Leadership in Organization - Assignment

Running Head: Learning Organization
Leadership Organization

Learning Organization 1
“A leader is one who knows the way, shows the way and goes the way”
Leadership quality is not found in every human being, it is quite unique. People with leadership
skills are meant to be impressive as well as convincing. Founders of big corporations,
multinational companies are not considered as leaders. Leaders are one who could direct its
subordinates and teammates the right path to walk upon in relation with the accomplishment of
the tasks in an effective manner. This plays crucial role in order to enhance organizational
performance as well as in terms of attainment of desired goals and objectives. Primary roles and
duties of an effective leader are to manager its subordinates, directing them towards attainment
of organizational goals and develop an effective workplace environment where every member
could be able to showcase their skills and talent. This will ultimately help the organization to
perform the tasks in more efficient manner. Apart from this, he is responsible for developing
interactive workplace environment so that every member of the team could feel positive about
the organization. Leader needs to perform various steps such as building and enhancing
confidence level amongst the teammates as well as to determine the negative factors which are
affecting team members’ performance (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2012).
Approach of leadership is quite wide and it is categorised into three areas such as situational,
trait based and behavioural approach. In order to make better and clear understanding in
relevance with leadership, these three approaches plays vital role (Allio, 2012).
Situational Approach
This approach differentiates other people from leaders on the basis of qualities, behaviour and
practices. Situational approach helps to evaluate various factors on which the difference could be
made amongst them. Following are certain factors which describe the leaders’ efficiency, their
decision making abilities and the practices executed in relevance with motivating and guiding
teammates towards the right path:
 Structure of organization;
 Project type;
 Follower’s characteristics;
 Personal preferences;

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 Influence of upper level management; and
 Situational approach could be moulded as per organizational requirements (Bel, 2010).
Organizational learning approach
This approach is useful for enhancing organizational performance. This is done through sharing
information amongst the departments of the organization so as to enhance the standard of all
departments which will ultimately help the organization to increase its productivity. On the job
training method is the most suitable approach for enhancing organizational efficiency. After
surviving for a particular time period in the market, organization is counted under the
experienced corporations and with the help of this, organization could adopt unique measures in
relevance with enhancing production capacity as well as organization will be able to attract
investors so as to enhance the business. With regards to the sharing knowledge amongst the
organization, mainly four units play crucial role i.e. inter organizational, group, individual and
organization. Learning curve is the most appropriate measure to analyse organizational learning.
Apart from this, learning curve shows the relationship amongst production related activities and
organizational other functionalities. Learning curve is also operated by leaders at the workplace
and it helps the organization to enhance productivity, reliability, efficiency and product/service’s
quality (Bolman & Deal, 2014).
Trait based approach
Major focus of this approach is over individual leader’s perceptions. Under this approach,
personal values shared by the leaders could also be determined and it is the positive sign for
effective leaders. Following are certain crucial traits through which a person could be identified
as an effective leader:
 Loyalty: Loyalty is the most crucial aspect which every leader should have. Loyalty
towards work shows the effectiveness of leader. A loyal leader would be able to treat its
subordinates in a fair manner along with the building up confidence amongst them.
 Enterprising spirit: This is a set of effective characteristics through which a leader
could guide its subordinates towards achievement of organizational goals and objectives
(Drori & Honig, 2013).

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 Integrity: This attribute is significant for an effective leader. Leader with integrity
would be able to develop reliability amongst the top level management. This type of
leader would easily be able to convince other employees to work upon his showed
directions in terms of attainment of organizational goals and objectives.
 Self Confidence: Until and unless, leader will not show his confidence over his own
developed methods and techniques, convincing others to follow the same will be bit
difficult task for him. Thus, it is necessary for a leader to be confident enough so that the
assigned tasks could be accomplished in the most appropriate manner (Gladewell,
2011).
 Knowledge: Leader should be knowledgeable, talented, skilful, creative as well as
interactive. He should have gathered relevant and sufficient information regarding the
industry, company, competitors, and all other related parties. This is necessary because
leader is known for convincing others and gets the work done from others.
These are some of the effective attributes which should be present in a leader and all these
attributes fulfils the requirement of an organization along with this, these traits describes that a
leader is who ‘knows the way, goes the way and shows the way’ (Isaacson, 2012).
Behavioural approach
Behavioural approach focus over actual efficiency and capabilities of a leader rather focusing
over theoretical qualities a leader should have. Below are some of the crucial categories
discussed in relevance with leadership behaviour:
 Task performance behaviour: These shows the efforts made by a leader in terms of
attainment of organizational desired goals and objectives. Enhancing work efficiency,
accuracy of work, adherence towards work, quality of work, etc. are some of the effective
attributes of this category.
 Participation in decision making process: Reviewing the involvement of a leader in
decision making process could analyse the qualities of a leader. This shows that a leader
is democratic or an autocratic. Autocratic leaders are those who do not consider others
suggestions while making a decision. An autocratic leader imposes his decision over its
subordinates and sometimes it leads to generate dispute situation amongst the workplace.

