Leadership Development Skills: Review of Nigerian Educational Institution
Question
An essay on an aspect of leadership and/or teams in education that has arisen from the reading you have done in this subject. The essay should be 3,000 words in length. Ideally, the essay will advance a clear line of argument and provide a critical view of relevant literature.
Requirements
- Identify one major theme or topic of interest in the academic literature concerning leadership and teams and provide a clear description of the theme or topic of interest.
- Utilising further readings that you have located yourself, explore the theme or topic of interest. Provide a synthesis and critique of the theory base for this topic.
- Make explicit recommendations for future practice. These recommendations should follow from the critique you have made in your essay.
Assessment Criteria for essay
- Identification of a theme or topic of interest within the broad area of leadership and teams – the essay does not attempt to canvass the entire field;
- Exploration of the theme or topic that utilises literature within and beyond that provided; examples provided;
- Synthesis and critique of the theory base;
- Recommendations made: these are feasible and demonstrate insight and analysis;
- The writing demonstrates command of expression, argument and structure;
- In text citations are correct, a References list is provided and both are in the required academic style (APA 6).
- The writing is presented appropriately for an academic assessment task, namely: the task that has been done is the one that is set; the work has been submitted as a single MS Word document; the writing has an appropriate title; student name and number are on every page; pages have been numbered; text is left justified; and font is clear and the equivalent of 12 pt Times New Roman
Answer
1.0 Introduction
The significance of the leadership within any organization cannot be emphasized. On the basis of that, it can be stated that every individual might be act as an actual leader. However, most of the people are not elected as a leader for a specific place. Regarding that, it can be mentioned that there are some specific actions or aspects that need to be adopted by the individuals in order to lead within the organization (Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo, 2016, p. 812). Leadership is an effective component that facilitates to develop organizational growth. According to this, in order to evaluate the significance of leadership within an organization, a pluralistic society such as Nigeria has been chosen.
On the basis of that, it has been found that the roles of leaders within the Nigerian educational sectors are much effective for the development of the educational sectors within the country. On the other hand, it has also been discovered that the significant role of the leaders are vastly effectual for the educational sectors from primary to territory level(Ajufo, 2013, p. 317). Regarding that, the entire assignment is about to deliberate the effectiveness of the leaders as well as the concept of leadership within the educational sectors of Nigeria. Accordingly, some other diversified aspects are also needed to be examined for effectively highlighting the components that enlarge the proficient of a leader within the educational sectors of Nigeria.
2.0 The Concept of Leadership
The concept of leadership is dynamic. It is one of the major aspects in the field of management. The perception of leadership is the aptitude to convince others towards a specific goal enthusiastically(Awofeso&Odeyemi, 2014, p. 240). Accordingly, it is one of the core characteristics of human being, which help an individual to monitor as well as control diversified group of people and motivate people to accomplish the objectives in an adequate manner. The perception of leadership includes different explanation as well as interpretations. On the basis of that, some effective aspects have been found within the concept of adequate leadership, which are based on style, relationship with others or personal qualities(Banks et al., 2016, p. 342). In order to evaluate appropriate concepts of leadership, some aspects require to be appraised, as highlighted below:
2.1 Leadership Development
The perception of Leadership can be defined as an expansion of and individuals ability within an organization as well as into the field of leadership. Simultaneously, leadership can also be described as a progression of social influence in which an individual motivates diversified group of people in order to achieve and accomplish the organisations goals and objectives. Within this context, Maekae (2013) has mentioned that the attribute of an adequate leadership effectively significant for educational sectors as it helps to accomplish several educational activities such as school programmes, school activities as well as the achievement of educational goals.(Day, Gu& Sammons, 2016, p. 241)
2.2 Transformational Leadership, Trait Leadership and Transactional Leadership
Trait Leadership can be defined as an incorporated prototype regarding the characteristic feature of an individual that plays a significant role amid a large group of people or within organizational circumstances (Imhonopi & Ugochukwu, 2013, p. 82). The definition of trait leadership developed from other researches in relation with the leadership theories that concentrate on the findings regarding the group of traditional attributes. On the basis of that, it can be stated that the theory of trait leadership is the most effective and noteworthy criticised theory within the field of leadership. This kind of approach is adopted because the theory of trait leadership is simplistic and futile(Lozano et al., 2013, p. 15).
