Leadership: Critical Literature Review

This document provides a critical literature review on the importance of leadership in organizations. It discusses the impact of different leadership styles on employee motivation and performance. The document also explores various leadership theories and their effectiveness.

People Management and Organization
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Leadership: critical literature review
Introduction
It is true that leadership plays the essential role in the organization. Leaders are required to
possess the certain skills for successful completion of the task. In the recent time, various
organizations are successful due to proper implementation for the leadership skills. In the
report, several arguments are also presented in the report by underlining the viewpoints of
various authors.
According to Dimitrov (2015) leadership take place through the relationship between two or
more parties. The person who leads the team is called leader and person who are working as
per the direction of leaders are known as followers. In this way, leadership sets the example
for his followers in order to accomplish the objective. In this regard, Iqbal, Anwar and
Haider, (2015) highlighted that leadership only proves to be effective when leader has the
capability to develop and maintain the work of employees through effective encouragement
and monitoring. However, Storey (2016) has stated that it also depends on the behaviour or
attitude of persons who are taking training from leader. Due to the team negligence also,
sometimes leadership fails in accomplishing the objectives. It is also because different leaders
have different behaviour and attitude.
Debates
According to By, Burnes and Oswick (2012) organization’s requires the strong leadership for
proper effectiveness in the working of all the team members. Leadership in organization deals
with both psychological as well as human tactics. Leadership in organization also put
emphasis on the development of leadership skills and abilities that are significant across the
organization. Leadership in recent time has gained the huge popularity for smooth
functioning of the organization (Holten and Brenner, 2015). It has also identified the
leadership is considered as an effective way to lead the other people. Employees in such a
case play the essential role in ensuring the quality of the product. It is true that when
employees are clear about their requirement and expectation, they are likely to perform more
effective and better. However, Nguyen, Mia, Winata and Chong, (2017) has argued that
leaders are also responsible for provide the proper task and effectively allocating the job to
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employees. Leaders are also claimed to provide the positive impact on the effectiveness of
the organization by influencing all the team members. In recent time, various organizations
stress on formulating the team in order to increase the effectiveness of the organization. For
achieving this, the role of leaders in organization is more significant. However, it is more
significant for each of the member in organization to have clear duties, responsibilities for
understanding their role in the organization properly. Leaders are therefore required to
identify the expectations of top level management and communicate it properly to the team
members for better results and output.
Leadership helps the company in various ways. Effective leadership helps the team members
to accomplish their tasks in effective manner. It also tends to motivate its employees by
successful transfer of responsibilities to the employees. It also tends to increase the morale of
employees by including all the team members in decision making of the organization. As
compare to this Tourish (2011) stated that poor leadership that lacks the essential qualities,
abilities, and skills can lead to negative impact on the employees as well as organization. In
various organizations, high number of turnover is the reason of poor leadership. According to
him, there are times when leader offer very less opportunity for the welfare of worker. Due to
this reason, they do not invest their 100 per cent contribute for the welfare of organization.
Therefore, lack of opportunity means that the effective e0mployees may go somewhere else
or getting better career opportunities. Poor leaders can also put the negative impact on the
employees and can even damage the reputation of the company. Lehmann-Willenbrock,
Meinecke, Rowold and Kauffeld (2015) has also criticized by stating that bad leadership also
affect the ability of the organization in retaining employees, lower the motivation and morale
of employees, and decrease the productivity of employees. Poor leadership also do not value
any form of communication with its employees. In various organizations, poor leaders spend
the long hours away from their desk and ignore the email of staff. Listening to other people
and proper communication is the top priority of the leader. Therefore, lack of communication
and active listener might hamper the productivity of the employees. It also states that failing
in making the clear expectations can also frustrate the employees and hinder their capability
to complete the task successfully. In various organizations, poor leader do not tell their
employees when their work is due. Projects details can also be sometime vague that make
difficulty for the employees to guess all those factors that are considered important by the
supervisor. Several times project might involve the participation of more than one employee;
a poor leader in this case might not explain which employees are responsible for performing
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every part of the project. Poor leader can also be negative who do not enough knowledge
regarding how to motivate the other people. They sometimes also feel free in sharing the
negative opinion regarding the company.
