Management & Leadership

Building

Group Members
1. Behram Khan (18528)
2. Ihsan Ali Khan (17208)
3. Muhammad Atif Tahir
(16845)
Introduction

Great leaders bring about prosperity in an organization as the good or bad

performance of an organization or a company is dependent upon the decision-making

capabilities and the types of decisions taken by the leaders. Leaders are in a position to

crucial decisions about an organization and the way it operates therefore, it is they, who

are ultimately responsible for the success or the failure of any organization. This shows

that strong leadership is crucial to any organization irrespective of the industry it

operates. Now, many companies are providing training to employees on how to become

good leaders by conducting leadership seminars every now and offering various

courses every now and then though most of the times, companies send off their staff to

various third-party venues to attend such courses, seminars and workshops. Quite a

few people think that such seminars, courses and workshops are useless, as leaders

are born not made. Claims such as these no longer apply and have become obsolete,

as there is no evidence to justify them. Some understand that great leaders are made

and not born. Several theories support this claim but the two most talked about theories

related to this idea are the classical and the contemporary theories of leadership. In

most organizations, it is these two styles, which are the most active.

Classical Theories of Leadership

Leadership style is the strategy that a leader exhibits through his verbal as well

as non-verbalized conversations. A leader can adopt two approaches when it comes to

the leadership strategy mainly, team-oriented strategy and/or individual employee

approach. Each style of leadership depends upon the personal characteristics of the

leader. For instance, type A personalities are those who are more autocratic and/or
bureaucratic in their leadership styles whereas those people who belong to part B ones

whose personalities are more democratic and laisses-faire in nature. However, no one

leader follows a single leadership style or theory but instead follow or apply a

combination of leadership styles.

Classical leadership theories suggest that workers only have physical and

economic needs and they are not concerned with their social needs and/or their job

satisfaction levels. The classical theory of leadership advocates specialization of labor,

centralization of leadership and decision-making capacity and maximization of profit.

This leadership theory came about in the 19 th century though it rose to great

heights in the first half of the 20th century. The classical theories of leadership are solely

concerned with streamlining operations, increasing productivity and improving the

bottom line. Even though, in the modern times these leadership theories have become

extinct, there are a few principles of this theory that still remain relevant in the modern

times especially in small business settings with regard to manufacturing.

The basis of the classical theories of leadership is that leaders are made and not

born. This theory can be seen as another side the Great-Man theories as this

leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders and not their mental and internal

states of mind or being. According to the classical theories of leadership, people can

learn how to become a leader by been taught and through observation. Here the leader

takes a leading role and works from the front. The leader is motivated by his or her own

ego and so determines a future-plan for himself/herself. The leader is largely dependent

on his own self, and takes zero or little advice from his peers and colleagues and tries to

use motivational speeches and fringe benefits.

 Even though this leadership style is no longer popular today, the classical

theories of leadership are not without their benefits and some of these include:

 A clear and detailed management structure, functions and organizational

operations

 Tasks and operations are made easy due to division of labor and this in turn

enhances productivity.

 Employees’ roles and job responsibilities are clearly defined and so there is no

guesswork involved.

When this theory of leadership is put into action, the management can see the

production levels of the company rise however this particular leadership style is less

attractive in the workplace. The drawbacks of this theory include:

 Overlooks the importance of relationships between humans and creativity when it

attempts to predict and control human behavior.

 This theory thinks of workers as machines and fails to consider job satisfaction,

meaning of employee input and morale of employees in the workplace (Roberson

and Strickland, 2010, p. 313)

Contemporary Theories of Leadership

Leadership is defined, as the ability to help as well as guide others to do their

best. A good leader is one who does so by managing not only the present station and

but also through his planning for the future. Contemporary theories of leadership include

the following styles namely, the charismatic leadership, the transactional &

transformational leadership as well as shared leadership and servant leadership. Let us

look at each of these in more detail below.

 According to Roberson and Strickland (2010), charismatic leadership is one in,

which the leader possess certain qualities such as intellectual qualities as well as has

individual inspiration, charm and self-confidence to take risky but calculated risks and to

provide clarify when things or conditions are unclear. A charismatic leaders leads by

setting examples and making the initial sacrifices therefore, those who follow a

charismatic leader always try to imitate him.

Shared leadership is when the leader empowers his staff and allows them to take

part in the decision-making process. Shared leadership is all about decentralization in

the management style as that creates an atmosphere of empowerment. The

advantages of this style include united responsibility as well as liability, so that the

employees are more involved in the decision-making process. This style is quite famous

in the modern world as it supports staff input, staff creativity and allows them to feel

worthy, which in turn boosts their job satisfaction.

