The Nature Of Leadership Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The record Of Leadership - Case Study ExampleSuch a situation arises from the complex nature of leadership. The nevertheless common thread that can be found is that the nature of leadership involves an influencing process and the consequences of this influencing process (Antonakis, Cianciola & Sternberg, 2004). It is for this fence the leadership definition that works for me is focussed on the influential nature of leadership and its implications. Daft and alley 2008, p.4, define leadership as an capture relationship among leaders and pursuit who intend real changes and outcomes that conjecture their sh bed purposes. Expanding on the limit enchant is a key reason for my choice of this definition. The nature of influence here is that it is not passive except active, and it is multidirectional, and without the element of coercion. Furthermore, the influence is not merely from leaders to followers, but is reciprocal in that thither are times when the influence flows from foll owers to leaders. Moving on to some other key ingredient in this definition of the intention for real changes, it implies that leadership does not accept a status quo situation, but aims for creating change. This striving for change is based on the shared purposes of the leaders and followers and not on the desires of the leaders. In real terms this means that the created change is towards a desired future land or purpose (Daft & Lane, 2008). This definition also brings us to the important aspect of leadership in that it cannot be present in the absence of followers and that followers are an essential to leadership (Maxwell, 1993). 2. Without followers there are no leaders. What is known slightly followers? The first thought that comes to mind when we talk about followers is sheep following the shepherd, implying that followers merely follow a leader. This is not essentially true, for there are many in the flock of followers that assist the leader in the influence of leadership, and demonstrate capabilities to turn over leaders in the future (Yukl, 2006). This perception of followers indicates that followers are made up of various types of individuals. Followers may be classified into five types of followers. The first type we may take as the sheep and they look up to the leader for directing them in all that they do. The second type of followers consists of those that victuals saying yes all the time to the leader, or accept leadership influence without any outward take of opposition and devout their energies towards accomplishing the direction of the leadership influence. The third class of followers consist of individuals that we may term as alienated. These individuals are capable of independent thought and action. The problem here is that they also possess a lot of negative energy that works to the detriment of the stem, as the leadership influence is unable to limit to them and they make no positive contribution to the shared purpose of the grou p, rather they work against it. Leadership influence that can remove the negative energy from these followers can convert them to extremely useful members of the group and the leader. The next class of followers are the fence sitters or those that we may term as pragmatists. These followers refrain from accepting the influence of leaders, till such time they are sure that the trend is flourishing and then jump on the bandwagon, in the manner that trees sway in the direction of the wind. It is not that they choose any opposing views or are capable of contributing positively towards the shared purposes. Self-preservation is of primary importance, and thence the wait and see attitude on the impact of the change influence that emanates from the leader. The final classification of followers may be viewed as star followers. They possess the same vibrancy as the