Leadership and Psychology

 



Leadership and Psychology
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Leadership and Psychology
	The process of leadership can be a product of knowledge and skills. The environment one lives in may give some motivation and encouragement on picking some leadership skills. The issue of perception may come in here, that is, how an individual looks at others, and how they relate with others, and the need to achieve group goals (Hogg & Vaughan, 2002). Indeed, groups and organizations tend to have values that they perceive to be their norms. There are those people within the groups who can have traits that closely match the group norms. These are called prototypical people. There are considered by the group to be effective leaders (Knippenberg, De Cremer & Hogg, 2004). On the other hand, those who deviate from the group norms are considered ineffective. However, they might still have good leadership skills. The emergent view in this scenario is that organizations are more predisposed to prefer those leaders who exhibit similar attributes as the organization. This assumption is based on the social identity theory (Blurke, 2006).
Prototypical Leaders
Social identity theory can be useful in gauging the attributes of a leader. The theory refers to ones’ individuality as it is derived from the association of others. Social identity theory looks at future instead of the norms of the larger group. For instance, a leader should be the one who is inspirational and persuasive in realizing the future goals of a group (Berson & Galinsky, 2011). The first benefit of such a leader, based on the social identity theory, is that they work for the benefit of the group. The organization or a given group will always assume that the leader is motivated by the desire to meet their overall good. They will look at any initiative advanced by the leader to be good for the whole community. In essence, they will respect whatever the leader says, since they fell the leader is inspired by the needs of the followers (De Cremer, Van Dijke & Mayer, 2010).
Contradictions
The social identity theory goes against other theories of leadership. However, it is also possible to find a common ground between the assumptions in the various theories. According to the leader categorization theories, an effective leader is one who aligns his or her qualities to group norms, and not those who match the norms of the organization. Therefore, a good leader is one who has the ability to adapt to meet the needs of the organization (De Cremer, Van Dijke & Mayer, 2010).
Social Identify Theory and Leadership Theories
The issue here is how leaders conduct themselves in the environment where they exercise their leadership skills in pursuit of the group goals. According to the social identity theory, leaders should be people whose norms typify those of the organization. In understanding the qualities of such leaders, it is critical to evaluate how leadership theories define a good leader. Some of these theories base themselves on character traits of hereditary leadership and others talk of the situational factor contributing to leadership. Trait theory is somehow related to the Great Man theory because it assumes that a leader inherits certain capabilities that make them more qualified to lead others. However, the environment is a critical component that can greatly affect leadership. Environmental forces can determine the leadership style adopted by the leader. Therefore, a good leader must combine his or her style of leadership with the traits of the followers as well as the specific conditions within their areas of jurisdiction. This is almost similar to situational theories, which argue that a leader chooses the best action based on the situation at hand. For instance, there are some areas where democratic style of government might not realize the desired results. The leader might need to employ an authoritarian style in achieving a set goal. This agrees with the position adopted by Berson & Galinsky (2011) that it is possible to reconcile any differences between the social identity theory and other models of leadership. Indeed, even the proponents of social identify theory argue that a leader can violate the prototypes of the organization and still be considered as effective. 
Elements of Good Leadership
In either dimension we look at, there should be elements exhibited by a good leader. At this point, we consider the four major elements that a good leader should put into consideration. These traits are considered critical in the success of any organization and will form the basis for disputing the social identity theory.
Communication Skills
Communication is about expressing oneself either verbally or non- verbally. Either way, communication is meant to pass some information (Platow &  Knippenberg, 2001). Any leader passing message to the audience should be powerful, attractive to the audience and be likeable to develop or bui