Described six different concepts of leadership

(1) focus of group processes; (2) personality perspective; (3) act or behavior; (4) power relationship; (5) transformational process; and (6) skills perspective (p. 5). Discuss how both the trait and skills approaches may or may not fit within these concepts and why. Provide examples and reflections. Use academic sources from the literature.

1. Focus of Group Processes

 Concept Description: Leadership from this viewpoint therefore refers more to the processes and relations within the team. Leaders ensure that there is group cohesiveness, communications as well as working relationships amongst the members of the group.

 Trait Approach: The trait approach might fit into this concept in that some traits are inherently positive in a group context (e. g. , sociability, emotional intelligence). It fails, however, to capture how leaders intervene and steer group processes.

 Skills Approach: Of all the discussed concepts, the skills approach can be considered most closely aligned with the concept because it emphasises the leader’s capacity to mediate interactions between the members, and regulate group processes. For example, where a leader requires interpersonal skills to strengthen the unity and agreement of the team and to work proficiently to address any disputes that may arise (Northouse 1997/2018).

 Example: A leader who is particularly good at dealing with communication and nurturing the team spirit will probably have good skills in the area of group process management, which confirms the skills approach.

 2. Personality Perspective

 Concept Description: This perspective examines the way in which an individual leader is likely to manage people based on his or hers character.

 Trait Approach: The trait approach will be useful here, because it in essence; looks at how certain personality characteristics such as assertiveness, confidence relate to leadership. For example, competencies like emotional stability and openness to experience have been quoted to be associated with leadership (Judge et al. , 2002).

 Skills Approach: The skills approach is even less concerned with personality than the behavioural approach; it is more concerned with the competencies a leader acquires. But it crosses with personality when analyzing how effectiveness in specific tasks reflects one’s nature (e. g. , an intuitive individual becomes even better in emotional intelligence).

 Example: The trait approach also holds the view that a leader with natural extroverted personality will be more suited to carrier positions that demands high levels of interpersonal communication.

 3. Act or Behavior

 Concept Description: This concept of leadership is different from the more conventional definition, which is centered on the individual person. It concerns itself with studying particular processes and practices that characterise leadership.

 Trait Approach: The trait approach is relevant less here because it concentrates on patterns of behavior not actions that can actually be witnessed. This is missing the perspective of how the leaders themselves work and in this manner, shape their effectiveness.

 Skills Approach: For this reason, the skills approach is suitable for this idea because it hinges character on the practical competencies and behaviour of leaders. For instance, students’ problem solving disposition and decision making which are behavioural characteristics are core to the skills approach that Katz (1955) propound.

 Example: Thus, the skills which embrace leader’s behavior depend upon are activities that indicate the leader’s actions rather than inherent traits, if the leader is involved in the problem solving and decision making processes.

 4. Power Relationship

 Concept Description: This perspective focuses on the ways in which power is wielded within an organisation by leaders.

 Trait Approach: The above concept brings little understanding into power relations. Despite the specification of certain behavioral variables (e. g. , charisma) that increase the leader’s ability to influence others, it reveals little about the exercise and experience of power.

 Skills Approach: Since power dynamics are inevitable in both extreme, the Skills approach can help to ‘decode’ how power is wielded by the leaders and, therefore, how power relations can best be managed. Knowledge sets in negotiation and persuasion come in handy at this stage (Northouse, 2018).

 Example: An ordinary leader who applies skills approach in power relations in the process of team decision-making show the feature of negotiation skills.

 5. Transformational Process

 Concept Description: This perspective is the process through which the leaders motivate the followers to change, and develop commitment towards the vision.

 Trait Approach: The trait approach can be used in some extent to fit this concept since vision and enthusiasm for instance are related to transformational leadership. But it does not capture the whole process of change, learning and development.

 Skills Approach: The reason the skills approach supports this notion is because it uphelds the competencies that are necessary for fostering and guiding change. Hence, here, the kind of thinking that is called for is strategic thinking, visionary planning (Bass, 1990).

 Example: A manager who manages to bring about others to support him or her on the implementation of a large scale change initiative is exercising transformational leadership.

 6. Skills Perspective

 Concept Description: This perspective is concerned with the actual traits that are required in any leader.

 Trait Approach: The trait approach is not as useful to this concept as the skill approach since traits are not skills that can be cultivated.

 Skills Approach: This perspective tally with the skills approach which focus on the development of leadership competencies, that is technical, human and concept skills as postulated by Katz (1955).

 Example: A skills approach entails efficiency in technical knowledge, interpersonal skills and strategic thinking skills among other competencies in a leader and these skills are very well exemplified by the following leader.

 Reflection

 The trait approach stands on the belief of certain attributes that one might possess and can impact his or her leadership efficiency, although it does not necessarily explore how such traits can manifest themselves or would develop skills. The skills approach is somewhat more useful in this regard as it is grounded in competency framework, which offer the set of competencies fundamental to leadership. Each of the theories provides significant information, which should be used in conjunction with the other since they study different aspects of leadership and thus complement each other in looking at leadership from its various perspectives.

 References:

 Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass & Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: Basic Framework, Empirical Evidence, and Practical Implications. Free Press.

 The kind of judge one assigns may play a partial role in the procedure Judge, Bono and other authors: The antecedents and concomitants of job burnout: An integrated model Ilies, R and Gerhardt, M. W (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative analysis of academic international business research. Applied psychology, they published the article in Journal of Applied Psychology vol. 87, no. 4, pp. 765-780.

 Katz, R. L. (1955). Administering for effectiveness Skills of an effective administrator. Harvard Business Review, 33(1), pages 33-42.

 Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.