Leadership Theories

Leadership Theories

Introduction

The idea of leadership requires a deliberate action on the part of followers provoked intentionally by the leaders or is the product of its unexpected effect. The leadership actions are targeted form of stimulation in an organized, interpersonal interactions and triggering inspiration when the results are referred to the expected behavior of disciples goal (Avolio & Yammarino, 2002). Leadership is the reciprocal process of mobilizing, by persons with certain motives and values, various economic resources, political and otherwise, in a context of competition and conflict, in order to achieve the goals independently or mutually held by both leaders and followers.

Discussion

Implicit Theory of Leadership

According to the implicit leadership theory, all individuals have an implicit understanding of what they believe to be the leadership ideal, and they cognitively classify each new leader by comparing it with the ideal prototype of their implicit leadership model (Gilkey, 1999). Using a perspective of information processing, implicit leadership theory is based on cognitive frameworks or systems of categorization that people use for the treatment of encoding information, and then in the process of recall of events and specific behaviors. The top management in an organization is concerned with ends rather than means, middle management is closer to the means rather than ends and supervisors are instrumentalists (Luftman, 2004). Thus, individuals hold an implicit theory about the superior efficiency of managers (CEO up against master) which cause differences in leadership attributes.

Although perceptions of leadership does not represent the reality in terms of epistemology, the idiosyncratic styles of leadership are used by collectors to assess and then to distinguish effective leaders from the inefficient non-leaders (Nahavandi, 2006). This type of process leadership award provides a basis for the construction of power and social influence. True leadership only exists if it is recognized and it is given by other members of the group towards one or other individual or organization. Thus, leaders can emerge in a passive environment, though they themselves are active, all this through the recognition of their status and responsibility as leader assigned to them by some members of the group or its entirety.

Behavioral Theory of Leadership

The behavioral theory of leadership argues that the effective leaders behave in an entirely different way than the ineffective leaders. Unlike the trait theory of leadership, behavioral theory of leadership does not seek inborn traits or capabilities among leaders. This theory looks at what leaders actually do, and does not just rely on the psychometric assessment of looking into leaders who do not get to have an opportunity to behave in the perfect way of leadership (Tichy & Devanna, 1990).

According to the behavioral theory, leaders are not born leaders, but they are "manufactured" by the labor leader, talent, and consistency, enthusiasm and reasoning skills. This theory gives more importance to the tasks performed by leaders in practice, rather than on their strong mental skills and internal intelligence.

The two major classes of leader behavior are oriented behavior task and relationship-oriented behavior. In 1938 , Kurt Lewin and ...