Leadership Theories
Leadership Theories
Since man started living in groups, organised or unorganised leadership has existed. One person or a few persons has always led others. Who is this man called leader? What are the qualities he possesses? How is able to take other members of the group along with him or influence their behaviour? Did he learn these qualities or were these in-born in him?
Definitions of Leadership
There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are scholars who have attempted to define the concept . The reason is that they have attempted definitions from various angles such as traits, behaviour, influence, role relationship, interaction patterns and occupations.
"Leadership is the quality of behaviour of individuals whereby they guide people or their activities in Organizing efforts. " (Chester I. Barnard )
"A leader is someone who expertises influence over other people ". (Huizynski and Buchanun )
"Leadership is lifting of people's vision to a higher sight, the raising of their performance to a higher standard the building of their personality beyond its normal limitations ". (P. F. Drucker)
"Leadership is "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization ". (House et al)
" Learders will mean those who have both the ability to influence others and administrative authority ". (Stephen p. Robbins )
"Leadership is Interpersonal influence exerted in a situation and directed through the communication system towards the attainment of speci9goals". (R. Tannenbaum, I. R. Weschler and F. Massarika )
The analysis of the definitions concludes that a person who attempt to do it is a potential leader or leader and those who are influenced or attempted to be influenced are potential followers or subordinates. Every leader has his or her own style and his or her effectiveness depends on the situation. Thus leadership is never constant it has to be contextual.
Types of Leaders
1. The traditional leader- His position is assured by birth and heredity. Kings and Queens tribal leaders and leaders of family businesses come in this category.
2. The known leader-His position is secured by the fact that everybody understands this . Priests, Kings, Queens and aristocratic leaders come in this category.
3. The appointed leader-His position is legitimized by the fact that he or she has gone through a process of selection and appointment in accordance with the rules of the organization. His role and functions are formalized in the organizational structure.
4. The bureaucratic leader-His position is legitimized by the rank held by him . It is found in military structures and more complex and sophisticated commercial and public organization structures.
5. The expert or functional leader-His position is secured by virtue of his expertise for example Industrial Officer or Finance Officer.
6. The charismatic leader-His position is secured by the sheer force of his or her personality . Many leaders of the world come in this category : Mahatma Gandhi, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill etc.
7. The informal leader- His position is not formally legitimized by rank, appointment, exercise, command of resources etc. This position may also be achieved by virtue of some other activity for example trade union leader.
Theories of Leadership
Leadership has been analysed by several writers from various angles.
The Qualities or Traits Approach
One of the earliest approaches for studying leadership was the trait approach. It emphasises attributes of leaders such as personality, motives, Values and skills. It assumes that some people are natural leaders who are endowed with certain traits not possessed by other people
The assumption is that certain people are born with a set of key personality characteristics or traits which make them natural leaders . For e. g.
●Intelligence and scholarship
●Physical traits
●Personality
●Social status and experience
●Task orientation
The great -man theory implies that leaders are born not made . Leadership demands certain qualities such as commanding personality, charm, courage, intelligence, persuasiveness and aggressiveness. The inborn leadership qualities enable a leader to be successful. These inborn leadership qualities can't be acquired through formal training or education . Ordinary persons having no inborn leadership qualities can't aspire to become leaders. Leadership qualities and effectiveness are not linked to each other . Situational factors and general socio -economic environment also do not influence leadership effectiveness.
Criticism of this theory
1. There is bound to be some subjective judgement in determining who is regarded as a good or successful leader.
2.This lists of possible traits tend to be very long and there is not always agreement on the most important.
3. Research efforts at isolating these traits resulted in a tremendous number of dead-ends. A summary of these studies resulted in inconsistent conclusions .
4. Traits had not provided any substantive base upon which accurate predictions of leadership could be made.
5. Traits theories had inherent weaknesses. They ignored the needs of followers. They generally failed to clarify the relative importance of various traits.
6. They generallyignored the situational factors. A leader may be effective in one situation and ineffective in another situation.
7. The great-man theory of leadership does not provide a scientific and verifiable explanation of how, when and why leaders emerge and become effective and what qualities are required for achieving greatness in leadership.
8. Although the trait theorists could specify traits that almost all leaders possess but these traits were frequently held also by a substantial number of non-leaders. Therefore there is nothing inborn and divine about leadership qualities.