Generally, leadership is the art or process of influencing followers and subordinates to achieve the organizational goals. It helps an individuals or a group to identify its goals and assists in achieving the stated goals. Because of importance of leadership all kinds of group action, there are considerable number of researches and theories on leadership and many kinds of leadership styles like Greatman theory, power influence, Trait approach, Behavioral, Situational or Contingency approaches; Below, the Early Behavior Theory of leadership is being described.
Behavioral Theories of Leadership:
The limitations of trait theory led to significant change in the leadership Approach. In this theory full focus was on the actual behavior and action of leaders instead of their Personal qualities or traits. This theory emphasize on, what the leaders do and how they behave to become effective leaders. According to this theory leadership can be learned oppose to the Great Man and ‘Trait’ theory whereas leadership was believed to be born and inherited. Several attempts have been made to identify the dimensions of leaders behavior. But the most systematic and comprehensive studies in this direction were conducted in U.S.A at ‘ Ohio State University’ and, the University of Michigan during 1945-1947. These are considered to be the most important behavioral studies.
Ohio State University:
In 1945 the bureau of Business research at Ohio university initiated a series of studies on
1.1 Describe the factors that will influence the choice of leadership styles or behaviours in workplace situations
The next big era of leadership theories was the Rational Management era. When the previous era failed to determine exact traits that could consistently be identified in great leaders, a shift occurred to begin looking at how these leaders behaved, and what made them into great leaders, rather than who they were in a specific sense. This was a major shift from thinking that people were born leaders, to now considering that perhaps leaders could be made, or trained to become leaders. The first of these theories, beginning in the early 1950’s, were the behavior theories. The focus of these theories was to study what these leaders do, and
Leadership goes beyond management, for some, leadership is instinctual and pours over into your personal life. This paper will discuss a leader I admire in my personal life, and analyze their leadership style. I will discuss how that leader has influenced my leadership style, as well as how things like environment and the economy affect my leadership approach.
The belief of leadership is constantly changing, with many theories and frameworks available. Today’s organizations face ever-increasing change, which includes increased patient demands and work needs, which requires a more adaptive flexible leadership that is becoming increasingly important in the 21st century. Leadership theory and philosophy can be divided into several well-known styles. Within this paper, we will discuss the basis of autocratic, democratic, laissez faire, servant, charismatic, transformational, and situational styles of leadership within the nursing profession, then conclude the writer’s personal philosophies of leadership.
As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.
My leadership style is problem solver; this leadership style offers me the opportunity to utilize the knowledge and experience of my followers. I believe that I am more of this leadership style because I tend to accept input from group members when making decisions and solving problems. I do this because I feel that everyone in the group have something tangible to contribute to the group, and sometimes they might have access to key information that can help in my decision making. I take the information and put them together to use in reaching a decision, because I know that I will have the final say as the leader of the group. I believe that the group is put together
Leadership Evaluation and Philosophy: An Appraisal of Angela Merkel’s Leadership during the Euro Crisis and My Leadership Philosophy
The trait leadership theory focuses on the individual leader’s personal characteristics as the basis of its investigations. It is one of the earliest leadership theories upon whose tenets many researches on leadership have been done. Although it is not very coherent, its heuristic nature has contributed to its significance in leadership research. Zaccaro and Klimoski (2002) define traits of reference to leadership as the stable personality characteristics, which result in a consistent leadership performance pattern, given different scenarios and groups. They include individual personalities, temperament, rationale, prowess, as well as cognitive abilities. Initially, the theory explored both physical and psychological characteristics that tell apart leaders from non-leaders.
The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do
When I think about the type of leader I would like to be, there is one supervisor that always comes to mind because of the positive environment she cultivated. In researching the different leadership styles for this assignment, I believe that this is the style that she used with her staff. I was interested in learning more about transformational leadership and how I can cultivate this style in the way that I lead my current team as well as the way in which I lead future teams.
I define leadership as the ability to provide strength and coverage to support a Sailor, regardless of rank. The ability to instill Core Values, provide training and the tools a Sailor will need to excel in both their professional and personal life. A true leader will support a Sailor, any Sailor, during the high times of a career, but to be a solid force if there are any lows.
What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the supportive, directive, and participative styles of leadership? Substantiate your response.
Leadership is a concept most people feel informed enough to discuss, but that few are truly educated sufficiently to comment on. Therefore, it is instructive to consider the leadership styles of people with very different approaches both to better understand the diversity underlying leadership, as well as to appreciate the effective and less effective strategies that underlie different leadership outcomes. For that reason, this essay will consider the styles of two leaders who are less visible in this highly contentious presidential election season: Jill Stein (the Green Party nominee) and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. The leadership styles of both are very different, yet they are aligned in the sense that both are outsider candidates struggling to gain momentum from a disaffected electorate. This essay begins with a theoretical discussion of leadership more generally and then turns to the two leaders as case studies, comparing and contrasting them and drawing conclusions about how they both work within the same public sphere and for putatively similar ends (i.e., gaining votes).
Moreover, the trait approach gives a deeper understanding of the leader element in the leadership process by emphasising exclusively on the leader, (Gore et al, 2011). The trait theory does not offer hypotheses about the role of situational variance or characteristic of the followers. Instead, this approach provide information about leaders, and about which traits cause which behaviours and that certain set of traits are central to the leadership process and play an indispensible part of effective leadership.
Research on management and leadership in organizations over the past century shows there are still no clear definitions or answers about what counts as effective and successful leadership; the field remains varied and argued. Actual studies of leadership began in the early twentieth century. The research and studies on leadership have resulted in defining what characters, traits and attitudes are considered to be significant for leaders to possess. The early studies of leadership theories focused on the person and their behaviors, currently known as leadership trait theories and behavioral theories. It is important for organizational leaders and managers to understand what characteristics, traits and actions of an individual mark a great leader when forming a strong diverse workforce.