Concepts of Leadership Behaviour and Emotional Intelligence - Coursework Example

Organisational Behaviour Name: Institution: Introduction Organisational Behaviour is a category of learning that tries to indicate the impact that persons, groups, and arrangement encompass on behaviour inside an organisation for the reason of getting better an organisation’s efficiency. It points out in detail the use of familiarity about how persons, individuals, and groups undertake their activities in an organisation. It interprets in detail how people-organisation relations in terms of the whole personality, whole assemblage or group, whole officialdom or organisation, and whole societal system. It helps build better relations by meeting or achieving human objectives, organizational aims, and social responsibilities (Newstrom et al, 1993) plus objectives. It entails a wide range of subtopics comprising; Human actions, management and control, transform or change and teams. Others include models, occupation life, and social systems within a system of government/organisation, action learning/experience and many more. Organisational behaviour talks about different forms of leadership, style of leadership, qualities of a good leader and ability to handle different scenarios that occur under leadership. There are several disciplines that occur and are discussed under organisational behaviours that take into consideration the social, psychological, managerial and communicative aspect of an organisation. Studies that include the powers, cultural lifestyle and the connections or networks of individuals in an organisation are done to help understand organisational principles. Organisational behaviour as a whole looks at the behaviour of employees in an organisation relative to the systems in the organisation and the relationship between it and another organisation that may or may not be offering the same services. Within the organisational set up, the study can be done while comparing the differences in groups or the differences in terms of behaviour from one firm to another. In a more substantial but general view it studies three basic determinants of behaviour; Persons/Individuals, Organisational Groups and basic Organisational Structures. Concepts of Leadership Behaviour and Emotional Intelligence A leader is any individual given the responsibility of being the head of a group, self leadership or an organisation. Concepts of leadership entail a scale of different virtues that need to be taken into consideration. The skill of leadership refers to the level of proficiency, adeptness or expertise by which a leader handles self, a group of people or an organisation. For a leader that is skilled, the ability to explain or describe, comprehend/understand, envisage/predict and direct/control individual behaviour is all that it takes too successfully to lead a group or an organisation. Describing a human behaviour involves the ability to analyse the behaviour of each and every individual under his/her command and identify attitudes. Understanding behaviours is an ability to appreciate the reason as to why people under a leader are behaving in a certain manner, identify those reasons and take corrective deeds. Being able to predict an individual’s behaviour is the ability of a leader to be frequently very close to people under him/her, (Davis, 1967) and identify their nature. Workers can be productive than their counterparts while others are tardy/slow and disruptive in nature. Based on their nature, a leader should be able to handle them differently and channelize their force and vigour towards productivity. In addition, Control of behaviours is essential and that the leader should be at a position to train workers to behave in a certain manner. Training of workers through seminars and setting up rules and regulation measures should be able to train the workers adapt to a certain mode of behaviour. They workers in return acquire values that are in line with the organizational culture and objectives. Styles of leadership refer to the different modes, categories and kinds of leadership that can be used in managing behaviours. There are four major models/styles/ frameworks that organisations operate out of, Autocratic, Democratic, Laissez Faire and Bureaucratic styles. Autocratic and Bureaucratic styles entail (Hogan et al, 1994) authoritative and uneasy leadership where already set policies are followed respectively. Democratic and Laissez Faire styles involve participative, consultative and free rein/anarchic style where a leader fails to lead a group respectively. Workers choose what they think is right to do and do it within their own timelines under anarchic type of leadership. Attributes refer to the qualities/ traits of a leader. A good leader should be intelligent, charismatic, and self-confident, stress tolerant, high energy levelled, have task relevant knowledge, honest (Bane, 2012) and full of integrity plus emotionally mature. On the other hand, Emotional Intelligence refers to the ability of a leader or an individual to be able identify emotions and expressive states and give them names. Further, it involves the ability to direct those emotions in an appropriate way, distinguish them in others and intervening by either calming them down or redirecting them so that they become useful. One does self evaluation to identify strengths and weaknesses then put them to use. Concepts of Transactional and Transformational Leadership and their Relation to Emotional Intelligence Transactional leadership is leadership that projects most on the follower’s goals and errands and their linked reward plus consequence. Perchance it is more management-like, than true headship, it tends to position less importance on constructing relationships among and with followers and developing subordinates to develop into leaders themselves, than it does on the course behind the labour. As a single-handed method, it can put down a lot to be considered necessary and fails to convey out complete potential in the manager or its group. Transactional headship creates a succession of appreciations, rewards and punishments to encourage members of the establishment. The (Hayashi et al, 2006) members who meet the ultimate goals and expectations of the leaders are awarded through salary increments, additional bonuses and other incentives. On the other hand, those that fail to meet obligations or violate the expectations and goals are punished through demotions and termination of their employment. Transformational Leadership is more of a visionary kind of leadership. It aims to establish a good rapport between follower’s and leaders plus inspiring the followers to achieve their goals and obligations. They inspire the followers to work towards achieving the goals that are of personal interest to them. The team that is created is a powerful team whose interest is allied with the company’s interest. The leaders use charisma