SUBSTITUTES FOR AND NEUTRALIZERS OF LEADERSHIP

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF LEADERSHIP

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Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................2
Leadership........................................................................................................................................2
Substitutes for leadership................................................................................................................3
Neutralization for leadership...........................................................................................................3
Crucial trends to neutralize or substitute leadership behavior.......................................................3
Crucial changes in the world of leadership.....................................................................................4
1. Characteristics of subordinates............................................................................................4
2. Task-Based characteristics....................................................................................................5
3. Organization Characteristics.................................................................................................5
Impact of Situational variables........................................................................................................6
Conditions of leadership in the future............................................................................................8
1. Learning Agility.....................................................................................................................8
2. Focused attention.................................................................................................................8
3. Lateral thinking.....................................................................................................................8
4. Systems thinking...................................................................................................................9
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................9
References.....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
This report is about the challenges that leadership faces with the changing environment within
or outside the business organizations. It studies the forces or factors that are going towards the
situation to make the leadership behavior neutralize or substituted within a business
organization. These factors are being identified and have also been categorized based on their
relationship with the leadership. The impact of all these factors has also been analyzed in this
report that how it will affect the future of the leadership world. Some of the future conditions
will also be identified that will help the leadership to cope with the changing business
environment and situation to maintain its status of being influencers for the subordinates. This
report will also explain how the leaders need to adapt themselves to the future of the
leadership which is becoming more complex over time.

Leadership
Leadership is the ability of the leader to influence and inspire others for the achievement of the
common goal of the society or organization. Leadership is commonly based on ideas that may
be innate or learned that guide and direct the subordinates for the achievement of the
common goals. Leadership is the process to influence a group of people to achieve a certain
goal. In the context of business, leadership is the ability to guides subordinates to achieve
organizational goals with the effective and efficient usage of organizational resources (David V.
Day, 2012). To achieve this, leadership needs to behave a critical thinking power to use the
organization wisely. Numerous theories have been established and presented to explain the
various styles of leadership and give ideas over the future of leadership. Some of the important
theories and styles in this regard are a democratic style of leadership, autocratic style of
leadership, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, situational leadership,
contingency theory of leadership, and so on. Leadership gives vision to the organization and
then directs the group to achieve the goals.

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Substitutes for leadership
The contingency theory of leadership states that the success of a leader or its leadership
depends on the situation at hand. In every situation or environment, certain factors define the
success of a leadership style. These contingency approaches have been so far categorized into
three basic categories such as leadership style, employees’ nature of the conduct, and the
situation or environment that exist (Fiedler, 1971). The substitutes approach of leadership
identifies the factors or situations that make a leadership unimportant or redundant the
leadership. In this situation, highly professional subordinates do not need to be guided and
directed by the leader and can effectively accomplish their task (M.Jermier & Kerr, 1978).

Neutralization for leadership

Neutralization for leadership can also be explained within the context of contingency theory of
leadership and identifies the variables that neutralize the effectiveness of leadership (Dionne,
2002). In this situation, a variable prevents a leader from showing certain behaviors. For
example, a leader has no positional power to remove an employee and also his ability to give
direction to the employees becomes limited due to the professional ability and skills of the
subordinate.

Crucial trends to neutralize or substitute leadership behavior

Numerous crucial trends have been identified that can potentially substitute or neutralize
leadership behavior. These factors are education, training, experience, professionalism,
indifference towards organization rewards, formalization, clarity of roles and responsibilities,
auto feedback process, cohesive group work, low position power, inflexibility, and remote
leadership. All these factors have a wide and deep impact on the leadership that exists in an
organization because these factors give more independence to the employees within an
organization. They have an increased ability to complete their tasks effectively without taking
increased guidance from the leader (Schaubroeck, 2007). Substitutes for leadership variables
clarify the roles, responsibility, expectations, motivate the members, or satisfy them and limits
the leaders to do it. Substitutes are supplements to the leader's behavior and make the

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leadership less necessary within the organization. For example, a highly experienced and skilled
person knows what can promote him within the organization or what is expected of him. He
follows the organizational rules and needs external motivation from the leader to do that he
could be promoted within the organization. Sometimes, a person likes to solve an interesting
problem within the organization and take its recognition through an auto feedback process and
performance analysis makes them motivated. Neutralization of leadership, make the leaders
prevent from what they like to do. A computer program that analyses the employee’s
performance or seniority for the pay or bonus prevents a leader from deciding in such context
and merit-based pay is given based on performance or seniority that has been identified by the
computer software. These neutralizer variables also have positive impacts such as it reduces the
biasedness within the organization and promote merit-based decisions within the organization
(Villoria, 2016). It has been revealed from the aforementioned analysis that crucial trends
within an organization will neutralize and substitute the behaviors of the leaders in the future.

