3.2 INSTITUTIONAL LEADERSHIP
3.2.1 What is leadership?
Leadership is an everyday phenomenon that one experiences in daily living, in social groups, schools, religious organisations, businesses and public agencies. It is also evident on the international scene, in state and national government, and in local communities. Leadership makes the difference, and it can be good or better, or best;
and in some circumstances, it can also be bad or worse or worst (as, for example, in a bankrupt organisation). Leadership has been built into the human consciousness by one’s parents since birth, owing to the long period of nurturing which is necessary for
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continued human existence (Bass, 2008). In early childhood, mothers and fathers or surrogates became the leaders. Over the years, with socialisation, peers and other prominent people gradually took or shared the place of parental leadership. During adulthood, one’s thinking and behaving as followers and leaders is still likely to be influenced by genetic makeup as well as by earlier relations with one’s parents. From these perspectives, the role of parenting in human development can be noted as the universal and world’s oldest vocation in the nature of leadership (Bass, 2008).
Leadership is also exercised in many species of animals such as elephants, lions, gorillas, and in insects such as bees or even ants.
Human beings have great natural potential, but to attain desired outcomes, their potential needs to be realised, and a leader plays an important role in utilising the inherent potential of human beings. A leader is anybody who leads and guides their followers; in this process, the leader aspires to influence the behaviour of others in a desired direction. Leadership is the process of influencing the behaviour of others with the motive to attain certain desired results (Armstrong, 2012). To lead people is to inspire, guide and influence people to achieve intended results. Even if an organisation has all the monetary resources to excel, it may fail miserably if the leadership does not inspire followers to achieve their tasks successfully. Followers are crucial for the existence and successful accomplishment of leaders (Yukl, 2013). Therefore, the role of followers deserves due consideration in the process of leadership.
According to Yukl (2013), leaders influence their followers either directly or indirectly.
A direct form of leadership involves influencing followers during face-to-face interaction with them or by using communication media (for example, memos, email letters, presenting televised speeches, during group meetings), whereas an indirect form of leadership involves influencing lower-level followers or employees who do not interact directly with the leader. The influence can entail changes in followers’ beliefs, behaviours, attitudes, or values. For example, a chief executive officer who demonstrates exemplary ethical behaviour and a supportive personality may influence comparable behaviour by the lower-level followers in the organisation.
35 3.2.2 Definition of leadership
Leadership has been defined in terms of behaviours, influences, role relationships, occupation of a position, and interaction patterns. Different concepts and definitions of leadership have been offered in numerous publications, discussions and essays. After decades of disagreement, leadership scholars concur on the difficulty of finding a common definition for leadership (Northouse, 2016). The notion of leadership remains enigmatic and elusive (Meindl, Ehrlich & Dukerich, 1985).
In the literature, there are several definitions of leadership which vary from scholar to scholar. According to Armstrong (2012), leadership is defined as the capacity to inspire others to carry out a given task eagerly in a different way. It is the process of influencing the working environment of people to perform their best in order to accomplish a required result or goal (Stogdill, 1950). Bennis and Nanus (1985) define leadership as the capacity to convert plans into actuality and sustain it. Leadership is an intensive activity with a shared aim and given norms and rules that guide how to behave and perform a given task successfully (Kooskora & Isok, 2014). Leadership can be considered as an art because it focuses more on invention rather than analysis, and the main task of a leader is to get results (Grint, 2000; Goleman, 2000). It is the process of influencing the activities of a group or followers in their effort towards the achievement of a given common goal (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2017). For Gallagher (2001), leadership is setting strategic directions based on opportunities and inspiring people’s abilities to build up organisational values and purposes. Leadership is a process of exerting intentional social influence by one person or group over other people or groups to structure and shape the relationships and activities in an organisation or group (Yukl, 2002).
Influence, goal, and group are the three elements that are common to many definitions of leadership (Bryman, 1996). Leadership is considered as the single most significant factor in the failure or success of organisations (Bass, 2008). Leadership may be considered solely as a passionate device used to explain why a nation, organisation, community or group has been successful. Leadership, for Northouse (2016), is a process in which an individual influences a follower to attain a common goal. The process emphasises that leadership is an interactive two-way process between a follower and a leader. In other words, a leader affects followers and is also affected by
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the followers. Leadership influences a group of individuals who have a common objective. The group can be large, encompassing an entire organisation, or it can be a small task group or a community group. In the first decade of the 21st century, the leader is considered as the most accountable and responsible person for the organisation’s activities (Bass, 2008). Leadership in an organisation is determined by the social structure within which it occurs and by the organisation’s legitimate principles and cultural norms.
Most of these definitions reflect the assumption that leadership is a process whereby an individual exerts influence over followers to guide and facilitate relational activities in a group to achieve an organisational goal or goals. Leadership has also been defined in terms of traits, behaviours, interaction patterns, influence, and role relationships (Yukl, 2002). It is a dynamic process whereby one individual influences the other group members in a particular organisational context and in a particular period of time to commit themselves freely to the attainment of group tasks or goals (Cole, 2002). This definition by Cole comprises various features of leadership: it is influenced by the changing environment of the task, the individual members, and the group itself. This implies that there is no single best way of leading; leaders need to be able to use a variety of behaviours to execute and retain their role successfully. To lead is to influence, steer and inspire; therefore, leadership is the process of motivating followers and gaining their engagement to perform their best in order to attain an anticipated result or goal. Leadership can be considered as the engine of an organisation in guiding followers to achieve the targeted goals by applying appropriate leadership styles or approaches.