Leadership and Humanitarian Training for Leaders
17 Septembre 2018
The Leadership course is among key domains that are internationally important for every category of people. CEO, Managers, Statistics, and sub mangers who lead people need to be well trained and informed about leadership. This allow them to better work with all stakeholders. Let us mention that “Stakeholders” are people and groups who have a claim on and a stake in a company. These include: stockholders, managers, employees, suppliers and distributors, customers, and the community, society, and nation.
As one of former PHD student at AIU in Leadership and Strategic Planning, this topic has a great importance for students and Managers. Firstly, for our regular life as part of the whole society, and as future leaders and managers for our upcoming responsibilities in organizations and the society. Also, as a student, my Thesis will focus on how the Leadership handle conflicts at work place. Reason why this course has been of great importance for me and for other who will need to enhance their skills in Leading People.
This paper is one on the results about the researches that I made in August 2018, after gaining Certificate in “Leadership and Organizational Behavior” in 2016 from the University of Bocconi here attached (as evidence). I seize the opportunity to discuss how Leadership influences the Organizational Behavior with reference to various sources. Every researcher is encouraged to go further and enrich it by new ideas or comments.
2. General content
2.A. Understanding Leadership
Generally, Leadership is a key ingredient in effective management. When leaders are effective, their subordinates or followers are highly motivated, committed, and high-performing. When leaders are ineffective, chances are good that their subordinates do not perform up to their capabilities, are demotivated, and maybe dissatisfied as well. Leadership is a key ingredient of managerial success for organizations large and small and it allows the organization to better make profit.
Leadership is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates, and directs their activities to help achieve group or organizational goals[1]. The person who exerts such influence is a leader. When leaders are effective, the influence they exert over others helps a group or organization achieve its performance goals. When leaders are ineffective, their influence does not contribute to, and often detracts from, goal attainment.
In considering the nature of leadership, we first look at leadership styles and how they affect managerial tasks and at the influence of culture on leadership styles. We then focus on the key to leadership, power, which can come from a variety of sources.
2.1.1. Personal Leadership Style and Managerial Tasks
Generally, a manager’s personal leadership style —that is, the specific ways in which a manager chooses to influence other people—shapes how that manager approaches planning, organizing, and controlling (the other principal tasks of managing).
Managers at all levels and in all kinds of organizations have their own personal leadership styles that determine not only how they lead their subordinates but also how they perform the other management tasks. A good leader organizes well the work and behave correctly,
makes good decisions, and closely monitors his employees’ performance and rewards top performers with pay increases. As consequence, his employees generally are motivated, perform highly, and are satisfied; and his organization is highly profitable.
Developing an effective personal leadership style often is a challenge for managers at all levels in an organization. This challenge is often exacerbated when times are tough, due, for example, to an economic downturn or a decline in customer demand. The recession in the late 2000s provided many managers with just such a challenge.
Although leading is one of the four principal tasks of managing, a distinction is often made between managers and leaders. When this distinction is made, managers are thought of as those organizational members who establish and implement procedures and processes to ensure smooth functioning and are accountable for goal accomplishment[2]. Leaders look to the future, chart the course for the organization, and attract, retain, motivate, inspire, and develop relationships with employees based on trust and mutual respect[3]. Leaders provide meaning and purpose, seek innovation rather than stability, and impassion employees to work together to achieve the leaders’ vision[4].
[1] ) “Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst Awarded William C. Friday Award,” http://www .marketwatch.com/story/red-hat-ceo-jimwhitehurst-
awarded-william-c-fridayaward, May 5, 2014.
[2] )W.D. Spangler, R.J. House, and R. Palrecha, “Personality and Leadership,” in B. Schneider and D.B. Smith, eds., Personality and Organizations (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004), 251–90.