and a shared vision to create a strong bond between them and the followers. The followers in turn work with a lot of dedication, confidence and creative/ consultative problem solving. It is a contrast of Transactional Leadership. In a general view, Emotional Intelligence is measured using elements such as empathy, self awareness, transparency and self confidence. These key elements Emotional Intelligence are the major substantial and core values under which Transformational leadership operates as discussed above. Because Transactional (Mendel et al, 2003) Leadership depicts active management-by-exception behaviours and routine leadership that requires neither insight nor empathy, it is obvious that there would be no relationship between it and Emotional Intelligence. Two other Interesting Leadership Models or Styles Situational Leadership From the name, ‘situational leadership’, it evident that this is a style of leadership that revolves around environmental dictatorship. The decisions made majorly depend on the conditions or environmental status present at that point in time. This is a leader who is very much flexible and has vast knowledge of his proficiency. In this category, claims are that; with continuously changing work conditions and personalities, the same mode of leadership cannot be deployed at all times. Each measure requires a different approach. The experience of workers as well dictates what would best command a situation. Effective leadership cannot be realised with the same kind of approach all the time with different situations on the offing. In this the leader is final. He gives a direction and the rest follow without questioning. It highly supports the notion of the leader shall lead and the followers follow. There is neither consultation with the followers nor participation of the followers in decision making. Followers do what they are told to do. Innovation Leadership Innovation Leadership encompasses the ability of a leader to be able to identify the ideas of the forward thinkers within his or her grouping (Followers) plus those in other ranks and incorporating them. It is more of implementing people’s ideas than creating some for one self. Further, it involves the capacity to plan/ organise, quantify and calculate, then finally implement or put into action the innovative ideas. This helps in basic management of a project and helps the leader effectively handle (Bane, 2012) competitors. A leader that is innovative is able to overcome the challenges and setbacks that occur due to change. Changes are inevitable and with this ability, a leader would always remain on top of the business transactions in whatever industry they operate in. Innovativeness helps the leader be a good streamliner and always having a mind to improve processes that take place in an organisation. Situational Leadership and Innovative Leadership look more into external environments while the aforementioned were based on traits. A clear contrast is given when the two scenarios are reviewed. As much as Transformational Leadership focuses on the vision of the company and changing the traits of workers to achieve an organisational goal, it does not take into consideration the factors that surround the work environments as Situational Leadership does. Apart from just training the workers to help the organization achieve its goal, Situational Leadership weighs what factors are likely to affect the process of achieving these goals. Innovative leadership is quite interesting because unlike Transactional Leadership that only depends on the headship to make decisions, a more relaxed stance is taken. Ideas from the followers are thought to be a more important factor to consider. Further it is pointed out that a leader that welcomes ideas from other members of the organisational group is more likely to remain competent and a performer in comparison to other forms of leadership. The reason as to why these two last styles of leadership are analysed is to show the contrast between them and initial two. Variation of Leadership Behaviour in Relation to Demands on Emotional Intelligence Apart from taking into consideration the practical aspects of transformational management, leaders should focus on the adaptive progression in managing change. Leaders need to have a deeper consideration of the expressive impacts of shift and adjustments. Leadership Behaviour and Conflict Businesses are set up in dynamic environments. As technology and other business factors change, there is need for workers/ employees to keep up with the new innovations. With transition, individuals in an organisation need to professionally change to meet their job requirements. One glaring fact that comes with (Feltman, 2002) change is the inevitable friction and conflicts/ collisions. Conflict should not be taken as a setback but a driver towards evolution. Literally taking conflict as a subject, it is many a time existent between organisational groups or individuals, systems of headship, organisational processes and ideas. Whenever conflicts occur, it should be a clear indication that there is need for change. It should help make a choice between what best changes can be made. For a leader with a mindset of practising creative conflict processes, great ideas, relationships, systems and processes are equally likely to occur. If conflict is used creatively, an organisation can direct its energy towards developing a better approach to a situation. Solutions that are many a time considered the best arise from a conflicting and creative conversation. With a conversation between a conflicting leader and follower, the old tension that arose from being at two seemingly opposing ends of a transition results in handling the situation with much more openness and compassion. The conflicting parties explore together the authenticity of the conflict and come up with better ideas than the old story that they held. This is healthy for an organisation because more innovative ideas are born because of a conflict. Leadership and Different Cultures Managing a multinational organisation is one big challenge that most organisational leaders undergo. A leader with a staff from different backgrounds at times has to reach some compromise. A question that a leader with a different educational background may sometimes ask is whether the workforce is qualified to handle the roles they are given. Having different educational backgrounds would mean having different standards of education and qualifications for job specifications. To qualify for an occupation in the United States would have different requirements as compared to qualifying for the same occupation in Saudi Arabia or Iraq. Certain behaviours are considered moral in Egypt while the same may be categorised as gross misconduct in the (Cunningham et al, 1990) UK under employment ethics. This poses a big challenge to most organisational leaders that run multinational firms. A good leader