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Whereas, democratic leader is one who invites its subordinates to give their suggestion
before taking a big decision (Northouse, 2015).
 Group maintenance behaviour: Group work is always considered most effective tool in
order to attain organizational goals and objectives. With the help of group work,
organization would be able to uplift its performance through accomplishment of the tasks
in the manner which leads to generate positive outcomes for the organization. In order to
promote team work, it is necessary for a leader to conduct interactive sessions, group
discussions, etc. activities so that every team member could get comfortable with each
other. This increases organizational efficiency along with the attainment of organizational
goals and objectives in an effective manner (Northouse, 2017).
Examples of good leadership
Steve Jobs is known as the biggest leader of this era. His leadership style made him unique and
distinct from others. Leadership style plays crucial role in differentiating one from others and his
attitude, commitment and focus towards work were the specialities of his leadership style. He
was capable enough to convince his subordinates to walk on the path as directed by him. This is
the reason why Apple Inc. is leading mobile phone industry. Behind success and growth of
Apple Inc., Steve Jobs has played quite effective role. Below are some of the effective attributes
of his leadership style which separates him from others:
Legitimate power: Generally, these types of powers are available with top level management
which are used for taking consent from other members of the organization forcefully or by
convincing them. Steve Jobs used to apply these powers in order to get the work done from other
in the way he wants. The major reason behind this is the success and growth of Apple Inc.
Coercive power: This is another form of force power which is used for getting consent from
others. Steve Jobs was one of them and he used to impose his decisions over his team members,
partners and investors. These attributes which are known as bit negative or harsh in professional
world are also proved to be effective enough for Apple Inc. (Shah & Mulla, 2013).
From the aforesaid discussion and information, it could be concluded that leader plays crucial
role in organizational success and growth. Apart from the organizational level, in personal life
also, leader is very important because everyone is not capable enough to rule the things. This

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essay concludes various approaches used by leaders in relation with the accomplishment of goals
and objectives. Main motive of this essay was to prove the statement that “a leader is who knows
the way, shows the way and goes the way” right or wrong. After discussion, it has been found
that this statement is true as every individual is not able to decide in his personal and
professional life that what is good and bad for him, thus, leader helps them to analyse both the
aspects so that appropriate choice could be made.

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References
Aaker, D.A. & Joachimsthaler, E. (2012). Simon and Schuster. Brand leadership.
Allio, R.J. (2012). Leaders and leadership–many theories, but what advice is reliable. Strategy &
Leadership. vol. 41 (1). pp.4-14.
Bel, R. (2010). Leadership and innovation: Learning from the best. Global business and
organizational excellence. vol. 29 (2). pp.47-60.
Bolman, L. & Deal, T. (2014). Leadership and management. Christian Youth Work in Theory
and Practice: A Handbook. pp.245.
Drori, I. & Honig, B. (2013). A process model of internal and external legitimacy. Organization
Studies. vol. 34 (3). pp.345-376.
Gladewell, M. (2011). The real genius of Steve Jobs. The New Yorker.
Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard business review. vol. 90
(4). pp.92-102.
Northouse, P.G. (2015). Sage publications. Leadership: Theory and practice.
Northouse, P.G. (2017). Sage Publications. Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice.
Shah, T. & Mulla, Z.R. (2013). Leader Motives, Impression Management, and Charisma: A
Comparison of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Management and Labour Studies. vol. 38 (3).
pp.155-184.