CHAPTER ONE

THE NATURE AND MEANING OF LEADERSHIP

Introduction
This chapter is devoted to the detailed study of the nature and meaning of the concept leadership.
It covers six respective sections: definitions of leadership; sources of leadership power,
comparison of leadership and management, key elements of leadership, the purpose of
leadership and finally the roles of a leader.

You will find the unit very helpful in laying the ground for your understanding of the concept
leadership. Upon completion of studying this Unit, you should be able to:

 Define leader and leadership;

 Explain the concept of dynamic follower-ship;
 Identify the different sources of leadership power;
 Discuss the purpose of leadership; and
 Discuss the similarities and differences between leadership and management;

1.1. Defining Leadership

Let’s see first attempt to have a commonly agreed upon definition of the term leadership by
looking into definitions by different authors and leaders.

The concepts leadership appears to be more known than understood. For example, if you are
asked whether or not you have ever been leading a group, you may say yes and list the many
responsibilities you were assigned to. You might have been a coordinator of a football team or
any other similar game, a classroom monitor, a student council president, etc. You are right!
Sometimes you may even undertake these responsibilities without any formal assignment. This is
what makes leadership somehow difficult to define.

Anyway, the term leadership is a word taken from common vocabulary and incorporated into the
technical vocabulary of scientific discipline without being precisely redefined. Consequently, it
carries extraneous connotations that create ambiguity of meaning. After a comprehensive review
of the leadership literature, Stogdil (1974) concluded that “there are almost as many definitions
of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept. Leadership thus has
been defined in many ways in terms of traits, behavior, influence, interaction patterns, role
relationships and occupation of a management/administrative position. Here are some
representative definitions of leadership given by leadership writers and world famous leaders
over the last century.

 Leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve Organizational

objectives through changes (Lussier and Achua, 2004), and
 Leadership is the ability of developing and communicating a vision to group ofpeople that
will make that vision true (Velenzuela, 2007).

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  Leadership is a relation between leader and the led in which the leader influences more
than he/she is influenced; because of the leader, those who are led, act or feel differently
than they otherwise would, Gerth and Mills (1953).
 Leadership is the activity of persuading people to cooperate in the achievement of
common objectives, Koontz and O’Dnnell (1955).
 Leadership is the behavior which refers to the particular acts in which a leader engages in
the course of directing and coordinating the work of his group members. This may involve
such acts as structuring the work relations, praising or criticizing the group members and
showing consideration for their welfare and feelings, Fiedler (1967).
 As mentioned above, these definitions have their emphasis on the leader directly or
indirectly. However, post World War II thought resulted in the following conceptions of
leadership.
 Leadership is a three-pronged interactive process between the leader, the group and the
situation rather than as merely the role and activities performed by the leader.
 Leadership is a collective function: collective in the sense that it is the integrated,
synthesized expression of the group’s efforts; it is not the sum of individual dominances
and contributions; it is their relationship. Henry Harris

Among all the definitions of leadership three images stand out-people, influence and goals.
Leadership occurs between people, involves the use of influence, and used to attain goals.
Leadership is a process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person over the other
people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization.
Thus, our formal definition of leadership is the ability to influence the behavior of other
people towards the attainment of shared goals. The source of the influence may be formal
such as that provided by the possession of managerial rank in an organization or informal that
arises outside the formal structure of the organization. In other words, leaders can emerge
from within a group as well as by formal appointment to lead a group.

Some of the most common ideas that appear in these definitions are influencing, motivating
and inspiring, helping others realize their potentials, leading by example, selflessness, and
making a difference. In this course you will see these points in detail.

SOME MYTHS ABOUT LEADERSHIP

There are a few myths about leadership which still prevail in society: (Hughes 2012)
 Myth 1: Leadership is a rare skill: The truth is that leadership opportunities
 are plentiful and within the reach of most people.
 Myth 2: Leaders are born, not made: The truth is that major capacities and competencies
can be learned and we are educable, at least if the basic desire to learn is there and we do
not suffer from serious learning disorders. Nurture is more important than nature in
determining who becomes a successful leader.
 Myth 3: Leaders are charismatic: the truth is that charisma is the result of effective
leadership, not the other way around.
 Myth 4: Leadership exists only at the top of an Organization. In fact, the larger the
Organization, the more the leadership role it is likely to have.
 Myth 5: The leader controls, directs, prods, and manipulates. The last is perhaps the most
damaging myth. Leadership is not so much the exercise of power itself; it also involves

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 empowerment of others. Leaders are able to translate intentions into reality by aligning the
energies of the Organization to achieve its goal.