Crucial changes in the world of leadership

The effectiveness and behavior of leadership depend on the condition prevailing within an
organization. The business environment is continuously changing over time due to increased
research within the field of business management, leadership, and technology used (Erkutlu,
2008). These all factors have a potential impact on the behavior of leadership within an
organization. These factors are being divided into three main categories which are employee
characteristics, task-based characteristics, and organizational characteristics. Some of the
factors that have a potential impact on the world of leadership are as given below;

1. Characteristics of subordinates

Education, training, and Experience: With the advancement of the quality of education, the
level of knowledge of the employees have been increased, and are more knowledgeable. The
more knowledge an individual has, the less guidance it needs to be required. Same as the case
with training and experience, the employees give more focus or training and experience and so
fewer directions it needs. It substitutes the leadership behavior and makes leadership less
necessary with organizations.

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Professional orientation: Professional orientation or increased professionalism has neutralized
or substitute the leadership behavior as a professional individual has more skills and knowledge
in its related field. For example, an engineer has advanced skills to operate a machine than a
leader who does not have any professional education and skills in operating a particular
machine (Kvalnes, 2014).

Indifference toward rewards: The leader’s decisions regarding performance appraisal, merit
pay, or seniority level recognition have been replaced by computer software’s which takes
unbiased decisions and has limited the leadership decisions.

2. Task-Based characteristics

Structured, and unambiguous task: Formal structure and clear tasks within the organizations
also have an impact on the leadership behavior as clarity reduces the level of directions and
guidance that needs to be given by a leader.

Auto Feedback: Automation within the management operational process has reduced the
effectiveness of leaders' comments or feedback and performance are appraised through
advanced software’s having no biasedness in its decisions.

Intrinsic satisfaction: professionals like to solve the problem and get the recognition. They like
to solve problems within the organization and neutralizes the leadership roles within an
organization.

3. Organization Characteristics

Cohesive workgroup: Cohesive workgroup is the group in which the members are linked
through certain social, emotional, or other needs. They work to protect the rights of each other
and also assist each other in their responsibilities and duties thus neutralizes or substitutes the
leader behavior.

Low position power: The decreasing control of the leader on the organization rewards due to
an increased usage of technology and more imparting of information has neutralized or
substitutes the leader behavior.

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Formalization: Formalization is the increased written and strict policies within an organization
that has neutralized or substitutes the leader behavior by more clarifying the personal roles and
responsibilities of an individual or a group or individuals.

Remote leadership and limited communication: Controlling employees from another location
or separating employees from the leaders limit the communication process and reduce the
level of control over the employees. It reduces leadership control and effectiveness which
results in the neutralization of leadership behavior within an organization.

Impact of Situational variables

Situational variables are the factors that affect the leadership style and its effectiveness within a
given situation or an organization. Every leadership is potentially affected by the organizational
situation and also paves the way for the future of leadership by learning from the situations
being faced by a leader. Some of the key trends or variables that affect leadership are as given
below;

1. Characteristics of subordinates

Professionalism is a situation in which a professional loves their tasks and tries his best to
complete the task. It can be acquired through high qualification, training, and experience.
Continuous professional development also promotes professionalism in the employees and
needs little guidance for the professional duties. A professional individual values reward as a
low-value factor for their motivation to complete their duties and responsibilities. The rise of
professionalism with the employees has made the leadership less effective and has raised
limitations upon the leadership (Toor, 2009). The low position power of the leaders also affects
the effectiveness of leadership within the organization such as low control over the reward
system within organizations due to auto performance analysis of the workers which neutralized
the leadership and raise certain limitations upon leadership effectiveness.

