Leadership

Running head : Leadership

A Critical Comparison of Different Theories of Leadership

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A Critical Comparison of Different Theories of Leadership

Leading is an important function of management . Leadership involves transformations based on vision . It not only relies on inherent traits but also necessitates acquiring of appropriate skills . A leader has to set examples . He has to elicit cooperation and teamwork from a large network of people . He has to keep the people motivated . A very important aspect of leadership is that a strong leadership would always inspire changes . The changes

can be in organisational goals , performance , work environment , or even culture of an enterprise . Another important aspect is understanding leadership in context of long term relationship , or partnership , between leaders and group members . A leader can not inspire changes if the relationship is based on short terms and ancient methodologies . It necessitates innovation and transformation to changing environment and requirement . Moreover , since resistance to change is a basic human instinct , therefore , through a long term and transformational relationship , a leader can motivate group members to accept changes in positive spirit

This aims at evaluating the essence of leadership in light of available research . The highlights importance of leadership in today 's dynamic environment and focuses on various leadership theories like Great Man Theory , Traits Theory and Transformational Theory . It will scrutinize each of these theories by comparing and analysing their inter-dependability

Good leadership is the requirement of all types of organisations Whether an organisation is part of a commercial sector or it is a public / non-profit setup , leadership plays a vital role in achieving desired goals . Lack of good leadership in any organisation is reflective from the poor morale , an increase in staff turnover , the delivery of poor service , an increase in employee stress , poor employee /employer communications , a decrease in productivity , a lack of company trust and employee resistance to change . In effective organisational settings leadership has a direct effect on issues such as continuous quality improvement and risk management (Laboy 2004 ,

. 24 . Continuous improvement in quality articulates an effective institutional infrastructure , productive processes , positive outcomes and an overall improvement in the whole system . Good leadership evolves good and efficient teams , keeps them motivated , and gets the best out of them by employing innovative methodologies (Defachio 1997 , pp . 31-32

Leadership has probably been written about , formally researched , and informally discussed more than any other single . As a result of extensive research , several distinct theories of leadership have emerged . At first , leaders were felt to be born , not made . This was being termed as Great Man Theory ' Early research on leadership was based on the study of people who were already great leaders like Prophets in ancient times , and great military leaders of recent era These people had tremendous opportunities to exploit and people blindly believed in their mythologies . When we take a closer look these people were often from the aristocracy , as few from lower classes had the opportunity to lead . This developed a common...