There has been constant debate on weather leaders are born or are they made. There are leadership theories to support this statement or to disprove this statement. This idea is backed up by the trait theory which says that all good leaders are born with special traits that helps them become a good leader, and people with out those traits will not be able to become good leaders. However with the behavioral theories, things are focused on what a good leader actually does compared to only focusing on their traits. If the success of the leader can be measured by action that can be described then people can just copy their actions. This is much more easy to learn therefore disproves the above statement. Here I am going focus on behavioral leadership theories of ‘Tannenbaum and Schmidt’ and also ‘Ouichi’.
Tannenbaum and Schimdt’s continuum theory of leadership is based on relationship between the degree of freedom a manager gives a team and the level of authority used by the manager (Fig 1).
If the freedom the manager gives to a team increases, then the manager’s level of authority will naturally decrease. One of a leader’s responsibilities is to develop his/her team so they can give members of their team different level of freedom according to their own abilities. In the Tannenbaum and Schimdt continuum there are different levels of delegation, these are: (Taken from http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/teaching/338/behaviors.htm)
The Essay on Leadership And Management Leader Theory Managers
The Functions of management Henri Fayal - first person to come up with a list of functions or elements of management Planning - setting objectives and also strategies, policies, programmes and procedures for achieving them. o Organising - managers set tasks which need to be preformed if the business wants to achieve its objectives. o Commanding - this involves giving instructions to subordinates ...
1. The Manager decides and announces the decision. (Tell)
2. The manager decides and then ‘sells’ the decision to the group. (Sell)
3. The manager presents the decision with background ideas and invites questions. (Consult)
4. The manager suggests a provisional decision and invites discussion about it. (Consult)
5. The manager presents the situation or problem, gets suggestions, then decides. (Consult)
6. The manager explains the situation, defines the parameters and asks the team to decide. (Share)
7. The manager allows the team to identify the problem, develop the options, and decide on the action, within the manager’s received limits. (Share)
In the long run leaders should aim to use less and less authority over their team and give them a higher level of freedom so that members of a leader’s team are sufficient in making decisions. Once this is achieved then the leader could start developing one or possibly more successors from their team to take over from them later on. However when following the Tannenbaum and Schimdt’s theory, all leaders have to be aware that the leader will be held accountable for what ever his team of people does so if a project goes horribly wrong, that leader will have to take responsibility for it.
Ouichi’s theory Z is based on the Japanese style of management where they encourage workers to be more participative and also have the ability to do a variety of tasks. People who work under this theory tend to stay with a firm for a very long time. This theory encourages things such as rotation of shifts, continually expanding workers skills, turning workers from specialist into generalist and gives workers more freedom over their work.
Theory Z assumes that workers care about developing co-operative and friendly working environment and also care a lot about being valued by the firm they work for. These kinds of workers generally have a sense of discipline and also an obligation to work hard for the firm. For theory Z to be successful all workers must be able to carry out tasks at the maximum abilities. As for the firm, they have to make sure that their management looks after the workers well, give them respect, acknowledge their achievements and value them.
The Essay on Motivational Theories Theory Leader Leadership
Leadership and Motivation 1. Introduction and Definition 2. Leadership Types a. Natural born leader b. Developed leader 3. Leadership Models a. Traditional b. Non-traditional 4. Leadership Traits a. Make people feel important b. Promote your vision c. Treat others as you want to be treated d. Take responsibility for your actions 5. Motivational Theories a. Classical Theory and Scientific ...
Since workers in theory Z influence the decision making of the firm a lot therefore the firm must be familiar with many aspects of the firm to make it successful, this is where the shit rotations and continual training becomes important as they will be able to make decisions that benefit the firm if they actually understands the workings of the firm. The process of promotion is slower in such a working environment because employees are given a lot more time to train and learn the workings of the firm. In the long run they become familiar with the firm, they would want to stay in the firm for the rest of their career. Once a worker rises to a high managerial position, they can use their knowledge of theory X effectively on new workers.
As you can see all of the above theorist focus on behavioral theories which is based on success being actions that are describable, this means that good leadership can be learnt through what successful leaders does rather than inheriting it, leading to a different statement ‘Leaders are made, not born’. I believe behavioral theories are better than trait theories because this allows people to have more chance to develop and become a successful leader as opposed to simple psychometric test.
