Theoretical understanding of leadership and managerial work

Theoretical Understanding of Leadership and Managerial Work

There are various applications of leadership, each of them revealing diverse features. The trait approach to leadership relies almost exclusively on the innate characteristics of the leader, such as his charisma, characteristics through which the leader will strive to influence his subalterns to follow him. The power-influence approach on the other hand sees that the leader will strive to control his subalterns and use his power to convince them to follow the leader. Third, the situational approach to the leadership act sees that the leader does not use a specific approach in each situation, but that he adapts his approach based on the features of each individual situation. Fourth, the participative approach sees that the leader will stimulate his followers to take an active part in the process and will stimulate their commitments through participation. A charismatic leader will use speech as his primary tool whereas a transformational and cultural leader will use logical arguments. Finally, the transactional leader will implement clear structures of reward and punishment.

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Given my personal experience over the past years, I have come to realize that I am better at organizing people, resources, tasks and so on than I am at motivating the people to perform their tasks or punishing them when they fail to do so. In other words, I tend to believe that I would be a better manager than a leader.

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Given the fact that each organization is in fact a group of people working together for the same goal, it is only natural for the individual features of each employee to impact on the overall organizational culture. The degree of this impact varies, but relative to myself, I would say that I do posses several attributes which impact the organizational culture. One of them is that of a clearly organized work structure, combined with clearly established goals and realistic, pre-mentioned expectations. Open communications and unambiguous formulations are two more features.

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A competitive managerial style forces employees to compete against each other as well as against the manager. The main benefit of this approach is that of increasing constructive conflict, but it also increases tensions in the work place. The collaborative and sharing managerial styles stimulate communication and collaboration, creating a more relaxed and pleasant working atmosphere. Finally, an accommodative managerial style is similar to the human resource management strategies implemented in the immediate aftermath of a new employee being hired. It as such revolves around strategies that integrate the employees in a unified organizational culture and structure which functions based on the same values and principles and which works towards the same goals. Implemented on the long-term, this managerial approach stands increased chances of reducing operational efficiency and as such organizational profitability.

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