Example Of Term Paper On Nature Of Leadership

Meaning of Leadership

Leadership is not considered as directing, management but it is an ability to lead an organization, or a group of people in very effective way by keeping the entire team members motivated towards their tasks. It is actually an art to indulge somebody in a task, which one wants to be done. Leaders are those persons who do the right things to complete a task. In leadership a roadmap of all tasks is defined properly and then directions about the desired vision is given to team members. Leadership includes a proper process of planning, directing, inspiring, and achieving of goals. Leaders are those who do the right things to achieve a specific goal and contingencies arise, they need corrective actions to keep things on track as planned. Good leadership in any organization creates an inspired vision about future goals and to succeed in mission. Motivation is provided by leaders to his/her employees. Leaders have power to inspire the other people by their code of conduct. Good leaders always try to transfer their vision in a very creative and inspired way. Leadership involves all the activities that are necessary to build such a team that can achieve specific tasks. In leadership, people from different background come together and are guided by leader towards a specific common goal.

Leadership and Management

For good leadership there is always a need of good management. A leader cannot lead his team without good management. For an effective management leadership is very essential. Leadership is a crucial part of management and under excellent leadership behavior, employees can flourish and develop their skills it is necessary that manager must have leadership skills. All leaders can be good manager but not all managers can be good leaders(Johson and Luthns, 1990).
It is main task of every leader that he has to develop all the strategies that can develop competitive advantage over his competitors. For excellent efficacy of an organization, there should be good leadership in its management team. Five important management attributes are very necessary for good leadership. These include vision, relationship building, people development, execution, and strategic thinking. It is necessary that there should be proper vision of a team to whom a leader is directing. Then it is task of every leader that he make strategic thinking about every aspect of decision-making. Then there should be good execution of all planning. In a team, many people come from different background. Therefore, it is necessary that there will be good coordination and relationship among all those members. It is duty of every leader that he must take care about the relationship building in a team. The most important task is of people development. This can be done by motivating his team members and must enhance their ability and skills to do work. If a leader can manage people development then there will be no more hurdles in achieving common goal(Johson and Luthns, 1990).
Many researchers think that there is a direct relationship between management and leadership. These two words are sometime used interchangeably. However, some researchers have opposite opinion. Leadership and management are different from each other for these reasons such as management do planning and leadership inspires, managers find faults in task while leadership do appreciation. Innovation is related to leadership while administration activities are related to management. Development is joined with leadership and maintained is related to management. System and all the structure of the organization comes under the duties of management while people development and relationship comes under the head of leadership(Johson and Luthns, 1990).
It is a not ending discussion about similarity and dissimilarity of these two terms but it is said that those qualities that are necessary for leadership can easily be applied on management.

Leadership and Power

There is a significant difference between the power and leadership. Power is actually an exercise of the power but for leadership there must be existence of power. In leadership it is necessary that leader must inspire his/her team and can affect their behavior but in case of power making of influence is not necessary.
In leadership, some power is given to leader. A person who directs, motivates, and guides all team members must have power more than other team members must. Power can be defines ad that when someone can easily force others to do a specific task. It is necessary for them to do that task for the one who is in power at that time. When leadership uses power in a positive way then it can go in favor of leadership otherwise vice versa. When there is misuse of power, it can be expected that people may be demotivated by the behavior of leader. Leader can be powerful person and there are many sources to make him powerful. It is on the leader that he may use his power in positive way or in negative way. There are many examples when in leadership power can be misused. Nevertheless, power can make a leader enough source of inspiration for other team members that their level of motivation goes up for the assigned task(Hersy et. al, 1979).
There are five sources of power that is important in leadership(Luneburg, 2012). These forces are given below.

Legitimate power

Reward power
Coercive power
Referent power
Expert power
Legitimate Power
Legitimate power actually depicts the level of power that you get legally by holding a formal position in any organization. For example, CEO of any company is holding legitimate power and now it is the responsibility of CEO that he must ensure that all employees comply with the orders of managers. CEO holds the highest position in any organization. All the rules and policies must be made by his decision but at the same time according to rules and regulations of the organization, he has some limitation on his duties also. With this power a leader can easily make his team motivated and loyal for achieving final objective(Luneburg, 2012).

Reward Power

Reward power means that a manager has power of giving some type of reward to any employee if he/she shows best performance. Reward may be in form of any intangible or tangible thing or may only be some kind of appreciation(Luneburg, 2012).

Expert Power

Based upon the knowledge and experience some one can influence to others. When expert power in leadership comes then it means that leader can influence the behavior of others by his knowledge and experience. This power can make positive effect on other employees. They will focus more on personal skill development(Hersy et. al, 1979).

Coercive Power

This power means that a leader can force his employee to follow his order by threatening his employees with the punishment in case if he sees that employees are not willing to fulfill his orders.
In this form of power, there is application of force on employees. However, this power may have negative impact on the employees in long run. May be in short run it will be a good decision but not in long run. This can cause lowering of job satisfaction and motivation of the employees. However, in some cases such threatening to employees may cause demotivation and in result non-completion of final task(Luneburg, 2012).

Referent Power

Referent power means a leader has an ability to inspire his team members and in return can earn appreciation, respect, and good image in the eyes of other employees. Team members will love to follow the order of a leader who is most respectable for them.
This type of power can generate positive image on mind of employees and there will be more motivational level among employees. There will be more job satisfaction among all the employees(Luneburg, 2012).

Conclusion

Leadership, management, and power have close relationship with each other. If in a good management leadership and power show, a positive role then organization can easily achieve their desired target. In leadership, the role of power is very significant. With his power, a leader can control all his employees and can give directions to them to achieve a specific goal. Management and leadership have some differences but in leadership, there must be good management of planning and directing. People who are managers not necessarily can be a good leader. Leaders have some inborn skills that not everybody may have. However, there is also skilled and abilities that can be learnt to be a good leader.

References

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K. H., & Natemeyer, W. E. (1979). Situational leadership, perception, and the impact of power. Group & Organization Management, 4(4), 418-428.
Johnson, A. L., & Luthans, F. (1990). The relationship between leadership and management: An empirical assessment. Journal of Managerial Issues, 13-25.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2012). Power and leadership: an influence process. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1-9.