Leadership and Performance at the Workplace

Leadership Theories

A leader is someone that people follow; they are responsible for providing guidance and direction to others such as supervisors and managers at the workplace.  There is more to leadership than just providing direction and guidance, leadership “involves influencing the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and feelings of other people” (Spector, 2012).  While conducting an assessment of Woody’s Veneer Factory leadership roles I have uncovered that there are many leaders in different areas of the factory, however there does not seem to be a good quality of leadership which is a major contributing factor to the hostility and inappropriate behavior that is being conducted by employees.

 Leadership theories were developed to “provide a foundation for analyzing and predicting the complex nature of leadership behavior” (Williams, Ricciardi, & Blackbourn, 2006).   As a consultant for Woody’s Veneer Factory I examined two leadership theories to help implement guidelines for their supervisors and managers to understand the effectiveness of leadership and workplace performance.  There are a few different theories used to classify leadership such as, trait, behavior, and attribution, contingency, situational and transformational, however other approaches have been developed that “relate to variables that influence leadership effectiveness, including categories about leader, follower, and situational characteristics” (Williams, Ricciardi,  & Blackbourn, 2006).

The morale at Woody’s Veneer is very low and the employees are very unhappy with the treatment that they receive from their supervisors so they are purposely sabotaging material that has a direct effect on the organizations revenue.  The morale of the organization starts at the top and the trait theory can help identify those individual’s that possess characteristics of effective leadership.  Applying the trait theory can evaluate current and future employees in supervisory and management positions to make sure that are equipped with the knowledge and skills to not only guide and direct employees but to be effective as well in helping achieve the organization’s goals.  The trait theory has help to identify which supervisors possess the qualities of effective leadership and with formal training on enhancing management skills they can begin to apply those characteristics in their position.

The path-goal theory can work in unison with the trait theory because if an individual possess the characteristics of effective leadership then they will be able to motivate employees to achieve the goals established by the organization.  The path-goal theory suggests that the supervisors identified from the trait theory can improve the employee’s motivation by simplifying the paths that are needed to achieve the organizations goal and remove obstacles that affect their performance.  The “us” versus “them” behavior has to be eliminated and employees should be recognized for their performance and treated with respect, effective communication such as monthly meetings to give employees a chance to provide feedback on their working environment that will also allow upper management to address issues and concerns.

References

Nolan, S. (2010). Leadership. Strategic HR Review, 9(4), H,H2-H3.

Spector, P. E. (2012). Industrial and organizational psychology (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Williams, F., Ricciardi, D., & Blackbourn, R. (2006). Leadership, theories of. Encyclopedia of educational leadership and administration. doi:10.4135/9781412939584.n