Applying Theories of Leadership, Organizations and Motivation

Leadership is a social process through which a group or community delegate some power to someone or individual who influence the behavior of others without pressurizing or using any force for doing so but such leader/individual motivate the other. But on other hand leadership is the extra quality/ability of the management of an organization through which the management direct the subordinates to work for mutual goals of group with confidence.

Leadership styles are different in different organization, industries and sectors because of their works styles, production capacity and working environment. Environment of all the organizations, industries and sectors is different than the environment of other because the nature of business and working capacity of different units of working is in accordance to its demands and necessities of business. Therefore, to direct the subordinates of a particular unit, the management of the same elect or select its leader through some process and delegate some powers to such leader and who utilize the powers delegated to him for the only purpose of the welfare or mutual benefits/goals of the group and as well as of the organization. Selection of leaders normally held in this way in bureaucratic organizations.

2. Leader

A leader is someone who exercise influence over subordinate and other people without using threats or power for the only sake of the benefit or welfare of the community or groups so chosen or elected him/her as their leader. It would not be meaningless to say that a leader is someone who influences others through motivation and people likes to obey him or her willfully not in compulsion. A leader is person who represents the urges and requirements of his community or group and his all actions are only for the welfare and benefits of his groups. Generally leaders are of two kinds’ formal leaders and informal leaders.

A leader who is appointed as leader and has been delegated some power under the shelter of a particular rank or position to perform the particular object. A formal leader is not a natural leader because such leaders are selected or elected in bureaucratic organization through some process for a particular time with the delegation of some particular powers to the extent of the achievement of organizational goals and objectives.

An individual chosen by a group or community to which he belongs, without any election or selection is an informal leader and such leaders possess God gifted skills of communication and confidence. Such leaders do not possess authority as the formal leaders are delegated because they are not selected or elected and they are not leader of only an organization but they are leader of a group or community to with they belong and the represent the ideology, demands, requirements, necessities etc. of the groups or community. Informal leaders are natural leaders.

3. Requirements of Leadership for Meeting Present and Future Organizational Goals and Objectives

Leaders are the heroes and assets of the organizations or communities to which they belongs and they have basic aim to achieve the task being set to him with the assistance of their groups with confidence and it is one of the duty and responsibility of the leader to communicate the task properly to the group and muster up their courage time to time in all the way required, take the suggestions of the group members to evaluate the attitude of the group members, coordinate the group to complete the task so given to them with the help of the group. Following skills are required to a leader to meet the organizational goals and objective to improve the efficiency of his group.

3.1 Communication of Task Knowledge to the Group

Leader of an organization is a formal leader who has been given some authority to direct or influence his subordinates to work for the goals of organization. Formal leaders are part of bureaucratic organization and in this way a leader is given some tasks to be completed within a particular time with the connivance and co-ordination of his group. For getting effective work a leader is supposed to be such a person who possess the complete knowledge about the task in all respects and therefore, it is the first skill of a leader and the basic requirement of leadership to deliver/communicate the requisite knowledge about the task to the group at any stage to get the best of the group at all the times. He should communicate all the loops of the tasks to the group so that nothing should be remained doubtful about the task and the work should be started with confidence till the completion of the task.

3.2 Understanding Organization’s Needs

Leadership is the power of an organization through which it accumulate its strength in shape of confidence of the man power and high moral which lead the organization towards the prosperity and this is all possible only when the leaders or leadership of an organization remained informed with the demands of the organization needs. A task is a test of the organization’s ability whether they have ability to work in any circumstances such as in crucial and difficult time by making right and useful decision in such situations. Co-ordination between the leadership and man power is the basic ingredient of organization’s success and completion of difficult tasks.

3.3 Understanding Group’s Need

Labor/group is main power of an organization and they are fighters who fight for the success of organization because their success is a part of the organization’s success. It is one of the main quality of leadership that it fully encourages the labor/groups and tries its level best to solve the problems and fulfill the needs of the groups because satisfaction of the group is composite and unrebutable requirement of a task’s completion. Good leadership works directly for the welfare of organization but indirectly it is fighting for the benefits of the group. Management of an organization by using the process of leadership not even control the groups in the organization but also by using leadership become able to improve the weakness of an organization man power into its strengths.

3.4 Arrangement for Training of Groups

An organization is platform in which all fields/departments concerning to the nature of organization’s work are combined such as purchase department, manufacturing department, marketing, finance and selling all departments are working together. Time to time new inventions are occurred which also needs to mould or adopt new techniques to improve the working conditions and skills for the gropes of different fields. It is the responsibility of the management of an organization that it should remained intact with the leadership of the groups to understand their needs and requirements for better working situations because by doing so the management through leadership can evaluate the weakness of the groups and can improve their skills by arranging training in the fields of stress. Through these training the management can either improve the skills of the labor but on the other hand also becomes able to evaluate the working capacity of the labor and these training vacations also highlight the strength of relationship between the groups and leadership.

