Develpomental Economics

Question 1

• According to Fiedler (1967), leadership is a relational relationship in which power and impact is unevenly distributed and one individual coordinate and controls the practices of others. This statement is true as leadership involves many roles that include controlling, coordinating and leading. thus forth, in my own opinion one of the most universal cravings of our time is a hunger for compelling and creative leadership.
• Northouse (2009) accepts leadership as a power relationship which exists between the leader and the employees. This definition is definitely not one that I would ascribe to when discussing leadership as it does not really denounce the true definition between of a leader. However, leadership does not always include employees.
• Organizational leadership is a multidisciplinary field and has been the area of interest to the scholars from a wide variety of backgrounds (Antonakis, Cianciolo, & Sternberg, 2004; Bass & Stogdill, 1990; Conger & Riggio, 2007; Northouse, 2009). This definition is too vague as we agree that leadership involves diverse sectors but to in this case it is not trying to define leadership in its raw context. However, this definition is not completely true.

Question 2

Allen (1998) iterates that trait theory of leadership focuses on identifying different personality traits and characteristics that are linked to successful leadership across a variety of situations. However, this theory comes with its own criticisms which firstly is that, It can be agreed that effective leaders cannot be predicted on the basis of only traits for every situation. Trait theory does not substantially account for personality changes, both temporarily and in the long term (Allen, 1998. Since it does not address trait development, it offers little or no guidance on how to change trait aspects. It does not address how positive traits can be highlighted or how negative traits can be ameliorated. At the same time, Pierce and Newstrom (2006) indicated that, many researchers came up with individual traits of effective leadership, yet no one was able to predict the leadership success and failed to identify precise traits that predict leadership success.

Although trait theories of leadership emphasized more on the traits of the leaders, but never clarified as if these traits are inherited in the leaders or can be learned with time through adequate education or training (Allen, 1998. However, the patterns of variability over different situations are crucial to determining personality, and that averaging over such situations to find an overarching “trait” in fact masks critical differences among individuals (Northouse, 2004, 2007).

Another confinement of trait theory as articulated, is that it requires individual perceptions or emotional self-reports to quantify, expecting people to be sufficiently reflective to know their very own conduct (Allen, 1998. On the more, the patterns of variability over different situations are crucial to determining personality, and that averaging over such situations to find an overarching “trait” in fact masks critical differences among individuals.

Question 3

According to Bass and Avolio (1994) Bass and Avolio (1994), this model recommends that leaders utilize different practices to influence their followers. However, full range leadership is a direct combination of transactional and transformative leadership style This theory rather has its own strengths and weaknesses discussed below.

Firstly, the strengths of this leadership style are that it inspires and motivates employees or followers to increase productivity Gbadamosi (2003). Secondly, it adores individual support or self-motivation to continue producing effective and more results in an organization. Furthermore, this theory tends to increase the levels of Empowerment to its employees. Furthermore, Leaders accomplish similar outcomes, however, by employing Intellectual Stimulation. Through it they stimulate follower’s creativity (Ardichvili &Kuchinke, 2002; Grint, 2005). Leaders employing IS question assumptions, processes and existing paradigms, forcing their followers to rethink their solutions and create new approaches to problems. Lastly, full range leadership exchange rewards or punishment for any positive work performance or lack of satisfactory performance with followers Gbadamosi (2003). This keeps employees motivated to produce more and more results and stay in check with the day to day proper functionalities of an organisation.

On the contrary, according to, Bass and Avolio (1994) the weaknesses of this theory firstly involve employee burnout. A transformational leader in an organization has may plans and is open to change and development. These are helpful because these show that the management has long-term plans. Moreover, employees also become hopeful and inspired to attain these goals. In a nutshell, the management and its subordinates share their dreams and work together. This also makes the subordinate feel that they are part of the team. Albeit, this can be disadvantageous if people are made to work long hours and obliged to go beyond their tasks to achieve the goals of the organization (Avolio, 2011). In the end, they will be tired and dissatisfied because they will feel that they are taken advantage of. Secondly, according to , Bass and Avolio (1994) ,it is risky by nature. followers or subordinates of a persuasive and charismatic transformational leader can be made to fulfil the vision of their leader even if this is deceptive and without merit. And without the assurance that the direction where the leader leads them or the plans he or she has are for correct and necessary for the betterment of the organization and its people. If the leader has bad plans, followers might be deceived and be lured to go with whatever decisions the leader makes

Question 4

Introduction

In today’s competitive world, leadership skills are crucial for both personal and professional development (Hiller, DeChurch, Murase, & Doty, 2011). Leadership is an important function of management which helps an individual or a business to maximize efficiency and to achieve goals. Leadership has different meanings to various authors. Most commonly, leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals.in this discussion proof will be given to show that the statement given to say there is positive correlation between leadership and performance (Hiller, DeChurch, Murase, & Doty, 2011).

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