Organizational Leadership

The organizational context impacts leadership in many ways. Internal and external influences such as actors, processes, culture, structure, and environment each impact leadership differently. Although each of these plays a specific role in the organizational context of leadership, I believe that culture, environment, and actors have the greatest impact. Culture, environment, and actors all influence the way a successful organization goes about structuring business. When leaders within these organizations have the ability to recognize and adapt to different influences they build strong and successful organizations. This summer I experienced an extremely successful structure and style of leadership during an internship with the PGA of America. Although I could not find an official organizational structure for the PGA, I did learn quite a bit about how the management was structured while working for them. The PGA seemed for be quite a horizontal style structure. There were many leaders with different titles that all seemed equally qualified, important, and held a high level of responsibility. Each of these leaders held positions in very different areas of business. In the area I worked in, Merchandise Operations, my boss displayed supportive leadership, participative leadership, and achievement leadership. All of these resulted from our high-stress and at times tedious work environment. He used a supportive leadership style to maintain a good morale during the long and tiring days. He complemented us on our work and was rarely negative because he wanted to increase our confidence as employees, so we maintained the quality of work he expected out of us. He also displayed participative leadership. Our tasks as interns were often unstructured and unclear, but the way they were presented made us feel like they made us personally interested in accomplishing them. My boss was also confronted with the task of a new staff and a new environment. Each PGA event is in a different location around the country and they generally hire local interns and must adapt to different cultures and environments. My boss had to adapt to the new actors (interns) and the Minnesota environment. Additionally he had the daunting task of selling more than $6 million worth of merchandise in one week during terrible economic times. By using those three styles of leadership he created an atmosphere throughout his subordinates that allowed him to successfully achieve his and the PGA's goals. There are many things that can impact the leadership style of an organization. Adaptation to different elements within and outside of the organization is a key trait of a successful leader. Whether it be the PGA of a youth sports organization leadership in many shapes and forms is necessary to become a successful organization.