CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Leadership is a process in which a leader attempts
to influence his or her followers to establish and accomplish a goal or goals.
The capacity to
lead others: command, lead.
An act or instance of
guiding: direction, guidance, lead, management.
See affect/ineffectiveness.
Leadership is the process through which an
individual tries to influence another individual or a group of individuals to
accomplish a goal. Leadership is valued in our culture, especially when it
helps to achieve goals that are beneficial to the population, such as the
enactment of effective preventive health policies. An individual with
leadership qualities can also improve an organization and the individuals in
it, whether it be a teacher who works to get better teaching materials and
after school programs or an employee who develops new ideas and products and
influences others to invest in them.
Leadership can be exhibited in a variety of ways and
circumstances. Mothers and fathers show leadership in raising their children
with good values and
encouraging them to develop to their potential.
Teachers show it in inspiring students to learn and to develop their
intellectual capacity. Health care workers can be leaders and develop services
that meet the needs of the communities they serve, or work in collaboration
with other organizations to create cost effective, prevention oriented programs
and services.
Many studies have been done and many books and
articles have been published on this subject. Through this work a consistent
set of leadership attributes has emerged. An effective leader does most, if not
all, of the following:
Challenge the Process—search out challenging
opportunities, take risks, and learn from mistakes.
Inspire others to come
together and agree on a future direction or goal— create a shared vision by
thinking about the future, having a strong positive vision, and encouraging
others to participate.
Help others to act—help others to work together, to
cooperate and collaborate by developing shared goals and building trust, and help
to make others stronger by encouraging them to develop their skills and
talents.
Set an example—behave in ways that are consistent
with professed values and help others to achieve small gains that keep them
motivated, especially when a goal will not be achieved quickly.
Encourage others—recognize
each individual's contributions to the success of a project.
Another way of defining
leadership is to acknowledge what people value in individuals that are
recognized as leaders. Most people can think of individuals they consider being
leaders.
Research conducted in
the 1980s by James Kouzes and Barry Posner found that a majority of people
admire, and willingly follow, people who are honest, forward looking,
inspiring, and competent.
An individual who would
like to develop leadership skills can profit from the knowledge that leadership
is not just a set of exceptional skills and attributes possessed by only a few
very special people. Rather, leadership is a process and a set of skills that
can be learned.
The word leadership can refer to: the process of
leading. Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading.
Kouzes (2002) states
that "Leadership not a secret code that can‘t besan decip observable set
of skills and abilities. Of course some people are better at it than others."
In general terms,
leadership can be defined as the ability to influence the behaviour of others. This definition can be expanded when considering leadership in
organizations to include the fact that the leader exerts influence within a
working group in order that the group may achieve group tasks or objectives. (T
.Lucy 1997) leadership is an everyday art involving the skill of leading and
dealing with people. The success in ruling new dominions is contingent upon both
his ability to wield power effectively, and the existence of an opportunistic
situation. Problems, which result within organizational members, disagree on
both the natures of the goals of which people disagree on both the natures of
the goals of which people aspire, and the act of leadership. Leadership, as we
use the term refers to behaviour, undertaken within the context of an organizational
members behave.
It could be observed that leadership and management
envisages deeply into what the organization can achieve if the quality of
recognition is accorded to them. Leadership has been propounded to include the
sources of influence that are built into a position in an organizational
hierarchy.
These include organizationally sanctioned rewards,
and punishments, authority, as well as referent and expert power Katz and Kahn
1966, p.32. It could be seen however, that subordinates within the
organization, through not all seem to enjoy the influence that exists all over
and above the organization.
Leadership is very essential organization and
greatly influences the whole organization because achievements and results
occur corollary to the traits being projected by the leader. Leadership
includes the ultimate source of power but
has that positive
ability in persuading other individuals and to be innovative in decision
making. According to Bennis and Nanus, many organizations are over managed and
under led. The difference is crucial, managed are people who do things right, but
leaders are people who do the right things always.
Problems are bound to
occur within every noted organization and decision making is bound to generate
conflicts while initiating policies.
People are expected to
coordinate. Whatever they are doing to achieve organizational goals. In this
light, the notion of leadership act are those which help a grouping meeting
those stated objectives (Bavelas 1960:p491).in general terms the acts of
controlling other people consists uncertainty reduction ,which entails making
the kind of choice that permits the organization to proceed towards its
objective despite various kinds of internal and external variables.
The effectiveness of
leadership has some characteristics, which include forceful threats, a complete
assertion of authority to the subordinates, and a derived, and situational
responsibility.
Note that in the
society today, not only the presence of rewards (positive and negative), or the
incentive appraisal could induce productivity but the feeling of belongingness.
Improper leadership
qualities within the organization have a negative impact on the subordinates as
well as the achievement of the organizational objective. An organization
that has growth and forward looking has a good leadership and vis a vis a bad
or deteriorating organization has a bad leadership.
Leadership is always
related to the situation. There is a growing awareness that is a continuous
interaction between the factors presents in any given situation, including for
example, the personal characteristics of the leader, the tasks, the environment,
the technology, the attitudes, motivation and behaviour of the followers and so
on.
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