Emergent Leadership - Term Paper Example

Report on Emergent Leadership Name Professor Institution Course Date Report on Emergent Leadership Executive summary The paradigm shift in practice and understanding of leadership is needed to fulfill 21st century group challenges. Leadership is always provided in order to bring change. However, it is the same change that members of an organization or a group find uncomfortable with. In nutshell, they are always in fear of unknown and tend to resist as much as possible. The group must always appreciate that there are different styles and the group performance depends on the type of leadership they embrace. From the earliest forms of Autocratic to Laissez-Faire, Transformational, Transactional and Participative (democratic) leadership. However, with the changes that takes place so fast people are now adopting a much more participate styles than before. This report investigates the new form of leadership, emergent leadership which main happens in the group context. Table of Contents Report on Emergent Leadership 2 Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 1.0 Introduction 4 1.1 Background Information 4 3.0 Emergent leadership and the group 6 4.0 Group Formation 7 5.0 Source of power for an emergent leader 10 6.0 Role of an emergent leader 11 7.0 Conclusion 12 8.0 References 12 1.0 Introduction Currently in the 21st century, change is taking place in everything human race is involved, be it economic, social or political factors (Mumford et al 2000, P.15). People also have realized that for them to have a common group on the change, they have to come together in form of a group to pursue a common goal (Bartel & Saavedra 2000, p.201). These groups are mostly formed voluntarily and may start as an informal but later can be changed to a formal group. Forming these groups is not easy because people involved are of different personality who must shed off their personalities that to come together. As such leadership is necessary to steer the group agenda. According to De Souza & Klein (1995, p.491) the most significant style of leadership in needed in a voluntary group is the emergent leadership. 1.1 Background Information Almost all through the history of human leadership, people have only concentrated on the common theories of leadership including situational or contingency, functional, integrated psychological, transactional and transformational. However, there is one leadership theories that has been studied for 80 years yet few people recognize it; that is emergent leadership theory. Research indicates that this form of leadership theory links group role structures and dynamics to the leadership role. An emergent leader is one who is not elected or appointed to the leadership position; rather, leadership in him or her grows over time on account of the group's relations. The emergent leader is never coerced but rather has to prove himself before being granted the leadership title by the group members. Nevertheless this theory has been criticized because it is difficult to quantify. The theory also does not show the extent to which someone should earn the leadership title and also it is difficult for members of the group to know the extent to which the leader assisted the group to achieve the set goals. Based on these insights, this reports investigates what emergent leadership is, assesses group formation and why emergent leadership is important for a group. To make the discussion more comprehensive, the report will analyze the sources of power for emergent leader and the role of emergent leader. 2.0 Emergent Leadership When a person or an employee starts taking on duties voluntarily, assisting colleagues completing their assignments better and supporting consensus amongst work mates, this person can be considered an emergent leader (Pescosolido 2002, p. 591). This form of leadership is renowned for the leader proving him or herself prior to being formally granted a leadership title. Therefore an emergent leader is one who mostly possesses charismatic leadership quantities as opposed to democratic leadership qualities (De Souza & Klein 1995, p.483). This kind of a person is present during the group formation and can influence the group outcome. Probably he or she is the one who comes with an idea of forming a group and doing something constructive that can benefit the group and the society at large (Bartel & Saavedra 2000, p.199). The influence, knowledge and skills the emergent leaders has provide the advantage to the rest of the group members of knowing earlier of capability that this individual and whether he or she can handle the job that is to be done (Bartel & Saavedra 2000, p.207). This form of leadership may also offer the leader respect amongst employees or group members who understand that this leader has demonstrated the capability of working hard. Employees might be expecting emergent leadership to show more compassion for the member of group compared to assigned leadership (Judge et al 2002, p. 780). Comparing this to democratic leadership, this form of leadership make things get done faster and effectively. In democratic leadership style people may wrangle as they try to come into consensus on whom to handle a specific job. Research has increased over the recent past on the responsibility of emergent leadership and the role an emergent leaders in a group (Pescosolido 2002, p.585). This has resulted partly due to the recent increase of the popularity of work groups that are self-managing (Judge et al 2002, p.769). It is should be noted that for an emergent leadership to take place a group must be formed voluntarily with an aim of a common goal. The group formation is actually based on Tuckman's (1965) group-development model. 