Understand leadership styles paper

UAE National Development Department

Learning Outcome 1: Understand leadership styles

Trends in leadership

Leadership is defined as the process in which an individual also referred to as a leader influences the followers or supporters to undertake a specified task and complete it accordingly. Leadership plays a key role in organization success as it enhances the cohesiveness and coherency of people within the organization. Although leadership and management have several differences, the contemporary organization structures require management to show leadership skills. As such, there is intertwining function of management and leadership. The organizational leadership and other social leadership has been undergoing great changes resulting in contemporary state of art leadership skills.

Types of leadership styles

Basically, there are five types of leadership styles. The leadership styles have several advantages and disadvantages although there are those which are more preferable in contemporary organizations. The leadership styles are transformational leadership, autocratic or dictatorial leadership, Laissez-faire leadership, transactional leadership and participative leadership (Storey,2004,p.11).

Autocratic leadership

Autocratic leadership style is one in which the powers of decision making are concentrated or centralized in the leader. In this leadership style, the leader does not entertain any input or suggestion from the subordinates. This leadership style is imperative to motivate the management or top leadership of an organization. Further , it enables quick decision making processes as it does not involve many individual in discussion .However, this form of leadership is not the best in the contemporary business setting because it does not involve the input of the employees and might  not motivate them, which is detrimental for organization success in the competitive environment(Rothwell, Prescott &Taylor,2008,p.92).

Laissez-Faire leadership

Laissez-Faire leadership style is one in which the subordinate have a free hand in developing and deciding their own methods and policies. In this leadership style, there is practice of democracy where each one is given a chance to choose what he or she wants thus giving thus motivating the subordinates to be innovative and creative. However, not all employees have the ability of supervising themselves and so this type of leadership may result in lack of control and poor or low production (Giuliani & Kurson,2002,p.84).

Participative leadership

Participative leadership, which is also referred to as the democratic leadership is one in which the top management or top organization leadership takes into consideration the input of the subordinates but the final decisions on organization matters remains with the leader. In this case, the leadership enhances the morale of the subordinates or employee’s morale by allowing them to make important and positive contributions to the processes of decision making. When an organization intends to make major restructuring or changes within the organization, the participative leader enables employees to provide their opinion and leads them to accept changes. As such, there is minimal resentment and employees seek motivation. This type of leadership is essential for the development of current organizations (Stippler,2011,p.49).

Transactional leadership

Transactional leadership is where a leader utilizes the punishments and rewards to gain respect, compliance and following of the subordinates. This form of leadership tends to be action oriented, follows strictly the culture of the organization, and is directive. This is not the type of the contemporary leadership style in an organization because the driving forces of employees to productivity are either to avoid punishment or receive rewards. Employees cannot make their own initiative out of the reward and punishment spheres (Rothwell, Prescott &Taylor,2008,p.12).

Transformational leadership and the current leadership trends

Although participative, Laissez-Faire and in some cases transactional leadership are utilized in the modern organizations, transformational leadership has been proven to be the ideal and practical leadership style that enhances motivation of the employees, guides them to make apt decision in productivity and promotes the general performance of the organization.

Transformational leadership, which is imperative and most favored in the contemporary environment, is a form of leadership where the management or leadership of the organization enhances the performance, motivation, aspirations and Morales of the subordinates by employing several mechanisms that include a leader being a self model, challenge the subordinates to be responsible for their work and lives within the organization, understanding the weaknesses of the subordinates and using the weakness to be their strength, can identify with the employees and make them part of the leadership and assist them to be interested in fulfilling the goals of the organization(Stippler,2011,p.39).

There are four elements that make transformational leadership an essential aspect of current leadership trend. The elements are intellectual simulation, individual consideration, idealized influence, and inspirational motivation.

Intellectual Simulation

In this case, the leaders do not only challenge the status quo, which was important and valued in past organizations, but they encourage creativity among the employees or subordinates and enables them to explore new opportunities and ways of doing things. Microsoft inc is an example of organizations that encourages workers to be creative and encourages them to come up with innovative ideas that have catapulted the business into a top global organization (Storey,2004,p.84).

