Leadership Theories
Applying Leadership Theories
For long, organizational culture has been considered as trendy and transient, and this has gone beyond a passing phase. The right culture fosters productivity, levels of innovation, as well as engagement. This culture is embalmed on the values, strategies, vision, and mission of the organization. Culture further sets the tone for relationships between the organization and other people. This points to leadership since effective leadership influences organizational culture (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
The required change in General Motors is a change of culture from a competition to a culture of consistency, a culture of inspiration (Cummings & Worley, 2014). The leadership is required to draft specific values and patterns of behaviour that the rest of the organization is supposed to follow. The result of this consistent employee performance is great results whose results are pegged on flexibility and agility of members. By this, members will be brought together to give honest feedback by identifying challenges and opportunities at the same time.
The directive, transformational, servant, participative, and authoritative leadership represent the various forms of leadership. Directive leadership will introduce a culture of consistency, and there is a great likelihood of employees buying into the characteristics of the organization. Transformational leadership is expected to bring an inspirational aspect by inspiring employees to reflect on their own personal values as well as goals. A purpose of ensuring employees work for a bigger picture than that of themselves is thus created. Servant leadership will bring in a culture of inclusion by leaders creating visionary goals and direction of strategy, and therefore the employees will work towards achieving these objectives. Participative leadership is required for the innovation aspect by sharing information to make a complete change of system. Finally, authoritative leadership will bring a culture of compliance, but the method is not recommended for it is viewed as dictatorial. The transformational leadership approach would be the most ideal for this organization (Odumeru & Ogbonna, 2013). Through this, employees have the opportunity to identify challenges and opportunities together with their goals and aspirations. Leaders then align these goals with those of the organization and surge forward.
Transformational leadership has a direct influence on the critical attitudes and presumptions of the organization’s members towards creation of a solid and collective mentality in attaining the firm’s goals. It is in this leadership that the required higher accomplishment and transactional leadership will be generated through the exertion of influence on the employees. This kind of leadership is expected to promote a positive and supportive climate of a transformative agenda towards prudent use and multiplication of resources. It will build participation by bringing in a face to face discussion to complement paper reports, and this will help determine what works and what does not for the organization (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Through transformational leadership, it will help the organization of General motors to execute the laid down strategies towards achieving the vision of becoming the most popular organization. This will happen by linking the soul and the body of the organization to all organs to ensure efficacy. The approach is centred on treating stakeholders ethically in the journey of achieving these set targets. It is through that that morally effective results are realized and aligned with the stated goals and bases the practices of stakeholder management on these values. These include: remaining fair, striving for justice, respect for peoples’ dignity and honoring the environment (Odumeru & Ogbonna, 2013).
References
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
Odumeru, J. A., & Ogbonna, I. G. (2013). Transformational vs transactional leadership theories: Evidence in literature. International Review of Management and Business Research, 2(2), 355.