Leadership and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Leadership and Change - Essay Example From this discussion it is clear that  strong and effective leadership is the vital aspect of HRM required to manage the recent changes. Defining what makes a great leader is not a simple task. Leadership is an exceptionally complex phenomenon: the recent explosion of scholarly literature covering various aspects of leading and managing people is one logical outcome of this complexity. Despite huge amount of books and articles dedicated to the issue, there is still a great deal of ambiguity surrounding the true meaning of effective leadership in contemporary organizational environment.This study stresses that  absence of agreement between the scholars is partially due to different methods utilised to explore the phenomenon. partially due to varied purposes of defining leadership. and partially due to the variations in theoretical approaches. There are several major approaches in leadership studies: leadership as the focus of group processes, as personality attribute, as the art o f inducing compliance, as an exercise of influence, as a particular kind of act or behaviour, as a form of persuasion, as a power relationship, as an instrument of goal achievement, as an emerging effect of group interaction (`leadership exists when it is acknowledged or conferred by other members of the group), as a differentiated role, as the initiation or maintenance of role structure, or as some combination of all these approaches.  ... Despite huge amount of books and articles dedicated to the issue, there is still a great deal of ambiguity surrounding the true meaning of effective leadership in contemporary organizational environment. In psychology the phenomenon of leadership has traditionally been associated with in-group dynamics of social interactions. In any group, regardless of its size, members differ in their degree of social influence over one another: ... the person who exerts the most influence on the rest of the group thus affecting group beliefs and behaviour is usually addressed as leader'' (Hollander, 1985: 14). Although this definition of leadership allows the reader to grasp the essence of leadership, it is only one of the numerous of definitions that have been proposed in the existing literature (Northhouse, 2004). Absence of agreement between the scholars is partially due to different methods utilised to explore the phenomenon. partially due to varied purposes of defining leadership. and partially due to the variations in theoretical approaches. There are several major approaches in leadership studies: leadership as the focus of group processes, as personality attribute, as the art of inducing c ompliance, as an exercise of influence, as a particular kind of act or behaviour, as a form of persuasion, as a power relationship, as an instrument of goal achievement, as an emerging effect of group interaction (leadership exists when it is acknowledged or conferred by other members of the group), as a differentiated role, as the initiation or maintenance of role structure, or as some combination of all these approaches (Bass, 1990: 6-10). These various approaches may be a way of

Cause of drug abuse Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cause of drug abuse - Term Paper Example Additionally, it is possible to treat drug addiction and enable individuals to go back to their normal lives. Drug addiction can be described as a chronic disease that causes obsessive behavior in spite of the negative consequences to the individual and those around them. It leads to changes in the structure and functioning of the brain (Allen 67). It is clear that most individuals indulge in drug abuse voluntarily at first and overtime their self control is affected negatively influencing their lifestyle. The main causes of drug abuse are curiosity, peer pressure, genetics and family history and depression. There is a common saying that states that curiosity killed the cat. Well, this is the case for the cases of drug abuse and curiosity (Lowinson 48). Most individuals have probably heard about the influence of drugs and think that drugs can be so much fun and make individuals act differently. They may have seen how their friends or family members behave while under the influence of drugs and may want to experience how it feels. Furthermore, most movies and TV shows are based on themes surrounding drug abuse and depict it as being cool. This attracts a higher number of individuals that abuse drugs (Castillo 48). It is simply normal for people to try out drugs because they hear about them from various avenues and are curious about them. Peer pressure is among the leading causes of drug abuse in the contemporary society (Lowinson 48). This is especially true for young people who do it to feel cool, fit in and impress their friends. For example, if ones’ friends smoke marijuana or are alcoholics, they will probably be expected to take part in similar behavior. This urge to do what one’s friends are doing is commonly referred to as peer pressure and has a strong influence on teenagers who are so desperate to fit in that they would be willing to do anything to impress their friends. This kind of influence is dangerous for hard drugs