Review of Organizational Theories in Leadership: CNN Article Analysis

This report analyzes Dov Seidman's article on leadership published on CNN, focusing on organizational theories and their impact on leadership, power, and motivation. The author emphasizes the shift from 'what' to 'how' things are done, advocating for inspirational leadership, collaboration, and rewarding employee behavior. The report highlights the application of leadership theories (transformational vs. transactional), power dynamics (referent power), and motivation theories (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) within the context of the article. It examines instances where the author uses these theories to illustrate the importance of two-way communication, recognizing employee contributions, and fostering a collaborative work environment. The analysis underscores the interconnectedness of leadership, power, and motivation in influencing employee behavior and achieving organizational goals.

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Organizational Theories in non- academic reputed website
The following discussion is about Dov Sedman article on “To inspire others, it’s how you do it
that count” published on CNN website. The author analysis how organizational changes are
affecting leadership, power, and motivation. The world nowadays is intimately close where one
person’s behavior or values affect more people. The article requires today’s leaders to rethink
how organizations operate and employees work. The author states that competitive advantage of
organizations has shifted from what is being done to how it done. Leaders are encouraged to be
inspirational, collaborate, recruit character, reward how and not what, extend trust, and classify
behavior of employees for successful leadership.
The first theory used in article is leadership. Effective leadership positively influences employees
to achieve set objectives (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). The leadership style can
either be transformational or transactional. Transactional leadership based on exchange process,
externally driven, and focuses on current needs while transformational leadership is based on
commitment, mutual trust, internally driven, and focuses on both current and future needs of the
organization (Miner, 2015).
The second theory used in the article is power. Power is the outright control or ability to
influence employees’ behavior. The article advocates for referent power in leading modern
employees. Referent power is attained by leader’s perceived worthiness, attractiveness, and
respect to others (Liden, Wayne, Liao, & Meuser, 2014).
The article also uses theories of motivation for inspiring employees to attain efficiency and
effectiveness in the workplace. Motivation can either be intrinsic or extrinsic driven. Drivers of
motivation are both described by Maslow and Herzberg theories of motivation. Intrinsic
motivation drivers inspire employees by making work satisfactory and fulfilling while intrinsic
drivers of motivation offer external rewards to employees after accomplishing work (Penney,
Kelloway, & O’Keefe, 2015).
There are several instances where the author uses theories of organizational theory. First, the
author states that modern leaders should seek to connect and collaborate instead of commanding
and taking control. He argues that one way conversation model is outdated and power has shifted
from leaders. The author recommends that leadership has to adapt a two way conversation to

deeply connect leaders and employees which is a transformational leadership style. In another
instance, the article outlines the importance of recognizing and rewarding employees. The author
emphasis on “how” recognition and rewards are done in the organization rather than “what” is
recognized and rewarded. He argues that recognizing and rewarding “how” and not “what”
enables leaders to connect, collaborate, and inspire employees for long term objectives.
Leadership, power, and motivation are very useful in a workplace. The theories of organizational
behaviour involve human behavior that is important for organizational performance. Leaders
influence employees’ behavior toward a certain direction to attain organizational goals. Power
enables leaders to control employees’ behavior while motivation is the drive that enables
employees to work effectively. Leaders use power to control employees and motivation to
inspire employees to perform towards a defined objective. Therefore, leadership, motivation, and
power influence employees’ behavior in the workplace
https://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/03/opinion/dov-seidman-oped/index.html

References
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1),
6-14.
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving
culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management
Journal, 57(5), 1434-1452.
Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.
Penney, S. A., Kelloway, E. K., & O’Keefe, D. (2015). Trait theories of leadership. Leadership
in Sports, 19-21.