Leadership and Culture
Leadership and Culture
Virginia Armstrong
University of Hawaii: West Oahu
Abstract
Effective leadership requires a delicate utilization of power and authority. Although they possess unique attitudes, traits and styles, successful leaders strive to promote their organization’s vision and culture and motivate others to embrace it as well. Studies have attempted to define one superior leadership model but have failed due to individual and circumstantial elements.
Keywords: leadership, corporate culture, power, authority
Chapter Overview
Leadership is the ability to influence others to follow direction and support decisions. Though leadership and management often coincide, leadership is more focused on the long-term visions of the organization and how to motivate and encourage the implementation of these visions. The success of leaders depends largely on their own attitudes, expectations, traits and leadership style they embrace. Whether a manager’s leadership style is autocratic, laissez-faire or democratic, the emphasis they place on production and people bears the most importance. Studies conducted by Ohio State and University of Michigan have proven that successful leaders show concern, initiate structure, participate and maintain a general (rather than close) level of supervision. In a situational setting, the contingency approach is the most effective. The Managerial Grid is a graphical tool for managers to identify their management style and set goals towards improvement.
“Corporate Culture: Harmonize, Don’t Homogenize”
In this article, Kuenne (2011) emphasizes the importance of attaining a strong corporate culture by unifying individuals and their talents as well as instilling a cooperative initiative on all levels to achieve one goal or vision. Kuenne (2011) calls his approach the infinity loop designed “to create a harmonized culture with the emphasis on being complementary, rather than
Virginia Armstrong
University of Hawaii: West Oahu
Abstract
Effective leadership requires a delicate utilization of power and authority. Although they possess unique attitudes, traits and styles, successful leaders strive to promote their organization’s vision and culture and motivate others to embrace it as well. Studies have attempted to define one superior leadership model but have failed due to individual and circumstantial elements.
Keywords: leadership, corporate culture, power, authority
Chapter Overview
Leadership is the ability to influence others to follow direction and support decisions. Though leadership and management often coincide, leadership is more focused on the long-term visions of the organization and how to motivate and encourage the implementation of these visions. The success of leaders depends largely on their own attitudes, expectations, traits and leadership style they embrace. Whether a manager’s leadership style is autocratic, laissez-faire or democratic, the emphasis they place on production and people bears the most importance. Studies conducted by Ohio State and University of Michigan have proven that successful leaders show concern, initiate structure, participate and maintain a general (rather than close) level of supervision. In a situational setting, the contingency approach is the most effective. The Managerial Grid is a graphical tool for managers to identify their management style and set goals towards improvement.
“Corporate Culture: Harmonize, Don’t Homogenize”
In this article, Kuenne (2011) emphasizes the importance of attaining a strong corporate culture by unifying individuals and their talents as well as instilling a cooperative initiative on all levels to achieve one goal or vision. Kuenne (2011) calls his approach the infinity loop designed “to create a harmonized culture with the emphasis on being complementary, rather than