THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE BEHAVIOUR AND EFFECTIVENESS OF LEADERS

The Factors That Influence The Behaviour And Effectiveness Of Leaders



The Factors That Influence The Behaviour And Effectiveness Of Leaders

Introduction

As leadership is influenced by contextual factors like environment, relationship and ethical issues mentioned above, in fact, effective leadership could be only deemed as many different things for different people to use different ways in different circumstances. Namely, effective leadership is variable and situational. Meanwhile, effective leadership is a dynamic or changing process in the sense that, while influence is always present, the persons exercising that influence may change.

Possession of influence depends upon the situation and upon the relevancy of the individual's skills and abilities to the situation. For example, if a particular individual has the expertise that is required to solve a problem, then that individual may be assumed to have some degree of influence over others. Therefore, the leadership effectiveness is contingent upon the leader, (Avolio, 2003, 277) the follower and the organizational situation, which will be discussed through three typical aspects- business globalization, leader-follower relationship, and ethical issues.

Factors influencing the behaviour and effectiveness of leaders

Given it is impossible for leaders to exist in vacuum and they are always influenced by contextual factors such as external environment, leader-follower relationship, and ethical issues. Thereby, what makes it go? Only by exploring these kinds of contextual factors, leaders can take action forward in their development and preparation for twenty-first century leadership.

A significant part of external environmental change is the business globalization that is becoming an important influence on effective leadership, both on global level and internal organization level. Globalization has many implications for leadership today and in the future. Early to the last century (even to some extent today), (Avolio, 2003, 277) there was a tendency for many people to think locally: one's hometown was one's world. However, current leaders are realizing that, although this point of view may have been common during that era, globalization is rapidly occurring. As technology and communication improve, barriers between nations and regions are disappearing, and global village is forming. Global perspectives are being spread to the farthest points in the world and to the most isolated people. People of different cultures come together to live, study or engage in business. Not only that, New Zealand's individuals and organizations are going to Asia on business as easy as they used to travel to neighboring Australia.

Globalization has become and will continue to be a new way of life that all people must face. In organization term, leaders also must respond to this challenge of globalization so that they can effectively reach out to as many people as possible. Opening themselves to the world's changes allows leaders to compare and contrast their culture, arts, language, beliefs, customs, philosophies, (Bateman, 2004, 98) and ways of living of other people so as to create more appropriate leadership style in an organization. For a successful leader, even minor details of the culture can be ...