Concept of Distributed Leadership - Coursework Example

Table of Content Introduction 2 Discussion 2 Conclusion 8 References 10 Introduction The widespread intensifying competition level and quicker decision making has made the concept of distributed leadership gain prominence especially in Western countries as organizations instead of relying on a single individual to take all decisions believe in distributed leadership. This has resulted in quicker response and adaptation of the leadership concept throughout the organization has fuelled a common purpose and developed a sense of purpose within every individual within the organization. This has helped in the development of self awareness and has resulted in all the efforts to be directed towards a common goal. This paper thereby looks to present the manner in which self awareness has increased the usage of distributed leadership and supports both managers and leaders at all levels to work for a common purpose. Discussion Distributed leadership is an attitude where the management looks towards using its techniques so that people work together for a common purpose and looks towards tapping the skills, experience and expertise of others so that the organization is able to achieve its best results (Distributive, 2012). This is a concept which is quite different from the ones used previously as it helps to bring all people together and looks towards creating self awareness so that better strategies and methods can be adopted to fetch better results for the organization. Even a study suggests that using a form of leadership where all employees and members within the organization look towards generating self awareness helps to use the resources in the most efficient manner and ensures better achievement of goals ensures better results (Angelo, 2007). This is widely prevalent in the hotel industry where the efforts of all are directed in such a manner that the industry is able to get the best positive results. This is backed by another quality which suggest that using distributive leadership ensures that organizations are able to identify employees who are hard working, analytical, brilliant, lonely, and imaginative and risk takers (Yukl, 2009) which thereby ensures that the focus is developed towards a common purpose. This makes every employee understand the requirements of the organization and helps to develop the required loyalty that will help them to work together towards a common endeavour (James, 2006). Distributed leadership results in creating a different attitude at work as people work collaboratively to remove the differences that they have thereby enabling better results. Further, it looks towards making people understand their inner self and motivate in such a manner that it creates a style where the efforts ensures best possible result for the organization (Yukl, 2009). This thereby enables the business to develop a pattern which will help them to grow their business and identify the different areas which will ensure positive results Distributive leadership has thereby transformed the concept of leadership and looks towards including people, money and resources so that the goals are achieved in the best possible manner (Rondeau, 2010). Leaders thereby look towards managing the different resources and bring people from all areas together so that self awareness is generated and people work towards self directed goals which help to accomplish the larger goals. This has changed the role of leaders and managers and has entrusted them with a task of guiding the employees (Murray, 2010) and creating self awareness so that employees understand their reason for existence within the organization and they look towards putting their efforts in the direction. This has developed the concept of leadership and increased the role of both managers and leaders to ensure that the organization looks towards best possible course of action to accomplish the group goals. This form of leadership which looks towards making the entire organization work together and looks towards identifying the best possible manner through which the goals can be achieved has also resulted in widespread changes in the organizational structure. Distributed leadership has given rise to both hierarchy and lateral and upward communication within the organization as the group dynamics are required to ensure best results (Wright & Pangey, 2010). This has thereby made organizations change their organizational structure from the rigid one and looks towards invoking interest so that people are able to generate self awareness and work towards a common purpose. Studies in this direction have demonstrated that distributive leadership creates self awareness which directly leads towards an improvement in performance (Visser, 2000) as people become aware about their surroundings. This also helps in creating an environment where people are able to trust each other and helps to develop a situation where people know their role in the organization. Further, this form of leadership ensures that the organizational structure favours an environment for proper communication which helps to solve queries and develop the best possible mechanism through which the organization will be able to accomplish the task in the most efficient manner. Distributed leadership is a form of management practice which is highly demanded with intensifying competition and different simulations made in this direction shows that it is the most effective form of leadership especially with changing business environment (Dignum, Dignum & Sonenberg, 2006). This has made businesses and organizations all around the globe and especially in the Western countries to look towards this model as it helps to save vital resources and helps to keep with the changing technology and time. This has thereby made more and more organizations divulge their attention to as it makes every employee understand their contribution and helps to fix the problem early so that decisions taken are better and supported from all directions. Distributive leadership which has grown from transformational