role of leader as a guide in formal group and its impact

Role of leader as a guide in formal Group and its impact on group

performance: A study on the effective leadership in the formed

group of employees of organized sector.

Dr. Sapna Sugandha

Associate Professor Dept. of Management,

Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar. Email:[email protected]

Mob: 9771433593

ABSTRACT:

Leadership is the key activity in any organization and organizations’ performance depends on the

leaders they have. There are different theories of the leadership which describes about the

personality of the leader. In this research it is tried to search out that personality of leaders are

important to affect the group activity. Now a days when many of the organizations are following

the group approaches to perform any task. Role of leaders in the group always shows the prime

part of group performance. In organization there is the existence of formal group which is

formed by the authority and that authority decides who shall be the leader of the group. The

leaders are always responsible for the group performance as they are the path shower as well as

guide of the other members in the group. They have the ability to change the behavior of the

coworkers and turn it to the desired outcome.

Keywords: Leadership, Group performance, Personality, Behavior, Effectiveness.

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I. INTRODUCTION:

There is defined process of group formation in the organization. According to Tuckman's theory,

there are five stages of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and

adjourning.

As per Jia Lin, leaders are needed to be intelligent, kind as human, courageous, trustworthy, and

they should be disciplined too. Only one trait can fall in sickness but together all can make the

miracle.

There should be cohesiveness in the group which can gives the positive impacts. And ultimately

higher output in the organization. These cohesiveness can be maintained through the leadership.

According to Zaccaro (2007), trait theories are having the focus on small set of attributes and

also noted that this theory dost not consider stable leader attributes accountability for behaviour

diversity.

A relationship building between personality of the leaders, role of the leaders and group

performance has been tried to be established through this research.

An attempt has been made in this paper to find out the personality of individual to become the

leader in the group and also to analyze the performance of group when leaders are good. A

random group of government sector employees and private sectors employees are taken for the

consideration as respondents.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

The objectives of the above research study will be:

To understand the importance of effective leadership in group performance.

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To understand the personality required to be chosen as a leader in the group.

To find out the level of motivation in group performance due to leadership.

II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The study is empirical in nature. Both secondary and primary data collection methods have been

used. The secondary data collected from various books, reference Journal, seminar papers and

articles. On the basis of secondary data, hypothesis were formed and further tested on primary

data. The respondents were selected through snowball sampling method and the data was

collected through Google online form with the help of structured questionnaire. A total of 92

questionnaires were filled by respondents.

III. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

We know that the organizations’ performance depends on the quality of the employees. And

quality of the employees is often described through the leadership ability within them. Now a

days when many of the organizations are adopting group activity to perform even their routine

task, this research will find out the importance of leadership when employees need to perform

efficiently and effectively with the incorporation of leadership traits.

IV. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research is confined to the general leadership positions and roles in organizations

irrespective of the sector, it may be public or private. The basic idea behind this research is the

integration of leadership with group performance. It covers the leadership influence to change

the behavior of group members.

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V. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS OF THE RESPONDENTS

DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS LABEL %

1.

GENDER

MALE 72

FEMALE 20

2.

QUALIFICATION

GRADUATE 92

POST GRADUATE 92

Ph.D/ M.PHIL 10

3.

MONTHLY INCOME

0-10000 0

10000-20000 0

20000-30000 12

30000-40000 15

40000-50000 20

500000+ 55

4.

MARITAL STATUS

MARRIED 52

UNMARRIED 40

5.

OCCUPATION

BUSINESS 0

GOVT. JOB 90

HOME MAKER 0

PRIVATE JOB 2

STUDENTS 0

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VI. FINDINGS:

1. Respondent employees are working in the organizations having group approach for

perform any task.

The question that if the organizations are adopting group approaches to work, it has been

found that the respondents were from the organizations which are adopting group

approaches to do any task. Respondents were from mostly from public sectors and few

were from private units. Most of the organizations are favouring group approaches as

group can be perform well with having different and distinct ideas from various group

members. 93 % of the respondents said that their organizations follow group approach to

perform any task. Very less 3 % said they don’t follow it and few 4 % said they

sometimes follow group approach for performance of task.

Table:1

Sl. No. Answer No. of Respondents Percentage

1 Yes (Always) or Mostly 85 93%

2 No (Not at all) 3 3%

3 Sometimes 4 4%

Fig. 1

93%

3% 4%

Organizations are having group approach to perform any task.