Accordingly, traditional leadership can be described as managerial leadership that concentrates towards the role of monitoring, organizations as well as the performances of several groups. Within this context, the leaders of traditional leadership provide compliances amid the followers of the leaders with the help of both rewards and chastisement(Maekae, 2013, p. 26). Accordingly, the major roles those are played by the traditional leaders are to discover several faults and divergences amid the people.
Simultaneously, the roles of transactional leaders are effectively significant for the educational sectors of Nigeria. The leaders of transactional leadership focus on the deputation rewards as well as punishments. The deputation rewards are provided while the organizational goals and objectives are accomplished within the referred time(Meuser et al., 216, p. 1382). Accordingly, the deputation punishments are prearranged for the administrators for not fulfilment of school performances as well as the underprivileged condition of education and standards within the educational sectors.
Consequently, transformational leadership helps to generate the inspiration, performance as well as the confidence amid the followers through diversified apparatuses(Mittal & Dhar, 2015, p. 901). In order to justify the effectiveness of transformational leadership, three effective components are required to be evaluated in order to highlight the impact of those components within the leaders of transformational leadership those are stated below:
- Inspirational Enthusiasm: The leaders with inspirational enthusiasm help the followers by providing excessive standard of working ability along with the ability to communicate sanguinity regarding the up coming days, accomplishments to achieve the organizational goals and objectives and the capability to achieve the mission and vision of the organizations (Muenjohn & Armstrong, 2015, p. 2).
- Individualized Contemplation: The concept of individualized contemplation defines as the ability of the leaders, which helps the leaders to fulfil the requirements of the followers as well as help the group of people by providing adequate coaching(Nichols, 2016, p. 668). Accordingly, in this section, the leaders support the people in terms of followers to communicate regarding the needs or the requirements to the leaders.
- Scholarly Encouragement: According to the degree, the leaders challenges several postulations as well as take diversified risks and plead for the ideas of the follower in order to implement those ideas within the organizational operations(Pearce, Wassenaar & Manz, 2014, p. 281). Accordingly, the leaders motivate the followers those are able to think independently. In that case, leaders provide several opportunities to those employees in order to motivate the followers regarding the jib role. On the other hand, the leaders develop the process of accomplishment of organizational objectives by executing different tasks(Rigby, 2014, p. 635).
Figure: 1. Conceptual Framework of Transformational Leadership
(Source: Sooter, 2013, p. 173)
2.3 Skills of Leadership
Skills of leadership is the most effective and significant aspects for development the attributes of organizations. Accordingly, the skill of leadership also required for enhancing the ability of the administrators within an educational sector in order to achieve and accomplish the goals and the objectives within the educational sectors especially for the educational sector of Nigeria. On the basis of that Ajufo(2013) has proposed that the role of leaders in secondary schools are required for producing an affective and adequate plan for benefits of the schools as well as the employees of the educational sector of Nigeria. Regarding that, Maekae (2013) has conducted that the employees within the educational sectors in terms of the teachers and other workers are needed to be motivated by using the skills of democratic leadership, programme development processes as well as proving appropriate teaching materials to the teachers (Ajufo, 2013, p. 317).
On the basis of the above statement, it can be described that an effective leadership are often reflects the uses of powers. The skill of the leaders effectively helps to generate the productivity of an organization as well as to motivate the employees towards accomplishments of the organizational goals and objectives the role of leaders is one of the significant aspects within the field of management (Awofeso & Odeyemi, 2014, p. 240). Regarding this, the effective and adequate role of leaders also affects the administration system of the educational sector of Nigeria.
