Theories of Leadership

Professional and Staff growing FSPSD200 leadership Theory simplified Allisen Penn Assistant Professor Leadership Development Pop attractership philosophy abounds in our culture today. Book stores find shelves full of books on draw ship. Leaders and leading be discussed daily on tele vision, radio, newspapers, magazines and on the web. As a result, galore(postnominal) a nonher(prenominal) mixed messages more or less attractors atomic number 18 expressed. So how do you decide what is accurate? Read the inside cover of a leadership book and you may find that the book is more some manage ment and business than leadership. A agazine or newspaper may dear express the opinion of a famous person nearly leadership. bit the perspective of a well-kn take leader or the insight offered in a book may be valuable, you may want to petition is this information supported by research? An understanding of the existing leadership research may dish out you shape your own opinion about what is good leadership. Once you determine what is good leader ship, you stern beat to mature your own leadership advent. Arkansas Is Our Campus Visit our web come in at http//www. uaex. edu What is leadership? in that respect be al more or less as many definitions of leader hip as in that location are books and opinions about leadership. You may want to define leadership for yourself. Write your definition of leadership A honey oilly guideed definition of leadership is a process apply by an individual to influence a group of members toward a common goal (Bass, 1990 Howell and Costley, 2001). Maxwell (1993) simply states that leadership is influence. The future(a) overview of leadership theories is mean to provide a synopsis of some of the research conducted on leadership in the last 50 years. There is a list of suggested learning (page 4) to help you learn more about the theories hat conjure to you. University of Arkansas, coupled States Department of Agricu lture, and County Governments Cooperating Seven Common gains of Leadership Describe below There are some common beliefs, which include both fact and fiction, about leadership that tummy be summarized into seven views of leadership (Lee and King, 2001). 1. The Genetic View Some people are born with leadership talents and others are not. totally certain people can learn to lead potently they are naturals. If you do not have this inborn talent, there is nothing you can do. 2. The Learned View If you study leadership arefully and practice, you can learn to be an effective leader, no matter whom you are. In a sense, this is the opposite of the transmitted view. This view is common in the military and among leadership development passkeys. 3. The fearless View The only good leaders are those who perform courageous, politic and compas sionate feats that the lie of us cant. Think of the movie roles played by Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne. The perception is that this is the type of leaders who get the rest of us out of trouble. 4. The Top-Only View Leadership only happens at or close to the top of an organization.Everyone else just follows orders. If you are not the boss, you are nothing. If you are the boss, you are everything anyone could wish for. Being the boss is the ultimate goal. 5. The Social account book View When it is your proper turn to be the leader, you will be asked. When asked, you should accept and be grateful. After all, not everyone is asked. This approach is common in professional associations and civic or community organizations. 6. The Position View If you are in the job and have the title, you are a leader. This idea is tradi tional in bureaucracies and passing structured rganizations and carries some validity even in the most effective systems. If your title is phrased director of or head of, your leadership virtues are assumed. 7. The label View Although not necessarily a religious experience, a chitchat to lead can be quite compelling. This concept suggests that leaders have a sense of mission or purpose. Do any of these good for you(p) familiar to you? Which one of these viewpoints have you experienced? Every leader is different, and no single speculation works for all leaders. Begin to develop your own leadership approach by learning more about the pastime leadership theories. gravid man distinction behavioural contingence Transactional Transformational Great Man. Researchers who support the Great Man theory believe that people are born to leadership. This may include members of royalty, high-ranking military officers and industry heads. Today, many people still hold this traditional belief, and even though this theory may sound oldfashioned, research suggests that some people have temperament traits, behaviours and knowledge that lend themselves to leadership (Yaverbaum and Sherman, 2008). Studying famous royal, military or industry leaders may provide you with some tools that help ou develop your own leadership abilities. quality Theory. Similar to the Great Man theory, Trait theory suggests that the characteristics or the personality of a person may arrive them an effective leader. Several academics believe that potential leaders can be spotted by studying the personality traits of the individual and gybeing them to the characteristics of authentic leaders. Trait theory