Manager as Leader (Leadership Theories)

ACCA - F1   ACCOUNTANT  IN  BUSINESS

Manager is able to influence his fellow subordinate by supervising and leading the task. Therefore, we need to learn the traits of a good supervisor and a good leader and some theories related to leadership and supervision styles.

French and Raven identified five distinct types of power an individual can enjoy. They are coercive, reward, referent (influential), legitimate and expert power. Managers have the limited discretionary right to decide on using these powers to influence the productivity (output) of the process or task. Managers use these powers in different combination to optimize the efficiency of their decision making process. Example; a manager can exert intense pressure knowing the categorizing his subordinate under 'Theory X'.

Theories of Leadership  

Trait theory: This theory focused on the attributes that differentiate leaders with non-leaders. Conscientiousness, openness, charisma, intelligence, creativity, interpersonal skills, decision making are some of the common characters that separates leaders from non -leaders.

Situational approach: The fundamental underpinning of the situational leadership theory is that there is no single "best" style of leadership. Effective leadership is task-relevant, and the most successful leaders are those that adapt their leadership style to the maturity of the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence.

Contingency approach: This approach deals with finding the match between style of leader and situation confronted. The effectiveness of a given pattern of leader behavior is contingent upon the demands imposed by the situation.

Transformational leadership (Bennis): An example of contingency theory is Transformational leadership. Bennis argued that there is no right way to lead. According to him leader should demonstrate capacity to manage attention (vision) of group, meaning vision (communication) effectively, trust (honesty) within group and self (own strength and weakness)

Leadership to mobilize (Heifetz):  This is also an example of contingency approach of leadership. According to Heifetz leaders facilitates people to face reality and mobilize change. He believes leaders provide direction but do not have to offer definite answer and mobilize people to tackle the tough challenges for themselves. He further added leaders may simply emerge rather than being formally appointed by the organisation. This is referred as 'dispersed leadership'.

Managing Change (Kotter): Kotter identified eight steps, which leads to changes in an organisation. Increase urgency, build guiding teams, get the vision right, communication for buy-in, enable action, create short-term wins, don't let-up and make it stick.