LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY MANAGEMENT

Leadership and strategy management



Leadership and Strategy Management

Introduction

The case is based on the business firm known as Tides Centre and the leadership role that the owner known as Wila Seldon needs to adopt for running the business successfully. The importance of the concept of leadership is quite high for any business, and, they need a proper strategy in this regard to satisfy all the conditions required in the company. There are several leadership models that the business has an option to implement in their business. All these models then contribute towards preparing a strategy for the whole organization. Therefore, all issues related to Leadership and Strategy Management related with Wila Seldon at Tides Centre will be discussed in detail.

Knowledge of Leadership concepts

The concept of leadership is a complex and challenging topic to define accurately. Theories, developed to describe this peculiar phenomenon, and many researchers have attempted to define leadership, each providing an explicit conceptualization. The researcher known as Bass in 2000 explained that leadership is the focus of a group process. Many researchers have conceptualized leadership from a personality perspective, inferring that leadership is a combination of special traits or characteristics that some people possess to influence others. Others have agreed that the nature of leadership is situational but contend that there are different ways of viewing the complex interactions among leader, follower, and the social context, based on the act or behaviour. With these points to consider, some people defined leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Avolio, 1999, 65).

(1) Traditional Leadership

There is one traditional form of leadership known as Passive /Avoidant Leadership. Both researchers identified passive/avoidant leadership as an important component of the full-range leadership development model. Passive/avoidant leadership (i.e., laissez-faire) lacks involvement; it is a passive approach to managing subordinates by waiting for them to make mistakes before taking action (also known as management by exception). Due to this laissez-faire and management by exception approach to leadership, expected that passive/avoidant leadership would demonstrate lower levels of effectiveness than the other two leadership styles (transactional and transformational) and should be avoided. Thus, while there is poor research on passive/avoidant leadership, there is little empirical support for this leadership. Nonetheless, it is important to mention passive/avoidant leadership because it is so prevalent in the workplace and it should be recognized and identifiable so it can be understood (Galvin, 2006, 594).

Also, it is important to understand where passive/avoidant (laissez-faire) leadership falls on the transformational leadership continuum to understand the framework of transformational leadership. Passive/avoidant leadership is characterized by two key leadership strategies: laissez-faire leadership and management by exception (passive). Laissez-faire leadership is the absence or avoidance of leadership. Laissez-faire leaders avoid taking responsibility, and, satisfied with the “status quo” and wait for others to take necessary actions. According to Avolio, these leaders, sometimes described as “social loafers.”In this type of leadership, actions are postponed, and, decisions are not made if it is ...