With the help of some relevant sources, it has been discovered that the effective leaders within the Nigerian educational sectors helps to generate the operations of the educational sectors as well as motivates the teachers and other employees to provide tremendous efforts to fulfil the needs and requirements of the students inside the educational sector of Nigeria(Banks et al., 2016, p. 342). Thus, adequate leader with effective skill is excessively needed within the educational sectors in order to accomplish the objectives as well as for proving the best service.
3.0 Evaluation of the Concept
The following section is about to demonstrate the concept of leadership within the educational sector of Nigeria. On the basis of that, Nichols(2016) has stated that the awareness of the individual towards leadership development involves that Nigerian leaders play a significant role for better development of the people of Nigeria. There are several diversified aspects can be seen those constitute the people of Nigeria such as the family, villages along with the towns and different groups(Day, Gu& Sammons, 2016, p. 241). In that case, the people of Nigeria have less idea regarding accomplishment of the daily needs and requirements.
In order to provide adequate plans regarding the daily life and achieves, a person or an individual was excessively needed. On the basis of that, the concept of leadership has arose, who provides motivation and adequate plans for development of the life of the people (Imhonopi& Ugochukwu, 2013, p. 82). As the time flows, the requirement of leaders had also been a matter of concern within the educational sectors of Nigeria. The administrators of the educational sectors were needed to provide adequate leadership to accomplish and achieve the organizational objectives as well as goals and the concept taken into consideration in order to provide effective education amid the people of Nigeria(Lozano et al., 2013, p. 15).
3.1 Effective Leadership Development Factors in Nigeria
The factors can be described as the effective components that help the leaders to accomplish the job role in an adequate manner. With the help of several diversified factors, an adequate leader may able to monitor the role of other administrators within an organization (Maekae, 2013, p. 26). These kinds of approach are taken by the leaders in order to generate the employability of the workers within an organization to accomplish the goals and objectives of organizations.
In the case of educational sector of Nigeria, it can also be seen that the effectiveness of the educational sectors are quite inappropriate and thus, the administrators are unable to provide adequate educational materials to the students of Nigeria. On the basis of that, as an effective leader, the administrators should be given appropriate supports from the leaders as well as needed to be supplied learning materials, which may generate the effectiveness of the educational sectors of Nigeria (Meuser et al., 216, p. 1382).
3.2 Leadership Training in School Surroundings
The educational sectors do not have quite dissimilarity from other organizations. In order to develop a successful business, a healthy economic support is excessively needed. Similarly, in the case of Nigerian educational sectors, lack of economy as well as the unhealthy financial supports affects the entire educational system in Nigeria(Mittal & Dhar, 2015, p. 901). On the basis of that, the roles of effective leaders are excessively significant. In order to motivate the administrators, an adequate financial support is highly required. On the other hand, the leaders should communicate with the administrators regarding the conflict situation that may arise within the educational sectors of Nigeria. With the help of appropriate support, the administrators along with the other executives may be motivated to achieve the organizational objectives and goals (Muenjohn & Armstrong, 2015, p. 2).
3.3 Improvement of Leadership Skills
In this present era, a small number of students are interested to learn the ability of an adequate leadership skill. On the basis of that, the students are unable to serve the community with effective leadership skills. Regarding that, the schools along with the collages should take these policies regarding the study of leadership in an appropriate manner(Nichols, 2016, p. 668). The personality of an individual helps to produce an effective leader amid diversified group of people. Similarly, the skills of an effective leadership should also need to be developed in order to serve the community in an effective manner. It can be observed that the teachers asked the students to take participate into group discussions or group assignment. However, lack of acknowledge regarding the benefits of group work may distract the attention of the students from this kind of approach(Pearce, Wassenaar &Manz, 2014, p. 281). In that case, the administrators should communicate with the students about the effectiveness of group discussions. On the basis of that, the effectiveness to be a leader may arise amid the students to lead the entire group.