3.0 Emergent leadership and the group As mentioned before, for emergent leadership to take place, individuals must form a voluntary group with an aim to channel for a common course (Pescosolido 2002, p.584). After group formation, a leader emerges spontaneously without coercing his or her way to the post. The emergent leader in the informal group is picked based on ability and influence he or she has over other group members. Pescosolido (2002, p.592) argues that leaders who emerge spontaneously have the tendency to share particular traits. Effective leaders set clear objectives of what they want to do, a capability to articulate issues, and have a positive sense of personality (Judge et al 2002, p.769). They are trustworthy among the group members, pay attention to group activities, and encourage self-esteem in group members, frequently by giving them a challenge. These are attributes that emergent leaders possess might or might not be owned by the formal ones. According to Judge et al (2002, p.774) emergent leaders capitalize of certain group norms so as to find out and apply their capability to deal with emotion of the group. The major significance of these is the norms of the group concerning the expression of the emotion and communication in the group situation. Expression of emotional expression has been believed to be the major factor in entire development of a group (Pescosolido 2001, p.74), as influencing persuasion in a group, and as a major determinant of psychological safety experienced in a group (Judge et al 2002, p.772). 4.0 Group Formation Group formation always seems easy, but this is not always the case. Group comprises of individual with various personalities and different ambition. In 1965 Tuckman created a model illustrating the sequence that group development follows. He provided that group development consists of dependence or testing, conflict, cohesion and functional maturity (Rickards & Moger 2000, p.273). In the first stage of testing, individuals come together and test if they can operate as a group. This normally seems informal because it just involves registration. In the second phase conflict is expected to arise as members scramble for leadership roles (Rickards & Moger 2000, p.274). Similarly the members try to align with group members whom they are comfortable with. In the last which is functional maturity, the group members out aside ambition and argue soberly towards the achievement of a common objective. On the other hand, Stein, Hoffman, Cooley, & Pearse (1979) suggested model in which they called “valence model of emergent leadership”. In this model they claim that the emergent leadership process goes through three unique stages which orientation, conflict and emergence. At the time of orientation stage, prospective leaders are considered to declare their "contentions" for position of emergent-leadership (Rickards & Moger 2000, p.276). At the period conflict phase, two or several leaders pass the candidature threshold resulting to conflict in leadership. Eventually, in the emergence phase, members of the group freely allow themselves to be subordinated by the leader who meets the emergence standards. valence model of emergent leadership that was designed by Stein, et al.’s was meant to integrate factors of the most famous emergent-leadership hypothesis, the hypothesis of “idiosyncrasy credit” formulated by Hollander in 1958 and 1961 (Stein et al 1979). However, since Tuckman’s model was not ideal enough, he changed it to a more comprehensive four-stage forming-storming-norming-performing model which is more accepted (Rickards & Moger 2000, p.274). The first stage of team building is the group formation. At forming stage groups at first occupy themselves with team orientation achieved mainly through testing. Such testing is carried to identify both task behaviors and interpersonal conduct. The team members meet and learn concerning the opportunities and problems, and decide on objectives and embark on to tackling the duties (Pescosolido 2001, p.77). Group members have the tendency to behave rather independently. This phase forms a good opportunity to observe how every team member works as a person and how they react to pressure. (Rickards & Moger 2000, p.280) posit that conflict is normally avoided in this stage. The next stage of group formation is the storming phase which is highly needed for growth of the group. It is in this stage that means of realizing the group objective are discussed. Rickards & Moger (2000, p.273) state that conflict also emerges as individual’s struggles for leadership positions and power. A group normally enters the storming phase with members having different ideas which compete for thought. The team tackles issues like the problems they will resolve, how they can operate together and independently and the model of leadership they will embrace (Rickards & Moger 2000, p.279). During this phase, group members tend open up to one another and tackle one another’s perspectives and ideas. Leaders also tend to emerge from this stage, because it is this point that members discover the member’s ability, communication skills, motivation and influence of some members in the group (Pescosolido 2001, p.79). The next is the norming stage where a leadership and power is formed. The emergent leader is selected based on some leadership skills, ability and influence (Rickards & Moger 2000, p.271). In a nutshell, his leadership is entirely based on charisma. The group leaders are only expected to have a common objective and develop a mutual plan for the group this phase. Rickards & Moger (2000, p.278) claim that after the leadership and power has been established and emergent leaders chose, some of the group members who also had the ambition to chosen then have to renounce their candidacy and agree to work with leaders to make the group function well. In this phase, all group members assume responsibility and have the aspiration to function for the team's goals and success. It should be noted that forming a group is one thing and positive performance