Leadership theories
Order Instructions:
Order Request.
Submit an 8-page comprehensive scholarly analysis. 7 day work request.
Topic-: The role leadership plays in shaping an organizational culture.
To prepare:
1. Reflect on leadership and leadership theories. Transformational, Transactional, Situational theories.
2. Begin searching for scholarly references about the relationship between leadership and organizational culture.
3. Reflect on the leadership characteristics and skills that are useful in promoting a healthy organizational culture.
4. Consider the leadership styles that promote a healthy organizational culture.
5. Think about the impact on organizational culture of how a leader responds to specific situations, such as crises.
5. Reflect on how a leader might use power to promote a healthy organizational culture and how a leader can promote ethics in a healthy organization.
The “To prepare” is intended to aid in your reflection upon how the various leadership theories and other topics throughout the organizational leadership course relate to organizational culture.
However, you are free to analyze other facets of the relationship between leadership and organizational culture.
Submit an 8-page comprehensive scholarly analysis of the role leadership plays in shaping an organizational culture.
Your paper must contain ten scholarly resources. These can be a combination of the Learning Resources used throughout this course and new scholarly resources.
Your paper should strictly adhere to the APA Course
Thanks
SAMPLE ANSWER
Leaders are very important in running of any organization. They perform different critical organization roles that help in giving a sense of direction to enable an organization attains its long-term goals. Leaders help others in the organization to complete different task amid motivating each and every member to perform better (Tyssen, Wald & Spieth, 2013). Effective leaders often provide the vision and motivation to help attain a particular goal and objective. Many scholars agree with the notion that the definition of leadership is non-trivial in nature and that it depends on the broader conceptions of leadership (Komives, Dugan & Owen, 2011). On the other hand, Organization culture can be termed as a system of shared assumptions, beliefs and values that dictate the way people behave in an organization. The above mentioned shared beliefs have a strong control of the individuals in the organization and often dictate their mode of dress, action and how they perform their duties.
This paper discusses the role leadership plays in shaping the culture of an organization. The paper begins with a reflection on the different leadership and leadership theories, important leadership characteristics, and skills as well as leadership styles that promote a healthy organizational culture. It continues to look at the relationship between organization culture and how a leader responds to specific situations. And finally, how leaders might use the powers bestowed upon them to culture and promote a healthy organizational culture.
Leadership Theories
There are different approaches to leadership. Understanding the different leadership theories can help us to understand the different conceptions concerning leadership and the impact of leadership in an organization. There are quite some leadership theories and conceptions put forward by different scholars over the years.
Transformational Leadership Theory
Transformational leadership is based on the foundations of creating a vision and inspiring change to the people under the leader. In a transformational leadership situation, the leader is held responsible for the role of identifying the needed change (Pless & Maak, 2012). The leader conceptualizes the vision to provide direction and change through inspiration and implementing the change in unison with other committed members of the organization. Transformation leaders help enhance the morale, motivation and job performance of those below him/her by using different mechanisms. The conception of transformational leadership is founded based on the following different components;
Inspirational Motivation: transformation leadership promotes a consistent vision, mission, and goals of the group. Transformational leaders provide direction by coming up with a clear vision and articulating their ideologies to provide a sense of meaning and challenge to their followers (Blomme et al., 2015).
Intellectual Stimulation: Transformational leaders motivate and encourage others to be creative and innovative. Transformational leaders always encourage followers to come up with new ways of doing things and provide leadership opportunities for members to learn. Such leaders are often ready to change their ideas if they found them ineffective.
Individualized consideration: Transformational leaders often offer support and encouragement to individuals. They act as mentors and approve innovation and creativity among group members.
Idealized influence: Transformational leaders are often trusted and respected by their followers. Therefore, they idealize these notions bestowed on them because they often serve as role models. Such leaders often exhibit high standards of moral conduct.
Transactional Leadership Theory
Transactional leadership center of attention is the exchanges between leaders and the group. Transactional leadership is based on the behavioral approach to leadership founded upon a system of rewards and punishments (Tyssen et al., 2013). This system provides a way in which leaders can accomplish organizational goals such as completion of tasks, motivation, supervision and group performance. Leaders focus on the direct behavior of members and their efforts towards achievement of organizational goals, they emphasize on rewards and focus on means to improve organizational efficiency.
