What stands out as useful in authentic leadership?

There are 10 essay questions and you have 2 1/2 hours to complete the exam. You are expected to have 75-100 words for each answer. You should NOT have any quoted material. Any answers provided with fewer than 75 words will have content deductions. Use your own words.

Question 1 of 10
What stands out as useful in authentic leadership? What is the meaning of the core competencies
associated with authentic leadership per Avolio and Walumbwa (2014)?
Question 2 of 10
The initial framework for Servant Leadership in 1970 by Greenleaf contends that “formal
leaders should act as servants first and leaders second” (p. 197). How would you describe this
style of leadership in practice in a large organization?
Question 3 of 10
Explain in your own words, what is the concept of adaptive leadership in organizations?
Question 4 of 10
Heifetz et al. (2009) defined four adaptive challenge archetypes that aid in identifying patterns
associated with adaptive work. What are the four archetypes (models) and briefly describe (in
your own words) what they mean.
Question 5 of 10
The psychodynamic approach to leadership contends that personality is an important aspect of
how we lead and how we follow. What is the concept behind psychodynamic leadership and
how does it work to improve effectiveness?
Question 6 of 10
What are the three theoretical approaches to ethics and briefly describe what they mean.
Question 7 of 10
Teams are generally defined as a group of individuals who come together to achieve an
established goal. How does leadership differ when leading a team verses leading a single
person?
Question 8 of 10
In relation to women in leadership positions, what is the concept of the “glass ceiling”?
Question 9 of 10
Explain the differences in working cultures in the U.S. verses Japan. How is leadership affected?
Question 10 of 10
In 75 words or more, comment on the overall message of this course. What did you learn about
leadership, motivation, and leadership traits?

ANSWER

Question 1 of 10

Authentic leadership is a style that focuses on a leader’s ability to build healthy relationships with followers. The style is important because it values ethical basis of the relationship between a leader and followers. Honesty and professionalism are therefore, upheld using the leadership approach.

According to Avolio and Walumbwa (2014), authentic leadership core competencies are elements that help in building good psychology. The components include self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency. Self-awareness helps in identifying one’s strengths and weaknesses while internalized moral perspective helps in developing ethical behavior. Balanced processing helps in evaluating the scenario and making a decision while relational transparency illustrates …

Question 2 of 10

Servant leadership application in a large organization would greatly help in improving relations between the leader and followers. Practically, when a leader humbles himself or herself to be a servant, free interaction with followers is enhanced. In a large organization, interacting with followers would equip a leader with necessary knowledge on the follower’s skills. In addition, the leader will motivate his or her followers to actualize their objectives thus improving the productivity of the organization. Therefore, servant leadership in a large…

Question 3 of 10

The concept of adaptive leadership in an organization helps leaders to maneuver through challenging times. Leadership is frequently met by a number of challenges that tend to affect the process of realizing a solid conclusion. The concept of adaptive in any organization upholds a leader’s skills in tackling tough moments through enabling the leader to gradually change to the situation at hand and solve it effectively. The efficiency of leadership is enhanced when a leader has acute adaptive leadership skills thus promoting…

Question 4 of 10

Heifetz et al. (2009) was illustrative on how adaptive leadership takes place through offering the four adaptive challenge archetypes which include; gap between espoused values and behaviors, competing commitments, speaking the unspeakable, and work avoidance. Speaking the unspeakable involves expressing concepts that are negative and addressing them as a leader through adaptive solutions. Work avoidance is an archetype that illustrates how people tend to run for the easy way when a challenge comes, rather than coming up with an adaptive solution. Competing commitments offer a leader a dilemma on which decision is better to make in an adaptive challenging situation. Gap between espoused values and behaviors illustrates how an individual’s behaviors may crash with values….  

Question 5 of 10

Psychodynamic leadership stresses on the experiences that a leader goes through to make him or her an effective leader as the important concept in the leadership approach. This concept helps in modeling a responsible and skillful leader through exposing a leader to all sorts of experiences. The leader will be ready to handle any challenge, which will in return increase leadership effectiveness. Psychodynamic leadership mainly features in top managerial positions where more experience is needed to handle challenging leadership tasks. More experience…

Question 6 of 10

There are three definite approaches that theoretically define ethics in an organization; principles, outcomes and integrity. Principles are the guiding pillars towards defining how an activity should be done. In ethics, principles are important since they illustrate the path that one’s activities and behavior will result to. They are similar to beliefs on how one should tackle an activity. Outcomes, on the other hand, are the purported results of a given action. They help in defining the consequences of a given action. Integrity is a…

Question 7 of 10

Leadership is important in ensuring that both teams and individuals are propelled in a given direction to achieve organizational objectives. However, a great difference exists between leading a team and leading an individual. Leading a team is a concept that involves collective guidance to people who have common attributes. It is much easier since people in teams already are motivated towards tackling a task. On the other hand, leading an individual involves first understanding the individual and using his or her strengths to achieve …

Question 8 of 10

The concept of “glass ceiling” is used to bar people from realizing various levels of seniority in an organization. In women leadership, the concept of “glass ceiling” has been used to prevent women from taking up leadership positions. Various ideologies that deny women the chance to rise to leadership include the fact that women will not be in a position to handle stressful scenarios and society misconceptions on women roles. The concept creates an ineffective approach towards delegating leadership duties to women…

Question 9 of 10

U.S. working culture is focused on developing a productive environment through focusing on an individual’s skills in the given task. The culture is more of skills oriented. On the other hand, Japan’s working culture is focused on influencing a large group of employees to perform in order to optimize productivity. In leadership, these working culture differences greatly affect effectiveness of leadership. Leaders must first harmonize their leadership strategies to these working cultures or even take time to fight negative aspects… 

Question 10 of 10

The course has been highly educative on various approaches of leadership. Leadership has been illustrated to be the main element that leads to success in an organization. In addition, leadership approaches have been illustrated as the basic pillars towards realizing effective motivation strategies. Motivation is seen as the key concept in ensuring that productivity is improved. In addition, the course has been greatly helpful in illustrating that leadership traits are important in ensuring that better leadership is achieved. The traits help…