[3] )Spangler, House, and Palrecha, “Personality and Leadership”; “Leaders vs. Managers: Leaders Master the Context of Their Mission, Managers Surrender to It,” www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/modtd/visuals/ sld029.htm, July 28, 2004; “Leadership,” Leadership Center at Washington State University; M. Maccoby, “Understanding the Difference between Management and Leadership,” Research Technology Management 43, no. 1 (January– February2000), 57–59, www.maccoby.com/articles/UtDBMaL. html; P. Coutts, “Leadership vs.Leader 12 (Spring 1999), www.pfdf.org/
leaderbooks/121/spring99/bennis/html. Management,” www.telusplanet.net/public/pdcoutts/leadership/LdrVsMgnt.htm, October 1, 2000; S. obbins, “The Difference between Managing and Leading,” www .Entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,304743,00 .html, November 18, 2002; W. Bennis, “The Leadership Advantage,” Leader to
[4] ) Spangler et al., “Personality and Leadership”; “Leaders vs. Managers”; “Leadership”; Maccoby, “Understanding the Difference between Management and Leadership”; Coutts, “Leadership vs. Management”; Robbins, “The Difference between Managing and Leading”; Bennis, “The Leadership Advantage.”
2.1.2.2. Leadership Styles across Cultures
Some studies have suggested that that leadership styles vary not only among individuals but also among countries or cultures. For example, some recent studies indicated that European managers tend to be more humanistic or people-oriented than both Japanese and American managers. The collectivistic culture in Japan places prime emphasis on the group rather than the individual, so the importance of individuals’ own personalities, needs, and desires is minimized. Also, organizations in the United States tend to be very profit-oriented and thus tend to downplay the importance of individual employees’ needs and desires. Many countries in Europe have a more individualistic perspective than Japan and a more humanistic perspective than the United States, and this may result in some European managers’ being more people-oriented than their Japanese or American counterparts. European managers, for example, tend to be reluctant to lay off employees, and when a layoff is necessary, they take careful steps to make it as painless as possible[1].
2.1.2.3. Power: The Key to Leadership
It was proved that no matter what one’s leadership style, a key component of effective leadership is found in the power the leader has to affect other people’s behavior and get them to act in certain ways[2].
There are several types of power: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent power (see Figure 1)[3]. Let us mention that effective leaders take steps to ensure that they have sufficient levels of each type and that they use the power they have in beneficial ways.
Effective managers use their reward power to show appreciation for subordinates’ good work and efforts. Ineffective managers use rewards in a more controlling manner (wielding the “stick” instead of offering the “carrot”) that signals to subordinates that the manager has the upper hand. Managers also can take steps to increase their reward power. Other managers can reward power to distribute raises and end-of-year bonuses until she discussed with them.
Some top managers derive expert power from their technical expertise. Other top-level managers lack technical expertise and derive their expert power from their abilities as decision makers, planners, and strategists.
Effective leaders take steps to ensure that they have an adequate amount of expert power to perform their leadership roles. They may obtain additional training or education in their fields, make sure they keep up with the latest developments and changes in technology, stay abreast of changes in their fields through involvement in professional associations, and read widely to be aware of momentous changes in the organization’s task and general environments. Expert power tends to be best used in a guiding or coaching manner rather than in an arrogant, high-handed manner.
[1] )R. Calori and B. Dufour, “Management European Style,” Academy of Management Executive 9, no. 3 (1995), 61–70.
[2] )H. Mintzberg, Power in and around Organizations (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983); J. Pfeffer, Power in Organizations (Marshfield, MA: Pitman, 1981).
[3] )R.P. French, Jr., and B. Raven, “The Bases of Social Power,” in D. Cartwright and A.F. Zander, eds., Group Dynamics (Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson, 1960), 607–23.
2.1.2.4.The Trait Model
Overall, the trait model of leadership focused on identifying the personal characteristics that cause effective leadership. Researchers thought effective leaders must have certain personal qualities that set them apart from ineffective leaders and from people who never become leaders.
Decades of research (beginning in the 1930s) and hundreds of studies indicate that certain personal characteristics do appear to be associated with effective leadership. (See Table 1) [1]. Notice that although this model is called the “trait” model, some of the personal characteristics that it identifies are not personality traits per se but, rather, are concerned with a leader’s skills, abilities, knowledge, and expertise. As “A Manager’s Challenge” shows, Jim Whitehurst certainly appears to possess many of these characteristics (such as intelligence, knowledge and expertise, self-confidence, high energy, and integrity and honesty).
