Modern leadership theories and their application

Leadership literature is rich with many leadership theories developed based on various factors; leader’s traits, behavior, situational factors, etc. Recent leadership research focuses more on ethical and transcendental aspects of leadership than the past.

Leadership is essential for an individual, a family, a group, an institution, a society, a country, a world. We study this leadership from birth to death, both practically and academically. This leadership has been built on various forms and theories from the beginning to the present because this leadership has to change according to the changing social and human nature from time to time.

Leadership simply meaning is influencing people to follow the achievement of common goals. This leadership meaning is two-element. 

• Ability to direct a group of people to achieve their organizational objective. 
• Direct them to achieve these objectives.

Let us focus on leadership evolution from the past to the present. Since 1874 it has been believed that leaders are created based on the traits they inherit from birth. Carlyle claimed in his "great man theory" that the leader could not be created and that the leader was born. The American philosopher Sidney Hooke further expanded Carlyle's statement. (Dobbins & Platz, 1986). This later evolved into trait approach leadership. Trait approach leadership theory is sometimes used today. For example, it is sometimes used to appoint leaders among the forces. But various factors contributed to the controversy over this leadership, one of which is that leaders like Mahatma Gandhi did not emerge on such a trait approach leadership theory.

During this period, the behavioral approach leadership theory of the society came under discussion. This implies that a leader must have a relationship orientation or task orientation. But later there were problems with this theory as well. This is because thinking only about the employees and not the organization as a leader leads to the decline of an organization. Furthermore, a leader who thinks only of the company and not of the employees loses his employees and the organization deteriorates.

The concept of contingency theory of leadership came about because of the shortcomings in both of these concepts. This leadership theory develops by Fred Fiedleris. Theory means leadership style not be fixed, it changes according to the situation. Based on this contingency theory, many theories have been developed. It is, “Tannebaum and Schmidt’s framework theory, Vroom and Yetton model theory, Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory, Fiedler’s model theory. All theories depend on situational factors.

We can identify the contemporary theories of leadership as the most important leadership theory of the 21st century. It was started in 1990 and has been coming to the present with various changes and additions. Several other leadership theories have been developed under this contemporary theory. It is, “Transactional leadership, Transformational leadership, Charismatic leadership, Transcendental leadership”.

Transactional leadership means it’s the leadership defined by an economically based exchange relationship. In this relationship, the leader promotes uniformity by providing extrinsic (positive or negative) rewards to the followers. There are some problems with the practical application of this theory. That is, the followers work harder, as the leader says, only if they receive more allowances or more privileges. They do not do the work of the job unless they have the privilege.

Transformational leadership is defined by a work-based exchange relationship. This leader exchanges not only economic needs. These leaders think about emotional parts. Like, self-satisfaction, Esteem needs. This leadership is much higher than other leadership. For example, Richard Branson follows a transformational leadership style. Because Richard Branson always provides the vision in followers and always promotes creative thinking.

Charismatic leadership is a personality-based leadership style. When person build their personality so that they can trust themselves. Followers follow themselves. This theory followers like to follow personal kind of personality or vision. This leader promotes these personalities and qualities. This theory is not 100% achievable or applicable because this is not an action that everyone can do. Because their personalities and qualities vary from person to person.

Transcendental leadership is a contribution-based exchange relationship. This leader promotes unity by providing fair extrinsic rewards and followers do not work for offers and rewards because followers are motivated by the joy that comes from serving others.

Due to the various shortcomings in the leadership qualities mentioned above, it was essential for society to develop a new leadership that would suit the new society. During this period, Bill Geourg, the former CEO of a leading U.S corporation, discovered this authentic leadership theory in 2003. He publishes in 2003 the “Authentic Leadership Book”. The book states: “Wanted – Authentic leaders” was a call issued by George (2003), former CEO of a major U.S. corporation, in the aftermath of the corporate scandals and the mania for meeting Wall Street’s numbers. According to George, we need authentic leaders, people of the highest integrity, committed to building enduring organizations. We need leaders who have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their core values. George suggested that corporate boards choose authentic leaders for character, not for charisma but for their values and ability to motivate employees to create genuine value for customers. He argued that public trust will not be restored until we have authentic leaders in both corporations and on Wall Street. These sentiments have been reflected in the academic literature (e.g., Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Cooper, Scandura, & Schriesheim, 2005; Ilies, Morgeson, & Nahrgang, 2005).

Authentic leaders are a leader who knows who they are, know what they believe in and value, and act on those value and belief openly and candidly. These leaders are following ethics and trust and all details share with followers. Those days important to think about trust and ethics because a lot of people want to trust and ethics. These authentic leaders have the following qualities “Sense of purpose, Distinct Values, Relationship Building, Goals and self-discipline, Genuine heart”. We can take Elon musk as an example of an authentic leader in today's world. He has all the above characteristics. That's why his businesses like SpaceX and Tesla, Inc. became the world's leading and most innovative businesses because the employees of those institutions also follow Elon Musk very highly as a leader.

The next most important leadership theory is spiritual leadership theory. This Spiritual leadership is a casual leadership theory for organizational transformational designed to create an intrinsically motivated learning organization. These Spiritual leadership's three principal components it’s Vision, Hope, Altruistic love. Spiritual leadership theory was developed within the intrinsic motivation model (Fry, 2003). Spiritual leadership theory is designed to create an innate, learning organization (Fry et al., 2005). Spiritual leadership is seen as an effective approach to nurturing high levels of organizational productivity, team creativity, and organizational learning ability (Jurkiewicz and Giacalone, 2004; Aydin and Ceylan, 2009; Chen and Yang, 2012). And experience the meaning of life for employees, thereby promoting the growth and development of employees. This leadership reward is not a motivation method. It is motivated with working that’s the way we call an intrinsical motivation. Furthermore, the theory of spiritual leadership is designed to create an instinctive, learning organization (Fry et al., 2005). In line with the theory of innate motivation, spiritual leadership is seen as an effective approach to nurturing high levels of organizational productivity, team creativity, and organizational learning ability (Jurkiewicz and Giacalone, 2004; Aydin and Ceylan, 2009; Chen and Yang, 2012). It also requires a spiritual leader to put into practice things like the triple bottom line in the workplace spirit. In addition, spiritual leaders are concerned about active engagement in the workplace so that people experience the meaning of life and thereby promote the growth and development of followers. In the process of transforming a learning organization and employee growth, instinctively motivated followers inevitably tend to be more efficient at completing their mission and sharing knowledge and implementing new ideas (Andrews and Delahaye, 2000; Fraj et al., 2015).

When we look at all the leaderships above, it is clear that the theories of authentic and spiritual leadership are more relevant today in terms of ethical and transcendental qualities than in the past.