Situational Leadership Theory
Situational leadership is founded based on the contingency leadership theoretical framework. This theory suggests that leader’s effectiveness is based on the leader’s character traits about the diverse situational factors (Komives et al., 2011). Therefore, each type of task necessitates different leadership style. Hence, a good leader has to adapt his or her leadership to the specific goals and objectives to be attained in the situation. According to this theory, education, aptitude to take responsibility, and goal setting are imperative for a leader to be successful. The decision made by the leader is based on the leadership style of the leader and the maturity level of the followers. This decision follows dictates the leadership behavior that may include:
Telling: characterized by high leadership style and low supportive behavior of the followers.
Selling: The leader exhibits high leadership style and the follower’s exhibit high, supportive behavior.
Participating: the leader exhibits low leadership style, and the followers have high, supportive behavior.
Delegating: both the leader and followers exhibit low directive and supportive behavior respectively.
Theoretical Concept of the Relationship between Leadership and Organization Culture
Culture is the medium by which an organization expresses its personality to the employees. The key concept of culture is founded based on the values that are not visible but are shared by individuals even when membership of the organization changes (Tsai, 2011). These shared values and norms enable the employees to channel energy on organizational priorities and provide a backbone for behavior and decision-making. An organization requires visionary leadership to drive change and improve organization performance. Some of the core values that define effective leadership include initiation, consideration and charismatic nature of the leader.
There are quite some scholars who researched on the relationship between leadership and organization culture. According to Moynihan et al (2012), leadership and organization, culture is strongly connected and shares a symbiotic relationship. Leaders play an imperative responsibility in shaping and upholding of the organization culture. Leaders mobilize attention towards the new vision. However, it is the organization culture that bestows authenticity on that vision.
According to Norhtouse (2015), great leaders often adjust their leadership behavior to be geared towards accomplishing the mission of the group resulting in motivation and employee satisfaction. A good relationship between leadership and employee result in a greater contribution to organization communication and teamwork. Therefore, motivating and encouraging each of the group members to work towards accomplishing the mission and objective assigned by the organization resulting in job satisfaction.
The functionality of organization culture is also indispensable for business success and development. Management role is also important to organization culture as it determines the leadership style depending on managerial decisions and orientation to internal policies or market policies (Stone, 2012). Leadership styles help influence on managerial decisions and determine employee reactions to such decisions. Leaders are also the communicators of change, they conceptualize vision and oversee the change process towards new and better organization and corporate culture.
Leadership Characteristics and Skills that Promote a Healthy Organization Culture
For leaders to be effective in their role in promoting a healthy organization culture, they should possess certain characteristics that help foster motivation, promote shared values and team spirit and teamwork (Dubrin, 2015). Some of the leadership qualities and skills include;
Passion for their work: Good leaders are often passionate about their work and take it to be their responsibility because of the importance attached. Such leaders motivate the employee to develop into a more productive human resource by sharing the passion and enthusiasm towards work. Appreciating employee’s performance often results in motivation and a healthy organization culture.
Good communication skills: Management ought to utilize open communication channels to create and maintain a positive corporate culture. Leaders ought to communicate effectively with staff at both higher and lower levels in the company. Leaders should be able to explain clearly tasks and project to the staff. On the other hand, they should communicate the importance of the projects to administrators serving as a bridge between different dimensions in the organization (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Integrity: Leaders must be worthy of trust from their followers. Therefore, leaders should be honest and always striving towards making the right decisions for the company. Integrity in leaders creates an air of trust and help to promote a healthy corporate culture.
Flexible and Adaptable: Leaders should be flexible and adaptable to adapt to changes and situations within the workplace. They should always be ready for change and be able to help his/her followers accept and adapt change.
Decisive: Leaders are always relied upon in organizations to make a decision that are logical, correct and in a quick manner. Leaders should, therefore, understand the different dimension, scope of work, financial constraint and any other important factors that will enable them to make quickly committed and analytical decision.
