It is impossible to imagine modern management without using an individual innovative approach to constantly changing circumstances. Indeed, only in this case is it possible to achieve new and at the same time promising directions in the development of the company. All this suggests that management cannot exist without leaders, that is, without those people who are able to take the leadership of the organization and at the same time turn each of its employees into their follower and like-minded people.
Leadership in management today is a very urgent problem. Indeed, the fierce competition existing in the market leads to the need to make timely decisions, as well as to assign responsibility to the head for achieving the ultimate goal and the effective work of the organization as a whole.
Leadership in modern management implies that a person has such qualities that would allow him to carry out competent management of employees. This is the main trump card for companies in a competitive environment. This is exactly what allows the organization to stand out against the background of all the others.
Basic concept
Leadership is a quality that is already inherent in the nature of the individual. At the same time, it is one of the oldest forms of organizing people's lives, as well as an effective means of resolving many pressing issues.
Already at the very early stage of the emergence of human society, the prevailing positions in it began to belong to such an order where leading roles were given to more intelligent, strong and hardy community members. Tribesmen trusted them, their wisdom and authority. It is these people who became leaders. But human society continued to evolve. Together with him, the leadership system became more and more complicated. It ceased to be personal and acquired more complex forms.
Nevertheless, as in previous times, today there is an objective need for a leader, which cannot but be realized. After all, the main task of such a person is to eliminate passivity, as well as involving all members of the group in the management process.
Leadership is a mysterious and elusive quality. Its existence is easy to recognize, but rather difficult to describe. It is even more difficult to use this property of a person in practice, and to bring up such a property in a person is simply impossible.
In all currently existing theories of leadership in management, there is an approach to the definition of this concept. A single look at this phenomenon is simply impossible to find.
Leadership is considered a method of work whose purpose is to help employees solve the task in the best way. At the same time, he is considered an integral component of the work of the team and group.
Leadership in management is also considered as an ability to raise the vision of employees to a higher level. This allows a person to work using the most modern standards. In addition, leadership in management is an integral feature of the personality, due to which the formation of its features outside the bounds of the framework.
There are other definitions of this term. So, leadership in management is seen as a managerial relationship between the leader and his followers. At the same time, they are based on the most effective combination of various sources of power for each specific situation and encourage people to achieve their goals. Moreover, the concept of leadership in management does not consider this phenomenon as a guide at all. Although such a person can stand at the head of the company.
Thus, one can see that in management the topic of leadership is quite multifaceted. Such a social phenomenon is one of the indispensable elements in the organization’s management system, its “trigger mechanism”. Moreover, the leadership phenomenon can manifest itself in any organized groups. The main thing is that they strive for one common goal.
Types of leadership
Influence on a group of people or on a team can be formal and informal. If we consider the first option (briefly) leadership in management, then in this case, the influence on subordinates will be provided from the position of the post. But there are other situations. In them, the impact on people is a person due to their personal skills, abilities and other resources. In this case, we are talking about informal leadership. But even then, and with another option, such a person will always have emotional, psychological or social support in the team, which will allow him to lead people.
The leadership in an organization is often recognized by management as the leader, if he was able to prove his worth and competence not only for the organization, but also for groups and individual employees. In this case, the most characteristic features of such a superior are:
- staff trust;
- the ability to see the situation as a whole;
- flexibility in decision making;
- communication skills, etc.
All this allows us to make an unambiguous conclusion that the leader is the dominant person of any organization, group or society.
Based on the direction of influence on people and the work of the company as a whole, there are such types of leadership as:
- constructive (functional), contributing to the achievement of the goals set for the organization;
- destructive (dysfunctional), causing damage to the company;
- neutral, unable to influence the achievement of production goals.
However, it is worth noting that applying the theories that exist in management and leadership to real life, it is sometimes quite difficult to draw a certain line between all the types of this phenomenon described above. After all, the life of the collective is quite multifaceted, and it is not possible to sort out all relations “on the shelves”.
One of the most important conditions for the most effective company management is the presence of constructive leadership. This allows you to quickly reach your intended goal. The optimal, but difficult to achieve, option is to combine in one person the qualities of both a formal and an informal leader. The leadership position in the sphere of emotional relations also has an important influence on the effectiveness of leadership. It should not be too low. Otherwise, emotional hostility will begin to significantly undermine the official and business authority of the leader, which will lead to a decrease in the efficiency of his activities as a whole.
The problems of leadership in management are considered from the point of view of key points necessary for the organization to solve the assigned tasks. Indeed, on the one hand, this phenomenon is considered in the form of a certain set of qualities that a person possesses that influences other people, and on the other hand, it implies a process, as a rule, not of a force effect, leading to the achievement by the group of persons of the intended goals.
Leadership Theories
This quality has interested many generations of researchers, scientists and thinkers. It is worth noting that among their views there has never been a single definition of the essence and nature of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, the development of ideas about him, as well as experimental developments in this area, served as the basis for the formation of three main approaches to leadership in management. They are:
- leadership skills;
- Leader-specific behavior
- situations in which the leader acts.
At the same time, the basics of management leadership clearly indicate that the characteristics and behavior of followers play an important role in solving the problems facing the company. Each of the above approaches offers its own solution to the leadership problem.
It is also worth noting that leadership in the management system has a direct connection with the motivation of employees. Take, for example, the earliest concepts. Their authors proposed to determine the effectiveness of this phenomenon, based on the qualities of leaders, as well as on the styles of their behavior. In this case, the situation was not taken into account. In the end, such concepts did not become a complete theory. They literally "drowned" in a huge number of patterns of behavior and personal qualities. Nevertheless, they nevertheless made a certain contribution to the general theory of leadership. Consider some of the most popular areas of this research area.
