Organisational Leadership: Comparing Old and New Leadership Paradigms

This essay delves into the evolution of leadership by contrasting the "old" and "new" paradigms. It explores how leadership styles have adapted to changing environmental factors, emphasizing the shift from trait-based and contingency theories to more contemporary approaches like transformational and transactional leadership. The essay highlights key characteristics of 21st-century leaders, including effective communication, far-sightedness, intellectual skills, and a strong sense of responsibility, particularly concerning corporate social responsibility. It examines the differences between leaders and managers, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, vision, and ethical considerations in modern organizational leadership. This analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of leadership's changing landscape and its impact on organizational success and employee engagement, emphasizing the importance of leaders who can motivate, inspire, and guide their teams toward achieving organizational goals while considering societal and environmental impacts. The essay is a valuable resource for students on Desklib, a platform providing AI-powered study tools.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Organisational Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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In academic and management research leadership is one of the most popular topics. Over
the years the approach of leaders have observed a change in the approach due to the changing
environmental factors such as politics, economics, technology, society etc. Any organisation
regardless of its objectives and purpose needs leaders to fulfill the objectives, a leader is a person
who shared the perspectives of the followers and strives towards achieving the objectives set by
the organisation. The role that a leader plays in the organisation depends on the type of
organisation that they are associated with, this in turn reflects on the style of leadership adapted
by the leader as well. The role of a leader has evolved with time, the recognition of responsibility
and identification of duties beyond the job role has become evident in the 21st century. A leader
is a person who is can motivate, inspire and encourage a group of people and develop a sense of
enthusiasm among them (D’Innocenzo, Mathieu & Kukenberger, 2016). There are several types
of leadership explained in academics, but best style of leadership is said to be the one that is best
suited for the given situation and circumstance. A leader is responsible for the accomplishment
of the Organsiational goal as well as and the approach of the employee or subordinates towards
the organization they are associated with (Yang, 2015). The purpose of this essay is to establish
the difference in the “old paradigm” and “new paradigm” of leadership, thereby determining the
characteristics and behavior of a leader of the 21st century.
Firstly it is important to establish the significance of a leader, in order to fully understand
the characteristics of a leader in the 21st century. A leader guides the people in the direction of
success and this success can be measured by achieving the goal. This support and guidance is
important as people look ahead for another person to tell them what is to be done and how is it to
be done. Motivation among the people in an organisation is essential in order to improve the

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efficiency and the commitment of the subordinate towards the organisation. He or she
encourages the people to strive better and achieve greater accomplishment. Leader also makes
the process of work streamline and develops confidence among the followers which also helps in
improving the performance in the long run.
With changing time and development of technology and lifestyle among the people the
concept of leadership is evolving as the attitude and the features of people are also changing.
Based on the features and the characteristics of people born in a certain time periods their
behavioral traits and approaches are judged. For example: there is clear different approach
towards work of Millennial compared to Baby Boomers or Generation X. this is the main reason
why there is a need to have a different approach in leadership as well. The old paradigm is based
on trait theory, contingency leadership etc, the focus of these theories that were formulated
during the 1960s is the relationship between the leader and the followers and it helped in
predicting the outcome of the venture and the performance of the people. The new paradigm of
leadership is based on the theories like charismatic leadership, and the highly influential
transformational-transactional leadership theory, laissez-faire leadership etc. The focus of these
theories is on the subordinate and the way a style is going to impact the subordinate rather than
focusing on the leader.
According to the trait theory of leadership, the characteristics of a leader are in born and
therefore a person is a born leader rather than developing characteristics of a leader in the
lifetime. The theory entails the qualities that make up a leader and it also states that a leader who
successfully establishes should have abilities and personality traits that are different from the
subordinates or the followers. Thus, the probability of having more than one leader in a
community is absent. The theory states some of the prerequisites that are essential for being a

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leader: drive to accomplish the goals, motivating and inspiring, integrity and reliability,
intellectual abilities and emotional maturity etc. this theory also explains that a leader is always
looking ahead of success (Day et al., 2014). Therefore based on this theory of leadership the
characteristics that can be derived of the old paradigm are: the role of a leader is to guide and
support the subordinates in achieving the objectives, the leader hardly interacts with the
subordinates and also does not focus on the needs and requirements of the followers the primary
role of the leader is to instruct the people. The decision making power is only with the leader and
he may or may not choose to involve the perspective of the subordinates in the process of
decision making (Sharma & Jain, 2013).
Another theory that will help in understanding the features of the leadership style in old
paradigm is the contingency theory of leadership (Panait, 2017). The theory states that the
success of a leader is not based on the qualities or traits of the individual rather it is also
dependent on the circumstances and situations in which the leader is in. Along with the
circumstances there are three other factors that are focused upon in order to evaluate the success:
the nature of the task or the objective, the personality of the leaders and the traits that make him
or her suitable in the process, the composition of the group of people who are responsible to
achieve the objective (Myers, 2015). Some of the contingency theories in leadership are: path-
goal theory, decision making theory, situational theory etc. From the above analysis it can be
derived that the characteristic of the old paradigm is based on a very narrow approach of the
process. The focus was completely on the growth and development of the organisation not
considering the impact that it had on the society or the other aspects which are not associated
with the achievement of the objective of the organisation (Day et al., 2014).

