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Four Leadership Theories

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The many leadership theories which exist today fall within eight categories. These are the great man theories, trait, contingency, situational, behavioral, participative, management and relationship theories respectively. In great man theories, leadership is presumed to be inherent, that is, leaders are born not made. Similarly, trait theories hold this ideology but based on the leadership qualities. Relative to contingency theories, the environmental factors determine the leadership style whereas on situational theories the situation dictates. Unlike great man 's theories, behavioral theories hold that leaders are not born but made: leadership develop from learning either through teaching or observation. Further to participative and management …show more content…

The situational leadership theory stipulates that different situations of varying degrees influence leadership effectiveness. Most notably, the situations in this model vary between the task behavior and related behavior of the leaders to the followers. The task behavior refers to the degree upon which the leader clearly explains the duties and responsibilities of the followers. Task behavior is characterized with one way communication where the leader closely directs and supervises employees in their tasks. Relative to the relationship behavior, the focus is on the degree of support that the leader provides to the employers. Unlike in the task behavior, the relationship behavior uses a two way channel of communication. Here, the leader plays both the role of a facilitator and the listener. Therefore, an effective leader is the one able to determine the extent of task behavior and relationship behavior to accommodate based on employees readiness. In this context, readiness refers to the employees ' ability and willingness in directing their behavior towards the task at hand. Ability defines the knowledge, skills and experience of followers whereas willingness the confidence, motivation and commitment possessed by the followers. Therefore, situational model of leadership revolves about the task and relationship behaviors provided by the leader and the follower readiness (Thompson, and …show more content…

Situational model of leadership is mostly employed by military forces worldwide particularly the United States Air Force for the purposes of training and developing its leading officers. However, the military forces are keen to know that the skills acquired and used in one situation mostly does not apply to other situations. Therefore, the context of situational leadership model is a significant tool for providing training to leaders. Additionally, this model of leadership is presently in educational leadership. This was based on a study conducted by a district school in Ohio where the situational model of leadership was found to be the most effective form of leadership for superintendents. Taking into consideration the readiness level, superintendents led both the school administrators and principals in achieving the common goal (Thompson, and

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As the Situational Leadership Model suggests, different leadership strategies are appropriate for different

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Leadership Theories August 2, 2017 BUS4402 Organizational Behavior Written Assignment Unit 7 In the workplace there are many different theories when it comes to leadership and management. Many work well in certain situations and not as well in other situations depending on the environment. This paper will examine three different theories on leadership and why each could be potentially useful or have a negative impact. The first theory examined will be Theory Y.

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These styles are used as a tool that helps to improve communication, willingness, self-confidence, along with the employee’s capability to perform. Nonetheless, the situational leadership model helps management understand the relationship involved

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Those individuals who were believed to have these inherent skills were people of very influential status, wartime heroes and those of great wealth. The people who emerge or are most picked to lead have distinctive drives and character profiles (Nicholson, 2013, p.16). Leadership Thought Development from 1900 – 1970 The thought of leadership evolved from the Great Man Theory to Trait Theory and Behavior Theory. The trait theory focuses on identifying distinctive personality traits and characteristics that are associated to successful leadership.

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3.0 Dispersed Leadership Theory in Teams and organizational structures The proponents of the Concept of shared leadership like Day, Gronn, & Salas (2006), argue that leadership should not be conceptualized as a centralized downward vertical influence on subordinates and they should not be an appointed leader but leadership tasks and functions should be divided among sets of individuals who are acting as leaders. Secondly, with the prevalence and significance of team work in today’s work environment, Kozlowski & Ilgen (2006) argue that team members and team processes will to a greater extent affect the attitudes, motivation and behaviours of individuals. Kozlowski, Gully, Salas, & Cannon Bowers, (1996) and Manz & Sims (1993) developed concepts

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The Great Man Theory One of the early century ideas of leadership, which is still favoured in certain groups/circles of today, is that leadership is a natural characteristic that one are born with. This is the Great Man Theory which claim that general and great leaders in particular are born and not made. (Helen L. Eckmann, N.d).According to the theory, leadership consist of certain qualities like charm, authoritative, reliable instinct, judgment, courageous, intelligence and action orientation which cannot be learnt or taught.