3.4 Effectiveness of Team Leadership
Different systematic studies are being taken into consideration in order to evaluate the effective factors that contribute for enhancing the ability of the leaders. In this following section several adequate qualities are about to display those are significant for establishing effective team. An adequate and effective team can be produced with the help of effective contribution of the leaders amid the followers(Rigby, 2014, p. 635). Teams are able to accomplish the gaols and the objectives of any organization with the significant support of the leaders. In that case, to utilize the effectiveness of the followers to achieve the success, a leader should motivate the team members as well as are required to communicate in order to acknowledge the current situation amid the team members. Similarly, for the educational sectors of Nigeria, leaders are needed to communicate with the administrators to acknowledge diversified requirements or needs. In that manner, effectiveness amid the administrators can be generated(Sooter, 2013, p. 173).
3.5 Ethical Measurement of Leadership
The most effective and significant task of management is to provide effectual leadership, which help to control and monitor as well as to co-ordinate the entire activity of the groups in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. The margin of profitability as well as the productivity can be enhanced within the organizations with the tremendous performance of the groups of employees(Aga, Noorderhaven& Vallejo, 2016, p. 812). However, sometimes the employees are needed to be motivated to generate the employability as well as the performance of the organizations. In that case, the effective roles of adequate leaders are significant.
An effective leader is able to generate the ability of the employees as well as the skills of leaders may improve the quality of the employees to accomplish the job role in an appropriate manner. Accordingly, in the case of Nigerian educational sectors, it may have seen that due to massive number of population, the administrators are not able to provide adequate education to all the students as well as the poor financial support affect the educational system of Nigeria(Ajufo, 2013, p. 317). On the basis of that, the leaders within the educational sectors are needed to provide appropriate motivation to the administrators in order to accomplish the objectives of the educational sectors of Nigeria.
4.0 Recommendation for Improvement of Leadership
By means of evaluating the entire assignment, it has been discovered that the role of leaders along with the effective skills of leadership is excessively required for the educational sector of Nigeria. The circumstances of the educational sectors of Nigeria seems scrawny due to lack of supports from the surrounding environment. On the other hand, the administration of Nigerian educational sectors also unable to accomplish the goals and the objectives of the educational sectors within the country. On the basis of that, it seems that the effective roles as well as the skills of the leaders are exceedingly required for better improvement of both the educational sectors and the administrators. Within this context, some effective recommendations are displayed in the below to generate the effectiveness of the leadership skills for the educational sectors of Nigeria. These are stated below here:
- An effective leader should concentrates on the crisis situation as well as the current conflict of the entire team. On the basis of that, the effective skill of the leader may be able to resolve the confliction amid the followers. Simultaneously, due to lack of motivation as well as inadequate financial support may hamper the administrative system of the educational sectors in Nigeria. On the basis of that, the effective skills of leaders may generate the motivation amid the employees as well as it may able to resolve the confliction within the educational sectors.
- Accordingly, the approach of an adequate leader may generate the motivation of the team members to achieve the goals within the organization. In the case of educational sector of Nigeria, the leaders should communicate with the administrators in order to resolve the confliction within the educational sectors.
- Development of both the administrator and administration can be accomplished by providing adequate supportive role of the leaders. In that case, the effective skills of leaders are excessively required within the field of educational sector of Nigeria. Within this context, the leaders are needed to provide excessive quality of support by providing educational materials to the teachers.
- (Source: Awofeso&Odeyemi, 2014, p. 240)
5.0 Conclusion
The above discussed study was intense on determining the impact of leadership skills within the field of educational sector of Nigeria. On the basis of that, in order to evaluate the impact of leadership skill within the Nigerian educational sector, some effective aspects have been appraised by determining the significance of effective skills of leaders towards the administration system as well as the administrators within the educational sectors of Nigeria.
By means of evaluating the entire assignment, it has been discovered that the role of effective leaders towards the administration system of education sectors is tremendously significant. On the other hand, it has also been seen that there are several diversified factors situated those are excessively required to generate the effectiveness of leadership skills. The most significant factors are transformational, trait and transactional leadership, which are been highlighted into the following study to evaluate the effectiveness skills of leaders within the educational sectors of Nigeria. Regarding all the statements, it can be conducted that the role of the leaders as well as the effective skill of leaders towards the followers are exceedingly significant in order to enhance the motivation and the employability amid the followers.
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