Introduction
This paper is based on the topic of leadership. It explores the topic by looking at various leadership styles and how they relate to each other. It starts with a discussion of the trait leadership approach followed by a comparison of trait leadership with contingency and participative styles of leadership.
What follows is a discussion of servant leadership, which is the most appropriate for organisations faced with disruptive changes. It is argued that servant leadership has the ability of uniting all members of organisations around a common goal and as a result, it becomes easy to implement organisational change.
Servant leadership also enables organisations to have a cohesive organisational culture where loyalty and commitment to organisational goals are the guiding principles for moving organisations forward.
The paper cites various authors who have written about the concept of leadership. It also uses theoretical frameworks to support the arguments.
Trait Approach of Leadership
Wart and Suino defined leadership as the ability of a person to influence other people to do things which they may not do without the influence (Wart & Suino 2012). People with this ability are referred to as leaders and are found in different settings and contexts.
In organisational context, leaders are responsible for planning, coordinating, and controlling organisational functions and activities towards attainment of organisational goals and objectives.
Leadership forms the basis of success or failure of organisations because nothing can be accomplished with failed leadership and bad management. Employees in organisations need an effective leader to influence and marshal their efforts towards the achievement of a common goal. Being a leader means more than being a team leader.
It involves getting things done and doing them well. It is a show of positive attitude and involves various aspects like influencing followers, commitment of individuals to goals, aiding group cohesion, and spearheading change in organisations.
Leaders learn and adapt leadership styles which they feel may deal with diverse personalities and evolving situations. Some leaders have a combination of positive traits and attributes as their basis of leadership (Wart & Suino 2012).
In a book titled “The leadership experience”, Daft explained trait leadership as having to do with leaders acting upon leadership traits which they are born with (Daft 2008).
The leadership style does not embrace the idea that leadership can be learned or acquired from experience but rather perceives leadership as a quality which people are born with.
Trait leadership style therefore leads to realisation of excellent results because the leaders have leadership qualities at birth and are able to lead even without any formal training (Daft 2008).
Trait leadership may inspire employees to become creative because trait oriented leaders are not mechanistic in their leadership but they understand the importance of allowing employees to micromanage their activities at the workplace so as to achieve their targets.
When employees are given the permission to micromanage their work, they develop positive attitude towards work which makes them to work hard and attain good results. They are also able to change the rules governing their work and try new ways of doing things.
By so doing, they are able to discover new approaches to their work. If for example employees who work as marketing agents are allowed to micromanage their work, they can recommend new types of products which they think are the best for customers (Gill 2011).
Under the trait leadership approach, employees are able to focus on the end result and come up with their own ways of meeting the set targets and deadlines without failure.
Since all organisational activities are undertaken in a timely manner, organisations are able to implement their projects with a high degree of success which leads to increased productivity.
At the same time, employees like imitating the trait oriented leaders and as a result, they are ever focused on their role in their organisations which increases efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity (Northouse 2010).
However, trait leadership style has the potential of resulting to conflict of ideas in the workplace because trait oriented leaders may sometimes exhibit dictatorial traits which may create conflict due to their failure to consult other leaders or employees when making some important organisational decisions.
The tendency of trait oriented leaders to believe that they know it all may sometimes work against them and lead to resistance to organisational change (Pearce & Robinson 2011).
Trait Leadership and Participative Leadership
Various scholars have attempted to compare and contrast trait and participative styles of leadership. According to Mark Esposito of the Grenoble Graduate School of Business, one similarity between trait and participative leadership styles is that in both, the leaders have a great influence on their followers (Esposito 2009).
The leaders are capable of directly inspiring employees to become motivated and focused on realisation of good results. Through the influence of the leaders, employees become agents of change in their organisations (Esposito 2009).
In both styles, the leaders are capable of initiating, implementing, and managing organisational change.
Their ability to inspire employees makes it easy for them to implement change with little or no resistance because the employees consider themselves as part and parcel of their organisations and for this reason; they always put the interest of their organisations before their personal interests (Esposito 2009).
On his side, Gill viewed both participative and trait oriented leaders as having an exceptional ability to create and sustain a cohesive organisational culture. A cohesive organisational culture is one in which all members of organisations have similar beliefs and values which bring them together.
In organisations with a cohesive organisational culture, the organisational structure does not matter but what matters is the commitment of employees to organisational beliefs and values (Gill 2011).
Just like participative leadership style, trait leadership leads to establishment of teams which work together. These teams give themselves a social identity which bonds them together.
