Effects of Leadership in Organisations Effectiveness - Coursework Example

Effects of Leadership in Organisation’s Effectiveness Name Course title Date The overall performance, growth and development of any organisation lies in the hands of its leaders. It is the responsibility of the management to set strategies corresponding to the organisation’s goals and objectives, which guide employees in execution of duties. Therefore, productivity in any business environment is significantly affected by the leadership as well as the decisions they make. The impacts of leadership are displayed in the outcomes that gauge the performance of an organisation after a given period (Judge, Bono, Ilies & Gerhardt 2002, p.872). Leadership teams that produce high performance consist of individuals who understand that their mode of behaviour or manner of conduct considerably affects the general output. Hence, it is important for the management to implement the core values, rules and regulations of the organisation to set the example for effective and efficient manner of operation. The influence leaders have on their employees trickles down to the rest of the workers in how they conduct, perform and approach organisational issues (Keller 2006, p.205). This paper seeks to determine to what extent the management of an organisation influences its effectiveness in overall performance and productivity. With the use of leadership theories and concepts, the paper will demonstrate how leadership play a significant role in determining its growth and development. McShane and Von Glinow (2000, p.13) state that, in the corporate world, there exists a range of definitions of a leader but it can concluded that a leader is anybody who has the capability as well as the capacity to visualize the goals and objectives set and work towards achieving them in additional to influencing others for the same. Statistics have shown that almost all of the most successful organisations have a leadership team that respects and uphold the organisations core values, rules and regulations in all their undertakings. Since the employees are on the lookout for their leaders’ behaviours, practices, approaches and beliefs, they learn a lot from them and carry it on to their mode of operations. Therefore, corrupt leadership will have scandalous team while a strategic leadership will influence an upright team that is ready to achieve. It is important to note that, strategic leadership consists one of the major factors that determine the excellence of an organisation in the contemporary world. Achievement of goals is stimulated and supported by the leadership, and requires the leader to have sufficient knowledge on the strategies and approaches to be implemented for effective operations. Therefore, it can be seen that the key initiator, motivator, influencer, and implementer of organisations goals and objectives is the leadership team (Messick & Kramer 2004, p. 24). In the current competitive world, an organisation requires to have a competitive advantage to be influential in the market. This can only be achieved through its leadership because they influence the anticipation of the future, development of strategies as well as initiation of changes that affect the performance. Therefore, strategic and transformational leadership is an asset to the organisation and requires substantial investment by the business owners. The best companies known in the market have some unique, creative, knowledge, skills and farsighted individuals who determine the way forward to achieving great results and leave an impact in the market (Zhu, Chew, & Spangler, 2005, p. 45). Examples of such great transformational leadership in the current business market are Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. These individuals have caused ripples in their areas of operations by demonstrating distinctive leadership traits that has resulted to remarkable achievements in the society, leaving impacts in the market. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc., started small in a garage store to manufacture computers together with Steve Wozniak , he faced many challenges but never gave up his dream in computer technology. He was once fired from the company he started; he never turned back but continued pursuing his dreams and visions by founding another company. When Apple Inc. was struggling and about to go bankrupt, he was recalled and transformed the company to be among the most profitable company in technology field currently. His distinctive leadership traits has seen the company stand out with a competitive advantage and produce a wide range of creative gadgets such as iPads, iPhones, iPods, MacBook computer series and iTunes. The current overwhelming smart phone technology owes him great courtesy for his influential contribution to its production. He was a visionary leader, creative, innovative as well as farsighted to identify the future market needs and work to satisfying them (Furthermore, Larsson & Vinberg 2010, p.323). Therefore, it can be concluded that he displayed transformational leadership that was effective in the field of technology. Moreover, organisational effectiveness is achieved through teamwork that is cohesive and integrated. The Charismatic Leadership is a theory that explains how the management has the capability to transform independent individuals in an organisation and integrate them in their organisational team to achieve higher performance. Such undertakings by the leader depict the interconnection that exists between management and their employees, raising the productivity of the organisation. Although charismatic leadership theory places more emphasis on the performance of an organisation on the leaders, its impacts affect how the organisation works as a team to realize the set goals and objectives (Humphreys & Einstein 