Idealized influence

In this case, the leadership attends to the needs of each follower by acting as the role model, mentor and listener to the concerns of each follower. As such, the subordinates and employees build trust in their leadership, a factor that enables them to accept the new ideas and enable improved productivity (Storey,2004,p.84).

Individualized consideration

This is a case where a leader in the organization context or any other leadership position offers encouragement and support to individuals to the subordinates. The aim of this element is to enhance communication, foster supportive relationship and recognizes the creativity and distinct contribution exhibited by each individual within the organization (Storey,2004,p.84).

Inspirational motivation

This is a case in which the organization leadership articulates motivational visions that enables employees to experience a similar motivation and passion to fulfill the goals of leadership. The goal of achieving and fulfilling a specified vision is accompanies by ardent communication skills that is vital in building the employee’s trust, enhances performance and creates optimal satisfaction. The contemporary leadership style has been vital for the good leadership and employees’ motivation experiences at the moment. Since leadership style is an evolving factor, there is a high likelihood of emerging innovative leadership styles in the future (Storey,2004,p.84).

Future trends of leadership

The current modern leadership trend is transformational leadership. It is based on the fact that the development of leadership is learned, it is result oriented, motivates and creates satisfaction among employees and enhances respect in the relationship between leadership and the subordinates. With the current information age and advance in technology, there is high possibility that future trends of leadership will change tremendously. One of the main future trends is the use of virtual leadership to enhance communication, motivation, create brands and enhance team interaction. Another future trend is the development of collective leadership tactic other than the conventional individual based leadership tactic. As such, the web and technology will play an influential role in driving leadership style changes that embrace collectivity in leadership. Although currently, the leadership embraces horizontal development, there is high possibility that the future leadership will take both vertical and horizontal development. In this case, each individual within the organization will own leadership development and everyone will be included in the leadership strategies. The most essential leadership quality that are likely to be adopted in future are self awareness, new networking thinking, boundary spanning, adaptability, and collaboration (Storey,2004,p.94).

Conclusion

Leadership is an important aspect of any organization or political and social spheres. A leader motivates the subordinates to achieve a certain set direction. Leadership has been evolving and new and innovative strategies have been developed to enhance performance of the organization and promote the satisfaction of the employees. The current leadership style that is highly practices is the transformational leadership. However, in future, there are likely to be major changes in leadership styles which are controlled by the internet and web. The future skills that are likely to be adopted in leadership are self awareness, new networking thinking, boundary spanning, adaptability, and collaboration.

An example of “Need-based theory” would be a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory that assumes people are motivated according their personal needs. Human needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance (Moorhead & Griffin, 2012).

These needs are divided into two sub-categories

·      Low-order needs – physiological and safety needs, they are satisfied externally (payment, unions)

·      High-order needs – esteem, social and self-actualization needs, they are satisfied internally.

Employee Motivation

Managers find motivating employees somewhat challenging. Employees are different from each other the reason why motivating them is a bit difficult. Each individual has her or his own likes and dislikes, desires or interests and passion. The role of a thriving manager is to understand his/her employees by learning how to recognize what motivates each individual and how to leverage these motives to concurrently fulfill the organizational goals and objectives, as well as the objectives of each employee. There are five main employee motivation factors, which help managers build a successful organization namely appreciation, satisfaction, recognition, compensation and inspiration (Maroney, 2004).

Employee motivation through building satisfaction

Satisfaction is one of the important key factors for a successful organization.  According to Maroney (2004), when a manager creates a work environment which focuses, attracts and keeps talented employees, employees are satisfied and perform better. Happy employees result in happy customers. In other words, a manager should focus on maintaining satisfied employees,  employee motivation and as a result these satisfied, motivated employees will take good care of customers.

Employee motivation by genuine appreciation.

Appreciation is another important key motivation factor. At times, managers while not knowing  sabotage employee motivation through failing to appreciate the positive behaviors and success of their employees. As a consequence, employees are not aware of whether or not they are performing a good job.  Managers can improve this situation by rewarding their employees. A reward as simple as a pat in the back or a note could do the job, additionally, being specific about a job done by an employee results in much better performance.  By being specific, the employee realizes that their actions are being watched and what they do affects the organization even if it is small (Maroney, 2004).

