Leadership

Leadership

Question 1:

A good manager is one who is able to get the job done. In today's new economy, managerial leadership has great influence on the structure and daily activities of their organization. In addition to doing a good job with their own daily work, a manager must be able to keep their teams progressing in the most efficient manner possible as well. Managers must be able to motivate their subordinates, budget resources, and still serve as a source of communication to their division or department. Many business management strategies have been developed, discussed and argued over the years all with the one goal of making the business bigger and better.

In the 1960's, Fred Fiedler developed what is now known as the Fiedler Leadership Model to determine group effectiveness in a business setting. Fiedler assesses situational control defined as the "extent to which leaders can determine what their group is going to do and what the outcomes of their actions and decisions are going to be."

The first major factor in Fiedler's theory is known as a person's Leadership Style. This style is defined by the interaction of a manager and their workgroup or workgroup tasks assigned. Fiedler argues that this style is 'fixed,' a person is born with it and it cannot be changed - it is part of a person's personality (Avolio 1999).

Essentially, Fred Fiedler's theory stipulates that group performance is a direct result from two separate factors on the individuals involved: the leadership style that they are born with, and the favorable/unfavorable characteristics of the situation at-hand - an emotional reaction, if you will. Fiedler's book is titled A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness.

This theory is mentioned in every management textbook around and "if you can really understand it and apply it you are a better person than I am, and I'm a management professor," says Professor/Consultant Robin Stuart-Kotze, MBA, PhD and Chairman of Behavioural Science Systems Ltd. as quoted on The Working Manager Website at www.theworkingmanager.com. Also quoted on this site was Bill Reddin, known for a 3-D theory which the site states is the "most powerful situational analysis of management of its time." Reddin's model has three dimensions, which are:

Task Orientation - the extent to which a manager directs his (or her) subordinates' efforts towards goal attainment; characterized by planning, organizing and controlling.

Relationships Orientation - the extent to which a manager has personal job relationships;

Characterized by mutual trust, respect for subordinates' ideas and consideration for their feelings

Effectiveness - the extent to which a manager achieves the output requirements of his or her position.

The Leader-Member factor is the degree to which the employees accept the leader. Task Structure is the degree to which tasks assigned are described and detailed. Position Power is the 'formal' authority that the leader possesses based off of their position in the business or organization. Within the Leader-Member factor, it is more of a relationship-based interaction. For leader-member relations, Fiedler maintains that the leader will have more influence if they maintain good ...