Trait Theory, Behavioural Theory and Contingency Theory - Article Example

Running Header: Article Critique Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Article critique Introduction Leadership is the relationship where one person may influence the decisions of other members in a group. Kangis and Kelley (2000) show that leaders act as agents that communicate the organizations missions and objectives to their team members. They also motivate them through effective coordination in order to ensure that the organizational goals are effectively achieved. Leaders use various methods of ensuring that goals are achieved. These techniques include resolution of issues, selection and implementation of action plans. This study evaluates the effects of leadership roles on team effectiveness article by critically evaluating and analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the article in terms of style, problem definition, methodology and analysis. First, the introduction in this article does not show what the article is all about but analyses the roles of leaders. The information at the introduction stage is starting with a negative format for example it states that leadership must not only be able to formulate a plan that would work within the organisation, they must also be able to implement this plan within a distinctly social context. This sentence first is not original and it is not flowing grammatically. There is also no problem experienced in order to conduct the study of leadership roles. The researcher should have first introduced the study by showing the problem statement and the objectives of the study. This contains the aim of the study and how the method that will be used in analysing the variables. Literature review The article talks about trait theory, behavioural theory and contingency theory. The study shows that the three theories involves the study of leadership but does not show how these theories are applied in leadership skills. After mentioning the theory the article then talks about the traditional leadership studies which the writer says that they have adopted two approaches. These approaches include trait and behavioural approach. The article does not discuss how trait approach was used in traditional leadership but shows that a leader can direct his members for organizational goals thanks to his physical and psychological characteristics. This statement first is not grammatically right and does not shows what trait approach involves in leadership skills. The writer says that the studies assume that leadership traits differentiate leaders from other members of the organisation. The explanation in this statement is not right instead the writer would have shown the particular traits that make up an effective leader. There are many grammatically wrong sentences for example saying that “several researches in that period concentrated to identify a set of personality trait such as appearance, intelligence, self reliance and persuasiveness”. The sentence would have been that various studies conducted at that period showed a set of traits connected to leadership effectiveness such as leadership intelligence, self reliance and persuasive, however the researchers never showed a list of traits associated with leaders only. The behavioural approach is also not well explained for example according to the article it suggests that effective leaders influence their fellow members through their behavior. First the approach can not suggest but one can put in as the behavioural approach assumes that leaders influence their team members through their personal behaviours for example where leaders act like role models to their team members. The writer does not show which behaviours are acquired from leaders in order to be improved by training. The article lacks a continuous flow of information for example the trait and behavioural approach are not well explained therefore leaving no originality of the study. It lacks originality to say “well known studies on leadership behaviour include Ohio State University studies, University of Michigan State Studies and Blake and Mouton studies which is called Managerial Grid”. Instead the writer would have expanded the statement by saying that managerial grid explains various studies on leadership behaviour published by the above university publishers. Methods According to the article, trait theory and behavioural theory failed to yield much result. This is not true because the trait theory is applicable in every leadership study in that leaders are identified by their own traits. The write goes on and says that the traditional approached focused on situational factors contained in the contingency theory. The study does not explain how contingency theory is connected to leadership roles but finished by saying that there is no unique way of leadership but depends on the situation. The article tends to assume several aspects for example by showing that situational factors may include leaders’ authority, relationship between the leaders and the members and the nature of work. By using, the word ‘may’ suggests that the writer is not clear about the situational factors and if they are clear then the grammar is wrongly put. The article does not explain why the contingency theory is not the best approach to analyse leadership roles and it is also shows that no approach can explain leadership alone. The writer seems to have come up with the conclusion even before analysing the importance of leadership roles to team members. The article explains the factors that affect team efficiency such as employee behaviour and quality of the working conditions but should not have been as it is written in the article, quality of work life because it does not make sense at all. Starting a sentence with on the other hand means that the statement that follows should be different from the past information given for example the sentence that state ‘on the other hand, task variety, task identity, task significance, task autonomy and task feedback can contribute team effectiveness’. Firstly, the sentence if grammatically wrong since the writer uses ‘can’ meaning it may not be true. Secondly the sentence does not make sense by starting every aspect with task. The teams article does not explain in depth how team heterogeneity, team stability and team size contributes to team efficiency. The article shows that team size can affect team functioning and create