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Organizational Leadership

5 elements of effective organizational leadership 

Organizational leadership is a personal yet pragmatic people-oriented approach to supervision. If you want to establish a career in this field, you need to develop technical expertise in a specialized area—such as quality control or operations—

in addition to essential management skills.

 

This growing field is critical in today’s global economy. Without it, corporations will not be able to meet the global economy’s demands, now or in the future.

Innovation, flexibility and courage are required. Fortunately, these skills can—and must—be learned.

 

If developing these skills is one of your top priorities, begin with these core elements of effective organizational leadership:

 
  1. Four models of organizational behavior: Organizational leadership is rooted in one of four frameworks: autocratic, custodial, supportive and collegial.

·        As the name implies, an autocratic organization is one that relies on authority and obedience. Not surprisingly, it results in low productivity.

 

·        The custodial model encourages passive loyalty among staff and is built upon money and the promise of financial security.

 

·        The supportive organization is more motivating; staff are rewarded for their efforts with status and recognition.

 

·        Finally, collegial organizations emphasize teamwork and self-actualization. This is the most effective of the four models.

 
  1. Culture: The organizational model—or mix of models—influences the organizational culture, which is made up of the company’s shared beliefs, customs, knowledge and practices.
 

Organizational leadership requires you to consider the impact of the corporate culture on the individual and vice versa. For example, what happens when someone challenges the culture, a process known as individualization?

 

According to some theories, an environment with little socialization and little individualization is marked by isolation. High socialization and low individualization results in conformity whereas the reverse situation increases the risk of rebellion.

 

The creative, productive environment essential to success is fostered only by a culture with high rates of both socialization and individualization. Staff need to buy into the corporate culture while feeling empowered to go against the tide when necessary.

 
  1. Organization development: Organizational leadership applies the knowledge of behavioral science to bring about change. The benefits of this practice include greater quality of work life, productivity and efficiency. How does it do this? By getting to the root of our attitudes, behaviors and values in addition to other characteristics and inspiring us to adapt to changes, including technological advances and competitive programs.
 

There are seven known characteristics of organization development: humanistic values, systems approach, experiential learning, problem-solving, contingency orientation, change agents and various levels of interventions.

 
  1. Quality of work life: Organizational leadership emphasizes the importance of creating a high quality of work life. This is not surprising when you consider the importance of humanistic values. In this system, leaders strive to working conditions that ultimately benefit the individual as well as the company’s bottom line. One of the ways they do this is by improving job design. This may be done by:
 
  1.  
    • mechanizing routine jobs so they do not have to be performed by people
    • hiring people who enjoy rigid, routine jobs for those positions
    • offering a higher salary or greater benefits
    • or re-designing the job
 

There are two ways to re-design a job: job enlargement—which broadens the capacity of the job and assigns more tasks to the job description—or job enrichment—which creates a deeper experience by giving the person holding the position more responsibility, control and decision-making power.

 

As you can see, organizational leadership is a rich and rewarding pursuit that offers myriad opportunities for personal and professional growth, not to mention job satisfaction.

 

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