This social identity and bonding leads to cooperation of the team members in all aspects of their work which brings forth a multiplicity of ideas about how to undertake the tasks and as a result, creativity and innovation are enhanced (Gill 2011).
The two styles also lead to increased productivity because employees are committed to the success of their organisations and to them; motivation comes as a result of organisational success not individual success. Employees therefore volunteer their ideas to organisations.
These ideas are combined and transformed into new ways of doing things in a more efficient and effective manner (Gill 2011).
The difference of the two styles is that with participative leadership, the leaders may not be highly knowledgeable but can use their skills to create a cohesive organisational culture. With trait leadership, the leaders are knowledgeable and possess high technical know-how especially in research and development.
The knowledge and technical know-how by the trait oriented leaders when combined with other charismatic attributes directly provokes employees’ thinking on how to improve the functions, processes, and procedures of their organisations (Gill 2011).
Trait Leadership and Contingency Leadership
With contingency leadership style, leaders adopt different leadership styles at different times. The nature of work done and level of skills of employees makes the leaders adopt this style. The leaders link their effectiveness to the prevailing environment. The similarity with the trait approach is that in both, success is based on teamwork.
Employees are also highly motivated because the leaders focus on creating a culture of self motivation rather than supervision.
The difference of the two styles is that with contingency leadership style, the leaders change their style of leadership depending on the situation while with trait leadership style; the leaders do not change their style but they always try to involve employees in decision making (Esposito 2009).
How Trait, Participative and Contingency Approaches Blend Together
Research in the field of leadership has shown that organisations may reap more benefits by blending various styles of leadership. In a book titled “Exploring leadership: individual, organisational, and societal perspectives”, Bolden, Hawkins & Gosling argued that the blending of different leadership styles can lead to effective leadership.
For instance, blending trait leadership principles with participative leadership may enhance employees’ leadership capabilities. Trait leadership principles when blended with transformational, transactional, and situational leadership styles may improve interpersonal skills of leaders.
Furthermore, the styles can be blended to create a highly motivated workforce that can contribute positively towards the achievement of organisational goals (Bolden, Hawkins & Gosling 2011).
Trait leadership in particular may enable participative oriented leaders to have charisma which enables them to inspire the team members to realise good results. Contingency leadership style may enable participative leaders to change their leadership style depending on the situation and become more efficient and effective.
Participative leadership may inspire teamwork because the style is about making everybody in organisations to participate in the process of moving the organisations forward (Bolden, Hawkins & Gosling 2011).
The participation is not only about the performance of duties but also about making decisions which affect the work being done.
Since everybody is actively involved in organisational activities, the “big boss” syndrome is eliminated and replaced with a culture in which all members of organisations feel as part of a big team with a clear mission and vision to achieve.
Employees also view each other as members of one family and for this reason; they do not hesitate to share their thoughts, ideas, challenges, and strengths with fellow employees (Bolden, Hawkins & Gosling 2011).
The contingency approach may inspire a change of leadership depending on the situation because the style is based on the philosophy that organisations are unique and therefore, there is no general approach to leadership.
The approach enables leaders to be flexible in their leadership and as a result, they are able to treat each situation differently which leads to enhanced success of activities undertaken by employees.
The ability of the leaders to be flexible in their leadership style means that they are result oriented and not bound by procedures, rules or regulations but are free to change tact with the overall objective of meeting the set targets.
Flexibility in leadership leads to increased efficiency and effectiveness making organisations to increase their productivity (Bolden, Hawkins & Gosling 2011).
Servant Leadership
Servant Leadership is the most appropriate approach for organisations which are affected by disruptive change. The reason is that it has the ability to stabilise organisations during the implementation of organisational change.
According to Robert Greenleaf and Larry Spears, servant leadership involves a leadership derived from the passion to serve rather than to lead. With this definition, serving precedes leading (Greenleaf & Larry 1998).
On his part, Larry Spears defined servant leadership in terms of four elements namely power sharing in decision making, a holistic approach to work, service to others, and cultivation of a sense of community (Bass & Bass 2008).
This definition portrays servant leaders as participative leaders who do not keep things to themselves but apply efforts to reach others when making important decisions.
According to John Schermerhorn, servant leadership is based on commitment to serve others and the passion to help others realise, develop, and use their talents for the benefit of their organisations and the society at large (Bass & Bass 2008).
In a book titled “management”, Schermerhorn defined management as the art of getting things done through people (Schermerhorn 2010). Many organisations have policies, procedures, and guidelines that govern the decision making process.
Managers must understand how to get people do what they are supposed to do and know what exactly gets done, the results to be achieved, and how best the results can be achieved in an efficient manner (Schermerhorn 2010).
