Essay Example on Understanding Leadership: Defining Capacity to Stimulate Change

Introduction

In gaining a better understanding of the concept of leadership, it was crucial first to evaluate the meaning of the term "leadership." To be a leader means being able to make a difference in the workplace and enable the implementation of positive changes. Therefore, leadership is defined as the capacity to stimulate confidence and to assist people in the realization of organisational goals in the different organisation levels. It is also described as a relationship influence that leaders have over followers to achieve real change and outcomes that illustrates their shared goals (Elhajj 2013).

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Gill (2011) suggests an integrative definition of leadership by defining it as showing the way and assisting or stimulating others to pursue it. The author provides the six characterisations of leadership, which include, envisaging a successful future, promoting the development of a clear purpose, innovative strategies, employee empowerment, supportive values, and collaboration with the stakeholders. Klingborg et al. (2006) defines leadership as process-oriented practices that challenge systems, and thereby stimulating the development of a shared vision, and allowing others to act appropriately.

These definitions of leadership have some interesting coinciding themes. For instance, they indicate that there must be a leader and a follower. The leader needs to have a vision and be diligent in the change implementation process. The follower is involved in the implementation process and is empowered.

The Importance of Leadership

There has been a consensus of the critical contribution of effective leadership in an organisation and especially concerning performance and change (Abbas and Asghar 2010). Leadership in an organisation that ensures that the workforce remains focused and moves forward in the achievement of organisation goals. This is accomplished by defining goals and clarifying the objectives of the team. Leadership also empowers the workplace to work optimally. A good leader knows the capabilities of the employees and can, therefore, get the best out of them since they can align their strengths to the specific tasks. They also promote communication and collaborations among members to ensure success (Iwate et al. 2017). Effective leaders are also responsible for their decision-making. Lastly, leadership is essential in organisation change. There are cognitive, functional, and social competencies that an effective leader possesses for successful change (Abbas and Asghar 2010).

Contrast the main approaches to the study of leadership

Over the years, studies have carried out by researchers seeking to determine the most effective leadership approach. In such studies, different variables are considered. These include social and cultural backgrounds, and leaders and followers, and their traits. The leadership style emphasises on the behaviour of the leader. There are two fundamental leadership behaviours used by leaders in impacting their subordinates in their tasks to achieve the objectives (Neculae and David 2017). They involve task behaviours and relationships behaviours. The leadership style can be enhanced by assessing the actions of the leader.

There are three fundamental approaches to the examine the concept of leadership, and these include traits approach, situational approach, and behavioural approach. The traits approach postulates that leaders are not made but born. These means that these traits are specific to only leaders and differentiate them from others. The approach suggests that an individual possess specific behaviours which constitute their personality and therefore discerning them from others (Aibieyi 2014). These traits include flexibility, emotion, maturity, knowledge, will-power, and integrity. This means that all leaders possess leadership traits. The approach has been successful in the establishment of universal, specific traits that are prevalent to all leaders. However, this study approach has some weaknesses. First, it does not rank traits according to their importance (Aibieyi 2014). Second, it does not discern between traits necessary for the acquisition of leadership and those critical in the maintenance of leadership.

The situation/contingency approach posit that leadership is a factor of social situation, whereby there is a link between a leader and a follower. It means that the application of the concept of leadership must involve two or more individuals. The approach explains that leadership is relationship between a leader's personality and the social system. According to the situation approach, the effects of leadership only occur after a social interaction. Lastly, there is a behavioural approach that sees a leader as passive since leadership is the relationship between personality and social environment and driven by the status (Marume and Ndudzo 2016). It majors on what the leaders do, which include leadership functions and styles.

Critically evaluate the role of leadership in strategic management

Examining strategic management through the lens of leadership emphasises the roles of leadership in the formulation and adoption of a strategy. The term "leadership" is derived from the verb "lead," meaning to guide or direct. Leaders in strategic management capacity do the planning, implements plans, and control the workflow (Elkhdr, 2019). There are different roles of leadership in strategic management. These include:

Determination of Strategic Direction

The leadership ensures the formulation of strategic goals and then motivate the employees to work towards the realization of the developed goals (Jabbar and Hussein 2017). The leader is critical in the decision making to promote effectiveness. The top leadership also has the responsibility for the development of a clear vision to be followed in the organisation. The formulation and communication of clear and detailed vision are essential roles of strategic leadership in an organisation. It depicts the picture of where the organisation will be in years to come. The vision created by the leadership indicates the destination of the organisation. Therefore, this is the basis for the formulation and implementation of strategies (Redmond, 2013).

