Western’s Critical Approach to Leadership and Diversity within the Australian Community

Leadership is a practice of guiding the group of people in an organisation. A leader has many responsibilities towards the organisation/community and the team/community members. Leadership has many theories which define the functions of a leader (McRae-McMahon, 2001).  In this report, the discussion is made on the challenges of leadership within the Australian community. This report is mainly based on the experiences of living in a community and how I can deal with the challenges of the community as a leader. A contemporary challenge has been considered that will be analysed in the paper; which is managing diversity within the community. The impact of the diversity on the community is analysed. I will also prepare a plan with smart objective about how to handle such a challenge in an effective manner. This will help me to analyse my leadership skills. The theory which is considered to analyse the challenge is Western’s Critical Approach to Leadership.

I am staying at Australian community where people live from different cultural background. People have different thoughts and ideas as per their religions. Since people are from different cultural background, there is diversity within the community and it has been identified that managing the diversity within the community is a challenge. Due to people from different cultural background conflicts within the community arises and it becomes necessary to resolve the conflict effectively so that the whole community can lead towards progress. Managing diversity is a process of developing the positive environment in the community by understanding the difference and similarities of the ideas of people. German migration to South Australia is the story that highlights the challenge of diversity within the community (Aho, & Quaye, 2018).

According to Western’s (2013) – Critical Theory approach of leadership is classified into two parts which are deconstructing and reconstructing the leadership theory. Deconstructing refers that illusion and distortion of what leadership is and how it is implemented. Reconstructing offers the new theory by learning from the deconstruction process (Demirtas, 2015). Deconstructing helps in finding the drawbacks of leadership and reconstructing is a process of making the new theory by taking care of those drawbacks which are founded in the process of deconstructing. While applying the Western’s critical approach to leadership on Australian Community it can be said that first it is essential to analyse and understand the drawbacks and issues of leadership within the Australian community and then while reconstructing we have to bring a new idea of leadership for the community so that the challenge of diversity can be handled. The main issue of diversity within the Australian Community is described below:

German migration to South Australia highlights the experience of diversity which raises the conflict within the community. Some of the groups are settled in Barossa Valley and others are in rural districts of Adelaide Hills. It has been analysed that the people are divided as per the different religions due to which mentality of the people become different from each other’s. Generation gap, physical disabilities, poor language and communication are the factors due to which the community faced the issues of conflicts.

Deconstructing and Reconstructing Leadership Theory

After understanding the theory, I can apply the critical approach of leadership on my community to analyse the reasons and find out the best way to reduce the issues. The theory is classified into two parts which helps me to understand the challenge of managing diversity within the community. With the help of deconstructing process, it is founded that the main reason behind the issue is that people came from the different cultural backgrounds (Storsletten, & Jakobsen, 2015). Thus, they have different culture, behaviour, and thinking which increases the conflicts between the people of community. Discrimination, communication issues, perspectives, incorporation are the results of factor affecting the community (Chandler, & Kirsch, 2018). This is how the deconstruction theory can be implemented on the community and helps me to find out the factors which affect the community.

  Reconstruction leadership theory focuses on the four types of leadership which are controller leadership, therapist leadership, Messiah leadership and Eco-Leadership. These leadership discourses enable me to develop the leadership skill as a good leader (Shamir, & Eilam-Shamir, 2018). Reconstructing process helps me to implement the new leadership theory by taking care of factors which affects the community. At the time of implementing the plan, I will take care about those factors which affect the environment of the community. Controller leadership defines that a leader always cares about values of others and considers the other’s point of view. Controller leader can handle the situation by considering everyone’s point of view towards the particular things which helps in reducing the conflict between the communities (Ford, & Harding, 2018). Therapist theory of leadership helps the leader to make the new theory by taking care of factors affecting the community. That is how the Reconstruction leadership theory applies within the community and helps me to resolve the issue of conflict. 

In brief; as per the critical approach to leadership theory, diversity is a challenge for the community. The factors of conflict such as communication gap, different religion and so on are found with the help of deconstruction process of critical leadership theory and can be resolved with the help of reconstruction theory (Western, 2013).

