Contingency leadership theories and contemporary leadership Essay

Contingency leadership theories and contemporary leadership - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the general definition of contingency theories is that it is a class of behavioral theory. More so, contingency theory is a process of trying to identify and measure the conditions under which things or circumstances are likely to occur. These behavioral theories claim that there is no perfect way of organizing a corporation and the organizational structure of the company. An organizational or leadership style that is effective in some situations may differ from other organizations. This is so because organizations are different in structure and size. Therefore, the best way of having an organized organization is contingently depending on the external and internal situation of the company. This is the case because; external environments have numerous impacts on an organization in numerous ways. Critical external factors include the size of the organization, availability, labor markets, cost of capital, competitors, strategies, governme ntal laws and policies, managerial assumptions about employees, technologies used, and other diverse situations. Traditional leadership theories elaborated on leadership as nature borne of individual and established on the impossibility to create such attributes on a grown individual as illuminated by the great man theory, whilst a contrasting theory of the behavioral implicates on the possibility of an individual to be a leader as shown through traits.... Commonly, the contingency, transformational, and transactional approaches derive the best results whenever forecasting on the capabilities of an individual (CDR Associates, 2007:7). However, changes in leadership are continuously emerging because of the dynamics in the environment and acquisition of skill. Authenticity, building of trust and relationships are the modern approaches to effective organizational leadership. The cognitive perspective approach assigns that follower’s posses shared beliefs about a leader’s behaviors and beliefs about their leaders’ behaviors and traits (Gilbert, 2003:443). This influences how the followers encode information about their leaders by targeting the quality of ideas, quantity of speech and leaders ability to open up for friendliness. This means that the leader’s behavior influences his follower’s behaviors who perceive the reflection that leadership offers. Therefore, a leader should have the capability of buil ding up healthy and ethical relationships that would interconnect the personnel to a single group targeting to deliver performances to enhance organizational performances (Gill, 2010:50). The leader should remain emphatic to employees and avoid biases that would divide the employees. In order to ensure that the company performs obligations to the fullest, the leader should bear motivational characteristics and avoid any act that would seem to induce pressure on the personnel (Collins & O'Rourke, 2009:16). Though scholars had their own perspective of leadership, the bottom line of each of them was that every organization despite the size should have an efficient and outstanding leader. This is the case because efficient managerial leadership influences