Power And Leadership Influence On Leadership Essay

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.

The essay classifies leadership into four key approaches: (1) trait approach, (2) behaviour approach, (3) the

In the world we live in today the roles of power and leadership are often confused. Although they have similar meanings, they can be distinctly defined between the latter. The key difference between the two is the term of effect. Power is the exercise of leadership, and leadership is only defined if you have power. Leadership always involves attempts on a leader to affect behavior or a follower in a situation, whereas power is not equivalent with influence on another person’s behavior. Although power and leadership have similar meanings, they are certain differences that can point out what makes

While the behavioral paradigm severed for the basis of a new leadership theory, meta-analytic studies revealed that the behaviors of leaders are important for predicting leadership effectiveness (Derue et. al, 2001). In contrast, Zaccaro (2007) stated that while a situation is important in explaining variance in leadership behavior, it might not be as important when differentiating between leaders and followers. The relative stability or malleability to a specific situation may differ over time and between different leadership traits (Zaccaro, 2007).

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.

In chapter 1-3 we have learned a lot about leadership and different roles of leadership. In Chapter one we are taught about the definitions and the significance of leadership. In chapter two we learn about global and cultural context. Global and cultural context let us know about the roles culture can play in leadership and how a leader can develop a cultural mindset. In Chapter three we learn about the early theories of the foundations of modern leadership. There are three eras of leadership, which consist of the trait era, the behavior era, and the contingency era, which is the era that we are in now.

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

Since scholars have begun studying leadership, many different theories and approaches have been developed. Early analysis from 1900-1950 focused on identifying leader and follower characteristics (SEDL, 2015). Since researchers were unable to isolate a single trait or combination of traits, theorists began to examine how varying situations impact leader skills and behaviors (SEDL, 2015). These studies attempted to determine which behaviors emerged from effective leaders. Researchers used a contingency model to thus examine the connection between personal traits, situational variables and leader effectiveness (SEDL, 2015). In the 1970’s and 1980’s, researchers again looked at individual traits, but this time did so through the lens of organizational effectiveness (SEDL, 2015). After over a century of investigation, dozens of theories have emerged and led to the conclusion that leadership is complex and dynamic.

Lussier and Achua (2016) define leadership as “the influencing process between leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change” (p. 5). There are many different ways to categorize the dimensions of leadership. This section considers two groups of traits: transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire, as well as democratic, autocratic, and situational. The method that the leader utilizes to motivate followers can include transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire. The amount of input the leader seeks from the group can be categorized as democratic, autocratic, or situational.

In today’s world, leaders are not defined by age, race or gender. They can be a high school basketball coach, the shift supervisor at the local coffee shop, or even the President of the United States of America. In as many ways that leaders can vary by appearance and responsibility, there is also a variance in the ways that they lead. This case study aims to compare three of the more popular theories of leadership. These leadership theories are situational leadership, trait theory and transformational leadership.

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.

A leader is defined as a person with responsibility to influence one or more followers and directing them to achieve a set objective (Sethuraman, 2014). In order to achieve that set of objectives effortlessly, effectively, and efficiently, the most important and valued trait of a leader is an effective leadership styles. Effective leadership styles are required in every organization at every level to be successful. The success or failure of an organization depends on the quality of leadership particularly on the part of top management. An effective leadership style can be developed on the basis of understanding of the situations (Sethuraman, 2014). Top management should know which leadership style is needed based on the situation to be most effective to gain trust and respect from their employee. There is no single method of influencing the behavior of employees for every situation. The employee’s level of knowledge on the task and can determine which leadership style that will be most effective for the situation. Preparing leaders to lead

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.

Leadership effectiveness shows “the specific conditions under which leaders and their members make effective use of the intellectual abilities , technical knowledge and experience” (Fiedler & Garcia, 2012, p.34). It shows the relationship with one’s boss and identifies the actuall condition under which organizational are executed. It could be viewed from “power influence approach” which understands it in terms of the amount and type of power that a leader possess. Thus, leadership effectiveness also examines how a leader acquires power, lost and maintains it. Secondly, the behavioral approach views the actual tasks performed by leaders which involves the evaluation of daily activities and basic behaviors of leaders. Also, the “trait approach” reveals the personal attributes of leaders, such as intuition, creativity,persuasiveness and oversight. On the other hand, the “situational approach” examines leadership in terms of its relationship with the surrounding environmental factors which includes

Leadership effectiveness shows “the specific conditions under which leaders and their members make effective use of the intellectual abilities , technical knowledge and experience” (Fiedler & Garcia, 2012, p.34). It shows the relationship with one’s boss and identifies the actuall condition under which organizational are executed. It could be viewed from “power influence approach” which understands it in terms of the amount and type of power that a leader possess. Therefore, leadership effectiveness also examines how a leader acquires power, lost and maintains it. Leadership effectiveness can also be viewed from, the “behavioral approach”; which is the actual tasks performed by leaders, involves the evaluation of daily activities and basic behaviors of leaders. Also, the “trait approach” reveals the personal attributes of leaders, such as intuition, creativity,persuasiveness and oversight. On the other hand, the “situational approach” examines leadership in terms of its relationship with the