Leadership Development Challenge Essay
Assignment Instructions
Introduction
Human resource professionals provide a unique role in the organization. While they may lead a team, their true test of leadership comes from their relationships and influence throughout the organization. They may be called upon to partner in the implementation of organizational strategies. They may be sought out to coach leaders in ways to handle employee relationships. They may be needed to enforce and guide human resource policies. In all cases, the strength of the individual leadership skills comes into play.
Many human resource competencies are nonnegotiable, because a lack of them could mean the difference between business success and failure. No smart business owner with employees will—nor should—discount the impact of human beings and their contribution, connection, communication, and emotion when conducting business. Human resources plays an important part in business success.
To assist your understanding of leadership and the unique role of the human resource professional, you will be writing a paper defining the role of leadership, influence, and communication for human resource professionals. You will explore leadership theories as well as review resources on the unique role human resource professionals play as leaders in the organization. You will then analyze how you see these foundations of leadership and human resource leadership in your current or future role as a human resource professional.Leadership Development Challenge Essay
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A solid understanding of leadership and its unique role as a human resource professional will also serve as a foundation for upcoming course assignments.
Scenario
You work in the Human Resource department and have just been promoted to a supervisor position. Your role in this new position will be to lead your team as well as be a human resource strategic partner and resource to leaders and employees in the organization. In order to be effective in this new position, you need to learn what it means to be an effective leader. This includes understanding the foundations of leadership, your choices of leadership style, and the influence skills required in a human resource position. You have decided to research and decide what models of leadership you will use in your new position.
Leadership Development Challenge
This assignment is designed to create foundations for you in the leadership development area by discussing key elements of leadership, influence, and communication in the human resource profession. This will also set the stage for your application of these foundations in the upcoming course assignments.
Instructions
Write a 3–4 page paper in which you define leadership, influence, and communication unique to the human resource professional. You will identify two leadership theories that resonate for you as you envision your leadership style for this new position.
There are many ways to research leadership theories. The course text The Leadership Experience compiles a clear overview of current leadership theories in Chapter 1, \”What Does It Mean to Be a Leader?\” Using this text allows you to examine a variety of relevant leadership theories from a single source. Additional resources are also provided to supplement the course text and provide additional perspectives.
This paper should be well-organized and cover the following elements.
Write an introduction that outlines why you are writing this paper.
Describe unique characteristics of human resource leadership.
Introduce the unique characteristics of leadership for the human resource professional.
Explain how leadership theories apply to human resource leadership.
Select two leadership theories that resonate for you as the foundation for your leadership style and approach and explain their relevance.Leadership Development Challenge Essay
Explain the importance of influence to human resource leadership.
Provide examples of how you will use this leadership information in your new role as a human resource supervisor.
Discuss not only how you will lead your team but how this will impact your relationships throughout the organization.
Write a conclusion that wraps up and summarizes your document.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Length: 3–4 typed, double-spaced pages, plus the cover and resources pages.
The first page should be a cover sheet with your name, the course number, assignment title, and date. No other information is required on this page.
The last page should be the reference list.
Organization: Make sure your assignment writing is well-organized, using headings and subheadings to organize content for the reader.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Resources: Use 2–6 references to support your assertions.
APA formatting: Resources and in-text citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
Written communication:
Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from external sources to support your main points and assertions with relevant and credible evidence.
Use spell-check and other tools to ensure adherence to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.
Human resource leadership is critical in an organization considering the human resource function determines the quality of the workforce in a company, and ultimately, the success of the company. Therefore, it is critical that as a supervisor, I ensure that I possess the appropriate leadership skills required in the human resources function. Therefore, this assignment seeks to examine the concept of leadership within a human resource context, evaluating the foundations of leadership, my leadership style and the type of influence required in a human resource position at the workplace.Leadership Development Challenge Essay
Characteristics of Human Resource Leadership
A significant characteristic of human resource leadership is honesty and integrity. Daft (2018) contends that a leader should be honest and have integrity to ensure that people trust the leader and he or she leads the team in a direction that them achieve the group targets. A human resource leader should therefore demonstrate honesty and integrity by being fair and objective when hiring new employees, avoiding corruption and bribery while performing their roles, and when handling conflict among employees they should apply fair rules. Another important characteristic of a human resource leader is decisiveness, which refers to the quality of being firm in one’s decision-making processes. A human resource leader should be firm in their decisions, which should also be made from facts and relevant information, and in accordance with the legal requirements such as observing the laws against discrimination when hiring employees.
