Leadership – Charismatic Individuals or Contingent Characteristics

Leadership magnetized Individuals or possible Characteristics? A brief analysis of attractive and positional leadinghip, attractership and styles. Linesh Palayadan, Cass ancestry School, city university London, UK. Men make tale and not the other way around. In periods where there is no lead, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skilful attracters inhi smudge the fortune to transplant things for the better Harry S. Truman It goes with stunned saying that human beings couldnt draw achieved what they have achieved if they had not worked in groups.Teamwork is probably unitary of the approximately important inventions of mankind which does not get explicitly mentioned when one refers close to the tools and evolution of human beings from the pre-historic clock. None of the magnificent creations of human beings we see straight off could have been possibly achieved without humans coming in squads and working for a common goal. Teams by themselves b earnot be in(predicate) if they do not have a clear direction or vision. The aggroup is bound to function in achieving the results if there is no coordination, synchronisation and communication between team constituents.The concept of team itself comes into come throughence save because of the arising of a necessity or a goal that would benefit the society, and the means to achieve it cig betnot be enforced by an individual, however adequate and skilful he or she may be. Members of the team can be of uttermost(prenominal)ly antithetical personalities, skills and characteristics and every member has his/her own ideas on how to achieve the common goal. It is precisely at this omen that the need for a leader arises.What is infallible is a leader who can channel the necessary skills from the team members towards the common goal and maintain the consent and coordination between them at the same time. Numerous theories have been postulated on how a leader should be and w hat the characteristics of the leader should be. Some theories hypothesised that leaders cannot be make except be natural and those personalities or so c all in alled traits cannot be courteous in a person who is not already a born leader while others strongly suggested that given the right circumstances, leaders bug out based on situations and contingencies.Organisations put forward certain requirements for interviewing candidates for its key posts. We all have come across requirements in Job advertisements like safe communications, in effect(p)ness in groups, taking initiative, firm under pressure etc. (S Fineman, Y Gabriel, D Sims, 2011). Are these the only qualities of leaders? Can a person with those qualities be successful as a leader? Do these qualities exist as inborn traits in a person? Or can these qualities be inculcated in a person through didactics and development? What be the different kinds of leaders?What makes a leader striking from others? These are som e(a) of the questions that we leave alone try to analyse with the help of some specific theories which have been proposed before. Two main theories that propose the idea that the qualities required for lead are inborn in the person or are traits of an individual are the Trait possibleness and Charismatic leadership possibility. While the Trait supposition has its origins in the early twentieth century, charismatic leadership theory is more recent and is more or slight a return to trait theory.The Trait leadership concept was proposed in Thomas Carlyles great man theory where he proposed that The hi allegory of the cosmos is simply the biography of great men(Carlyle, 1907). He believed that leaders have certain immutable traits which cannot be developed in others. singular developments in behavioral sciences since have led to the decline in save for the great man theory (David L Cawthon, 1996). The charismatic leadership theory states that the leaders have an innate set of a bilities or charisma which cannot be explained (Conger & Kanungo, 1988).These leaders first try to understand the opportunities, possibilities and constrains as well as the preferences and needs of the team members. They then set a vision for a path which accommodates opportunities as well as the preferences and needs of the team members. The closing stage is the actual implementation of the vision, motivating the followers in the change. At this stage they as well as stage demonstrations which projects their image, courage, dedication to the cause, sacrifice etc. (C Jacobsen, R J. House 2001).Charismatic leaders are often value driven, visionaries and have a trail of success stories which motivates the followers. The primary risk of this style of leadership is that it may not be effective in all the circumstances and much(prenominal) leaders can fade into oblivion as soon as the context changes. Perhaps the most striking example of Charismatic leadership is that of Sir Winston Churchill who be to be a very effective war time leader and prime minister but was voted out when elections were held after Page 1 he war because throng did not consider him as mortal who could effectively handle post-war re exercises (Roy Jenkins, 2003). One of the strongly criticized and censured leaders of all time is Adolf Hitler who because of his war crimes and atrocities, went down in history as a large leader. How did he rise from his humble beginnings to the all-powerful leader of a estate which had the potential to be the most powerful country in the orb if had won in the Second World War? The art of leadership onsists of consolidating the attention of the mint against a single adversary