- Introduction
Management is an important subject in today’s organizations, department and even societies. So it is necessary for leaders and managers to know and learn some management theories and principles so that they can manage their organizations better. In this literary review, the essay will discuss one of a significant part of management-leadership. Leadership is an important complementary system in management. Leadership is mainly about the process of influencing a group to achieve goals. The reason why I choose this topic to write is I think that I want to be a leader in organization in my future career, and I think leadership is an important and basic subject in organizations for me to handle. So I choose this topic to write. In the following part, the essay will analyse what leadership is and how other authors think about the leadership in organizations. Some theories will be used to prove the argument of this essay. And then some recommendations will be given for leaders to act appreciate leadership in organization.
- Literature Themes
In this part, the essay is going to give out the definition of leadership and some theories of recent leadership, among which several researches are used to support the main theme of the literature.
Definition of leadership
Leadership is different from leader. As it is mentioned above, Leadership is about the process of guiding and directing the behaviour of the people in the work environment to achieve goals (Nelson& Quick, 2013). It is believed that effective leadership produce useful changes in organizations and its environment. As leaders, they should also master some leadership theories to guide their work. The following are several theories for leaders to learn.
Theories of recent leadership
Leadership theories are very important for leaders to learn and use in their positions in organizations. The developments in leadership theories are changing very quickly in the past years. There are more theories in the organization management, but in this part, I will mainly discuss two kinds of leadership theories in management, which includes the Leader-member exchange theory and inspirational leadership.
Leader-member exchange theory
This theory indicates that leaders in organizations may form different relationships with followers (Nelson& Quick, 2013). The main idea of Leader-member exchange theory is that leaders form two groups of followers: out-groups ad in-groups (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995).
In-group members are more likely to be similar to the leader and they are also given more attention, higher rewards and responsibilities. They are working in the affecting circle of the leaders, which results more satisfied and lower turnover. It is no doubt that in-group members are the best followers for leader in organizations. By contrast, the out-groups members are given less attention and fewer rewards, who are also working outside the circle of the affecting leader. It is obviously that these people are managed by the formal rules and policies (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995).
These are the main information about out-groups ad in-groups. Some research indicates that in-group members are willing to take part in organizational behaviour, while out-group members are more like to against for organizations (Townsend & Phillips, 2000). It is necessary to have more in-group members, because there is a positive relationship with their leaders and they are also creative. So the leader should change the out-group members into in-group members within their effective leadership.
Inspirational leadership
It is said that leadership is an exciting area of organizational behaviour (Nelson& Quick, 2013). The inspirational leadership can be divided into three theories including charismatic leadership, transformational leadership and authentic leadership, because in each leadership, the followers are inspired by leaders to perform well.
For instance, in traditional leadership, the employees are rewarded and punished by the leader to shape their behaviour. On the contrary, in transformational leadership, the followers are excited and inspired by the leader to perform to high levels (Burns, 1971). This kind of leader is relaying on their personal attributes rather than their official position to manage follower in organizations. Some argument indicated that this transformational leadership can be learned by other leaders (Bass, 1990). This theory is more likely to motivate follower with the positive leadership instead of punishment. So it is a widely used theory in some management organizations.
For charismatic leadership, Steve Jobs, who is the pioneer behind Apple, is a good leader to stand for this theory. He has the ability to create a vision to convince others to follow him. I think that this is an important ability for leaders to have to lead organizations. For authentic leaders, they know how to use their life experience and value system to convince the follower (Avolio & Gardner, 2004). This kind of leaders tries to motivate followers by some positive hopes and optimism.
The above are some contents about the management theories in organization. However, there still are some issues in the leadership of organizations, which should be aware. For example, there will be some emotional intelligence, trust, women leaders and servant leadership (Nelson& Quick, 2013). In the following part, there are some recommendations for leaders to deal with and do some further research for these issues during their leadership.
- Recommendations
It is necessary for leaders to realize the importance of proper leadership in their work environment. There are some advices mentioned below for leaders to understand to improve their leadership.
Emotional intelligence
Effective leaders should have the ability to recognize and possess the emotional intelligence in oneself and others. Leaders should keep cool and calm under stress to make better decisions. It is also suggested that stay calm when situations are tough, but turn up the heat when things are going well (Useem, 2001). So leaders should have high emotional intelligence in leadership.
Trust
Trust is an essential element in leadership. In organizations, trust indicates that the followers believe their leader will act with their welfare. As leaders, they should build the trust with followers so that make the followers to perform well. In addition, they also should realize that whom to trust and how to trust.
Women leaders
People also want to know if women and man leader is different with each other. Researches show that women leader is more likely to demand strong interpersonal skills (Eagly &Darau, 1995). However, it shows that women leader are better suitable to difficult leadership and they are also better decision makers (Nelson& Quick, 2013). So it is necessary for leaders to recognize the advantages of woman leaders in an organization.
Servant leadership
In order to be good leaders, they should know better about their followers. Servant leadership means that leaders should serve their employees, consumers and others (Eagly &Darau, 1995). Only in this way can the followers believe that the leader is considering their benefits and working situations. In addition, servant leadership can lead to higher performance for the organizations. So it is useful for leaders to understand the importance of the servant leadership in their positions. Some people said that it is no need to be a servant for the follower, because leader is just leading them what to do (Avolio & Gardner, 2004). However, I don’t think so as relationship between employers and employees are no longer the same as before. So it is necessary for leaders to change their leadership in organizations. Furthermore, I also believe this kind of leadership will be popular in the coming days for organizations.
These are some recommendations for leaders to learn and use properly in this working positions. The single theories and principles are not enough for leaders to lead their followers; they should use the combine of the theories which is suited for their positions and organizations citizenship behaviour.
- Conclusion
Management is important for the development of today’s organizations. What’s more, leadership is the key point for leaders to affect the organizational behaviour and achieve organizational effectiveness. No matter what, leaders should learn how a strong leader affects on its followers and organizations. In order to help leaders to have proper leadership to improve their organizational effectiveness, the essay focuses on leadership in organizations. In this literature review, it mentioned about what leadership is in organizations. There are some theories provided for leaders to leader the recent leadership in organizations. In addition, the essay also offers several recommendations for leaders to learn, because there is no perfect theories and leadership in organizations. Therefore, it is necessary for leaders to find out issues of their leadership and then revise it basing on the specific situations in their working organizations.
