Theory and practice of Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Theory and practice of Leadership - Essay Example pper and Lipshitz (1993) have defined leadership is a way to motivate people to perform with the help of non-coercive means while other research scholars like Alas et al. (2007) have stated that leadership depends on personal traits of a individual such as behaviour, relationship with subordinates, interaction pattern with subordinates, influencing capability, ability to motivate people to perform well, influence on culture of the organization etc. Vardiman et al. (2006) have argued that leadership is a process of influencing others to accomplish predetermined objectives rather than characteristics of individual. According to Vardiman et al. (2006) leadership is dependent on the dyadic relationship between leader and follower which is independent of the macro and micro environmental conditions. Day (2002) has defined leadership in terms of transformational leadership theory which states that individual characteristics of leaders decide the dynamics of leadership. Various research sch olars such as Johnson (2000) and Howell & Costley (2001) have stated that organizations need to develop leadership skill among employees in order to provide direction, commitment and engagement to their work effort. Morrison et al. (2003) have stated that leadership is basically the ability of individuals to understand and implement contemporary management theories to real life problems. Popper and Lipshitz (1993) have indicated that there are three pillars for successful leadership characteristics, 1- building self efficacy, 2- motivating others to perform well and 3- developing specific skills to influence the followers. Steers et al. (1996) have also stated that leaders must the ability to motivate employees in workplace. Groves (2007) has proposed that systematic effort is needed in order to develop leadership quality among individuals. Deci and. Ryan (2000) has revealed that social-contextual conditions boost psychological development and self-motivation and these two factors