LEADERSHIP STYLE

LEADERSHIP

Leadership has a direct cause and effect relationship upon organizations and their success. Leaders determine values, culture, change tolerance and employee motivation. They shape institutional strategies including their execution and effectiveness. Leaders can appear at any level of an institution and are not exclusive to management. Successful leaders do, however, have one thing in common. They influence those around them in order to reap maximum benefit from the organization’s resources, including its most vital and expensive: its people.

Leadership style is a leader’s style of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating people. There are many leadership styles that can be exhibited by leaders in the political, business, management or other fields.

Leadership theories describe leaders based upon traits or how influence and power used to achieve objectives. When using trait-based descriptions, a leader may be classified as autocratic, democratic or charismatic. In viewing leadership from the perspective of the exchange of power and its utilization to secure outcomes, leaders are situational, transactional or transformational. Below is a brief examination of each of the common leadership style listed above and their potential impact and associated problems.

AUTOCRATIC

Autocratic leaders are classic “do as I say” types. Typically, these leaders are inexperienced with leadership thrust upon them in the form of a new position or assignment that involves people management. Autocratic leaders can damage an organization irreparably as they force their ‘followers’ to execute strategies and services in a very narrow way based upon a subjective idea of what success looks like.

There is no shared vision and little motivation beyond coercion. Commitment, creativity and innovation are typically eliminated by autocratic leadership. In fact, most followers of autocratic leaders can be described as biding their time waiting for the inevitable failure this leadership produces and the removal of the leader that follows.

Some of the obvious problems of autocratic leadership style include the following:

1. Autocratic leadership style does not encourage cordial relationship between leaders and the subordinates because strict hands of the leader will not give a chance for sense of interaction.

2. It does not encourage development of workers initiatives because the leaders under autocratic styles makes decision on his own without putting subordinate idea into consideration.

3. It does not guarantee employees freedom because in this style the subordinate are not fully empowered and opportuned to demonstrate their experiences.

4. It can easily lean, d to failure in the employees because when autocratic style is applied workers will be performing task under fear which may in turn lead to failure on them

DEMOCRATIC

It sounds easy enough. Instead of one defined leader, the group leads itself. Egalitarian to the core, democratic leaders are frustrated bythe enormous effort required to build consensus for even the most mundane decisions as well as the glacial pace required to lead a groupby fiat. The potential for poor decision-making and weak execution is significant here. The biggest problem with democratic leadership isits underlying assumptions that everyone has an equal stake in an outcome as well as shared levels of expertise with regard to decisions.

That’s rarely the case. While democratic leadership sounds good in theory, it often is bogged down in its own slow process, and workable results usually require an enormous amount of effort. The problems of this leadership style are as follows:

1. Democratic leadership style causes the leader tobe taken for granted because of making himself available to the subordinates.

2. It can make subordinates to have much believes in financial incentives unlike autocratic styles where the subordinates hold contentions that the leader is strict and he cannot tolerate over demand of the workers.

3. It leads to slow adaptation to training and development particularly on the new recruited personnel who may not take leaders serious.

4. Democratic leadership style may lead to denial of responsibilities by the subordinates.

BUREAUCRATIC

Bureaucratic leaders create, and rely on, policy to meet organizational goals. Policies drive execution, strategy, objectives and outcomes.

Bureaucratic leaders are most comfortable relying on a stated policy in order to convince followers to get on board. In doing so they send a very direct message that policy dictates direction. Bureaucratic leaders are usually strongly committed to procedures and processes instead of people, and as a result they may appear aloof and highly change adverse. The specific problem or problems associated with using policies to lead aren’t always obvious until the damage is done. The danger here is that leadership’s greatest benefits, motivating and developing people, are ignored by bureaucratic leaders. Policies are simply inadequate to the task of motivating and developing commitment. The specific risk with bureaucratic leaders is the perception that policies come before people, and complaints to that effect are usually met with resistance or disinterest.

Policies are not in themselves destructive, but thoughtlessly developed and blindly implemented policy can de-motivate employees and frustrate desired outcomes. The central problem here is similar to the one associated with autocratic leaders. Both styles fail to motivate and have little impact on people development. In fact, the detrimental impact could be significant and far outweigh any benefits realized by these leadership styles.

CHARISMATIC

By far the most successful trait-driven leadership style is charismatic. Charismatic leaders have a vision, as well as a personality that motivates followers to execute that vision. As a result, this leadership type has traditionally been one of the most valued. Charismatic leadership provides fertile ground for creativity and innovation, and is often highly motivational. With charismatic leaders at the helm, the organization’s members simply want to follow. It sounds like a best case scenario. There is however, one significant problem that potentially undercuts the value of charismatic leaders: they can leave. Once gone, an organization can appear rudderless and without direction. The floundering can last for years, because charismatic leaders rarely develop replacements. Their leadership is based upon strength of personality. As a result, charismatic leadership usually eliminates other competing, strong personalities. The result of weeding out the competition is a legion of happy followers, but few future leaders.

