Informal Leadership Essay

The employees with the largest amount of status in the informal organization usually become its informal leader. Some of the advantages of informal leadership are that the informal leader is someone within an organization or work unit who, by virtue of how he or she is perceived by his peers (or others in the organization) is seen as worthy of paying attention to, or following. The major thing that distinguishes an informal leader from a formal one is that the informal leader does not hold a position of power or formal authority over those that choose to follow him or her. The ability for an informal leader to influence or lead others rests on the ability of that person to evoke respect, confidence, and trust in others, and it is not uncommon for an informal leader to not intentionally try to lead. Informal leaders can be exceedingly valuable to organizations, and to the success of formal leaders, or, if informal leaders do not support the formal leaders and their agendas and vision, they can function as barriers in the organization. The reasons for the drawbacks in informal leadership are because informal standards: personal goals and interests of workers differ from official organizational goals, also, informal communication: changes of communication routes within an enterprise due to personal relations between coworkers. In an informal group: certain groups of coworkers have the same interests, or (for example) the same origin. The informal leaders: due to charisma and general popularity, certain members of the organization win more influence than originally intended. There are different interests and preferences of coworkers as well as different status of coworkers. Lastly, the work requirements are difficult and their conditions of work are unpleasant. On balance, I feel that informal leadership is good for the organization because it plays several useful roles for a work unit. For example, the informal leader is expected to model and explain the key norms (informal standards of behavior) of the informal group for new members. If someone fails to comply with the groups norms, the informal leader will most likely play a dominant role in applying various forms and degrees of pressure or punishment to the individual to induce the desired behavior in the future.