is another (Bartel & Saavedra 2000, p.212). A team is normally formed with an aim of achieving a certain goal, but without proper leadership, everything is bound to fail. Performing stage the most important phase of group development because it determines whether the group objectives are going to be met (Pescosolido 2001, p.83). The intent of forming a group is concentrated under the leadership of an emergent leader. If the emergent leader is effective, the group will definitely remain effective. The high-performing group can operate as a unit when under the influence of the emergent leader they find means to get the job carried out well and effectively without unfortunate conflict or the necessity for the external supervision (Rickards & Moger, 2000, p.278). During this stage, the members of the group tends to be knowledgeable, motivated, competent, autonomous and capable of handling decision-making process with no supervision. According to Pescosolido (2001, p.78) disagreement for a good cause is anticipated and acceptable so long as it is done in manner that is acceptable within the team. Emergent leaders of the group during this stage are nearly usually participative. 5.0 Source of power for an emergent leader Every group is considered to have an emergent leader whom can be encouraged and developed for the benefit of the group or the society at large (De Souza & Klein 1995, p.491). The emergent leader within the group is established on the charismatic expression of an individual, which consist of openness, honesty, humility, self confidence and dominance among others. Judge et al (2002, p.799) contends that an emergent leader portrays an internal source of power and value as opposed to acquiring externally related value and power. These attributes are intrinsic in every individual; however attention is needed to nurture and develop these traits for them to be completely articulated (Pescosolido 2002, p.591). Charisma remains the major source of power to an emergent and this helps him or her to command powerful devotion and loyalty and as a result, inspire passionate commitment among the group members (Pescosolido 2002, p.586). Since the leader has a massive influence over the rest of group members, he rewards positive performance and punish dismal performance. This perspective shows how a powerful emergent leader can be. Emergent leader also draws his power form his expertise and vast knowledge on issues (Mumford, et al 2000, p.17). Being regarded to have knowledge, he is granted an opportunity by the group members to manage their group activities. Also from his argument, reasoning and communication skills people look at him or her differently and think he is worth and has the respect to be the team leader (Judge et al 2002, p.778). 6.0 Role of an emergent leader An emergent leader undertakes informal leadership responsibilities in relation to the perception that members of the group have toward him or her (Mumford et al 2000, p.24). He or she has been given the mandate to head the group therefore makes that final decision after consultation with the group members. An emergent leadership comes as a result of influence someone has over other team members (Pescosolido, 2002, p.593). As such an emergent leader holds the responsibility of building a strong team free of conflicts with an aim of achieving the set goals. According to Mumford et al (2000, p.30) Effective emergent leaders communicate issues well by listening to team members and being easy to talk to. They also express interest in a team member as an individual and offer task direction. In a group setting, an emergent leader usually gets her status by being an engaging communicator and vocal. Emergent leader must not just be seen to communicate but must maintain a communication channel with group to ensure that there is progress in terms of an attempt to achieve its group goals (Mumford et al 2000, p.27). 7.0 Conclusion In conclusion, a group can be a very important avenue for steering various goals of the society but unless a formidable leadership in the group is formed, the group will not function effectively. Leadership may be informal or formal in a group context, but what matters is how effective is the leadership. Yes emergent is effective in the group because a leader is chosen among the people who have won the heart of majority of the group members through his or her but the leader must always remain to be seen to be working. As such the rest of the members may just remain ineffective and should the leader complain he would be seen to have lose touch with the rest of members, hence will be toppled based on that. 8.0 References Bartel, C & Saavedra, R 2000, The collective construction of work group moods, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 45, p. 197 – 231. De Souza, G & Klein, H 1995, Emergent leadership in the group goal-setting process, Small Group Research, vol. 26, p. 475 – 496 Judge, T., Bono, J., Ilies, R & Gerhardt, M 2002, Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 87, No. 4, p. 765-780. Mumford, MD., Zaccaro, S., Harding, F., Jacobs, T & Fleishman, E 2000, Leadership skills for a changing world solving complex social problems, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 11-35. Pescosolido, A 2002, Emergent leaders as managers of group emotion, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 13, p. 583-599. Pescosolido, A 2001, Informal leaders and the development of group efficacy, Small Group Research, Vol. 32, p. 74–93. Rickards, T & Moger, S 2000, Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman’s stage model, British Journal of Management, Part 4, p. 273-283. Stein, RT., Hoffman, LR., Cooley, SJ & Pearse, RW 1979, Leadership valence: Modeling and measuring the process of emergent leadership, In Hunt, JG & Larson, LL (Eds.), Crosscurrents in leadership, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Read More