Leadership Management: Emotional Intelligence, Distributed Leadership, Authenticity, and Leader-Member Exchange Theory

This document discusses the concepts of emotional intelligence, distributed leadership, authenticity, and leader-member exchange theory in the context of leadership management. It explores the significance of these theories in the 21st century business environment and their impact on team performance and relationships. The document provides an in-depth analysis of each theory and their practical applications.

Running head: LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
Response to Question 1: Conceptual description
(a) Emotional Intelligence- The ability of recognizing own feelings and emotions and
categorizing the identified emotions by labelling them appropriately by an individual is
known as Emotional Intelligence (Petrides et al. 2016). Emotional intelligence is also
utilized in shaping behaviour and thinking process of an individual for controlling and
managing emotional reactions for adjusting in changing environment and for
accomplishing set objectives. Emotional intelligence depicts the ability of recognizing
others’ and own emotions for the act of understanding, managing and perceiving
emotional behaviour in response of internal or external environmental activities. The
capability of appreciating interpersonal dynamics is accomplished with the alignment of
emotions, empathy and intelligence (Sánchez-Álvarez, Extremera and Fernández-
Berrocal 2016). Higher rate of emotional intelligence can lead to an effective
understanding of emotions in respect to the reaction to changing situations and associated
people. Leadership roles specifically reflect different forms of Emotional Intelligence.
Five elements were identified in the concept of emotional intelligence, self-regulation,
self-awareness, empathy, social skills and motivation. Leadership management with high
level of emotional intelligence stimulated a positive and safer environment for generating
free flow of ideas and innovation in the presence of risks. Leadership function with the
capability of understanding emotional behaviour of the team members at the time of
change management in an organization can significantly contribute towards the
attainment of specific objectives. The approach of a leader is very essential for
understanding her/his strategy, for mobilizing the functioning of teams and for the
associated success factors. Success or failure is a secondary concept; the primary
function of leadership can be channelling the emotions in right direction. Enthusiasm,
respect and appreciation associated with required emotional understanding can validate
the effectiveness of the organization. Emotional intelligence in leadership roles can

2LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
influence the productivity, performance and involvement of the organization. The
function of emotional intelligence can be reflected in the adaption capabilities of the
leaders, as it leads to the capability of understanding the emotion attached to the change
management decision of organization and accept the transformation with the trait of
openness. Emotional Intelligence helps in improving the productivity, efficiency and
inter-team relationship in the team as it reflects understanding, respect and appreciation
for the members of organization (Serrat 2017). Emotional Intelligence in leadership role
stimulates motivation among employees, focuses on collaboration by creating alignment
in the organization and executes decisions with integrity and fairness. Emotional
intelligence also helps leadership roles in building relationship amongst the team
members by establishing the significance of honesty and trust (Vito-Thomas et al. 2018).
(b) Distributed Leadership- The analytical and conceptual methodology involving the
depiction and understanding of the role of leadership for people working in a complex
organization. Distributed leadership directs the focus to the leadership situations where
the actors are involved in tasks which are distributed or stretched in organization rather
than stressing about the leadership behaviour of individual leadership identities (Tian,
Risku and Collin 2016). Distributed leadership concept reflects upon the consideration of
the power dynamics in an organization. The concept of distributed leadership depends
upon the set goals and objectives and motivates pluralistic engagement. The concept of
distributed leadership is applied in functional areas of various industries. In the
conceptual foundation of distributed cognition and activity theory. The theory of
distributed leadership reflects an intersection between a situation, followers and leaders
(Ford and Harding 2018). Distributed leadership depicts the organizational activities,
which are constructed by the members of the organization for influencing knowledge,
practices, and motivation of the associated employees. Distributed leadership concept
portrays the activities focussed on tasks of organizational members rather than on

3LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
positions. The role of a follower and leader can be majorly dynamic in accordance with
changing situations. The characteristics of distributed leadership comprises of the
involvement of various people for collaborating the leadership activities. The dimensions
of the approach of distributed leadership includes, culture, change, relationship and
context. Distributed leadership styles comprises of both positive and challenging
implications. One of the advantages includes the availability of options, in absence of a
specific leadership position; leaders of difference strategic tasks can act according to
their responsibility without sacrificing on the efficiency of team members of an
organization (Western 2019). In association with the distribution of tasks, distributed
leadership practices can also share the vision of a company easily and effectively. The
distributed leadership style allows employees in taking accountability for their leadership
roles and duties. Distributed leadership practices can accelerate the upward movement of
job opportunities. Distributed leadership approach stimulates the potential for accepting
changes in organization as it distributes the leadership or accountability of employees in
an organization, which can enhance the generation of creativity and commitment.
Distributed leadership reflects the opportunity to involve majority of the workforce for
improved productivity and employee satisfaction (Popli and Rizvi 2016). It also helps in
enhancing the opportunity of mutual learning. The disadvantages of distributed
leadership involve challenges in maintaining accountability of leaders and it can
decelerate the process of decision-making. Another set of disadvantages regarding the
application of distributed leadership can be the association of the factor of uncertainty
and the challenge or expected importance in every phase of business operation.
Response to Question 2: Authenticity in the concept of leadership
Authenticity is considered as one of the significant aspects of leadership application.
The approach and procedures in leadership, which involves constructing legitimacy, honest
connections with the followers involved in an ethical situation is known as authentic

4LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
leadership. Authentic leadership approach reflects positive actions with the involvement of
truthful self-awareness concepts for the purpose of promoting openness (Ladkin, Spiller and
Craze 2016). Authentic leadership roles stimulate trust through enthusiastic support for
members of the organization, thereby improving the performance of individuals. The concept
and approach of authentic leadership is exercised in place of the traditional leadership
practices for transforming the basis of business scenario from share price and profit to ethics
and people. The characteristics included in the approach of authentic leadership are self –
awareness, balanced processing, internalized moral perception and relationship transparency.
Self-awareness reflects the on-going procedure of re-examining strengths, values and
weaknesses (Caldwell and Hayes 2016). The open and transparent relationship of the leaders
with team members can stimulate positive behaviour, beliefs and innovative ideas.
Understanding viewpoints with a fair-minded approach reflects the concept of balanced
processing. The authentic leaders majorly target long-term results with the incorporation of
integrity and transparency. The attributes of an authentic leader reflect a set form of vision
with a definite purpose. Authentic leaders with open mind positively welcome contracting
ideas. The attributes and traits of authentic leaders also includes, open communication,
empathy and respect for idea generation and member engagement practices. Authentic
leaders are flexible in regards with the business requirements and changing external business
environment. However, they to stick to their set principles and reflects consistency in the
values and performance they possess (Gardiner 2016). The traits also involve appreciation
and sharing success amongst the whole team. Authentic leaders have a specific purpose for
aligning set long-term objectives with the functionality of the authentic leadership. The
aspect of passion demonstrates the purpose. They reflect values of authenticity and ethical
behaviour. Authentic leaders construct relationship and portray connectedness with followers.
Authentic leadership reflects self-discipline with the focus on determination.

5LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
The significance of authenticity in leadership practices in 21st century can be reflected
through positive applications like, authenticity incorporates genuineness and self-awareness
in today’s changing business environment. In 21stcentury, businesses demand the fulfilment
of specific target in response to the increasing competition in the market. Authenticity in
leadership approach reflects the aspect of being mission-driven and motivated for
accomplishing the set results with the traits of openness and positive relationship. Authentic
leadership approach comprises of supports and beliefs for sincerely applying or accepting a
business process with the aspect of positivity and openness. Authenticity in leadership
approach incorporates the sense of responsibility and accountability for acting on specific
function with the aspect of transparency and effective communication (Gotsis and Grimani
2016). The authentic leaders can also reflect the significance through trait of embracing
changes in the first application. Authentic leaders set example with the characteristics of
readiness and openness with the changing business environment of businesses in the 21st
century. Authenticity drives the leaders against the ineffective business activities and from
falsification or manipulation of data and resources for moulding them for set objectives,
rather it enables the leaders to act as visionaries for understanding the hurdles and concerns in
the process of achieving the goal and plan their actions accordingly. Integrity in the
leadership approach leads to the motivation of team members, thereby avoiding the high
attrition rate in 21st century. Numerous people can develop the ability of leading a group of
people but motivating members with the association of morals, integrity and values can bring
positive competitiveness and productivity for the business and employees’ career growth.
Authenticity in the age of increasing population, competition and innovation in business
environment of 21st century, requires respect and trust, which leads to the smooth functioning
of leadership approach amongst the followers. Authenticity enables construction of
communities in the work setting, which allows efficient work environment. Authenticity in
leadership stimulates friendship amongst co-workers and leaders in the organization.

6LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
Authenticity in leaders stimulates the need for excellence in the own self for designing a
better plan for the team members.
Response to Question 3: Leader Member Exchange Theory
This approach is popularly termed as the LMX Theory or Vertical Dyad Linkage
Theory. The approach based on relationship of the team members with the association of
two-way connection with followers and leaders is known as leader-member exchange theory.
The leaders’ role in developing an effectively relationship with the subordinates, thereby
improving responsibility and decision making traits of the employees in an organization. The
relationship generated through the factors of respect and trust is generated through emotional
relationship amongst team leader and members. The leader-member exchange theory helps in
stimulating the relationship amongst team members and the leader as well as the leader-
member exchange theory also helps in building the team performance of the individuals. The
theory is based on three stages of relationship that the managers and the subordinates go
through – Role Taking, Role-Making and Routinization (Martin et al. 2016). The phase of
role taking involves the stage of accepting responsibilities and duties in respect to the team
members. This stage is very crucial for the procedure of building an effective team. The
second stage of role making reflects the application of effective relationship building exercise
with the initiation of employee engagement for various tasks (Herman and Dasborough
2016). This step involves the addition of new employees followed by the categorisation of
two groups in-group and out-group. The in-group members comprises of skilled, trustworthy
and loyal employees. The leaders involves in projecting one-to-one relationship building
exercise in case of the in-group employees through the aspect of attention and trust. One-to-
One relationship building exercise is practiced more in the association of this group. The out-
group portrays the exercise of involving members who are unmotivated and face challenges
in understanding the actual role and responsibilities (Day and Miscenko 2015). The out-group
signifies the exercise of abilities in building effective team for the process of implementing

7LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
leader member relationship. The stage of routinization is the last stage for executing the
theory of leader member exchange concept. The last stage of the theory comprises of
schedules and routine amongst leaders and team members.
These techniques help the managers in assessing their subordinates and accordingly
align them within the group or out the group. It helps the managers in taking in new members
within a team and assessing their skills and abilities. Then those subordinates are given group
tasks (Gooty and Yammarino 2016). The subordinates need to cooperate and coordinate with
the team members while completing the tasks. The leaders assess the performance, loyalty,
enthusiasm and attitude of the subordinate while performing such tasks. If the result is
positive the subordinate gets challenging tasks and access to managers and if they perform
poor and have a bad impression then they fail to have better opportunities for the future. This
process ensures two-way interactions between the leader and the subordinates.

8LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
References
Caldwell, C. and Hayes, L.A., 2016. Self-efficacy and self-awareness: moral insights to
increased leader effectiveness. Journal of Management Development, 35(9), pp.1163-1173.
Day, D. and Miscenko, D., 2015. Leader-member exchange (LMX): Construct evolution,
contributions, and future prospects for advancing leadership theory. The Oxford handbook of
leader-member exchange, pp.9-28.
Ford, J. and Harding, N., 2018. Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion.
Leadership, 14(1), pp.3-24.
Gardiner, R., 2016. Gender, authenticity and leadership: Thinking with Arendt. Leadership,
12(5), pp.632-637.
Gooty, J. and Yammarino, F.J., 2016. The leader–member exchange relationship: A
multisource, cross-level investigation. Journal of Management, 42(4), pp.915-935.
Gotsis, G. and Grimani, K., 2016. Diversity as an aspect of effective leadership: Integrating
and moving forward. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(2), pp.241-264.
Herman, H.M. and Dasborough, M.T., 2016. Leadership and leader–member exchange
(LMX). In Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management. Edward Elgar Publishing
Limited.
Ladkin, D., Spiller, M. and Craze, G., 2016. Authenticity and Individuation: A Jungian
Contribution to Theorizing Authentic Leadership.
Martin, R., Guillaume, Y., Thomas, G., Lee, A. and Epitropaki, O., 2016. Leader–member
exchange (LMX) and performance: A meta‐analytic review. Personnel Psychology, 69(1),
pp.67-121.

9LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
Petrides, K.V., Mikolajczak, M., Mavroveli, S., Sanchez-Ruiz, M.J., Furnham, A. and Pérez-
González, J.C., 2016. Developments in trait emotional intelligence research. Emotion Review,
8(4), pp.335-341.
Popli, S. and Rizvi, I.A., 2016. Drivers of employee engagement: The role of leadership style.
Global Business Review, 17(4), pp.965-979.
Sánchez-Álvarez, N., Extremera, N. and Fernández-Berrocal, P., 2016. The relation between
emotional intelligence and subjective well-being: A meta-analytic investigation. The Journal
of Positive Psychology, 11(3), pp.276-285.
Serrat, O., 2017. Understanding and developing emotional intelligence. In Knowledge
solutions (pp. 329-339). Springer, Singapore.
Tian, M., Risku, M. and Collin, K., 2016. A meta-analysis of distributed leadership from
2002 to 2013: Theory development, empirical evidence and future research focus.
Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(1), pp.146-164.
Vito-Thomas, D., Allyn, P., Wagner, L.B., Hodges, T. and Streitmatter, S.S., 2018. The
Evidence-Based Practice Fulcrum: Balancing Leadership and Emotional Intelligence in
Nursing and Interprofessional Education.
Western, S., 2019. Leadership: A critical text. SAGE Publications Limited.