5/6 discussion

Dickson Osanu, [email protected]

# A00555949

PhD in Management

MGMT 8410

07/04/2016

David Cavazos, [email protected]

Introduction

The concept of leadership has evolved over the years with followers demanding greater participatory roles both in countries and organizations. Due to differences in personalities and leadership effectiveness, there has been a long debate by scholars on whether leaders are born or made. Perhaps, the most inspirational and memorable leaders are those that are charismatic and transformational like Martin Luther King Jnr in civil rights, Bill Clinton in politics and Steve Jobs in business. This paper reviews transformational leadership and how charisma, personality profiles and culture plays a role. Whether a leader is perceived to be transformational or transactional, they need to fully understand those they lead and how their traits can affect this relationship. Trust is a key behavior that leaders must have in order to inspire loyalty and commitment from teams. By establishing shared and mutual interests, leaders can develop closely bonded teams and exceed set objectives.

Discussion

In a mixed study research carried out in a large government agency in the United States, Hassan & Glenn (2016) discovered that managers use delegation when they tag employees as likely to perform, while consultation happens when they see their employees put a lot of effort into trying to learn. Delegation brings more empowerment and when employees have previously performed well, supervisors tend to delegate (Bauer and Green, 1996) and delegation also occurs when managers see their employees as having the know-how the job requires (Yukl and Fu, 1999). Consultation is often the choice when managers do not have sufficient information and find the task complex, and also when the job at hand needs the involvement of the manager to meet accountability need demanded (Hassan& Glenn, 2016). It takes confident leaders interested in building their team to effectively train and develop their team members, and then delegate responsibilities to them based on their competences. When a follower has a purpose guiding him to work it brings about work power balance, even when he feels his leader has professed motives (Gebertm, Heinitzm and Buengeler, 2015). A leader can easily make his followers become effective at work only when his followers already have zeal to work (Gebertm, Heinitzm and Buengeler, 2015). A follower can be committed to his leader when he feels they both have mutual values(affective commitment) and also when he feels he is morally obligated to commit (normative commitment) ((Gebertm, Heinitzm and Buengeler, 2015).

Leaders-subordinate relationship is important in determining how effective the team works together and whether they are truly aligned with shared goals or it is simply a relationship of convenience. Lorinkova and Perry (2014) conducted a research on how psychological empowerment, distrust as a result of virtue, and ineffective use of time are affected by the relationship between leader-subordinate and a leader- leader. The integrity of a leader was found to be a major influencer in this relationship as findings showed a displayed sense of distrust based on the feeling that integrity is not up-held by the organization. (Lorinkova and Perry, 2014). Leaders improve relationships with those under them by granting benefits like reasonable treatment, backing and independence and the engagement of employees is improved when they know their leaders believe in them and is willing to defend their interest. Employees tend to decrease bad behaviors in relation to benefits received from the leader. According to Lorinkova and Perry (2014), the result of poor leader-subordinate relationship is that time theft may occur as subordinates use office hours for personal activities such as seeking employment in another organization.

Transformational leaders differ from other leaders by not only their vision but the charisma they possess. Judge& Bono (2000) studied the relationship between transformational leadership and the five-factor model of personality. The models include openness, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, and experience. 14 samples of leaders from 200 organizations showed that transformational leadership is positively predicted by extraversion and agreeableness, and while openness to experience correlates positively, conscientiousness and neuroticism do not relate with transformational leadership (Judge& Bono, 2000). Quantitative methodology was also in use. Findings also showed that charisma is the first component of transformational leadership and it and other facets are influenced by traits. Transformational leadership leads to better organizational outcomes and more effective management as well as employee job satisfaction (Judge and Bono, 2000).

Some cultures encourage transactional relationship between leaders and subordinate where it is perceived that seeking a participatory role by followers is a sign of disrespect or immodesty. Also, transformational leaders may be discouraged from emerging out of the fear that they may disrupt existing cultures. Some of this cultural barriers affect leader-follower relationship and may be age, gender or race biased. Also, high ethical standards from leaders are very important to sustain respect and loyalty from followers. Managers viewed as ethical provide with their behavior a calm, secure and confident working environment for their subordinates. (Khodarahmi& Aghahoseini, 2014). Ethical leadership comprises of integrity, moral character etc. and requires a devotion to virtue and righteousness at all times. With the eyes of staff on their managers, devotion to ethical principles and values set an example for staff to follow and thus leads to psychological empowerment (Khodarahmi& Aghahoseini, 2014). When there is fairness and justice in the organization, a sense of security is established. Also when there is equality, shared power will not be abused (Khodarahmi& Aghahoseini, 2014). When leaders are ethical, they present the idea that shared objectives are more important than their self- interests and should be the major focus at all times. Even if not deliberate, ethical Leaders practice transformational leadership as they encourage/set an example for their followers to align with the way they see things done the wrong way (Khodarahmi& Aghahoseini, 2014).

Conclusion

Delegation leads to better employee empowerment and should be desired. Employee competence and trustworthiness greatly influence the managers to opt for delegation, hence more focus by organizations to develop the competence level of the foot-soldiers as regards putting all efforts on developing managers alone who may not have the major say on the empowerment technique needed since it largely depends on the employee (Hassan & Glenn, 2016). Lorinkova and Perry (2014) noted that a good relationship between leader-subordinate is key in empowerment and is fostered by benefits. Autonomy is one of the main benefits that would drive employees for effectiveness. Since transformational behaviors can be learned, it means they can also be un-learned thus the need for a maintenance of an environment that drives the development of these personal attributes in an organization (Judge and Bono, 2000). Agreeableness emerged as the strongest factor hence managers are to have genuine concern for the persons under them (Judge and Bono, 2000).

For leadership to be effective, followers must be submissive to their leaders, and be able to trust that when a leader is compassionate and charismatic towards them it is not for hidden motives (Gebert, Heinitz, and Buengeler, 2015). Also, when a leader is considered a role model it has a major work to play in work effectiveness. When the issue of cynicism comes up about a charismatic leader, a leader must be able to re-adjust his charismatic approach in other to get work effectiveness (Gebert, Heinitz, and Buengeler, 2015. Ismail, A. et al (2009) Organizations need to design requirements and know the particular leadership styles best for the work place. How employees perceive justice and trust their leader would also determine the best leadership style to be used.

Leaders must learn to see followers or subordinates as partners with shared goals and dreams. When leaders are perceived to be unreliable, charisma becomes a burden because followers see it as a tool of deceit. Having the trust of subordinates is very important for any organization or country and can cause subordinates to go out of their way to ensure the shared goals are achieved. Also, when there are tasks to be carried out, it is helpful for leaders to be involved or at least show interests in what their subordinates are doing. This re-enforces subordinates trust and confidence in the leader as it shows the leader appreciates their daily struggles and is not isolated from them.

References

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