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领导能力是激发团队成员的积极性和想象力的能力，也是指挥团队成员全力以赴完成目标的能力。领导力挑战可以被描述为激励人们跟随领导者的行为组合，而不是简单的服从。随着现代人力资源管理的研究和实践的发展，领导力对企业发展的重要性越来越被人们所认识。有效的领导能帮助企业做出正确的战略决策，帮助企业建立和谐的工作团队，从而有效激发员工的工作积极性。然而，关于什么样的领导力是最适合企业的，由于领导理念的出现，不同的学者给出了不同的理论，这些理论各有利弊，要了解这些理论的特点和启示。如何将它们应用到企业的具体管理实践中，是一个非常有价值的课题。本文以一个名为TANSG-R US的公司为研究对象，以领导力理论为基础，对其领导力的优劣势进行评价，以期对未来领导力的提升提出建议。
1.0 Introduction 简介
Leadership is the ability to inspire team members' enthusiasm and imagination, and the ability to command the team members to go all out to accomplish their goals (Graeff, 1997). Leadership challenge can be described as a combination of behaviors that will inspire people to follow the leader, which is not simply obeying (Bennis, 1959). With the development of modern human resource management research and practice, the importance of leadership for enterprise development is increasingly recognized (Bono, 2004). Effective leadership can help companies to make correct strategic decisions and help enterprises to build a harmonious work team, so as to effectively motivate employees’ enthusiasm at work (Organ, 1996). However, about what kind of leadership is the most suitable for enterprises, since the emergence of the concept of leadership, different scholars have given different theories, these theories have their own advantages and disadvantages, to understand the characteristics of these theories and explore how to apply them to an enterprise’s specific management practice is a very valuable subject. In this essay, a company named Tents-r-Us was took as the research object of a case study, based on the theory of leadership to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their leadership to recommend on how to improve their leadership in the future.
2.0 Literature review 文献综述
2.1 Great man theory
Great man theory argues that the characteristics of a leader are derived from physiological inheritance, and a leader can only become an effective leader with these characteristics (Barrick and Mount, 1991). In 1949, W. Henry pointed out that successful leaders should have twelve kinds of qualities: strong desire for achievements, work enthusiasm, strong ability in making decision, strong self-confidence, agile thought, aggressive heart and so on (Organ, 1996). Great man theory has the deficiencies reflected in the following areas: there is less correlation between the various characteristics, some are even contradictory, and people who are considered to have the characteristics of genius leaders do not become leaders (Organ, 1996).
2.2 Trait theory
Trait theory believes that: the characteristics and quality of leaders can be formed in leadership practice, it can also be created through training and cultivating (Atwater and Yammarino, 1993). William Jack Baumol put forward ten conditions that business leaders should have: the spirit of cooperation; decision-making ability; organizational skills; being good at authorization; being good at dealing with different situations; courage to be responsible; courage to innovate; dare to take risks; respect for others; super morality (Bono and Judge, 2004). There are some shortcomings in trait theory. Firstly, the theory ignores subordinates, and subordinates often have an important impact on the effectiveness of leadership (Atwater and Yammarino, 1993). Secondly, with the development and depth of the study, the number of traits that are regarded as leaders' characteristics is increasing, and there is a growing trend, which leads to theoretical disputes and confusion (Bono and Judge, 2004).
2.3 Behavioural approach
Behavioural approach is through study on the specific behavior of leaders in the process of leadership, and the impact of different acts on the subordinates to look for the best leadership behavior (Misumi, 1985). Behavioural approach behavior mainly classifies leadership behavior from two perspectives of concern about people and concern about production, as well as control of superior and subordinate participation (Bennis, 1959). Behavioural approach’s main drawback is the lack of consideration of the factors that affect success and failure. The relationship between leadership behavior and the effectiveness of leadership also depends on task structure, the relationship between leaders and members, leadership authority, subordinates’ leading demand and other situational factors (Bennis, 1959).
2.4 Situational Approach
Situational approach figures that there is no best form of leadership, only the most appropriate form of leadership (Avery and Ryan, 2002). It argues that a leader's style and manner of leadership should be compatible with the maturity of the subordinate staff (Graeff, 1997). When the subordinate staff matures, the leader will succeed in choosing a correct leadership style based on the maturity level of the subordinates (Avery and Ryan, 2002).
