TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

Leadership Revisited: A critical analysis

eadership, especially in the organizational set-up, has been focus of interest of both academicians and practicing managers for a long time. Conventionally, leadership is a personality driven concept. Individuals are considered instrumental in bringing the difference in the lives of other people and organizations. The emerging concept of leadership, however, is that it is a culture of managing modern businesses, be it a commercial enterprise, public service institution or not-for-profit entity. Furthermore, leadership has since long been considered a sub-system of management that deals with people in the workplace. This was perhaps because of the fact that the concept of leadership was originally derived from the field of politics. Consequently, it was defined as a variant of managing or supervising subordinates per se and it became more of a status symbol to reflect position of individuals along the organizational echelons. Subjectivity and personification of the leaders became the focus of attention for most of the researchers as well as organizational managers. Ironically, all this led to coining of a new title for managers and supervisors as leaders but resulted in no synergy in the work place, for they remained narrowly confined to managing (controlling to be exact) people and their actions, respectively, which

although led to specific actions but the organizational impact was still missing. This was because of the fact that people and their actions were managed as an end in itself. For instance, the emerging performance culture in many organizations has only been effective in creating the faade. Real and sustainable benefits for the organization remain distant goals. Sub-prime mortgage tsunami in the US is a prominent example of such a scenario. Similarly, the change initiatives in Pakistani financial sector are no exception, as still the service standards are far from the expected. Likewise, the yawning non-performing financial assets of banks in general are clear evidence to this fact. Many similar scenarios abound globally. Personified leadership refers to dependence on a single person as the savior for all. This type of leadership can have many manifestations in the world of work in particular, and in the society in general. Most interesting one is Charismatic-leadership. These persons are considered to command strong followership mainly because of their personality charisma: extra ordinary [inspirational] physical personality, humility, attire, etc., besides, amongst other personified leaders extraordinary achievers who enjoy leadership status such as philanthropists,
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Leadership in Perspective

social workers, celebrities, public figures, etc. Stature-based leaders also avail of the status of leaders by default such as feudal lords and their descendents, political icons and their close aides. The stature-based leaders in particular are the ones who are known as born leaders, for they need not do much for becoming leaders. Another very significant type of personified leadership is of fabricated leaders. These are the individuals identified as potential leaders by an outsider group, which then promotes them as leaders and thereby leverages their leadership for accomplishing their specific agenda. Quite a few political leaders fall under this category. It is a common practice of established political parties around the world to continually fabricate new leaders, for this provides them perpetuity while conforming to the needs and expectations of change by the general public. Ironically, sometimes these fabricated leaders are installed by an external group as their instruments to intervene in the policies and decision making processes of another nation or organization, for gaining extraordinary advantage. Another conventional view of leadership is that it is an alternate to managing [manager]. Some, however, consider leading and managing as complimentary to each other meaning thereby that all managers are essentially leaders in one way or the other, for they lead people and manage their performances. As we look at leadership in this context it includes all sorts of personified leaderships, such as; social entrepreneurs, political icons, public administrators, business executives, and teachers, etc. We find one commonality amongst all of them: they all lead people in a particular direction. This follows that leadership is about organizing, coaching, and motivating people in almost every walk of life. In nutshell, a typical personified leader is generally single person (probably the most favored follower of his or her predecessor-leader) above the rest. It is more of a status usually associated with ones position within the organizational echelons. Ironically, personified leader either has a self-proclaimed status or the one perceived by its followers. Moreover, personified leader has more of a people mobilization role. Theoretically, personified leader influences followers for optimal productivity. But in most of the situations followers control the strings of the leader. Transformational leadership is rather an emerging concept. Here the leadership is referred to as organizational culture. It essentially focuses on organizational transformation. It follows that leadership in the emerging context is all about synergizing work groups [people], organizations, systems and the immediate environment, etc. Put it differently, leadership is about changing for better; implementing the change, and, acknowledging [celebrating] the accomplishments. Thus in comparison to the conventional perspectives, it is relatively more holistic in its scope and pragmatic in its implications. It considers leadership not as a position or personality but as an organizational culture that every individual must live by within his or her permeable domains and its implications are organization wide strategic, operational and interpersonal.

