Overview and analysis of Leadership theories

Overview and analysis of lead theoriesMen make history and not the otherwise way around. In periods where there is no leaders, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better Harry S. Truman.leaders has been defined in several ways. In its simplest form, lead has been described by Susan Ward as the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Leadership, however, is a very interwoven subject, and encompasses such wide ranging disciplines like human psychology, man management, management of resources, communication skills, technical knowledge etc. A leader, therefore, is a person who has these skills and knows how to use them to motivate, overhaul and inspire the team to achieve his vision.For centuries, leaders has traditionally been associated with the military. In recent times, however, the importance of business leadership has become more and more evident. As a conseq uence of this paradigm shift, the old theories of leadership have given way to new ones, more aligned towards the business environment.Overview of Leadership TheoriesThe concept of leadership has witnessed a gradual change from individual leadership to organisational leadership. A study of the evolution of leadership theories through the ages clearly highlights this point.The earliest studies on leadership were found mostly on personifying leaders, giving rise to the supposition that leaders were born, not made. The dominance of the male gender, particularly in military leadership, gave rise to the salient valet de chambre theory, which suggested that born leaders would arise when the berth called for them. It is quite evident that in the modern sociological environment, this theory can be considered to be irrelevant.An offshoot of the Great homophile theory was the Trait theory, which suggested that some people had certain inborn traits that qualified them to be good leader s. This theory suffers from similar drawbacks as the Great Man theory. Moreover, both these theories are applicable to individual, rather than organisational leadership.A quantum jump from the earlier theories came with the concept of the Behavioural theory of leadership. With this, the centralize shifted to learning, rather than inheriting the art of leadership. The Participative Leadership theory evolved on the premise that better decisions could be made if the process involved several people instead of one person alone. On the other hand, according to the Situational Leadership theory, the leadership style would depend on situational factors.In the study of leadership in the context of modern business, the dickens most favorite theories that have emerged are the Transactional theory and the Transformational theory. The transactional leaders work through a process of clear structures, and a system of rewards and punishments forms an integral part of the process. The Transformat ional theory is based on the leaders vision and his ability to get his subordinates to follow that vision by personally inspiring them and transforming them by enlarging their vision, motivating and providing intellectual education.Literature limited reviewStudies on leadership have been carried out since time immemorial. In circa 500 BC, Sun Tzu described the five traits of a successful leader (Gagliardi, 1999). It is believed that his thoughts on leadership closely approximate the Situational Leadership theory of modern times. In 16th century AD, Niccolo Machiavelli put forth theories on how a prince should acquire and maintain his state. new(prenominal) strategists of their times such as Lao Tzu and Confucius of China and Chanakya of India also taught leadership principles some of which are still relevant today.Since the turn of the twentieth century, when the action shifted from the field of operation to the boardroom, new leadership theories have been presented, existing on es have been revised, reviewed and reframed, and new leadership gurus have become household names.The Trait Theory. The Trait theory has been in humanity since the early 20th Century. Various studies carried out by different researchers (Stogdill, 1948, 1974 Mann, 1959 Lord, DeVader and Allinger, 1986 Locke and Kirkpatrick, 1991) are in agreement that specific traits exist that distinguish leaders from non-leaders, exactly differences exist in the traits identified by them. However, it is evident that mere possession of these traits does not make a leader as a combination of personality and situation would determine the leadership qualities at any point of time. Moreover, the identifications of traits is a subjective issue, and their validity would remain debatable.The Behavioural or Style Approach. In the early 1950s, the focus of leadership theories shifted from traits to behaviours as many scholars felt that leader behaviour was more crucial than mental, physical or emotional traits. Two studies carried out by Ohio suppose University and the University of Michigan in the late 1940s and 1950s set out to validate this theory. Using a questionnaire on a sample population, the Ohio study reason out that there were two distinct aspects of leadership initiating structure or task oriented behaviour and consideration, or showing concern for subordinates. The Michigan study cogitate that leadership behaviour could be either employee oriented, or production oriented. Both these studies predict that there are certain universally applicable leadership behaviours, but there is no proper empirical evidence to support these. Moreover, these studies have not taken the effects of variable situations into consideration.Situational Leadership Theory. Based on Reddins three-D Management Style theory and developed by Blanchard and Hersey (1969), this is one of the most widely used theories that has found widespread use in training and employee development and works on the premise that the situation pass on dictate the type of leadership. Depending upon the situation, the leadership style could either be directive or supportive. The leader will have to modify his style along with the variance in employee morale and skills. The figure below represents the correlation between the leadership style and the situationThe Situational leadership model places the onus of employee development on the leader. Because of its simplicity and ease of implementation, this is in wide use for training of leaders. It demand to be borne in mind that as the development of subordinates progresses, the leader himself also needs to develop and to adapt to the changing situation.Transformational Leadership.The term transformational leadership was first used by Downton (1973) but the concept was brought into hump by James MacGregor Burns (1978). According to this theory, transformational leaders provide inspiration and motivate their subordinates to work towards a common ob jective. Burns divided leaders into two categories the Transactional leaders who work on a system of rewards and punishments for the work done and the Transformational leaders who make a connection with the followers to work towards the common goal. This theory was further developed by Bernard Bass (1985), who put forth the view that transformational leaders make their followers aware of the importance of the task and of their own needs for personal growth, while at the same time motivating them to place the organisational interests before their own. Further research has been carried out by Bass Avolio, 1990 Kunhert, 1994 and Avolio, 1999.Studies have exhibit that transactional leaders had generally performed up to the expected standards, while transformational leaders have exceeded expectations (http//www.abolrous.com/hazem/leadershiptheories.pdf). Transformational leadership has been widely accepted by many organisations, but although they make an important contribution to the l iterature, but they should not be heralded as a revolutionary approach that makes all the earlier theories obsolete. (Yukl, 1999). Contemporary studies of various leaders and organisations indicate that for the successful implementation of organisational goals, there is a requirement of a mix of transformational leadership (at the top management level) and transactional leadership (at the implementation level).Notable amongst the research on this theory are the ones carried out by Bennis Nanus (1985) and Trichy DeVanna (1986, 1990), using similar methodologies of interviewing a large number of CEOs. Bennis Nanus came to the conclusion that the traits of transformational leaders can be described by four IsIdealized Influence (leader becomes a role model)Inspirational Motivation (team spirit, motivate, and provide meaning and challenge).Intellectual Stimulation (creativity innovation)Individual shape (mentoring)Trichy DeVanna found that leaders bring about change by way of a thr ee step processRecognise the fact that there is a need for changeCreate a vision and design a plan based on this visionInstitutionalize the change.http//sbinfocanada.about.com/od/leadership/g/leadership.htm Ward, Susan Leadershiphttp//changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/leadership_theories.htm Leadership TheoriesBass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership Learning to share the vision. organisational Dynamics, (Winter) 19-31.Gagliardi, G., (2001) Sun Tzus art of war plus its amazing secrets The keys to strategy. Clearbridge publishing. Seattle, WA.http//www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/leadership_situational.html Situational LeadershipLeadership Theory and Practice, Peter G. Northouse, Third EditionManagement of Organizational Behavior, Paul Hersey, Seventh Editionhttp//www.abolrous.com/hazem/leadershiptheories.pdf Leadership SummaryEuropean Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 1999, 8 (1), 33-48 An Evaluative Essay o n Current Conceptions of Effective Leadership, Gary Yuklhttp//business.nmsu.edu/dboje/teaching/338/transformational_leadership.htm Transformational Leadership David M. Boje (2000)http//psychology.about.com/od/leadership/a/transformational.htm TransformationalLeadership Kendra Cherry