Many of the findings on research state that leadership style puts the direct impact on the
productivity and wellbeing of employees. Therefore, effective leadership style helps in a
great way to successfully complex the task. Gil, Rodrigo-Moya and Morcillo-Bellido, (2018)
found that the leadership style that tends to be adopted by the leader affects perception of
learning, team cohesiveness and performance related learning within the team. As compare to
this, Saleem (2015) states that, a leader has some of the authorities based on the various
leadership styles such as democratic, autocratic, or Laissez Faire leadership style.
Theories
Various leadership theories have developed over the years such as trait theory, great man
theory, behavioural theory, contingency theory, situational leadership theory,
transformational theory, and transactional theory. In the opinion of Xu, Loi and Ngo ( 2016).
leaders are born and have some potential to become the leader. The existence and reliability
of great man theory was argued by the Nawaz and Khan, (2016) due to the irrelevancy of this
theory in some of the events. Some of the researchers have believed in the trait theory of
leadership by stating the distinctive features of leader from their followers in terms of
confidence, physical features, social characteristic, and personality attributes. However, this
theory has failed in explaining whether these traits are acquired or genetic. In this regard,
Xenikou (2017) have founded certain traits such as intelligence, height, self-confidence,
attractiveness as the essential component of leadership. However, trait theory failed as it
proved to be quite difficult to find out the traits that developed at certain time. In this way,
trait theory has also failed in producing seem kind of consistency in their finding. Apart from
this, trait theory of leadership also fails in producing the clear-cut results. Besides this, it has
not considered the whole environment of leadership in which trait is only the one factor. It
has also not given any evidence regarding the degree of several traits as people have different
traits in them. Several traits are also being specified for the leaders but they not proved to be
good leader.
As compare to this, Antonakis and Day (2017) has introduced the contingency model of
leadership that claims that effectiveness of leadership directly depends on the situation. In
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every situation, leadership style of leader differs. It also believed due to adoption of different
leadership style in every situation, it results in effective performance of the employees. It is
true that this leadership style is more advanced as compare to the previous leadership
situation because it puts due consideration toward the situation prevailing in organisation. As
compare to the previous author, Grint, Jones and Holt (2016) is based on the belief that
behaviour of leader depends on the maturity of leader followers. For instance- if maturity of
followers increasing from low to high, the leaders are also required to move to high task
oriented behaviour. As compare to these theories, charismatic theory believes that charisma
is an individual feature of the leader. It is true that leadership inspires the acceptance and
support from all the followers. It is the attraction of an individual to look forward for getting
the best out of leaders. It believes that charismatic behaviour of leader is helpful in
influencing the behaviour of followers. It has also mentioned that leadership is not creating
rather than this it is learned or taught. Therefore, large amount of attention is required in
order to understand the several characteristics that are founded in a leader. The author has
proposed that various leadership framework can be used in explaining how a leader can
enable all the team members to work properly by increasing he effectiveness.
The success of team members also depends on the leader. A leader can motivate as well as
demotivate the team members in various aspects. Several positive leaders motivate its team
member by providing rewards to the employees for their better results and outputs. As
compare to this, negative leaders demotivates its team member by punishing them for their
negative results. However, an effective leader will always give their best and support their
team members for their negative results as well. The effective leaders also provide relevant
training where employees went wrong. It helps in developing the skills that are essential for
accomplishing the task properly. It also thrown the light on formulating the shared mind-set.
It has been stated that shared mind-set has become quite significant in the current years. It
can also be explained by the facts that prior team members have similar mind set, similar
background, or world outlook. In recent time, management stress can be arised due to the
relationship between colleagues, co-workers, and subordinates. Several studies also suggest
that most of the problems arise due to the arguments and conflicts that arise between the
employees. It is considered the leader and follower approach where most of the followers get
the approval from their leader in the particular issues. Conflicts are essential source for
diminishing the social interaction among all the employees.
