MGT Leadership and Ethics Unit 2 IP Research Paper

MGT Leadership and Ethics Unit 2 IP - Research Paper Example An effective leader exhibits a combination of both in-born traits and skills acquired through experience and biological background. â€Å"Leadership style is the combination of traits, skills and behaviours leaders use as they interact with the followers.† (Lussier and Archua, 2010) thus the individual characteristics and traits of the leader depend on two factors: Heredity and Environment. The heredity factor includes the generic composition of the leader along with his biological background. However environment includes the culture, religion, family, location and education etc. The interaction between heredity genes and the environmental forces help build up the leadership characters. The differences in the traits possessed by the leaders arise from the demographics, values, personality and aptitude. ‘Individual behaviour is determined to a great extent by internal elements such as attitudes, personality, perceptions, and ability.’ (Lewis & Goodman et al., 2007) The demographics of the leader includes his background, age and other physical attributes and whereabouts, the values are the long lasting preferences and beliefs, and personality is what makes the leader unique showcasing the different physical and psychological characteristics. Lastly the important individual characteristic is the aptitude of the leader, the natural talent of doing something both mentally and physically. ‘Executives who can effectively focus on others emerge as natural leaders regardless of organizational or social rank.’ (Goleman, 2013) This aptitude cannot be enforced on anyone however skills can be acquired through training. A leader cannot be made through training however new skills can be taught for better and effective leadership. Thus the conventional theories of leadership involve the trait and behavioural theories that focus on the traits as well as the acquired behaviour of the leader also mentioned in the above discussion. The contingency theory brings in the situation and its characteristics into the leadership equation. The test of leadership depends upon the nature of the situation and the success depends upon how well the leader manages the situation at hand. The power and influence theory that will become the main focus of this discussion, focus on the different ways the leaders use their power in order to get things done. All these believes and theories are reflected in the leadership model where the leader has to deal with the personal front involving his set of his abilities and traits, the group where he manages the organization and lastly the public involving the environment and the stakeholders of the leader’s organization. The power of the leader in an organization is vast (see Appendix). A CEO of a large organization has the power to influence the board of directors. He is the sole figure that can change the philosophy of the entire organization. The power of the CEO is to decide how much input he wants from the subordinates and how stringent or relaxed the work hierarchy should be. His expertise in the organization is supposedly more enriched as compared to other employees in the organization. It is this knowledge and official responsibility that gives the CEO the power to control. He is the one who can turn a bad situation to a positive through his influence tactics. For example, Proctor and Gamble (P&G) the consumer