Relational Leadership

Question: Describe about relational leadership. Answer: Relational leadership is a relational process where people come together for accomplishing change and make a difference for their common benefits. This philosophy values being inclusive and ethical and acknowledges the diverse talents that the group members possess for bringing about good thinking that makes the group members socially responsible and work towards their goals. The effectiveness of leadership is based on the relationships (Stephens Carmeli, 2015). This assignment will critically analyze three articles on relational leadership and produce a discussion paper based on the theoretical framework. The first article is by the authors Cunliffe Eriksen (2011) is an extended contemporary work on the theory of relational leadership. The paper is based on a dialogue between a Federal Security Director and a Researcher where the latter asks the former his opinion about leading and managing an organization. Through their dialogues, the authors have elaborately explained the theories of relational leadership and its real time application under emerging circumstances of a job situation. The dialogues present in this paper were not the action thresholds, but they were the action themselves based on the theories. The authors have presented different ways of enacting and conceptualizing leadership through this paper which is contributory to the theories of relational leadership. The second article is by Uhl-Bien (2011) where the author has considered the various perspectives of relational leadership and has thoroughly investigated the theory by creating an overarching framework. The author has experimented with various theories and models associated with relational leadership in this paper and has critically analyzed the previous works carried out in this prospect. From his investigations, the author has put forward a vital concept that investigation of the theories of relational leadership requires methodologies that are richer than the cross-sectional survey data with the usage of limited measures. This article somehow relates to the previous one in terms of its views towards the rise of leadership through the productive perspectives of the managers through the negotiations and interactions of the social order among the members of the organization. The third article is by Ospina Foldy (2010) that explored the collaborative antecedents of the perceptions of the organizations of social change. The authors carried out a qualitative study of 40 organizations in the US that are working with the marginalized communities for the identification of the leadership practices. This article particularly emphasized on the practices of relational leadership that the participants in the organizations of social change use for cultivating the connections among the divided and disparate connections. This study applied a constructionist and relational lens to the leadership empirical studies. From these articles, few unanswered questions generated which requires further discussion. What is the real time application of relational leadership apart from social change organizations? How can the information gained from these articles be incorporated into the surrounding leadership beliefs? What suitable actions can be taken with this gained knowledge on relational leadership? This is the questions that require further peer discussion and answering them will lead towards better understanding and implementation of relational leadership theories. References Cunliffe, A. L., Eriksen, M. (2011). Relational leadership.Human Relations,64(11), 1425-1449. Ospina, S., Foldy, E. (2010). Building bridges from the margins: The work of leadership in social change organizations.The Leadership Quarterly,21(2), 292-307. Stephens, J. P., Carmeli, A. (2015). Relational Leadership and Creativity: The Effects of Respectful Engagement and Caring on Meaningfulness and Creative Work Involvement. Uhl-Bien, M. (2011). Relational leadership theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. InLeadership, gender, and organization(pp. 75-108). Springer Netherlands.