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The behavioural approach of leadership focused on the result of effective role behaviour. In
contrast to the trait theory, this approach believes that leadership is shown more by the act of
person as compare to its trait. However, it also has several limitations. The main limitation
attached with this approach is that one behaviour can prove to be effective at one time but not
all the time, it will be effective. In this way, time factor is the essential element that has not
been considered in the behavioural approach of leadership.
Methodology
In order to become the effective leader, it is essential for leader to explore their mastery in
various approaches. Therefore, relationship behaviour and task is most essential to the idea of
leadership style. The effectiveness of this depends in the adoption of leadership style
according to the situation. Leadership style is the key toward the success as well as failure of
any organization. It also stated that many organization fails due to the poor leadership in the
organization. After the emergence of the behavioural theory, Popli and Rizvi, (2016) also
identified the most significant leadership styles named autocratic, democratic and laissez-
faire leadership style. All these styles are considered to be the most essential determinant in
increasing the motivation of employees. In every organization, leadership style affects the
employees in positive as well as negative manner.
In autocratic leadership style, leaders make the decision without involving their followers.
Therefore, this leadership style does not listen to the suggestion as well as view of others.
Hewison and Holden, (2016) stated that, this leadership style provide low level of job
satisfaction to the employees because leaders exercise their own authority and power. As
compare to this, democratic leadership style includes the followers in decision making
process of execution and planning. These leaders are concerned with the effectiveness of its
members and encourage its team members to express the idea for accomplishing the task. The
main advantage associated with this theory is the motivated employees in the organization.
Deichmann and Stam (2015) have thrown light on the limitation of democratic leadership
style. It has stated that by including the employees in decision-making, it tends to slow down
the process and requires the great amount of effort. As compare to both leadership styles, in
the laissez Faire leadership style, leaders hand off and allow its entire team member to take
decision by their own. By using this style, they tend to avoid the responsibility. This kind of
leadership also helps in providing the good environment to all the subordinates as well as
empowers the employees for making decisions by themselves. In this leadership style,
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employees have the full authority for making the decisions. The criticism of this theory is the
lack of feedback mechanism and delay in the decision-making. Besides this, there are times
when employees take the wrong advantage of their authority and this leads to ineffective
working of the task. In addition to this, the main argument for this leadership style is that
leader does not usually provide the feedback to its employees, as they are required to do the
task by their own. Due to lack of feedback mechanism, employees sometimes do not know
what they are required to do for improving their working. At the time of lack in effectiveness
of the results or outputs, employees required the effective course of action or support on the
part of organization. Their deficiency sometimes does not come in front of the organization
as there is not feedback provided to them.
Transactional leadership theory puts emphasis on exchanging the wants between leaders and
followers. It is basically based on exchanging the reward based on performance. In this way,
Fias has founded that this style focus on monitoring the performance and taking the
corrective action when it is required. These types of leaders expect some kind of work
behaviour from all the team members. The main positive aspect using this style is influence
and power. It therefore applied properly in the corporate management style of the
functioning. Fiaz, Su and Saqib (2017) argued that it can sometime compare to the autocratic
style of leadership when followers have more power in regard of providing input for
management decisions. Several cons are also attached with the transactional model of
leadership. An assertive and powerful leader will also find the transactional model
conductive. The main limitation of this model is that original thinking is not being promoted
in this system. Therefore, this model will also create the stressful work environment.
However, productivity can be maintained but breakthroughs and innovation will not be easy
to find.
Apart from the previous theories, transformation leadership style involves the followers in all
the process activities toward organization for achieving objectives. In this way, this style of
leadership helps the followers to achieve their commitment. The leader through this style
inspires, motivates, and transforms the followers for performing by including their self-
interest for the betterment of the company. Woods (2016) criticised that transformational
leadership style has the greater potential of abusing power. Leaders tend to motivate people
through the positive and strong emotional aspect. It has argued that, it is not necessary hat it
will have the positive outcome from all the team members as expected. It is also founded that
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transformational leadership style is very hard to train and teach due to the complex argument
in handling the followers. In the opinion of Wang (2015) this style inspire all the team
members to go and accomplish the goal beyond their personal interest. The con of this theory
is that it is completely based on the ability of leaders for inspiring its workforce. It might
happen that leaders of the organization may not have the proper skills to ensure the
effectiveness of all the objectives.
