Theories Of Leadership And Trait Theory

Theories Of Leadership And Trait Theory INTRODUCTION: The question Are Leaders Born or Made? has been the most discussed topic in leadership studies. There has been research related to the proposing inherited traits of leadership such as Kilpatrick and Locke (1991). However, later in the century, theories surfaced regarding behavioral approaches to leadership. Blake and Mouton (1964) and Northouse (1997) focused on leadership behavior which contradicted the theory establishing that leadership is just for the chosen few, not accessible to all people. Firstly, we will discuss what leadership means, then explore research and theories and its relationship with the concept of employee motivation. LEADERSHIP DEFINITION A LEADERSHIP is a social process in which one individual has the power to affects the group of others without the use of threat or violence THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP There are 4 basic theories of leadership. Given and described below: TRAIT THEORY Peoples are born with inherited personal qualities know as traits. Some traits are particularly suited to leadership. People with having good leaders qualities have sufficient combination of traits. This theory was basically a Psychology one. In which individuals are given importance on their natural or personal characteristics or traits. Importance was given to enhance and discovering those traits in individuals, often by studying successful leaders. But with the underlying assumption was if those qualities are to be found in other peoples as well then they, too, could have the talent to become great leaders. Some of the traits and skill to become great leader is given below in the chart. Stogdill (1974) identified the following traits and skills as critical to leaders McCall and Lombardo (1983) researched both success and failure identified four primary traits by which leaders could succeed or derail: Emotional stability and composure: Calm, confident and predictable, particularly when under stress. Admitting error: Owning up to mistakes, rather than putting energy into covering up. Good interpersonal skills: Able to communicate and persuade others without resort to negative or coercive tactics. Intellectual breadth: Able to understand a wide range of areas, rather than having a narrow (and narrow-minded) area of expertise. Many years back these inherited traits were being sidelined as learned and situational factors are being given due importance and are considered as far more realistic as reason for people in acquiring leader positions. But now they are being given importance as no individual can become leader if he has not acquired the leadership qualities personally or have learned from experience. SITUATIONAL THEORY The brilliant reaction of the leader shows in the situational factor. When the decision is needed the leader here does not just go into the single preferred style such as transactional or transformational because to them things are not as simple as they seem. The factor that can affect this kind of theory is the motivation and capability of the followers towards the leader. As the relationship between a leader and the followers is another thing in this regard depending on each others behavior among the leader and the followers. Perception of the leader is also very important in this regard towards his followers because if he has good perception about his followers than he ill deal calmly otherwise he will threaten his followers to follow him. Yukl (1989) seeks to combine other approaches and identifies six variables: Subordinate effort: the motivation and actual effort expended. Subordinate ability and role clarity: followers knowing what to do and how to do it. Organization of the work: the structure of the work and utilization of resources. Cooperation and cohesiveness: of the group in working together. Resources and support: the availability of tools, materials, people, etc. External coordination: the need to collaborate with other groups. Leaders here work on such factors as external relationships, acquisition of resources, managing demands on the group and managing the structures and culture of the group. Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) identified three situations affecting leaders action. The forces in the situation; the forces in the followers and the forces in leader. This recognizes that the leaders style is really variable and even such distant that a family dispute can also affects his perception and working with his followers and can create aggression as well among them. Maier (1963) noted that leaders not only consider the likelihood of a follower accepting a suggestion, but also the overall importance of getting things done. Thus in critical situations, a leader is more likely to be directive in style simply because of the implications of failure. ECLECTIC THEORY This theory goes with the combination of the above two theories namely THE TRAIT THEORY and THE SITUATIONAL THEORY. This deals in having the factor of both the above discussed theories of leadership. To have a successful and friendly environment between the leader and the followers. STYLE THEORY This theory deals with the behavior of leader himself with his employees or the followers. If the behavior will be good the affect of the good relation of both will portrays on the situation or problem which is considered to be solved. EXECUTIVE THEORY In this theory the manager or the leader has both a high task orientation and a high relationship orientation. COMPROMISING THEORY In this theory the leader is Poor at making and sticking to decisions BENEVOLENT AUTOCRAT THEORY In this theory leader has some trust and regard for his team so is more effective in doing any work. AUTOCRAT THEORY In this theory the leader has no confidence in others and is unpleasant, overbearing and less effective. DEVELOPER THEORY In this theory the leader builds trust on the team implicitly and wants to develop them as people. MISSIONARY INTERESTED THEORY In this theory the leader mainly focussed on harmony and cooperation so not as effective DESERTER THEORY In this theory the leader is someone who is uninvolved and withdrawn in or from the working or dealing. BEAURAUCRAT THEORY Its basically about the Conscientious of the leader himself