Leadership Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Leadership Theories - Essay Example The intention of this study is a leadership as an effective tool for any person to establish the idea of an individual and apply the concept to a group of people. For the implementation process an individual needs to possess certain characteristics and qualities to motivate the others and change the behavior of the other person to accomplish the goal. Some of the greatest successes of individuals in the industry have been because of the leadership attributes they possessed and the way they used them to influence others. Thus leadership has been described as the process of social influence in which an individual uses the support and of others for the purpose of accomplishment of tasks. Apart from influencing the behavior of others, leadership plays the crucial role of integrating and utilizing available resources in the external and internal environment for the purpose of attainment of societal and organizational goals. The aim of making a behavioral analysis is to provide individuals with the awareness of his behavioral traits and styles. The awareness helps people understand why he reacts in a certain way in a particular situation and why others react in the way they do. Analysis of the various behavioral leadership styles through proposed by researchers and practitioners would help me understand my leadership traits better and the reasons how they have been accrued. The origin of the behavioral theories was primarily out of the shortcomings of trait theories which were criticized of being inconclusive and incomplete. Some of the attributes like integrity, honesty, diligence and loyalty were not measurable using trait theories and this has triggered the creation of the behavioral school of thought initiated by Douglas McGregor. The emphasis of the theories was primarily on human relationships along with performance and output (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.7). McGregor’s Theory X & Theory Y Managers McGregor’s X and Y theory is a simple and salutary reminder of the rules for managing people which are easily forgotten under the pressure of regular businesses. His theory provides some of the basic principles on which the management techniques and styles can be applied. According to his ideas, managers following the theory X generally end in poor results while the enlightened managers following theory Y end up getting better performance and results. Moreover, the enhanced performance also allows for the growth and development of individuals in the organizations (Schermerhorn, 2010, p.38). As per his views managers holding the assumptions of theory X generally believe that people working for them dislike work, lack ambitions, are resistant to change and generally prefer to be guided completely rather than to lead. His other argument is that managers following assumption Y are of the opinion that people are hard working, full of self control, accepts responsibilities, creative, imaginative and are capable to lea d themselves properly (Schermerhorn, 2010, p.38). Resulting from his experience, McGregor presented a summary of the assumptions followed by managers in