Servant leadership is one in which a leader wants to serve others as well as lead

them along the way. A leader following this particular style of leadership has the

following qualities i.e. he has foresight, he is attentive to details, can be held

accountable, power to influence others; is a good listener and the staff is loyal to him.

Disadvantages of this style include lack of awareness and power struggles.

Then there is the transactional leader who is all about social exchange where he

works on an established framework and demands task clarity to accomplish goals and

make use of incentives along the way. However, when he is unable to achieve the

required results, he resorts to using the appropriate authority to interfere. In this style of
leadership, there seems to be a continuity in the exchange process between the leader

and the followers.

Next comes the transformational leadership where the leader empowers his

followers to reach the point where they can benefit from the best professional and

personal development. The aim of this style is to influence the leader’s followers

through nurturing their desires and ideas, which makes the followers try to get better

and achieve far more than they originally would have thought they were capable of

doing so. Transformational leaders are those who through an organizational framework

allow their followers to take part in their personal and professional training as well as

develop their own cognitive abilities, and able to define as well as perform on their

vision independently and not under the leader’s control and/or supervision.

The contemporary leadership theories are sought after in the modern times, as

there are many organizations and people who value the goals and vision of their

employees and prefer to align the goals and vision of the employees with that of the

organization.

Analysis of a Public Leader – Barack Obama

A good example of a public leader who was not born a leader but was made is of

the former 44th President of United States of America – Barack Obama. The leadership

skills of Barack Obama were capabilities and abilities that he acquired through learning

and been provided with active mentorship from some great people in the world. In one

of his speeches, Obama told his audiences that he was a very mischievous child in

college and he was the least bit interested in not playing around and he got his
leadership skills as he grew up. To be a great leader, a person needs to have an

awesome personality as that plays a massive role in leadership cases. A leader is one

who is able to persuade and influence others to do things their way and to be able to do

that one needs to have a great and follow able personality.

What sets Obama apart from others is his frankness i.e. he communicates his

goals honestly and clearly, his audiences are able to sense his sincerity, and so they

just trust him over other politicians. His frankness contrasts with others who try not to be

so open and clean regarding their motives due to which their audiences are much less

likely to trust them hundred percent.

Then there is Barak Obamas’ delegating nature through which he is able to

delegate tasks to more capable hands while understanding and acknowledging his

limits and shortcomings. Instead, Obama decided to wholeheartedly, concern himself

with direction setting & vision formation for America. As far as higher management is

concerned, delegation of tasks is a crucial skill and one of the most difficult ones to

master (Shriberg & Shriberg, 2011) 

Barack Obama has some other special qualities that show the audiences his

leadership style i.e. he is one who is not afraid to be surrounded by people from all

ages, paths of life as well as other brilliant ones who are in a much better position to

advise him on various matters. Obama is not afraid to learn new things; he goes to

meetings with an open mind and an open heart, has no ego and is willing to listen

instead of talking. As a contemporary leader, Obama has gone through all the steps that

include learning, growing, teaching, writing, earning and gaining trust and support from
the audiences.  There are many circumstances where the leaders need assistance from

their colleagues, their employees and their sub-ordinates when it comes to handling

stressful situations. Therefore, a successful leader is one who does not look down upon

the advice or contribution provided to him by his juniors and his staff. Great leaders

combine all the information that is provided to them by his subordinates as well as

himself to set adequate guidelines as well as make the correct decisions. Therefore,

from the discussion above it is evident that great leaders are made and not born (Miller,

2011, p. 359).

Conclusion

Becoming a leader is not easy, it is made up of a process, which requires

excessive patience from both sides, and here as long as the leader continues improving

he or she has more control over his exclusive patience that grows with time as well.

Proper communication and negotiation skills are two of the most important traits that a

leader is supposed to possess however, these traits cannot be achieved in one day and

require a lot of skill and hard work. Hence through this pager we can understand how

leaders are not born but are made.

 References

Miller, D. (2011). Successful change leaders: What makes them? What do they do that

is different? Journal of Change Management, 2(4), 359–368.

doi:10.1080/714042515

Shriberg, A & Shriberg, D. (2011). Practicing leadership: Principles and applications.

Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Babcock-Roberson, Meredith & Strickland, Oriel. (2010). The Relationship Between

Charismatic Leadership, Work Engagement, and Organizational Citizenship

Behaviors. The Journal of psychology. 144. 313-26.

10.1080/00223981003648336.