Research Paper Example on Leadership Effect on Organization Performance

Leadership is defined as the establishment of visions that are clear, relaying information about the vision to others and the resolution of conflicts that arise between individuals who have roles towards the achievement of organizations vision. The main objective of any organization is not just to survive, but also to maintain its presence by enhancing constant improvements in its executions with the aim of meeting the needs of the competitive markets (Glover, 1996). Leadership is of great importance in the improvement of performance by the organizations.

Effectiveness in leadership and the job satisfaction by employees is considered as the integral factors that contribute to an organizations success. A leader should be capable of providing directions for an organization and leading others by example towards the achievement of the desired goals. Similarly, the employees who are satisfied with their jobs will exert more energy on their designated tasks to facilitate the achievements of the organization's goals. Therefore an organization is only regarded as being effective when there is a balance between demands of various stakeholders including the owners, customers, the community and also the employees needs.

In the current business world, traditional based practices in management and businesses have been substituted with modern, measurable and systematic methods, yet the degree to which businesses improve is based on its effectiveness. This has necessitated the need for managers to look for better talents and skills so that they can be able to improve on their weaknesses and become more effective. The main factors that have essential roles in organization survival include the leadership of organizations, the culture of the organization and also the performance of the organization, all these factors play critical roles in the success of organizations. Having higher performing organizations depends on the inputs of basic factors which includes the employees working there, leaders, and their managers.

The organization's leadership plays a critical role in the shaping the organizational culture and also providing proper organizational structure. Employee efficiency and Organizational productivity has a direct impact on the morale and the satisfaction of employees and hence influencing the performance of an organization. Nowadays in business, one of the core issues is the need to have shorter lead times, which facilitate closeness to obtaining important aspects of the mission which involves the satisfaction of clients and competitive advantages.

Lack of motivation on employees affects the organization's performance negatively this is because they often result in the adoption of more cautious steps in response to their leaders. In cases of unusual happenings, the employees tend to initiate a calculative management style where they tend to work as much as they are paid, and they often dont work beyond their targets for their companies. This technique adopted by employees always works to the disadvantage of the organization since it doesnt improve their productivity because no individual is willing to make improvements on the conditions.

In todays business world, organizations that are not showing any progress have deep troubles, and they are likely to crumble. Therefore every organization should take in to account the motivation and satisfaction of their employees to reduce the possibility of being kicked out of the market. Satisfied and well-motivated employees lead to the production of effective and efficient performers which are core to high productivity in any organization.

Difference between leadership and management

A manager is concerned with the functional activities which include the investigation, organizing and controlling whereas a leader is charged with the roles of inspiring others, providing them with emotional support and also trying to bring together people to achieve a common goal. The understanding is necessary to reduce confusion that arises among the two. The leaders are also involved in the creation of visions and plans that are strategic for an organization whereas the managers are supposed to implement them. Therefore leadership and management work hand in hand to achieve organizations goals.

There are different styles of leadership in place. In this generation of changing business environment, leadership is critical in the determination of every business organization strategies and plans to execute the well-calculated decisions. There are three major types of leadership which include the transformational, laisser-faire and the transactional leadership. Transformational leadership involves behaviors that are viewed to increase motivation in followers that often results in exceptional results and reduction in self-interests. Laisser-faire type of leadership is based on an approach that is indifferent to lack of leadership. A transactional form of leadership is a process that is based on the exchange of rewards for performance. The problems that have risen in leadership over the last few years has necessitated the need for great interventions.

Based on researchers conducted, it depicts that differences in quality of leadership in various organizations have resulted into variations in absenteeism, grievances, labor turnover, the commitment of employees, production levels, and cooperativeness and hence straining on the need for effective leadership to enhance an organizations performance.

Laissez-faire Style of leadership

This type of leadership involves a leader who always avoids or may not interfere with works assigned to the subordinates, or the leader avoids responsibilities as a senior person and doesnt make any effort to build the relationship with his/her subordinates. This type of leadership technique leads to total dissatisfaction, ineffectiveness and also unproductiveness.