Development of Human Capital

The leadership is involved in the development of human capital to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage (Redmond 2013). This means that leaders must ensure that the employees are trained and developed. The human resource management is also involved, but without the involvement of the leadership, there may lack impetus and budget.

Strategy Formulation and Implementation

The determination of a strategic direction and development of the human capital are critical roles of the leadership and are critical in effective strategy integration (Jooste and Fourie 2009). The leadership works as a link between the strategic management and the vision of the organisation. This begins by strategic thinking that develops a vision and then formulates a culture acceptable to all stakeholders. Then leadership introduces the culture and a vision that functions as the foundation for the formulation of strategies, and its commitment promotes the success of the implementation process (Azhar et al. 2013). It also inspires and motivates human capital to bring change.

Critically compare the relationships between leaders of workgroups, and leaders of teams

To establish a basis for the critical comparison of the correlation between leaders of workgroups and those of teams, it is important to determine the difference between workgroups and work teams. A workgroup is a collection of mutually independent members with distinct goals who are connected by similar interests and experiences (Contu and Pecis 2017). Despite the group members sharing information and resources, they are separately accountable for their tasks. There exist two types of groups, namely formal groups which are formulated by the leadership to accomplish particulars assignments, and informal groups, and informal groups, which are formulated by employees for various reasons. A work team, on the other hand, is an interdependent group of members sharing accountabilities and focused on a shared goal (Contu and Pecis 2017). There is a mutual understanding between team members and collaborate to optimise their strengths and reduce the impacts of weakness. A work-team is characterised by synergy in which the whole is considered valuable than the collections of the parts.

After the establishment of the difference between workgroups and work teams, it is possible to examine their leadership differences. First, the leadership in a workgroup dominates and controls the activities while in a work team, the leadership functions as facilitator (Zoltan and Vancea 2015). This means that the leader dictates the functioning of a group, and the members look to the leader of decision making and general directions. However, this is different in the work team context in which the leader facilitates the group activities. Also, the inputs of the members are put into the account in the decision making process. Second, the leaders set the workgroup goals while the team collectively makes shared goals and objectives in a work team setting (Somech 2006). This means that there is a set of pre-determined goals to be followed by the workgroup, but the team collaborates in the development of shared goals and objectives. Third, the leader is a workgroup conducts the group meetings while in a work team, the members are actively involved (Zoltan and Vancea 2015). Lastly, in the workgroup, it is the role of the leader to assign tasks to the members, while in a work team, the members make collective decisions on tasks.

Distinguish between the influence of leadership on groups and teams, and on formal and informal groups

Influence of Leadership on Groups and Teams

The term "group" or "team" in the work setting entails to the group of members who have shared responsibilities and are jointly or individually responsible for the results of the entire group (Solat et al. 2017). Groups and teams are a critical element of a successful organisation, and therefore their development and motivation are essential in improving performance. The leadership has the responsibility of motivating ad supporting teams (Sohmen 2013). Effective team performance is characterised by several attributes. First, there is a need for integration between the individual members' actions. Second, teams and groups are necessitated to function in complex and dynamic contexts. Thirdly, effective team performance is underscored by appropriate team leadership. Leadership has a great influence on the functioning of teams and groups by incorporating four basic processes, which are effective, motivational, cognitive, and coordination (Gadirajurrett, 2018). Leaders have a specific influence on teams and groups. First, they emphasise group identity in which stress is on the mutual attributes among the members of the team. Therefore, the leaders can develop a separate identity of the team or group under their supervision. The resulting behaviour is shown in the aspect of idealised influence, and the employees respect their leaders since more focus is on the group as a work unit. This means that stress is on collective identity. Second, when the leader communicates the vision of the group or team, it is indicative of a successful group's future. Thirdly, there is team-building, which inspires cooperation and coordination, enhances mutual trust, and aid in conflict resolution (Solat et al. 2017). The effective group focused leadership is charact...