The leader should also be dependable and reliable. The team should trust their leader and the guidance they provide, for the team to remain successful in achieving their goals. For instance, when the leader keeps changing their minds about decisions they made in the past, the team members begin to lose confidence in the leader, which invites disobedience and nonchalance from the team members, leading to team failure.
Leadership Theories and Human Resource Leadership
A noteworthy leadership theory related to human resource leadership is the trait theory. This theory posits that a leader should possess certain qualities for them to be good leaders. The theory also posits that certain qualities do not automatically qualify one as a good leader; instead, it is a combination of leadership qualities (Roberts, 2015). For instance, one can be a reliable person, but also quick to anger, which disqualifies them as a good leader. This theory related to human resource leadership by introducing the concept of leadership traits for a human resources leader. For instance, as identified before, one of the traits that a human resource professional should have is dependability, honesty, and integrity. A combination of these qualities, according to the trait theory, qualify the professional as a good leader.
Another leadership theory that resonates with human resources leadership is the transactional theory. This theory posits that leadership functions with penalties and rewards, where the leader is focused on the results, and the leadership is hierarchical (Roberts, 2015). This theory resonates with the human resource leadership considering this leadership structure is hierarchical. For instance, the human resources departments in most companies have the head of the department who guides the rest of the personnel in the department. Therefore, in accordance with this theory, the concept of human resources leadership is an example of a hierarchical leadership structure within an organization. Additionally, the human resources leadership focuses on results of the employees, therefore, when an employee fails to reach their targets, he or she faces penalties, which is typical of the transactional leadership theory.Leadership Development Challenge Essay
A leadership theory which resonates with me as the foundation of my leadership style and approach is the transformational leadership theory. This theory, which is also referred to as the relationship theory, explores leadership as a positive relationship between the leader and the team members. The leader fosters a positive relationship by being inspirational to their team mates. This leadership theory resonates with my foundation of leadership because I believe in leading by example and motivating my team members to achieve the group targets. Therefore, as a leader, I would use this leadership approach where I first create a rapport with my team mates, then involve them in decision making processes. For instance, I would include a nurse in the hiring panel to allow the nurse representative to participate in the hiring process, which is a motivating factor for the team members.
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Another leadership theory that resonates with my foundation of leadership is the behavioural theory, which posits that a person’s environment, but not their natural traits, shape the person into a leader. As a human resource leader, this theory resonates with me because it highlights the fact that a workplace environment could shape the leader’s traits. For instance, if the environment is constantly stressful for the teacher, then he or she may develop defences which turn them into a ruthless leader.
Influence in Human Resource
Influence refers to the ability to have an effect on the behaviour or character of a person. In human resource, influence is important because it sways people into following the workplace regulations, enables the professionals to obtain monetary and administrative support whenever implementing new ideas, and enable the HR to obtain other forms of resources in the organization.
Applying Information
As a new human resource supervisor, I would use the information learned in this course to develop strong and cordial relationships with my team mate. I would also use the information learned in this course to obtain the resources required to implement all business ideas that arise.
As the supervisor, I would delegate roles to the team members, avoid conflict within the leaders, be fair in my conflict resolution role, and be an honest person. This leadership approach would improve my relationships with the rest of the people within the organization. Leadership Development Challenge Essay
Conclusion
Human resource leadership within an organization follows the various traits described by Daft (2018) in his book. A human resource leader should have leadership traits such as honesty and integrity and dependability. Leadership theories that resonate with human resource leadership include the trait and transformational leadership theories. I would apply the transformational leadership theory in my practice as a human resource personnel to inspire my team mates and foster positive relationship with them.
References
Daft, R. (2018). The Leadership Experience. Cengage.
Harrison, C. (2017). Leadership Theory and Research. Springer.
Nohria, N., & Khurana, R. (2014). Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice. Harvard Business Review Press.
Roberts, G. (2015). Servant leader human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan. Leadership Development Challenge Essay