Emerging Leadership Trends And Theories Essay

The contingency theory of leadership concentrates on the efficiency of leadership in terms of organizing, leading and making decisions for an organization, and it is dependent on matching a leader’s style to the right situation. This theory was introduced by Fielder, who analyzed various leaders in different contexts, but mostly he studied on the military. The theory assumes that behavior and styles cannot be influenced or modified; it is contradictory to ‘’situational leadership† which emphasized the need for the leaders to adapt to the situation. Besides, the term ‘’situation† implies to a complex combination of leader-member relation, task structure, and position power. 1. Leader-member relation is an evaluation of leadership acceptance between the organizational hierarchies. Therefore, the relationship is high when the leader is respected and accepted by his or her juniors. 2. Task structure is an evaluation of the simplicity of the task or project and their methods used to achieve the end product. 3. Positional power is an evaluation of amount power the leader has to manipulate the productivity of the juniors. Therefore, the power is high if a great deal of power is formally attributed to the position of the leader. Transformation Leadership Theory Leadership expert James Burns introduced the transformation leadership theory. As per Bass, transformation leadership can be identified when leaders’ and followers cooperate in order to advance or change to a higher level of motivation. Therefore through the strength of their personality and vision, the leaders can inspire followers to change perceptions, expectation and motivation to work to attain a common goal. There are also four components of transformations leadership theory; 1. Intellectual stimulation arises when the leader motivates the followers to explore new ways of doing things and invent new opportunities to learn. Individual consideration that  involves encouraging and offering support to individual followers 2. Inspirational motivation arises when the leaders have a clear perspective that they can articulate to followers. 3. Idealized influence occurs when the followers emulate and internalize the leader’s ideas that they usually respect and trust as their role model. Situational Leadership Theory Situational leadership theory was developed by a professor known as Paul Hersey. The fundamental underpinning situational leadership theory is that leadership depends on each situation. Therefore, there is no single leadership style that can be considered the best. A good leader is the one who can adapt to his or her objectives and goals in accomplishing his leadership. In fact, the capacity to assume responsibility, education, experience and goal setting are the main factors that make a leader successful. Also, the maturity or ability of the followers is a critical factor as well which facilitate good leadership.