Leaders Impact to Situations such as crises and Organization Culture
In a situation where an organization is facing serious crises, leadership is essential to help in providing direction through this phase to help attain organizational sustainability. It is paramount that leaders cannot simply repeat practices that have been accepted to be good leadership as this may have led to failures that resulted in crisis or inadequate respond to the crisis (Northouse, 2015). Therefore, leaders should conceptualize the situation and use leadership skills to steer the organization out of the crisis. That is the leader should utilize their cognitive power, available resources and precise strategies to help solve the crisis. It is imperative to note that crises often attract the attention of each and every individual in the organization. Therefore, a leader’s reaction in such a situation communicates much about the organization’s norms, values, and culture (Blomme et al., 2015). Thus, crises situations tend to bring out the core values of the organization and reflect the organization personality. The way in which leaders and other people in the organization respond to crises create new norms, values, and way of working, and reflects on the organization shared values. Crises generate attention and emotional involvement during the entire process. Because of these notions, crises expose deeper values of the group and thus the levels of culture are put into public scrutiny. Therefore, it is up to the leaders in the organization to influence organizational culture to promote strong moral and ethical behavior, and foster the creation of new organizational norms and values (Pless & Maak, 2012). Leaders are looked upon at this point to help in mentoring others, teach and coach the members into working towards solving the crisis in the best manner possible.
Ways in which Leaders Can Use Power to Promote Healthy Organization Culture
Leaders steer the organization using different styles, the level of skill, influence and characteristics. There are different bases of power that can be utilized by leaders to exert their influence. There exist five bases of power that are mostly used by leaders that are, expert, referent, reward, coercive, and legitimate power (Tyssen et al., 2013). Most leaders today believe in the notion that their groups can utilize varying bases of power. Leaders should utilize the bases mentioned above of power even when doing so with respect to servitude and humility. Leaders should seek to establish the moral nature of valuing the opinions of others rather than pushing their ideologies. Such leadership framework promotes ethical frameworks and corporate culture founded on moral high ground.
Quality leaders should instill and promote ethics in healthy organizations. Ethics in the business context can be termed as a company’s attitude and conduct towards stockholders, customers, employees and community as a whole (Komives et al., 2011). Ethical Standards and practices are paramount as it is the fabric that keeps an entity from disintegrating. It is imperative to note that unethical behavior often results in losses and cause problems in the organization and also the entire industry in which the organization operates.
As such, it is critical for organization leaders to instill ethical framework to the organization and on the team by team basis. Leaders can achieve the goals mentioned above by establishing and creating a clear and open communication in the workplace. The management should also diversify the employees amid encouraging team building exercise to promote cohesiveness of the organization. Quality leadership implies that one should be able to monitor internal factors and diagnosing deficiencies in different groups within the organization. Leaders should also be ready to take remedy action that may lead to negative changes in the organization (Tyssen et al., 2013). More than often communication factors may delineate a leader connection activities with team members in terms of managing conflicts, promoting collaboration, coaching and commitment to objectives. Such leadership styles result in overall team effectiveness, organization performance, and organizational health.
References
Tyssen, A. K., Wald, A., & Spieth, P. (2013). Leadership in temporary organizations: a review of leadership theories and a research agenda. Project Management Journal, 44(6), 52-67.
Komives, S. R., Dugan, J. P., & Owen, J. E. (2011). The handbook for student leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
Pless, N. M., & Maak, T. (2012). Responsible leadership: Pathways to the future. In Responsible Leadership (pp. 3-13). Springer Netherlands.
Blomme, R. J., Kodden, B., & Beasley-Suffolk, A. (2015). Leadership theories and the concept of work engagement: Creating a conceptual framework for management implications and research. Journal of Management & Organization, 21(02), 125-144.
Tsai, Y. (2011). Relationship between organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction. BMC health services research, 11(1), 98.
Moynihan, D. P., Pandey, S. K., & Wright, B. E. (2012). Setting the table: How transformational leadership fosters performance information use. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(1), 143-164.
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Stone, K. B. (2012). Four decades of lean: a systematic literature review.International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 3(2), 112-132.
Dubrin, A. (2015). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Cengage Learning.
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
We can write this or a similar paper for you! Simply fill the order form!
