Free Sample Essay on Leadership

Background
The
leader in question is an enthusiastic individual who supports the efforts of individuals in the organization. He is the team leader of the operations department in the organization. His role involves continuous interactions with his followers and clients of the organization. His work involves verification of operations and works flow processes at all levels of the department. In addition, performance appraisals are his responsibility in the operations department of the organization. Furthermore, the possibility of achieving organizational goals at his level is fundamental to his position.

This individual is open to discussions and suggestions from team members concerning the department, as well as how to make it better. He is friendly, open minded, and responsible in the context of business affairs. He ensures that there are weekly meetings in the operations department that highlight issues, views, and progress. The team leader reports to the line manager of the operations department in the region. His key responsibility is to manage operations in the department at all times. The team leader has a master’s degree in operations management, and this helps him in the achievement of his daily duties.

Followers and situation: brief description/analysis of the followers and the situational context.  
The followers of this leader are individuals in the workforce who follow his command. The followers are processors and supervisors. The processors are the people who start the chain of operations in the department. The supervisors countercheck the work of the processors to ensure relevancy. The supervisors look for any errors and make corrections where necessary. The supervisors then pass the last details to the team leader for verification. The team leader analyses the work done by the followers and agrees or disagrees. Agreement to followers work or duties happens when the team leader is completely satisfied that the work done is up to standard. In a situation where the product is not good, the team leader would ask the followers to repeat the actions. This enhances quality of operations and maintains the performance of the organization.

The work situation for the followers helps them achieve organizational goals. The followers work in teams depending on the work area assigned to them. The followers should have a supervisor in the team who helps them in the verification process. This happens before the work moves to the next level. The followers should have necessary skills and knowledge to perform as expected. The followers are requires to participate in social responsibility actions which reflects in their performance plan. The team leader has made it easy to achieve departmental goals through proper guidelines and procedures. The working hours of employees depend on the daily workload, and not working hours.

Contextual and Operational Leadership: discuss an example that demonstrates the leader’s behavior/style in addressing a contextual leadership dimension; discuss an example that demonstrates the leader’s operational initiative within the organization.  

The present workforce consists of people from a wide multiplicity of backgrounds, ethnicity ages, culture, education, and experience. Leadership is frequently faced with a speedily changing business environment. A solitary leadership style cannot be effective with all individuals in the organization (Miner, 2005). The finest leadership style is the approach that proves effective. The team leader in question works with employees from diverse backgrounds, ethnicity ages, culture, education, and experience. His leadership style tries to fit into context given this situation.
However, an operational leader understands how the individual essentials of an entity relate, and work to generate the larger conclusion. When such leaders contemplate about issues, their center of attention is the systems and processes that are necessary for success (Lipman, 2005). These leaders have a key task of ensuring that things get ready in an efficient and effective approach. They are grand at creating guidelines, instructions, and policies to ensure that processes happen in the right way. The team leader in question looks at the followers in the context of the achievements that befall the organization. He comes up with guidelines from time to time for the sake of performance and continuity in the organization.

Motivational approach: discuss (with support) the leader’s approach to motivation. 
The team leader in question believes that motivation helps individuals in the achievement of organizational goals. He motivates followers by rewarding them for good work done from time to time. In addition, he ensures that the work environment is safe, and conducive for operations at all times. He tries his best to negotiate promotions and pay increases for his followers. This helps in motivating employees to work towards achieving organizational goals.

Furthermore, the team leader ensures that followers receive tasks that they have the maturity and ability to perform. This means that the team works on the job that they are comfortable with at all times. He forwards names of best performers among his team to the regional office for reward and recognition every quarter.

Theories/models: relate (with support) the leader’s behavior to theories/models addressed in class; address the appropriateness of the theories/models given the followers and the situation.  
The team leader in question displays the theory known as the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Theory. This theory says that a leadership approach should be based on the maturity of the followers. According to this theory, maturity is in relation to a given task in the organization (Jung & Chow, 2008). First, there is psychological maturity, which means that followers should have confidence, readiness, and ability to take responsibilities assigned to them. Secondly, there is job maturity, which means, that they should indicate technical knowledge and skills relevant for the job. The team leader encourages confidence at work by the followers at all times. He is keen on training programs that help in the acquisition of technical knowledge and skills for the followers.

In addition, the team leader indicates the Path Goal Theory of leadership in his daily routines. House and Evans recommend that the leader the satisfaction, motivation, and performance of a team can be affected (Zaccaro & Banks, 2001). A leader can offer rewards when followers achieve the performance goals of the organization. Furthermore, the paths that would lead to the goal achievement must be clear to the followers. This will help followers work keenly towards the achievement of such goals (Smith & Foti, 1998). Followers should be at ease in their work place to help them achieve performance goals. The leader should remove obstacles that may hinder the performance of employees. The team leader in this context rewards followers for their achievements form time to time. They ensure that obstacles do not hinder the progress of followers at all times. This means that the path goal theory speaks of the actions of the team leader.

Social Responsibility / Ethics: how does this leader consider the impact of decisions on all constituents and how are the short range and long range organizational impacts balanced with these outcomes. Discuss any ethical dilemma the leader may have faced and how it was handled.  
The team leader is keen on issues of social responsibility (Bennis, 1975). The organization ensures that it keeps the environment around the organization clean. They plant trees and flowers during community events, and activities. The organization involves itself in responsible actions like supporting orphans from time to time. The support offered to orphans includes food, shelter, clothing, and school fees. The team leader is an advent member of these social events and encourages all members to join. Furthermore, the team leader has inculcated social responsibility to be part of the performance evaluation process. This makes employees keen on such actions towards the community around them. In the short run the organization is socially responsible and in the long range the world knows that the organization is responsible; this results to a rise in organizational profits.

An example is when a pipe passing oil to the plants of the organization started leaking into the nearby river. This resulted in pollution and loss of recreation site for many locals. The team leader was briefed about this and he immediately did repairs to stop the leakage. The river is now clean and recreation activities take place as usual.

Analysis: discuss areas where you agree and disagree with the leader’s approach in addressing the followers and the situation. What approach you would take regarding the followers and the situation. 
I believe that the team leader has achieved some good results from his leadership approach. The issue of motivation is relevant to performance, and it is clear in this organization. In addition, social responsibility aspects boost the name of the organization in the eyes of the public. The idea of contextual and operational leadership is brilliant in the context of the team leader. I agree with the leaders’ ability to positively impact the society around the organization. However, I disagree with the issue of working hours that are not defined in this organization. Fredrick Taylor of the scientific management theory speaks of working individuals like machines. This may be the situation in this organization, and should be resolved. Consequently, the issue of reward is tricky in this organization, and can lead to conflict. The measures of reward are not clear, and some members might feel that their efforts are not necessary.

Concerning the followers, I would be specific about working hours and reward procedures. I would encourage all round individuals whose interest is not just on organizational performance. Their personal growth should receive emphasis just like the Abraham Maslow hierarchy. This will lead to satisfied employees or followers in the operations department.

Lessons learned: what did you learn about leadership from this leader’s example?
Leadership is relevant for the success of organizations. This example indicates that successful leaders are all rounded individuals who analyze situations carefully. This means that a leader should provide guidance to followers in the right direction. Leaders must not impose their views on followers, but should allow them to express their views. An open door policy of management would facilitate this in any organization. Further, leaders have the ability to affect the society through their actions (Stogdill, 1948).

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