Power in Leadership
Leadership refers to the ability to influence activities of other people to accomplish the desired goals. Leadership cannot exist without power because leaders must have the potential to influence these activities. Power in leadership gives leaders the authority to control what other people do and influence a group to do things in a certain way. The concept of power in leadership is also based on position because organizations give position power based on the title an individual holds (Singh, 2009). Leadership is closely related to bullying because bullying is also exercised by people with some level of influencing power over others. Bullies often use their power to oppress their victims, who are often less powerful.
Organizational culture refers to the underlying assumptions, beliefs, and values that guide the way employees interact at workplaces. Organizational culture determines the social and psychological environment that an organization creates (Watkins, 2013). Organizational culture determines important aspects of an organization, such as leadership style and communication behaviour, and working practices. Leaders have to use approaches that align with the way things are done around the organization. Culture plays a significant role in determining an organization’s innovation capability. For instance, a culture that encourages teamwork will ensure that the organization can create a shared understanding of innovation. An organization can also encourage innovation by creating a culture that encourages creativity to explore innovative skills.
Since leaders have to align their leadership strategies with an organization’s culture, culture can be a constraint to effective leadership. Leadership is all about influencing people to behave and do things in a certain way to meet organizational goals. To make employees change undesired behaviors that are part of the culture, leaders have to initiate a change process that is challenging because making employees to adopt change takes a lot.
References
Singh, A. (2009). Organizational Power in Perspective. Leadership and Management in
Engineering, 9(4).
Watkins, D.M. (2013). What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care? Available at
https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture