Introduction
The changing face of organizational management has seen increasing attempts to analyze individuals within an organization and how they go about their duties. The ultimate goal of is to create an understanding of how an individual relates with his/her workmates. Its increasing incorporation into organizational management is attributed to the need for managers to effectively understand the employees entrusted to them and the way they interact within their departments and the organization in general (Kwantes & Boglarsky, 2005). Usually organization doesn’t use such information for mere statistical purposes but rather to effectively maximize production and efficiency through assigning employees to places best fit for them. This has the ultimate effect of ensuring the organizational goals are achieved in whole (Chong, 2010). Team work is pivotal in enhancing organizational renaissance and transformation. Perceptions of effective leadership are influenced by a number of factors. Leadership effectiveness perceptions are shaped by a number of factors as discussed.
Organizational culture, organizational climate and HR Practices, influencing leadership effectiveness
Leadership comes with power. It has often been stated that power is intoxicating especially in such instances where it lacks self control. Modern day organizations have been keen on the usage of power resented to leaders. The question of organizational culture has therefore hit the platforms both in the corporate and political world. Dale, 1997 states that leadership responsibility brings along ethical responsibility. Every leader has morally binding responsibility that must fit within the institutions culture as he/she wields the power bestowed upon him. Charbonneau (2004) reinforces this statement with his assertion that leadership, power, institutional culture and social responsibility/ethics are inseparable concepts that go hand in hand. Analysis of leadership can therefore be summarized as including the culture of the firm, change effort leadership, prevailing networks of power and ethical obligations attached to the position (Kimberley & Shelley, 2004).
The culture of an organization is a result of beliefs, values and norms of behavior, which guide employee behaviors within the organization. The se aspects give meaning to how effective leadership is. Leaders have an obligation to ensure that the culture of an organization is upheld by all the stakeholders (Ensari & Murphy, 2003). It is fundamental to note that an effective leadership begins by showing a leading example to other employees (Amabile et al., 2004). Within organizational cultures, meanings of organizational experiences need to be derived from the organizations norms and rules as well as the organization structures formality. This ensures a unified and harmonized meaning is derived by all employees (Awamleh & Gardner, 1999). Generally, the culture of an organization, principles that guide human resource management and the prevailing climate determines the effectiveness of a particular leadership.
Employee Attitudes affective Leadership effectiveness
The attitudes of the employees are critical to Leadership effectiveness. Managers have often been subject to employee sabotage and other frustrating acts aimed at undermining their leadership (John & Bernard, 2007). The attitudes of the employees are a creation of the relationship between them and the leadership. The employee attitudes are determined by their personality traits which support leadership. Good employees offer adequate support to leadership and end up creating an effective leadership (Robert & Jaepil, 2001). Traits associated with supportive employee attitudes include employee commitment, positive initiatives, courageous consciousness, innovation and creativity, bearing a sense of direction and having drive/intensity to work with minimal supervisions (Robert & Jaepil, 2001). It is vital to note that leaders have an obligation to imbue the predominantly desirable employee attitudes and values in order to enhance productivity within the organization.
Organizational Performance affecting Leadership effectiveness
Performance within an organization is fundamental to leadership effectiveness. Achieving desired business outcomes requires alignment of senior leadership teams to the business strategies and culture adopted by the organization (Chen, 2005). Good organization performance motivates the leadership to effectively perform its leadership role in line with the organizations performance. Additionally, the set performance standards form the measure upon which leadership evaluates their effectiveness. Competent management systems provide an avenue for development of sustainable competitive advantage with rapidly shifting organizations performance standards (Fang, 2008). Organization performance has direct influence on the work environment and hence leadership perspective.
Manager or/and Supervisor relationship influencing Leadership effectiveness
Managers and supervisors forms a larger part of an organization’s management team. The way they relate determines how effectively an organizations leadership operates (Heres, 2001). Leaders have an ethical obligation to maintain good working relationship between them for the sake of ensuring the organizations success. The loyalty and commitment between the organizations leadership often represents a positive sign of involvement with the organizations norms, in congruence to the defined organizations goals and a further willingness to put personal differences behind for purposes of the organizations success and a string desire to influence organizations success (Heres, 2001). Team work is fundamental to the operations of any individual organization and hence its success (Burke et al., 2007). Ethical obligations that guide relationships between managers and supervisors or between themselves include trust between themselves, rational decision making, professional conduct and personal integrity.
High Performance Work Systems
High performance work systems are characterized by managerial practices which facilitate employee commitment and competencies (Giessner, 2009). The organizations core practices involved alteration of job design and execution procedures to enhance flexibility of work, team participation, quality circles, and schemes for suggestion. Additionally, high performance systems guarantee that the organizations employees possess adequate and necessary knowledge/competencies to effectively administer their responsibilities under these systems (Snape & Redman, 2010). It incorporates training of employees in team working skills, inter-personal skills, appraisal and sharing of information relevant to the organizations success. Finally, such systems are characterized with a set of practices that attract and retain talented individuals through work place motivation, guarantee of job security, and employee feedback systems. Leadership recruitment priorities are given to internal employees in order to allow growth of organizational culture (Snape & Redman, 2010).
Leadership effectiveness affects job satisfaction, job motivation and employee commitment.
Organizations represent social arrangements with a systematic controlled performance in pursuit of some goals and objectives. Management of social arrangements requires commitment and understanding leadership. Job satisfaction and employee motivation are a vital component of work place environment. Leadership effectiveness determines the level of satisfaction enjoyed by employees and hence output. Satisfied and motivated employees feel happier to work eliminating sluggishness and effectiveness in their line of duty (Cable & Timothy, 2003). Leadership uses a number of techniques to motivate employee efforts which include bonuses, annual rewards, and promotion. The prospect of being rewarded for a job well done motivates employees to work even harder and in a focused manner in order to yield the desirable results. De-motivating leadership often tend to make employees lack commitment and attempt to stay by the book rules.
In addition to job satisfaction, three other distinct but related, employee attitudes are important to many employees. Job Involvement is the degree to which employees immerse themselves in their jobs, invest time and energy in them and view work as a central part of their overall lives (Somech, 2006). Organizational commitment or employee loyalty is the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wants to continue actively participating in it. Attitudes reasonably facilitate predictions of behavior. They effectively predict the intention and inclinations of employees to act in particular ways. Positive jobs attitudes help predict constructive behaviors: negative job attitudes help predict undesirable behaviors (Peterson, 2003). Employees who have low job satisfaction tend to be absent more often. Additionally, some employees steal products (Abdullah, 2009). Others use company services without any authorization. One of the most extreme consequences of employee dissatisfaction is exhibited through violence. This violence source can be include customers or strangers
Conclusion
Leadership perception often depends on the point from which it is views. While employees would view effectiveness based on how understanding the management is to their needs, stockholders are often more concerned with productive leadership (Feng Jing, 2008). It is not surprising to see a leadership where employee are in constant lamentation yet is retained given it produces reasonable returns. However, it must be acknowledge that productivity and increased returns form the fundamental goals of any organizations and must be the primary tool to gauge effective leadership. Leaders can employee a number of ways that ensure threat the employs are satisfied and well motivated while at the same time produce maximal returns. Research has proved that participatory leadership which takes into account the views of all stakeholders yields good results which favor al the stakeholders. The factors defined earlier takes into consideration the key factors considered fundamental and likely to affect performance of leadership and hence determine how effective they are or not.
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