Leadership: Relevance and Application to Critical Human Resource
Management/Development Issues
Introduction
Globalisation, technological advances in organisational practices, and crises like the recent
pandemic have resulted in massive challenges for most organisations today (Akdere and Egan,
2020). Small local non-profits, multinational agencies, and even governments are affected by
crises. Managing crises of diverse size, duration, and complexity require leadership (Kapucu and
Ustun, 2018). Leadership is "the ability to influence, motivate, and empower others to contribute
to an organisation's success."(Kyamanywa and Redding, 2021). It includes everything an employer
or executive does when working directly with his employees (Igbaekemen, 2014). Management,
which is the collection of leaders, sets the policies, rules, and procedures that govern relationships
and activities in an organisation. This affects how well the organisation can reach its goals
(Igbaekemen, 2014). One common misunderstanding about leadership is that it is the same as
managership (Igbaekemen, 2014). Even though some academics equate management and
leadership, this is incorrect. In actuality, leaders can come entirely from disorganised groups, while
managers can only be defined as such in an organisation whose organised structure defines duties
(Igbaekemen, 2014).
Human resource management includes planning, strategic recruitment, onboarding,
compensation management for growth, efficiency, worker relations, care services, job satisfaction,
and support programs for employees. It includes measures to increase business efficiency,
employee retention, and the quality of labour (Khan & Abdullah, 2019). For an organisation to
succeed, its human resources must be competently managed to strike a balance between meeting
the requirements of employees and meeting the expectations and competencies of management
(Mappamiring et al., 2020). Developing a company's human resources is closely linked to the
concept of leadership (Maynard et al., 2017). With proper focus on their human resources,
organisations may move forward in an adaptable way, creating new enterprises and adapting to the
changing needs of their customers (Tetrick and Peiró, 2012; Belias and Koustelios, 2014; Monzani
et al., 2015). Various issues are considered human resource challenges within an organisation, from
employee job satisfaction to turnover rate, and the list goes on. For example, despite annual
investments in employee engagement of hundreds of millions of dollars, Gallup's well-known
metrics of employee engagement and satisfaction reveal that only one-third of employees feel
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involved in their work (Harter, 2016). This essay investigates the role application of leadership in
tackling some of these issues.
Leadership and Human Resource Management Issues
Many scholars (Nguyen et al., 2019; Suong et al., 2019; Thanh et al., 2020; Yang and Kim,
2018) have researched the role within the context of organisational activities. The role of leadership
cannot be overemphasised. Leadership is multidimensional, and there are various styles of
leadership. The manner in which a person interacts with others to persuade them to collaborate
with them in pursuit of a common goal or purpose is another way to define leadership style (Harris
et al., 2007). Modern leadership styles include charismatic leadership, transactional leadership,
culture-based leadership, transformational leadership, and visionary leadership (Harris et al.,
2007). These leadership styles have been shown to influence human resource management
differently (Suong et al., 2019; Thanh et al., 2020).
Leadership and Job Satisfaction
The term "job satisfaction" has been defined in numerous ways by various researchers. It
is a term used to describe the pleasant feelings one gets after reflecting on one's work or job
experience (Collquit, 2015). When an employee's work contributes to the achievement of
meaningful goals, they are more likely to get satisfaction from their employment. They also have
favourable sensations when they think about their jobs, tasks, responsibilities, or work in general
(Collquit, 2015). On the basis of Self-Determination theory and organisational citizen behaviour,
Chiniara and Bentein (2016) examine how leadership and individual performance are intertwined
through the medium of competence and satisfaction. The outcomes of their investigation indicated
that effective leadership is a significant factor in determining levels of work satisfaction. In a
separate piece of research, Braun et al. (2013) showed that transformational leadership was linked
to greater levels of individual and team work satisfaction as well as improved objective team
performance. The relationship between work happiness and the transformational leadership was
mediated by employees' trust in their supervisors and confidence in their teams.
Leadership and Organisational Performance
The concept of organisational performance may be thought of as having several
dimensions. The performance of an organisation may be evaluated by comparing the outcomes or
actual outputs of the organisation with the outputs, goals, and objectives that were intended for the
organisation (Al Khajeh, 2018). The management approach used in a company has a considerable
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bearing on how efficiently it operates. The culture of an organisation and its level of productivity
are both susceptible to the leader's approach to management. Using the four-element leadership
theory and data gathered from 2,662 employees working in 311 firms, Klien et al. (2013)
established this fact. The type of leadership style directly impacts the culture and performance of
a business (Klein et al., 2013). According to the findings of the research that was carried out by
Xu and Wang (2010), it was found that transformational leadership has an effect on the overall
growth of the follower. Relationships with people that are both self-defining and fulfilling are
hallmarks of transformational leaders. The charisma possessed by transformational leaders
compels their followers to identify with them (Jyoti & Bhau, 2015). The personalised interaction
fostered by a transformative leader makes for an enjoyable and fruitful working environment.
There is a correlation between transformational leadership and the success of organisations (Jyoti
& Bhau, 2015).
Charismatic leaders build a vision and ask people to execute it. Leadership that exudes
charisma invigorates workers by fostering inventiveness and originality in their work (Al Khajeh,
2018). The disadvantage of this form of leadership is that its followers are totally reliant on their
leader, and if the leader were to step down, the followers would have nowhere else to turn (Al
Khajeh, 2018). According to the study conducted by Ojukwu et al. (2012), the relationship between
charismatic leadership style and organisational performance is negative. However, Longe (2014)
established a positive relationship between the transactional leadership style (exchange of goals
and rewards between the employer and employee, Ojukwu et al., 2012) and organisational
performance. The implication is that leadership plays a huge role in organisational performance,
and the more "flexible" or appealing the leadership style is, the better the overall organisational
performance.
