The Concept of Leadership
Introduction: Definit
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Every company has a president, chairman of the board, or leader. For the most part, we agree that some individual needs to head our businesses and social institutions. The importance of leadership lies not just in role-play or in adhering to traditions. The leader of a company or business fulfills an expected role while at the same time communicating the values of the institution he or she represents. There is of course much more to leadership than giving lip-service to company history.Leadership is the act of communicating value standards to followers through actions. Whatever the communicated standards, followers will use these in their work. Any company or group becomes whatever those in authority cause employees to experience. For example, if bosses reflect and require high levels of knowledge, juniors will perform work commensurate with high knowledge expectations. If bosses treat juniors unfairly, juniors will adapt this standard in treating each other and customers unfairly. Thus, people in authority are suppliers of standards to followers because implied values are what followers search for in order to conform (Simonton, 1996). We all look for leadership. Often we are called on to be leaders in one group or another. Even leaders caught in difficult situations cast about for answers from some "higher" source. These higher sources are often no more difficult to find then simp
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pends on relationships and teams (Bolton, 1997).
Comparison of management and leadership is useful in understanding the connectivity between these branches of a corporation. In truth, both can learn from each other, but their missions are different. One leads the troops into battle, the other makes sure that supply lines remain clear.
Accessibility
One facet of leadership that is sought after but rarely realized is accessibility. While the leaders of multinational firms might claim that "the door is always open," the truth is usually quite different. Leadership as experienced by most CEOs usually consists of pep rally speeches, memos written to other top executives, and meetings with other high placed company officials. When does an individual working on the factory floor get the time to really address the leadership of a company? Until recently, the stereotypical answer was "almost never."
Although it is important for leadership to remain grounded by understanding what's going on in the guts of the business, corporate culture has relegated white, blue and no-collar jobs to different work areas, schedules, social climes, etc. It is just as important for a corporation that wishes to operate like a finely tuned machi
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Approximate Word count = 2955
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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