Management involves making decisions such as hiring and firing, adopting new market strategies, and developing new human resource policies. A manager therefore should be a person who exercises authority and leadership over other people.
In organisations, people are seen as a resource that is relatively flexible and easy to control for organisational gain. Human resource management therefore centres on articulating the needs and aspirations of workers and meeting their needs, giving them challenges, and helping them to move towards self actualisation (Schermerhorn 2010).
For managers to effectively get employees do the right thing at the right time and in the right manner, Schermerhorn argued that they must be appealing to them. It should not be a matter of commanding employees on what to do or simply giving out instructions in form of job descriptions.
If managers wish to meet their organisational objectives effectively and efficiently, they must be ready to serve their employees so that the employees can serve the organisations. Managers must understand that employees are social beings who have social, psychological, and emotional needs.
They must also understand that employees not only work for financial gains but also for satisfaction. In this regard, servant leadership can help managers bond with their employees and view the tasks as a collective responsibility not as segmentation of jobs for various individuals.
In other words, the managers must learn how to manage or lead from the front (Schermerhorn 2010).
Servant Leadership and Change Management
According to DelHousaye & Robert, one of the defining characteristics of servant leadership is the ability of servant leaders to listen to their followers. What is more valuable to the servant leaders is listening not talking to others.
They pay close attention to what their followers have to say and think how their followers can be assisted to realise their full potential at the workplace. Listening enables the leaders to bond with their followers. The bonding enhances teamwork in organisations (DelHousaye & Robert 2004).
After listening to employees, servant leaders imagine themselves in the positions of the employees and by so doing; they are able to accurately understand the issues affecting the employees and what can be done to solve them (Sipe & Frick 2009).
Garrett argued that servant leaders are fully aware of their strengths, weaknesses, biases, feelings and values. This awareness enables them to serve their followers effectively. The leaders capitalise on their strengths to bring everybody on board in decision making.
They are also able to work on their weaknesses and biases so that the weaknesses and biases do not compromise their ability to serve their followers (Garrett 2010).
Servant leadership is also about the leaders having a foresight. The foresight enables them to understand the past, present and future of their organisations (Garrett 2010). Servant leaders are able to persuade and appeal to their followers. The ability to persuade and appeal to the followers makes the leaders very influential.
The ability to influence followers is very crucial especially in the implementation of organisational change. Through the influence, the leaders are able to convince their followers to accept the change and therefore, organisational change is implemented with little or no resistance from employees (Aitken & Higgs 2009).
Servant leaders also have high degrees of commitment to the growth and development of employees and organisations. They are ever focused on the enhancement of employees’ skills and development of their organisations.
Servant leaders are also committed to the establishment of communities of people in organisations. The communities promote cohesiveness and a unity of purpose in organisations (Kaplan & Norton 2008).
Under the servant leadership philosophy, all members of organisations are involved in identifying organisational goals and development procedures for reaching those goals.The role of servant leaders is to facilitate the attainment of organisational goals.
In organisations with servant leadership, employees are able to give their suggestions freely and are involved in decision making. Morale, capacity, and relationship between the leaders and employees are greatly improved.
Servant leadership enhances teamwork and employees’ performance thus creating a productive work environment. It also creates an enabling environment for employees to maximise their skills and potentials (Neuschel 2005).
As mentioned above, servant leaders have a great influence on their followers. The leaders are capable of directly inspiring employees to become motivated and focused on realisation of organisational mission and vision. The influence of the servant leaders turns employees into ambassadors of change.
Servant oriented leaders have an exceptional ability to create and sustain a cohesive organisational culture. A cohesive organisational culture is one in which all members of organisations hold similar beliefs and values which bring them together.
The cohesive organisational culture makes all employees have a sense of belonging to their organisations. When change is implemented, employees do not perceive it as a threat to them because they believe that the change is for the benefit of the organisations which they are proud to be associated with (Fischer, Ury & Patton 2012).
Servant leadership leads to establishment of teams which work together.These teams give themselves a social identity which holds them together.
The social identity leads to cooperation of the team members in all aspects which brings forth a multiplicity of ideas about how to undertake various tasks thus leading to innovation in organisations. Teamwork enables employees to dedicate their efforts in serving their organisations.
Due to the commitment, they are ready to embrace organisational change (Trompenaars & Ed 2009). Servant leadership leads to increased productivity since employees are dedicated to the success of their organisations.
The dedication also enables employees to withstand the waves of organisational change and as a result, organisational change is implemented without any friction. Consequently, organisations are able to navigate successfully through the change process.
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