Relationship

As per the basic principles, it has been seen that the better and faster decision can be taken by a group of people rather than an individual. Ethical leadership refers the relationship of a leader with every member of community. Good relationship is the sign of effective decision making process. A leader should have good relation with the members so that the members understand the point of view of a leader. A leader can address the issue by maintaining the relationship with the members (Bolman, & Deal, 2017).

Integrity

Integrity is an act of being truthful with every member of the community. An ethical leader is one who is delivering the promises what he makes. It can be said that the performance and work should be fully matched with words of a leader (Tourish, 2014). This dimension is beneficial for long term for the community. Integrity dimension develops the good image of a leader in front of members from which the members also get inspired by their leader. Integrity develops the positive environment and the healthy relation between members which reduces the disputes within the members. Disputes are the main challenges which are faced by the community due to different thoughts of people for particular task.

Ethical Dimension of Leadership

It is the responsibility of a leader to consider the point of view of every member of community and then take step accordingly. The relation of a leader should be honest with the members that can be possible by performing the right action at the right place. In my community, the members of club and members of Homburg became the leader but as a leader they failed in performing their responsibilities. The community faced the issue due to their poor leadership skills. The leaders did not perform their functions and roles in an ethical manner. The leader should take action as per their words which are given to the members of community (Bouckenooghe, Zafar, & Raja, 2015). 

Perspective

When we stay in a community where people from different cultural background are living, we have to understand the different perspectives of different people. Understanding the perspective of all the members of a community is necessary as it is ethical too. It will be unethical if we ignore the perspectives of weak section of a community (Morris, 2017).

Commitment

It is one of the most important ethical dimensions of leadership. Commitment refers the wellbeing and advancement of the community. A leader has to take the effective decision regarding the rules and regulation so that the members will follow that decision in the community (Neves, & Story, 2015).

As discussed above, it has been seen that the community faced the issue of diversity. I live in Australian community where people came from different backgrounds. People did not agree with each other’s points and their concerns. I would like to participate in the community as a leader to take the initiative to resolve the conflicts between the members. To play the role as a leader, I will make plan so that I can resolve the issue of diversity. My main goal of making the plan is to become a good leader to eliminating the challenge along with generating all possible ways to address the issue (Voegtlin, 2016). An ethical leader can resolve the conflicts between the members and develop the healthy relation in the members of community. A leader has the responsibility to walk with the whole team together for the growth of community. These responsibilities of a leader help me to resolve the issue (Tannenbaum, & Schmidt, 2017). SMART objective plan is used to improve the capacity of a leader or develop the leadership skills such as communication, innovative, decision making, and analytical (Dinh, et al., 2014).

From 2019, I will investigate the responsibilities of a leader to eliminate the issues from the community. For this, I would to like to interact with different people who are in the senior position. It will help me to understand the changes which are require for eliminating the issue of diversity from the community. My responsibilities are to address the unethical leadership so that I will create a culture where people feel safe and valued. The main goal of my plan is not only to address the issue of diversity but also to remove the biases and create a culture of positivity which will create a culture of positivity.

Relationship

After analysing the responsibility of a leader, I will plan to learn the skills to become a good leader. For this I will take the yoga classes so that my mind will be stable and I can take the appropriate decision for the community. Motivation is also a function of a leadership; to motivate others it is required for me to maintain the positivity in mind. By using the digital technology, I will study the different books from library websites and try to improve my knowledge.

Eco-leadership theory will also help me to perform my responsibilities more effectively. The qualities of eco-leadership define the network, ethics, human spirit and challenges faced by communities. Connectivity quality of eco-leadership helps me to make the connection in the social environment. System ethics helps to understand the moral values of a society and leadership spirit quality teaches the importance of human spirits and the last quality helps me to understand the joys and challenges faced by the community. By implementing these qualities in the real life, I will learn lot of things to become a good leader. With the learning of skills, I will investigate the challenges which I can face in the future as a leader.

By analysing the responsibilities and making the plan it is required to implement it in the real life. With the help of smart objective, my plan is explained more effectively:

Smart-

To become the good leader, my main objective is to focus on the communication, innovation, decision making and analytical skills. I have to learn these skills so that I will be able to eliminate the challenges which are faced by the community due to diversity (Moore, 2017).

