Exploring Leadership Capabilities In Business Organizations: An Essay.

This assessment aims to allow participants to explore and develop key capabilities in one of the three key leadership capabilities (competencies) addressed in the unit. There are three sections to this report:

1. A self-analysis/-reflection
2. A literature review, and
3. A conclusion that outlines an action plan for development

The assignment must focus on one of the following:

Visibility/Credibility OR

Power and Influence OR

Self-confidence

During the full-day weekend workshops, diagnostic tools and mini-simulation activities will be undertaken for each topic that serve as the experiential basis for individual reflection about current leadership practice. These are compulsory activities for students enrolled in the on-campus delivery mode.

Self-analysis/Reflections

Leadership capability is one very important aspect in every company or organization (Koryak et al. 2015). A leader has to assess the internal and external factors so that he can address the ways in which the organization can lead to its success. The decisions of the leaders in the business organizations always help the organization to progress in the right direction. Leadership qualities are judged by the level of success they can bring to the organization. A leader must have some good qualities by which they can guide the employees and the management to acquire the proper place within the industry.  They have to scan both the internal and external environments within the organizations so that they can see which things are affecting the business in the right direction and which are affecting in the wrong direction. These strategies for leadership capabilities are strategic thinking over the problems, driving positive results in the context, leading the members for a change, collaborating with other people and influencing the people within the organizations and finally they have to build capability of the people to perform more works in positive attitudes. In this part, I will make a proper strategy set up on how a perfect leader should address the scenario in the business environment and lead his men to success (Muscalu, Todericiu & Fraticiu, 2013).  In this context, I will describe some leadership management tools by which it will be helpful to describe the prospect of leadership capability (L?z?roiu, 2015).

Quinn management questionnaire is a very important tool in the leadership management (Chiabrishvili & Chiabrishvili, 2013).  The role of the managers and the leaders is very well explained in this tool. The managers have to perform various roles in their organizations and these roles have to be performed by influencing the people of their companies. The aspect of leading the team members has become a very important aspect in the modern day organizations as the concept of teamwork is emerging everyday rapidly. I will highlight the roles of the managers in the context of Quinn management theory and then evaluate on how the managers can become efficient leaders and have a positive reflection on the organizations. I should also look to give an insight on how the managers will handle their responsibilities so that it influences the organizational excellence (Porter & Tanner, 2012).

In this theory, Robert Quinn identified eight roles that were distinct to each other and they were driven by some conflicted values (Quinn et al., 2014). I think these eight role would be perfect enough to understand the role of the managers and it is very important for the managers to fulfill these roles. When the managers should fulfill these roles, he can be considered as influential leaders.  A good leader or manager has to be the innovator, he has to mediate problems between employees, he has to produce good results for the organization, he also has to direct the orders, can should monitor the growth of the organization, stimulate his employees and mentor them so that they tend to perform better (Pearce, 2014).

Quinn Management Theory

In the modern day business environment, the role of the leaders is very important and it should be the leaders who should try to motivate the employees in the organizations with their emotional intelligence (Mujtaba, 2013). Emotional intelligence and skill development is closely associated with one another. In this part, I will write about the emotional intelligence situational leadership and its effects on the organization. The leaders who are emotionally intelligent are considered to be more skillful in adapting to the business environment changes in the organization. These leaders should engage people who are socially very active and can influence the people in their own ways by their intelligence level. There are multiple styles of leadership styles in this context that were invented by Blanchard and Hersey. The development level of the leaders is also discussed in this model. In this model, leaders have to be informed about the day to day decisions about tasks and they will look into the matters of problem solving. The aspect of competence and commitment of the leaders has to be put under the lens whether it is high or low commitment and competence levels.

Another important tool that is very important for the development of the organization through ideal leadership is the Situational leadership (Northouse, 2012). In this part, I will describe about the different aspects of this theory. This theory is very effective in terms of developing the idea about how the leaders should try to adjust to the organizational environment and motivate the employees to perform better and achieve the organizational objectives. The leaders can change their styles if they want to and this needs to be done by assessing the external environments of the industry. The business situations may change drastically and the leaders have to adapt to new leadership styles so that they can adapt to the different situations and lead their organizations to glory (Antonakis & House, 2013). There are some methods by which the leaders can influence the situations and then create an effective blueprint to tackle it, leading to organizational success (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

The leaders in the first method make the decisions and them informs the decisions to the subordinates. This kind of leadership pattern can also be called as the micro-management because the leaders are very much involved in this process and directs the employees to carry the decisions out.