2.5 Contingency Approach
Contingency approach indicates that an organization is an open subsystem in a social system, which is affected by the environment (Houghton and Yoho, 2005). Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the best adaptability to the environment according to the situation and role of the enterprise organization in the social system to adopt corresponding organizational management measures. Only when the organizational form is properly designed, the organization's management style can meet the needs of the organization and be close to the organizational attributes, can all needs of the organization be satisfied (Rice and Kastenbaum, 1983).
3.0 Case study 案例分析
3.1 Enlightenment of great man theory for Peter Ridge’s leadership
As Tents-r-Us’ leader, Peter Ridge showed the leadership which embodied the characteristics of the great man theory. For instance, Peter Ridge maintained a hands-on presence in the day to day management of the company as well as providing strategic vision as the Managing Director; he thought that he has built the company and he would decide what happens.
His leadership style has a certain advantage reflected in the following aspects. Firstly, Peter Ridge as the founder of the enterprise, has a strong desire for success, and he works seriously, the company under his leadership has also achieved initial success, the size of the company is in the expansion, the company's operating market is also expanding. Secondly, Peter Ridge has absolute decision-making power in the company, so the company is often able to make decisions quickly, which improves the company's ability to adapt to an external competitive environment, which is one of the reasons for the company's success. Finally, in the day-to-day management of the enterprise, Peter Ridge has absolute authority, the employees have to obey his management, which not only improves the efficiency of management, but also effectively avoids the staff’s lazy behavior to reduce the cost of management.
Of course, there are some shortcomings in Peter Ridge's leadership style. Firstly, his management will make the employees feel that they are not respected, reducing the employee's sense of belonging to the enterprise and their enthusiasm at work, which may lead to the problems in the internal cooperation between the employees. For example, employees of Tents- r-Us argued about their roles within the organization. Secondly, when Tents-r-Us continues to expand in terms of organizational scale and scope of business, many of the new problems it faces may need the employees to propose solutions, but Peter Ridge's leadership approach leads that the employees are reluctant or have no chance to positively contribute their own wisdom and ability to the company.
3.2 Enlightenment of trait theory for Peter Ridge’s leadership
Peter Ridge needed outside talents to help him to solve the problems met in the development process of the enterprise, he wanted to choose one from Mhari and Susi to help him. As the leader of the enterprise, Peter Ridge can be based on the trait theory to select a person to help him with management of the enterprise. Using trait theory to select talents has the following benefits. Firstly, the trait theory allows Peter Ridge to know what qualities that a good talent should possess. Peter Ridge can select talents based on these criteria, such as the traits that Mhari has include ambitious, keen to make decisions, intelligent and competent. Susi's qualities include, she is creative, consultative, willing to take direction. Secondly, the trait theory holds that the characteristics and qualities of a leader can be formed in the practice of leadership, as well as through training and cultivation. It explains how the traits of a talented person form. In choosing a talented person, Peter Ridge needs to examine not only the existing traits of the talents, but also the talents’ future value and potential in cultivation, in order to better serve for the enterprise in the future.
Peter Ridge was based on trait theory to select the talents, which has the following weaknesses. First of all, people in different environments may show different traits, so it can't ignore the impact of environment on talents’ traits. What Mhari and Susi showed in the past in their enterprises might not the same as what they will show in Tents-r-Us. Secondly, Mhari and Susi showed a lot of good qualities, but whether these traits are needed by Tents-r-Us, the trait theory does not give Peter Ridge a clear suggestion.#p#分页标题#e#
3.3 Enlightenment of behavioral approach for Peter Ridge’s leadership
Behavioral approach can help to understand which behaviors of leaders are welcomed by employees and which behaviors are the best leadership behaviors. Peter Ridge was based on the behavioral approach to improve his own leadership, which has the following advantages. First, all, he is able to understand what behavior is needed to be improved, for example, his past authoritarian leadership behavior has not been welcomed by the employees, and the autocratic leadership behavior was a little problem in the enterprise when it was not large enough, but as the company develops, his autocratic behavior will meet many problems and it needs to be improved. Second, he can be based on behavioral approach to determine the leadership style of Mhari’s and Susi’s, so as to choose the more suitable talent, Mhari tends to have a more authoritarian leadership style, while Susi’s leadership style is more consultative, Susi prefers to listen to the opinions of the staff’s, judging from this perspective, choosing Susi is more appropriate for the enterprise.
