Leadership Theories and Areas of their Application - Research Paper Example

Leadership Theories and Areas of Application Leadership theories 1 Situational life cycle leadership approach Situationallife cycle leadership approach is the most important approach in the field of social work. The concept of Situational life cycle leadership approach was first introduced by Blanchard & Hersey in 1996, as ‘life cycle theory of leadership’. It was later rebranded to ‘situational leadership’ theory in 1972. In 2002, Ken Blanchard updated the concept to ‘Situational Leadership II’. The Situational life cycle leadership approach holds that there is not one single leadership approach that fits all applications. Implementation of situational leadership approach therefore requires a leader to master the applicability of different styles which are appropriate to a given situation. This is done by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of different styles so as to apply them discriminatively. A situational leader must first analyze their priorities and then their followers’ willingness and ability to undertake tasks which will help them decide the most appropriate style to be applied (Vroom & Jago, 2007). The main purpose of situational followers is to actively involve followers to provide their competencies in task delivery by motivating them to develop their competencies and commitments. This theory identified four situational leadership styles and they are; directing, coaching, supporting and delegating. Directing involves a situational leader offering directions to their followers who have no idea how to perform a task but are willing to learn. In doing so, they monitor their performance and provide feedback on progress. For example, a situational leader will help volunteers in different social works perform tasks and regularly monitor their performance to give them feedback on their results. Coaching requires a situational leader to continually provide direction to tasks accomplishment while praising appropriate behavior and achievements. For example; he praises a social worker who is good at making the elderly happy and also trains him to handle conflicts as he has no capacity of resolving conflict. In supporting, the leader and the followers make decisions together. The followers deliberate on the solution as the leader facilitates, listens and motivates and encourages them. Lastly, delegating requires the leader to shares some of his responsibility to the followers and allows the followers to work independently without intervention. For example, a head teacher may notice a teacher doing extremely well in coaching students for talent search and allow him to go through with it with the appropriate resources without being given guidelines (Bargal, D., 2000). I believe situational life cycle leadership approach is the most appropriate approach because it is flexible in its undertaking and allows followers to play an active role. Different levels of deficiency are handled differently which produces desired results. This leadership style allows for diversity in the social work context as the followers are allowed to use their knowledge and skills interchangeably to get tasks accomplished in the best way possible. In most social work context, attention is required especially when dealing with children and the elderly, in that case, situational leaders re able to change their approach depending on tasks, their relationship with the people interacting with him and the needs relate to the context (Smith W. & Warnock J., 1989) 1.2 Authentic Leadership Authentic Leadership is the most suited leadership approach in the context of children and family. This is because authentic leadership is based on a sturdy sense of self. Kernis (2003) holds that the root construct of authentic leaders is family values and the acknowledgement of self-capacity and values. It starts with accepting oneself, portraying one’s authentic character and remaining true to self. Authentic leadership requires one to act in accordance with one’s values, needs and personal preferences but not by falsely carrying out duties to please other, evade punishment or attain rewards. Authentic leadership is therefore an expression of one’s inner feelings, predispositions and motives. According to Avolio et al. (2004), authentic leaders are grounded on their own values based on high moral perspectives, strength, hope, resilience, knowledge and confidence (Avolio et al., 2004). This approach suggests that personal background and family influences are the key motivators of authentic leadership. The leadership traits are molded from family and childhood positive encounters which are filled with honesty, integrity, positivity and leadership culture. The child is modeled to be guided by values which cement human relationships and to be morally and ethically upright. Authentic leaders tend to have a lot of followers as they have a high charismatic sense of attraction due to their perceived inner beauty by their followers (Kernis, 2003). I believe this approach is the most appropriate because leadership traits are anchored on the strongest core self which motivates the undertakings of the authentic leader. Children gain insights into this leadership style and acquire leadership skills at an early age which are anchored in their beliefs and not on the external factors present contextually. This leadership approach reflects on the identity of a leader. He is self-motivated to accomplish tasks for satisfaction as opposed to material gain. Since the leader has authentic behaviors, his activities are unbiased, self-regulated and relationally transparent as seen by the authentic leader demonstration of openness, trust and self-disclosure (Gardner et al., 2005). 