and taking wangle that nothing will split up that attention. Adolf Hitler Hitler took advantage of the fact that tribe in Ger umpteen were disillusioned with the leadership at that time and they were looking for a leader who would turn their insult and injury into victory and f ame. (Gardner, 1995, p. 334)He was a fantastic orator who could mesmerise his audience with his speech through which he was successful in convincing the people of Germany that he was their only hope and only he could catapult Germany to the realms of success and prosperity.His charisma in motivating the masses(John Dreijmanis, 2005) through speeches, vision and aggressive nationalism led to mass hysteria, hope and a sense of pride and nationalism in the people, which in turn catapulted him to the mellowedest realms of power. His leadership notwithstanding the ultimate failures he had was instrumental in uniting German people and hence can be classed under strong Charismatic leadership.One of the most recent, remarkable and widely reported event in India was the motion against corruption by a common man named Mr Anna Hazare (NY times, Oct 2011). Until recently exact was known close the man nationwide and in a distich of about 6 months almost every househ doddery in India knew ab out him because of his take issue against corruption and his demands to bring a corruption prevention watchdog with unprecedented sweeping powers which had the potential to put many corrupt politicians and officials commode bars (Reuters Aug 2011).A social worker and an ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi(N Y times August 18, 2011), Mr Hazare is a 74 year old man, who is not a mesmerising orator, but still managed to mobilise hundreds of millions of Indians throughout India and abroad to pressurise the Indian government to constitute such(prenominal) a watch dog. He later(prenominal) went on to sit for an indefinite hunger strike until his demands were met. The use of engineering for the movement was unprecedented. Indians all over the world used online media web-sites like chitter and Facebook to move mass opinion in his favour and to hold protest rallies in major capitals of the world.Such was the scale of support for him that Indian government in conclusion relented to agree to his demands (Times of India, Sep 2011). In the Indian capital of New-Delhi, hundreds of thousands of people from different parts of India desc revokeed on to the venue of the peaceful protest, provoking government fears for lawfulness and order problems. Different stage business schools in India conducted studies as to how this frail old man was able to mobilise masses in such enormous numbers and provide leadership to them in what is described as one of largest protest movements in post-independence India (Businesstoday, Aug 2011).They wanted to know how his leadership example could be useful for the future business leaders. Under his leadership many volunteers and kindly organisations came together under one umbrella for organising and maintaining the venue and order, organising and coordinating media relate activities, publicity, logistics etc. His leadership style is more of a democratic division of leadership although there is a major element of charisma attached. Webe r, 1968 has pointed out that a charismatic leader is likely to appear when social situation makes people feel distress (RJ House, 2001).In this case the people of India have been so much frustrated with corruption that right environment was created for the return of such a leader. Shamir, House and Arthur (1993) have described in a bit more detail as to what those conducive conditions could be. They have listed four situations that can catalyse the emergence of Charismatic leaders. First, the situation is perceived as a threat to important values. Second, family relationship between goal accomplishment and carrying out is unclear. Third, the situation is unstable and fourth it requires exceptional effort.These situations give rise to a weak psychological situation in which a charismatic leader can easily emerge and influence the followers provided he is able to offer hope and solution to the people. In the above example and also in case of post-world war I Germany, situations we re quite golden for the emergence of a charismatic leader. Bendix (1985) states that in such situations it is not certain that a charismatic leader will evolve in spite of the prevalent conducive conditions and utter necessity for such a leader(C Jacobsen, R J. House, p77, 2001). He also says that it is entirely possible that a charismatic who ossesses none of the above said characteristics may emerge a leader by articulating ideological, honorable or other values relevant to the prevailing conditions. Another theory of leadership called behavioural model (Blake & Mouton, 1964) states that all leaders can be placed on a grid which evaluates them based on their people bear on and task completion concern. According to Page 2 behavioural model, different kinds of leaderships may be prevalent in different organisations which may go from one extreme to another in terms of concern for people and concern for task.A firm in which managers exhibit so called broken or indifferent style leadership, where managers have little concern for play completion or people, is rich in disorganisation, dissatisfaction and disharmony. The other extreme end of this style is Sound style where there is high concern for people and productiveness. Such organisations are bound to succeed as they have high productivity and motivation and belongingness among employees is also very high.Some organisations exhibit country hunting