reflecting essay for organization wellness

Learning Objectives

•Discuss leadership and the creation of a healthy workplace

•Describe the relational perspective and the behavioural perspective of leadership

•Discuss the role of leadership in developing an inclusive environment

Leadership and Climate

•Leadership is concerned with how some individuals have disproportionate power and influence to set the agenda, define organizational identity, and mobilize people to achieve collective goals (Hogg, 2001)

•First-line leaders are particularly important

–proximal influences on direct followers -  role models and communicate the necessary information to their followers

–decisive role in achieving organizational objectives and maintaining staff wellbeing

–may influence their followers' moods and emotions through contagion processes

–foster a psychological climate and a feeling among employees that health is a primary concern

•Two main contemporary perspectives on leadership, the relational perspective and the behavioural perspective

Leadership and Climate : Relational Perspectives

•Three perspectives of relational leadership in relation to psychologically healthy workplaces:

–leader-member exchange (LMX)

–social identity theory

–theories of role modelling engagement, attitudes, and emotions

Relational Perspectives

•Leader-member exchange (LMX)

  –Concerns the unique leader-follower relationships that are fostered through leadership behaviours

•different exchange relationships with different followers

•mutual influence occurs within each leader-follower dyad

•A mutually positive leader follower relationship (a high-quality relationship) will result in positive outcomes

–Mutual support

–Trust

–Liking

–Loyalty

–Provision of latitude and attention

–Exchanges go beyond the formal work relationship

•Leaders favour the followers with whom they have a good relationship

–allocate these favoured followers more autonomy and responsibility.

–these favoured followers experience better well-being

–high quality LMX is associated with high levels of well-being

•Social identity theory of leadership

–Leadership emerges through social cognitive processes associated with psychologically belonging to a group

–Rests on the assumption that individuals categorize themselves into in-and out-groups

•share values, norms, and attitudes

•represented as prototypes that guide perceptions, attitudes, feelings, and behaviours

–The leader and the work group must perceive themselves as an in-group where the leader acts in the same way toward all followers in the group

•Leaders as role models

 Broaden-and-build theory

•Positive emotions broaden people's spontaneous thoughts

•Engaged leaders able to inspire, stimulate, and coach their followers

•Contagion effect(important in leaders because they function as role models and can influence their employees' well-being)

•Leaders' attitudes and behaviours shape employees' reactions to change initiatives.

Behavioural Leadership: Transformational Leaders

§Leadership - three major typologies

•Laissez-faire - the absence of leadership

-  negative relationship between this type of leadership and followers‘ well-being

•Transactional leadership

-  inconsistent results with regard to its relationship with employee well-being

•Transformational leadership

-  positive relationships with followers well-being

Transformational leadership

•Four dimensions

–idealized influence

•leader assumes the responsibility of being a role model

•sacrifices personal benefits

•holds high moral standards

•encourages followers to go beyond their own self-interest

•Four dimensions

–intellectual stimulation

•encourage followers to question existing work routines and procedures

•explore novel ways of solving problems

•continually work toward improving the way work is performed

•Four dimensions

–inspirational motivation

•formulates a clear vision and establishes the objectives and goals

•sets positive, but realistic, expectations

•sets high standards for the work

•focuses on the positive and what can be achieved rather than focusing on obstacles and barriers

•Four dimensions

–individualized consideration

•pay special attention to both the individual follower's need for achievement (career focus) and their need to thrive at work (well-being focus)

•act as coaches and mentors

•Instrumental and emotional support

•Working conditions, trust, and self-efficacy support

–develop follower's trust in that they show care and consideration

–develop a shared vision

–followers come to trust the leaders' good intentions

–Increase followers' self-efficacy through the Pygmalion effect (i.e. leaders hold and communicate high-performance expectations of followers)

•instilling the idea in followers that they can perform to high standards

•Creation of a positive perception of their work environment

  –help followers see the meaning of their job and understand their contribution

–encourage followers to critically review existing working procedures and seek out new challenges at work that create opportunities for personal growth and opportunities to develop in the job

–function as the communication link

–followers are encouraged to take responsibility in solving problems

–make their followers more involved

–increased affective commitment

•Criticised as transactional

–Transformational leaders should be seen as members of the group and that prototypical leaders are more likely to be followed in terms of their vision because of the agreement between leaders and their followers' needs, values, and attitudes

Integrating Relational and Behavioural Perspectives on Leadership

•Differentiated transformational leadership integrates the LMX and transformational leadership theories

–individual attitudes and behaviours are influenced by how individuals compare themselves with others in the work group

Leaders Managing Healthy Organizational Change

•Leaders often hold the key to work redesign initiatives

–leaders as the organizations' central nervous system

•receiving information and communicating

•facilitating communication

•Integrating and implementing changes

–setting a clear vision

–“make or break” organizational change

Inclusion, Diversity and Leadership:

Perspectives, Possibilities and Contradictions

•Leadership

a process of exercising influence

a way of inducing compliance

a measure of personality

a form of persuasion

an effect of interaction

an instrument of goal achievement

a means of initiating structure

a negotiation of power relationships or a way of behaving

Distributive Leadership

•It is essentially about sharing out leadership across the organisation

–offering greater possibilities for creating democratic environments

–increased effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge management

–motivating individuals through autonomy

–leadership becomes the province of all members of the organization through democratic agency

Inclusive Leadership

•Leadership in relation to diversity and inclusion

–a global agenda

–meanings and interpretations of diversity and inclusion expose deeply politicized tensions and differences

–a seemingly progressive piece of terminology (diversity) has become a cliché

Inclusion, Diversity and Leadership: Perspectives, Possibilities and Contradictions

•Leadership in relation to diversity and inclusion

–seeking to place inclusion and a reduction of inequality of achievement as paramount

–based on explicit moral values of social inclusion

–working within the confines of the broader contextual structures

Summary

•Discussed leadership and the creation of a healthy workplace

•Described the relational perspective and the behavioural perspective of leadership

•Discussed the role of leadership in developing an inclusive environment