that how much loyal is he to himself and others. CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERSHIP ACCEPTANCE OF RESPONSIBILITY: Leader should have the feeling to accept his responsibility. SELF CONFIDENCE: Leader should have the self confidence container to avoid confusions and hesitations during his work. GENERAL CONFIDENCE: Must have the ability to have confidence on plotting or presenting general views on any thing and issues regarding matter. INTEGRITY: He must be the strong holder of integrity or honesty to present himself well. INTELLIGENCE: Leader must have the intelligence on and in his work of any type. This would avoid arguments and confusions with his work and employees. SKILLS OF THE LEADERSHIP There are several characteristics of leadership which are required to become a good leader. ORGANIZATIONAL ABILITY: Person must have the ability to organize things and people according to their capability in doing any work. ACCEPTANCE BY PEOPLE AT ALL LEVELS: Leader must have the ability to influence all peoples idea towards his own and the ability to accept him as their leader. ENERGY: Must have the energy or power to deal with any situation with his followers or employees. ENCOURAGING INITIATIVE IN OTHERS: Leader must have the ability to take proper and appropriate actions in different situations without any confusion or hesitation. DELEGATION: Must have the input to make delegations and impress others as well. TACT: Should have ability to care and sill in ones behavior to people, to avoid hurting or offending them. SELF-DISCIPLINE: Must be disciplined as well for setting an example for his people and to look after them. PROBLEM SOLVING: Leader should be able to solve any kind of problem arise during working to set up a leader impression and to be out of mistakes. OLD EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION In this qualitative study, the 1950s-1970s work of Frederick Herzberg, the father of work motivational research, was compared, and contrasted with current data study about management effectiveness to explore how employee motivation may have changed. Staff members and managers (N=38), primarily form healthcare settings, but also from academic, public, and private sector businesses were interviewed. Interpersonal relations now rank first as a motivating factor in this study. Recognition, the work itself, and responsibility are still ranked as critical motivating factors. These are important to understand as work is redesigned. Supporting positive interpersonal relations among subordinates, supervisors, and peers can be viewed as an effective management strategy to facilitate employee motivation. For employees, developing positive interpersonal relations with co-workers can enhance individual motivation and may improve job satisfaction. CRITICISIM ON THE NOTION OF LEADERSHIP AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CONCEPT OF OLD EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION The concept of old employee motivation and its relation with the notion of leadership shall be criticized on the base that in early time people were given important on their realistic things and truths they dont have to learned any thing to acquire leadership, but now a days people have to be more sophisticated thinker and broadminded to take good decision and sometimes have to be more biased to give their company profit and make their company reach to highest peak. People now criticize the thing that old employee motivation was better as compared to now because now managers or we can say leaders are only thinking of themselves while the whole work is done by the employers as well. But employers are not given due importance in this regard now a day. So the mind set of leadership is creating bad affect in companies now because everyone is equally important in the team work including the manager himself. Peoples or the employees need satisfaction from their managers to get encouraged in their work and so can do much more better work in organization. Today as the advancement is increasing the organizations are creating partitions or fields for different work which cause lack of communication between the employees and the manager. Instead of this the new employees that come in organizations by recruitment feel really difficult to understand the whole process of the vast organizational functions. This will make them unable to flow proper with the organization. They want to get introduced first to the system before coming its part and this will be very difficult for them if company or organization have many departments in itself. This will create a big gap between the new employees and the old existing staff as well. Which later shows disputes between the staff members and the new employees as well. In fact the old concept was to make an organization really family like structure that can be understand by any one whether new or old all should get into the flow of system its basic aim was also to take the whole team together with courage, equality and power so that the organization can get good output results and which boost up the profit of the company or organization. Communication between the manager and the employees creates a friendly environment in which everyone should love to exchange views and share companies problem to get the best possible solution for their company. This was also due to the reason that the employees and manager get in touch more and discuss problems with full swing which is not the part of today occurring management systems. Thus this was a basic weak point of present organizations which is affecting the countrys economy as well CONCLUSION Leadership is elusive but momentous, passionate but single minded a matter of patience but sudden opportunity, a great struggle for victory and finally creating a leader to replace you. As shown in the figure 0.15. http://www.uptecnet.com/rel2/tv/download/TV010407/images/fig15.gif Nowadays, most scholars in the field have come to conclude that leaders are both born and made. Many leaders are born with qualities and attributes that assist them in leadership effectiveness. While at the same time development in their childhood and adolescence, education and later work experiences encourage and cultivate leadership abilities. (Bass, 1990; and Conger, 1992)