Leadership and Employee Learning
Human resource development is generally involved in all areas and levels of a business to
assist people in obtaining knowledge, skills, and experience to excel in their positions and attain
work-life balance (Egan, 2011). Developing and nurturing a strategic human resource development
culture requires organisational support for performance and learning. Employee views of human
resource development may be restricted to instructional design, training delivery, learning
management systems, and learning technologies if the organisation provides insufficient support
for employee performance and learning (Hirudayaraj & Baker, 2018).
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There is a more significant need for learning to assist individuals in reskilling for emerging
technology or gaining new abilities to meet the demands of increasingly difficult positions as
businesses change and new methods of doing business become the standard (Akdere and Egan,
2020). In order to progress development and improvement, learning is still important to corporate
human resource development culture. Several factors affect a leader's support for learning, which
involves cognitive and behavioural participation (Yeo and Marquardt, 2015). Management
support, staff enthusiasm, and program implementation are crucial (Odor, 2019; Kim et al., 2015).
Leaders who integrate learning, performance, and human resource development systems can foster
this culture. Transformational leaders leverage human resource development processes and
mentality to support employee learning, growth, and performance (Akdere and Egan, 2020).
Employees increase the likelihood that customers will be happy as a result of their efforts to learn
and improve their performance by solving customer problems. Employees also report higher levels
of satisfaction about their own contributions to the organization's purpose (Akdere and Egan,
2020). The introduction of novel information sharing to key work processes results in the
development of new individual and organisational capacities, which in turn raise collective ability
and strengthen the potential of continuous improvement. Transformational leadership and human
resource development boost organisational performance. Leadership support for individual
learning and performance-linked with the organisation's human resource development culture and
support infrastructure, helps employees adjust to important changes and improves shared results
for internal and external stakeholders (Akdere and Egan, 2020).
Leadership and Employee Turnover
When building an environment where employees are motivated to be productive and
committed to the company's objective, their relationship with their boss is crucial. Your employees'
lack of mutual respect will lead to constant dissatisfaction (Jared, 2012). Organisations lose both
time and money when employees leave because of poor leadership. Employee turnover is a major
challenge for organisations. Research shows that turnover is caused by poor interaction between
leaders and followers (Alkhawaja, 2017). Employees think of quitting their existing jobs
voluntarily as their "turnover intention" (Borah and Malakar, 2015). An expanded definition of
employee turnover is when a worker looks for a different job opportunity with another company
(Lu and Gursoy, 2016). Turnover can reduce efficiency and performance (Gupta and Shaw,
2014). Most HR managers prioritise employee retention (Vivek and Satyanarayana, 2016).
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Morale, business efficiency, and operations can help retain employees and stabilise a company
(Reed et al., 2016).
The connection between leadership and employee turnover has been examined by a great number
of scholars (Hamstra et al., 2011; Pieterse-Landman, 2012; Long et al., 2012). Pieterse-Landman
(2012) found a substantial inverse correlation between transformative leadership and employee
turnover. Hamstra (2011) discovered that transformative leadership was inversely connected to
employee turnover for highly promotion-focused individuals but not low promotion-focused
employees. Wells and Pearchey (2011) compared transformational and transactional leadership
and employee turnover. Transformative leadership style and voluntary turnover were shown to be
negatively correlated, as was transactional leadership style and turnover in the organisation.
According to Ojokuku (2012), the transactional leader can pose an issue concerning
expectations. This implies that the trading process may be disrupted if an individual's expectation
is not realised. Nwokocha and Iheriohanma (2015) suggest that leaders and followers who
cannot enhance work satisfaction may experience staff turnover. Transactional leadership helps
workers understand their roles and duties, and individuals motivated by incentives perform well
in such a setting. Transactional leadership may be helpful or detrimental to the organisation.
Employees who are driven by extrinsically motivated may improve their performance, which may
have a favourable effect on both the organisation and the employee. This could also have an impact
on the staff retention rate. If the exchange process is interrupted, it could also have a detrimental
effect on the organisation, as it could lead to employee churn. Transactional leaders are faultfinders because they always find a way to attribute errors or flaws to their employees (Akhigbe,
Finelady & Felix, 2014). According to Vito, Higgins, and Denney (2014), both leaders and
followers possess a great amount of power and influence. The power and influence that individual
possesses within a company can affect their decision to remain or quit that firm.
Conclusion
Leadership is crucial in tackling critical human resource and development challenges. This
has been established from all the points reviewed in this essay. It is important to note that there are
more human resource management challenges that were not discussed in this essay. Also, any
organisation with a working and organised leadership will thrive and succeed as opposed to those
who do not. The different leadership styles all have their pros and cons. As such, organisations
should deploy these styles appropriately to boost efficiency and productivity within the
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organisation.
More than ever, organisations should pay attention to continual leadership development.
This will make the leaders or members of the management team up to date and rightly equipped
to deal with situations as they come. Also, this will benefit the organisation in the long run as an
effective leadership team will help drive sales and consequently make a profit. Also, it will help
retain the best brains in the organisation as there will be little or no turnover.
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