Leadership and Management Theories (BS4S16) Summative Essay Assignment PDF

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Critical evaluation of the application of leadership theories to a leader in an organizational context and management theories to a contemporary organization.

Name: Student ID: Course name & code: Tutor’s name:

Date:

22nd June 2019

Michael Afam-Adjei 74109063 Leadership and Management Theories (BS4S16-V1) Dr. Roman Puchkov

Table of Contents CHAPTER I: ...................................................................................................................................2 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Methods ................................................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Structure ................................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 2:...................................................................................................................................4 2.0 Leadership and the Classical Leadership theories ............................................................... 4 2.0.1 The “Great Man” theories. ................................................................................................ 5 2.0.2 The “Trait theory” ............................................................................................................. 6 2.0.3 The “Behavioral theories” ................................................................................................. 7 2.0.4 The “Contingencies theories” ............................................................................................ 8 2.1 Contemporary Leadership styles ........................................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Transactional Leadership Theory ...................................................................................... 9 2.1.2 Transformational Leadership theory ................................................................................. 9 2.2 Management and Management theories ............................................................................. 11 2.3 Classical Management Theories ......................................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Scientific Management Theory ......................................................................................... 12 2.3.2 Administrative Management Theory ................................................................................ 13 2.3.3 Bureaucratic Management Theory................................................................................... 14 2.4 Contempory Management Theories .................................................................................... 16 2.4.1 System theory of management .......................................................................................... 16 2.4.2 Contingency theory of management ................................................................................. 17 CHAPTER 3 ..................................................................................................................................18 3.0 History Earl P. Halliburton and his Leadership approach. ............................................... 18 3.0 Brief History of Halliburton and Management approaches. .............................................. 22 CHAPTER 4 ..................................................................................................................................25 4.0 Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 25 References ................................................................................................................................. 28

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CHAPTER I: 1.0 Introduction Honore, (2018) distinguishes Leadership and Management as working with goals and working with objectives respectively. The crux of leadership manifests in a range of environments and contexts. Different styles of leadership may be employed in different situations in contextual fields such as education, engineering, medicine etc. Management theories employed by organisations permeate into the psyche of both employer and employee and is essentially the driving force towards the overall vision of the organisation. It provides organizational structure and a hierarchy of authority that ensures the common goal of the organisation is reached. This essay attempts to critically examine the deployment of leadership and management theories in a modern organization. The essay critiques and examines different research data that focus on revolutionary leadership theories, strategies and characteristics as employed by different organizations and leaders. According to numerous research findings, both transformative management and contemporary leadership as evidenced in different modern organizations are innovative approaches for an efficient management system. While these contemporary organizations, coupled with the current leadership and management theories appear to thrive in the modern day, classical management and leadership theories still have some relevant and in many cases are regarded as the building blocks for the modern day’s contemporary approach. This essay will discuss the application of the different leadership theories as it applies to a leader in a modern organisation and also evaluate the prevalent management theories as they apply to contemporary organisations. The essay will focus on Halliburton, an Oil and Gas Energy services provider and its founder and leader Erle 2

P. Halliburton. Different leadership theories will be presented and the leadership style that best fits with the leadership styles of Erle P. Halliburton will be discussed and evaluated to determine a conclusion on what kind of leader he was. Furthermore, the different types of management approaches will also be examined and compared with those that have been used by Halliburton, the company, since its conception in 1919 and in recent times. 1.2 Methods In order to understand and critically evaluate the development of leadership and management theories, and to properly appreciate the nature of their contemporary applications as they apply to Halliburton Oil Services and its founder Erle P. Halliburton, the essay will try to highlight and examine various classical and contemporary leadership and management theories and compare the best fits to the leadership styles used by Erle P. Halliburton and the Management policies at Halliburton company . A secondary research methodology will be used to criticize and appreciate these leadership and management theories. 1.3 Structure The essay will comprise 4 chapters. The first chapter will intro duce the general scope of the work. The second chapter will discuss leadership and management theories and critique various literature on the subject, Chapter 3 will delve into the history and background of Earl P. Halliburton the Man and Halliburton Energy Services – the company, while appreciating the leadership style of Earl P. Halliburton and applications management theories to the management approaches adopted by Halliburton. The final chapter will conclude the essay. 3

