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Unit 13: Motivation and Morale

Research has proved that high performance results either when the management assigns goals Notes
or when members together set the goals. When members are assumed to do their best, it does
not result in high performance. When a manager gives an order to “do your best,” he is not
generating a goal-setting process, as in the absence of a goal, there is nothing to measure and
no way to compare the results with the target.

13.2 Definitions of Leadership

Leadership is a great quality and it can create and convert anything. There are many definitions
of leadership. Some of the definitions of leadership are reproduced below:
“Leadership” according to Alford and Beatty “is the ability to secure desirable actions from a
group of followers voluntarily, without the use of coercion.”
According to Chester I Barnard, “It (leadership) refers to the quality of the behaviour of the
individual whereby they guide people on their activities in organized efforts.”
According to Terry, “a leader shows the way by his own example. He is not a pusher, he pulls
rather than pushes.”
According to Koontz and O’Donnell—Managerial leadership is “the ability to exert interpersonal
influence by means of communication, towards the achievement of a goal. Since managers get
things done through people, their success depends, to a considerable extent, upon their ability
to provide leadership”.
In the words of R.T. Livingston—Leadership is “the ability to awaken in others the desire to
follow a common objective.”

According to the Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences—”Leadership is the relation between an
individual and a group around some common interest and behaving in a manner directed or
determined by him.”
According to Peter Drucker—Leadership “is not making friends and influencing people, i.e.
salesmanship. Leadership is the lifting of man’s vision to higher sights, the raising of man’s
performance to higher standards, the building of man’s personality beyond its normal
limitations.”
According to Louis A. Allen—”A leader is one who guides and directs other people. He gives
the efforts to his followers a direction and purpose by influencing their behaviour.”
In the words of Theo Haimann—”Leadership is the process by which an executive imaginatively
directs guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals by
mediating between the individuals and the organization in such a manner that both will obtain
maximum satisfaction.”
In the words of James Gibbon—Leadership is “a process of influencing on a group in a particular
situation at a given point of time and in a specific set of circumstances that stimulates people
to strive willingly to attain organizational objectives, giving them the experience of helping
attain the common objectives and satisfaction with the type of leadership provided.”
According to Katz and Kalm—”In the descriptions of organizations, no word is used with such
varied meanings. The word leadership is sometimes used to indicate that it is an attribute of
personality; sometimes, it is used as if it were a characteristic of certain positions, and sometimes
as an attribute of behaviour.”
From the above definitions we can conclude that leadership is a psychological process of
influencing followers (subordinates) and providing guidance, directing and leading.

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