Relating Politics to Leading an Organization
Introduction President Barrack Obama, the present highest governing personnel in America had sweep of the votes of the supporters of former President George W. Bush and even the colleagues of the latter. The goals of Barck Obama had been a great factor in the decision making process of the American population. His new and innovative plans for his people is one sure tactic of getting a “YES” from a voter, even he is the first Black-American candidate in the US presidency elections.
Obviously, there is a racial discrimination that is seen all throughout the world that could make it impossible for Obama to win. But this event introduced a new experience to the Americans; having a new style of leadership for their betterment. In this paper, leadership skills will be evaluated on how they are affecting the leaders and the followers or the subordinates. In analyzing for the situation of President Barack Obama, some may conclude that old styles of leadership tend to make the subordinates be tired and saturated of the occurrences in the company, body or corporation.
“A leader is a good follower…” Though the quotation above seems to be a passe, many people still believe in the power of leadership through the ability or the capability of a person to follow instructions and orders assigned by others. Nowadays, many people are trying to look for differences in the leadership abilities of their managers and supervisors. In the recent article of Dr. Kennedy, she mentioned that workers today are in favor of leaders who can promise them a new way of dealing with others.
Not the manager style who tends to direct employees of a number of things but a leader who will in turn be with them as they go through the process of learning the procedures and principles of the job. In Dr. Kennedy’s point of view, a leader in this time should not stick to the old style of leading people; directing and directing people to do this and that. She cited a number of information that will help readers determine if they would be able to be good leaders if they followed the principles. One of her ways of winning the heart of the subordinates is by practicing modesty and consideration upon the period of becoming a leader.
Many cases of incineration of employees are caused buy being arrogant to bosses. If leaders would show modesty even if they are being hypocrite to themselves, it will ensure them of a good working relationship with the employees thus resulting to good output. Young workers, as she stated are looking for managers and leaders who can be with them in their works. If the worker sees a leader with a personality of being an authoritative leader, it is very difficult for them to follow such command or delegation since they are not giving the leader enough respect to be followed.
In analyzing for this, there are 3 kinds of leadership that can be seen in an organizational set-up. According from the article, authoritative or autocratic leadership is the type in which a leader only designates and discusses things to be done in the company with the expected outcomes and some practical ways of achieving it; discussion and assignment of task, then that’s it. The second type of leader is the democratic or the participative one who encourages subordinates for maximum participation and sharing of knowledge.
This type of leader considers advices from the subordinates thus most of the time involves him/her in the activities to b e done by the employees. The last type of leadership is the free reign or the delegation style after which involves the freedom for an employee to decide on some problems in the company, thus giving the leader the right to blame others if plans and execution fail. A combination of 3 is still the best way to become an effective leader overcoming personal biases and unnecessary relationship to the employees.
The evaluation of Dr. Kennedy is appropriate to most of the leader-follower set-up in the world; however for the US Air Forces part, it may not be appropriate for them for they are thought to be tough and have eliminated their biases upon passing the training of becoming a full-pledged Navy. People in the military position should have firm characters and have minimal interaction and fellowship to normal people to avoid clinging to an authority because of friendship or good working relationship. Being political in organizations
The term political means participating in exchanging of viewpoints, presenting a number of arguments and resolving conflicts using facts and bit of information presented. In the organizations nowadays, this term can already be applied. Say, for a college organization, politics can also be present since the organization is a collection of people that have different backgrounds and viewpoints. Leading an organization is also the same as leading politics, having the head or the president and other positions that are usually taken by deserving people.
“Members of a corporation are at one and the same time cooperators in a common enterprise and rivals for the material and intangible rewards of successful competition with each other. ” — (Farrell and Peterson, 1982) In the references provided for this paper, leadership in an organization is related to political concepts. Organization must be handled through systematic approach and mentoring in order to provide the subordinates beneficial activities and tasks.
References Kennedy, Marilyn. 2000. The new rules of leadership and organizational politics In the Trenches. Retrieved 13 March 2009 from http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0843/is_1_24/ai_102286818 Leadership styles. Retrieved 13 March 2009 from http://www. geocities. com/Athens/Forum/1650/htmlpolitc01. html Ratzburg, Wilf H. 2002. Defining Organizational Politics. Retrieved 12 March 2009 from http://www. nwlink. com/~donclark/leader/leadstl. html
Sample Essay of Custom-Writing