1

2

3

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2. Respondent employees are working in organizations where group formations are

mostly formal.

It has been derived from the respondents that the organizations in which they are working

are creating formal group. Formal group can better perform as they are having some

target to achieve within prescribed time. 87% respondents replied in favour of following

formal group formation in their organization. 11% of the respondents said they

sometimes follow it and 2 % said they don’t follow it.

Table:2


1 Yes (Always) or Mostly 80 87%

2 No (Not at all) 2 2%

3 Sometimes 10 11%

Fig:2

87%

2% 11%

Respondents employees are working in organizations adopt formal formation of group

1

2

3

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3. Leadership approach in group (High Leadership/ Medium Leadership/ Low

Leadership)

The respondents of the research conveyed that the groups which are being formed seeks

leadership approaches while performing. One leader is appointed who leads the whole

activities of the group assigned. The question when asked that the leadership they follow

are high/ medium/ low in intensity, most responses came in the form of High Leadership.

89% respondents said their organizations have high leadership in the group performance.

7% said they have medium level of leadership and 3% replied that they have low intense

of leadership in the group performance.

Table:3


1 High Leadership 82 89%

2 Medium Leadership 7 8%

3 Low to No Leadership 3 3%

Fig:3

89%

8% 3%

Respondents working in the organizations are having the group of leadership approches (High/Medium/Low/No)

1

2

3

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4. The behavior of the members of the group can be changed through guidance or

influence.

It is always imperative to assess the role of influence when we measure the role of

leadership. When existence of leadership is to be measured, one should think in the

direction whether leaders in the group are able to change the behavior of the group

members are not? In this research it has been found that the leaders can change the

behavior of the individual even if they work in a formal group. Mostly i.e. 91% of the

respondents said that guidance can change the behavior of the members of the group, 6%

said they don’t believe that it can change the behavior and 3% said that sometimes it

changed the behavior of the member.

Table:4


1 Yes (Mostly) 84 91%

2 No 5 6%

3 Sometimes 3 3%

Fig:4

91%

6% 3%

The behavior of the members of the group can be changed through guidance or influence.

1

2

3

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5. Group members choose their leader (Mostly/No, it is the duty of management).

In this research it is tried to find that in random selection of the organization without any

particular sector choosing, if group performance needs to be judged it is also to check that

these formal groups are self-managed or outsider managed. It has been found that the

most of the respondents are working in organizations where group leader is chosen by the

authority. This selection can be done mostly on the basis of past performance of the

employees or sometimes other reasons may be. 95% respondents replied that in their

organizations leaders are chosen by the authority of the organization and 5% replied that

the group members themselves choose the leaders.

Table:5


1 Self Selection 5 5%

2 By the Authority 87 95%

Fig:5

6. Group members accept the chosen leaders.

Here I tried to find out that the declared leader in the group are also accepted by the

group members are not. The respondents mostly replied in favor of the words that leaders

5%

95%

Group members choose their leader (Mostly/No, it is the duty of management)

1

2

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chosen are mostly accepted by the members. This may be the reasons here that most of

the respondents are form government organizations where chosen leaders are the part of

the routine work and employees are bound to accept. Mostly 97% respondents replied

that members accept the chosen leader of the group and 3% respondents replied that they

don’t accept the chosen leader due to conflict in the thoughts of the others members in

choosing the particular one as leader.

Table:6


1 Yes to Mostly 89 97%

2 No 3 3%

Fig:6

7. Group performance is comparatively better when highly motivated leader is there.

This is the main area of research where I tried to find out that role of leader and

personality of leader affects the group performance or not. Here most of the respondents

answered that in comparison also when leaders are good the group performance are better

that before. Mostly respondents that is 98% of the respondents said that when there is

good quality leaders are in the group then there is comparatively better performance of

97%

3%

Group members accept the chosen leader

1

2

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the group is there and 1% said sometimes there is change in the performance due to good

leaders and 1% respondents could not be able to reply this.

