Leadership: Enhancing Lessons Experience According to Johnson,

Leadership: Enhancing Lessons Experience

According to Johnson, & Giorgis (2002), Leadership is the process in which an individual influences actions of others towards common goals, Formulates policies, strategies, and influence people towards achievement of the same strategies. Over the past decades, various changes in the world have led to various definitions of leadership. The fall of the Soviet Union, globalization and various advances have changed the world we knew. A woman in leadership positions is a new phenomenon; various leadership trainings are available, and leadership as a skill is now an asset for professionals. For African Universities to ensure knowledge transfer and observing millennium development goals, a good leadership structure is essential. A leader has exception skills and acts outrageously to situations (Padam, 2009).

Scholars have advanced various theories on leadership. Leaders' Individual personal attributes beat explains the trait theory, when one looks closely at Mahatma Gandhi and Hitler it is evident that they had specific qualities. Both had charisma and followers (Johnson, & Giorgis, 2002). Other theories have emerged that critically examine qualities of a leader, scholars of the behavioral approach to leadership look into the behavioral aspect of a person. The other theory to consider is situation and contingency approach to leadership. In the theory situation at hand define a leader, the way former President Bush handled the Iraq defined his leadership style now. Experiences from past actions of leaders define the world and give us a baseline to managing future events (Hanson, & Leautier, 2011).

Experiences of leaders are highly significant in solving organizational problems. Leadership has today taken a global context. In today's economy, leaders interact with people from all races and all regions. Therefore, leaders should understand how to communicate effectively (Gurley, & Wilson, 2011). For one to develop others effectively, he should be skilled. Leaders do have the technical skills and human skills to accomplish tasks and processes. Human skills, on the other hand, are the abilities of a leader to communicate instructions. Through training and from experience, leaders gain knowledge on the values and norms of a society, the countries and on business. Padam (2009) defined style of leadership as coercive, democratic, pacesetting, coaching authoritative. He described authoritative as directing tasks, coercive as leaders who demand immediate feedback, democratic leaders recognize people's contribution and coaching as those who value training.

Muha (2009) defines conflicts as a form of disagreement arising in groups when beliefs of individuals conflicts with those of others. As a nurse, she had experience lots of conflicts while working, in one instance, she had to be an arbitrator when two of her colleagues had a fight, according to her conflicts eventually ends with time. Indicators of conflicts in an organization evidenced by, poor goals, disagreements, body language, complete disregard of procedure, power struggles, making of bad statements about the firm or management and poor execution of tasks. Conflicts have positive and negative outcomes to an organization. An effective leader discourages negative influence of a conflict and uses its positive influence to benefit the firm. Conflicts are destructive when: it encourages wars, destroy morale and undermines self-esteem, reduce co-operation or take attention of employees from important organizations tasks. On the positive side of conflicts: it helps in solving of complex problems, build relations and boost morale of employees, helps release emotional tension, and it improves communication within an organization and in developing skills and understanding (McElhaney, 2009).

Hanson, & Leautier (2011) based on Fisher and Ury (1981) "Principled Negotiation" to solving conflict, stipulate the importance of taking a fair share without the other party taking advantage. Four principles are the base for the theory namely: first, the people have to be separated from the problems, focus on interest rather than position, invent option for mutual benefit and finally insist on using the objective. Hanson, & Leautier (2011) reflection on conflicts within Nigerian Universities, brought important issues forward. Conflicts in these institutions are due to management style of the universities, politics, goal incompatibility and competition for scarce resources. By applying the Principled Negotiation, Universities are able to minimize their conflicts.

McElhaney (2009) contribution is in the communication strategy to solving conflict. He states that though there is no universal way of solving conflict, a communication system can prove otherwise. He centered his discussion on differentiation, face off and fractionation approaches. In Differentiation approach, individuals clarify the position and segment issues at hand. It is essential to differentiate because individual understand issues and help in solving conflicts. Taking an example of an airline where employees have gone on strike because of poor pay, a mediator comes to solve this conflict. What will the mediator do? The mediator should first understand the problem then group individuals according to their position and finally get solutions from both parties. Differentiation process is the most difficult part it can magnify the problem further (McElhaney, 2009).

Elliot, & Thrash (2002, advocates for avoidance style. If individuals avoid conflict situations, there is a possibility of reducing organizational conflict. According to an international training program by the University of Colorado, political and legal institutions limit presences of societal and legal conflicts. The functions of laws are to control actions of citizens and police are enforcers of the same. This method is appropriate in organizations when searching for victory where another person has expertise in solving a problem. Van, Nauta, Giebels, & Janssen (1999) state that it is better to avoid situations that make your organization or a person vulnerable to conflict. Switzerland as a country has a stable government free of external aggression. This strategy has contributed to the countries' favoritism as a destination for investment; it was the bank for all during Second World War.