Effective Leadership in an Organization - Coursework Example

Leadership Student’s name Professor Date Question two Effective leadership in an organization Leadership is among the most important things in the human activity. Effective leadership helps a nation pass through perils and other circumstantial issues. Effective leadership makes an organization to be fruitful and able to meet its purpose. Leadership is the backbone of every organization (Hiebert and Klatt, 2001, 43-50). The absence of leadership leads to the slow movement and stagnation of the organization. Organization may also lose its way when there is no effective leadership. Most literature that talks about leadership stresses much on decision-making and states that timely, correct and complete decision making would lead to the organization running smoothly. After making a decision, organizations faces the difficulty in the decision implementation on how the employees should carry out the activities. Everyone recognizes the significance of leadership (Derakhshandeh & Gholami, 2012, 845-850). The understanding of leadership comes in different ways. It includes electing political leaders to vote for and vetting individuals that may lead us through the organizational activities such as the C.E.O’s and Managers (Achua & Lussier, 2010, 89-122). We understand that the person in the office matters a lot and that we have to participate in the election of such leaders. The individual should have the qualities of good leadership to be able to lead the rest to achieve the organizational goals. Besides, investors consider an organization leadership as an important factor in determining when a business can be a success (Derakhshandeh & Gholami, 2012, 845-850). Organizational culture and leadership are factors that require attention due to the interrelationship between leadership and organizational performance (Mills, 2005, 1-29). Previously, there was a stress on the financial performance of the organization rather than the non-financial factors. Currently, non-financial factors like leadership, quality and customer satisfaction are the primary concern of every organization. For an organization to improve on its organizational performance and functions, it has to consider the leadership style and its adaptations to the new environment (Hiebert and Klatt, 2001, 43-50. Leadership is a process through which a person, called the leader, influences how other individuals think (Derakhshandeh & Gholami, 2012, 845-850). The leader also affects the different attitude and behaviors of other people. Therefore, we can say that leaders offer a direction that other individuals need to follow to realize the organizational objectives. Leaders have to be the role model and a mirror through which other employees see themselves (Schmid, 2006, 179-194). Without leadership, human beings could have constant conflict and arguments since people see things in a different way and offers different solutions to similar problems (Hiebert and Klatt, 2001, 43-50). To come to a consensus, a leader has to come in between to provide moderation and point out the direction that the individuals have to follow (Achua & Lussier, 2010, 89-122). Leadership is there to give guidance to people to do whatever they could not have done when given an alternative (Achua & Lussier, 2010, 89-122).. According to Achua & Lussier (2010, 89-122), it's hard to determine real leadership from false leadership. False leadership is an aspect where the leader pretends to have the qualities of effective leadership skills. A real leader should be capable of leading the organization and other individuals in pursuing the set goals. A particular saying asserts that a leader is a person that leads a parade and runs in front of the parade, choosing the direction for the parade. Therefore, if the individual does not choose the direction that others would follow, then, we do not take that individual as a leader (Achua & Lussier, 2010, 89-122). Leaderships involve the motivation and guidance offered to individuals for the realization of the challenging organizational goals. Therefore, leaders need to inspire those individuals under them to meet development initiatives and encourage new processes in problem-solving. Though transactional leadership is suitable for organizational processes, organizations are encouraged to develop a transformational leadership style that is useful in dealing with relations. According to Epstein & Manzoni (2004, 324) and Cameron (2008, 78), a business cannot function efficiently without an efficient and relevant leadership. This essay would analyze the importance of effective leadership in an organization and how effective leadership improves the organizational performance. Studies indicate that there exist a close relationship between the organizational performance and leadership. Cameron (2008, 78) supports this by identifying that one of the studies shows that almost 40% of organizational performance regarding its profitability arises because of good leadership and effective horizontal and vertical communication channels. Moreover, the study shows that employee satisfaction on his current job specifications has a correlation with the relationship that the employee has with the leaders (Kupers and Weibler (2008, 443-475). Since leaders have a significant impact on the organizational performance, it is, therefore, necessary to understand why effective leadership would enable the organization to function effectively. First of all, successful organizational performance heavily depends on the proper behavior and actions of the managers and employees (Schmid, 2006, 179-194). Effective leadership transforms a worker from an employee who just completes work responsibilities to that employee who has a commitment and a true team player. Effective leadership changes the mind of the employees to have an ownership mindset and be able to see working for the organization as working for their own. Effective leadership enables an employee to have a direct relationship with the organization hence find a way to improve their attitude that would result in improved productivity (Epstein & Manzoni, 2004, 324). Effective leadership helps an organization to focus on its operations. Leadership skills are important since it brings the managers and employees to be on the same page. Also, it corrects internal conflicts between employees. Cameron (2008, 78) and Malone (2004, 179) states