Philosophy of Leadership Management Term Paper Essay

Philosophy of Leadership
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Philosophy of Leadership
Definition of leadership
Leadership refers to a set of traits, qualities that influence the ultimate behavior of an individual. Such behavior determines the nature of commitment, participation as well as development within different societal domains. The historical perspective of leadership theory provides different chapters on leadership which demands reconsideration from contemporary society.
Leadership theories
Path-goal Theory
This goal focuses on the motivation aspect of leadership towards followers in the quest to achieve greater results. This theory relates to the contingency approach as is a derivative of the expectancy theory of motivation. In this case, the leader holds the responsibility of providing followers with the appropriate information, support as well as necessary resources required for goal achievement (Farhan, 2018). The leader is required to clearly illuminate the path to the goal as well as explaining the success factors of the journey to followers. Path-goal theory emphasizes the existing relationship between the leader’s style of leadership, the characteristics of followers and the setting of the organizational environment. The leadership style should have the capability of best fulfilling the follower’s motivational needs. This is possible through selecting appropriate behaviors that best suits and fills the missing gaps within the work setting. It can be done through the provision of rewards or appropriate information to the followers. Some of the different styles applicable by the same leader in different situations may include; directive leadership, supportive leadership, participative leadership, and achievement-oriented leadership. The nature of style applicable by the leader solely depends on the complexity analysis of the situation at hand (Farhan, 2018).
Directive leadership style is applicable in giving guidance alongside direction while at the same time, schedules work in accordance with expectations. In this case, directive leadership helps in providing needed satisfaction for tasks that appear stressful under a highly structured environment. Then supportive leadership is considered a friendly and approachable style of leadership that treats followers fairly and greatly concerned with their welfare. The participative leadership on the other hand always involves the subordinates by consulting on various tasks. This style of leadership allows for the participation of members when it comes to decision making by considering their views and suggestions. The achievement-oriented style of leadership is associated with the setting of challenging goals and confers high expectations from subordinates. Such a style of leadership helps in encouraging subordinates since it helps in building their confidence and abilities. It encourages continuous high performance from the followers and demands the setting of clear targets (Olowoselu et al., 2019).
Path-goal theory demands important personal characteristics from the subordinates that include the perception of their ability as well as a locus of control. It is important in scenarios where people may think that they lack in some abilities; therefore, require directive leadership to guide them. At the same time, the nature of the workgroup influences to a greater extent the works of leadership behavior since it is required for the leader to provide support in the cases where workgroups cannot support itself. In this case, the task structure and workgroup are influential environmental factors.
Servant Leader Approach
This nature of approach to leadership focuses on the leader’s role as that of serving the needs of others. In this case, the primary responsibility of the leaders entails the development of employees towards the attainment of their goals. The servant-leader is required to consider first the personal needs of the employees, empower them and help them develop appropriate careers. The objective approach of servant leadership does not necessarily focus on getting the followers to contribute towards organizational goals. However, the servant leadership feels a greater obligation towards employees, consumers as well as the entire community. In this case, the happiness of the employee is considered as the ultimate end in itself and this demands lots of sacrifice from the servant leaders. Additionally, the servant leaders also provide a moral compass on top of offering necessary services to the community with their efforts not restricted just within the confines of the company (Seto & Sarros, 2016).
Despite the servant leadership providing some characteristics contrary to approach by transformational leadership, it’s characteristics of focusing on ethics, self-sacrifice, as well as community development, are considered distinctive. In this case, servant leadership has a positive effect on the commitment of employees, their behaviors towards community that could involve the aspect of volunteering and ultimately job performance. Servant leadership is characterized by the creation of a fair environment within different departments that promote the existence of interpersonal helping behaviors. However, it provides a tough transition for most top leaders that only regard their own needs first then tell followers what to do. The aspect of lack of humility from most corporate leaders in contemporary society makes the application of servant leadership challenging (Seto & Sarros, 2016).
Authentic leadership
Authentic leadership demands that a leader should be many things to many people irrespective of the structures, people’s background and they are required to be adaptable. This case may seem like demanding of a leader to apply a smart strategy that allows him to operate as a social chameleon. The authentic style of leadership embraces the concept of being everything to everybody but ultimately “be yourself”. This is since people differ depending on the background, life experiences as well as role models. Such aspects trigger different lifetime events that help in the shaping of people’s values, preferences as well as priorities. Authentic leaders in most cases derive their strength of leadership from past experiences instead of trying to fit within societal expectations. Authentic leadership is characterized by the concept of self-awareness since they are considered introspective, understanding where they are coming from with a thorough understanding of own values as well as expectations. The other characteristic is that they are associated with a high level of personal integrity since they are not afraid to act in accordance with their value system. In other words, they are capable of practicing what they preach; they do not imitate other great leaders since they obtain their style from their own personality as well as life experiences (Lyubovnikova et al., 2017).
The concept of authentic leadership requires that a leader understands himself. Apart from depending on self-selection, there is a need for authentic leaders to gain feedback from others for the purposes of obtaining a true understanding of one’s behavior and influence on others. It is an influential style of leadership since there is a high probability that employees would trust such a leader. Authentic leadership guarantees greater levels of satisfaction, performance as well as the overall well-being of employees. It guarantees personal humility and professional will for the company to build to greater heights (Lyubovnikova et al., 2017).
Transformational leadership
As a transformational leader, it is required that the leader possess the ability towards demonstrating the quality of being more considerate of followers. Such a nature of leadership style transcends individualism, therefore, promoting teamwork as well as higher performance including a higher level of innovativeness. The transformational leadership style demands a model of integrity and fairness following its nature of always considering the autonomy as well as the self-development of various followers. There is the aspect of promoting the assertion of vision and individual level inspiration in all life domains (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). I have the tendency of liking to share knowledge and expertise with my followers. This style of leadership has made followers to easily access my services due to the existing nature of the relationship. This is since the transformational leader is characterized by trust, loyalty, and respect. Further, some of the followers consider me as a symbol of success as well as a greater accomplishment. Further, the aspects of individualized consideration as well as intellectual stimulation are some of the strengths of transformational leadership (Northouse, 2018). As a transformational leader, I depend majorly on the motivation of the emotional aspect of individuals, therefore, ignoring certain important aspects such as environmental, social, and generational influences. In this case, the formal procedure of developing individuals towards leadership is ignored (Ghasabeh et al., 2015).
Leadership styles
According to Northouse, leadership is the process whereby an individual influences a group of people towards the achievement of a common objective. This identifies leadership from four common themes that inclu...