The Trouble with Working It Essay -- Unemployment Jobs Careers Essays

The Trouble with Working It Alison Hooker is a bright young woman. She is a middler communications major at Northeastern University and performing well in her classes. She has experience as a waitress and recently finished her first co-op at a broadcasting company in her native Chicago. She is friendly and outgoing, and carries herself with a confident, yet approachable demeanor. In all regards, she appears to be a capable and collected individual. Despite all these positive attributes, however, Hooker has been unable to find a job in Boston. â€Å"I’ve applied so many places,† said Hooker, who has been persistently searching for work since returning to Boston in January. â€Å"It takes a lot of time to go out and apply to a lot of different places, and it’s even harder when you have classes all during the day. I can’t even remember every place I applied to, probably because a lot of them never even called back.† Hooker isn’t alone in her sentiments of frustration. Within the past few years, finding a job has become increasingly difficult for people across the nation. Unemployment rates have, with few exceptions, been steadily climbing, and that trend is reflected in many discouraged would-be workers. In Boston alone, average unemployment rates more than doubled in the past four years, from 2.9% in 2000 to a full 6% in 2003, according to statistics from the Massachusetts Division of Employment and Training (MDET). Finding and maintaining employment has been difficult for white-collar professionals, let alone unskilled college students that are only available for part-time hours. On the rare occasions that unemployment rates have declined in recent months, many analysts dismiss the seemingly positive statistic as a sign of the ... ...re hoping that things will soon be looking up for the average campus dweller. The statistics vary and the interpretations contradict; for Alison Hooker, however, all that matters is whether all this economic debate will lead to her finding a paycheck. â€Å"It costs a lot of money to go to this school, and it would be really nice to be making some back,† she said. â€Å"I am not all that concerned about getting a real job after school. I think that the job contacts I’m making through co-op will help a lot with that,† said Hooker, who has plans to return to her previous co-op at a Chicago broadcasting corporation in June of 2004. â€Å"I’m not even looking for anything all that great right now, just something part-time. And I just feel like, I made it into college and am getting through all this higher learning- should it really be more difficult to get hired at Starbucks?†