Transformational leadership

One of the recent approaches to bring in to action leadership is called transformational leadership. The interests among researchers in studying transformational leadership are due to the current focus on organizations to transforming their organization's performances. This process of bringing the ideas into action is important not only in studying changes in organizations and institutions but also it facilitates the explanation of the occurrence of employees degree of positive results such as their efforts and satisfaction. Transformational leadership seeks to change its followers by implementing a process that involves their higher level or needs and stimulation of changes in a manner, belief, motivations and assumptions that are suitable for them.

Transformational leadership only occurs when leaders widen and increase the interests of employees when they champion for awareness and acknowledgment of the reasons and mission of the followers, and when they make their workers look past their self - enthusiasm for the benefit of the group (Muller, 2016). This transformation beyond selfish interests is beneficial for the entire team, society or an organization. Transformational leadership, therefore, involves the setting up of firm commitments to achieving organizations goals and empowering followers to complete the already set goals and tasks in a suitable manner. Transformational leadership leaders contain the following attributes charisma, individual consideration, intellectual stimulation and also inspirational motivations.

Transformational leadership attributes

Charisma is one of the attributes a leader must possess for his employees to respect, admire and trust him/her. Leaders should also take into consideration the needs of the followers and act as a role model to them and also share the risks involved to the followers, and they should also ethically treat them.

Inspirational motivation-this concept determines the way leaders have to issue a precise understanding and detailed information to their followers, work and also define all the technical things in their jobs. They are more of leaders who show their passion and optimism to followers and also encourage them to capture the attractive state which facilitates the arousing of followers and hence uplifting their team spirit. Intellectual stimulation-this type of transformational leaders engages in motivating the followers by bringing up question assumptions, approaching past situations using new techniques and also reframing problems.

Individualized consideration-this type of transactional leaders take into considerations individuals challenges and acts as a guide and coach to them. Followers are usually successful, and their high standards of potential are exploited by undertaking keen consideration on each. New learning open doors are offered, and singular contrasts as far as requirements and desires are considered. Transformational leadership also seeks to bond between collective needs and individual interests permitting minors to work toward preset goals.

Transformational leaders are also capable of communicating precisely the benefits of organizations mission and goals to the employees. Such precise communication facilitates the ability of employees to work hard and often be able to achieve the goals and also surpass the duties prescribed to them. Apart from the ability of transformational leaders to provide inspirational motivation and also intellectual stimulation, they can give individualized consideration to employees; this denotes their respect and dignity. This type of leaders, therefore, can encourage their followers to obtain outstanding results by the provision of both understanding and meaning.

Transactional leadership

This type of leadership is majorly based on the exchanging promises of rewards and other benefits to the minor staff for the minor staff upon the fulfilling of agreed elements with their leaders. The recognition of followers interests is the core focus in transactional leadership and then exchange process for achieving those goals. Both parties always benefit in the process of exchanging transactions. Transactional leadership relies on the completion of assigned jobs, punishment and rewards. The leaders always begin by identification of needs of their minors, clarification, and negotiation of the aspired objectives and the management of the follower's behaviors either using negative reinforcements or by positive force. The agreement is always reached between the leaders and the followers. The major components associated with transactional leadership are a reward and exceptional management. Both passive and active means of management by exception are involved by the leaders who often restrain themselves to their function as monitors and intervene only occasionally. The duration taken by a leader to interfere is the main difference between the passive and active form of management by expectation.

Organizational performance

Organizational performance can be described as the process whereby certain inputs are transformed into outputs which are often referred to as the possible outcome, by taking into consideration several factors including its contents, cost, efficiency and also the effectiveness. There are no specific measures for determining organizational performance. However, the following can use:

The goal approach:-the performance of the organization will be determined based on its ability to achieve its goals

System resource approach: - this one relates the organization based on the environment. The most effective organization makes use of the environment in achieving high values and also using rare resources to authorize its operations.

Constituency approach: - an organization is perceived to be effective when it has a larger control of resources, and it's being considered effective by various stak...