About Management and Leadership

The leadership process is a complex and dynamic interaction that involves a constant relationship between leaders and their followers with the goal of achieving an organization’s goals. Each business institution’s process is unique. It entails leading, directing, and following. It is also predicated on the assumption of power surrender, the interchange of ideas, and the formation of connections. Leadership entails influencing and motivating others to strive toward the fulfillment of organizational goals. A leader is one who holds a position of authority and uses such power to exercise a high level of control or influence over others toward high performance. A leader focuses on group process of subordinates and the motivation to work toward a particular objective. Besides, he or she embraces compliance from followers.

3. Identify and discuss several traits that differentiate leaders from non-leaders.

Drive

Leaders have greater determination toward achieving organization goals. They have high motivation levels, ambitions and show strong commitment to every endeavor

The desire to Lead

Leaders tend to have enhanced motivation in influencing other to act in a given direction. They demonstrate their willingness to lead by taking responsibility. The desire to lead create a sense of respect from their followers

Honesty and Integrity

Leaders show a high level of truthfulness and decency by being consistent in their words and deeds. They also show determination to remain ethical and moral even in hard situation

Self Confidence

Leaders show firms belief in their ability and power. They tend to have fewer self-doubts even in times that are full of pessimism. They are thus able to build the confidence of followers on organizational goals.

Intelligence

A leader needs to have gathering skills, synthesizing and interpret skills at all levels. The intellectual knowledge is vital for communication and assigning of responsibilities to subordinates. The knowledge is also essential for making the correct decision, the creation of visions and in problem-solving.

Job-Relevant Knowledge

A leader should have adequate knowledge of the industry of operation. Such knowledge help in creation and execution of decisions. It is also vital in influencing followers to work toward the achievement of organization goals

4. Describe and discuss the relationship between gender and leadership effectiveness.

` The changes in the work environment have led to many women taking part in leadership. Today many women are management positions than it was ten years ago. Despite the involvement of women in leadership, only a few participate in top management. Women who have advanced to a top position in management draws distinctive attention. However, men who are similar levels do not create any considerations. Therefore gender still plays an important part in who acquire top leadership positions.

Women are stereotyped as supportive, concerned with interpersonal relations as well as nurturing. They advocate for relationships rather than a task. However, men in similar positions are project oriented. Nevertheless, studies have shown that men and women in management positions have similar behaviors. Both of them show relatively similar consideration to relations and tasks

5. Describe five sources of leadership power(s)

Expert Power

Individuals who have skills, knowledge or experience in given fields have expert power. Many would rely on him for expertise on technical matters related to the area of concern. They may also influence other to help them achieve their goals. For example, a talented singer acquires power through his or her voice and can influence others to sing along.

Legitimate Power

A person gains this power through having a position of authority within an institution. The power comes from subordinates or employees. For example, a company CEO determines the overall direction of a company and the needed resources

Coercive Power

A leader gains this power from exerting fear or threatening others. For example, an employer who threaten his employees of firing or demotion.

Referent Power

Leaders gain this powers through trust and respect from others especially when they handle situations well. For example, a manager who treats his subordinate justly and comes to their rescue in times of hardship has referent power.

Reward Power- Leaders acquire this power through rewarding those who comply with certain policies or directions. It may occur through promotions, bonus and extra time off work. For example, a manager who pays his employees for good performance

6. Discuss the Path-Goal approach to leadership, especially as it applies to situational leadership and leader effectiveness.

The path -goal approach focuses on how leaders motivate their followers to achieve a particular goal. It posits that leaders analyze their subject’s motivation so as to enhance their performance. It is different from other leadership theories that use the three-way process of analyzing leaders, follows and situations. The approach mainly focuses on leaders and how they impact their followers. The path-goal theory does not concentrate on how subordinates affect leaders.

7. Describe at least three differences in cross-cultural leadership.

Collectivism versus Individualism (CI)

Individualism is where personal interest and values take the highest priority. Collectivism is where a group or entire society are given priority at all times. High level of Collectivism influences followers to adopt a recognition-based process to leadership perception whereas when it is less, they choose an inference-based process to leadership.

Masculinity versus Femininity (MASC or FEMI)

Masculinity is where more emphasis occurs on the acquisition of wealth and material objects, assertiveness as well as a disregard for others. Femininity, on the other hand, focuses on concern for others, personal relationship, and high-quality life. High level of MASC in a given culture leads to a significant number of followers adopting an inference-based process to the perception of leadership. However, low level of MASC leads to more subordinates taking a recognition-based process to perceived leadership.

Uncertainty Avoidance (UA)

The AU occurs where a culture put more emphasis on the authority of rules. High level of UA leads to less adoption of an inference-based process to leadership perception. However, little AU may result to more subordinates adopting a recognition-based process to perceived leadership.

8. Discuss the how and why some leaders produce adverse outcomes.

Unsuccessful visions may lead to adverse output. When a leader substitutes personal goals to shared organizational goals, he may miscalculate the required resources as well as go against the needs of followers. Furthermore, poor communication and impression management styles aimed to exaggerate goals to manipulate others may lead to poor leadership results. The failure may also occur due to impulsive and autocratic management style that lead to the weak relationship at workplace. Followers may be unwilling to act by shared organization goals.

9. Discuss two aspects of dysfunctional leadership and illustrate them with concrete examples

Dictatorial Leadership

A dictator or director discourages teamwork because followers cannot express their opinion on issues. It also limits inputs from subordinates because operation procedures come from one single leader. For example, Caesar was announced dictator without end from 49BC

Democratic Leadership

A self-governing leadership style with an extreme level of openness allows followers to express their views on matters and discussion are standard methods of arriving at an agreeable solution. For example, in a democratic environment, many ideas can be generated on handling a particular situation and one come out as the best after many deliberations

10. Apply what you have learned in this course to describe an issue involving a leadership failure in national, state or local government and discuss how you would have resolved them.

I believe that the relationship between leaders and followers is affected by the misconceptions and perceptions created by subordinates. The general public may view the opinion of the head of state is self-oriented and a misunderstanding. They may not recognize the background operation that needs to make government run efficiently. For example, the Democrats and Republicans have their interpretation on how to run a country, and even within the each party leadership, there are questions on the best approach to lead. I feel that the public should act as a country governed by law and not as “real democracy” because democracy creates the bob rule where everyone votes according to self- interest.