1.2. Sources of Leadership Power

In the preceding section you have seen what the parties in the leadership process do. In carrying
out their responsibilities leaders exert some power. This power is important to leaders that they
use it as a means of motivating their followers in ways they believe best benefit the organization
to achieve its goals.

What is power? Power can be defined as “the ability to marshal human, informational or material
resources to get something done. It refers to control over the behavior of others.”(Chandan 1997)
Some people confuse power with authority and use them interchangeably. However, their
meanings differ. Thus, while "power" refers to the potential ability to achieve certain ends,
"authority" refers to the legitimacy, justification and right to exercise that power. For example,
while a mob has the power to punish a criminal, such as through lynching, only the courts have
the authority to order capital punishment. However, the hard fact is that the leaders are not only
vested with authority to make decisions but they need also get the people around them accept
them. The source of power leaders have and the degree of follower-ship they achieve need close
examination, for the implications of these two are far reaching.

Let’s revise them once more in the table below. As you closely examine the three consider their
level of importance to you as a leader. You would obviously rate influence first, and then power
followed by authority. Otherwise, all of them are interconnected and are involved in the
leadership process.

Power is not the act of changing others’ attitudes or behavior; but the potentialto do so. Influence
is the right to control and direct the actions of others by suggestion or providing examples rather
than by command. The powers to affect or influence others are many and can be visible or
invisible. For example, a leader may influence an employee’s actions by his/her immediate
supervision, command or by the employee’s own sense of responsibility and accountability.

Table 1: Authority, Power, and Influence Compared

AUTHORITY
 Associated with formal
organizations.
 Is source of power and its
legitimacy
 Gives the right to influence
behavior & demand compliance
 Has rational legal implications
 Impersonally vested in the job;
 Flows from the position.
POWER INFLUENCE
 Ability to influence
 broader than authority
 Need not be legitimate
 Can be effective in non-
formal situations too
 May or may not have rational
legal implications
 Can have personalized basis in
case of charisma, knowledge, &
reference sources
 Is broader than authority and
even power
o Affecting attitudes &
o behavior
 Flows from and only operates
without some form of power.
 More closely associated with
leadership
 Operates by ways of
changing their satisfaction &
performance

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Power can be position power or personal power.

Position Power
Here, it is important to note that power; authority; responsibility and accountability; and
delegation are interrelated and enable the leaders to influence organization members to
effectively perform their duties. Let’s first see what each of these concepts refer to:
 Responsibility refers to something for which one is responsible; a duty, obligation, or
burden to perform. In the classical view, obligation formally comes down from a superior
position and is inherent in any job. In the behavioral view, responsibility must and should
be delegated.
 Delegation Refers to the successive dividing and passing down of obligation. The
appropriate amount of authority or power must be delegated with the responsibility. The
problem in fact is not always lack of delegation of power and authority commensurate to
a given responsibility. Whether a higher position can ever rid itself of ultimate
responsibility is also a big issue.
 Accountability-Refers to from which the leader cannot be free of it because of merely
delegating a certain responsibility even with the commensurate authority. Leaders remain
answerable to whatever messes that come out of their acts of delegating, and most
successful leaders get credit out of their readiness to accept accountability.
 Position power includes legitimate power and can be manifested as coercive power,
reward power, and information power.

Legitimate power: Is a power vested in the leadership to take a certain action. It’s a formal
authority which can be created, granted, changed or withdrawn by the formal organization. The
subordinates will favorably respond to a leader’s directives because they recognize and
acknowledge the leader’s legitimate right and authority to prescribe certain behaviors expected
of subordinates.

Position leaders who heavily depend on their formal authority may little succeed after they are
denied of their authority. Ordinarily, followers will follow a leader only as long as their needs are
reasonably well satisfied. Much of the ongoing process of the organization depends on this type
of power.

Coercive power: This is the ability to influence punishment. It refers to the extent to which a
leader can deny desired rewards or administer punishment to control the behavior of people
working in the particular organization. The problem with this power source type is that such
motivators as fear and punishments of almost every kind do not highly motivate very many
people for long. In other words, those leaders who use coercion as their means of power exertion
may turn powerless when the followers reprimand as a result of excessive use of such power. For
example, children and adults; the elite and the lay; the poor and the wealthy may not be alike in
their reaction to a boss who attempts to punish them on given matters.

Coercive power: Is a negative reinforcement influence while reward power is a positive

reinforcement influence and both are opposite to one another though they appear to bring
whatever desired result in the short run.