lodge style leadership where concern for people is very high but not for productivity. The leaders do not want people to be unhappy and such organisations are not very successful. Another extreme is the Dictatorial style where there is no concern for people but very high concern for productivity. Productivity in such organisations may be very high in the shorter term but these organisations offer from high employee turnover due to enforcement of strict rules, regulations and punishments.Most of the organisations follow what is called the middle-of-the-road st yle where leaders show some concern for both people and productivity hoping to achieve acceptable results. One of the most prominent schools of thought in leadership theories is Situational or Contingency theory. Proposed originally by Hersey & Blanchard, 1982, it states that leaders must vary their leadership style based on subjugates competency and commitment. A leaders style should be Delegation if the team members are fitting and committed, Telling or directional if they are neither competent nor committed.In case where the team members are competent but not committed the style should be Participating and the last-place case in which the team members are committed but not competent, the style should be selling. Fred Fiedlers contingency model states the relationship between leadership style and favourableness of the situation (Fred Luthans, 1992). His studies suggest that situations are favourable for the leader if the three dimensions are high, the dimensions being 1. Leade r-member relationship 2.Degree of task structure 3. Leaders position power through noble authority. He also found that if the above dimensions are very favourable or very unfavourable, directive or hard-nosed leaders are more effective whereas lenient leaders are more effective in situations where the dimensions are moderately favourable. My extensive experience in heterogeneous successful IT and engineering companies, compel me to come to the conclusion that these companies have adopted situational leadership as their main strategy.The reason for this may be that such companies require their engineers to be productive from day one and as they set about more experienced, they are expected to assume the ownership of the modules they work on and become the point of contact for all issues on the module. The leaders in such cases assume different forms of situational leadership to deal with different team members depending on their willingness and ability. Once the leader is convinc ed of the team members competence and commitment, delegation is the form of leadership he or she chooses for that team member.Since performance in terms of the quality of work done and viscid to schedule is the main criteria in assessing the performance in such companies, say style of leadership is also very common and results in redundancies many times when the team members are unwilling and unable. In larger companies, Transformational form of leadership (Bernard M. Bass, 1985) is also not very uncommon nowadays in which the leader takes care to develop and transform his or her followers through, inspirational motivation, intellectual simulation, idealised influence and most importantly individualized consideration.Leadership whatever form it may assume is an essential skill without which the society will have little progress. Leaders need courage, vision and determination to change things for better. The need for better leaders will never cease to exist and right people with r ight skills will always seize the opportunity to lead the world for a better tomorrow. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Ann Florini. The Right to Know enhancer for an Open World. New York, 23 Columbia University Press. Bass, B. M. 1998. Transformational leadership Industrial, military, and educational impact.Mahwah, NJ Erlbaum Bendix, R. 1985. Reflections on Charismatic leadership. Blake, R. , Mouton, J. 1964. The Managerial Grid The Key to Leadership Excellence. C Jacobsen, R J. House 2001 Dynamics of charismatic leadership A process theory, simulation, and tests 75-112 The leadership quarterly 12 David L. Cawthon, 1996. The Great Man Theory Revisited, Business Horizons. Fred Luthans, 1992. Organisational behaviour 276,277 Hersey, P. , & Blanchard, K. , 1982. Management of organizational behaviour, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall.John Dreijmanis, 2005 A portrait of the artist as a politician the case of Adolf Hitler, 3, apprehension Direct. S J. Zaccaro, Zacha ry N. J. , 2003. Leadership theory and practice Fostering an effective symbiosis, acquirement direct. Page 3 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. S Fineman, Y Gabriel, D Sims, 2011. Organising and Organisations. Roy Jenkins, 2003. Churchill A Biography, conquest in Europe and Defeat in Britain, PP789-819 (Paperback) http//www. nytimes. com/2011/08/21/world/asia/21india. hypertext mark-up language? _r=1 http//www. nytimes. com/2011/08/22/world/asia/22india. html http//in. reuters. om/article/2011/08/24/idINIndia-58938520110824 http//www. washingtonpost. com/world/india_agrees_to_protesters_demand_on_graft_panel/2011/04/09/AFFyy05C_story. html? wprss=rss_homepa ge http//www. nytimes. com/2011/08/19/world/asia/19hazare. html http//businesstoday. intoday. in/story/fms-students-study-annas-stir-against-corruption/1/18220. html http//articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. com/2011-09-02/ranchi/30105617_1_munish-thakur-case-study-lokpal-movement Special thanks to Prof Cliff Oswick, Cass Business School, for Guidance and permission to use his lecture materials and contents. Page 4