that in most cases determining an effective leadership is difficult. For leadership to be effective, it takes certain characteristics such as creativity, ethics, courage, knowledge and charisma among other features. A good leader should be capable of balancing skills and personality to be able to put a link between purpose and action (Hackman and Johnson, 2004, 34-40). A leader should also be able to offer credit to those individuals that need the credit. An effective leadership finds an engine from a leader that can enable the organization and people to adapt, putting in mind the success of the organization and customer satisfaction. Currently, the dynamic organizational environment requires a leader who is flexible and who can act as the center of organizational gravity (Malone, 2004, 179). Management literature outlines various leadership styles that range from autocratic, democratic, bureaucratic, Laisserz-Faire task-oriented and transactional leadership (Cameron, 2008, 78). Other leadership styles include people-oriented and transformation leadership styles. The leadership styles significantly influence how effective leadership is to the organizational performance (Achua & Lussier, 2010, 89-122). For instance, laisserz-faire is an approach where there are some elements of minimizing the involvement of a leader in decision making. Laissez- Faire proves to work efficiently where there is a little or no central coordination requirement and when individuals can make their decisions. Laisserz-fair style of leadership that objectives, restrictions, and directions are not set. Therefore, there is a lack of motivation to the organizational employees. Another leadership style that brings a negative on the organizational performance is the autocratic leadership style. Mills (2005, 1-29) elaborates that in the autocratic leadership, a leader exercises extreme power on the employees and gives the employees less opportunity to involve themselves actively in the daily activities of the organization. The autocratic leadership style is where the leader usually makes decisions without making consultation from the others who may experience the direct effect of the decision (Achua & Lussier, 2010, 89-122). This type of decision-making caused the greatest discontent in an organization. An effective autocratic leadership style states that there should be no input in the decision-making process, and the decision should not change because of any input. Moreover, the autocratic style would be best where the motivation of employees and other colleagues does not carry any subsequent actions (Giuliani and Kurson, 2002, 211-231). On the other hand, other leadership styles promote the successful running and functioning of the organization (Hiebert and Klatt, 2001, 43-50). An example of such leadership style is the transformational leadership where a leader inspires his followers. A leader who uses the transformation leadership style communicates to their followers, tries to know and understand their staff, and recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of the staff. These leaders can convert an employee to become a valuable asset to the company. These leaders are capable of modifying the thinking of the staff members (Giuliani and Kurson, 2002, 211-231). A transformational leader contributes heavily to the effective functioning of the organization. Through transformational leadership, employees can develop trust in the company hence would stop questioning the organizational objectives put more effort in achieving the goals. The workers would develop commitment and would finally generate efficiency. We can, therefore, conclude that the organizational success or failure depends much on the leadership style that the organization adopts. Leadership style affects the performance of leadership to a greater extent and the absence, or lack of effective leadership would automatically lead to the failure of the organization (Schyns and Meindl, 2005, 54). The leadership style affects the organizational performance relies on how effective the leadership style can motivate and encourage the employees (Mills, 2005, 1-29). Malone (2004, 179) supports that it is important to note that leadership styles such as the transformational leadership offer a platform for the improvement of the organizational performance. Effective leadership promotes organizational development and improvement in the organizational performance. Therefore, it is right to say that effective leadership is crucial to the organizational functions. Every organization should determine whether it has an effective leadership. Effective leadership gives tremendous benefits to organizations since it incorporates both personal and work attributes. It also provides every possible way to achieve the organization objectives through involving the employees in the organizational activities such as decision making (Malone, 2004, 179). REFERENCE LIST Achua, C., & Lussier, R. (2010). Effective leadership. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.pp89-122 Cameron, K. (2008). Positive leadership. San Francisco, Calif.: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.pp78 Derakhshandeh, A., & Gholami, R. (2012). A relationship between leadership style and perceived organizational effectiveness by directors and managers in organizations. Management Science Letters, 2(3), 845-850. doi:10.5267/j.msl.2011.12.099 Epstein, M., & Manzoni, J. (2004). Performance measurement and management control. Amsterdam: Elsevier JAI.pp324 Giuliani, R. and Kurson, K. (2002). Leadership. New York: Hyperion.pp211-231 Hackman, M. and Johnson, C. (2004).Leadership. Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press.pp 34-40 Hiebert, M. and Klatt, B. (2001).The encyclopedia of leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill.pp43-50 Kupers, W. and Weibler, J. (2008). Inter-leadership: Why and How Should We Think of Leadership and Followership Integrally?.Leadership, 4(4), pp.443-475. Malone, O. (2004). 101 leadership actions for performance management. Amherst, Ma: HRD Press.pp179 Mills, D. (2005). Leadership. Waltham, MA: MindEdge Press.pp1-29 Schmid, H. (2006). Leadership styles and leadership change in human and community service organizations. Nonprofit Management Leadership, 17(2), pp.179-194. Schyns, B. and Meindl, J. (2005). Implicit leadership theories. Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age Pub.pp45 Read More