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Reward power: This is derived from control over tangible benefits such as pay raise, promotion,
better work schedule, increased expense account, formal recognition of accomplishments and the
likes. These rewards must be valued by the recipients. The limitation with this type of power
source is that leaders may cease having people to follow them when leaders fail to satisfy these
needs of the followers. A good leader is able to provide rewards.

Information power: Information power is that which is derived from having access to needed
information before it becomes general knowledge. It is having the ability to control the flow of
information to and from others. The information may come from formal organizational sources
or from informal relationships. Today, information can no longer stay long with the middle
managers before reaching the operational staff or line managers because of technological
advancement. In the past, however, individual heads of organizations possessed power over
information. In other words, they used to have effective control of information critical to the
attainment of organizational goals and objectives.

Expert power: This is a power derived from special knowledge and/or skill that a leader has in
solving problems and performing important tasks that need be performed by followers. When a
leader is a true expert, subordinates or followers go along with the recommendations because of
his/her superior knowledge. For example, subordinates will follow the directives from their
leader, thinking that, the leader knows what is to be done and how it is to be done. in a class of
some demanding subjects, students good at that subject would tend to have many classmates who
choose them to be in their assignment groups. This is true for most circumstances that require us
some assistance in life. Can you give an example of your own here?

Referent power This is a power associated with personal charisma, respect, trust, emotional
involvement, integrity and reputation of the leader so that the followers want to associate with
such a leader. They just see their leaders as role models and try to imitate or try to be like them.
Do you remember the question you answered in an earlier activity about your heroes or role
models? Were there elements of that person’s personality that can be attributed to referent
power? Yes, you might have simply been forced to look those people as your role models
because of the personal love or respect that you and other people had for them. Thus, referent
power results when a leader identifies with and admires another. It comes from personality
characteristics that command subordinates’ identification, respect and admiration. So they wish
to imitate the leader.

FOLLOWERSHIP: BEING AN EFFECTIVE GROUP MEMBER

Followers are an essential part of the leadership equation. Without good followers, becoming a
good leader is difficult as the proverb says: “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is
only taking a walk”. Everyone aspires to be a leader but what is the chief ingredient that makes a
leader effective; the followers. A good leader will not underestimate the power of followers. A
good leader knows the importance of followers and is aware of the type of followers he has.

Followers impact leaders and the leadership process. Followers provide the “horsepower” to
organizational performance as they are the primary contributors to the success of any

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organizational outcomes. Therefore, improving followership influence will have a beneficial
impact on business performance.

Focusing on leadership alone is like trying to understand clapping by studying only the left
hand.” Jonathan Haidt

People display followership when they express, through their words or actions, respect and
support for a person they view as their leader, and openness to be influenced by him or her in
that capacity. One could argue that any good leader is in turn a good follower. All leaders have
their own leaders. Followership can take on a shifting role perspective, in some situations, an
individual may be a leader and in others a follower depending on the context of the
organizational goals.

Leadership is not a right, but it is a privilege given by the followers. Understanding the types of
followers (What are their motives and underlying psychological drivers) and who is in each
camp is critical to knowing how to influence.

Over the years, only a handful of researches have attempted to study, segment and speak about
followers in some depth.

 In 1962, Robert Presthus created a theory of organizational life that defined three unique
types of workers: Upwardly mobiles, Ambivalents, and Indifferents.
 In 1988 Robert E. Kelley developed a theory of followers describing five types:
Conformist, Passive, Alienated, Exemplary and Pragmatic.
 Ira Chaleff’s Styles of Followership (2003) proposes four distinct follower types:
Resource, Individualist, Implementer and Partner.
 Barbara Kellerman in 2007 described a typology of followership based on the level of
engagement; Isolates, Bystanders, Activists, Participants, and Diehards.
 In 2008 Roger Adair proposed the 4-D Followership four distinct types of workers:
Disgruntled, Disengaged, Doer and Disciple.
 The Curphy-Roellig Followership 2010 Model builds on some of the earlier followership
research of Robert Kelley, Ed Hollander, and Barbara Kellerman and consists of two
independent dimensions and four followership types: Self-Starters, Slackers, Brown-
Nosers and Criticizers.
I. According to Brigette Hyacinth (2014) followers are grouped as in to 7 types:

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1) Sycophants - The flatterers, “yes people”. They cannot be relied upon to give critical
feedback if the leader is heading in a direction that conflicts with the purpose or values of the
organization. They never point out problems or raise objections; they will avoid any resistance
and will defer to the leader.

