Leadership Style and Team Performance on Different Tasks
University of Southern California
Shu Wang As today’s management strategy of organizations is increasingly focused on collaboration and work efficiency, effective leadership is placed in an exceptionally important position more than ever. According to statistics, managers spend about 40% of their time working in groups or teams (Offerman and Spiros, 2001). Empirical researches have shown that effective communication and the ability to understand others can improve team balance in addition to boosted performance (O’Leary et al., 2010). Colleges and institutions have established classes and degrees specifically for leadership and management to respond to the growing need of leadership candidates in organizations. Leadership styles determine the cohesiveness and team efficacy. It is safe to say that effective leadership is crucial to bring out the best outcome of interest as well as promote team dynamics.
Porter-O’Grady (2010) defines leadership as “a multifaceted process of identifying a goal, motivating other people to act, and providing support and motivation to achieve mutually negotiated goals’. Early theorists considered leadership characteristics innate (Nahavandi, 2006), and that these traits were differed from that of the followers’ (Winkler, 2010). Purpose, courage, confidence and ability were among the list of characteristics most leaders possess (Grimm, 2010). Other studies suggested that, despite
There are many qualities that come to mind when a person thinks of a good leader. It may not be an actual person that is pictured when term “leader” comes in casual conversation, but instead just a series of characteristics or experiences that might make a person fit to be in charge. Or rather instead there are some that see themselves when they think of authority and power, still even those that imagine what they could become if given the proper training. The emphasis society places on leadership is undoubtedly instilled within the minds of every child from a young age that are urged that having a sense of leadership is the only way to be successful. Despite this, only few are really fit for a position where
Leadership is the most essential aspect of a successful operation; without a leader there is no concise direction or defined power in charge. A leader’s intangibles and instincts must be sharp, knowing that everything hinges on their ability to place their people in the best possible situations to thrive. For as long as humanity has existed, man has always had a leader; both good and bad leaders, qualified or unqualified. People are divided on the concept of what a leader is. Are leaders naturally born? What makes up a leader? How do we determine a leader?
Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.
"Leaders are people who are able to express themselves fully they know who they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to fully deploy their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. They also know what they want, why they want it, and how to communicate what they want to others in order to gain their cooperation and support. Finally they know how to achieve their goals" (Ingram, 2004).
When we hear the word leadership or leader, the first thing some people imagine is a great military commander or king standing in front of his people and issuing orders. If we think about it more closely, we will realize that leadership is not only a creation of ancient history but we deal with it on a regular basis. To find a leader we don’t need to look far, presidents, politicians, business managers, sport stars and even every day people possess leadership qualities. Although the meaning of leadership may seem at first easy to define, but
Every person has a different definition of what makes a leader. Some feel a leader is inspirational, while others regard leadership as someone who can give criticism and make the tough decisions. Each definition is unique, and each is vague. This is why the definitions of leadership people use aren’t always accurate. Bolman and Deal, however, do an excellent job of presenting four frames of leadership people use to successfully—or unsuccessfully—support and lead a group of people. The four frames presented by the authors are: human resource, symbolic, structural, and political. The human resource frame is used by leaders to empathize with their followers, the symbolic frame is used to inspire and unite followers around a vision, the structural frame is used to emphasize the importance of a process, and the political frame establishes competition and focuses on creating allies.
Leadership is a concept that many probably think is a clear-cut subject that is well understood and extremely recognizable. Many would picture an all-powerful individual in a leadership postion, such as a chief execuative officer (CEO) of a company or a leader of a country. These individuals, most people would identify as obvious examples of people who have qualties, skills, or traits that have set themsleves apart from “the common man” and propelled them into the positions they now hold. It would surpirse many to find out that leadership is not as obvious concept as commonly precieved. In fact, as these indiviuals begin to study the numerous theories and studies on leadership, a picture obscure and non-sensical would emerge leaving the individual feeling like they are no closer to understanding what a “leader” is then when they had started. This relatively unknown truth about the absract concept of leadership is best demonstrated by an analyses of two individuals with two unique views of leadership.
