According to Travis (2014), critical theory approach seeks to establish a balance between human and corporate interests in an organization. It also makes leaders to reflect on what they have learned, hence making them to develop the right intellectual rigour and knowledge to deal with the complex ,multi-faced issues that arise in the work environment. This approach also assist organizational leaders to analyze the corporate world, identify the available possibilities and positive implications for social action.
In my personal leadership experience, especially having led some group of people in a local sporting organization in my area of residence, this approach can be utilized to ensure a leadership that focuses on attaining set goals has been used. Galina (2017) define leadership as a research area, as well as practical skills that make a person, or a firm to “lead” or guide other people, groups or organizations. This means by the use of critical theory approach, I can undertake critical research to identify things that affect performance and implement permanent solutions. Playing the role of a leader in this sporting group, I used Critical theory approach to develop a proper knowledge to address key issues that were affecting proper performance, as well as those that risked the existence of this group. These included seeking for sponsors to donate funds that could assist us to cater for our expenses, making the players to remain focused on winning and so forth.
In most cases, critical theory approach is used by leaders to make decisions and solve problems that affect their organizations. For instance, while leading my sporting groups, I have realized that reflecting on what I have learned and critiquing the possible opportunities in the corporate world can assist me to address issues that hinder better performance. I have also realized that this approach can assist a leader to identify the critical areas that require attention, and use the knowledge attained to implement the best solutions. For instance, it assisted me to identify why my players were not performing well during games, why the group lacked enough funds, and the reasons that causer high turnover rate in this team.
According to Beth (2014), critical theory approach is being reflective and reflexive in management aspects. This means that for organizational leaders to attain positive results, they must be thoughtful and contact deep analysis of the available knowledge. They must also strive to deliver better leadership through solving issues from experience. This approach also means that organizational leaders should always make critical analysis of everyday working practices so as to come up with strategies that can make them to enhance competence and promote professional development.
Being a leader, one should find out the opportunities that can make an organization to prosper. This approach implies that looking for new possibilities make leaders to implement new things that make their organizations to perform better. For instance, the person who heads IT department in Breadtalk group can learn from new technologies and innovation and implement the concept in in various areas in the organization. This can simplify a lot of processes, and also make the quality of products or services to match the expectations of their consumers.
In leadership, there are situations that make organizational leaders to feel a challenge in maintaining a balance between ensuring health financial status in their organization and considering the diverse human interests (Manoj, 2015).Critical theory approach plays a key role in helping leaders to create a balance between these aspects by helping them to have a critical reflection of what has been learned and implementing proper knowledge in addressing matters that affect performance.
According to Galina (2017), critical thinking is fundamental in leadership. For positive changes to be implemented, organizational leaders must emancipate, conduct depth analysis, look awry and undertake systematic praxis. Based on these aspects, it means that organizational leaders must explore what is beyond what people can see, come up with different and best ways of looking into situations and establish best options for resulting actions. The leaders should also strive to ensure their organizations have new resources obtained from different traditions in order to see something new or hidden. This means that critical theory approach in leadership emphasizes on striving to do things that seem impossible through the use of knowledge and critical analysis of situations.
In my Future leadership, critical theory approach shall be fundamental in assisting me to lead my organization in the right manner. This shall be attained through contacting in depth analysis of situations to identify things that are behold what human beings can see, and remaining focused to better performance. According to Manoj (2015), comprehensive research is fundamental in organizations especially when in is done to identify things that affect performance. By identifying things that are behold what other people can see, I shall be able to spot all things that are likely to negatively impact the organization and implement proper actions.
Ilana (2013) states that in organizations, there are various internal and external factors that affect performance. In some cases, it is challenging to address these aspects especially when proper strategies are not employed. Being a leader, one must analyze these issues and come up with proper ways of addressing them. Through the use of this theory, I shall attempt to address the complex social, political, economic and environmental challenges which may arise in the organization that I shall manage.
The use of this approach can also play a key role in assisting me to challenge and destabilize established knowledge. According to Ralf (2015), organizational leaders should always develop new knowledge that can make their firms to advance in what they do. The reason why developing new knowledge is important is because some of the already established knowledge may seem fundamental but in real sense does not aid in assisting existing problems. This means challenging and destabilizing such knowledge assists leaders to find out better ways of doing things based on more advanced knowledge, hence leading to positive outcome.
References
Beth, A. S. (2014). Know, See, Plan, Do: A Model for Curriculum Design in Leadership Development. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 79(2), 57-85.
Galina, N. (2017). Leadership and Leaders in Networked Social Movements. Demokratizatsiya, 25(1), 124-136.
Ilana, M. (2013). Nurturing Opportunities for Educational Leadership: How Affordance and Leadership Interconnect. Higher Education Studies. 3(3), 96-105.
Manoj, T. T. (2015). Theory and Practice of Leadership. South Asian Journal of Management, 22(2), 201-235.
Ralf, W. (2015). 'Who Am I and If So, How Many?' 1 Notes on the Myth of Leadership Authenticity. Tamara Journal of Critical Organization Inquiry, 13(1/2), 75-90.
Travis, B. T. (2014). Servant Leadership 2.0: A Call for Strong Theory. Sociological Viewpoints, 30(1), 58-90.