Table:7



2 No/ Can’t Say 1 1%

3 Sometimes 1 1%

Fig:7

8. Leaders are chosen on the basis of past performance/ any interview/ other methods.

It has been assumed that leaders are chosen in the group are based on the past

performance of the employees. When the same questions were asked to the respondents

most of them favoured the word that leaders to become the part of group are chosen on

the basis of the past performance of the employees. Some said that they have chosen on

the basis of particular interview taken for the selection of the group leader. 98%

respondents said that leaders were chosen on the basis of the past performance of the

98%

1% 1%

Group performance is comparatively better when highly motivated leader is there

1

2

3

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individual in their past work individually or in any group, 2% said that on the basis of

interview leader was chosen.

Table:8


1 Past Performance 90 98%

2 Interview 2 2%

3 Other Method 0 0%

Fig:8

9. Selection of individual on the basis of personality traits to become leader in the

group. I tried to check the involvement of intelligence and experience as parameters to

be good leaders and also to assess which is much favourable. Here 82% favoured

intelligence over experience and 18% favoured experience over intelligence. But it is to

be noted that there is involvement of both the parameters in each response only the

difference is greater than and less than.

98%

2% 0%

Leaders are chosen on the basis of past performance/ any interview/ other methods.

1

2

3

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Table:9


1 Intelligent but Less experienced 75 82%

2 Experienced but moderate intelligent 17 18%

Fig:9

10. Group members feel motivated and perform better when efficient leader is there.

I tried to find out the relation between motivation due to good leadership and

performance of the group. Most of the respondents answered that they feel motivated

when there is good leader in the group and due to motivation and high morale they can

perform in better way. Mostly respondents that is 95% of the respondents said that high

motivation is there when there is good leadership and 5% said they are not able to

answer this.

Table :10



2 No/ Can’t Say 5 5%

82%

18%

Selection of individual on the basis of personality traits to become leader in the group

1

2

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Fig:10

CONCLUSION:

Guiding the employees to perform effectively and efficiently in the group activities in an

organization, results in defining the major role of leadership. Group of employees working

mostly in Government sectors and few in private sectors both in organized sectors have been

asked about the leadership role in their group performance. This is found that most of the

respondents’ organizations are adopting group approaches to perform their task. These days any

activity is being done by forming a group and groups are formal in nature. Leaders in the group

are selected by the management with formal procedure. These leaders are chosen on the basis of

the past performance of the employees. Few have answered that there is interview method to

choose the leader even though it advocates about having the formal process of selection of

leaders in a group. This selection actually decides the performance of the group activity as

guiding the members in the group and their decision even though it may be coincided one leads

to perform in better way. Personality of leaders are trait based and leaders who are selected on

the basis of intelligence and having less experience than the person having less intelligence can

decide ultimate success of the tasks. Good leader motivates the co-members and this motivation

drive them to act and perform. It is always better to have good leaders so that influencing the

95%

5%

Group members feel motivated and perform better when efficient leader is there.

1

2

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members in the group to work in positive way can help in fulfilling goals of the organization.

This research needs to be carried further for having more insight towards the approach of

leadership and its role of better group performance so that goal of the organizations can easily be

achieved.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

My Sincere thanks to the Department of Management Sciences, MGCUB for giving us an insight

and expertise that greatly helped in completing the research paper. I am also thankful to senior

officers of the government sector as well as private sector who supported me as respondents with

filling up my questionnaire and responded in well manner. I am also thankful to my research

scholar Chandan Veer for supporting me internet issues. I am thankful to all the persons for their

support and guidance in this research.

REFERENCE:

1. Jeffrey Gandz: The Leadership Role (January-February 2005) Published in Ivey

Business Journal.

2. Chemers, M. (1997). An integrative theory of leadership; Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates, Publishers; ISBN 978-0-8058-2679-1

3. Graen, G. B.; Novak, M. A.; Sommerkamp, P. (1982); The effects of leader-member

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model"; Organizational Behavior and Human Performance.

4. Cherrington, D.J. (1994) Organizational Behavior; Boston; Allyn and Bacon.

5. Greenberg, J., and R.A. Baron (2000); Behavior in Organizations; 7th ed; Upper

Saddle River, NJ; Prentice Hall.

6. Bass, B. M. and Riggio, R. E. (Eds.). (2006); Transformational Leadership (2nd ed);

Mahwah, NJ; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

7. Miner, J. B. (2005). Organizational Behavior; Behavior 1; Essential Theories of

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8. House, Robert J. (1971); "A path-goal theory of leader effectiveness"; Administrative

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