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 other’s 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 leader’s action. The forces in the situation; the forces in the followers and the forces in leader. This recognizes that the leader’s 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

It’s 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 people’s 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 one’s 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.

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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 don’t 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 country’s 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)