The Importance of Effective Leadership in Driving Change
Leadership depends on the ability to work together toward a common goal, which challenges the image of the ‘heroic leader’. Critically analyze the above statement using leadership theories and empirical evidence.
The main aim of the leadership is to bring the change in the organization through a shared vision with teams to forge ahead of its competitors. The main goal of this essay is to scrutinize the ways in which the leadership is evolving and the result of this evolutionary path for the models and methods examined. It has been stated by Kark and Shamir, (2013), that leadership is not explained as an individual characteristics, but rather than it is depicted in a range of models such as share, complex, dyadic, relational, strategic and global. There is a common goal in the organization and for attaining the common goal; the leader of the organization requires support from its followers because cooperation and mutual understanding plays a major role to attain the common goal in the organization. Thus, the leader of the organization is dependent on the ability to work together toward achieving a common goal and this activity can lead him in a challenge phase. The essay will explore the various methods regarding leadership and discussion will be made in efficient manner to make better understanding about this topic. It has been analyzed that the field of leadership focuses on the leaders as well as followers. The main aim of the leadership is to provide the facility to the followers towards attaining the goal within time frame. It has been analyzed that when leadership is defined, it is reflected about the leadership not the nature of the leaders. Leader is liable to share the goals of the company with others of the organization.
In order to explore the ability of the leadership within an organization, this essay will explore the transformational leadership theory critically and will focus on the various models of leadership which may impact the nature of the followers as well as leadership. It would be facilitated to explain the role of the leadership within an organization to shape effectively the culture of the organization. The number of examples regarding the leadership will be explained in this essay to get better understanding regarding the subject of the essay. Leadership can provide the right way to handle the situation of the company and set the affirmative example for their subordinates. To explain this statement, the example of Walton will be focused in this essay to define the leadership of him in Wal-Mart as an evidence of transformational leadership.
Leadership Theories and Empirical Evidence
Leadership is considered as the continuous social process. the essay will describe for majorly four significant point that need to be considered in models and theories as defining important amounts if variance in leadership. First, the framework of leadership cannot be clarified of the attributes of leaders. There is numerous efforts focus their concentration on tiny set of individual differences that should define the meaning of leadership. Although there are so many efforts which are able to present long lists of key leader characteristics, they are hardly ever planned in a logical and significant theoretical construction. Leadership is the concept that reflects the complex pattern of behaviour within an organization. There is a second point which is concerned about the integration attributes of the leader. It has become the question of many organization that how joint combinations of leaders’ characteristics may influence the behaviour of leadership within an organization in front of their followers. The third point is related to the trait and attributes approaches which should be considered and accounted for the specific situation as a source of corresponding of significant variance in leadership. It is necessary to think that the specific behaviour of leader cannot be remained same for the whole situation which explains that the person who is leader for one situation, it is not compulsory that same person can be leader for another situation. Castle & Decker, (2011), argued that individual leaders can be more efficient across situations which demands a different leadership approaches. The circumstances is liable to significant explain the variances in leadership behaviors; however, it may not be liable to make difference between the behaviour of leaders and non-leaders. Trait perception of leadership needs to explain for the role of situational inconsistency. The last point, individual differences of leader may vary in their relative constancy over time and in the term to which they are certain to specific situations. It has been analyzed that the distinction between traits such as individual difference includes personality, cognitive ability and state like individual differences including task skills, capacity of working and self-efficiency (Cox, 2012).
Transformational leadership is explained as an loom of leadership that reasons change in individuals and social system. It helps to make positive and valuable changes in the followers with the finish point of goal of developing followers into leaders (Wang, Courtright and Colbert, 2011). Transformational leadership is able to amplify the motivation, performance and morale of followers by applying variety of mechanisms. It involves the connection with followers’ sense of recognition and self to the mission and the collective recognition of the organization; it can be done by being the role model for the followers that motivates them (Kark and Shamir, 2013). It motivates the followers to accept the challenges and take great ownership for their work and make them able to understand their hide strengths and weaknesses so that the leader can make straight followers with task that defines their performance in an effective manner (Havig, et. al., 2011). There are four elements of transformational leadership that described by leadership such as individualized consideration, logical consideration, and inspirational motivation and idealized influence.
Transformational Leadership: Elements and Mechanisms
It has been described by Day &Sammons, (2013), that the degree to which the leader focus on the individual needs in the organization and act as a coach or mentor to resolve the queries of them which cover the elements of individualized consideration. Dinh, et. al., (2011), argued that intellectual stimulation describe the degree to which the leader assumptions. In this element of transformational leadership, a leader stimulates and encourages creativity in their followers to enhance the confidence of the followers towards accomplishing the goal. Inspirational motivations is the element in which leaders coherent a vision of the company that is inspiring to the followers (Antonakis and House, 2013). Leaders with inspirational motivation are able to compete with high levels of challenges and to communicate in aneffective manner regarding potential goals. Idealized influence is the major element of the transformational leadership that provides a role model for high ethical behaviour, gains respects from their followers and trust. Transformational leadership is the effective tool which has been developed by many countries to adapt new culture and motivate followers towards accomplishes the goal (Mckenna, 2015).