Traits and Personal Characteristics Related to Effective Leadership | ||
No | Trait | Description |
1 | Intelligence | Helps managers understand complex issues and solve problems. |
2 | Knowledge and expertise | Help managers make good decisions and discover ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness |
3 | Dominance | Helps managers influence their subordinates to achieve organizational goals. |
4 | Self-confidence | Contributes to managers’ effectively influencing subordinates and persisting when faced with obstacles or difficulties |
5 | High energy | Helps managers deal with the many demands they face. |
6 | Tolerance for stress | Helps managers deal with uncertainty and make difficult decisions. |
7 | Integrity and honesty | Help managers behave ethically and earn their subordinates’ trust and confidence. |
8 | Maturity | Helps managers avoid acting selfishly, control their feelings, and admit when they have made a mistake. |
[1] )B.M. Bass, Bass and Stogdill’s Handbook of
Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial
Applications, 3rd ed. (New York: Free Press, 1990); R.J. House and M.L. Baetz, “Leadership: Some Empirical Generalizations and New Research Directions,” in B.M. Staw and L.L. Cummings, eds., Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 1 (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1979), 341–423;
S. A. Kirpatrick and E.A. Locke, “Leadership: Do Traits Matter?” Academy of Management Executive 5, no. 2 (1991), 48–60; Yukl, Leadership in Organizations; G. Yukl and D.D. Van Fleet, “Theory and Research on Leadership in Organizations,” in M.D. Dunnette and L.M. Hough, eds., Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1992), 147–97.
2.1.2.5. The Behavior Model
In the USA, in the 1940s and 1950s, researchers at The Ohio State University identified two basic kinds of leader behaviors that many leaders in the United States, Germany, and other countries engaged in to influence their subordinates: consideration and initiating structure[1].
Leadership researchers have identified leader behaviors like consideration and initiating structure. Researchers at the University of Michigan, for example, identified two categories of leadership behaviors, employee-centered behaviors and job-oriented behaviors, that correspond roughly to consideration and initiating structure, respectively[3]. Other studies highlighted
supportive behaviors (like consideration) and task-oriented behaviors (like initiating structure). According to Hersey and Blanchard, leaders need to consider the nature of their subordinates when trying to determine the extent to which they should perform these two behaviors.[4]
You might expect that effective leaders and managers would perform both kinds of behaviors, but research has found that this is not necessarily the case. The relationship between performance of consideration and initiating-structure behaviors and leader effectiveness is not clear-cut. Some leaders are effective even when they do not perform consideration or initiating-structure behaviors, and some leaders are ineffective even when they perform both kinds of behaviors. Like the trait model of leadership, the behavior model alone cannot explain leader effectiveness. Realizing this, researchers began building more complicated models of leadership, focused not only on the leader and what he or she does but also on the situation or context in which leadership occurs.
[1] )E.A. Fleishman, “Performance Assessment Based on an Empirically Derived Task Taxonomy,” Human Factors 9 (1967), 349–66; E.A. Fleishman, “The Description of Supervisory Behavior,” PersonnelPsychology 37 (1953), 1–6; A.W. Halpin and B.J. Winer, “A Factorial Study of the Leader Behavior Descriptions,” in R.M. Stogdill and A.I. Coons, eds., LeaderBehavior: Its Description and Measurement (Columbus Bureau of Business Research, Ohio State University, 1957); D. Tscheulin, “Leader Behavior Measurement in German Industry,” Journal of Applied Psychology 56 (1971), 28–31.
[3] ) R. Likert, New Patterns of Management (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961); N.C. Morse and E. Reimer, “The Experimental Change of a Major Organizational Variable,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 52 (1956), 120–29.
[4] ) P. Hersey and K. Blanchard, Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982).
2.B. Organizational Behavior
2.1. Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs)
The Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), are Behaviors that are not required of organizational members but that contribute to and are necessary for organizational efficiency, effectiveness, and competitive advantage.