CHAPTER 2: 2.0 Leadership and the Classical Leadership theories Almost all human endeavor including, organisations, religious groups, governments and even common law marriage require a great deal leadership to obtain successful result. Whereas authors like Bass & Stogdill (1990) and John Gardner (1993) agree in their definitions of leadership that leaders ultimately inspire people towards a common vision or objective, Northouse (2014) defines leadership as those aspects that inspires and influences groups, access their skills, traits and focus on building relationship and businesses. Leadership has however, never been described with a concise definition and for a couple of centuries, authors have argued whether “Leaders are Born or Made” (Stephenson, 2004). Gentry et. al (2012) for instance, offer some insight when they propounded that “born leaders are more likely to identify right people rather than developing the right ones, however made leaders are more likely to focus on the right opportunities for people that help develop them into leaders”. The concept of leadership however, varies depending on the type of leader and the “situation” from which a leader arises. It is immediately obvious that religious leaders like the Dalai Lama or the Pope have a distinct way of leading people which is markedly different from a political or corporate style of leadership. According to Shackleton (1995), the process in which an individual(leader) affects teammates or subordinates towards the achievement of task objectives or group goals is leadership. There are different categories into which a leader’s leadership process or style can be classified. It is important to note however, that there is no single best leadership style according to literature. Several decades of studies 4

and research have revealed a connection between effective leadership and growth of both organisations and individual leaders. Even though theorist and philosophers have since the 19 th century proposed several theories of leadership, the most adopted styles of leadership by some of the most successful leaders in this modern day, appear to be those classified under the contemporary theories of leadership. In the following paragraphs, I will attempt to discuss some of these leadership theories in the order in which they were proposed over the centuries. 2.0.1 The “Great Man” theories. The “Great man” theories assume that a leader has a naturally inherent capacity to lead others – that leaders are born or chosen by “divine right” and not made. Less than several decades ago, it was not a far-fetched idea that leaders were born naturally charismatic, influential, and inspiring. Philosophers like Thomas Carlyle (1841) lent credence to this fact with the 19th century notion that history could be largely explained by the impact of great men or “heroes” who, due to their natural attributes have a decisive effect on history. He states in his writing that “the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here. They were the leaders of men, these great ones; the modelers, patterns, and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do or to attain; all things we see standing accomplished in the world are properly the outer material result, the practical realization and embodiment of thoughts that dwelt in the Great Men sent into the world; the soul of the whole world’s history, it may justly be considered, were the history of these.” These “Great Man” theories often portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and

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destined to rise to leadership when needed. Such theories suggest that people cannot really learn how to become strong leaders. It's either something you are born with or born without. It is very much a nature (as opposed to nurture) approach to explaining leadership. 2.0.2 The “Trait theory” Similar in many ways to the Great Man theories, the trait leadership theory imagines that people who ultimately become leaders are born with certain qualities that allows them to excel in positions of leadership. This theory focuses on the main characteristics of “effective” past and current leaders and uses these character “traits” to predict the effectiveness of other leaders. In other words, the trait theory compares particular behaviors and personality traits shared by most successful leaders and concludes that a person who possesses similar characteristics must ergo be successful. According to Scouller (2011), trait approach of leadership identifies the physiological appearances, demography, socio-economic background, presonality, self-confidence, achivements, intelligence, social and other charactersticts that leads to emenrgence of leadership qualities. Even though it has become evidently obvious that some amount of leadership can be developed or emulated, some scholars continue to argued the fact that leadership cannot be learned or copied, and that leadership remains a unique characteristic to those individuals who are born with or possess leadership qualities, This is because, several studies have shown that most successful leaders have certain traits and core behaviours which makes them different from other individuals and more likely to succeed in leadership roles. Researchers have examined the so-called traits among existing leaders

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in the hope of revealing the defacto leadership traits but have failed to provide conclusive results. Scholars and researchers have found that the trait leadership approach is too simplistic (Northouse, 2015), as it really only focused on the effectiveness of leaders as determined by followers, employees or subordinates. “Trait leadership has low clarifying personal traits and low prediction power over the job performance of a leader” (Bryman 2013). This suggests that the trait theory does not help organisations in any major way to choose leaders who will achieve organizational goals. Moreover, the predictable nature of leader’s behavior is less effective and their traits do not necessarily effective and consistent in all situations and cases (McCleskey & Allen, 2014) 2.0.3 The “Behavioral theories” This theory suggests that some specific behaviours, can helps predict whether or not leaders will be influential. These predictions based on behavior can then be used to determine the success or failure of leadership. According to Derue et al., (2011) the behavioural theory is a re-statement of the trait theory as it fails to withstand the criticism. The trait leadership theroy has therefore led to behavioural theory of leadership. With extensive research, studies have recognised four styles of leadership behaviour: •

Concerned Tasks Oriented

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Concerned for People empowerement and development

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Directive Leadership and

•

Participative Leadership.

