Discussion – Effective Communication
Assume you are the manager of the department where you currently work. If you are not currently working, use a past situation or a hypothetical situation; be sure to describe it. Select two leadership theories that you believe will be most useful in managing your staff. Select different theories or different combinations of theories for each bullet points. Respond to the following bullets:
—Assess why you think these theories will be most practical or helpful.
—Evaluate how the two theories might interact with one another.
—Analyze whether you anticipate needing different leadership methods (based on your two selected theories) according to the ages, races, national origins, cultures, genders, educational backgrounds, or job types of your subordinates. Provide necessary illustrations and citations to justify your conclusions.
—Justify three best practices that emerge from your selected leadership theories (three best practices total. You do not need three best practices for each theory).
For each bullet point write a final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response.
Your posting should be the equivalent of 500–1000 words in length for each bullets points. Total of 2000 to 4000 words in APA style to the Submissions Area.
Submission Details:
Submit your response in the Discussion Area, using the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading:
Kinicki, A. (2020). Organizational behavior: A practical, problem-solving approach (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 9781260075076.
chapters:
Leadership Effectiveness
Organizational Culture, Socialization, and Mentoring
Organizational Design, Effectiveness, and Innovation
Lecture
Culture, including organizational culture, has significant influence on the attitudes and behaviors of organizational members. Culture is the basic pattern of thinking and acting that is shared by members of a group. It develops over time and includes beliefs, values, underlying assumptions, and norms.
Although often “unspoken,” such cultural ways of thinking and behaving are taught to new members through socialization pressures. For example, why do you like the foods that you like? Why do you wear the clothes that you wear? Why do you drive the cars that you drive?
Almost all of our ways of thinking are heavily influenced by the cultures of which we are a part. Look around your organization. Do members dress similarly? Do they listen to the same types of music? Do they follow the same sports teams? Do they share an in-group language of terms and phrases that others might not understand? If you look closely, you will likely see lots of similarities, even within diverse organizations.
There are many places in which we can see the culture of an organization and develop insight into its influence on organizational behavior.
Artifacts in the organization
Symbols, mottos, and creeds
Design of buildings
Reward and punishment criteria
Recruitment and promotion criteria
Stories and legends
Climate elements such as trust, scapegoating, conflict, morale, and resistance to change
Things that leaders focus on
Leader and organizational member reactions to important incidents
Organizational culture impacts much of what organizational members want, like, do, do not do, and believe to be right or wrong behavior. In other words, the “organization” influences organizational (human) behavior.
Organizational culture refers to the shared norms, values, beliefs, and assumptions held by members of the organization. The commonly held attitudes and perspectives become expressed in behaviors and other artifacts in the organization, including symbols, rituals, stories, and language. Individuals who share a culture interpret events in similar ways. The common attitudes and actions simultaneously create and reinforce culture.
Culture is ubiquitous, covering all areas of organizational life. Culture perpetuates and reproduces itself. However, a single organizational culture can possess multiple subcultures in constituent groups or sections. As new members or groups join a culture, they are socialized toward the shared components. New members can also introduce new ways of thinking and behaving that can alter the culture.
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Leadership
One of the most researched topics in organizational behavior is leadership. Leadership can be defined as “Using influence in an organizational setting or situation, producing effects that are meaningful, and having a direct impact on accomplishing challenging goals” (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2014, p. 435).
Leadership is a process that is similar to management. Both involve influence. Both usually involve working with people. Both are concerned with achieving goals. However, leadership is also different than management. The primary functions of management are planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling. In other words, management seeks to achieve goals by bringing order and consistency to an organization and its processes. In contrast, leadership seeks to produce change and movement toward achieving goals, even asking if the goals are the right ones.
Reference:
Ivancevich, J. M., Konopaske, R., & Matteson, M. T. (2014). Organizational
          behavior & management (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
           Irwin.
Northouse (2009) noted that over 100 different definitions of leadership exist in the literature. Despite the numerous definitions, he suggested several concepts are common.
Leadership is a trait: Individual has certain inherent qualities that influence how the leader leads.
Leadership is an ability: Individual has the capacity to lead, through a combination of natural and acquired abilities.
Leadership is a skill: Individual has developed a competency to accomplish a task(s) effectively.
Leadership is a behavior: Individuals are able to do key actions toward others in various situations.
Leadership is a relationship: Individual is able to communicate and collaborate in a mutual or reciprocal process with others. (pp.1-3)
Although various leadership theories may emphasize one or another of the listed concepts, the full answer to “what is leadership” may be “all of the above.”
Reference:
Northouse, P. G. (2009). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Leadership Research
Research has tried a number of approaches to determine what makes a leader. The earliest research focused on finding specific traits within individuals that made them leaders. Variables studied included intelligence, personality, physical characteristics, and supervisory abilities. Although each of these variables was shown to have some impact on employee productivity, research was not always successful in using a trait approach to predict who would be an effective leader.
The next wave of leadership research looked at the behaviors of leaders. Researchers studied leadership as a dichotomy. Either the leader was task centered, or the leader was people centered. Specific leadership behaviors included role modeling, inspiring others, challenging the status quo, and building a shared vision.
The trait and behavioral theories of leadership helped researchers to understand the dynamics of the leader and follower relationship. Unfortunately, traits and behaviors alone do not always provide good predictive power for forecasting who will be a successful leader. Theories that included an analysis of situational factors took the next step in leadership research. The situational theories propose that the leaders’ effectiveness depends upon matching the needs of the situation. Theories supporting the situational approach to leadership include:
Fiedler’s Contingency Leadership Model
Vroom-Jago Leadership Model
Path-goal Leadership Model
Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory
Leadership continues to be an important research topic. Current and emerging topics of leadership study include charismatic leadership, transactional and transformational leadership, coaching, servant leadership, authentic leadership, relational leadership, and multicultural leadership.
Transformational leadership continues to be a popular leadership theory. Transformational leadership contrasts with transactional leadership. Transactional leaders operate through contingent reward and punishment actions. The relationship between the leader and follower is a contract. If the follower does X, then the leader does Y. For example, if the employee puts in an hour of work, the employer will pay at a certain rate for that hour.
In contrast, transformational leaders build trust-based relationships with followers that generate higher levels of morality, motivation, and performance in both the leader and follower.  Instead of merely relying on the reward and punishment processes used by a transactional leader, a transformational leader operates through inspirational motivation, role modeling, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration.
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