established that for a leadership, focus should shift from a singular people management to overall organizational management, which shall include strategic orientation, operational orientation and the people orientation. In other words, the leadership concept should encompass strategic, operational and people management as means to continually reforming organizations. Secondly, it is imperative that the leadership process must replace conventional management processes at all levels, which provides basis for introducing leadership as a superior work culture, where every individual demonstrates requisite leadership orientation irrespective of his or her location and status in the work organization. Thus in nutshell it advocates replacement of personified leaders with a wide spread leadership culture across the work organization. Myths and Realities Leadership is no magic it is a reality of modern management system geared to accomplishing in dynamic environments Leadership is not mundane people management it is about continually reforming the enterprise performance and people achievements to newer heights Leadership is no more a status it is a process that exists at all levels in a successful enterprise Leadership is not a choice it is the key to sustaining the present and securing the future Leadership effectiveness is no more person or position dependent it is a complex function of competencies, roles, focus and interactions across the organization Having said so, transformational leadership is a culture per se set of shared values, habits, and behaviors of employees across the organization. This leadership culture helps the organizations and the people to be creative in finding innovative solutions that help reduce response time to the changing patterns of business requirements of today; and, continually improve process efficiencies and people achievements paradigmatically. Thus, we can say, in the modern times Leadership Culture enhances the organizational ability to transform itself (and the performance of people) to newer heights. Hence it is critical for success and sustainability in todays fast improving world.

Leadership Concept Revisited

In this backdrop, the need was felt to revisit leadership from a holistic perspective. This led to the initial point of departure from leaders as a personified concept to leadership as a process concept. Having said this, it was further
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Transformational-leadership-framework provides a realistic basis in the organizational setting for a systematic analysis of leadership as a process. To begin with, this framework proposes a conceptual paradigm shift from personified-leader to the leadership-culture. Hence, it envisages a much broader implication. Precisely, it is about leading the organization in entirety. Teaming up and interacting with people, however, is but one dimension to it. Strategic and operating dimensions are equally significant too. Transformational leadership promotes a culture of do-it-right. As one can observe, it acknowledges the significance of leadership competencies as the basis. But it rejects the concept of personified leader as advocated by the conventional theorists. In simple words, leadership is more of a way of working in an organization that every individual member should essentially subscribe to instead of searching for the right person who would come and lead [turn around] the organization.

The Framework

Universal Leadership Skills

Personified leadership analysis was limiting the horizon of leadership development in organizational setup, particularly, primarily because personified leadership predominantly

Conclusion

Power-to-Lead is the foremost skill. It has a focus on individuals readiness to conduct him or herself in a leadership role and prepares the individual to face the strategic and day-to-day challenges with courage and hope. It has several dimensions, such as conviction, motivation, and moral integrity. Empowerment is the second competence in sequence. It also has focus on the individuals self-management ability. Its dimensions are: discipline, responsibility, and emotional power. Horizon is the next critical leadership competence. It has a focus on the individuals ability to see opportunities and challenges beyond the present and beyond the obvious. In other words it is an ability to understand the relationship between discrete present and cloudy future. It considers dimensions, like vision, focus, and sense of direction. Social competence is no less important. It has a focus on the individuals ability to work and interact with other people. Its dimensions include: team-player, role-model, moderator. Management competence refers to an individuals ability to control the business activity and/or process in an efficient and effective fashion. It has dimensions such as attention to details, systems thinking, and managing change.

assumes that leadership is an innate characteristic [leaders are born], sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, hence it cannot be developed institutionally. Furthermore, it considers the relationship between leaders personality and performance as that of cause and effect and totally ignores the leadership competencies and the context [transient dynamics] in which employees operate, such as vision and focus, attitude, style and skills and knowledge; and, the process, teamwork [group work], and the permeable environment, respectively. Interestingly, the transformation leadership perspective has enabled rather pragmatic analysis of leadership scope and implications, yet the personified leadership perspectives still hold reasonable grounds when considered in conjunction with other factors as well but fail to do so as a solo factor, as was considered in the initial days. Transformational leadership, in fact, does not substitute but compliments the personified leadership perspective by broadening the scope of leadership analysis. It puts leadership at the centre instead of leader [or his personality] as is the case of the former perspective. The significance of leaders personality, however, has shifted from physical to competency orientation such as; socio-moral values, integrity & honesty, behaviors and habits, and last but not the least, cognitive characteristics. It argues that organizations and groups effectiveness is a complex function of leadership culture and the work context. Hence, the chances of success can be positively altered through institutional interventions, such as; by modifying leadership culture through training and development programs and reshaping the organizational context.
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