3.5 Evaluation of Weaknesses and Strengths

A smooth working can only be perform if the organization know very well the fields of focus and stress and this could only be possible when an organization is able to understands its weaknesses and strengths. For making it possible, leadership plays the most important role such as a formal leader is indeed a leader from the organization who is selected by the organization through some process. Such leadership helps the organization in evaluating the weaknesses and strengths of the organization out from the groups of the organization because all the group members have good relations with the leaders and they also share their problems as well as about their extra skills with them and by polishing such extra skills through training an organization can not even improve its strengths but also covert its weaknesses into its strengths. A successful organization is such an organization which knows very well about its weaknesses and threats and by mustering the courage and moral of the groups the organization can get a rid of those weaknesses and threats and this is just possible because of good leadership.

3.6 Motivation of Groups of Organization

It is the authority which is being delegated to the leaders that they have some powers through which then can direct and even can influence the subordinates and the subordinates obey the directions of the leaders happily because they believe in that all the actions of the leader are for the welfare of them and they are their representatives. Management of an organization can motivate the groups of the organization towards the goals and objectives of the organization just through leadership, Therefore, organizations should remain good and cordial relations with the leadership and should properly motivate to them so that they be able to motivate the groups properly and the best outcome could be expected and achieved.

3.7 Building Confidence

All workers of an organization should be confident and confidence of workers is the key of success for organizations. All industries, organizations, sub-divisions and projects have different nature of work therefore, demands of all are different but the basic demand for all of them is the confidence of labor and confidence e of labor come in labor when they are satisfied with the organization management. A leader is intermediate person between the organization and its groups but he represent the groups because he belongs to them. Leadership of an organization can motivate the groups and can built confidence and for such confidence could be possible on the basis of given and taken, therefore, the organization has to some extent polite in favor of the groups and in the same way the groups have to remain polite to some extent in favor of the organization and this given and taken built long lasting confidence between the organization and groups which is the need and requirement of the leadership.

Leadership plays the most unique role in the progress of the organizations, sub-divisions, industries and projects because just on the basis of financial resources and human resources no effective work could be done. Effective and useful work could be done only by the co-ordination between the concerns and groups of the concerns and this co-ordination and confidence is soughted only by the role of the leadership because business concerns can not fulfill the requirement of every single labor or member of labor of such concern. Therefore, by co-coordinating each other the organization can achieve its goals and the groups can also achieve their goals vested with the goals of the organization, industries, sub-divisions and projects. Nature of all the organizations, industries, sub-division and projects are different in the same way the attitude of the leaderships of them are different but the strategies for all of them are same because the labor wants priority to their needs and a bureaucratic leader is the person who can solve the problem of the concerns.

4 Modern Theories of Leadership

All the times the element of leadership was available in the business activities and as the business working pace has changed in the same way the theories regarding the leadership are also sophisticated and comprehensive which deals in all the requisite aspects of the leadership out of which some modern theories of leadership are as follows:

4.1 Situational Theory of Hersey Blanchard

Situational theory of Hersey Blanchard is based on quantum of direction towards the task, relationship between the leadership and groups and level of maturity of the task so governed by the leadership to the groups. In this theory the quantum of direction is supposed to task behavior while relationship between the leadership and groups is the relationship behavior. It is the ability of the leadership that how good relations and coordination it remains with the subordinates because management and leadership are not the actual power of industries, organizations, sub-divisions, and project, actual power is groups which are in numbers and keeps the ability to change the fate of vendor through its working skills.

This theory is divided into three behaviors such as:

Task Behavior: This behavior evolves around the leader and the groups in which the leader remains engage in splitting out the duties and responsibilities to the groups according to the task that what is the task, what is the work of the each group, how to do, when to do, who to do, where to do. In task behavior the leader of the groups remains in teaching the duties to the groups about the task and communicate the group in one way just about the task.

Relationship Behavior: Relationship behavior is a two way communication behavior in which the leader remains engage in supporting the groups because he has to listen the problems, facilitating the groups for smooth and effective working and encouraging them for building confidence. In relationship behavior the leader remains a part of the task working and support the group in all the ways he possibly could.

Level of Maturity: Level of maturity of every person is different and this is basically the consent and taking responsibility of a person to direct their personal behaviors. Every person possesses different level of maturity and in this way understanding and commanding power to the extent of their level of maturity is different. Accomplishment of a task depends upon the maturity level of leader and groups because it is up to the leader that in what way he directs and on the other hand in what way the groups understand.

