Leadership in Business

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Leadership in business
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Leadership in business
Introduction
Leadership in business is becoming a sensitive and essential phenomenon because
organizational success relies on it. It is leadership that determines how a leader and manager set
a direction, create something new, and inspire a vision. Leadership enables an organization to
map out or define the direction it has to follow in order to succeed. Research suggests that
leadership needs to be inspiring, exciting and dynamic. There are various types of leadership
styles which can be applied differently based on situations a leader handles at a particular time.
The review of research conducted by Caldwell, Dixon, Floyd, Chaudoin, Post, and Cheokas
(2012) shows that an organization can achieve unparalleled excellence by employing
transformative leadership. On the other hand, Schaubroeck, Hannah, Avolio, Kozlowski, Lord,
Treviño, Dimotakis, and Peng (2012) suggest that for organizations to succeed they ought to
embed ethical leadership across its various levels or departments. What is central from the claims
of these authors is how different leadership styles can be used to achieve organizational
objectives. Thus, according to the authors a business can achieve its goals if a leader and
manager apply both principles of ethical leadership and elements of transformative leadership.
Overview of articles, author’s arguments, underlying assumptions and values
Caldwell et al. (2012) and Schaubroeck et al. (2012) hold not-so-different positions in
leadership since they write about almost similar topics about leadership. Caldwell et al. (2012,
p.175) underlying assumption is that an organization can only succeed or gain excellence only if
it employs transformative leadership. The further assumption is that transformative leadership is
viewed as a new standard of ethical leadership that is capable of obviating pessimism people

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have about leaders. Organizations are calling for transformative leadership for them to survive,
create wealth and gain the support of society at large (Caldwell et al. (2012, p.175). The authors
generally assume that leaders no longer enjoy the trust of their employees as well as that of
society. However, that is likely to change if transformative leadership is embraced. According to
Caldwell et al. (2012, p.176), transformative leadership is one key leadership model that allows
leaders to integrate a commitment to values and outcomes so as to optimize stakeholders and
society’s interests. In consequence, this allows an organization to remain dedicated to the “moral
duties owed by organizations to their stakeholders” (176). Borrowing from this claim of
transformative leadership, it comes out that the proponents of these leadership models argue that
it can restore trust in organizations. This is because employees view an organization from the
perspective of a leader. That is to insinuate if an organization has a transformative leader,
employees will have trust in its leadership and support all efforts directed at achieving
organizational success.
In a similar vein, Caldwell et al. (2012, p.176) the underlying assumption is that
transformative leaders are people who look for new solutions that are critical to solving new
problems. In essence, this supports the authors’ argument that transformative leadership demands
people to be innovative when searching for solutions for new problems facing organizations. In
addition, transformative leadership is also centered on translating intention into reality as well as
sustaining it. Summarily, Caldwell et al. (2012) claim that transformative leadership can help an
organization gain support from employees and society at large. Based on this claim it is plausible
to conclude that they argue that it is transformative leadership model that organizations require to
survive in the modern business environment. Transformative leadership is seen as capable of

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restoring trust in organizational leadership. The authors see it as the only way organizational
leaders can remain to their moral duties to society in which they operate and serve.
Some other researchers such as Shields (2018, p.65) share the same logic with Caldwell
et al. (2012, p.176) on transformative leadership. Shields sees transformative leadership as the
only model to effect change, and bring meaningful change. Throughout the analysis of this
leadership style, Caldwell et al viewed it as the only way an organization can change into a
corporate that enjoys the trust of society and employees. Ordinarily, when people seek change in
leadership, it means that they no longer trust a certain leader. This is on account that a particular
leader they once entrusted with a responsibility of bringing change and solving their new
problems innovatively has failed to be up to the task. Hence, from a personal perspective, these
authors highly regard transformative leadership because of the meaningful outcomes or change
that can be derived from it.
Nonetheless, Schaubroeck’s et al. (2012) argument on ethical leadership is that it
champions for ethical values (such as integrity, honesty), beliefs, and rights of everyone at
different organizational levels. That is why the authors test ethical leadership with ethical culture
within various organizational levels. Ethical leadership requires a shared understanding for a
leader to influence ethical cognitions and behaviors of followers. Intrinsically, these authors
argue that for a leader to influence followers at an organization or across all organizational levels
they must embrace ethical leadership. Hence, the underlying assumption is that through this kind
of leadership, a leader can influence immediate followers as well as other followers from across
and within organizational levels. Notably, an organization has different hierarchical levels, and
to influence followers at all different levels one would require ethical leadership. In addition, the