Theory of D. Mack Gregory
This scientific hypothesis relates to a direction that examines the behavioral nature of leadership. Its author clearly outlined the two main styles of the leader. It is authoritarian (theory X) and democratic (theory Y).
What are these leadership styles in management? The first of these involves an attitude towards employees based on the notion that:
- all people do not like work and avoid it whenever possible;
- ungodly employees always seek to evade responsibility and want to be led;
- everyone wants security;
- in order for people to work, they need constant control, as well as the use of coercion and the threat of punishment.
Possessing such beliefs, the leader-autocrat centralizes his authority. He constantly monitors his subordinates, does not allow them to make their own decisions, and to achieve a particular goal he exerts considerable psychological pressure.
Theory Y suggests that:
- labor is a natural process, and under favorable conditions, people do not withdraw from responsibility, but, on the contrary, strive for it;
- employees involved in organizational goals use self-control and self-government;
- the intellectual potential of the average person is only partially used.
The democratic leader in his work prefers to use such mechanisms of influence on subordinates that appeal to their need to be associated with a high goal. Such a chief sees his boss as creating an atmosphere of benevolence, trust and openness.
Likert Theory
She also refers to the behavioral approach to leadership. The author of this theory identifies two types of leaders. In the first of them, he included leaders who want to increase labor productivity in the enterprise, focusing on the task. The second type of leader is mainly focused on the person.
The first of the leaders of the two types presented is most concerned about the design of goals and objectives, as well as the development of a reward system in the organization. The second is engaged in improving human relations, attracting employees to participate in management. Likert also proposed 4 styles characteristic of a leader:
- exploitative-authoritarian, similar to autocrat;
- supportive and authoritarian, limiting the participation of employees in decision-making;
- advisory, involving the adoption of tactical decisions by subordinates, and strategic - by the leader;
- democratic, in which an atmosphere of complete trust is created between the boss and subordinates, which allows for group management of the company.
Thus, the author of the theory clearly delineated the types of leadership in management, believing that the most optimal of all the proposed options is considered to be that which is oriented to a person.
Theory of Mitchell and House
Situational approaches to leadership theory offer an explanation of the effectiveness of this phenomenon in terms of various variables, without paying attention to the personality of the leader.
So, the theory of Mitchell and House, which is also called the "Path-goal", is trying to explain the impact of the behavior of the leader on labor productivity, motivation and satisfaction of subordinates. For effective leadership, a senior manager will need:
- explain to employees what he expects from their actions;
- to assist in the elimination of interference encountered in solving the problem;
- to direct all efforts of subordinates on the path to achieving the goal;
- meet the needs of employees in the successful completion of a task
According to this model, leadership style is directly dependent on 2 situational factors. The first of them is the personal needs of employees, namely self-expression, autonomy, self-esteem and belonging. The second factor involves the impact of the external environment, which is expressed in the conviction of the leader to influence others.
Fiedler Theory
This model has made a huge contribution to developing an understanding of the styles and characteristics of leadership in management. Fidler's theory calls for focusing on the situation, while proposing for consideration three factors that have a direct impact on the behavior of the leader:
- relations between the boss and subordinates;
- structure of the task;
- scope of authority.
The author of this model believes that under any circumstances, a balance must be ensured between those requirements that are put forward by the situation that has arisen, as well as the personal qualities of the leader. This is what leads to a high degree of satisfaction and performance.
Theory of humanistic orientation
Unlike all other concepts of leadership in management, this one considers the nature of man. She claims that people are inherently a complex, but at the same time motivated, organism. The company is always managed. That is why, for successful work, the leader needs to transform the organization he runs in such a way that the individual is guaranteed the freedom necessary to achieve his own goals and meet his needs. But at the same time, a prerequisite is the contribution by all members of the team to the solution of the tasks facing the enterprise. This idea was developed by American psychologists J. McGresor, R. Blake and others.
Motivational theory
The followers of this model are S. Evans, S. Mitchell and others. This theory claims that the effectiveness of a leader directly depends on his influence on the motivation of employees, on their satisfaction received in the work process, as well as on the ability to carry out tasks productively.
This idea, which proposes a definite leadership structure, identifies such types of leader behavior as;
- supporting;
- directive;
- success oriented etc.
Attributive theory
According to this concept, the leader is considered as a "puppet". He receives directions as well as authority from followers.
The latter are a kind of puppeteer, setting in motion his doll.
D. Goleman Theory
This concept is the youngest. According to her ideas, leadership in management theory can be defined as leadership by people based on emotional intelligence. The professor of the University of Chicago D. Goleman was involved in the development of this theory in the 80-90s. last century. According to the idea put forward by him, such leadership is considered effective, which is able to control the emotions of people. What does this mean? According to this theory, a leader who has a high emotional intelligence is able to realize not only his own feelings, but also the feelings of other people, thanks to which he subsequently begins to manage team members.
Moreover, such a person has the following skills:
- awareness of their own feelings, the ability to notice them and subtly differentiate;
- managing your own feelings with the ability to cope with the destructive impulses of negative emotions and control them, which allows you to flexibly adapt to any situation and set yourself up for victory;
- awareness of the feelings that are present in another person, as well as their understanding and ability to be sympathetic;
- managing the feelings of employees with the ability to exert emotional influence on subordinates in the form of inspiration, influence, conflict resolution, creating a team and strengthening the team spirit in it.
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