2003, p.89). It is helpful for the leader to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the members of his team so that he may know how to handle effectively. Therefore, charismatic leaders understand that there are diverse skills and knowledge in the team and works to utilize every member by assigning responsibilities according to their strengths in additional to working to improve their weaknesses. Communication is the most notable tool that charismatic leaders use to express the goals, objectives, strategies and approaches towards the responsibilities assigned to their employees. This perspective of leadership stirs growth both to the individual as well as to the leader by creating a strong workforce (Boehnke, Bontis, Distefano & Distefano 2003, p.11). Hence, this increases the effectiveness of the organisation in performance and productivity. Mayfield and Mayfield (2009, p.461) state that, there are different types of leadership that exist in various organisations according to their business needs and demands. It has been noted that the goals and objectives set by the organisation influences how leadership is structured and operates. Therefore, contingency theory states that the effectiveness of the leadership is dependent on how the situation at hand matches the existing leadership structure. This leads to existence of various forms of leadership such as task-motivated leaders and relationship-motivated leaders. Tarabishy, Solomon, Fernald and Sashkin (2005, p.22) allege that, the task-motivated leaders aims at accomplishing goals and sets strategies that relate to completing tasks successfully while relationship-motivated leaders work to establishing interrelationships in their teams as well as strong ties with the external parties. Hence, the task-motivated leaders woks to improving the skills and knowledge of their employees so that all tasks may be accomplished in the set time frame while relationship-motivated leaders works to creating an atmosphere that motivate the achievement of gaols and objectives. This lead to a conclusion that, if the management understands their situation, needs and demands in the market they work effectively to be productive an attain high performance. In additional, leadership has the responsibility to identify the market needs, growth and the changes in the business market and respond towards improving effectiveness and development. Effective leaders should analyse the employees needs and demands that they require to be a step higher in their operations and implement them. Statistics show that organisations that invest in building their workforce attain high performances and increases productivity (Meyer & Heppard 2000, p.67). Leadership that evaluates the market growth as per the current technological and technical standards sets strategies in line with their findings. Improvement of education increases skills and knowledge in the area of operation. Therefore, leadership that supports their team of employees by establishing learning strategies for example giving of scholarships to their employees helps them to be up to date with trends that influence productivity and performance in the market (Bass & Avolio 1994, p.37). Likewise, leadership that motivates, mentors and nurtures employees skills through trainings, conferences and seminars helps in transforming the organisation performance positively. Furthermore, promotions and appreciation helps the employees to put extra efforts and improves productivity in the execution of duties. This depicts how leadership can effectively affect and influence the running of an organisation (Fenwick & Gayle 2008, p.20). Therefore, it can be concluded that there is dire need for the organisation to be keen on their leadership structure since it affects their performance and productivity. In the corporate world there needs more than just the input of the employees and this calls for the management to be informed and up-to-date with the market needs. Understanding the organisation’s goals and objectives helps the management to set strategies that will help achieve the goals within the set period. Therefore, the leadership need to perform analysis on their employees so that they may enforce the helpful policies for the company to have a competitive advantage in the market. It is important to recognize the impacts of working in teamwork as an organisation so that creation of a favourable working environment in the workplace can be achieved; only effective leadership can triggered this. More so, understanding the situation faced by the organisation helps in structuring the leadership as either task-oriented or relationship-oriented. Finally, leadership investing in employees helps to improve performance and productivity. A motivating and appreciative leadership always trigger hard work to the workforce that translates to increased organisational performance. Therefore, it is clear that leadership influences the effectiveness of an organisation. References Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. 1994 Improving organizational Effectiveness through Transformational Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Boehnke, K., Bontis, N. Distefano, J., & Distefano, A. 2003 Transformational Leadership: An Examination of Cross-national Differences and Similarities. 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Tarabishy, A., Solomon, G., Fernald Jr., L.W. & Sashkin, M. 2005 The Entrepreneurial Leader‟s Impact on the Organization‟s Performance in Dynamic Markets. Journal of Private Equity, Vol.8. no.4, pp. 20-29. Zhu, W., Chew, I. K. h. & Spangler, W. D. 2005 CEO Transformational Leadership & Organizational Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Human-Capital-Enhancing Human Resource Management. The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 16, no.1, pp. 39-52. Read More