Leadership Research Paper 2022

Running head: Leadership
Leadership
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Introduction
In this contemporary business world, leadership is a wide concept to understand and
execute in the organization. Leadership is defined as the ability of an individual to influence to
guide another person or more than one person in a community or organization. . Leadership is
dynamic in nature and therefore, possesses number of definitions. This is because of the different
role and different function in the organization and due to the changing environment of the
leaders. However the main motive of the leaders remains the same in all the organizations. The
current assignment is based upon a clear understanding on leadership. The paper discusses what
it means to be an effective leader in organization in order to understand the proper concept of
leadership and their practical use in organization the paper demonstrates the leadership style of
three well-known leaders Tim Cook CEO of Apple, Oprah Winfrey and Jeff Bezos founder,
chairman and CEO of Amazon. The paper demonstrates their strength and weakness by using
relevant theories and frameworks of leadership. The critical evaluation of their leadership style
would provide a brief understanding of concept of leadership in present contemporary world.
Discussion
Leadership has become the subject of research in most of the areas and has observed to
be a critical concept in the organizations. Leadership is the concept which is related widely not
only in management science but also in sociology and psychology According to Bennis,
“leadership is similar to beauty; it is hard to define, but you know when you see it” (Anderson &
Sun 2017). The concept of leadership can be determined by four components of leadership,
leadership- a continuous process, it is essential in order to create effective impact, it is important

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to draw attention and achieve desired goal and it is emergent in groups (Anderson & Sun 2017).
Leadership is based on five fundamental practices, leadership- a role model, for a shared vision
being a source of inspiration, handling a process, motivating and influencing others and
encouraging others. It is easy to use power, designation and control tactics but additionally
influencing, motivating and having the ability of emotional intelligence is a difficult approach
(Tyczkowski et al. 2015). An effective leadership, is the individual who can set example for
others, an effective leadership doe sown self-assessment, sharp level of perception, responsive to
the need of its employees, knowing and setting proper vision and mission for the organization.
Some of the leadership traits are knowledge of the business, highly motivated individuals, desire
to lead, honesty, integrity, open-mindedness, self-confidence, Intelligence, extraversion ((Kiarie,
Maru, & Cheruiyot 2017). When an individual possess this traits and when it reflects in the
organization this becomes an effective leader. This all qualities make an effective leader for the
organization.
There are many theories based upon the leadership and criticism as well. The three main
theories of leadership are great man theory, behavioral theory and trait theory ((Kiarie, Maru, &
Cheruiyot, 2017). The trait theory and great-man theory is based upon the psychological,
physical and personality traits whereas the behavioral theory is based upon the leader’s behavior,
attitude and beliefs in order to define an effective leaders in an organization.
The Great-man theory- This theory was pinned by Thomas Charlyle, in his theory it is
propose d that the individuals who lead the flow of life is considered to be leaders, the theory is
proposed focusing on the characteristics of leader and non-leaders (Le Fevre & Robinson 2015).
According to the theory, there are set of unique features that distinguish the leaders with normal
people. As per the author the features are expressed as commandants, credibility, courage, high

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initiatives. This theory suggests that the characteristics of great leaders like anatomy, personality
and psychology are different from the ordinary people as well as it suggest that leadership is a
gene theory which means hereditary. Therefore, according to the theory not everyone can be
leader, as it is god-gifted (Gipson, et al. 2017). This theory is highly criticized by many
theoretician, one of the criticism is it is gender-based prejudice and I believe leaders is not
confined with these characteristics and leadership is not based on genetic hereditary it is built
and gained within ourselves.
Trait Theory- On the basis of these criticisms of great-man theory trait theory was
proposed and this theory suggests that leadership does not come from birth and it is learned and
gained. The characteristics of leadership are highly distinguished by whole set of subsequently
and congenital acquired characters. It is the modification of great-man theory. According to trait
theory the height, weight, maturity, gender, domination and persuasion, responsibility,
intelligence, self-confidence and many more are the key characteristics of leadership. On the
other hand as the great-man theory is criticized the trait theory is also criticized as having the
narrow perspective (Antonakis & Day 2017). As the characteristics of leadership has become
dynamic in nature and depends not only in internal factor upon the external factor as well.
However, according to my view leadership is not a superficial phenomenon that is only confined
with characteristics. There are many other factors which do impact the understanding of
leadership which includes group values, organizational structure, and task structure and based
upon the situation in which the leader is dealing with.
Behavioral Theory- This theory suggests that the effectiveness of a leader does not
depend upon its characteristics but it depend upon its behavior. The leader’s behavior is not
innate and can be seen and learned and moreover and a leader can be well-trained to show its