Leadership and Organizational Behavior Issues

Leadership and Organizational Behavior Issues

Introduction

Organizational performance and efficiency are directly associated with the internal effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction and level of interest of the employees. Every Organization has different departments, which deal with different parts of the overall system in order to provide a unitary result which has a higher value added to it (Connell et al., 2002). However, like any system the Organizational system also faces certain problems and issues because of friction between the employee behaviors and motivation levels. This is where leaders come in to boost their spirit and give them a new purpose for working. However, the management usually differentiates the leaders on the basis of different leadership style; which in turn have their own pros and cons.



Leadership Styles and Organizational Issues

Having effective and relevant leaders in different departments of the Organization plays a vital role in the overall success of the firm. However, many Organizations face the problems of ineffective behavior of the leaders, and this, in turn slows or completely pauses Organizational growth. Managers use different approaches to identify and appoint leaders within the Organizational structure. For a better understanding of these styles and their related problems on the individual, group and organizational level, an in-depth study is required.

The Leader Trait Approach

Early trait researches believed that effective, non-effective leaders and followers can be differentiated on the basis of the presence of certain traits. This approach was adopted in response to earlier researches who believed that leadership was a one-dimensional personality trait and a completely perfect package (Fleenor, 2006). The traits referred to in this leadership approach refer to a leader's tendency to think, feel and act in certain ways.

Eight different traits were proposed on which a leader could be evaluated according to this approach. They were:

Intelligence

Task Relevant Knowledge

Dominance

Self Confidence

Energy Level

Tolerance for Stress

Honesty and Integrity

Emotional Maturity

Issues and Limitations

If the management believes on following this historic approach for finding and selecting leaders, the following problems and issues would occur:

On the individual level, selection of leaders on the basis of treat would cause many skilled employees to miss the opportunity regardless of their personality. Moreover, some individuals might be high on some traits, but that does not mean that they would also be effective leaders. Briefly explaining, leadership cannot be shrunk to a collection of eight traits; and the possible traits of a successful leader can surpass hundred.

On the group level, the leader must be selected in accordance to the job duties of the department or group. For example, if the group is working on financial management, traits related to analytical and logical skills would matter more than sociability traits or the ability to make connections. Therefore, if the leader is selected on the basis of being exemplary on certain non relevant traits, the leader's behavior would cause the group to fail (Levi, 2010).

On the Organizational level, the leader would require to have high scores on multiple distinct traits so that he/she could cater to the problems of different ...