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On the other hand, the theories that are associated with the new paradigm have a wider
approach to leadership. For example, in transformational leadership the leader of the organisation
is characterized by encouraging changes with respect to the dynamic nature of the environment
(Yang, 2015). The leader facilitates changes in order to develop and grow; he or she provides the
subordinates scope of improvement with changes in the process (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). A
transformational leader is visionary and farsighted and invests in the process innovation some of
the popular leaders who are known for their transformational style of leadership are: Steve Jobs,
Bill Gates, Martin Luther King etc. these people are famous for bring change in the history in the
way people use technology or reforms in the society (Yang, 2015).
Another important theory that explains the characteristic of new leader is the
transactional leadership. In this style the leader, the organisations as well as the subordinates gain
from the arrangement of the objective. There is a certain transaction of benefits or advantages
that are achieved by both the leader as well as the subordinate. The interest of the followers in
this theory is paid equal importance and one of the attribute of the leader is to align the interest
of the organisation along with the individual interest (Day, Griffin & Louw, 2014).
In the new paradigm the difference in between a leader and a manager is established as
there is a very fine line of difference in the attitude in between the two concepts. The role of a
leader is more informal in the new scenario he or she is in the process of the operation where as a
manager performs his duty as he or she has certain remuneration attached to the process making
the concept more formal. A person becomes a manager on the basis of the position and academic
accomplishments on the other hand the concept of a leader is based on personal traits that are
both in born or is acquired (Saeed et al., 2014). One of the new leadership concepts that explain
the difference in between a leader and a manager is charismatic leadership, the function of a

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manager is to fulfill the management duties on the other hand the role of a leader is to guide the
people to achieve the objectives. A charismatic leader is a person who leads with the help of
articulate, strategic communication skills and uses persuasion as well as force of personality
(D’Innocenzo et al., 2016).
From the above discussion the characteristics of a leader required in the new paradigm
are: Communication skill: from the charismatic theory of leadership it has been observed that
communication plays a significant role in the new age leader, the way the leader communicates
results in the success or failure in the accomplishment of the task (Hackman & Johnson 2013).
The leader of an organisation should use efficient and strategic communication process in order
to motivate and inspire people to achieve the objectives. Effective and eloquent communication
helps in achieving the trust of the people who in turn provide their efficiency and commitment
towards the company or the organisation. In a business organisation it is important for the people
to be satisfied with the job and in order to improve the rate of job satisfaction the leaders must
motivate and inspire this is nothing but effective communication (Day, Griffin & Louw, 2014).
Far-sightedness: the dynamics of the external environment impact the operation of an
organisation and in the new paradigm the factors in macro environment are always changing thus
changing the outcome of the objective as well as development of new objectives in the due
course (Saeed et al., 2014). Therefore it is very essential for the new age leaders to have a
visionary outlook towards the prospect of the achievement of the objectives. The decisions that
are taken in an organisation are dependent on the dynamic nature of the macro as well as the
micro environment, thus the leader has to foresee or has to be ready for risks associated with the
enterprise. The visionary outlook of the leader also helps in keeping the company as the leader in
the market as it is important for a business organisation, it helps the company identify the scope

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of improvement and recognize the opportunities before any other competition (D’Innocenzo et
al., 2016). On the other hand for a non-profit seeking organisation the visionary outlook of the
leader helps in identifying the trends and improving the efficiency. Intellectual skills: a leader
in the new paradigm must have diversified knowledge which will guide him or her and also help
in developing confidence, knowledge is not only restricted to academics it is about various
aspects as an organization does not always work on the basis of the theories and models that are
taught in academics. Knowledge will help the leader to broaden the perspective and thereby have
a wider horizon of prospect (Day et al., 2014). Sense of responsibility: it is expected of a leader
of any organisation to have the sense of responsibility, but this sense should be also drawn from
empathy and sense of humanity. The concept of triple bottom line has been popular among the
business organisation, leader have accepted the responsibility they have towards the society and
the environment, business organisations pay equal importance to finance as well as the
environment and the society that is associated directly or indirectly with the company (Saeed et
al., 2014). The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is now widely accepted by all scales
of organisations. This situation therefore explains a radical change from the ideology of a
traditional leader which was just surrounded by the financial growth and prospect of the
company (D’Innocenzo et al., 2016).
It can be concluded form the above discussion that traditional leadership approach was
builds on a very narrow perspective and just focused on the leader. In the new approaches the
leader as well as the subordinates is offered equal importance. The successful achievement of the
objectives of the organisation was a parameter to understand the success of a leader in the new
approach the objectives helps in building the characteristics of a leader. The leaders of the 21st

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century should not be afraid of innovation and changes as it ensures growth and prospect of the
organization in the long run.

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