The Analysis Of Leadership Theories Management Essay

This journal is related to the analysis of Leadership Theories. In this paper, there are four theories that will be discusses, there are the leader-member exchange theory (LMX), path-goal theory, transactional-transformational theory, and the full-range leadership theory (FRLT). Before we started to discuss the analysis of Leadership Theories, the writer felt that is often difficult to separate leadership theories and models. He also informed that the reason of this study of “theory” and “model” will be used interchangeable except there is a very clear difference between them.

Firstly, the journal is discussed about the leader-member exchange theory. Leader-Member Exchange Theory, also called LMX or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory, describes how leaders in groups maintain their position through a series of tacit exchange agreements with their members. A leader’s approach is addressed by the theories to the business environment and the follower’s perception of a leader’s performance. The direct relationship between a leader and a follower and theoretical context for their interactions is the dyadic relationship. So that, there are 3 quality of the leader-follower interaction were determined by the LMX such as locus of control, need for power, and self esteem. A size of how a person know his control over his life and environment is locus of control. A person feels a sense of control over his life and activities is called has a high internal locus of control. These type of person also are positive correlate with job satisfaction. The need of power is that employees who understand that need by asking for feedback on performance, compete more visibility jobs and leadership opportunities at their work and career. Another is the self esteem, employees have a sense of their value to the company which typically manifests as more job satisfaction and more emotional resilience.

Besides that, the path-goal theory of leadership was developed to describe the way that leaders encourage and support their followers in achieving the goals they have been set by making the path that they should take clear and easy. Path-goal theory describe a leader’s activity in leading followers within the context of the organization’s environment in a highly structured environment followers do not need a good deal of guidance to perform their works. Unless in an unstructured environment they may need more.

Another is the core of the transactional-transformational theory revolves around the alignment of personal and organizational goals, which the theory states benefits both the leader and the follower. The transactional-transformational theory is composed of four transformational components, the four I’s such as idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and inspirational motivation and three transactional components such as contingent reward, passive management by exception and active management by exception.

Lastly is the full range leadership theory (FRLT). An extension of transformational leadership theory to nine dimensions of leader behavior is called FRLT. The emotional part of leadership is isolated by idealized influence and is a view of the follower’s emotional engagement with the leader. According to the writer, the full range leadership theory is also closely associated with the multifactor leadership questionnaire.

From this journal, the measure of the success of a theory is based on a number of reasons, that is all the theories are considered in a business environment where success is linked to measurable business criteria. Success has many meaning, but at here will mean that there is a good fit between the leader’s behavior and the theory. The writer specially remember this does not necessarily mean that a theories’ success implies a leader’s success because some of the measures will be negatively related to leader performance.

Each of the theories under consideration has explained modes of leader behavior, considered both the leader’s effect on followers and the interaction between leader and follower. An leader-member exchange scale assesses the degree to which leaders and followers have mutual respect for one another’s capabilities, feel a deepening sense of mutual trust and have a strong sense of obligation to one another. Another way to analysis is the dimensions of measurement for LMX are focused on the follower and his/her job satisfaction and feeling of control.

Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. A transformational leader focuses on “transforming” others to help each other, to look out for each other, to be encouraging and harmonious, and to look out for the organization as a whole. With this leadership, the leader enhances the motivation, morale and performance of his followers through a variety of mechanisms. These include connecting the follower’s sense of identity and self to the mission and the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers that inspires them; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can align followers with tasks that optimizes their performance. An example, Sagie and Koslowski (1994) state that employees involved in tactical decision making, participation in decision making, feel more empowered and involve in the company in future pay and assignment. A person who is practicing active management by expection is called a transactional leader who can use a path-goal and leader-member exchange. The factor for this is the outcome, the transactional leader sees as the total output of the exchange and the transformational leader sees as a stage in the growth of the follower. An action to motive follower, the transactional leader appeals to both the follower’s intellect and emotions. He will use the best approach at his disposal to move followers forward in achieving his vision.

In addition, a leader a full toolkit of capabilities to control his relationship with subordinates is given by the full-range leadership theory. According to this journal, the full range leadership theory can explain most leadership activity simply and leadership-member exchange theory directly addresses the varying relationship between leaders and their subordinates in a context. But since this happens at a higher level, leadership-member exchange does not address the dissemination of vision. Besides, the ability of a leader to direct the activities of subordinates had been addressed by the path-goal theory.

Bases on these, the writer feel that transactional-transformational theory is more complete than the prior two theories. The reason of his feeling is it includes their activities, by implication, and expands on the basis for leader actions. Otherwise, this leader also retains the ability to function in a transactional mode in more stable situations. The superior to transactional-transformational theory is full range leadership theory which is an attempt to complete them with the addition of components. Humphreys (2001) found that transformational leaders were more likely to grasp the implication of technology adoption than transactional leaders.

Leaders can grow in many ways like educational environments, extending their knowledge of leadership and the world around them. A leader can temper his decisions with wisdom although some would contend that philosophy is useless. Leadership theories are a relatively recent phenomena that have been advanced by the sudden interest in historical leaders and the desire to identify the characteristics and behaviors that these leaders exhibited.  By understanding the characteristics of the leader, their successes and failures, as well as the political and work environment they faced, the modern day worker can hope to replicate this success. All lie in a multi-dimensional continuum were considered by the leadership theories that considers the emotional, intellectual, physical, and value structure of leaders and followers.

Charismatic leadership is leadership based on the leader’s ability to communicate and behave in ways that reach followers on a basic, emotional way, to inspire and motivate. It’s difficult to identify the characteristics that make a leader “charismatic”, but they certainly include the ability to communicate on a very powerful emotional level, and probably include some personality traits. Developing “charisma” is difficult, if not impossible for many people, but luckily charismatic leadership is not essential to be an effective leader. Many other characteristics are involved in leading effectively, and there is significant evidence to indicate that it simply is not necessary to have this elusive charisma to lead others well.

Finally, the writer’s conclusion is between these four theories it appears that none of them are counterproductive. He felt that a leader can pursue them in a balanced manner and expect reasonable results. So the full range leadership theory is the most complete of the theories. The reason is it includes too more activities.