All the leaders possess different abilities and level of maturities but to determine the appropriate style it could be assessed from directions of different leaders in same situation and they way the facilitate and communicate to the groups about the task. Because when the level of maturity goes up the leader will reduce its task behavior and increase relationship behavior because in such situation the understanding of the groups has improved therefore, the leaders have need to facilitate the groups in solving their problems for the accomplishment of task and through this molding attitude the leader can evaluate the right level of maturity of the groups working. This theory is applicable to all industries, organizations, sub-divisions and projects working on long term strategies because with the change in the pace of inventions the skills of the groups/labor are not improving in the same ratio therefore, by communicating properly and training in the requisite fields the business organization can get the expected and favorable results with the help of effective leadership. Level of maturity when increase whether of leader or labor then he require facilities through which he can perform more effectively and with more pace than at initial stage, therefore, every business concern even of any level can get advantage of this theory because it is applicable to all level of organization, industries, sub-divisions and projects.

4.2 Charles Handy’s Theory of Best Fit Approach

Theory of Handy is a flexible theory through which his emphasis is on the flexibility of style which is adequate according to the situation and circumstances of work whether the style is preferred by the leader or groups but the style should be competent to fulfill the requirements of the task. In this theory the style should be chosen according to the environment and task performance and it is immaterial that the style is preferred by whom, the leader or the groups. According to Handy’s best fit approach, a style which is fit in accordance of leader, groups, task and environment occur only when all the factors accept it and such style fulfill all the needs and requirement of the working and it makes the leader confident that all the other workings are in consonance of task and the task now could be completed as is expected. A best fit according to Handy occur only when all the first three factors are at one point and demands same style to be adopted for working and after adopting such style all the factor got moderate and perform more effectively then according to Handy this is the best fit approach.

This theory is a moderate theory of leadership and can easily applicable to all kind of business of small level because multination companies or multiprojects are of such nature works which works on long term strategies and planning and in long term planning moderate theory is not applicable because such projects are involving huge financial resources of stakeholders and stakeholders never take such kind of risk just relying on leadership. In small company as the strategies are short terms and can be amended when required because it is not involved huge financial risk. Therefore, this approach of Charles Handy ‘best fit’ is applicable only businesses other than industries, organizations, sub-divisions and multination companies because the said units strictly implement strategies so prepared because such strategies are prepared after considering all the effective factors which directly and indirectly effect the activities of the concern.

4.3 Style (Behavioral) Theories

Approach under this theory fully concentrates what a leader’s style, what a leader does and what is his behavior. Simply this theory revolves around the style, behavior and activities of a leader. It is very difficult to assess the behavior of a leader because as the previous theory of Charles Handy express the moderate behavior of a leader in this way the behavior of a leader could changed in accordance of circumstances and could never be remain same and therefore, it is difficult for someone to assess the attitude/behavior of a leader. In the same way a style is also difficult to measure because it changes with the changes in the working condition. Autocratic, democratic, bureaucratic and laisser-faire are the term which are used for to describe the general approached used for a leader.

Style behavior approach is not a best and comprehensive theory according to me because it is revolving around the activities, behavior and style of a leader that what he does, his behavior and style of working. It is a limited approach and can only be applicable to small enterprises because in large unit or enterprises there is no concept of assumption and molding of style according to the wishes of the leader because large enterprises the strategies are being prepared after reviewing the strategies of last years along with the results. Strategy makers also account for all the factors might be caused in future by using the services of skilled and professionals just to avoid any uncertainty and ambiguity in the strategy. Therefore, this theory is not applicable to industries, organizations, sub-divisions and multination enterprises in no way because it is lacking a number of necessary factors to be account for and is not a comprehensive theory.

5. Leadership Models

A leader is role model for his followers and the followers happily adopt the styles of their leader because in their view their leader is the best one in all. Following are leadership models:-

5.1 The Fiedler Contingency Model

According to the Fred Fiedler Contingency Model, the best performance of a group is dependent on the proper match between the leader’s style of directing his group and the level to which the circumstances allowed the leader to direct and influence to his group.

Fred Fiedler is the developer of first contingency model of leadership. This model of leadership proposes that a group’s best performances can only be achieved if the match between the style of the leader and follower is compatible because the degree of situation never remains the same but it is the behavioral interaction between the leader and the groups which make it possible to be achieved, therefore, to attain the best performance of a group it is primarily be evaluated that the compatibility between the style and interaction of the leader and group is in consonance or not. In this model it is proposed to be checked that whether a certain leadership style is effective in different situations because situation vary from time to time. This model highlight the leader member relations with the groups, task structure and position power of the leader because these all factors are interrelated to each other because sometimes the style of the leader does not properly match due to the structure of the task and sometimes because of the relations between the leader and group the style vary and does not match in such way necessary for the effective performance.