In the Selling and Coaching style, the leaders are expected to take the final decisions but the final input is asked to the employees so that they can give their reflections about the matter. In this manner, the employees are supervised by the leaders but the strict management style is not implemented in this style.

In the Participating and Supporting style of situational leadership, the more emphasis is put on the responsibility of the employers in the decision making process. I think this is a more appropriate kind of style because the employers are allowed to express some of their views as they are an integral part of the organization as well. The employers predict ways by which the organization can be run. The leaders will praise the employees and provide them feedback about the tasks they have completed. Employees are motivated by the leaders and they try to increase their skills.

Emotional Intelligence

I think if I was given the responsibility to apply these tools in my organization, I would definitely use the situational leadership tool and choose the Participating and Supporting style (McCleskey, 2014). The reason for this is this is very effective in the way that I would be able to consult my employees in such difficult situations. I may not be right in all the cases so it would be better for me to ask for second opinions. There are definitely some strengths and weaknesses of these tools. The Quinn management tool cannot be implemented in all cases as it is impossible to have an idea about everything. He has to take the help of others in tough situations to arrive to a decision. Also, every leader or manager does not have adequate emotional intelligence so the weakness lies in the implementation. Situational leadership can be considered as a strong tool as it can assimilate all the probable ways of problem solving and allows consulting the employees (Taylor, 2013).

This study evaluates the impact of influence, power and the interpersonal attractions on the organizational culture and the development of leadership. There are not much study regarding the usage of power and influence by the organizational leaders other than the political and administrative aspects. However, several scholars had elaborated on various theories of power, but in reality there are very few of them which had shed light in the tangible application of the power in specific social contexts. This study will follow the approach for interpreting power and influence in more of an objective manner. Greenleaf & Spears (2012) suggest that it is very much important to study the function of power in the development of leadership. There have not much discussion on this topic in terms of the power within the workplace. Therefore, it has been a challenge for the researchers to explore the reality within the organization.

Leadership development is one of the most significant developmental investments by the organization. Despite the combined expertise and skills of the workers, a poor leadership may lead to a huge mismanagement within the organization. In most of the cases, in developing the leadership, the organizations ensure that they provide the managers a tool for influencing others and support them by exercising their own power in order to influence the employees. Therefore, for understanding the significance of power or influence in the development of the leadership, one should understand the definition of power within the organization first. Haslam, Reicher & Platow (2012) suggest that power may be defined as ‘‘the ability to marshal human, informational, or material resources to get something done’’. The power can be considered as the opportunity for creating, building in order to pushing the direction in a entirely different one. Power is not something tangible to be possessed by any individual, but it should be understood that within an organization power can be possessed by all the employees, not only the one who is in the highest authority. Power can be distributed in all the levels of hierarchy and it could be exercised horizontally, downward and upward. Especially, when an organization becomes global, it requires individuals who can possess power and make an effective use of it. In such cases, most of the leaders require to use their influence rather than using the power of their own position within the organization. However, most of the times, the term ‘power’ comes with a negative connotation, as it related to control, domination and punishment. As Firth & Carroll (2016) had observed, in the society, “…individuals are proud of having a high need to achieve, but dislike being told they have a high need for power’’. However, power is not something negative or positive. However, the usage of power is the one that determines whether it is harmful or functional. As leadership can be studied within a variety of contexts, the leaders are the products of their followers, surroundings and time. Therefore, as indicated by Maner & Mead (2012) ‘‘Leadership can be better understood as a phenomenon constructed in minds and eyes of the audience, as much as in the deeds and character of the observed leader'”. Furthermore, leadership cannot be understood without the followers of leaders. The inexistence of the followers also implies the inexistence of the leader.

Situational Leadership

The core leadership models define the power sources in a leader within the organization. A true leader is always capable of using his or her powers to influence others within the organization. The below figure summarizes the sources of the leader’s power and the internal relationship between the influence, power and leadership.

The figure demonstrates that there can be three kinds of power of the leader, legitimate power, coercive power and reward power (Chemers, 2014). As demonstrated by Chiabrishvili and Chiabrishvili (2013) these are the organizational powers; the legitimate power refers to the power that is related with the position of the person within the organization. It gives the leaders a legitimate right to make decisions. The reward power refers to the capability of giving rewards to the subordinates. It is also related to the legitimate or the positional power of the leaders. The coercive power refers to a direct opposite to the reward power; it is the power of using punishment and threats. Excessive use this power source may lead to greater problems within the organization. The leaders also have the personal powers such as expert power and referent power. The expert power refers to the specific power of the leaders if they have certain expertise within a field. The referent power is the capability of having charismatic power that the others are able to identify. These powers allow the leaders to have an influential position in the organization.