The role of leadership is an important position within an organization or group, since this position may influence an environment, both, the individual, and the climate. In the event of concentrating on how influential leadership may be, some leaders have transformed the views or perspectives of individuals within a society. Therefore, it’s possible for leadership traits to motivate, persuade, or stimulate visions, rather they are appropriate or unethical.
According to organisational behaviour by McShane, leadership is defined as influencing, motivating and enabling others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organisation of which they are members (page 382, McShane).Becoming an effective leader depends on the leader’s leadership style. Successful leaders have vision and charisma, also the leader should have an ongoing personality, talkative, careful and self-disciplined. The leader must also have self-concept
What is leadership? How does society define as good and bad leaders? What are the traits most embodied by the successful leaders? These questions, along with many other, have been the topic of debate for centuries. Defining leadership in hard terms can be a challenging thing. In one hand, soldiers in the Army, for instance, can recite the definition of a leadership that came out of a publication. On the contrary, most soldiers will struggle to define what leadership means to them, in their words. However, troops in any organization can quickly identify who is a bad or a good leader. They know what right looks and feels like, though, putting it into terms can prove to be more challenging, and goes to demonstrate why it is
Effective leadership, commonly regarded as both a learned skill and innate ability, is an essential characteristic of successful organizations (Northouse, 2016). Great leaders are said to define purpose, create a vision for the future, set high ethical standards, and guide their organizations through many circumstances and into new directions (Morrill, 2007; Parris & Peachey, 2012). Leadership is also described as complex – it can mean different things to different people. Given there is no standard approach to leadership, scholars focus on the process of leadership as opposed to the definition (Northouse, 2016). As a process, leadership is not simply
Effective leadership, commonly regarded as both a learned skill and innate ability, is an essential characteristic of successful organizations (Northouse, 2016). Great leaders are said to define purpose, create a vision for the future, set high ethical standards, and guide their organizations through many circumstances and into new directions (Morrill, 2007; Parris & Peachey, 2012). Leadership is also described as complex – it can mean different things to different people. Given there is no standard approach to leadership, scholars focus on the process of leadership as opposed to the definition (Northouse, 2016). As a process, leadership is not simply possessing formal authority or characteristic traits and personal attributes. Quite the reverse, leadership is mostly a relationship – engagement and interactive exchange – between leaders and followers (Morrill, 2007; Northouse, 2016). According to Parris and Peachey (2012), the impact of effective leadership on economic, political, and organization success makes leadership one of the most comprehensively researched processes of human behavior. Therefore, understanding the behaviors of leaders is critical to understanding individual and organizational success.
What defines a leader? Are there inherent differences between leaders and followers, e.g., genetic makeup, behavior, characteristics, intelligence, or another physiological, social, emotional, or cognitive capacity? Are leaders the product of nature or nurture, more specifically can leadership be taught? These fundamental questions about leadership form the basis of research on the traits, behaviors, relationship dynamics, and communication competency that encompass different leadership roles and styles. My paper will provide a synthesis of the reading from chapters 1, 2, and 9 of the textbook, “The Leadership Experience,” highlight novel leadership concepts, notions, and theories for me, as well as, any clarification or reinforcement of
This paper will highlight the world's leading psychologist's thinking and research towards leadership who examined leadership as the psychological process (Bligh and Meindl, 2005) .This paper will cover the diversity of topics covered in this field including; psychological concept of leadership; major key psychological theories underpinning leadership behavior, power and influences; cognitive process that categorize individuals as leaders and
The word ‘leadership’ often times triggers a preconceived image of an ideal leader—typically accompanied by the aura that the effective leader should be at the top of the hierarchy, ready to produce the solutions to complex problems. However, this is not true of leadership, given that effective leadership is not achieved by position but rather through style and situational awareness. Examining leadership requires the consideration of the catalysts for different types of leaders. Popular leader development theories tend to focus on the natural servitude of the leader, his or her capability to manage, and leader behavior.