5.2 Leader Participation Model

This model stress upon the leadership behavior and participation of leadership in decision making in different situations. According to this model the behavior of the leadership must adjust to reflect the task degree. This model was developed by the Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton. In simple words, this model emphasis on the behavior of the leadership should be flexible which could be adjust to reflect the task structure. This model was got changed in early 1970s because research remained continue to find out the effective leadership style. A leadership should keep in mind the decision making contingencies while he is determining that what leadership style would be most effective in current situation. Team competence, leader’s expertise, group expertise, group support, decision significance, importance of commitment and likelihood of commitment are the contingencies of decision making.

5.3 Path-Goal Model

Path-Goal Model is developed by Robert House. This model clearly highlight the duty of the leader that it is the duty of the leader to assist his group in attaining the goals and give them proper direction as well as make it possible to provide them the support needed in attaining their goals and to ensure them that their goals are absolutely compatible with the organizational goals and objectives. This is a comprehensive model developed by the Robert House because it deals with the responsibilities and duties of a leader. The basic duty of a leader is to provide assistance to his group and make them able to attain their goals which are indeed compatible to the goals of organization.

Through this model Robert House divided the behavior of the leaders in four categories such as:

Directive Leaders: Such leaders who directs the followers that what is to be done, when to be done, and how they can accomplish the task so given.

Supportive Leader: Supportive leader facilitate their groups for effective performance and remained friendly with them so to build their confidence which directly improve the performance of the followers.

Participative Leader: A leader who participate in decision making and before making any decision consult with his followers and consider their suggestion in all respect if possible to consider.

Achievement-Oriented Leader: A leader who believe in best performance all the time from his followers because such leader set the challenges and communicate the group member promptly and remained supportive and participative all the time.

According to Fred Fiedler the leader should not change his style and should remained strict but on the other hand Robert House propose that the behavior of a leader should be flexible and should be molded in accordance with the situation and this is the symbol of effective leadership because a effective leader always handle the situations not personal ego. That’s why the Path-

Goal Model is a comprehensive model which can be applicable to all sorts of organizations, enterprises, sub-divisions and projects because leadership remained committed with the organizational goals which are compatible to the goals of the followers.

Advise on the Succession of Sir Alex Ferguson

After observing the history of the Manchester United and the previous leader Matt Busby who guided the club since 1949 and retired in 1969 and proved him to be an effective and energetic leader of the club but after his retirement the club remained unfortunate because no manager of the club after him brought back the years of excellence and glory except Sir Alex Ferguson. But when we study the historical background of Sir Alex Ferguson then it is concluded that how difficult Sir Alex Ferguson achieved this position and become an aggressive and dominant leader after facing great difficulties in earlier of his life.

All the requirements and skills required to a leader for meeting the challenges in present and future have been detailed hereinabove relying on the theories and model of leadership. Therefore, on the basis of above detailed studies it is suggested to Sir Alex Ferguson that succession should possess the following abilities and skills for effective leadership:-

Should have experience of working in same situation as is in Manchester United;

Should be diligent and hard working;

Should be able to communicate the subordinates properly;

Should possess the skill to evaluate the weakness and strengths of the club if any;

Should possess the ability to motivate the sub-ordinates properly and get their best performance;

Should possess the ability to build confidence of the followers;

Should possess the ability to understand club’s needs and goals;

Should possess the skill and ability to work under pressure;

Should have good attitude towards the groups or followers;

Should be able to understand the demands and needs of the groups and followers;

Should be able to make right decision in different situations;

Should be eligible to overcome the crucial and uncertain situations;

Should possess good moral values;

Should be supportive and participative towards followers or groups;

Finally it is suggested that as Sir Alex Ferguson is available in the club till the next season and also know very well the abilities and skills of the sub-ordinates therefore, being a revolutionary and successful leader of the club, he is the person who can choose the succession of the Manchester United because he possess a very long and health experience of working effective leadership and being an effective leader he is the one who knows very well that which one would be the succession of him and what things are to be understand to the succession and now Sir Alex Ferguson has almost one season and it is sufficient time for him to get choose his succession and do the training of him if required and make him able in his presence to face the gravity of work and this would be most fruitful for Sir Alex and his succession because if under the supervision of Sir Alex his succession perform excellent then Sir Alex could believe him that he would perform good in his absence. Therefore, in my suggestion Sir Alex Ferguson should choose his succession in his presence because where the club is now is due to him therefore, he should have the right to choose his succession with his own will but keeping in view goals and destinations of the Manchester United.