Leadership Theory And Its Impact On The Achievement Of A Vision

There have been numerous theories surrounding leadership, which attempt to explain which form is most effective in the workplace. A universalistic approach was once used to rationalize leadership and it was believed that successful leaders possessed certain common abilities and traits. However, today due to external factors such as globalization and advanced technologies, there has been an evolution towards a new paradigm of leadership. Subordinates want to feel empowered and engaged at the workplace and often the behaviors and relationships between leaders and their subordinates become important to understand in order to fully understand effective leadership. Contingency theories have been developed in which people began to look at the behavior of leaders in specific situations. Two such contingency theories are: Path-Goal and Hershey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory.

In this paper, we will review four leadership models: charismatic, servant, situational, and transformational. A separate discussion describing

Both Fiedler’ model and LMX theory have strength and weakness. Fiedler’ model emphasizes the importance of both situation and leader’s characteristics in determining leader effectiveness. It stimulates a great deal of research and inspires the formulation of alternative contingency theory. On the weak side, the Fiedler model sometimes fails to reflect the personality traits that it intends to reflect. It has also gained criticism because of its implications on replacing the leader as the only way to solve the mismatch between leader orientation and unfavorable situation. The method of measuring

Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (2002). Introduction to, and overview of, transformational and charismatic leadership. In B. J. Avolio & F. J. Yammarino (Eds.), Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead (pp. xvii–xxiii). Oxford, UK: Elsevier

The contingency model of leadership is based upon the relationship between three aspects of leader-follower-situation model. Apart from this contingency model, leaders are assumed to act in a flexible manner.

According to Sullivan and Decker (2009), leadership is influencing others into working toward accomplishing a common goal. Some people are born with an innate leadership quality within them. Others require learning leadership and management skills. It takes a certain personality trait that makes them a natural leader. Intelligence, personality, and abilities are three categories of the trait theory that is a part of the profile of successful leaders (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). I will discuss my personal views of leadership. It will

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.

Transformational leadership are classified into four components which are pointed out by Bass (1990, p. 28), ‘charisma, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration’. Apart from these basic roles, charisma leadership, a collection of personal characteristics, has its own role of literature since it has similarity with transformational leadership and they are contribution to each other (Bertocci, 2009, p. 43; Judge & Piccolo, 2004, p. 755). Leaders’ behaviour reflects them being role models for their followers. Followers respect, admire and trust their leaders who have charismatic effect on their followers to an extremely high grade are willing to take risks

Chapter sixteen discusses various leadership theories which can implemented by leaders to achieve success. The choice of leadership theory differs from leader to leader as they possess different vision and way of managing. A theory isn 't always perfect in itself, it is the endless effort of the leaders which makes the theory a perfect one. Two approaches of leadership that I prefer are Situational Leadership Theory and Servant Leadership Theory. Among many theories I prefer these two because I tend to practice those principles most of the time and I assume these are theories that I truly tend to continue in a long run.

What is an organization without a vision? The vision objective puts the organizations values and goals into simplified terms every member of the team can understand and share. The same holds true for our own personal goals and aspirations. We should develop our own personal vision statements to ensure we are staying current in the growing changes of nursing and healthcare technology/techniques, to educate and lead in the most efficient means possible. My vision revolves around the mission statement, “To provide the highest level of care,

The Contingency Theory applied to factors unique to each situation to determine whether specific leader characteristics and behaviors will be effective. Researched findings credit Fiedler 's contingency theory as the first to specify how situational factors interact with leader traits and behavior to influence leadership effectiveness. This theory suggests high interest in the situation determines the effectiveness of task- and person-oriented leader behavior.

From research we see that there are many qualities that people value in leaders. Some of these qualities include: having high standards, supportive, inquisitive, involved, honest and having integrity. When I think about leadership I think of a person who is self-aware and always striving for improvement. To be a good leader you need to know how your personal biases may impact decision making in various situations. Bias or values can effect how you interact with those you come in contact with on a daily basis. A good leader can set the tone for students, staff, and parents by being consistent and clear in thoughts and in actions. The leader is the foundation of the building.

The contingency leadership theory proposed by Fiedler illustrated that the leader’s contribution to organizational performance is highly dependent on situational factors: namely, Leader-Member Relations, Task Structure and Leader’s Power; among which, leader-member relations is prior to other factors in determine leaders’ effectiveness (Ayman, Chemers, & Fiedler, 1995). Leader-Member Relations refers to the degree to which the team achieves cohesiveness and the leader’s willingness to support the team (Ilgen & O 'Brien, 1973). Leader-Member Relations plays a vital role in influencing team performance, because if leader and followers were not in good relations, both parties’ moral would be affected, which indicates a

This theory is based on the premise that there are certain personality characteristics that are essential for a person to possess in order to be a leader. The main emphasis is on what the person is in terms of a constellation of personality traits. This theory searches for that set of universal leadership traits that will assure success. Numerous traits have been suggested: courage, integrity, loyalty, charisma, ambition, intelligence, honesty, clairvoyance, persistence, arrogance, health, political skill, confidence and vision.

Overall, the path-goal theory, path-goal theory of leader effectiveness, or path-goal model can be considered as a variant on Transactional Leadership Theory, where the leader clearly is directing activity and the only factor that varies is the manner in which this is done. There are some aspects of Contingency Theory, as well, where various means of application vary with the situation. The leader sees a path that needs to be tread, one leading to the accomplishment of a goal and she or he attempts to clear it and get the group members to tread on it. The leader may cajole command, reward or punish, get suggestions from the group, or sugar coat the tasks, if necessary, but it is clear that democracy is not the hallmark of this method. The Path-goal of Leadership Effectiveness was created to rectify prior research and anomalies resulting from empirical investigations of the effects of leader/task orientation and leader/person orientation/relationship on worker satisfaction and performance (House 1971).