Measurable-

To attain this objective, I will give enough time to myself to complete the task without rush. For all those activities and skills, it is necessary to practise the skills in practical. I will take feedback by senior management on my responsibilities.

Attainable-  

To learn the leadership skill, I will take the English classes on the regular basis. For the positive mind, I have to give enough time to myself and motivate myself. I will also do internship in the organisation to learn the skills practically.

Relevant-

To perform the responsibility it is required to learn the new skills of communication, decision making, innovative. Joining the classes will improve my communication skills and my knowledge regarding the leadership will also increase by reading books from the library or by using the digital technology (Jian, & Fairhurst, 2017).

Time-

The whole plan requires 1 -2 years for mind set for the leadership. Due to this, I will start learning from 2019 and give maximum time to myself till 2021.  

After learning the skills, I will use these skills in the community to address the issue with the transformational approach of leadership. Transformation approach defines that the leader should respect the views of members and implements them for the long term growth (Berkovich, 2016). This approach helps to resolve the disputes which are raised due to different behaviour of members. Discrimination and different thoughts are the main factor which affects the community. Implementing skills with the transformation approach will help me to reduce the conflicts between the members (Ghasabeh, Soosay, & Reaiche, 2015).

Integrity

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it has been concluded that the workforce diversity is the common issue in the community. The community faced these issues due to different thoughts and mentality of people as per their religion. As per the critical approach theory of leadership, discrimination, communication, and generation gap are the factors which affect the members of community. The ethical dimensions of leadership are relationship, perspective, integrity and commitment that define the ethical leader who has the responsibility to develop the positive environment. To address this issue, it is required to learn the communication, decision making, perspective and innovative skills. A plan of 2 years is prepared to learn the skills and that I will start from 2019. Implementation of the Eco-leadership qualities will help to address the diversity issue which is faced by the community.

References

Aho, R. E., & Quaye, S. J. (2018). Applied Critical Leadership: Centering Racial Justice and Decolonization in Professional Associations. Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs, 3(3), 2.

Berkovich, I. (2016). School leaders and transformational leadership theory: time to part ways?. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(5), 609-622.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Bouckenooghe, D., Zafar, A., & Raja, U. (2015). How ethical leadership shapes employees’ job performance: The mediating roles of goal congruence and psychological capital. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(2), 251-264.

Chandler, J. L., & Kirsch, R. E. (2018). Tenets of Critical Leadership Theory and Their Implications. In Critical Leadership Theory (pp. 167-194). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Demirtas, O. (2015). Ethical leadership influence at organizations: Evidence from the field. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(2), 273-284.

Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2014). Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 36-62.

Ford, J., & Harding, N. (2018). Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion. Leadership, 14(1), 3-24.

Ghasabeh, M. S., Soosay, C., & Reaiche, C. (2015). The emerging role of transformational leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), 459-467.

Jian, G., & Fairhurst, G. T. (2017). Leadership in organizations. The international encyclopedia of organizational communication, 1-20.

McRae-McMahon, D. (2001).  Daring Leadership for the 21^st Century. ABC Books.

Moore, J. (2017). Setting SMART objectives. Headteacher Update, 2017(6), 14-14.

Morris, S. C. (2017). Trade and Human Rights: The ethical dimension in US-China relations. Routledge.

Neves, P., & Story, J. (2015). Ethical leadership and reputation: Combined indirect effects on organizational deviance. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(1), 165-176.

Shamir, B., & Eilam-Shamir, G. (2018). “What’s your story?” A life-stories approach to authentic leadership development. In Leadership Now: Reflections on the Legacy of Boas Shamir (pp. 51-76). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Storsletten, V. M., & Jakobsen, O. D. (2015). Development of leadership theory in the perspective of Kierkegaard’s philosophy. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), 337-349.

Tannenbaum, R., & Schmidt, W. H. (2017). How to choose a leadership pattern. In Leadership Perspectives (pp. 75-84). Routledge.

Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.

Voegtlin, C. (2016). What does it mean to be responsible? Addressing the missing responsibility dimension in ethical leadership research. Leadership, 12(5), 581-608.

Western, S. (2013). Leadership: A Critical Text. UK: Sage publication.