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Roles of Leadership and How It Can Impact Organizational Performance

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Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Katherine Clay Professor Terhune Leadership and Organizational Behavior- 520
December 18, 2011

Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact organizational performance.

Leadership roles in organizations are very important. Poor leadership can cause organizations to fail. All leaders use power and engage in political behaviors to influence others. True leaders do so effectively and ethically. Others in managerial roles, but who do not qualify as effective leaders, use power and political behavior in ways that are ineffective and counterproductive. (Hellriegel, & Slocum, 2011, p.290). Leadership roles can be broken down into five sources of power that leaders use to influence their followers. When leaders use these sources they are trying to reach one or more of the followers needs. To be an effective leader there must be a willing follower in place or the leadership method will fail. Legitimate power is an important concept of the leadership role in that this type of power has to do with influencing ones behavior. Reward power provides things to the followers in order to get them to comply with or influence behavior. Coercive power deals with influencing the follower through punishment. Referent power is when a leader can influence the follower to like him /her and the follower wants to do what they can to please the leader. Expert power deals with influencing other behaviors through talents, specialized knowledge, or competencies. An effective manager who is also a leader –whether a first time manager or a top- level executive-uses a variety of sources of power. For successful leaders and organizations, the emphasis is on reward, referent, and expert power, with less reliance on coercive and

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