Transformational leadership is the core leadership in the organization structure of Wal-Mart since Mr. Sam Walton, was a founder of Wal-Mart and transformational leader. It has been analyzed that visit is to store of Wal-Mart by all the managers even CEO have been the continuous feature throughout Wal-Mart’s history. It brought so many amendments in the working style of the Wal-Mart because the leaders of the organization got aware about the ground realities. The huge contribution was given by this activity to make the changes of working of the employees as well (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013). The good example of this visit is to the visit of current CEO, Mike Duke, to the stores in China. The most benefitted point of this visit is that the CEO gets to know that the local banana is not stocking in the stores of china which is cheaper than the imported ones. To rectify these issues, action was taken swiftly. There is an example of lack of stocks of ladies wear, these examples represents the impact of the visit that have on the overall business. These visits are also considered as the essential part to motivate associates. Along with that it makes a lot of dissimilarity to the connections who want to meet the top management (Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009). Another major factor of progressing off Wal-Mart due to transformational leadership is project impact. The acceptance and the exchange of project influence reflects the leaders of have not been reluctant to taking a huge decision in the favor of the organization. In the concept of project impact, there is a major role of customer feedback and it reversed in the condition of declination y number of customers of stores. These steps are liable to transform the store entirely which may influence the experience of shopping of customers. The taken decision to close operation in Germany and admit defeat is the great example of taking tough decision by Wal-Mart. It is the organization that does not prevent leaders to take correct decision whether Wal-Mart has to pay over cost of it. It has been evaluated that the various leaders of Wal-Mart have put lot of efforts to emphasize the development of the leadership pipeline. The main goal of CEO of Wal-Mart is to develop and hire a vast number of efficient leaders in the organization to execute his vision and re-create the success of the Wal-Mart at home in developing markets like China and India. It has cleared by examining the above discussion that the transformational leader should have the ability to empower followers to do best for the organization.
Transformational Leadership at Walmart: An Example
Along with that there are so many leaders who have contributed in effective manner to develop the organization for attaining the desired goals. For instance, Lee was one of the greatest leaders of Singapore who led country in 20th century. He had been on the saddle as prime minister for more than 3 decades. He was the leader who made many changes for improving the growth of the economy. Singapore is the country that is known as financial hub in all over the world. The leader of this country had huge knowledge about different subjects such as environmental science, pharmaceutics, international logistics and many more. T the example of transformational leaders are Deng Xiaoping of China, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Paul Kagame of Rwanda. There is a different perspective of the leadership which reflects the one image of the innate quality or feature of the person and other defines the function within an organization or society of leaders. It is vital for the leaders to be more inspirational, visionary and missionary. There are so many examples of leaders who are the perfect examples of improving the condition of the organization as well as the word (Yahoo! Inc. 2012). These examples are Donald trumph, Obama, Narendra Modi and many more which contributed their efforts to make changes in the world for improving the condition of economy.
It has been analyzed that there is various aspects of leadership at Wal-Mart. It is very successful organization because the leaders of the Wal-Mart are aware to introduce the different method of motivation and energy to run the operation of the company. Charismatic leadership, ethical leadership, visionary leadership, strategic leadership, Chaos leadership and dispersed leadership are some major aspects of the leadership style which has been adopted by Wal-Mart. Charismatic leadership is most commonly recognized with the founder, Sam Wilton. Appelbaum, et. al., (2012), defines that the feature of charismatic leaders is to articulate a compelling and evocation vision. Sam Walton had the feature of strong personal attractions from followers and able to amplify followers self conception. This quality of him was liable to enhance the growth of the company in all over the world. Visionary leadership is another form of leadership which is vital for the organization to build a strong relationship between employees such as Wal-Mart. Chen , et. al., (2014), define visionary leaders are as the one who interprets the reality of the situation and shape cooperative vision for potential growth. “The mission of Wal-Mart is to help people to save money so that they can live better”. The strategy of Walton is different and he used the vision to provide goods and products to customers at cheap rate which motivated the associates as well as the managers of Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 2012).
Leadership Pipeline: Hiring and Developing Efficient Leaders
Zaccaro et al. (2004) offered a model of how leader quality impacts gauge of leader performance. It is the model which is based on other model of leader individual and performance. There are various sets integrated of leadership attributes has been mentioned in the image which includes cognitive capacities, personality or dispositional qualities, motives and values, tacit knowledge social capacities, and problem-solving skills. Cognitive capacity involves the cognitive complexity and creativity. There is another element mentioned in the figure, namely, motive and values which involves the requirement for entertain power and inspiration to lead. Problem solving skills is necessary in the organization because it comprises the solution of problem and the ability of the leader to resolve the issues within an organization (Curtin, 2010). Social and emotional intelligence has been comprised under social capacities. Along with that this model describes that the nature of dealing situation by leader may be varied as per the situation. It has been argued that the traits of leader are differing from in their proximal influence on leadership. This model of leadership is defines that how leader traits and attributes shape the leader performance in subsequent manner. The model of leadership in figure 1 suggested a several implications for leader development. Logical and long term interference may have influenced the on distal characteristic for instance the leader expansion system of army has a long and systematic perspectives which emphasis various operational assignments as a leader that ascend the rank of the organization.