Employee motivation by recognising.

Recognition is the acknowledgment of an event, object, person, phenomenon, or right, before its acceptance, inclusion, or recording (Business dictionary, 2013). Recognition is important in organizations and it plays an important role. Many employees want recognition more than money that is why sometimes recognition is the secret weapon of managers to motivate the employees. Some employees want to be recognized by people within the organization once a job was well done by them. A manager should look for a manner to increase employee motivation through recognizing excellence within the workplace. This is possible by ringing a bell on each time an individual or the team meets the production target, or by putting up posters that have photographs of members of the team who have had the highest number of days without accidents and giving out prizes for attendance records. Through this, managers will see their employees giving their best. It’s cheap and highly effective. (Maroney, 2004)

Employee motivation by inspiring

Inspiration develops from leadership. This type of employee motivation involves the mission, purpose and goals of the company. People desire to be associated with an organization that is going forward, stands for something and which offers a meaningful service in the marketplace. When employees feel their organization stands out from others, they are more motivated to do better. One important thing here is managers make the goals for the companies clear (Maroney, 2004).

Employee motivation by compensating

The last key motivating factor is compensation. Majority of the employees are motivated by being given money. There are many forms of compensation such as performance bonuses, raises, profit sharing, commissions, or any variety of “extra benefits” such as, vacations, automobiles, or any other tangible items that can be bought and be used as rewards. By rewarding employees with different items other than money, managers will see some of their employees excited to show their best performance in order to receive these returns. (Maroney, 2004).

Introduction

Leadership is hardly an easy role in human activities. In leadership, there has to be a system of social influence and one individual can procure the support and aid of other individuals under the defined system. Leadership is provided to individuals in various models which are integrated with various learning model as well as people’s behaviors. This paper aims at showing the way various leadership models such as the four-framework model and the leadership grid can be integrated with various learning styles and people’s behaviors. Various learning styles that include cognitive style of learning, perception style, input, organization, processing, and learning by understanding have been explored. Leadership models work collectively with learning styles and leaders define their strategies in a way that is parallel to a certain learning style.

People behave different in response to both leadership and learning and leaders are obligated with the role of influencing the way people gain concepts in leadership. The model of leadership used by an organization would influence the way people think, the way they learn and the way they would act (Diaz, 1989). Leadership models also change the way people think on the reason why some leaders act in certain ways. Leaders are obligated with the role of organizing people under them to work collectively towards achieving a common goal. Both leaders and their subjects should learn the model of leadership that would influence individual behavior towards a common organizational goal. A good leader would be able to learn from his or her subjects while the subjects would be in a position to respect their leader and work in accordance with the model of leadership used.

Leadership Models integrated with various learning styles

An organization can make use of two main leadership models that can aid it lead its people to achieving a common goal. The kind of leadership model chosen is a key to the organization’s success as far as all aspects of the chosen model are followed accordingly. An organization can incorporate the four-framework model of leadership or the managerial grid model or system of leadership (Cooper, 1980). Each of the models is integrated with a different learning style.

The Four-Framework Model

In the four-framework model of leadership, people can understand the reason behind structural approach of leadership, the human resource concept, the symbolic framework, as well as the political framework as part of the four categories. People may be locked in some behaviors expected or defined by each model. Other people are hardly locked by the models and they would act in a free style, completely different from what is expected of them by the corresponding leadership model. In the four-framework model of leadership, leaders show their behaviors in various frameworks that include structural framework, the human resource framework, the political framework, and symbolic framework (Ali, 2012). In this model, leaders of organizations are provided with choices from the four frameworks.

The choice of a framework could be temporal and one framework would apply at a given time and fail to deliver effectively in other circumstances. This aspect brings the issue of any style having the possibility of being effective and ineffective in some models. The efficiency or inefficiency of a chosen framework from the four-framework leadership model depends on the prevailing situation. Leaders are warned against relying on one framework but instead they should have the capacity to interchange the frameworks. Each framework can be described as a leadership style and it would only work in accordance with organizational situations or conditions (McKee & Carlson, 1999).