2) Critics - The opposition. The detractor’s goal is to challenge and question the leader’s every
behavior and policy. They can be classified as disgruntled, perhaps for some reason they were
not recognized, awarded a promotion they felt they deserved. They are frequently the first to
greet new employees and tell them "how things really work around here.”

3) Realists provide constructive critical thinking and interact with the group and the leader.
If they agree with the current course of action, they will back the leader 100%. Alternatively, if
they disagree, they will challenge the leader, offering constructive alternatives to help the leader
and organization achieve their aims.

4) Loyalists - The genuine supporters. They are highly engaged and work hard to support the
leader. They are reliable and dependable. They are highly satisfied and productive and are
passionate about the team and will exert considerable effort to make it successful by always
giving suggestions.

5) Traitors - The silent haters and conspirators. They are very good actors. They are hard to
spot (until it’s too late) as they have gained the leader's trust. They have strong negative

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emotional feelings about the leader and secretly work to undermine him/ her. The Judases. “Et
tu, Brute?”.

6) Spectators - The observers. They are neither here nor there and just stand on the side lines.
They just work for their salary and don’t get involved. They are disengaged with the organization
or task and hold a position of neutrality about the leader.

7) Opportunists -The freebooters. They have a price and can easily be bought. They like to be
close to the powerful and their allegiance is to whoever is on top at the moment. You can see
them in full swing at political campaigns. In the blink of an eye this welcoming committee can
become a lynch mob.

Spectators do their job and nothing more. They are passive. Opportunists do everything openly to
get noticed and love to be rewarded. They see the leader as a means to an end (promotion).
Traitors are treacherous and inflict the deepest wounds. In the case of some negative event they
are quick to publicly denounce the leader. Realists are especially important to keep close
depending on the magnitude of your project but they can also curb creativity. Critics show their
true colors so you know what to expect.

Be wary of sycophants, they are not truthful (if you say the sky is green, they will say yes) and
can set the leader up for a great fall. Although you can count on loyalists to get the job done, due
to their biased admiration for the leader, they can provide the leader with misguided feedback in
their assessment of his / her talents and abilities. They are good to have close especially in low
moments such as failed projects or poor performance to give much needed reassurance.

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." U. S. President,
John F. Kennedy

It is important for a leader to conduct a periodic swot analysis and be honest about his /her skill
set and abilities.

Followership type is not a fixated state, an individual might move from one ‘type’ to another
depending on the external conditions, changing perceptions as well as leaders conduct. For
example, an opportunist could easily become a critic if he sees things are certainly not going in
his favour.

II. Types of Followers

Barbara Kellerman offers a typology that helps explain how followers differ from one
another.

• She focuses on the defining factor of the level of engagement with the leader or group to
arrive at five types of follower

1) Isolates are completely detached, and passively support the status quo by not taking
action to bring about changes.

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• Isolates need coaching, yet sometimes firing them is the only solution.

2) Bystanders are free riders who are typically detached when it fits their self-interests.

• Bystanders have low internal motivation, so the leader has to work hard to find the right
motivators to spark the bystander into action.

3) Participants show enough engagement to invest some of their own time and money to
make a difference, such as taking it on their own to learn new technology that would help
the group. Participants are sometimes for, and sometimes against, the leader and the
company. The leader has to review their work and attitudes carefully to see if the
participant is being constructive.
4) Activists are considerably engaged, heavily invested in people and processes, and eager to
demonstrate their support or opposition.

• They feel strongly, either positively or negatively, about their leader and the organization
and act accordingly

5. Diehards are super-engaged to the point that they are willing to go down for their own
cause, or willing to oust the leader if they feel he or she is headed in the wrong direction.
Diehards can be an asset or a liability to the leader.

• Leaders have to stay in touch with diehards to see if their energy is being pointed in the
service of the organization

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 • Essential Qualities of Effective Followers

As observed by Robert E. Kelley, effective followers share four essential qualities:

1. Self-management. The key to being a good follower is to think for oneself and to work well
without close supervision. Effective group members see themselves as being as capable as their
leaders.

2. Commitment. Effective followers are committed to something beyond themselves, be it a

cause, product, department, organization, idea, or value. To a committed group member, the
leader facilitates progress toward achieving a goal.

3.Competence and focus. Effective followers build their competence and focus their efforts for
maximum impact. Competence centers on mastering skills that will be useful to the organization.

4. Courage. Effective followers establish themselves as independent, critical thinkers and fight
for what they believe is right.

Collaboration Between Leaders and Followers

• A key role for followers is to collaborate with leaders in achieving organizational goals.