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Among other things, it predicts that directive leadership is effective with ambiguous tasks, that supportive leadership is effective with repetitive tasks, that participative leadership is effective when tasks are unclear and subordinates are autonomous, and that achievement-oriented leadership is effective for challenging tasks. By taking the Path-Goal Leadership Questionnaire, I know that which way suit me to lead my followers. In my case, I score 27 in participative, which is the highest of four options. As a participative leader, I do reference the suggestions from the followers for making decisions sometimes but not always. Sometimes the leaders’ behaviors depend on the characteristic of the subordinates and tasks.

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Most of the Leadership Literature which includes contextual factors will mainly focus on one specific situation or scenario. According to Fiedler(1967) the leadership does not occur in vacuum, this paved the way for further research resulting in mutual influence of leaders and context on each other(Endler & Magnusson, 1976). If single context is focused for judging performance it may result in performance

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With this particular theory, it only fist where groups are closely supervised and not team-based. The theory emphasizes the leader’s disposition as the main trait that defines the ability to lead. For Fielder, in order for the task to be greatly accomplished the leader should be very dedicated to the team and also a person who is not afraid to highlight the good and the bad in every situation and task. The concept of Situational leader focuses on the leadership style as oppose to the leader and also the maturity of

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It was Fiedler (1967) who originally observed that leadership does not take place in a vacuum, which led to later research emphasizing that the leader and context reciprocally influence each other (Endler & Magnusson, 1976). When only a single context is the focus of performance the risk of becoming myopic increases. Contemporary leadership models necessarily should include the dynamic nature of contexts. Which includes at least two facets: 1) larger contexts have dynamic sub-contexts, and 2) additional contexts exist. In other words, within a given context there is an internal shifting in the variables and factors that make the context what it is; and there are contexts (sometimes unrelated) that influence other contexts.

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.0 Introduction 1.1 What is Leadership? According to McShane and Von Glinow (2004), a leader must be able to "influence, motivate and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization. " There are core characteristics of leadership which can be seen as five aspects of an individual, (see appendix), the most important characteristic is that the group is seeking to achieve a goal or target and the leader is the one to help the group achieve this goal. (Howell and Costley 2006, p. 5)   1.2

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Reflective study of leadership Leadership can be defined as the ability and understanding of an individual to motivate, influence and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of an organization or group of which they are members. It involves the creation of balance between management, coordination and supervision, even taking people’s responsibility on your shoulder is also recommended sometimes. It also involves directing, organizing and motivating them. Many speculations and theories have been given about leadership by many scholars. But in real world understanding and usage of the same is different in different pretexts.

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This paper will examine the three leadership theories, identify how they apply to my practice, and explore how these theories interact with each other. The Trait Leadership Theory is based on the belief that a person is born with special traits contributing to natural leadership abilities. Studies of famous historical leaders have been used to identify various traits for this theory. Although the list of traits differs from study to study, there are five major traits that are consistent throughout most studies.

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In this regard, leaders and managers can appear at any level of an organisation and are not exclusive of each other (Germano, 2010). Leadership theories identify leaders based upon traits as well as how their influence and power is used to achieve organizational goals and objectives (Germano, 2010). As such, trait based characteristics include leaders such as autocratic, democratic, bureaucratic and charismatic. On the other hand, leadership that is viewed from the perspective of the exchange of power and its utilisation to secure outcomes, are situational, transactional and transformational leaders (Germano, 2010). It is of paramount importance to consider the different types of theories of management and leadership and their potential impact on organizational strategy being that management and leadership plays a vital role in the success of businesses.

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The situational leadership theory would explain why the members of our team more adept in presenting skills took the leadership role, this being in accordance with situational demands and

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