The Role of Relationship Development and Management, Essay Example

Introduction

A traditional definition of leadership defines leadership as an interpersonal authority directed in the direction of the accomplishment of objectives.  The key parts of this definition are the terms authority, interpersonal and objectives. In leadership, an individual influences others to achieve an objective and directs the company in a manner that generates more cohesiveness and coherence (Bennis & Thomas, 2002).  Leaders execute this process by utilizing their leadership characteristics, such a values, beliefs, ethics, characters, skills, and knowledge.

The role of relationship development and management in effective leadership

Leadership situations can be analyzed in view of three elements; leader-member relationships; task structure; position power. Relationship development entails building capacity. A fundamental leadership role is creating a competent and motivated team by means of training and guidance. In effective leadership, three pertinent elements of the leadership relationship are applied. The leader should appreciate follower’s goals and needs. A leader is must prevail over ego-defensiveness, by circumventing imprecise perception and judgments. Lastly, effective leadership should exist in an ambiance of fairness and justice. When leaders pay attention to followers and clarify the basis of their decisions, this lays a foundation for confidence and respect (Meindl, Erlich, & Dukerich, 1985). Since leadership involves all three of these domains, namely; follower, leader, and relationships, effective leadership should address each domain singularly. This can by done by categorizing the models into; Models that focus on the leader such as trait or behavioral approaches; models that focus on the follower such as empowerment approaches; or models that focus on the relationship. Support for this assertion is provided by some recent studies of leadership within organizations. In these studies, leadership was assessed in terms of multiple domains: the leader (charisma), the follower (follower innovative role expectations; follower’s attitude toward innovation), and the dyadic leadership relationship (Basu, 1991).

References

Basu, R. (1991). An Empirical Examination of Leader-Member Exchange and Transformational Leadership as Predictors of Innovation Behavior. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department Of Management, Purdue University.

Meindl, J.R., Erlich, S.B., & Dukerich, J.M. (1985). The Romance of Leadership. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30, 78-102.

Bennis, W. G. & Thomas, R. J. (2002). Geeks & Geezers: How Era, Values, & Defining Moments Shape Leaders, Harvard Business School Press, 2002