• When high-level leaders do not make all of the decisions but solicit input from
knowledgeable group members, leaders and followers work together more closely.

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 • Great leaders are made by great groups; every organizational member needs to contribute
energy and talent to help leaders carry out their roles successfully.

Situation

• All situations are different.

• What you do in one situation will not always work in another.

• You must use your judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership
style needed for each situation.

• For example, you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but
if the confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results
may prove ineffective.

• Also note that the situation normally has a greater effect on a leader's action than
his or her traits.

• This is because while traits may have an impressive stability over a period of time,
they have little consistency across situations (Mischel, 1968).

From the above definitions it can be concluded that leadership is the processes of
influencing followers to achieve common goal.

1.3. Differences between Management and Leadership

The difference between leadership and management might not be a question to most people. Yes,
they are not independent concepts. Some might argue to say, “a manager can be a leader but a
leader cannot be a manager.” On the other hand, most writers challenge if any bad manager can
be a good leader at all. Many good managers lack good leadership. Leaders are required to carry
on certain managerial functions like goal setting and delegating. Thus, the acts of leading and
managing are different. However, the truth is that the two have a lot in common and are not as
such exclusive of one another.
A close study of management suggests that the function of management is about planning,
organizing, leading and controlling which implies handling financial and material resources, as
well as people. On the other hand, leadership as a function of management is about setting
direction, aligning people and motivating and inspiring them. It is purely a “people”-activity
distinct from administrative routines or problem solving activities.

Table 2: The difference between Management and leadership

Point of Management Leadership
comparison

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 Planning and budgeting- establishing
What each detailed steps and timetables for achieving
Does? needed results, and then allocating the
resources necessary to make that happen.
Organizing and staffing-establishing
some structure for accomplishing plan
requirements, staffing that with individuals,
delegating responsibility and authority for
carrying out the plan, providing the policies
and procedures to help guide people or
systems to monitor implementation.
How each Controlling and problem solving-
Does? monitoring results against plan in some
detail, identifying deviations and then
planning and organizing to solve these
problems.
Outcomes Produce a degree of predictability and
order, and has potential of consistently
producing key results expected by
stakeholders (e.g., being on budget, etc.)
Adopted from: Hooper and Potter (2001)
Establishing direction-developing a vision of
the future, often the distant future, and
strategies for producing the changes to achieve
that vision.
Aligning people- communicating the direction
by words and deeds to all those cooperation
may be needed so as to influence the creation of
teams and coalitions that understand the vision
and strategies and accept their validity.
Motivating and inspiring-energizing people to
overcome major political, bureaucratic and
resources barriers to change by satisfying very
basic, but unfulfilled, human needs.
Produces change, often to a dramatic degree,
and has the potential of producing extremely
useful change (e.g., new products that
customers want, new approaches to staff
relations that help the organization to develop).

This thinking is extended further in Table 2 below, which considers differences between the
behaviors and the actions of a leader and a manager. It will be seen that the list on the left is
about management control, predictability and short term results. In contrast, the right-hand list is
emotional; it is about unlocking human potential and working towards a more visionary future.
The missing leadership abilities over the last decades need now be redressed. However, it should
not mean that an individual should become either a leader or a manager. It should rather be
advisable that you become effective at both.

Table 3: The manager and the leader compared

The Manager The Leader

Administers Innovates
Is a copy Is an original
Maintains Develops
Focuses on systems Focuses on people
Relies on control Inspires trust
Short range view Long range view
Asks how and when Asks what and why
Eye on the bottom line Eye on the horizon
Imitates Originates
Accepts the status quo Challenges/changes the status quo
Obeys orders without question Obeys when appropriate but thinks
Does things right Does the right things
Is trained Learns

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 Operates within the culture Creates the culture

Adopted from: Hooper and Potter (2001) and Chandan (1997)

Management
Produce order and Consistency
Planning and Budgeting
 Establish agenda
 Set timetables
 Allocate resources
Organizing Staffing
 Provide Structure
 Make a job placement
 Establish rules and procedures
Controlling and Problem Solving
 Develop incentives
 Generate creative solutions
 Take corrective actions
Leadership
Produce change and movement
Establishing Direction
 Create a vision
 Clarify big picture
 Set strategies
Aligning people
 Communicate Goals
 Seek commitment
 Build teams and Coalitions
Motivating and Inspiring
 Inspire and energize
 Empower subordinates
 Satisfy unmet needs

Subject Leader Manager

Excitement for
Exchange Money for work
work
Likes Striving Action
Wants Achievement Results
Risk Takes Minimizes
Rules Breaks Makes
Conflict Uses Avoids
Direction New roads Existing roads
Truth Seeks Establishes
Concern What is right Being right