2. Power analysis 2.1 Sources of power a) Expertise power This is the type of power demonstrated by people who have exemplary skills, experiences, knowledge or talent on a particular subject. This type of power comes about when a person who has more experience and knowledge gathers influence from the people around him who are utilized to get tasks completed and achieve set goals (Haugaard, & Clegg, 2012). I apply this power to accomplish our social organization goals in the company of the interns. Since they have no practical knowledge, they depend on my expertise to assemble resources to meet our goals and also to resolve conflicts when and as they arise. This entails working with the interns and giving them directions on the way tasks should be undertaken. The benefit of using these powers is that I get to motivate and impact knowledge on young learners. However, I could have allowed the interns to implement their theoretical knowledge and try to complement it to our system but for the rigidity of the system, all this cannot be accommodated. My use of expert power yielded viable and real life results as the interns were able to gain insights as to the practical implementation of their knowledge under my care and monitoring (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). b) Referent power Referent power results from a strong bond of trust, respect and affiliation between a leader and the followers. The leader gains influence over the followers due to the high quality nature of the bond. I apply referent power to my followers because of the shared respect which attracts their trust. Since I’m the human resource manager of my company, I respect the hard work of my employees and respond promptly to their concerns. My influence on the employees comes from their own choice as they are not obliged to be attracted to me, this is because I make sure that all the employees receive equal and fair treatment and their concerns are taken seriously by the management. I also rescue those employees who are sidelined and treated unfairly during work times. Referent powers in my organization help me manage workers properly without resistance as they are motivated to work without imposition. What I would have done differently in this case was to promote workers self-motivation instead of them being motivated by me since I may have to change positions and this could impact adversely to the performance of workers. The impact of this power is increased performance and reduced cases of conflicts within the organization (Craig & Douglas, 2006). c) Charisma power Charisma power is derived from attraction force on the character of a person which makes a leader to be noticed, respected, listened to and followed. Richard Wiseman, professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, in England holds that charismatic traits are partly inborn where one is blessed with special qualities at birth but they require nurturing in order to develop. Charismatic leaders are seen and heard as they communicate the signals they want to send across in many ways through their actions. As the head of the new project our company is initiating, I employ charismatic power to attract more support. Since I’m a good speaker and motivator, I have no difficult using my public relations skills to convince workers to support the project. I use every opportunity I get to communicate the strategies of the project especially to those who show no interest. This has garnered massive support for the project in the company that the management has no doubt the project will be embraced by the community too. The use of this power is very important particularly where support is needed. Support can be gathered by appealing to the attraction of the charisma in a leader (Tosi, Misangyi, & Fanelli, 2004). d) Commitment to purpose This power results from a person displaying exemplary commitment to the achievement of goals. The leader demonstrates knowledge of all the goals, schedules and purposes of both their own self or those of the organization. Such leaders are associated with success and they influence their followers by demonstrating energy, focus and motivated actions. In my finance department, I have a responsibility of overseeing the performance and execution of financial policies, making of financial report and statements. I have utmost respect for the deadlines and costs of the department. I have acquired influence of the motivated and new interns in my department who view me as their role model. They are thrilled to be associated with my achievements and they also want to learn how to achieve the set objectives, purpose, schedules and deadlines of tasks without undue complications which is the cause of my timely progress. This influence results into a culture of goal setting and accomplishment in the organization, communication of powerful goals, sustenance of motivated actions and generation of positive results (Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly & Konopaske, 2012). 3. Areas of Application 3.1 Groups and Teams 3.1.1 Characteristics of effective teams, effective team leaders and effective team members Effective team performance requires that the team be made up of effective team leaders and effective members for it to achieve the intended purpose. Effective teams have a clear purpose for which it was formed. The objectives are clearly spelt out so as to avoid irrelevant business. The process of deliberations and decision making is spelt out on how the group intends to achieve their objectives. The environment is warm; the atmosphere is informal, relaxed and comfortable for all members. There is free expression of thoughts and feelings and everyone in the group participates. Criticism is positive and constructive. Such effective teams require effective leaders, who have confidence, integrity, honesty, great communication skills, organizational skills, delegation powers, influence, a team player, a facilitator, negotiator in times of conflicts and fair to all group members. Effective team members share most of the straits of their leaders. They are honest, fair to each other, reliable, complete skills of other team members, portray positive attitudes and have good communication skills (Duchon, & Plowman, 2005). 