Leadership Theory and Organizational Communication

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Since it is difficult to determine exactly what you need, in order to help you complete your assignment based on the information in your post, I am going to offer you some information on leadership in organizations. Remember, that you should not copy and paste any of my work below into your paper. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and professors have many sophisticated tools to detect plagiarism. My graduate education is in leadership, specifically leadership as it pertains to organizations. I will provide you some basics on leadership and some possible resources on leadership. The Yukl (2006) book is an especially good source for leadership in organizations. Included in this discussion of leadership will be elements of organizational culture, ethics and change management.

Leadership, as a paradigm, is complex. There is no one agreed upon definition of what leadership is. However, most scholars agree that leadership is about influence (Yukl, 2006). In an organizational setting, leaders are influencing subordinates, peers, and their own supervisors in order to meet organizational goals. Leadership is about people and social exchange. People and social exchange do not always follow prescribed, predictable processes. People are divergent and changing. Thus, leadership must be divergent and changing. Leadership is a relationship that unfolds according to the demands of the situation (Yukl, 2006).

Research in the field of leadership has followed a variety of approaches. According to Yukl (2006) leadership theories and research has covered areas including the trait approach, the behavior approach, the power-influence approach, the situational approach, and the integrative approach. The trait approach was one of the earliest theories proposed to explain leadership. Effective leaders were supposed to have specific traits, although the research failed to provide evidence of precise characteristics that predicted leadership success. This approach suggested that some individuals are naturally inclined to lead (Yukl, 2006).

The behavior approach to leadership study was another more traditional method of attempting to explain the mystery of leadership. This era of leadership research was punctuated by studies of how managers spent their time, how they interacted with followers, and how they dealt with various job inconsistencies (Avolio et al., 2009; Yukl, 2006). The behavioral approach attempted to determine how effective leaders behave as they maneuver their way through the work environment. Still, this approach did not adequately answer all the complexities of the leadership question.

Since leadership can be best explained, at least within the organizational setting, as an attempt to influence others' behavior ...