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 Credit Gives Takes
Blame Takes Blames

1.4. Framework for Understanding Leadership

The framework below presents the major sets of variables that influence leadership effectiveness.
The basic assumptions underlying this framework can be expressed in terms of a simple
framework with a profound meaning below.
L= f (L, F,s)
Where:
L =Leadership
l =leader
F=follower(group member)
s =other situational variable
The formula means that the leadership process is composed of a function of several elements
such as the leader, group members (or followers), and other situational variables. In other words,
leadership does not exist in the abstract but takes into account factors related to the leader the
person or persons being led and a variable of forces in the environment.

The key elements in the leadership process include leader characteristics and traits, leader
behavior and style, group member characteristics, and internal and external environment. At the
right side of the framework, leadership effectiveness refers to attaining desirable outcomes such
as productivity, quality and satisfaction in a given situation. Whether or not the leader is
effective depends on the four sets of variables in the box.

As in the diagram below, beginning at the top of the circle, leader characteristics and traits refers
to the inner qualities, such as self-confidence and problem solving abilities that help a leader
function effectively in many situations. Leader behavior and style refers to the activities engaged
in by the leader, including his or her characteristics approach that relates to his/her effectiveness.
Group member characteristics refer to attributes of the group members that could have a bearing
on how effective the leadership attempt will be. Intelligent and well motivated group members,
for example, help the leader do an outstanding job. Internal and external environmental elements
also exert major influence on the practice of leadership. A leader in culturally diverse
environment, for example, will need to have multicultural skills to be effective.

Overall, the above discussion considers leadership as a dynamic process and balances the
importance of each of the key elements the leader, the group and the situation in it. Each of them
would be presented in detail in the next two units based on various theories and models.

Very close to these key elements of leadership is informal leadership or peer leadership. For
example, according to Bowers and Seashores (1966), most leadership functions can be carried
out by someone besides the designated leader of a group. Sometimes a manager asks

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subordinates to share in performing certain leadership functions, and sometimes subordinates
perform these functions on their own initiative. Group effectiveness will depend more on the
overall quality of leadership in a work unit than on who actually performs the functions.

Diagram1: Framework for Understanding Leadership

Leadership
Effectiveness

Source: Robbins, 1997 cited in Durbin 2007.

However, the possibility of shared leadership does not imply that it is necessary to have a
designated leader. According to Bowers and Seashore (1966), “There are both common sense
and theoretical reasons for believing that a formally acknowledged leader through his
supervisory leadership behavior sets the pattern of the mutual leadership which subordinates
supply each other.”

1.5. Purpose/importance of Leadership

By definition leadership is influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real
changes that reflect their mutual purpose. Changing the status quo is the purpose of
leadership. In other words leadership has visioning as its major purpose. Visioning is the
presentation of an alternative future to the status quo.

A leader must establish purpose, the direction or the strategy s/he stands for, the reason why
others should follow her/him. The leadership's inherent strength is in defining a "vision" for the
organization; it is the leader’s ability to imagine a different and better future for the organization
along with plans to achieve it. Envisioning the path to a better future is a very creative process
and often cannot be taught or learned, except for how leaders generally formulate it. Leaders
often collect dissimilar problems from various units of organizations; synthesize them into a
vision that articulate a compelling picture of the future.

Visionary leaders often express discontentment with the current situations, propose their vision

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and plans for the future, which is something to be sought after, they motivate their followers by
clear description of what can be achieved.

Importance of Leadership:

 Initiating Action: Leadership starts from the very beginning, even before the work
actually starts. A leader is a person who communicates the policies and plans to the
subordinates to start the work.

 Providing Motivation: A leader motivates the employees by giving them financial and

non-financial incentives and gets the work done efficiently. Motivation is the driving force in
an individual’s life.

 Providing guidance: A leader not only supervises the employees but also guides them in
their work. He instructs the subordinates on how to perform their work effectively so that
their efforts don’t get wasted.

 Creating confidence: A leader acknowledges the efforts of the employees, explains to

them their role clearly and guides them to achieve their goals. He also resolves the
complaints and problems of the employees, thereby building confidence in them regarding
the organization.

 Building work environment:  A good leader should maintain personal contacts with the
employees and should hear their problems and solve them. He always listens to the point of
view of the employees and in case of disagreement persuades them to agree with him by
giving suitable clarifications. In case of conflicts, he handles them carefully and does not
allow it to adversely affect the entity. A positive and efficient work environment helps in
stable growth of the organization.

