The Essence of Leadership: A Literature Review

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The essence of leadership
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Table of contents
Literature review........................................................................................................................2
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Concepts of leadership and management...............................................................................3
Theories of nature and exercise of leadership in the organisation.........................................5
The Great Man Theory.......................................................................................................5
Essence of leadership.............................................................................................................6
Trait theory.........................................................................................................................7
Behavioural leadership theory............................................................................................9
Evaluation of the behaviour of selected leaders.......................................................................12
Behavioural evaluation.........................................................................................................12
Codification of the behaviour...............................................................................................15
Behaviour specifications......................................................................................................16
Control..............................................................................................................................16
Emotional stability...........................................................................................................16
Power motivation.............................................................................................................17
Specialized role or shared influence process...................................................................17
Influence and emotions....................................................................................................18
Summary of the learning..........................................................................................................19
Development of leadership capabilities...............................................................................19
References................................................................................................................................22

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Literature review
Introduction
The leadership is an effective process that allows an individual within the organisation
to act as a role model and direct, guide as well as influence the behaviours of employees and
also direct them towards the right direction, furthermore, ensure accomplishment of specific
goals and objectives with much ease and efficiency. The manager or any individual holding a
higher authority and power is associated with the management of leadership skills to perform
to their potential with confidence and zeal (Rothaermel 2017). The leadership is also an
important concept related to the influence of behaviours and also guide them in the right
direction by persuading others to seek the goals and objectives in a committed and
responsible manner. The manager or leader of the organization holds the roles and
responsibilities of guiding the employees toward successful achievement of goals and
objectives while at the same time, use the skills, knowledge, expertise and maturity to tackle
critical situations with much accuracy and prominence (Wyatt and Silvester 2018).
The essence of leadership is also related to the way the leader maximises the
efficiency of workforce and ensures achievement of goals and objectives with the help of
initiating actions through communication policies and plans to the employees and also by
creating a sense of motivation and encouragement. The leaders also are responsible for the
management of monetary as well as non-monetary rewards and benefits for keeping the
workforce consisting of employees motivated and encouraged, while even creating extensive
scopes and opportunities for them to prove their potential and ensure influencing them to
commit fully towards the organisation (Ghasabeh, Soosay and Reaiche 2015). The leader is
not only responsible for keeping the employees motivated, but also to build their morale by
arranging training sessions and also by improving their skills, knowledge and expertise. With
this, the leadership perspective also focuses on the development of a positive working

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environment, where the employees feel free to perform and also make sure to acquire the
desired level of coordination, which is a primary motive of the leader and also a major aspect
of management within the organisation (Spector 2016).
Considering the aspect of management within the organisation, the managers also sometimes
play the role of a leader but they are more associated with the delegation of authorities and
power along with the management of responsibilities for developing a vision and mission that
are communicated with the employees of the organisation as well (Storey 2016). Moreover, it
is also a fact that the management is associated with the focus on planning, organising and
staffing the candidates along with managing necessary direction and control so as to prioritise
on team building relationships and also facilitate the teamwork that could persuade and
motivate the employees effectively and in a responsible way within the organisations
(Dartey-Baah 2015). There are few other differences between leadership and management
aspect too such as the leadership is based more on the verbal communication whereas the
management duties and roles are more centred around the management of communication
that is written down on paper or in the form of documents.
Concepts of leadership and management
According to Clampitt and Dekoch (2016), leadership has been considered as an
effective process for influencing the individuals and accomplish the goals and objectives
through management of business functions and processes in a more coherent and cohesive
manner. Here, the leadership skills, traits and behaviours allow for influencing the employees
to work towards a shared vision and mission, furthermore, acquire social influence and
maximise the level of efforts put for getting the things completed and accurately done too
(Clampitt and Dekoch 2016). The leaders’ skills, knowledge and expertise are also
influenced, as stated by Sohmen (2015), including the different sets of values, beliefs, ethics
and character needed to remain unique and also differentiable from others. The leader should

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utilise the traits and skills for counselling and also guide the employees of the organisation in
the right direction for accomplishment of the objectives, thereby, facilitate communication
and also deal with different situations at different times (Sohmen 2015).
As stated by Antonakis and Day (2017), leadership comprise of various components
including the leader himself, his followers, communication managed and the entire situation.
The leaders must be honest and know about what to do and how it should be done for
assisting the subordinates and at the same time, inspire them to follow the leader and move in
the right direction. Considering the application of theories based on leadership aspects, we
need to determine how the leadership and management differ based on certain contexts
(Antonakis and Day 2017). It has been found that the leadership is necessary for
communicating the vision, mission and goals to be achieved to the employees while the
management has laid the foundation for delegating power and authority along with
management of individual roles and responsibilities. The manager has also been associated
with the management of staffing process, organising, directing and controlling along with
facilitation of better control and authority whereas the leadership has been more centred
around the development of relationships with the employees, building networks, facilitate
teamwork, motivate and encourage the employees to perform to their potential as well
(Ospina 2017). The managers are also responsible for following the organisational policies
and principles while the leaders have been more concerned about following their own instinct
and also ensure focusing on the performance of employees as well as measure their potential
to deal with the future and performance of theirs in terms of extraction of potential and skills
from them to achieve the business objectives with much ease and efficiency (Bush, Bell and
Middlewood 2019).
It is also a fact, according to Hallinger et al. (2015), that all the managers are not
effective leaders. There are few managers who have poor leadership qualities and thus

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employees need to follow their orders as they are bound to do so. The management roles also
include managing the description of jobs and creating designation for the employees,
furthermore, ensure undertaking the right actions for which, they have been held responsible
for. Moreover, the managers also hold the rights and responsibilities of hiring candidates
within the workplace, promote, terminate as well as manage discipline and reward based
systems based on their behaviour and performances for keeping them motivated and
encouraged as a whole (Hallinger et al. 2015).
On the other hand, based on the statement of Armstrong (2016), leaders have to
maintain good personality, behaviours and also manage values and beliefs for guiding the
employees and even inspire and motivate them. Due to this, the leaders believe in inspiration
and have challenged the status quo too, which represent change savvy, creative, innovative,
visionary as well as adaptive to different situations (Armstrong 2016). The leaders should
remain honest, integral and inspire others along with management good communication skills
and behaviours for better authority and control along with inspiring trust to understand the
employees well and keep them engaged within the workplace much more efficiently.
Theories of nature and exercise of leadership in the organisation
The Great Man Theory
Leaders display distinctive characteristics for influencing others, which makes them
great. The aspect of earning respect through the display of distinctive characteristics affirms
the statement, “leaders are born and not made.” According to Chang (2016), the behavioural
approach of the leaders is directed towards influence through motivation, which is a
cornerstone for accomplishment of the goals and objectives. Exposure of the critical incidents
reveals the true identity of a leader. Clarity in the motives is one of the traits, making the
leaders great (Chang 2016). One of the other dimensions in this context is that of the
emotional stability, which makes the leaders rational. Ejimabo (2015) statement is of the