Authentic Leadership

AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP Name: Grade Course: Tutor’s Name: (20, August, 2010) Authentic Leadership Introduction In this paper I am going to majorly evaluate on Authentic Leadership style according to writers Bhindi and Duignan. I will also highlight on some of the advantages and disadvantages of implementing authentic leadership into an organization, and at the same time critically analyze the various principles that Authentic Leadership has in an organization at large, and how this form of leadership will affect the ways individuals in an organization relate to each other. In order to ensure an organization realize its full potential from this type of leadership skills that is implemented by most leaders in institutions (Bhindi and Duignan, 2003). According to the dictionary; a leader is a person that / who has influence, authority and inspiration over other people/followers in an organization and he will use his powers that are vested to him in order to pressurize the people or followers towards achieving the set goals of the organization in a given time span. Therefore, a leader is the person that has the powers to enable him to achieve the set objectives of an organization. Leadership is therefore an act of being or practicing the roles of a leader as this aspect enables an individual to perform or exercise the duties of a leader, an individual can be able to assume this leadership role through various ways this may be through imposition, elections or inheritance. Not every organization or individual practices the same kind of leadership styles that includes the Transformational leadership. According to Bhindi & Duignan (1997) authentic leadership ensures that there is mutual relationship between leaders and followers have suggested that leadership is authentic to the extent that it is people-building and recognizes muturalisation and interdependence as the basis of relationship between the leader and the follower. Authoritarian leadership, Democratic leadership, Laissez fair leadership, Charismatic leadership, Task Oriented leadership, Authentic leadership amongst other forms of leaderships , note that each and every leadership style is effective in a special way and works or enables an organization to achieve its set goals, therefore each individual that occupies the leadership role to perform the expected function /duties effectively has to decide on the type of leadership style that will enable him to take the organization through the difficult times and at the same time ensure that the organization achieves the set goals (Bhindi and Duignan, 2003). These different types of leadership traits in some ways affects the productivity of the people working in an organization this is because the normal running of a business today is seen as a battle of ideas and not the type or powers that a leader has in order for the success of an organization to be seen or felt, therefore with these changing trends in the business sector as it requires each and every individual in the organization to participate in the delivery of the new ideas in the organization (Bhindi and Duignan, 2003). Therefore, the old leadership styles are not encourages as they are viewed as outdated and cant help an organization to achieve its goals, therefore the leaders are supposed to implement new leadership skills inorder to achieve the goals of the organization, therefore the leaders should implement participatory leadership in order to enable the organization to achieve this, therefore the present day leaders should engage the other members of the organization in the running of an organization this will enable that new ideas are bounced from each of the members as some can have very creative ideas that will help transform the organization for good and ensure that the organization achieves the set goals by surpassing the set goals (Bhindi and Duignan, 2003). A variety of participatory types or leadership are seen to be the most inspirational in order to achieving the set objectives of the organizations, therefore the leaders of this organizations should be able to include the other members inorder to achieve the goals of the organization and at the same time ensure that the members are enjoying there work in the organization and also their productivity is high. Authentic Leader Authentic leadership is a new type of leadership that is being implemented by the modern day leaders, its seen as a type of leadership strategy that will yield some promising results to the organizations today as it is believed that an organization can thrive and acquire lots of success just through the kind of leadership strategy that is being implemented on the employees that are working in that organization this takes us to the step where we have to define the word Authentic and also get the meaning of the word Authentic leadership and how it is being implemented into an organization and we will also get to know its advantages and disadvantages in an organization (Duignan, 2003). The word Authentic leadership comes from the English commonly used word, Authentic which according to the dictionary the word Authentic means a genuine or an original thing or product, it has also other meanings Including truthful, accurate, and reliable these are all the words that gives a general meaning of the word authentic which mean that a given substance or product is genuine and real as it is not an imitation of an already existing form of leadership skill or a given idea or product but it’s the realness of a product that is being brought into existence for the very first time and no other individual in the universe have ever thought about introducing it into existence (Bacal, 2010). The word Authentic Leadership therefore means an original type of leadership were by the leader is trying to introduce a new form of leadership that has never been employed by the already existing leaders of the organizations employ this form of leadership trait in seeing or enabling the organization realizes maximum potential of the organization and this is through the implementation of this form of leadership. Bhindi and Duignan in 1997 proposed that Authentic Leadership as is a form of leadership were the leader implements or applies a lot of genuineness, ethics, sincerity when executing the roles /duty that is in there positions, these writers highlighted that in order for this kind of leadership to be achieved the leaders should carry out the following things which includes the leader being very honest and integral when conducting their daily routines, the leader should also be open this is established when the leader is constantly consulting with oneself in order to come up with a sincere solution do the situation at hand. While, it also expects the keep off from Actions that can deceptive, destructive and hypocritical. According to another researcher and expert the term Authentic leadership, is a kind of leadership where the leaders of an organization is term that has been used by many writers in the business field but according to one renown writer named Bill George in his book “Authentic Leadership” written in 2003 he divided this word into two different meanings, by first stating that Authentic leadership is a form of leadership were the leaders is seen as a person or an individual who practices his duties without seeing that he is the boss or the leader but will conduct his duties as an individual taking into concern what the other people that are in the organization are feeling, this is through the constant consulting and applying human attribute and values in the daily running or the organization (Bhindi and Duignan, 2003). While the other definition of authentic leadership is the implementation of counseling and consultations from the other members of the organization in attempts aimed at boosting good leadership in an organization, this is experienced when the leaders will make consultations before they discuss on the results of an action that will be preformed by him, this form of leadership requires that the leader becomes much more open and truthful to the others order to enable that this form of exercise is successfully achieved. This type of leadership seems like a most effective kind of leadership, and at the same time research argues that it’s the most difficult type of leadership to be practiced as the assume that its difficult for one in the top most position or the leader of an organization to be honest and true to oneself and also to fellow staff as they will feel that their position is being threatened and at some point they will also feel that they will expose some deals that might cost him/her in the future. Another argument is that it’s difficult for one to act as oneself and assume that he is not a leader; this makes it difficult a psychology indicates that every person will want to assume power if it’s given to him and this therefore makes it difficult for this kind of leadership to be assumed by the leaders. The other set back that will make this t...