leadership thereby looks into the side of output and results so that the efforts of all can be directed for a bigger purpose (Bernie, 2010). This thereby helps to improve the motivational level of employees, customers, suppliers and others associated with it as it looks towards mutual strategy which focuses on improving the method in which the resources are used so that the organization finds effective methods to deal with the rising problems encountered due to daily changes. Distributive leadership has evolved from transformational leadership and looks towards identifying the traits and qualities of different individuals within the organization as a result of which it looks towards better planning and setting the goals with clear differentiation between the short and long term goals thereby helping the employees to direct their efforts towards achieving those (Heather, 2009). This form of leadership thereby looks to include different functions like financial, human, legal, environmental, and others so that better decisions are made which is based on trust and loyalty. This is a differentiating factor when compared to other form of leadership as it looks towards building on the individual personality traits of people and making them identify those. This thereby helps in the creation of self awareness and makes the people feel a part of the team where the efforts of each and every employee are recognized. The manner in a decision is arrived at so that the resources can be used in the most productive manner is a clue which substantiates the fact that distributive leadership helps to empower the organization with better tools for the achievement of the goals. An example in this direction further helps to understand the mechanism through which distributive leadership focuses on the task on hand and results in better use of the resources. Suppose, the business plans to reduce cost by 5% and has developed the means through which it will be done. In traditional methods of leadership the focus will be on developing a way which focuses on the result but distributive form of leadership will look towards bringing all the resources together so that the business is able to focus on the larger picture and identify the manner in which the resources could be saved more. This results in achieving a cost reduction by 7% and helps to ensure better use of the resources. Distributed leadership looks into different factors and identifies the skill of each individual within the organization (Worral & Cooper, 2001). This thereby helps the business to entrust the different roles and responsibilities for each individual based on his traits. This thereby ensures that the organization instead of looking towards a single leader ahs developed individual leader where every member is a leader. This results in creation of self awareness and increases the focus so that each and every member knows his role in the organization. This form of leadership thereby helps the employee to be associated with the organization and makes it easy for the employee to identify himself with the organization. The fact that once the organization is able to do well it is because of the entire team which thereby helps to build the required trust and responsibility. This thereby ensures that a team is developed which can work on the different aspect and produce results as desired by the organization. Distributed leadership thereby helps in shared leadership as each and every member is able to contribute and understand the situation the organization is in . This helps to find out better ideas and the discussion that takes place within the organization helps to fetch better results (Bateman & Snell). Belief and trust upon each and every individual further ensures a congenial environment where the employees are able to contribute and ensure a long term prosperity and growth for the business. Distributed leadership thereby results in the creation of team which looks towards accomplishing the task through every possible way so that the contribution is maximized and the organization is able to grow. This results in a creation of different key elements like hierarchy, structure and leadership which goes for a toss. Since, this form of leadership looks towards developing individual leaders it helps to ensure better coordination and ensures better efforts. This transforms into a situation where individual efforts are talked about and a mechanism adopted so that all the members are able to contribute towards the goal. An interesting thing to note here is that it is different from passing on responsibility and authority as the organization in this framework looks towards identifying the individual traits and qualities so that based on it a strategy can be developed for achieving the goals. This looks towards creating an environment of trust and loyalty and looks towards building individual talent so that they are aware about the surroundings and based on it are able to take decisions towards the betterment of the organization and self. Further, this also helps to move from the complex and traditional level of leadership which follows hierarchy as each member knows the other well and is able to contribute towards the organization positively. Conclusion Distributed leadership thereby encourages employees at all levels to contribute and thereby also develops the skills of the employees. This helps the organization as they are able to ensure proper succession planning as this strategy helps the business to identify the talented people within the organization. This thereby helps them to understand the future potential talent and build employees for the future. This directs the human resource department in understanding the grey areas within the organization and based on it look towards hiring individuals so that the organization is able to meet its requirements and have a workforce which is able to contribute towards the larger goals of the business. Distributed leadership is thereby a new tool which is used by management to ensure that they are able to make widespread changes and ensure that an environment is created where the organization is able to make the workforce work together towards the common goal. This also ensures that the business is able to find the best method through which the problems can be sorted out and the business is able to develop loyalty and trust between the employees. This thereby ensures that the business is able to develop a strategy where the organization is able work out on the future requirements and based on it look towards developing a strategy which will help the business to contribute positively towards the goal and ensure that the resources are used in the most effective manner. References Angelo, C. 2007. Distributed Leadership versus management in hospitality industry. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, 8 (1), pp. 61-70, Bateman, T. & Snell, S. 2004. Management: The New Competitive Landscape. 6th Edition, McGraw Hill, New York Bernie, J. 2010. Organisational Analysis & Culture. Retrieved on July 7, 2012 from http://www.liebowitzassoc.com/articles/organizationanalysis.shtml Distributed Leadership. 2012. Distributed Leadership. Retrieved on July 6, 2012 from http://www.wcupa.edu/_information/afa/VPAdminFiscal/DistLead.htm Dignum, F., Dignum, V. & Sonenberg, L. 2006. Exploring congruence between Organisational Structure and Task Performance. Springer Link, 3913, (231), pp. 1798-1803 James, K. 2006. Leadership versus Management: What’s the difference. Journal of Quality and Participation. Retrieved on July 6, 2012, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3616/is_200607/ai_n17175982/ Heather, R. 2009. Four Function of Management. Retrieved on July 7, 2012 from http://businessmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/four_functions_of_management Murray, A. 2010. What do managers do. The Wall Street Journal, Harper Business Review, Dow Jones & Company Inc Rondeau, A. 2010. What is management and what do managers do. Retrieved on July 6, 2012 from http://www.greatmanagement.org/blog/204/what-is-management-and-what-do-managers-do/ Visser, B. 2000. Organisational communication structure and performance. Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, 42, (2), pp. 231-252 Wright, R. & Pandey, C. 2010. Transformational Leadership in the public sector: Does structure matter. Journal of Public Administration & Theory, Oxford University Press, 20, (1), pp. 75-89 Worral, L. & Cooper, C. 2001. Management Skills Development: A perspective on current issues. Leadership & Organisational Development, 22, (1), pp. 34 Yukl, G. 2009. Distributed Leadership. Journal of Management, 15, (2), pp. 251-289 Distributed leadership is an attitude where the management looks towards using its techniques so that people work together for a common purpose and looks towards tapping the skills, experience and expertise of others so that the organization is able to achieve its best results (Distributive, 2012). This is a concept which is quite different from the ones used previously as it helps to bring all people together and looks towards creating self awareness so that better strategies and methods can be adopted to fetch better results for the organization. Distributive leadership which has grown from transformational leadership thereby looks into the side of output and results so that the efforts of all can be directed for a bigger purpose (Bernie, 2010). This thereby helps to improve the motivational level of employees, customers, suppliers and others associated with it as it looks towards mutual strategy which focuses on improving the method in which the resources are used so that the organization finds effective methods to deal with the rising problems encountered due to daily changes. Distributive leadership has evolved from transformational leadership and looks towards identifying the traits and qualities of different individuals within the organization as a result of which it looks towards better planning and setting the goals with clear differentiation between the short and long term goals thereby helping the employees to direct their efforts towards achieving those (Heather, 2009). This form of leadership thereby looks to include different functions like financial, human, legal, environmental, and others so that better decisions are made which is based on trust and loyalty. Distributed leadership is a form of management practice which is highly demanded with intensifying competition and different simulations made in this direction shows that it is the most effective form of leadership especially with changing business environment (Dignum, Dignum & Sonenberg, 2006). This has made businesses and organizations all around the globe and especially in the Western countries to look towards this model as it helps to save vital resources and helps to keep with the changing technology and time. This has thereby made more and more organizations divulge their attention to as it makes every employee understand their contribution and helps to fix the problem early so that decisions taken are better and supported from all directions. This is backed by another quality which suggest that using distributive leadership ensures that organizations are able to identify employees who are hard working, analytical, brilliant, lonely, and imaginative and risk takers (Yukl, 2009) which thereby ensures that the focus is developed towards a common purpose. This makes every employee understand the requirements of the organization and helps to develop the required loyalty that will help them to work together towards a common endeavour (James, 2006). Distributed leadership results in creating a different attitude at work as people work collaboratively to remove the differences that they have thereby enabling better results. Further, it looks towards making people understand their inner self and motivate in such a manner that it creates a style where the efforts ensures best possible result for the organization (Yukl, 2009). This thereby enables the business to develop a pattern which will help them to grow their business and identify the different areas which will ensure positive results Read More