3.1.2 Knowledge, Strengths, Abilities important for leading or participating in groups or teams I’m currently working with a social work organization which is set to provide humanitarian assistance to the marginalized comminutes. I’m the leading team leader in our group of ten people and management of the team has not been easy but my strengths, Knowledge, Strengths, and Abilities have enabled me to influence control in the group. This is because I’m a transparent, honest leader with high public relation skills. This has enabled me to communicate effectively with my team. I have also managed to use my skills to motivate hard work which has seen my team provide enormous support to our target. As a leader, I’m internally motivated and my resilient capacity allows me to go on even at tough times which are mostly prevalent in the disadvantaged places. 3.1.3 Strengths and KSAs needed to be developed for effective group and team performance While I have successfully managed to be a very effective facilitator, my efforts are mostly dragged behind my criticism which threatens to wreak havoc while we are working. Some members may offer criticisms which are not well taken by the recipient resulting to conflicts. I would like to improve on several KSAs to be an effective leader in such areas as conflict resolutions, delegation capacities and organizational skills. Currently, I’m experiencing difficulties solving conflicts and delegating tasks without being perceived to be unfair by some members. I believe that acquisition of such abilities will enable me to improve the performance of my group to achieve our purpose as outlined in our objectives. Organizational skills will help m manage the team’s resources properly as our situation requires as to be very economical and avoid wastage as supply is minimal. 3.2 Dealing with Conflict 3.2.1 Sources of conflict and approaches for conflict resolution Sources of conflicts include: poor communication which leads to misunderstandings between staff members or between employees and employers; diversity of group members may cause conflicts due to different values and ideologies; diverse interests may have conflicting effects; scarcity of resources where everyone feels they diverse more than they are getting and laziness of some employees. When conflicts occur in an organization, they need to be resolved as they can aggravate into serious problems in the organization. Some conflict resolution approaches include: negotiation, where parties communicate to resolve their issues either on themselves or with their representatives with willingness to compromise and reach a solution; arbitration, where a third party is involved to make decisions for the conflicting parties; mediation, involves a neutral third party facilitating reconciliation; avoidance, is a situation where one party foregoes the cause of the conflict and walks away and, coercion , where one party uses force to resolve conflict (Deutsch & Coleman, 2000). 3.2.2 Strengths and KSAs useful in avoiding, altering, managing and resolving conflict The most important Strengths and KSAs of avoiding conflicts are understanding and patience. Many conflicts result from misunderstandings and not taking time to understand the issue at hand. By being patenting and understanding, many instances of conflicts can be avoided. Altering the occurrence of conflicts can be done by refocusing on the important matters, enhancing good communication skills and listening skills. When people are able to communicate on important matters efficiently, other side issues will not be able to cause conflicts as they understand the gravity of issues that matter to them. I’m a team players and I have a vast experience with conflict resolution. What makes me effective in conflict resolution is my communication skills, high listening capacities, confidentiality and trustworthiness which creates an atmosphere for understanding. I’m also very resilient, understanding and patient as most people tend to rush out their feelings. 3.2.3 Strengths and KSAs requiring development for effective avoiding, altering, managing and resolving conflict Some of my conflict-handling techniques undermine my resolution since I’m not vast with the extensive knowledge of multicultural and power dynamics. Most conflicts are caused by diversity in cultures, values and beliefs. I need to research more on these issues to be in a position where I can offer help in resolving such conflicts. Neutrality is another area where I need to develop my strength as some people look outright guilty in a conflict that I can’t help but empathize with the perceived innocent side. I need to develop my neutrality so that my judgment is not impaired. And lastly, my tenacity requires boosting. References Bargal, D. (2000). The manager as leader. In R. Patti (Ed.), The handbook of social welfare management (pp. 303–319). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Brown, M. T. (2006). Corporate integrity: Rethinking organizational ethics and leadership. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Conger, J. (2004). Developing leadership capability: What’s inside the black box? Academy of Management Executive, 18(3), 136-139. Craig, C. S., & Douglas, S. P. (2006). International marketing research (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Wiley. 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