Peter Ridge’s referring to behavioral approach to improve the leadership, which also has the following shortcomings. First of all, the success or failure of leadership depends not only on a leader’s own behavior, but also on some other factors, including task structure, the relationships between the leader and the members, the leader’s authority, the subordinates’ dominant demand, as well as other situational factors. Therefore, the success of the leadership can't just judge from the behavior of the leader. Second, only from the perspective of a leader’s behavior to improve leadership ignores the subjective initiative of employees, without the staff's positive response, just relying on improvement of the leader’s behavior is unable to effectively improve the leadership.
3.4 Enlightenment of situational approach for Peter Ridge’s leadership
Situational approach suggests that leaders' style should be commensurate with the maturity of their subordinates. Peter Ridge found that the employees were not satisfied with his past authoritarian leadership style, then he decided to adopt a more inclusive leadership style, it was a positive performance of improving his leadership. According to situational approach to improve the leadership has the following advantages. First, Tents-r-Us has an increasing scale, its organization structure, enterprise culture and competitive environment may change accordingly, the internal and external environmental changes will result in that the difficulty of its internal management and decision-making will be dramatically increased, the leader must rely on the collective or the power of the team to better cope with the challenge, and Peter Ridge’s authoritarian leadership style in the past obviously can't play the role of employee motivation, and adopting an inclusive leadership style is more suitable for the current environmental changes. Second, with the development of the enterprise, the staff is also becoming more mature, they have more mature skills and experience, and they will demand more participation in the management of the enterprise, if the leader ignores their changes and still takes the autocratic leadership style, it will cause the staff’s dissatisfaction.
Peter Ridge's improvement in leadership based on situational approach has the following disadvantages. First, a leader’s change its way of leadership, which is not just the adjustment of the leader’s individual behavior, but also the adjustment in the decision-making process, organizational structure, corporate culture, organizational communication and many other aspects, whether the leader is able to implement these supporting measures properly is a challenge for the leader's personal ability. Second, the leadership style is adjusted with the maturity of the staff, but the success of the enterprise not only relies on the employee, it also needs to adapt to the external environment, thus the leadership adjustment that the leader makes may not be very authentic.
3.5 Implications of contingency approach for Peter Ridge's leadership
Contingency approach believes that an organization is an open subsystem in a social system, it is affected by the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the best adaptability to the environment according to the situation and role of the organization in the social system to adopt corresponding organizational management measures. Peter Ridge’s past leadership is mainly task focused, with the development and expansion of the enterprise, his past leadership style should be adjusted. According to contingency approach to adjust the leadership style has the following advantages, first of all, contingency approach provides a comprehensive and overall consideration of the impact of the internal environment and the external environment on the enterprise, and based on the results of the analysis to make adjustments on the leadership, such adjustments should be authentic. Second, contingency theory is a dynamic view for the adjustment of the leadership, it helps to help Peter Ridge to make the optimal adjustment of the leadership in the dynamic environment, which is very useful for the enterprises to adapt to the changing internal and external environment.
Weaknesses of Peter Ridge’s emphasis on the contingency approach to adjust his leadership style lie in that, first of all, theoretically, the contingency approach is basically exhaustive for the adjustment and perfection of leadership, but at the level of practical operation, it has a higher demand for leadership, it requires that Peter Ridge should be keen to find meaningful changes in the internal and external environment to make the right leadership adjustment decisions, which is not an easy thing for Peter Ridge. Second, too frequent and large scale leadership adjustment may make employees feel that they do not know what course to take, thus it is very important for the leader to find a balance between leadership adjustment and the stability of the leadership, and it is also not easy.
4.0 Conclusion and recommendation 结论和建议
Peter Ridge’s past leadership style based on the great man theory in Tents-r-Us needs to be improved, the adjustment for the leadership can be carried out from the following three aspects. In the first aspect, he should refer to contingency approach to analyze how the changeable internal and external environment of the enterprise impacts the enterprise and the leadership. In the second aspect, the leader should be based on the trait theory, the behavioral approach, and the situational approach to understand the traits of the talents recruited, the leader's behavior and the employees’ levels of maturity, so as to determine what kind of leadership style and type that Tents-r-Us needs. In the third aspect, based on understanding the changeable internal and external environment and the special needs of the enterprise’s, they should develop leadership adjustment strategy, paying attention to the operability of the strategy, for instance, the leadership adjustment strategy can not be too complicated, frequent to make the employees feel that they have nothing to follow.
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