Huczynski & Buchanan (1991) say that the concept of leadership has become very popular all over the world. It is very interesting not only for the specialists in this area but also for all the people to learn more about this concept. The lecture that we are working with gives us the opportunity to learn more about leaders and leadership.
Leadership is the social process of being a leader. A leader is considered someone who influences the other’s behavior without the necessity of threat or violence. Many of us may confuse the concept of the leader with the one of the manager. They often seem similar to each other, but in reality, these concepts are different from each other. The leaders are the ones who take the new initiatives and the commitment to changes. The managers do not create something new like the leaders do. They are limited to controlling the decision taken by the leaders. The leaders inspire and motivate. Meanwhile, the managers only control and administer. The position of leadership gives power to the ones who practice it. A leader has the reward, coercive, referent, legitimate, and expert power.
There are three main styles of leadership classified according to the quantity of discipline of their activity. They are autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire style. The first ones are the extremity of each other. Autocratic leaders impose a strong discipline and do not explain or apologize. They do not ask when they make decisions. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders make the decisions together with others and do not impose a strict discipline. The two different types of leadership generate different results. From them, we derive that the democratic style is more successful. The third style is less successful than the others because this kind of leader does not impose any discipline and does not show interest. It is logical that he will have no satisfactory results because he has a passive attitude and is not emotionally involved. The leaders have to be present and provide clear objectives and resources. They face different problems connected to the nature of the organization and the social, economic, and political environment.
A successful leader is someone who manages to deal with them. The most successful leaders are the ones who mix with each other the teamwork with the individual work and do not forget that the most important thing is to fulfill the task. Another important feature of successful leaders is to care about the people and show interest in them. The leaders should be very attentive to fulfill their function and their responsibilities correctly.
References
Huczynski, A. & Buchanan, M. (1991). Human resource management. Prentice Hall, London & New York.