Leadership and power are two concepts that are closely related. The power plays a major role in developing and practicing the leadership. In addition to that, it can also be said that leadership cannot be conceived without the existence of power. Even though an individual may exercise power without being in a position of a leader, an individual cannot be treated as a leader and cannot do justice to its position without having any power. It is a exercise of power, therefore the leaders have a need of developing a base of organizational power for making an efficient and effective use of it in order to influence others. However, the followers have a similarly significant role in enhancing the success of the organization. Both of them have a mutual role of influence. The followers and leaders influence each other, thus both of the parties can posses certain amount of power. As the practice of leadership is a reciprocal relationship, which implies that the followers play a significant role where they also influence the leaders while they get influenced by the leaders. The scholars have indicated that the power is a purpose of the followers, leaders and the situations at the same time (Joullié & Spillane, 2015). Therefore in developing the leadership, it plays a crucial role. It can also be said that power is mostly an occurrence of relationship. According to Foucault, the function of power should be analyzed in terms of something intangible that tends to circulate. The power exercised within a particular network tends to circulate in a continuous way.

Leadership is considered as the most crucial component of the organizational culture as the most powerful leaders are seen to be most effective who can affect the desired outcomes of any situation. Like power, leadership also includes a hierarchical constituent, the follower and leader relationship (Gonzalez, 2013). In this specific relation, the power is the capability and the leadership the procedure of using the capability. Considering this, the leadership is most of the times considered to be the procedure of the interpersonal leadership. The interpersonal leadership needs a cooperative relationship between the employees and the leaders (Nabers, 2016). Therefore this cooperative relationship determines whether the leaders can exercise the power and that is the underlying component of the ultimate success of the leadership and the organization at the same time. The interpersonal relationship determines the development of the leadership within the organization.

In this segment, I will develop an action plan and suggest how a leader should approach the organization in trying to improve the brand image of the organization. I am the Human Resource manager of a company that operates globally. I have about five hundred employees under my charge. It is up to me on how I should treat and control them. I thought of applying the three tools for the development of my organization and see which one works best.

I used the Quinn management questionnaire on them and tried to see the impact. I wished to play all the eight roles in this context but I observed that the employees in my organization with my management because they had no role to play in the decision making and they had to work only. I continued it for ten days but quit this process.

Next up, I used the Emotional intelligence tool that helped me to test my emotional intelligence and direct my employees towards excellence. This also proved to be not much effective as the employees would remain passive. I stopped after applying it for ten days.

Finally, I used the situational leadership and chose to apply the Participating and Suggesting style. I observed that the employees were happy and they were motivated as they were allowed to express their views about the daily proceedings of the organization. Finally, I decided to lead my organization by this tool by consulting with my employees on different cases.

Reference List and Bibliography 

Antonakis, J., & House, R. J. (2013). The full-range leadership theory: The way forward. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. 3-33). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Chiabrishvili, K., & Chiabrishvili, N. (2013). Leadership vs management. Grigol Robakidze University Academic Digest Business and Management, (1), 155-158.

Firth, J., & Carroll, B. (2016). Leadership and Power. The Routledge Companion to Leadership.

Gonzalez, A. M. (2013). Leadership and Power.

Greenleaf, R. K., & Spears, L. C. (2012). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press.

Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., & Platow, M. J. (2012). The new psychology of leadership: Identity, influence and power. Psychology Press.

Joullié, J. E., & Spillane, R. (2015). Philosophy of leadership: the power of authority. Springer.

Koryak, O., Mole, K. F., Lockett, A., Hayton, J. C., Ucbasaran, D., & Hodgkinson, G. P. (2015). Entrepreneurial leadership, capabilities and firm growth. International Small Business Journal, 33(1), 89-105.

Maner, J. K., & Mead, N. L. (2012). The essential tension between leadership and power: when leaders sacrifice group goals for the sake of self-interest. Journal of personality and social psychology, 99(3), 482.

McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.

Muscalu, E., Todericiu, R., & Fraticiu, L. (2013). Efficient organizational communication-A key to success. Studies in Business and Economics, 8(2), 74-78.

Nabers, D. (2016). The Bush Leadership, the Power of Ideas, and the War on Terror. Routledge.

Northouse, P. G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage.

Pearce, B. (2014). Counselling skills in the context of professional and organizational growth. Handbook of Counselling, 230.

Porter, L., & Tanner, S. (Eds.). (2012). Assessing business excellence. Routledge.

Taylor, D. W. (2013). Decision making and problem solving. Handbook of organizations, 48-86.