Recent studies have indicated that managers and other members of an organization need to realize that how they feel affects how they treat others and how others respond to them, including their subordinates. For example, a subordinate may be more likely to approach a manager with a somewhat unusual but potentially useful idea if the subordinate thinks the manager is in a good mood. Likewise, when managers are in very bad moods, their subordinates might try to avoid them at all costs. So far, it is necessary for managers to be satisfied with their jobs, for at least two reasons:
A growing source of dissatisfaction for many lower-level and middle managers, as well as for nonmanagerial employees, is the threat of unemployment and increased workloads from organizational downsizings and layoffs. Organizations that try to improve their efficiency through restructuring and layoffs often eliminate a sizable number of first-line and middle management positions. This decision obviously hurts the managers who are laid off, and it also can reduce the job satisfaction levels of managers who remain. They might fear being the next to be let go. In addition, the workloads of remaining employees often increase dramatically because of restructuring, and this can contribute to dissatisfaction.
How managers and organizations handle layoffs is of paramount importance, not only for the layoff victims but also for employees who survive the layoff and keep their jobs[3].
Showing compassion and empathy for layoff victims, giving them as much advance notice as possible about the layoff, providing clear information about severance benefits, and helping layoff victims in their job search efforts are a few of the ways in which managers can humanely manage a layoff[4].
2.2. Managers and Organizational Culture
While all members of an organization can contribute to developing and maintaining organizational culture, managers play a particularly important part in influencing organizational culture[5] because of their multiple and important roles. How managers create culture is most vividly evident in start-ups of new companies. Entrepreneurs who start their own companies are typically also the start-ups’ top managers until the companies grow and become profitable. Often referred to as the firms’ founders, these managers literally create their organizations’ cultures.
2.3. Organizational socialization
The Organizational socialization is the process by which newcomers learn an organization’s values and norms and acquire the work behaviors necessary to perform jobs effectively.[6] As a result of their socialization experiences, organizational members internalize an organization’s values and norms and behave in accordance with them not only because they think they must but because they think these values and norms describe the right and proper way to behave[7].
[1] ) J.M. George and A.P. Brief, “Feeling Good—Doing Good: A Conceptual Analysis of the Mood at Work— Organizational Spontaneity Relationship,” Psychological Bulletin 112 (1992), 310–29.
[2] )W.H. Mobley, “Intermediate Linkages in the Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover,” Journal of Applied Psychology 62 (1977), 237–40.
[3] )C. Hymowitz, “Though Now Routine, Bosses Still Stumble during Layoff Process,” The Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2007, B1; J. Brockner, “The Effects of Work Layoffs on Survivors: Research, Theory and Practice,” in B.M. Staw and L.L. Cummings, eds., Research in Organizational
Behavior, vol. 10 (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1988), 213–55.
[4] )Hymowitz, “Though Now Routine.”
[5] )“Personality and Organizational Culture,” in B. Schneider and D.B. Smith, eds., Personality and Organizations (Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004), 347–69; J.E. Slaughter, M.J. Zickar, S. Highhouse, and D.C. Mohr, “Personality Trait Inferences about Organizations: Development of a Measure and Assessment of Construct Validity,”Journal of Applied Psychology 89, no. 1
[6] )J.M. George, “Personality, Affect, and Behavior in Groups,” Journal of Applied Psychology 75 (1990), 107–16.
[7] ) J. Van Maanen, “Police Socialization: A Longitudinal Examination of Job Attitudes in an Urban Police Department,” Administrative Science Quarterly 20 (1975), 207–28.
3. Conclusion
At the end of this assignment, let us mention that Leadership is a key ingredient in effective management. When leaders are effective, their subordinates or followers are highly motivated, committed, and high-performing. When leaders are ineffective, chances are good that their subordinates do not perform up to their capabilities, are demotivated, and maybe dissatisfied as well. Managers and other members of an organization need to realize that how they feel affects how they treat others and how others respond to them, including their subordinates. Managers at all levels and in all kinds of organizations have their own personal leadership styles that determine not only how they lead their subordinates but also how they perform the other management tasks. A good leader organizes well the work and behave correctly, makes good decisions, and closely monitors his employees’ performance and rewards top performers with pay increases. As consequence, his employees generally are motivated, perform highly, and are satisfied; and his organization is highly profitable. Leadership is a key ingredient of managerial success for organizations large and small and it allows the organization to better make profit. While all members of an organization can contribute to developing and maintaining organizational culture, managers play a particularly important part in influencing organizational culture.
4. Bibliography
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