problems such as complicating communication and coordination. This however is not well explained and I do not think this is true because team size can be managed especially in big organisations. Coordination is also not a problem emerging from team size but the writer should have indicated that team size slows team coordination especially if the number is large. Analysis The research design should have started with a brief introduction of the methodology used in collecting data. However, this is not the case because the research design involved methods in which team effectiveness can be evaluated. The data collection stage should have involved methods used to analyse date such as using questionnaire, statistical method or other data collection methods. However, the article shows that the questionnaire method comprised of three sections where alpha levels are also shown. The questionnaire section should instead comprise of study questions that are asked to a sample of employees or members of the team about the effectiveness of their leader. The statistical method should also not be combined with the questionnaire methods because they are two different data collection methods and they give different findings altogether. The statistical method should have been under the data collection part. The frequency distribution of team members is also not clear because it does not show how the data was collected and it is not easy to clearly see the results. The findings part should involve the results received after the collection of data but not the analysis of the relationship between leadership roles and the effectiveness of the team. The groups used to find the correlation which includes professional and non professional teams may not yield effective analysis. This is because these groups of people do not affect any of the variables therefore the results that leadership roles and team effectiveness correlate with each other is not justified. The conclusion and limitation stage should not involve the results got from the analysis of the regression results as it is indicated in the article. This part should show what the researcher concludes about the entire topic which involves how leadership roles affect the effectiveness of team members. Limitations should also be at a separate section and should not be combined with the conclusion. The limitation part should indicate the challenges met by the researcher while carrying out the study. This would involve language barriers, weather conditions or participants who were not ready to contribute to the analysis. Other limitations regarding the study would involve not finding the best sample to contribute to the analysis of the study. The limitation part should therefore come before the conclusion and after the data collection methods. The limitations should not indicate that the method of data collection was difficult and time consuming but should show the challenges that made the method difficult. Strengths of the study The strength of the article is where the writer talks about the contingency theory and how it effectively affects leadership abilities. It is well explained where the article shows that the contingency theory state that a groups’ effectiveness depends on the proper match between leaders’ style and how they interact with team members. The effectiveness of the team members is also well explained where it is stated that the effectiveness of teams start with meeting the performance expectations of people who receive and use the output achieved from the team. Performance expectation is also well explained in that it is initiated by the managers and internal and external customers and that it differs upon the people receiving the services. The researcher has tried to show the necessary theories used to analyze the roles of leaders though they are not clearly explained in the article. The data collection methods have been well stated but they lack originality and the content does not match with the heading for example the questionnaire method does not involve the demographic characters of the participants. Weaknesses of the study The weaknesses of the entire article indicate that first the study was not well conducted. This is where the researcher does not show the right data collection method that was used. The study does not also follow the headings as indicated for example the research design heading does not indicate the design used to collect research data. The introduction part is also too broad and only explains the definitions of the variables and the theories used but do not indicate how these theories are applied. The entire article lacks a continuous flow both grammatically and readability. The study should have been arranged in a systematic way in that a reader can be able to understand what the writer it trying to talk about in the study. There is also lack of originality in that the researcher tends to be using words like ‘may’ and ‘could’. This shows that the entire research is an assumption since there in no enough evidence to indicate where the statement has been retrieved. The language used in analyzing the study is not UK English and the citations and the references are not according to the Harvard method of referencing. For example some of the names and years in the references are put into bracket which is not the case in Harvard referencing. The problem of the study is also not well defined at the introduction level because the researcher first gives the definitions of the variables. There is therefore no statement of the problem. Conclusion The evaluation of this study indicates that the entire article is not readable and has no benefit to both academic learning and practitioners. This is because the study is based on assumptions and there is lack of originality. The entire article is below quality and most of the sentences have no academic meaning. The grammar used in writing this article is also below quality and should be improve in order to make the article readable. To improve the quality of the data shown, the researcher should aim at analyzing every variable, linking the analysis to the organizational set up and then comparing with the other variable. One of the variables should be dependent to the other, as this will achieve better results. References Kangis, P & Kelley, L 2000, Project leadership in clinical research organizations, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 18, p. 393-401. Read More