 Co-ordination: A leader reconciles the personal interests of the employees with the
organizational goals and achieves co-ordination in the entity.

 Creating Successors: A leader trains his subordinates in such a manner that they can
succeed him in future easily in his absence. He creates more leaders.

 Induces change: A leader persuades, clarifies and inspires employees to accept any
change in the organization without much resistance and discontentment. He makes sure that
employees don’t feel insecure about the changes.
Often, the success of an organization is attributed to its leaders. But, one must not forget that it’s the
followers who make a leader successful by accepting his leadership. Thus, leaders and followers
collectively play a key role to make leadership successful.

Qualities of a Leader

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 Personality: A pleasing personality always attracts people. A leader should also friendly
and yet authoritative so that he inspires people to work hard like him.

 Knowledge: A subordinate looks up to his leader for any suggestion that he needs. A good
leader should thus possess adequate knowledge and competence in order to influence the
subordinates.

 Integrity: A leader needs to possess a high level of integrity and honesty. He should have
a fair outlook and should base his judgment on the facts and logic. He should be objective
and not biased.

 Initiative:  A good leader takes initiative to grab the opportunities and not wait for them
and use them to the advantage of the organization.

 Communication skills:  A leader needs to be a good communicator so that he can explain

his ideas, policies, and procedures clearly to the people. He not only needs to be a good
speaker but also a good listener, counselor, and persuader.

 Motivation skills: A leader needs to be an effective motivator who understands the needs
of the people and motivates them by satisfying those needs.

 Self-confidence and Will Power: A leader needs to have a high level of self-confidence
and immense will-power and should not lose it even in the worst situations, else employees
will not believe in him.

 Intelligence: A leader needs to be intelligent enough to analyze the pros and cons of a
situation and take a decision accordingly. He also needs to have a vision and fore-sightedness
so that he can predict the future impact of the decisions taken by him.

 Decisiveness: A leader has to be decisive in managing his work and should be firm on the
decisions are taken by him.

 Social skills:  A leader should possess empathy towards others. He should also be a
humanist who also helps the people with their personal problems. He also needs to possess a
sense of responsibility and accountability because with great authority comes great
responsibility.

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE IMPOTANCE OF LEADERSHIP

A. ARGUMENTS FOR THE IMPOTANCE OF LEADERSHIP:leadership does make a
difference

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  Leadership had a direct impact on organizational climate, and that climate in turn accounted
for nearly one third of the financial results of organizations (Goleman, 2000)
 Leadership behavior accounts for almost 50 per cent of the difference between change
success and failure (Malcolm Higgs, 2006)
 Leadership accounted for more variations in performance than any other variable
(Northouse , 2006)
 Leadership is one of the many important factors.
 Leadership is key in providing vision and direction.
 Leadership can account for up to 44 percent of a firm's profitability.
 Leadership is critical in orchestrating change.
 Leadership's impact is moderated by situational factors.

B. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE IMPOTANCE OF LEADERSHIP: formal leadership

does not make a difference
 Argues leadership has smaller impact on organizational outcomes than do forces in the
situation
 Raise three major arguments
 Substitutes for leadership: closely knit teams of highly trained individuals, intrinsic
satisfaction, computer technology, & professional norms
 Leader irrelevance- leadership is irrelevant for most organizational outcomes. It is the
situation that must be carefully analyzed. Factors outside the leader’s control have a larger
impact on business outcomes than do leadership actions
 Complexity theory- argues leaders and managers can do a little to alter the course of the
complex organizational systems. Factors outside the leader’s control determine the
company’s fate.

1.6 The Roles of a Leader

Dear student you already know that leadership is an important function of management.
Accordingly, Mintzberg (1973) stipulates the following three broader lists of roles and/or
activities with the following ten roles to be associated with each of the three.

Managerial activities Associated roles

 Interpersonal roles - arising from formal o Figurehead
authority and status and supporting the o Liaison
information and decision activities. o Leader
o Monitor
 Information processing roles o Disseminator
o Spokesman
1. Improver/changer
2. Disturbance handler
 Decision roles: making significant decisions
3. Resource allocator
4. Negotiator

According to Mintzberg, as the leader in his/her managerial role enacts his/her role, the
associated roles will come together as a integrated whole reflecting the manager's competencies

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associated with the roles. In a sense therefore they act as evaluation criteria for assessing the
performance of the leader’s managerial role.