During a significant organizational change, the framework system may be used. In this model, other leadership styles may not be adequate and their applications would simply fail. At other times, the organization would require to undergo a massive growth. In the model of strong growth needed by the organization, the symbolic style as part of the four-framework model may be the most effective (Ali, 2012). Managers or leaders have their preferences in styles within the four-framework model and their application in this model may not be based on the situation or organizational requirements. This aspect could be derived from selfish motives of the leaders, which is hardly a characteristic of good leadership.

The structural framework makes the leader act as the social architect. In this model the system obligates leaders with the task of analyzing and designing the organization in a way that to handle the situation effectively. In effective leadership situation, leaders would be trivial tyrants with detailed leadership styles. This kind of leadership within the four-framework model makes the leader focus mainly on the organization’s structure, the various strategies applicable, the environment, experimentations, and other practical aspects (Ali, 2012).

Given as system of strategies, the leader is in position to choose the best strategy through one or a combination of various styles of learning. The leader in this framework would be required to make application of what he or she learned from practical experience. The convergent style of learning would be the most effective in this model and the leaders would conceptualize and act from experiments (Felder, 1993). The convergers’ style of learning is good at the practical application of ideas. From the conceptualized ideas and based on experimentation, the leaders would b in a better position to use deductive reasoning in solving the organization’s problem and influence the behavior of the people to work collectively towards a solution to an organizational problem.

In the model of the human resources framework, the leaders become catalytic in behavior and are servant. They lead by supporting, empowering, and advocating on various issues to their followers. In this model, of framework, the style of leadership applied by leaders is abdication or fraud. This framework encourages leaders to learn from their people after which they would believe in them and increase their communication with their people. In these leadership medels leaders, are accessible and worker with their people while encouraging learning through experience (Felder, 1993).

The cognitive style of learning would be integrated in this model. Both the leaders and the people would acquire, possess or analyze, and display they knowledge on various ways of solving an organizational issue (Diaz, 1989). The employees in the organizational would change their behaviors and act from the stem of their learning processes and from new ideas. To increase the capacity of learning within the organization, leaders would encourage participation and ensure support. They should encourage people to share information while moving their decision-making processes down the leadership ladder in the organization (Cooper, 1980).

The framework chosen within the four-framework model could be the political framework. In the political framework, the leader would act as an advocate. The leadership style in this framework is mainly coalition and building. This model comes in whenever the leadership situation is effective but in the model of an ineffective situation of leadership, the leaders are said to struggle throughout their leadership activities. The leader would apply the manipulation style of leadership. These types of leaders would work by clarifying whatever they would like as well as what they can achieve. The leaders learn by assessment and assess the organizational power distribution as well as other interests within the organization. While this happens, leaders build linkages to stakeholders and persuade them first to act towards the goals of the organization (Felder, 1993).

After persuading the stakeholders, they would go-ahead to negotiate with them and exercise coercion if necessary. Some of their action would be based on assumption and probability of the people siding with their opinions. Often the inductive and deductive style of learning would be applied making leaders induce an organizational process. The induced process may make the people make conclusion based on their leaders’ actions (Felder & L.K. Silverman, 1988). This kind of learning would create an organizational behavior and workers would work collectively rather than being divided.

In the model of the symbolic framework, an effective leadership condition or situation would have the leaders be a prophet. In this model, the style of leadership is mainly inspirational and people would learn through this aspect of being inspired by their leader. The learning style integrated in this kind of inspirational style of leadership is visual-auditory style. People have to visualize what their leader advocates or what their leader does and act towards their kind of inspiration. In the visual-auditory style of learning, people act with respect to the way they receive information. Their experiences could make people act in a certain way or make people avoid some actions or behavior to avoid the same experiences. The latter would be in a situation where the experience was nasty through inspirational activities by their leaders (Ali, 2012). The same inspirational model as a style of leadership may make people believe in some things, which they hardly believed about their organization. This aspect of inspirational style of leadership could be used whenever a strong organizational culture is being created. In many models, auditory learners recall much of all they hear.