The behavioral theory is generally concerned with the idea that leadership qualities can be or are developed through life experience and learning. Bolden, et al., (2003) agrees 7

that people who have grown up around influential people are more likely to be as influential or leaders. 2.0.4 The “Contingencies theories” As earlier mentioned, no single theory or style of leadership is the best in every circumstance. Many effective leaders use or employ different styles of leadership in different situations. The contingencies theory of leadership proposes that “leaders should have a more cognitive ability in order to adapt and implement different leadership styles depending on the situation” (Gill, 2012). Contingency theorists have proposed that strong leadership is dependent on several different factors. Sometimes known as the “situational leadership theory”, the contingency theory and its theorist, maintain that in order to provide effective leadership, the personality traits and behaviours of the leader should match the requirements of the circumstance or situation for which the leader is needed. Some scholars believe however, that leadership styles are fixed and insist that the more efficient way to handle different situations for leadership is to change leader. This is because, they believe that “flexible leaders will bring more chaos and unstable situation in an organisation” (Bastian & Wald, 2012)

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2.1 Contemporary Leadership styles 2.1.1 Transactional Leadership Theory Transactional leadership theory can essentially be described as, leaders or managers motivating the group to perform based off of punishments and incentives. This type leadership was first described by Max Webber in the 20th century as a rational-legal leadership. Transactional Leadership focuses on three basic concepts of management: organizing, controlling, and short-term planning. Another aspect of the transactional style of leadership focuses on motivating and giving followers direction by appealing to their own self-interest. This allows both leaders and followers to accomplish their performance objectives, complete required tasks, and maintain the organizational status quo. Unlike transformational leaders, transactional leaders only seek to meet the organizational goals or targets and do not necessarily care about the growth and development of their subordinates.

2.1.2 Transformational Leadership theory The transformational leadership theory became prominent in 1970s when J.V. Downton (1973) first used the phrase to describe a leader who effectively leverages and develops the potential of his or her team members. While evaluating current theories, Kotter (1988) published the 8-step change model which focused on transformational leadership. He defined transformational leadership as the ability of an individual leader to encourage change within themselves and others, to empower, lead and develop other teammates or subordinates. Avolio and Yammarino (2013) go further and to define transformational leadership as an approach where leaders are able to inspire their subordinates for change 9

through motivation, their perception and common objectives to pursue their common goals. Transformational leaders essentially provide inspiration, are able to empower subordinates and exceed ordinary performance levels. They apply their passions and energies for the overall benefit of the organisation. Transformational leadership can be described as having four essential components, i.e. Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Individualized Consideration and Intellectual Stimulation which are explained briefly as follows: ✓ Idealized Influence: The leader must be accepted as a role model and admired

regardless of result or performance. The leader gains trust and respect. ✓ Inspirational Motivation: The leader must be able to inspire and continuously motivate team mates and subordinates. ✓ Individualized Consideration: The leader should have a genuine desire to respect ideas, and understand the feelings of team mates or followers on a personal level. ✓ Intellectual Stimulation: The leader must encourage innovation, creativity and dynamism. He or She must create an enabling environment that assure subordinates growth, development and independent thought. Research has shown that transformational leadership usually results in the institutional or managerial change. It has implications for improvements in the organisational culture and its effectiveness. For companies to remain relevant and survive in the modern market, transformational leaders are appointed in organisations (Bryman, 2013). According to Burns (1978), sometimes these leaders misuse power and followers for personal 10

gratification. Griffin (2002), agre es that this is the main criticism of transformational leadership. Knippenberg, et al., (2013), also state that transformational leaders tend to be manipulative and thrive under power. Yukl, (1981) has described in his book that transformational leadership is the dark side of charismatic leadership. However, it can be said that great charismatic and transformational leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Nelson Mandela, provide contrary evidence to the above observations. On the other hand, leaders like Adolf Hitler as a result of a change in his leadership ideology, exploited power and created a chaotic environment that led to war. 2.2 Management and Management theories Management theory and the basic functions and practice of management have over the years impacted the success of organisations. The more recent notions of management theory emphasize the constantly changing organisational environment and the need to understand and address these external forces for change. Management is an integral part of contemporary organisations today. The success or failure of many of these organisations can ultimately...