Business - Leadership

Introduction
Though a brief study on the subject and topic of leadership reveals that its
definitions are as many as the number of individuals who have attempted to
define the same, yet the primary concept emerges from a definition of traits
of a leader to the more complex processes such as interpersonal
relationships, emotions, and learning. In addition, there has been practically
thousands of books and literature published on the topic of leadership,
majority of which addresses this particular discipline from an equally varied
viewpoint, and according to the need of the respective organization wherever
applicable.

For example the Dietetics Association of America (ADA) states that leadership
is the "ability to inspire and guide other towards building and achieving a
shared vision". In addition the ADA has moved one step ahead and
somewhat merged the disciplines of management and leadership, thus
bringing out a breed of leader-managers with the responsibility as both a
leader as well as a manager. However, later studies researches have
practically dismissed this earlier approach as management and leadership
have been clearly addressed as two distinct and totally separate disciplines.
Thus, where management seeks to address the ability to perform a number
of managerial and supervisory functions by their ability to communicate a
vision to the subordinates, leaders take the responsibility for the decisions
and actions on the part of their subordinates. A deeper study of the two
disciplines reveals that managers seek order and control in order to excel in
their respective responsibilities not only for diffusing conflicts, but
accomplishing the day-to-day responsibilities falling under their respective
domain. Leaders on the other hand prosper and surge ahead by capitalizing
and gaining from the chaotic environment, as well as ever on the search out
for newer opportunities and variations for accomplishing the goals of the
organization. This line of differentiation between managers and leaders was
first presented by Zaleznik writing in the famous Harvard Business Review,
and later confirmed by Kotter J., writing in the equally famous Harvard
Business School Press. Yet another clear distinction between managers and
leaders was that leadership addressed the core issues of coping with change
in respective organizations as well as serving to motivate and energize their
subordinates, whereas managers practically controlled the employees by
guiding them through correct directions (Barker et al, 1994; Zaleznik, 1977;
Kotter, 1999).

Leadership As A Trait
Researches into the discipline of leadership have revealed that the number of
definitions are perhaps as many as the number of concepts, yet the single
common aspect which evolved has been the trait of individuals, later
progressing to such complex processes as interpersonal relations, emotions
and learning to the more advanced studies to the behavior patterns of
individuals. Thus studies carried out in the early part of the 19th century
show that the trait approach to leadership was more pronounced and
remained concentrated to five leading traits amongst leaders. These included
'surgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment and intelligence'. In
addition, these traits served not only as a basis for further studies in the
discipline of leadership, they also provided a primary framework for
theoretical studies in the same discipline.
Leadership As A Behavioral Approach
From the theoretical approach and the five traits of leadership, as discussed
in the preceding paragraph, one may observe that studies of this particular
discipline further progressed in the decades of 1950s and onwards
encompassing certain behavioral patterns. In this respect, one of the most
famous of studies was carried out by the Universities of Michigan and Ohio,
both of which presented its findings on behavior pattern in leadership. While
the first study emphasized on the human interaction aspect of leadership,
whereas the second study focused on the job element. Further studies into
these two disciplines opened up new vistas as leadership behavior was given
terms such as 'managerial grid', and 'leadership grid', suggesting that a
successful leader not only cared for the people around him, but also
exhibited equal concern for the nature of the job or work.

Power and Influence in Leadership

Yet another avenue found in a good leader included aspects of power and
influence. These two characteristics gave emphasis on both the type as well
as amount of power yielded by a leader and the influence exerted over the
subordinates or those around the leader. In this respect, researches carried
out by French and Raven are notable where both the gentlemen categorized
various types of power, with each emerging because of the respective
position held by the leader in an organization. These included power of
legitimacy, reward, coerciveness, power of information, and ecological power.
In similar context, other types included power of the expertise, and of
referent or 'personal power', as each evolved from the respective individual's
personal characteristics. Recent studies have however focused on the new
methods or tactics as the term is commonly used. These include for example
tactics of persuasion, consultation, ingratiation, coalition, either or all of
which are effectively used by the new breed of leaders to influence those
around or the work itself. (French and Raven, 1959).
Leadership - The Situational Aspect
Having discussed traits and behaviors, researches on leadership further
progressed after realizing that both traits and behaviors provided only a
partial solution, simply because of the absence of situational factors. Hence,
situational factors opened up additional avenues to learn about leadership,
resulting in such aspects as the role of the managers, subordinates, and the
overall situation surrounding a particular organization. In turn, these studies
led to findings that a particular type of leadership was not at all effective and
applicable for all situations, as different situations demanded different
approaches from the leaders. In this respect, works of Tannenbaum and
Schmidt carried out in 1958 is of considerable significance; both of who
suggested the idea of situational approaches to effectively handle the
discipline of leadership. In similar context another study carried out by
Fiedler revealed additional data and found that in addition to the situational
factors, it was essential for a leader to be like by majority of those around
him or her, had the ability to direct a well-defined assignment, and enjoyed a
powerful position to enforce his or her decisions to the best interests of the
respective organization (Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 1958; Fiedler, 1964).

Leadership - The Reciprocal Approach

Yet another type of approach studied by researches is the reciprocal
approach, one that works on the basis of rewarding and punishing the
employees as the case may be. In such a situation, leaders give emphasis
on the interaction between themselves and the followers or subordinates
and use emotional tools to arrive at respective strategies. Since this
particular type of leadership pattern uses behaviors and the effect of the
leader on his or her employees, the terms used here are transactional and
transformational leadership patterns both of which differ slightly only. The
first one in particular, transactional leadership addresses reward and
punishment to influence employees whereas the second term,
transformational form of leadership addresses the motivation aspect of
employees. Later studies and researches however merged both the
transactional and transformational approaches to arrive at a complete
leadership model, suggesting that leaders in general had both types of
behaviors, and utilized each according to the respective situations.
From the above, one may observe that leadership cannot encompass a
singular theme, strategy, or rule. Instead, it is indeed difficult to singularly
categorize a pattern of leadership, as different situations and equally varied
nature of individuals call for concepts that best suits the respective
organization as well as the context of the job where the strategy or pattern
is being applied.