People learn from their leaders given that they take their leaders as a symbol of excellence or success of their organization. The symbolic framework would often use demonstrations to visualize what the leaders would like to be conceived by their learners. The situation of the leadership could be ineffective and this would make be perceived as a fanatic or even a fool. His or her leadership style would be assumed smoke and mirrors. There would be no organizational success since poor decision-making would arise. Given that, the style of learning is visual and auditory, learners would conceptualize what they hear or see from their leaders. Often, leaders lead their people into problems. Symbolic leaders are said to view various organizations as stages for playing certain roles. Leaders in this model are seen as prophets (Ali, 2012). From the kind of play they display, their people or learners are bound to exercise the same. Learners gain various impressions and their leaders would often use symbols as a way of capturing their people’s attention. Effective leader making use of this framework would often frame an experience and they would provide a plausible interpretation of their experience for the learners to change their behavior or avoid certain behavior. From the provided experiences through visionary of auditory learning style, learners would change their behaviors and act towards the positive way in making the organization better off.

Adaptive and flexible leadership constitutes two main processes, which are diagnosis and action. These two processes spread out in two dimensions. That is, organizations or social system where one operates. First, manager diagnoses what is happening in the institution then he takes action to address the problem that has been identified. The manager does the process of diagnosis and action by first collecting the data and then problem identification. Then he goes through an interpretation stage and finally he gives a potential approach to the problem through actions and series of intervention in the institution (Grashow & Abadian 2009).

Apart from the two main processes, adaptive and flexible leadership also constitutes of tactical and strategic managers who have got the responsibilities to device long term tactical goals for the institution. An institution is more likely to thrive when operated efficiently and reliably. Such institution will produce goods and services that impress the customers due to high levels of skills and commitment among the employees (Yukl 2002).

What constitutes effective employee relationship formation?

A successful employee relation in an institution is determined by the level of human resource and relations. Member’s knowledge, technical expertise, motivation and commitment to the institution are what constitute human resource and relations. Effective human resource management always guarantees employee relationship formation. This factor is what contributes to highly motivated employees. Institutions that regard human resource and relations as their first priority are likely to have effective programs that will help in facilitation, development, and application of skills among the employees. A flexible and adaptive leader will have a strong impact on the quality of human relations in an institution. He is vital in hiring motivated people and gives them a chance to apply their ideas and skills in their jobs. Such a manager will also involve the employees in decision making. When an employee takes part in decision making in an institution, he feels his ideas are valued and can make the difference. This will motivate employees to work hard for the institution (Yukl, 2002).

Good human resource management will as well motivate its employees by setting up suitable remuneration schemes and provision of benefits to its employees. These benefits may include: entertainment benefits, employ social benefits and freedom of expression along with other non-financial remunerations. Managers have proven to be the key players in the success of an institution. Because of this, only an adaptive and flexible manager will constitute the formation of a successful employ relation in an institution (Price, 2011).

What are some of the strategic, production and human resource adaptive and leadership strategies that can enhance effective employee-relationship

Strategic adaptive and leadership strategies.

Adaptive leadership will include three leadership behaviours, namely efficiency, adaptation and human resources. These behaviours are distinguished by their main objective. The leadership behaviours include task oriented which enhances efficiency and process consistency. Change oriented behavior aids adaptation to the external environment. Relations oriented behavior mainly boosts human resources and relations. The adaptive and flexible leadership enhances the employees to assist in management by adapting to its policies.

Human resource adaptive and flexible leadership

The exceptional potential of company employees is of great importance for the competence of the organization. Human resource adaptive and flexible leadership includes member knowledge, technical expertise, the motivation of members and commitment to the organization’s mission. Improvement and stimulation of an organization’s human resource adaptive and flexible leadership have a positive impact on business results. Organizations that observe human resource adaptive and flexible leadership with precedence encourages the development and use of employee skills.

Production adaptive and flexible leadership

In organizations with production adaptive and flexible leadership there is increased and high quality production. High and quality production leads to the expansion of an organization. Production managers should always pay attention to their staff so as to know the performance of the production. New ideas and suggestions should be encouraged to maximize production.