Leadership

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Its effect on management

Leadership and management are both important to an organization. Leadership power comes from personal sources, not from organizational structure. Leadership power promotes: vision, creativity, and change in an organization. Management power comes from organizational structure. Management power promotes: stability, order, and problem solving within an organization.

Leadership success focuses on the leader's personal characteristics or traits. Traits are the distinguishing personal characteristics of a leader, such as intelligence, value, and appearance. However, leadership traits alone will not make him/her a true leader. A leader must focus on the dynamics of the relationship between leaders and followers. The following summarizes the physical, social, and personal leadership characteristics that have received the greatest support from subordinates.

Autocratic vs. democratic leadership

When determining leader characteristics, we should examine autocratic and democratic leadership styles.

Autocratic leader: A leader who tends to centralize authority and relies on position power (legitimate, reward, and coercive power) to manage subordinates.

Democratic leader: A leader who delegates authority to others, encourages participation, and relies on personal power (expert and referent power) to manage subordinates.

Leadership performance

The subordinates with autocratic leadership:

* Will perform highly so long as the leader is present to supervise them.

* Will not be pleased with this style of leadership.

* Will have feelings of frequent hostility.

The subordinates with democratic leadership:

* Will perform just as highly as autocratic leaders when he/she is present.

* Will have positive feeling with this style of leadership.

* Will perform well even when the leader is absent.

Authority is often misused and misunderstood

Few things in business and industry today are more misused and misunderstood than authority. Some supervisors fail to use it when it should be used. Others try to show it when it doesn't belong to them, and some even use it to flagrantly dominate other people.

Many people do not understand that authority carries with it obligations of respect in two ways. The individuals with authority must respect the problems and needs of their subordinates. Subordinates should respect the authority of the leaders who are responsible for...