2. Task-Based characteristics

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The formalization within the organizations and the building of team working have also affected
the effectiveness of leadership. The formal rules and structure always guide one regarding their
role, responsibility, and what is expected from him or them. It has clear all that is expected
from the employees by the organization and has negatively affected the leader behavior. With
the development of the technology and being adopted by the organizations, a highly structured
organization has been developed with automatic feedback and increased intrinsic satisfaction
for the employees has affected the effectiveness of leadership within the organizations.
Automation within the organization is one of the main factors that has a substitute or
neutralized the leadership because of the auto feedback and guidance process by advanced
computer software.

3. Organization Characteristics

Organizational characteristics such as cohesive workgroup affect the leader’s behavior as they
work in collaboration with each other to protect their rights and assist themselves in their
responsibilities and duties resulting neutralizes or substitutes the leader behavior. The
continuous decline in leader control over organizational rewards due to increased usage of
technology has neutralized or substitutes the leader behavior. The more formal the
organization, the more its impact on a leader’s behavior. The physical barriers such as separate
working places for both leaders and workers or remote control of the subordinates also
neutralized the leadership due to limited communication between them (Hooijberg, 2007).

The above analysis showed that the above-identified variables or trends affect leadership
behavior and thus substitute or neutralize leadership within the organization and shapes the
future of leadership. This has revealed the changing pattern of leadership that needs to be
adopted by the leaders of the future to cope with the difficulty of leadership substitution or
neutralization.

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Conditions of leadership in the future
With the continuous change in the business environment, the leadership in the organization
also needs to be changed to adapt to the changing environment and always be effective. This
can be achieved through fulfilling certain conditions, which are as discussed below;

1. Learning Agility
As the world of leadership is rapidly changing with the changes in the business environment
both at the micro-level as well as macro level. Continuous learning is essential for the leader to
effective as a leader need to be equipped with a lot of knowledge in every aspect of the
business. Without knowledge and continuous learning, a leader will lose his position and will be
avoided within the organization by the employees. For example, a leader needs to be updated
with technological changes and will also be able to use these tools and applications effectively.
Leadership should have to acquire new skills and mindset to influence others within his
workstation and achieve the organizational goals (Kamble, 2019). Through this way, he will be
able to cope with the employee’s situation in which they are substituting or neutralizing
leadership behavior. The leaders who are lack behind in the era of the internet and computers
have become redundant.

2. Focused attention

A leader needs to be attentive every time and respond to unprecedented stimuli. In this age,
where increased usage of technological equipment and gadgets is taken place a leader needs to
be attentive. A leader has to respond to cell phones, emails, WhatsApp texts, social media, and
also to respond to co-workers and subordinates. If all these distractions have not been
responded to effectively, a leader will lose control over the subordinated and will be
substituted or neutralized (Martin, 2007). A leader will have to learn tactics and prove himself
as an effective leader which cannot be substituted or neutralized.

3. Lateral thinking

Lateral thinking is also known as creative thinking and innovation. To influence others, a leader
needs to be creative and have ideas that can change the course of business. Innovative business

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practices would influence others and will make them follow the leader. Such creative thinking
would make the leaders be able to work within the condition where there is a continuous
change in business operations and models. A leader has to be a step forward than other people
within the organization as he would be able to influence them and would also pave the way to
direct them.

4. Systems thinking

A leader needs to adopt the policy to think according to the system and blue their own trumpet
to influence others. Business organizations are continuously changing over time and a leader is
in a spider web surrounded by a large number of invisible strings. These strings might be
subordinates, suppliers, customers, financers, owners, and all other stakeholders having some
effect on the business and its leadership. A leader has to change his mindset from the linear
thing to the circular model. Through this approach, a leader needs to respond to every
individual according to his environment, cause, and reason (Palaima, 2010). This approach is
essential in solving complex business problems, and turn the situation on its side and alongside
reduces its effects on the business organization.

Conclusion
It has been concluded from the above analysis that the approach towards leadership is
continually affected by various factors. These factors make the leadership unnecessary or
ineffective in the business environment but a leader always needs to be one step ahead in all
these situations. The leadership needs to respond in the same manner to maintain its status of
being an influencer and achieve the organizational purpose. For this purpose, a leader needs to
be attentive to all these situations and respond effectively to maintain its status of being
superior. For this purpose, a leader needs to adapt to the future conditions that affect the
leadership and create effectiveness in response to substitution or neutralization of the
leadership behavior. In a one-note summary, it is concluded that a leader needs to be an agile
learner, having focused attention, lateral and system thinker to respond substitution or
neutralization to the leadership behavior.

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