Community Association Managers as Transformational Leaders
In the last half-century, the real estate sector of America has transformed from a founder-based, local, cottage industry into a nationwide and worldwide team-based service solutions and asset provider. The sector has progressed from vying for money to vying for talent, from gathering of data to knowledgeable counseling, from individual names to lines of businesses, and from opportunistic growth to sustainable development. Further, it has undergone a move from self-regard to collaboration and from a focus on share in the market to buyer share. The industry, which comprises of entrepreneurs, opportunists, value creators, risk managers, and leaders, is a connection to the past as well as a forerunner of future events.
Consequently, community challenges are becoming increasingly frequent, intense, and complex, and necessitate effective practical leadership that can address complex issues. Arguably, the search for effective community leadership is the biggest challenge a community association manager encounters (Avant, Rich-Rice & Copeland, 2013). Several researches have been performed on communities as well as community effectiveness. The primary emphasis of literature is improvement of urban citizens' lives, and of their communities and localities. Scarce research exists on community leadership models; some works address leadership, people's commitment, and their feelings and thoughts with respect to their corresponding community as vital to community effectiveness in outcome and goal attainment. It has, conversely, been put forward that leadership plays a highly significant role in movement of communities along the right direction. Literature further indicates that leadership as well as how individuals perceive their respective communities is linked to overall community success (Ginsberg, 2011).
Community Theory and Leadership
Gemeinschaft, Strengths Perspective, and Social Exchange Theory are three concepts that aid comprehension and advancement of community leadership and community theory knowledge. These ideas provide an interesting basis for comprehending communities. Human relationships in Gemeinschaft are intimate, based on sound understanding of an individual's place in the society. Individuals in these communities also experience a united, community feeling. On the basis of close kinship with family and friends, individuals know one another, aid one another, and often lead their daily life in close contact with a limited group of individuals sharing similar values and norms (Daley & Avant, 2013).
Social Exchange Theory denotes a relationship preservation theory that explores how individuals carry out relationship-linked decision-making. The basis of the theory is a central idea that material and social resource exchange represents an elementary kind of interaction among human beings. It addresses links binding individuals together as well as impacts of interactions among individuals (Collins, 1988). Within community settings, relationships are vital to meeting basic requirements and accessing resources. As has been indicated by researchers, a limitation exists on resource quantity and kind available to communal locations (Mackie, 2012). Hence, relationships within communities prove advantageous when it comes to resource sharing and availing oneself of services that connect individuals to their families, organizations, groups, and communities within as well as outside their rural locality.
The concept of employing social exchanges and relationships as the fundamental principle for sound leadership within the context of social work stresses the strengths perspective's significance. The extent of existence of deficits within communities is on account of formal resource access and their geographical location's nature (Daley & Pierce, 2011). Social relationship strengths, exchanges occurring among community members, and community cohesion all give rise to opportunities for improving rural communities' quality of life (Daley & Pierce, 2011). Through the use of social exchanges and relationships, people acquire a better grasp of the roles they play in the environment and the community (Avant, 2013). Such an understanding, together with shared experiences, helps increase their dedication towards developing an improved community. Social Exchange Theory, Strengths Perspective, and Gemeinschaft combine to present an organizational leadership framework in which community members can relate to their respective environments and recognize their respective capacities (Aarons, 2006; Avant et al., 2013).
Community Leadership Model for Association Managers
The transformational leadership approach is one example of a leadership theory that has outdone the conventional bureaucratic organizational leadership model. Transformational leadership represents a model, which encompasses a framework emphasizing leadership styles that permit individualization and flexibility. It promotes input in the decision-making process and underscores the significance of social relationships and teamwork. Transformational leaders are very valuable to communities. They possess a clear idea of their followers, are aware of their personal vision, values, and needs, and take such action that promotes their own needs as well as community needs (Avant et al., 2013). The transformational leadership approach acknowledges the value of individual, community,...
It demands individual input, whilst working towards overall community benefit. Consequently, community members feel involved and tend to wish to devote more energy and time to meeting community needs. Transformational leadership develops an environment wherein all members feel appreciated and involved, and this inspires them to increase personal satisfaction whilst working to support community welfare (Avant et al., 2013; Daley & Avant, 2013).
The transformational leadership style resembles visionary or charismatic leadership. A transformational leader inspires and motivates followers in a manner that goes beyond mere rewards and exchanges. This leadership style functions particularly well within close supervisory associations, compared to more distant ones; further, one will typically find closer supervision in the mental health context. Such a close relationship might be characteristic of the relationship of a supervisor and supervisee, and is portrayed in the first-level leader idea as well. A first-level leader is considered important owing to his/her functional nearness to supervisees within organizations. It is believed that transformational leadership increases intrinsic motivation of followers, through the articulation of leadership goal's importance and value (Aarons, 2006).
A sense of togetherness is one among the most crucial values effective community association managers hold; this eliminates leaders' personal ambitions for power, replacing it with a drive for success of the community (Krile, 2008). Such a "community" feeling constitutes an important community leadership component, which may be articulated as leadership wherein one must do it by oneself, whilst remembering that it can't be done alone. Awareness of the fact that the overall community counts, and that every community member can express his/her views, should balance the personal goal of the leader. An understanding must exist that every community member possesses certain talents, and an effort made towards tapping these talents. This induces leaders to seek answers to community-related issues, whilst incorporating participatory, democratic actions and giving community members the power of decision-making and group goal implementation.
The transformational style of leadership is participatory and empowering, as it supports local leadership and decision-making. Emphasis is given to teamwork, and leaders perceive community to be an arrangement of individuals who collaborate with common aspirations. This leadership approach gives rise to a culture founded on trust, respect, and openness, and stimulates team spirit. It has multiple implications for dealing with rural areas' leadership problem. Literature has strongly established the fact that rural localities require leaders. Hence, the transformational leadership model offers the kind of leadership needed for dealing with the complex issues faced by rural communities. The leadership approach possesses elements of respect and trust, which facilitate cooperation required for successful teamwork. Moreover, it stresses a relational tactic, wherein leaders depict interpersonal consideration by means of relationship building, interdependence, and empathy, suitable for rural localities (Avant, 2013).
It has been suggested by Pigg (1999) that the basis of community leadership must be the knowledge about communities, and not organizations. This assertion is supported by the statement that leaders of a community can't depend on formal power positions or authority. In contrast, they must rely on their capability of building relationships and gaining community support. This relationship building idea is not how leaders of organizations conduct business. This distinction between business leaders and community leaders is employed by authors to support their dismissal of formal theories of leadership. The transformational leadership model goes beyond conventional leadership approaches. It views communities as interactional fields.
Community field represents a process of interconnected actions by which inhabitants express their shared interest in their respective local society. A transformational leadership style impacts relationships among people, community association managers, and leaders, who together create real changes, reflecting the mutual purposes of communities (Northouse, 2007). Considering leadership in terms of relationships, instead of linking it to responsibilities and positions can aid in overcoming the reluctance of numerous rural community members when it comes to leading and getting involved (Pigg, 1999). Such an outlook will certainly lend credibility to issues connected with development of community leadership witnessed today. One of the chief concerns is societal members' unwillingness when it comes to engagement within their respective communities. The transformational model of leadership is also linked to a few important practical consequences for studying leadership in the social work profession and training/education. An interactional perspective is one key foundation of this model of leadership. This model emphasizes social relationships' significance while working with the community and redefinition of one's view of leadership. Traditionally, leadership has always been considered an individual ability.
A shift in leadership focus from association managers to emphasis on manager-community relationship quality gives rise to…