Stealing within an organization Essay

Cons of Stealing Introduction Business Ethics            One of the issues that have raised concerns in business nowadays is stealing within an organization. Stealing is taking an organization’s asset without the consent of the owners, and using it for your own personal benefit. There are many cases of missing items and money within most organization especially where there are many people working. Stealing is the most common immorality in most organization since it runs across all levels of management. Both the senior and junior employees in organizations have been accused of stealing, but it is always very difficult to determine who the actual person responsible in the theft is. Stealing is one of the most difficult problems which are very difficult to control or prevent. Most organizations have incurred many losses due to this problem. There are many mechanisms that have been put in place to help prevent the vice, but it is all in vain. The methods of stealing are evolving day after day and, therefore, so diffic ult to prevent.            Stealing reduces the productivity of an organization. Most of the items stolen from an organization are valuable things, which are used on a daily basis in organization’s activities. There are very many things which are stolen from most organizations, and this will greatly affect the organizations’ operations. There is a lot of financing that is used in replacing the stolen items, and this increases the organization’s expenditure, thus reducing the profit(Singer, 1994, p.11).Stealing leads to poor relationships amongst the employees. When there are many employees in an organization, it is very difficult to know the person responsible for stealing anything in the organization. The employees will always speculate about the potential person who is responsible for the act. This has brought a lot of hatred amongst the employees since it ruins the reputation of the accused person. It is very difficult for the organization to know the exact person who is responsible in stealing. The organization should, therefore, come up with clear procedure of conducting their investigation so as not to ruin the relationships of the employees (Bonhoeffer, 1955, p.21).            Stealing affects the relationship between the organization and the employees. In most organization, stealing is considered a security problem instead of a moral problem. The organizations have invested a lot to protect the property of the organization from theft by the employees. Most of the items of an institution are marked, and security personnel employed to ensure that the employees do not steal any of the company’s. When the organization does not trust its employees, it portrays a bad picture against the employees, and this will influence the employees to act in bad faith towards the organization. The organization must create a good relation amongst all the employees so as to minimize stealing. The business should give the employees to use most of the company’s items without limit. When employees are limited to access certain things in an organization, there is some negative feeling which influences them to steal. The organization should also sen sitize all the employees of the negative impact of stealing in the organization. Stealing is a moral problem and employees should get guidance and counseling session which help them not engage in such activities.            Stealing lowers the credibility of an organization. In some organizations, there have been many cases of stealing by the employees, and this greatly ruined the reputation of the organization. In most cases where an organization has experienced a series of theft which are inside-job organized, investors and other stakeholders reduce their association with that organization. There have been some situations where stakeholders have withdrawn their funding fro an organization because they feel that their money may be stolen.            Stealing increases an organization’s expenditure due to high security costs. An organization spends a lot of money to prevent stealing of its properties. There are many security personnel who are employed. There is also expenditure for security items such as cameras. These expenditures are so high and affect the net profit of an organization (Singer, 1994, p.14).It leads to closure of some organization. There are some organizations which have been closed due to continuous stealing of key assets. Most organizations, which handle bulky cash, are the most affected. When employees steal a lot of money from an organization, the organization will no manage to fund all its debt and will be declared bankrupt (Bonhoeffer, 1955, p.25).In conclusion, stealing has had very negative impact on the organization. The employees should take care of the properties of the organization and should not steal because it is their source of income. The organization on the other shoul d compensate the employees well, and introduce guidance and counseling seminars so that the employees do not steal anything from the organization. When stealing is eradicated in an organization, there will be good performance and the welfare of all the stakeholders will improve. References Bonhoeffer, D. (1955). Ethics. New York: Macmillan. Singer, P. (1994). Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Source document

Reasons Why Teenagers Run Away From Home

Reasons Why Teenagers Run Away From Home Despite being called the best time of people’s lives, teenage years bring a lot of problems with them. It is one of the milestones in personal development, which influence world perception and define future in a great extent. Teens try to find their place in life and this often seems too overwhelming for them. Unfortunately, some of them choose the wrong way and start taking drugs, indulging in stimulants,smoking and going in for other kinds of unsocial behavior. And this is one of the reasons why teenagers choose to run away from home. They think that parents don’t understand their necessities and desires and consider that without that control their life would become much better. In fact, lack of understanding and the feeling of being paid too little attention are the most general reasons for runaways. Teens think that if they escape, it will solve all their problems and they will become happy. But in truth, everything is the other way round. They run away and are left alone without any support. They learn that in the streets it is not better than at home. What can be done to improve the situation? Everything depends on parents. They have to learn to hear their children, understand them and talk with them about their problems. They must not