The Anatomy of Leadership: A Conceptual Analytical Approach
Leadership Demystified
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
ABSTRACT Leadership has been in existence ever since humans started forming groups to complete any given task including hunting. Leadership is the prescription to almost all public problems. It is a silver bullet organizations need to address their problems. There are five key leadership approaches, namely: transformational, situational, laissez faire, transactional and charismatic leadership strategies. Each leadership approach has traits and tenets that the leader displays. For example, a transactional leader uses reward and punishment to achieve goal. This leadership approach is common among managers and dictators. Charismatic leaders are naturally gifted and they use charisma and natural charm to attract and retain followers. Examples of charismatic leaders include politicians and celebrities. Situational leaders emerge during turmoil or challenging environment, such as: the emergence of the former Mayor of New York, Giuliani as a world leader after terrorists struck on the twin tower in New York, USA on 9/11 and the emergence of Nelson Mandela from the prison as the South African first black president. We also have transformational leadership strategy. Transformational leaders are those leaders who develop future leaders. They are role models and have visions. They share some tenets with charismatic leaders. Some of the tenets of transformational leaders include inspirationally motivating, individual considerations, charisma, empowerment, and intellectually stimulating. Some examples of transformational leaders include Reverend Martin Luther King of the US, mother Theresa of India, and Gandhi of India. The key argument on leadership has been whether leaders are born or trained. This has been coined the nature and nurture arguments on leadership. While studies have shown that leaders are trained, no study has excluded the nature side of leadership. Research has shown that almost every organizational problem can be traced back to challenges in leadership. Studies also show that a leader who performed well in one organization may not necessarily perform well in another and vise versa. Similarly, studies also show that a well liked leader does not give better quality instructions than a leader who is not well liked or who is disliked by his followers. Leadership must be made to harmonize situations in order for the leadership to be successful. The results of this analysis could help guide supervisors, organizations, and other entities to improve their performances using their most valuable asset {their people} and it provides the rationale for the importance of good leadership in an organization. It also provides a basis for additional research on leadership.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
ABOUT THIS BOOK This book analyzed the various leadership strategies. It is grouped in three key components, namely: breadth, depth and the application components. The breadth component explored and analyzed the theories of leadership from various theorists, such as: Fiedler (1967), Sanford (1949), Reuters (1967) and Stogdill (1957), (1960). The depth component provided a comprehensive analysis of current literature and research studies on leadership. Over fifty-five current literature and research studies on leadership were reviewed, analyzed, compared and contrasted. As the name may suggest, in the application component the concepts of leadership identified in both the breadth and depth components were applied to solve a known public problem. The suicide epidemic among the Inuit of Nunavut was used to demonstrate how the learning from the theories, literature and research studies on leadership could be used to solve a public problem. The author applied the leadership tenets identified in the various leadership strategies, namely: charismatic, transformational, situational, and transactional leadership approaches for the exposition. The book emphasized on the importance of leadership and how leadership creates social change. This is a good book for managers, supervisors, leaders from various backgrounds, research scholars, teachers and anyone who wants to add values to create social change. It is a strategic book for decision makers.
About the Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Camilius Egeni is a senior public administrator with proven success in both public policy and financial management. He holds a PhD in Public Policy and Administration, MBA in Executive and Strategic Business Management, and a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting. Dr. Egeni has held various management positions within the public sector. He was a police officer prior to accepting the various non-law enforcement positions, the job which has helped to shape his understanding of human behavior and which has continued to influence his thought provoking and writings on sociopolitical, socioenvironmental, and socioeconomic issues. He was the Manager, Internal Audit with the Department of Finance and later became the Director, Corporate Services with the Department of Environment, Government of Nunavut. Presently, Dr. Egeni is the Director, Expenditure Management with the Government of Nunavut. He has completed various other research studies including studies on employee motivation, suicide, privatization, and training program evaluation. He is the author of Suicide ‘Eminaq’ The Socio-Economic and Environmental Effects on Public Behavior: The Case of Inuit Suicide. Dr. Egeni is working on his next book on Employee Motivation.