Week 4 Assignment

Week 4 Assignment

Leadership is a 'quality' term which is described by situation. There is no fixed definition that elaborates the broad concept of leadership. The context of environment & organization is embedded in the principles of leadership. It is a broad term that has a wide spectrum of characteristics & concepts that serve as the guiding principle (Antonakis et al, 2004). In 21st century, leadership is critical for the survival of human civilization. There is a need to develop leadership traits to guide the society. According to Shriberg et al, the best way to analyze leadership is to approach it indirectly. Indirect approach refers to describing leadership through metaphors (Shriberg et al, 2010). This way, an individual develops a better understanding of the term and relate to it using analogies. One cannot restrict the role of a leader to an authority who provides directives to the subordinates. A leader has three broad category of roles; task roles, maintenance role, and blocking roles. Each of these broad domains has specific responsibilities assigned to a leader (Antonakis et al, 2004). The leadership principles elaborate the concept of developing leadership traits within members of the team. One must understand that these characteristics are not particular to a person who has a defined role of leadership; rather it focuses on development of leadership quality in team members.

Leadership Metaphors

The leader as Harmonizer & Teacher

A team comes across various situations in which they develop disagreements. One can observe these disagreements in a group discussion or meeting. Ideas are unique to individuals. For that matter, it is essential to analyze the prospects of dissimilar opinions. The role of a harmonizer has vital importance for constructive outcomes of disagreements. A harmonizer manages the group conflicts that may arise on various occasions. These can be disturbing for accomplishment of a task. Conflicts can be troublesome if a team leader neglects to resolve it. They can escalate tension & distress resulting in coordination failures. The outcomes of unresolved conflicts are devastating for organizations' environment (Manning & Curtis, 2003).

Benefits for the followers

A harmonizer manages to bring harmony & peace among the team members. He makes efforts to resolve the war like situation and improve cooperation between people. Harmonizers have to be great observers as they have to identify conflicts & their sources (Shriberg et al, 2010). They have to look for signs of conflicts so that they intervene before the situation gets worse. For instance, a harmonizer may observe that a group member's opinion was not well-received by another member. In such a situation, the harmonizer would restate the opinion in a constructive manner. This would reduce the feeling of being the center of criticism for a group member. Also, harmonizers play an important role in settlement of a conflict. For that matter, they may communicate with group members individually. Such actions diminish the chances of spilling conflicts on a discussion table. An effective harmonizer is an impartial individual, who addresses the issues without biases (Antonakis et al, ...