Along with that there is another example of leadership model that is Kotter’s change model which comprises eight steps. Change is necessary for the organization because it helps to enhance the productivity of the employee in the organization. The 8 step model of Kotter is helpful to take the huge opportunity by making changes in the organization. it includes the eights steps like make a sense of urgency, build a guiding collation, form a strategic vision and initiatives, enlist a helper army, allow action by reducing barriers, expand short term wins, sustain hurrying and institute change (Appelbaum, et.al., 2012). It has been evaluated that there are so many issues arise in the organization of Wal-Mart such as company uses child labor for working, hurt local communities, underpays women and neglects pregnant workers and the chain of the company has the deceptive public image.
Kotter’s change model is facilitated to Wal-Mart for proposing changes in the organization for improving the conditions of the company. In the step of create urgency, leaders of the Wal-Mart should find the zone of the issues and the management of the Wal-Mart can recognize potential threats and make scenario to analyze the future (Josephson, 2012). The current CEO of Wal-Mart can examine the opportunities to develop the strategy for improving the condition of the organization. The second step of Kotter’s change model is form a powerful coalition. In this step the leader of Wal-Mart can convince people that change is necessary. It has been evaluated that the Wal-Mart is facing so many crisis which degrades its goodwill in front of outsiders. In this step, the organization can find out the true leaders and can work on team building within the change coalition. Vision statement is vital for the organization to lead success in the world and the current vision statement of the Wal-Mart is “To be the best retailer in the hearts and minds of consumers and employees.” the statement of the company should be followed by the company in an adequate manner (Walmart, 2012). It is necessary for the leaders of the organization to build the vision for change and elaborate the created vision in front of the team so that they can understand the exact way of how to accomplish the goal within time frame. the vision of the company should be cleared and concise.That is why it is essential for the leader to communicate about the vision to the entire team and do not breach the made policy which may lead organization in adverse situation. The leader of the Wal-Mart should address the concern and anxiety of customers as well as the employees of the company (Hayes, 2014). To remove obstacles is the fifth step of Kotter’s change model which describes the qualification of the leaders to bring the change in the organization. It has been analyzed that the situation of Wal-Mart is not that much effective and it is required to leader of the organization to observe the organizational structure, job description and performance to ensure that the vision of the organization in line. Barriers of the Wal-Mart can be removed easily by following this step. Sixth step of the Kotter’s change model is build short term wins that elaborates attainment the certain goal by building a small target (Neumeier, 2013). Rewards and punishments process should be mentioned in the process of Wal-Mart because it will enhance the productivity of an individual. Along with that the leader of the organization should be able to analyse the pros and cons of the targets. Seven steps are built on the change of Kotter’s change model (DeRue and Wellman, 2009). In that step, Kotter argues that number of initiated projects get failed due to declaration of victory earlier because as per Kotter strategy real change runs deep. For instance, if a mobile production launches a new phone using a new system is great. But if manufacturer of phone launches 10 products which defines that the new system is working and for the success of all10 phones, it is required for the leader to keep focus on the improvements for attaining the success of the all phones. It has been mentioned by kotter that in this step leader of the organization can analyze the situation of every success and leader can evaluate what went right and what needs are required to change. It indicates that the idea of continuous improvements. New change agents in the organization can bring the new fresh idea which can motivate the existing employee to attain the goals. Anchor the changes in corporate culture is considered as the eight step of the Kotter’s change model that is the core part of the organization. It is vital to know about the corporate culture and it determines that what gets done, so the values behind vision must show in continuous manner (Peterson, et. al., 2009). In that term, the leader of the organization can make constant efforts to ensure that the proposed change should be seen in every aspects of the organization. Support by leader plays a major role in the context of proposed change. For instance, new staff should be hired in Wal-Mart after providing the efficient knowledge and description about the changed policy including the change ideals and values. It has been cleared that Wal-Mart need to make amendments stick and become the part of the company (Piccolo, et. al., 2010). Change leaders should be appraised by the organization who worked hard towards the implementation of the changes.
In the limelight of above discussion, it has been concluded that management of business is entirely dependent upon the nature of the leader. Leader plays a crucial role in the organization and it is vital for the growth of the organization to enhance the productivity of the followers by motivating them through rewards. The discussion has been made o the transformational leadership which represents the necessary quality for the growth of the management of transformational organization change. The condition of the nature of leaders is dependent on various kinds of political leadership and economic growth in the country. It has been analyzed that the nature of leader would not remain same for different situation that is why the image of heroic can be influenced in front of followers. Wal-Mart ethical issues can be removed if it applied potential solution and used change model of Kotter, these issues would likely be eliminated (Mesa Community College, 2009).
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