Enhanced Leadership. An Overview

Leadership has been a topic of investigation for many decades due to competitive nature of the global economy and emergent prominence of corporate governance. The literature on the topic is abundant and wide range of existing studies can seem disjointed at times. However, over the past 80 years, leadership theories have seen four key generations: trait theories, behavioural, contingency and transformational theories. It is important to note that these theories are not merely exclusive or comprehensive on their own but follows a progressive pattern (Maurik, 2001). This means that there have been elements added or included from one generation to the next that link one to the other and the root can be traced back to sixteenth century in military history, major religions and politics (Safferstone, M., 2007). This is because most significant organisations in the eighteenth and nineteenth century were ‘military’ with strong hierarchical structure. In such frameworks leadership played a major role in creating stability and maintaining the status quo. Whilst the principles used were to manage conflicts, control crisis or even convince groups to acts as desired, the values and perceptions related with management and supervision were not clearly defined (Douglas, 2010). Therefore, many intellectuals argue that the old/traditional theories related to leadership and management may not suit contemporary organisational structures. Nevertheless, most traditional principles stress on common characteristics and behaviours that a leader possesses and his unique ability to control, direct and influence followers to desired outcomes (Gibney, 2009). On that note, Burns (1978) argues that the notion of leadership formed with emphasis on leaders’ traits and personalities and these characteristics are still emphasised in contemporary organisations and cannot be overlooked.

The recent and more contemporary development of theories is mainly dominated by the ‘managerial’ theory of leadership, regarding how management practices can best be applied in achieving production. It focuses on interactive relationship between leaders and followers, and how mutual influence can lead to motivation and reaching common aims and objectives (Safferstone, M., 2007). With recent shifts in technology, generation and thinking, modern leadership emphasis is put on constant improvement in a complex and dynamic work environment. Employers ensure the comfort and satisfaction of their employees and continuously prepare themselves for dealing with change.

Table 1 – Differences between Traditional Leadership and Modern Leadership (Gibney et al, 2009)

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Followers of traditional theories believe that the effective leader needs certain characteristics such as trust, inspiration, emotional intelligence and charisma, which can be applied in different scenarios such as business organisations, education platforms or war grounds. Their belief excludes the importance of situation and focuses mainly on leader’s ability to set a vision and solve problems using his personal attributes (Sadler 1997). This proposal is a risky proposition at best due to rapid state of change and complex scenarios facing firms on daily basis. There are other loopholes identified in traditional approach of leadership. For instance, Rosener (1997) explains that qualities that were recognised in the past by researchers mostly involved male attributes and modern theories deliver more consideration to female leadership traits. However it can be argued that due to structure of organisations and that fact that men were mostly posited for top ranks, the traditional/male oriented approach is justified to some extent. However it is evident that traditional leadership on its own, as sole leadership style can be insufficient, given that leaders must follow distinctive approaches to unfamiliar challenges.

Hence as the time passed, researchers placed the emphasis on looking closer at situation dependent practice instead of focusing mainly on finding a solution to leadership by certain combination of qualities (Yukl, 1989). According to Wright (1996), leaders cannot use a same style in contrasting situations because the context will always play a major role. He further explains that effective leadership requires unique combinations in different situations. This put greater stress on situational leadership and some researchers took this path as the only effective way of leadership development while most others associated effective leaders with ‘style’ and their ability to shape or change it in different situations.

Hesay and Blanchar (1977) model of leadership identifies four key leadership styles for contrasting situations:

1. Telling (high task/low relationship behaviour)
2. Selling (high task/high relationship behaviour)
3. Participating (high relationship/low task behaviour)
4. Delegating (low relationship/low task behaviour)

The table above shows which leadership style is recommended leadership based on level maturity.

Leadership Style scenarios based on past personal observation and experience;

1. One of senior designers/head of design at ‘Lawton Communication Group’ in Southampton books an early holiday before Christmas. On her absence, another lead designer is in charge of her tasks who is familiar will all necessary procedures and responsibilities and he is excited for the upcoming challenge. Before her leave, she produces a list with full details and instructions of the upcoming tasks. It involves how the task must be carried out and also requests that nothing must be sent to clients before her approval through email.

The result: The task is done efficiently but due to lack of trust, the relationship between the two colleagues is damaged. Although the other senior designer is ‘M4’, She uses ‘S1’ style of leadership instead of S4.

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