was almost aban arrogateed by leadership practitioners as leadership research evolved, but in the past few years, there has been a renewed interest and more research related to Trait theory. Leadership traits include physical or background raits, personal or ability traits and/or task or social traits such as Articulate Committed Decisive Determined Educated Energetic law Intelligence Persistence Responsible Social Social Status confident James Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge, interviewed 75,000 people to identify the top ten character istics essential in a leader. Their list includes the following characteristics Broad-minded Competent skillful Fair-minded Forward-looking Honest Inspiring Intelligent Supportive innocent All of these characteristics are not personality raits. Many researchers say you dont have to be born with all of these traits. In fact, you can develop some of these characteristics as part of your personal leadership approach. Behavioral Theory. Behavior theory foc customs on what an effective leader does. Leadership is not something you are born with, nor do you privation a set of normally accepted traits. However, effective leader ship is dependent on the responsibility behavior. Researchers proposed that for a leader to be effective, their behavior must vary with the situation. In other words, you can learn how to act like a leader. that match their ability.The leader provides coaching, direction, motivation and rewards for the chase. Situational Theory recommends that diffe rent situations call for different kinds of leadership. This calls for the leader to change their manner to the abilities of their followers. Transactional Theory. Transactional leadership requires that the leader and follower agree to a contract. The follower is responsible for following orders to perform a task. The leader, in turn, gives rewards for following orders in completing the task. Transactional leadership suggests that people only complete tasks when there are external rewards.However, many people accomplish tasks and reach goals because of their own internal motivation. Transformational Theory. Transformational leadership is a process in which the leader engages others, builds imprecate and creates a connection that increases the motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower. (Northouse, 2001). A trans formational leader focuses on others and their deficiencys in order to help them reach their potential. In many ways, transformational leadership is abou t a leaders ability to create a vision related to a goal that has meaning for both the leader and follower.Personalizing Leadership Which of these theories has the most appeal to you? Write a description about how and when you would use the theory, with whom, where and what skills you may need to learn to be more effective. What theory? Behavior theories are base on categories of behavior and leadership types. The myth in this thinking is that outward-bound behavior is enough to establish leadership. In the 1970s, research found most of the Behavior theory research to be invalid (Howell and Costley, 2001 Yaverbaum and Sherman, 2008) however, leadership behavior is still frequently discussed.Contingency Theory. In a more progressive approach to leadership, Contingency theory recom mends matching a leaders style to the right situ ation, which involves matching to the team of people and goals. Two common Contingency theories are Path-Goal theory and Situational theory. Path-Goal Theo ry proposes that effective leaders help followers reach goals through motivation by involving them in fulfilling and meaningful tasks How do you plan to use what you have versed? When will you use what you learned? References and Suggested Reading Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass and Stogdills Handbook ofLeadership Theory Research and managerial Application. New York Free Press. Howell, J. P. , and D. L. Costley (2001). Understanding Behaviors for Effective Leadership. Saddle River, NJ Prentice-Hall. With whom do you plan to use what you learned? Kouzes, J. M. , and B. Z. Posner (2002). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco Jossey Bass. Lee, R. J. , and S. N. King (2001). Discovering the Leader in You A Guide to Realizing Your Personal Leadership Potential. San Francisco Jossey-Bass, Inc. Where do you plan to use what you have learned? Lewis, J. P. (2003). Project Leadership. New York McGraw-Hill.Maxwell, J. C. (1993). Developing the Leader inwardly You. Nashville, TN Injoy, Inc. Northo use, P. G. (2001). Leadership Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications, Inc. What else do you need to learn to be more effective in this area? Yaverbaum, E. , and E. Sherman (2008). The Everything Leadership Book, 2nd ed. Avon, MA F+W Publications, Inc. Printed by University of Arkansas reconciling Extension religious service Printing Services. ALLISEN PENN is Assistant Professor Leadership Development with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, located in small-scale Rock.FSPSD200-PD-11-08N Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Director, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas. The Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected sta tus, and is an Affirmative serve/Equal Opportunity Employer.