Essay about Leadership (Essay Sample)

The essay addresses the question – Does the process of leadership vary with external factors such as the company setup and company's presence in a particular industry? Effective leadership is about inspiring a team to work together towards a common goal. In this context, leadership goals may remain same within two companies that belong to the same industry (Alvesson 1990). To understand further, we should identify the various challenges faced by the leader in effectively playing the leadership role (Burns 1978). A leader represents an organization's identity and all the stakeholders can see the reflection of leadership in the company's products, services and the employees. Some of the key challenges faced by an effective leader are: (1) Forming a cohesive team that works together towards a common organizational goal. (2) Bringing together individual team members when they belong to different backgrounds and cultures that is a common work culture needs to be formed in the organization (Fullan 2001). (3) Identifying the individual team member aspirations and aligning them with the organizational goal. (4) Following an inclusive pattern of leadership whereby each team member starts believing in their leader and each team member proactively leads the organizational objectives in an individual capacity. Identifying the right leadership style There are various thoughts about the way a leader can conduct the leadership role and the ultimate goal that a leader should strive to achieve. From a managerial point of view leadership is about managing people by inspiring them to take action that will result in the fulfillment of the corporate objectives (Calas et al. 1997). Managing people is one of the critical aspects of being a leader because employees from the team belong to diverse cultural backgrounds. Applying collective wisdom and involving the team members in each stage of the project will be beneficial for two reasons: Firstly, the team members will believe that their services are actually considered as valuable and this will increase their job satisfaction. Secondly, the team members will contribute better towards the common goal of organizational success considering the recognition they receive from the leader (Egri et al. 2000). More so the real contribution of the team comes from an individual sense of belonging towards the company and the need to proactively support the organizational goals. Hence, the right leadership style is creation of this need for the employees, to enhance the belief that they are part of the organization and that they will always matter to the organization. Organizational culture The culture of a company varies depending on the company management that is the leaders of the company. In some companies individual contribution matters more than group contribution whereas in others it is a reverse scenario (Graen et al. 1995). For instance, in a business process outsourcing environment, service level agreements (SLA) are signed and a team is expected to perform according to the SLA terms and conditions. Each team member is expected to support the other team member who is lagging behind (Fiedler 1967). Organize and streamline by innovating, learning, implementing and sharing is usually the mission of business process outsourcing companies. On the other hand, an insurance company's actuarial department may value individual contribution of a talented actuary and implement the underwriting policies suggested by the actuary. This is also similar to a democratic government where the president/prime minister has full authority to implement various laws and policies that affects the way the citizens of a country will pursue their rights and responsibilities (Fry 2003). Industry culture The way an industry should work can only be defined in theory (Homans 1950). In practice, the industry works according to its distinguished characteristics. These distinguished characteristics or features of a given industry are defined by the business practices or the type of product and service that the organization is selling to the consumer (House et al. 1997). For instance, in the insurance industry, push-selling is dominant across the globe that is customers need to be convinced by offering discounts on insurance premium and other benefits to sell them the insurance product (Gustafson et al. 1995). On the other hand, in the medicine sector that is for the doctors and hospitals – they define and recommend the medical treatment and all that the customer/patient can do is to follow the recommendation. There is not much scope to bargain for a discount towards a particular medicine treatment such as a heart surgery. A heart surgery will cost almost the same in every hospital of a particular country (Gustafson et al. 1995). Type of organizations and individual role The organization could be a non-profit public sector or a profit private sector organization. Hence, the individual ambitions will vary according to the type of organization. Further the role (Sales, Administration) that is played also provides guidance to an individual to act towards a particular objective (Fiedler 1967). This is to say that the sales personnel will look for more business whereas the operations personnel will focus on the quality of work to be delivered. Either ways the individual is paid a salary that needs to be justified by meeting all the duties of the role and roles are defined only in theory and printed in black and white (Fry 2003). Conclusion The process of leadership can be said to be homogeneous in meeting the common goal that is the success of an organization. The objectives are homogeneous ...