LEADERSHIP

Leadership can be defined as the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly
toward achievement of group goals. Leadership is an act of managing (Koontz and O’Donnel, 1976). A
leader is expected to guide the others that follow him, in other words, the followers look forward to the
leader for decision making. Katz and Kahu (1996) says that leadership is providing “the influential increment
over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organization”. Leadership is also
seen as how effectively one motivates ones subordinates in performing their jobs. It also provides
confidence to the followers as the leader act as a protector and make the followers to work with zeal and
confidence, and their morale will be high. In this sense, the function of leadership can be expressed as
inducing or persuading all subordinates or followers to contribute to their maximum ability willingly. It
leads to high quality, high productive production or service.

Leadership is a very old concept. It arised from the days of human beings learned to live in groups
and perceived the need for a single person as coordinator / leader. Many a time, decisions may be made
collectively but the final decision for implementing will be with the leader.

The leadership has taken authoritative, autocratic and dictatorial stance as the societies become more
and more feudal in nature. In some societies, it has gone to the extent of intolerance with anybody who
utilizes and lead to adopt absolute powers. Even in today’s society in India we find the traces of this feudal
leadership. With education and knowledge the societies are gaining, they have to more towards democratic
leadership from dictatorship or autocracy.

Characteristics of a Leader

Leader, essentially, has the following characteristics :

1. Ability to inspire – He / she inspires others to act towards a goal and to contribute their maximum
efforts in achieving the goal. At times, he / she prepares them for sacrifices.

2. Ability to understand the people, A leader generally possesses the ability to understand the people,
i.e., their desires, strengths, weaknesses and their behavioural patterns. With this ability, leader uses
the appropriate strategies to motivate the people.

3. Ability to act – Leader should take appropriate actions to divert the people towards a common goal.
He / she becomes a role model and provides a specific action plan to the people.
4. Ability to express – This is an important characteristic of a leader. His / her comprehension and
understanding of the situation is expressed to the people such that they understand it well and
thereby get inspired and motivated to act.

A person in a leaders position or wishing to be a leader has to gain the confidence of the people that
he / she can lead them towards common goals. He / she should develop himself / herself to understand the
situations and aspirations of his followers. He / she should be able to coordinate the people of differing
interests / opinions, often conflicting and be able to take all of them together towards the goal.

Fiedler (1965) expressed that three “critical dimensions” affect the leader’s style. They are

(i) Position power – this is the power one acquires by occupying a particular position, say, General
Manager. Each such position carries with it some authority and people, expecting some favours that
he / she can deliver with that authority because his / her followers. Without that power, he / she may
or may not become a leader.

(ii) Task structure – Leader’s job become more easy when the task structure, i.e., tasks to be performed,
persons to perform that task, time and duration to perform the task, etc., is clearly defined and
spelled out. This clarity leads to accountability and responsibility and leader can easily identify the
erring individuals and can take appropriate corrective measures.

(iii) Leader – member relations - This is the most important dimension as the other two are organization
oriented. The position or acceptance of the leader depends upon his / her relationship with the members of
the group which he / she leads, and the confidence he / she gains. If the relationship is one of antagonistic, he
/ she may not be able to motivate them and may not be able to make them perform well though he / she has
the position power. Unless the trust is developed, people may not follow him / her.

Therefore, Fiedler (1965) concludes that the nature and style of the most effective leadership depend
upon the situation and the major situational variables are the leader’s personality, the nature of leader –
member relations, the task and the organizational climate of the enterprise.

Style of Leadership

The generic styles of leadership are identified as :

(i) Dictatorial
(ii) Autocratic

(iii) Benevolent autocratic

(iv) Democratic, and

(v) Laissen faire or free rein

Dictatorial leadership seeks absolute power and uses force to make the people work. All the feudal
systems are examples of this. All the decisions are taken by the leader or his / her henchmen and force the
people to follow. This type of leadership does not recognize any rights to the people. People follow him / her
to avoid the sufferings, which other wise are forced upon. It is found that the people do not accept such a
leader for a long time and replace him by revolt.

Autocratic leader, though does not assume super power, takes all the decisions by himself / herself
and does not consider the opinions of others. He / she assumes the authority the position gives and
commands compliance by others. He / she tries to have complete hold and give rewards and punishment.

Benevolent autocratic leader listens to the views of others but makes final decision by himself. He /
she is autocratic in nature but exhibits more kindness, concern to the followers. It is observed that the people
of India re still looking for benevolent autocratic leaders than for democratic leaders.

A democratic leader is one, also known as participative leader, who consults and gathers opinion
from followers or subordinates for decision making. Some of them takes decisions but before implementing
takes the opinions of the subordinates, where as some of them take decisions after consulting them. The
major difference between autocratic and democratic leader is that the autocratic leader puts his own opinions
into decisions though he consults others, whereas the democratic leader puts group opinion as decision.
Therefore, the democratic leadership is the ideal leadership.

The last category of leader is knows “laissez faire” or “free rein” and means free for all. This type of
leader allows his followers or subordinates to take their own decisions with least intervention. The leader
here limits himself to provide the subordinates the information and resources they require and as a contact
member. This type of situation harms the organization in the long run as different persons set different goals
for themselves leading to conflicts and chaos.

However, it is observed that the democratic leadership is most desirable, but the other two, the
autocratic and the laissez faire, may be used selectively depending on the situation and type of activity.