Figurehead: Social, inspirational, legal and ceremonial duties must be carried out. Leaders are
inevitably symbols. Workers singled out to be supervisors discovered that they are symbols of
managers. Sergeants symbolize chain of command. Religious leaders symbolize their churches.
In a group threatened with internal strife, the leader may be a crucial symbol of unity.

The top leader of a community or nation symbolizes the group’s collective identity. For this
reason the death of a ruler produces a special reaction of grief and loss. A typical example here is
contemporary Americans and the death of John F Kennedy; F. D. Roosevelt; George
Washington; and Thomas Jefferson. It was the same with Contemporary Ethiopians and the
death of Emperor Minelik II. Student, have you ever thought of or read about what happened
following the death of Emperor Minelik II of Ethiopia? You can refer to history books or ask
historians about the impact of the loss of their leader and his symbolic quality on the Ethiopian
public.

Some individuals newly risen to leadership have a hard time adjusting to the reality that they are
symbols. For example, those with no prior administrative experience, in their first speech, might
simply act themselves- a person of independent mind full of lovely personal opinions- many of
the audiences might get confused and irritated. They might not be interested in a display of
idiosyncratic views. They expect the individual to speak as their new leader, their symbols of
institutional continuity, their new leaders, overtime, learn that they can rarely afford the luxury
of speaking for themselves alone; the followers expect them to be their spokesman and symbol.

However, leaders do not always function as being good symbols. Sometimes, leaders bound by
the oath of office were lying to the public, lying to the parliament, and lying to one another. Then
to the people they become symbols of all the falsehoods and betrayals committed by a distant
and distrusted government.

LeaderThis is at the heart of the leader-subordinate relationship and leader’s power and
pervasive where subordinates are involved even where perhaps the relationship is not directly
interpersonal. The leader in his/her managerial role
 Defines the structures and environments within which subordinates work and are
motivated.
 Oversees and questions activities to keep them alert.
 Selects, encourages, promotes and disciplines.
 Tries to balance subordinate and organizational needs for efficient operations.

Liaison: This is the leader as an information and communication centre. It is vital to build up
favors. Networking skills to shape maintain internal and external contacts for information
exchange are essential. These contacts give access to "databases"- facts, requirements,
probabilities.

Monitor:The leader seeks/receives information from many sources to evaluate the

organization’s performance, well-being and situation. Monitoring of internal operations, external

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events, ideas, trends, analysis and pressures is vital. Information to detect changes, problems &
opportunities and to construct decision-making scenarios can be current/historic, tangible (hard)
or soft, documented or non-documented. This role is about building and using an intelligence
system. The manager must install and maintain this information system; by building contacts &
training staff to deliver "information".

Disseminator: The leader in his/her managerial role brings external views into his/her
organization and facilitates internal information flows between subordinates (factual or value-
based). The preferences of significant people are received and assimilated. The manager
interprets/disseminates information to subordinates e.g. policies, rules, regulations. Values are
also disseminated via conversations tie up with what is regarded as important.

Spokesman:The leader in his/her managerial role informs and lobbies others. Key influencers
and stakeholders are kept informed of performances, plans & policies. For outsiders, the leader is
an expert in the field in which his/her organization operates.

Initiator/changer:A leader is responsible for his/her organization’s strategy-making system -

generating and linking important decisions. He/she has the authority, information and capacity
for control and integration over important decisions. He/she designs and initiates much of the
controlled change in the organization. Gaps are identified, improvement programs defined. The
manager initiates a series of related decisions/activities to achieve actual improvement.

Disturbance Handler: This role of the leader refers to taking charge when the organization
faces collision of some kind and where there is no clear and simple solution. Disturbances may
arise from staff, resources, and threats or because others make mistakes or a certain innovation
has resulted in unexpected consequences. The role involves stepping in to calm matters, evaluate,
re-allocate, support - removing the obstacles - buying time.

Resource Allocator: The leader oversees allocation of all resources, such as scheduling own
time, programming work, and authorizing actions. Authorizing major decisions before
implementation is a control over resource allocation. This enables coordinative interventions e.g.
authorization within a policy or budgeting process in comparison to ad-hoc interventions. With
limited time, complex issues and staff proposals that cannot be dismissed lightly, the manager
may decide on the proposer rather than proposal.

With an eye to the diary (scheduling) the manager implicitly sets organizational priorities. Time
and access involve opportunity costs. What fails to reach him/her, fails to get support.
The managerial task is to ensure the basic work system is in place and to program staff overloads
- what to do, by whom, what processing structures will be used.

Negotiator-The leader takes charge over important negotiating activities with other
organizations. The spokesman, figurehead and resource allocator roles of the leader demand this.

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