Volume : II, Issue : II, February - 2013

Styles of Leadership in The I.T. Industry

Santhosh Kumar A. V.

Abstract :

Leadership is a complex process by which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, or objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leadership, as a process, shapes the goals of a group or organization, motivates behavior toward the achievement of those goals, and helps define group or organizational culture. It is primarily a process of influence. Leadership is a dynamic or changing process in the sense that, while influence is always present, the persons exercising that influence may change. Possession of influence depends upon the situation and upon the relevancy of the individual\'s skills and abilities to any particular situation. Not all leaders are managers, and similarly, not all managers are leaders. Within a team environment, manager and leader are simply roles taken on by members of the team. Most teams require a manager to manage -- coordinate, schedule, liaise, contact, organize, and procure -- their affairs. The functions of this role may well be quite different from those of the leader (to motivate followers towards the achievement of team goals). Management roles need not presuppose any ability to influence. A leader, on the other hand, must have the ability to influence other team members. A leader must, by definition, have followers. Leaders must be able to cope with complex technological change in their organizations; general leadership skills are not sufficient in IT enriched environments. Specific technology-related knowledge is required and it must directly relate to the tools, medium, strategies and competencies found within the culture. An IT leader must possess analytical and listening skills as true listening involves insight into what will work today, tomorrow and in the future. The IT leader must take the initiative to try new methods without fear of failure, an enormous task facing the IT leader when deciding on solutions to technology-related issues within his scope of influence. Attrition rate is high in IT industry due to the work pressure wherein managers are not able to spend enough time with their subordinates. In the fast-paced IT work environment, there is very limited time and mind share devoted by a manager to his team member’s personal training and thereby, the manager is not influencing the employee’s perception of growth. The only key to solving this problem is to improve the leadership abilities of IT managers, to learn how to manage differences in thinking of employees and aligning employee talents to work roles. Therefore there is need to assess the current leadership situation in the industry to deliver appropriate training. This paper focuses on identifying the type of Leadership Styles prevalent in the Information Technology Industry. It attempts to identify the leadership styles of managers in various levels of the organization, using the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid.

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Santhosh Kumar A. V. Styles of Leadership in The I.T. Industry International Journal of Scientific Research, Vol.II, Issue.II February 2013

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