has to learn to lower his or her expectation and change views in terms of what to consider when doing an analysis of quality levels to concur with or fit the minds around him/her. Using the best style of leadership is not all it takes to handle this situation but everyone in the organisation should be brought to the same level to enable effective management. A good leader therefore should put aside the pride and ego of having attained a management qualification from a different culture and practise a leadership style that fits in the culture under which the organisation is operating. Leadership and Different Personalities Personalities refer to personal attributes that each individual in an organisation has. Leadership is quite a challenge and especially when it comes to handling different personalities. A leader needs to learn how to develop team building events for working with different personalities, know how to handle those who like and don’t like him, learn to handle mean people and so on and so forth. (Ingram, 2012) There are individuals that are generally sly, those that work well under pressure, those that work with minimum supervision and many more. Good Leadership encompasses developing a system that would fit all these personalities without creating unnecessary friction. Personalities of followers lead them to think, work and socialise with the headship and fellow workmates in many variant ways. When leading different employees, therefore, managers should lay down strategies of handling each and every personality type. For instance, an employee that has self motivation has no hesitation to let his/her voice be heard and taking charge in groupings. Such should be placed in leadership positions, for which they suit naturally. They always strive to be top of any given competition and are driven by their own quest for success and recognition. Secondly, employees that love to socialise should never be put in solitary job positions. Working together with such employees would help motivate them. Having them in groups where they can freely socialise with fellow workers the whole day encourages them. In service provision, they are naturally fit to interact with customers and suppliers giving the organisation a competitive periphery. Leadership and Crisis A crisis in a general view makes reference to disagreements or urgent issues that create disruptions in the management of an organisation. Crises should be treated positively by a good leader. Because crises require urgent attention from an organisational leader, it should help set up working relations in an organisation. A crisis opens up doors for dialogue and wide consultation processes which help come up with agreements that ensure both the management and the followers are satisfied with a solution reached at in a crisis meeting. A good leader should embrace crisis as a tool that helps train the management to make effective decisions fast enough and ensure normal working conditions are resumed in the shortest time possible. Therefore, a crisis is a tool that helps create and improve management skills. Workers working under crisis also gain from it by learning how to meet performance deadlines way before time thus enhancing performance. Conclusion Basing argument on the above mentioned sentiments, organisational behaviour is found to be a very interesting art on the part of the organisational leader. A leader needs to understand, interpret, describe/explain and modify the behaviours of individuals in an organisation. Organisational behaviour therefore becomes a science because it tends to discuss sociology, politics, economics, psychology and medical sciences of the mind which are all social sciences. Organisational behaviour explains the impact that an individual, a group or an organisational structure can have on the trait or behaviour of an individual in a working environment. It involves stress management, conflict management, understanding intergroup behaviours, study of attitudes, perceptions and learning of values at personal levels. Organisational behaviour points out that the overall need for studying individuals, groups and leaders in an organisation is to harness the energy that exist due to these different personalities and put them to a general good of benefiting the organisation. The energy is channelled towards achieving individual and organisational interests. It helps take into consideration the interest of each and every party in an organisation. Organisational Behaviour therefore, in a broader sense, studies the interrelationship between people, structures, technology and their jobs. It focuses on the lifestyle of an individual during the work life. A leader is trained to look at different styles of leadership that can enhance his/her relationship with the people he or she works with. Once the different styles are established, an analysis is done to ensure that the style works well with all the individuals in the organisation. Once the styles fits, the leader makes sure that it runs in line with the systems of the organisation. The systems should help achieve the objectives of the organisation while embracing change that comes with new technologies. The transitions should be beneficial to both the employee and the organisation without much friction. Thus both the follower and the stakeholders have a thing to smile about at the end. The job and the organisation are both sustained due to Organisational Behaviour studies. References Cunningham, J. B. & Eberle, T. (1990). A Guide to Job Enrichment and Redesign. New York: McGraw-Hill. Davis, K. (1967). Human relations at work: The dynamics of organizational behaviour. 9th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill Bane, J. (2012). Organisational Behaviour & Leadership Skills. Retrieved on 5th October, 2012. http://www.ehow.com/list_6796386_organizational-behavior-leadership skills.html Hogan, R., Curphy, G., & Hogan, J. (1994). What we know about leadership: Effectiveness and personality. American Psychologist, 49, 493-504. Hayashi, A., & Ewert, A. (2006). Outdoor leaders’ emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. Journal of Experiential Education, 28, 222-242. Mandell, B., & Pherwani, S. (2003). Relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style: A gender comparison. Journal of Business and Psychology, 17, 387-404. Feltman, C. (2002). Conflict, Leadership and Change, Retrieved 5th October, 2012. http://www.insightcoaching.com/downloads/Conflict.pdf Ingram, D. (2012). How to Manage Different A, B & C Personality Types at Work. Retrieved on 5th October, 2012 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/manage-different-ab-c personality-types-work-11222.html Newstrom, J., W., & Keith, D. (1993). Organizational Behaviour: Human Behaviour at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill. Muchhal, V. (2010). Emotional Intelligence 1. 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