same manner, leader needs to be updated with the trending and advanced strategies to develop coordination and cooperation amongst the team members in order to maintain the transparency in the team. If leader will not be able to amend its techniques, then it may lead to various disputes amongst the team members which will create negative impact over the organization (Kotter, 2013).
• Confidence: Team leader should be capable enough to fill the confidence amongst the team members. This helps the organization to attain its goals and the objectives. Leader’s major tasks are to develop interactive environment, coordination amongst the team members as well as building up the confidence amongst them in order to undertake the assigned tasks in an effective manner. Thus, leader needs to adopt certain strategies through which they could be able to build the confidence amongst the team members so as to attain the organizational as well as their personalised goals (Mumford & Fried, 2014).
• Motivation: This is another big challenge for the organization as well as for the team leaders. Motivation is necessary for enhancing the efficiency of the workers and the employees. Team leader is responsible for building up confidence, motivating them through fulfilment of their basis needs and resolving their issues in terms of providing them a safe and secure workplace.
• Resistance to Change: This describes the adaptation of the unique and advanced strategies in relevance attaining the growth as well as expansion objectives. Apart from this, it also ensures that resistance to change is also necessary to attain the competitive advantage. If team leaders would not be able to cope up with this objective, team members and the other employees of the organization will not be able to match up with the enhanced level of techniques which will create negative impact over the organization.
• Convincing power: Leader must be convincing in nature as leader is responsible for extracting the best from every team member in terms of accomplishment of the organizational tasks in appropriate manner. Leader without these qualities will not be able generate adequate results for the organization as well as without convincing power, team management and the team work cannot be able to execute in an effective manner. Thus, it will leads to negative outcomes for the organization as well as attainment of the desired goals and the objectives cannot be done in the appropriate manner (Johnson, 2017).

• Technology: This is one of crucial factors for the organization in terms of enhancing the efficiency of the organization and to attain the competitive advantage in the target market. With the effect of globalisation and rapid innovations, technology and its related aspects are improving rapidly. Organization needs to be updated with regards to these improvements in order to match the level of the current business environment. Team leader is also responsible for adopting the latest technological changes in terms of increasing the efficiency of its team members.
• Political factors: Impact of political factors on the organizations is huge and this is the major they need to modify their policies and the regulations on the basis of the political rules and regulations. Team leader should also modify its techniques in relevance with the political policies in relation to meet the organizational goals as well as to attain the organizational objectives through ethical manner (Weisband, 2013).
• Social factors: Social factors such as discrimination amongst the team members on the basis of their sex, colour, etc., improper treatment with the employees and evaluating employees’ performances with each other are certain parameters which causes challenges to the leadership and to the leaders itself. It decreases the team bonding and its direct impact will be imposed over the team work (MacKian & Simons, 2013).
• Employee roles: Team leader should assign the task to the employees or team members on the basis of their qualifications, specialities, and on the basis of their knowledge and skills. Thus, it is very necessary for the organization to identify the adequate field for every employee and on that basis tasks should be allocated. This will help the organization to raise their standards as well as it will lead the organization towards the higher level of efficiency (Harmsen, 2014).

Conclusion 

From the aforesaid discussion, it can be concluded that leadership and leader both are important for an organization. Along with the organization, leaders are also necessary to run a political party, social service campaigns, etc. There are numerous types of leadership skills and along with them; leader needs to face huge challenges and barriers to acquire the desired targets. An effective leader will easily be able to cope with the standards of the organization as well as with the other internal and external factors.

References

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