Kim Woods Only (Literature Review Draft)

Leadership Development Literature Review Research Plan

OLCU 501

12 November 2017

Research Plan

A literature review is an important way of documenting research evidence about a particular topic of interest, and therefore provides a simple way of presenting the needed information in a manner that allows for simple analysis of relevant data. The following research plan will therefore start by giving the purpose of this research through giving the purpose of the literature review. The second part of the research plan will involve giving the specific research questions which the research is going to answer, and this will be followed by therefore stating why the research was necessary in the first place, and how the identified research questions are going to be answered. Finally, the research plan will outline the references which will make the bigger bulk of the literature review.

Purpose Statement of Research Review

The purpose of this literature review is to form a prilimery understanding of the research topic identified for this assignment. This will involve looking deeply at research material that exists in various libraries that touches on the topic, thereby increasing my base of knowledge for the issue identified in the topic. The literature review will form the bulk of the research procedures for delving into the research of the development of leaders and all the matters that revolve around that issue. The literature review part of the assignment will involve looking at information already written about the issue and then evaluating that information in a manner that conforms to the research thesis identified for this topic.

Research Questions

In the literature review, I will answer the following questions.

1. Who is a leader?

2. What are the qualities that differentiate good leaders from the rest?

3. What do leaders do that give them the title of leaders and not just ordinary people?

Literature review outline and how I will answer Each Question

Who is a Leader?

In the simplest of senses, a leader is an individual who has charge over a group of other people, and this involves offering the group direction in terms of what to do and how to act in certain situations. In the traditional sense, a leader refers to an individual who is responsible for other people, and this involves offering direction for the people and being responsible for their actions (Bennis, 2010).

The concept of a leader is purely tied to their leadership skills, which pertains to their ability to rally people to a common course, and facilitate the achievement of the set goals and objectives. Leaders are the people who provide directions to the rest of the people, and acts as the people that others report to in order to report back on their progress or come to for further guidance and direction (Goleman, 2003).

Leaders are therefore people whose primary role is to be role models for others, allowing the others to have a societal figure to emulate and go to for directions or for further instructions (Goleman, 2004). Leaders are not only the people who are in charge of projects and missions which can be seen by people, but they are also the people who are in the board rooms and chair meetings where their primary role is to motivate others to respond to common goals and objectives, and motivate them to operate within the set regulations in order to achieve missions that are important to more than just a group of given people. Leaders take charge of the day to day operations of different projects and endeavors, and their primary goal is to act as a compass that gives directions to different people joined together by their common missions, despite their differences as individuals (Bennis, 2009).

Qualities that make up the Good Leaders

The idea behind good leaders goes beyond the categorizing of people who can bring together other people and have them believing in the same mission, or acting in a similar manner. Good leaders have characteristics that set them apart from other kind of leaders, and this perhaps conforms to the same differences that gives them their ability to act the way they do, better than other people would in the same set of circumstances or conditions (Ciulla, 2003).

The best way to primarily understand leaders, is to consider their abilities as people to bring together other people despite their differences, come up with strong and viable missions and goals, and have other people believe in these missions as well (Hernez-Broome, 2004). In their executive positions, good leaders are the groups of people who can make proper organizational based decisions, come up with achievable missions and also goals and objectives that can be shared by other people, communicate properly with the people they lead, and properly delegate duties and allocate resources to ensure set goals are achieved in not only a timely manner, but while ensuring proper resources are allocated to the right functions, thereby reducing losses and ensuring maximization of such resources (Eagly, 2007).

The other qualities that make up good leaders include their honesty to the course, commitment to the set goals, their hardworking nature, and their ability to be creative when they are presented with the day to day conditions that make decision making the process that it actually is (Gold, 2003). Good leaders have the right leadership skills that help them not only achieve great things as individuals, but also as people on the top of the decision making process that sees other people follow set guidelines and work towards the achievement of set goals, by using their abilities as people in the positions they constantly find themselves in.

Dealing with various projects, leaders are required to be instrumental in disaster management, strategic planners and executers of policies, as well as compliant to various aspects of organizational structures that depend on the kind of organizations they lead (Grojean, 2004). Motivated by the goals and objectives of the groups of people they lead, good leaders are sensitive to different aspects such as feedback, and they utilize the resources at their disposal to ensure that their organizations remain not only profitable, but also that they have the right human resources to ensure success in the long run, in terms of achieving the missions of the projects they set out to undertake.

Functions of Leaders

The functions of leaders are purely task oriented, and the tasks they perform are based on the kind of decisions that actually have to made, as well as the standards of performance that have to be adhered to. For anyone who has ever been in a leadership role, the task is not easy, as the parameters of performance that have to be met are not normally based on decisions that are easy to make or enforce on other people (Kotter, 2000). Good leaders know how to rally different people towards the same course, something which involves knowing the people one is working with, the goals that are to be achieved, the standards that have to be met, and the people involved in the whole process, in terms of ensuring that all the people are happy at the end of the day (Bell, 2002). Basically, a leader will create visions to be achieved, bring people together, and ensure that the vision set is achieved in the right manner, while not stepping on the toes of any of the people involved.

Preliminary References

Bennis, W., & Bennis, W. G. (2010). On becoming a leader. ReadHowYouWant. com.

Bennis, W. (2009). On becoming a leader. Basic Books.

Bell, B. S., & Kozlowski, S. W. (2002). A typology of virtual teams: Implications for effective leadership. Group & Organization Management, 27(1), 14-49.

Ciulla, J. B. (2003). The ethics of leadership. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Colvard, J. (2003). Managers vs. leaders. Government Executive, 35(9), 82-4.

Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2007). Through the labyrinth: The truth about how women become leaders. Harvard Business Press.

Hernez-Broome, G., & Hughes, R. L. (2004). Leadership development: Past, present, and future. People and Strategy, 27(1), 24.

Grojean, M. W., Resick, C. J., Dickson, M. W., & Smith, D. B. (2004). Leaders, values, and organizational climate: Examining leadership strategies for establishing an organizational climate regarding ethics. Journal of business ethics, 55(3), 223-241.

Goleman, D. (2003). What makes a leader. Organizational influence processes, 229-241.

Goleman, D. (2004). What makes a leader. November, 21, 2012.

Gold, A. (2003). Principled principals? Values-driven leadership: Evidence from ten case studies of ‘outstanding’school leaders. Educational Management & Administration, 31(2), 127-138.

Kotter, J. P. (2000). What leaders really do. The Bottom Line, 13(1).