SITUATIONAL

Situational leadership theory suggests that the best leaders constantly adapt by adopting different styles for different situations or outcomes. This theory reflects a relatively sophisticated view of leadership in practice and can be a valuable frame of reference for experienced, seasoned leaders who are keenly aware of organizational need and individual motivation. Most importantly, it allows experienced leaders the freedom to choose from a variety of leadership iterations.

Problems arise, however, when the wrong style is applied inelegantly. Also, considering our earlier discussion regarding some of the more ineffective leadership styles like autocratic and bureaucratic, this style requires a warning or disclaimer related to unintended or less than optimal results when choosing one of these styles. With that said, situational leadership can represent a useful framework for leaders to test and develop different styles for various situations with an eye towards fine-tuning leadership results. Situational leadership, however, is most effective when leaders choose more effective styles like charismatic, transactional, and transformational.

TRANSACTIONAL

The wheeler-dealers of leadership styles, transactional leaders are always willing to give you something in return for following them. It can be any number of things including a good performance review, a raise, a promotion, new responsibilities or a desired change in duties. The problem with transactional leaders is expectations. If the only motivation to follow is in order to get something, what happens during lean times when resources are stretched thin and there is nothing left with which to make a deal? That said, transactional leaders sometimes display the traits or behaviors of charismatic leaders and can be quite effective in many circumstances while creating motivated players. They are adept at making deals that motivate and this can prove beneficial to an organization. The issue then is simply one of sustainability.

Effects Of Leadership Style On The Productivity Of Office Employees

Leadership style adopted by officer manager in an organization has a great effects on the productivity of office employees, which can be negative or positive. However it is paramount to know that every style of leadership has its negative or positive effects on organizational productivity.

Leadership is believed to be one of the contributing factors to employee’s turmoil. Hence, it proves that capable leadership is a critical element in any organisation. An organisation depends on leadership to guide them through unprecedented changes. Without proper leadership, even the best and boldest strategies “die on the vine”, and their potential is never realized. The quality of leadership talent determines the fate of the organisations, ensuring that their strategic plans are successfully implemented. It also helps them to prepare for a more uncertain future.

Leadership also impacts the organisational culture, and plays a part in the productivity of the organisation. Mark Vickers quoted in his article stating that, “seventy-six percent of highly productive companies said that, to a high or very high extent, leadership in their companies raises productivity”. Hence, this further emphasizes the importance of an effective leadership for a successful organisation.

1. Effects of Autocratic Leadership Style

Authoritarian leaders know exactly what they want done, who is to do it, and when it should be completed. Although these leaders don’t offer much wiggle room, they often get the job done, and they make their expectations obvious. Autocratic leaders do well in small organizations with untrained employees.

2. Effects of Democratic Leadership Style

The democratic style encourages employees and stakeholders to participate in decision-making. With an experienced workforce, the democratic style can be a positive and motivational experience for all stakeholders. Because everyone is included in making decisions, the decision makers need to be knowledgeable about the business, the process, the product, and the vision statement. This can require more time to get things done.

3. Effects of Laissez-Fair Leadership Style

Trust and confidence are hallmarks of the Laissez-fair leadership style, Laissez – fair leadership express minimal interference in employees’ efforts. Under a Laissez-fair leader, employees have free rein to make decisions and get their jobs done. This style works very well with an educated and experienced workforce, especially with those who would like to become leaders themselves.

Using this style with employees who are insecure, afraid of making mistakes, or have difficulty communicating with others can be very disastrous in an organization.

REFERENCES

Harvard Business Essentials: Managing Creativity and Innovation, 2003, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass.

Adams, B. & Adams, C. 2009, “Transformation”, Leadership Excellence, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 14-15.

Amabile, T. M. &Khaire, M. 2008, “Creativity and the role of the leader”, Harvard business review, vol. 86, no. 10, pp. 100.

Ayman, R. &Korabik, K. 2010, “Leadership”, American Psychologist, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 157-170.

Boulter, J. 2010. Recovery Leadership. Leadership Excellence, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 13-13.

Brown, T. 2009. Leadership in challenging times. Business Strategy Review, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 36.

Dixon, M. L. & Hart, L. K. 2010. The impact of path-goal leadership styles on work group effectiveness and turnover intention. Journal ofManagerial Issues, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 52-69.

Eisenbeiss, S., van Knippenberg, D. &Boerner, S. 2008. Transformational leadership and Team Innovation: Integrating Team ClimatePrinciples. Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 93, no. 6, pp. 1438.

Giri, V. N. &Santra, T. 2010.Effects of job experience, career stage, and hierarchy on leadership style. Singapore Management Review, vol.32, no. 1, pp. 85-93.

Isaksen, S. G. 2007. The climate for transformation: Lessons for leaders. Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 3.

LEADERSHIP STYLE

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