For years, there have been many leadership ideas and theories which has been the source of intensive studies. The three major leadership ideas/theories that I have learned are the Behavioral Theory, the Contingency Theory, and the, Transactional Leadership Theory. The Behavioral theories of leadership focus on the behaviors of a leader. In this theory, a leader’s behavior is a gauge of their influences and as a result, is a good indicator of his or her leadership success. There are two important behavioral studies. The first study was conducted in Ohio State University in the 1940’s. This study was created because some leadership studies that were aimed at identifying the appropriate traits didn't yield any conclusive results. People …show more content…
This scientist studied the personality and characteristics of leaders. His model states that there is no one best style of leadership. Instead, a leader's effectiveness is based on the situation. This is the result of two factors called the leadership style and situational favorableness which was later called situational …show more content…
This theory argues that there is no single way of leading and that every leadership style should be based on certain situations. Humans are not all the same, they do not react the same, nor is any situation the same. There are certain people who perform at the maximum level in certain places; but at minimal performance when taken out of their element. A leader, in order to continue being one, will have to adjust to what happens in the environment, that is, contingencies. The word contingency means depending upon. Those proposing contingency theories realize that a leader must adjust. The hallmark of these theories is context and in a more profound sense, everything is interdependent. To a certain extent contingency leadership theories are extensions of the trait theory, in the sense that human traits are related to the situation in which the leaders exercise their leadership. It is generally accepted within the contingency theories that leader are more likely to express their leadership when they feel that their followers will be
One theory we discussed was leadership and power. This is a very complex theory because it is a fine line to walk on. This is difficult because without power a leader cannot influence others to jump into action. However, at the same time too much power can be detrimental to a leader. There are different sources where power can come from.
The trait theory of leadership was first discovered in mid 1800s. It is closely tied to the great man theory whereby leaders are thought to be born and only those who were born with correct traits and quality are suited to leadership (Lee, 2014). It is a line of research which examine which characteristics we should pursue to lead effectively. The most common traits to leaders are intelligence, determination, integrity, self-confidence and sociability. However, different study shows that there are other traits such as knowledge, responsibility, emotional control, courage and trustworthiness to be linked to effective leaders.
Those individuals who were believed to have these inherent skills were people of very influential status, wartime heroes and those of great wealth. The people who emerge or are most picked to lead have distinctive drives and character profiles (Nicholson, 2013, p.16). Leadership Thought Development from 1900 – 1970 The thought of leadership evolved from the Great Man Theory to Trait Theory and Behavior Theory. The trait theory focuses on identifying distinctive personality traits and characteristics that are associated to successful leadership.
Contingency theories put forth the idea that the success of a leader hinges on the specific situation at hand. A situation can be proven effective based on the leader or the leadership style attached. The factors that would determine this would include the task, the personality of the leader and the composition of the group that is meant to be led. Its basic assumption is that leadership-success or failure – is situational. There are a number of sub-theories that fall under the general contingency umbrella.
Understanding leadership Describe the factors that will influence the choice of leadership styles or behaviours in workplace situations Leaders are performing different styles of leadership, as each leader maintain to develop her/his own personal style. Many factors may influence the style a leader uses. Some of the factors may create naturally, while others are a product of the leader's environment. Some leaders may need to improve their leadership style to follow to a changing culture. a. Personality Traits: A leadership style may become an expansion of the leader's personality.
" Leadership is the ability of a superior to influence the behavior of subordinates and persuade them to follow a particular course of action." - Chester Barnard Max Weber 's Theory: Types of Leadership In Max Weber 's theory, he wrote about three types of leaderships: Bureaucratic, Charismatic, and Traditional. Weber was one of the first of the theorists to recognize that leadership itself was situational in nature, and that effective individuals needed to move dynamically from one type of leadership style to another to remain successful. 1] Bureaucratic Leadership "Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge." Bureaucratic leadership is based upon fixed official duties under a hierarchy of authority, applying a system of rules for management and decision-making.
In this regard, leaders and managers can appear at any level of an organisation and are not exclusive of each other (Germano, 2010). Leadership theories identify leaders based upon traits as well as how their influence and power is used to achieve organizational goals and objectives (Germano, 2010). As such, trait based characteristics include leaders such as autocratic, democratic, bureaucratic and charismatic. On the other hand, leadership that is viewed from the perspective of the exchange of power and its utilisation to secure outcomes, are situational, transactional and transformational leaders (Germano, 2010). It is of paramount importance to consider the different types of theories of management and leadership and their potential impact on organizational strategy being that management and leadership plays a vital role in the success of businesses.
This paper will examine the three leadership theories, identify how they apply to my practice, and explore how these theories interact with each other. The Trait Leadership Theory is based on the belief that a person is born with special traits contributing to natural leadership abilities. Studies of famous historical leaders have been used to identify various traits for this theory. Although the list of traits differs from study to study, there are five major traits that are consistent throughout most studies.
Out of those, leadership styles and contingency theories dominate the current literature on leadership. There are two major studies on leadership styles
According to Bauer and Erdogan (2010), we have Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, Situational Leadership, Path-Goal Theory of Leadership, and Vroom and Yetton’s Normative Decision Model. I will explain three of these theories one-by-one, then discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and then analyze how each fits with my personality traits and leadership method. Fiedler’s Contingency Theory is based upon the LPC scale of a person also known as the Least Preferred Coworker (Bauer & Erdogan, 2010). If you have a high LPC, that means you still think well of even the worst coworker you could imagine. If you have a low LPC, it means that you think that the coworker you would hate would also be a bad person.
Personality of Dr. Jannie corresponds with this theory in the case she makes decision based on fact and figures and her leadership is based on empiricism, that all rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience. For example, she is a strong minded leader, always taking an attitude of mutual trust and an effective way to practice the company goals. If her employees have the things they want to do, or they are prepared to put their effort into a plan, she will go all out to support them. For example, as a leader, she will communicate with employees well, so as to understand the problems encountered by employees, stand in the position of them and also help them solve problem or give advice. She is a positive thinking person.
Contingency Theories of Leadership Within the movie, some of the characters show qualities of leadership that can change depending on the situation and the environment. Especially notable, the whole aspect of Inception is its emphasis on the dream world in the environment of one’s subconscious. A theory that is expressed throughout the situations in the movie is the Path-Goal theory. This theory is described to possess a leader who helps their followers by removing obstacles for them and giving them the best route to opportunity.
According to this theory the best leaders are those who best adapt themselves to the situation. An adaptive leader might look at cues such as the type of task and who is involved in group, to better their judgement. A study on university employees on situational leadership found results that indicated a situational factor in leadership when solving different job tasks (Fernandez & Vecchio, 1997). This theory has an application for the EPP that I took part in, throughout my experience I was faced with tasks that we as a team had to overcome, it became clear that the role of leader changed dependant on the task. An example would be creating the design and speech for the new PowerPoint presentation for recruitment of student staff.
Behavioral leadership theories are explaining distinctive styles that used by effective leaders. Contingency leadership theories are explaining the leadership style that appropriate based on the leader and followers situation. Integrative leadership theories are influencing successfully leaders and followers relationship through combining of the trait, behavioral, and contingency theories The management to the leadership theory paradigm is transform autocratic leadership to new style of leadership. Q3.
According to the book, "individuals who exhibit traits as a leader able to recognize someone who is a leader of leaders does not mean they managed to get each group to achieve its goals. " theories of leadership behaviour suggests that certain people are able to distinguish the behaviour of a leader by himself and not from