Einarsen, Aasland and Skogstad (2016) proposed that the situational style of leadership is
based on the behaviour of leader that depends on the maturity of the followers. Rosenbach
(2018) also argued that effectiveness of all the successful leader is that who can change their
style as per the changing situation. It is also stated that, leaders can use such style for the
purpose of development, and learning as it develops the competency and independency
among all the employees for communicating freely in employee satisfaction. Apart from
these, situational leadership style has certain limitations. This theory has although focused on
the ability of an individual in one situation. However, it is failed in explaining that whether
this person will fit in the other situation. In addition, organizational factor has become quite
helpful for the individual leader at the time of exercising their leadership. It is true that
measuring the personal abilities as a leader is not easy.
It is true that leaders are expected to generate the enthusiasm in their subordinates for
maximising the efficiency. For this, they are required to develop the effective strategies in
order to reduce or overcome the obstacles. An effective leader utilises the useful tool of
people management, problem solving, motivation, communication, and decision-making for
developing the strong bond within its team member. For this statement, Baškarada, Watson
and Cromarty (2017) identified that for motivating the employees, it is also essential gain the
trust of its team members or followers. For this organization can also put forward the various
leadership styles that suits to the varied range of context and situation. Leaders are also
required to stimulate its team member through various motivational tools such as growth
opportunities, incentives, and rewards. It is also essential for leaders to acknowledge the
substance of human needs at the time of developing needs of organization. In contrast to this,
Gatling, Kang and Kim (2016) argued that employees not only motivates by the monetary
benefits. Apart from this, certain number of factors also motivates employees. Organization
can also develop the high performing workforce by knowing or addressing the socio-psycho
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needs of the employees. By considering the psychological or human needs, some of the
leaders also develop the effective strategies in order to motivate its subordinates.
In the recent time, leadership has become one of the essential concepts in the field of
management Harold & Holtz (2015) identified that, it is become the essential era in the recent
competitive world. Leadership is essential in increasing the ability of individual for gaining
the competitive advantage. In most of the organization, leadership development is the
essential concept in increasing the capabilities of team members. All the development can be
done during the time of carrying out individual as well as organizational growth. All these
development can be used for developing the managerial as well as leadership skills as per the
requirement of job. Leadership development can also be used to undertake, develop, and
execute the new projects across each function. It have highlighted that development programs
are significant and play an essential role in developing the individual as well as organization
performance as well as to motivate the employees.
This statement can understand the leadership in organization. A successful leader is
always the servant of people by helping the people. Taking into consideration the example of
CEO of multinational company for the effective leadership style, it will prove the
effectiveness of leadership style. By considering this statement, it might be stated that CEO in
a multinational organisation can use the affiliative style of leadership. Goleman’s and Kotter
also rightly stated that a leader might need to use more than the single type of leadership style
and trait in order to bring success in organization. An effective leader is someone who takes
the responsibility for his or her present as well as future corporation. Adoption of servant
leadership, CEO must seek out the capable and skilled persons by establishing such corporate
culture that understands the meaning of customer service. All these traits will help the leader
to achieve the objectives in the multinational corporation effectively. It is true that
multinational corporation have varied people as well as several different rules applied in
different countries. By considering all the culture and changes in respective country, it is
essential for the CEO to use proper leadership that perfectly applicable to the condition
(Harwiki, 2016).
Findings and Conclusion
From the findings or entire discussion, it has been founded that leadership proves to be
effective for the organization if it is used well by the concerned leader. It can also use the
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different leadership style as per the situation. Sometimes, the leader due to varied condition
can also use strict leadership. In addition to this, leadership also puts various positive effects
on the working of employees. By successfully involving the employees in the decision-
making, it can motivate its team member to perform to more better. As compare to this,
leadership also has various negative aspects. There are leaders who do not deal effectively
with the complaints of employees and as a results, output is not produced as expected. Most
of the organizations also fail due to his reason.
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