Recognize different types of leadership styles and theories
INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP
According to Kotter, management and leadership are two distinctive leadership is about “focusing on producing change by developing a vision for the future along with strategies for bringing about the changes needed to achieve that vision”, using motivation to energize people, not by pushing them in right direction as control mechanisms do, but by satisfying basic human needs for achievement, scene of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a feeling of control over one’s life and the ability to live up to one’s ideals. 1.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aims and objective of this assignment to recognize different types of leadership styles. And how do business use these if different levels of the management to grow, succeed and finally to achieve business’s strategic goals and objectives.
TASK 1
EVALUATE A RANGE OF LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND MODELS THAT REFLECT CURRENT THINKING.
2TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Assumptions
People will follow a person who inspires them.
A person with vision and passion can achieve great things.
The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.
Style
Working for a Transformational Leader can be a wonderful and uplifting experience. They put passion and energy into everything. They care about you and want you to succeed.
Developing the vision
Transformational Leadership starts with the development of a vision, a view of the future that will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be developed by the leader, by the senior team or may emerge from a broad series of discussions. The important factor is the leader buys into it, hook, line and sinker. Selling the vision.
4″ Idea of transforming leadership was more interesting in that in his concept both followers and leaders are changed, and also the change is expressed as being for the better in moral way. Followers are changed into leaders, and leaders become moral agents in enabling others to grow as persons.” Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row
2PARTICIPATIVE LEADERSHIP
Assumptions
Involvement in decision-making improves the understanding of the issues involved by those who must carry out the decisions.
People are more committed to actions where they have involved in the relevant decision-making.
People are less competitive and more collaborative when they are working on joint goals.
When people make decisions together, the social commitment to one another is greater and thus increases their commitment to the decision.
Several people deciding together make better decisions than one person alone.
Style
A Participative Leader, rather than taking autocratic decisions, seeks to involve other people in the process, possibly including subordinates, peers, superiors and other stakeholders. Often, however, as it is within the managers’ whim to give or deny control to his or her subordinates, most participative activity is within the immediate team. The question of how much influence others are given thus may vary on the manager’s preferences and beliefs, and a whole spectrum of participation is possible
Discussion
Participative Leadership can be a sham when managers ask for opinions and then ignore them. This is likely to lead to distrust and feelings of disloyalty.
Democratic Leadership
3Known as participative style, leader who enables and encourages staffs to participate in decision making. Also keeps staffs informed about everything that affects their work and shares decision making and responsibilities.
By doing so, leader produce high quality and quantity work for a long period. Staff likes this leadership style as they received the trust and respond from leader this increase the spirit and morale of the work force.
Democratic leader develop and design plans to evaluate staffs performance. Allowing staff to grow on the job and be promoted. Recognize and appreciate the achievements. There are two type of democratic leadership,
Persuasive democratic management – here the leader makes the decision first and then persuades employees that he or she has made the right decision.
Consultative democratic management – this involves the group contributing to the decision-making process, with the leader making the final decision.
There are some situation that, to avoid using this style,
Not enough time to get everybody’s input.
It is easier and cost- effective for leader to make the decision, rather going to staff.
Leader feels threatened by this leadership style.
Staffs safety in critical concern.
1.2 EXPLAIN THE EXPECTED IMPACT OF A RANGE OF LEADERSHIP STYLES ON SPECIFIC SUB- DIVISIONS, ORGANIZATIONS, INDUSTRIES, AND SECTORS.
5For ,an organization to grow need a proper direction guided by a good leadership, Enterprise Rent-A-Car uses different methods of leadership styles to manage its 75,000 employees and fleet of cars over one million around the world. Enterprise has becomes foremost car-hire company and the largest car purchaser in the world.
Organizations key objectives:
Customer satisfaction
Fleet growth
Employee development
Profitability
Autocratic leadership at Co-operate level
One of the leadership style Enterprise use is Autocratic style of leadership, where decision is made by the leader alone and staff has to work within the scope of that decision. This happens at the top level of the organization, where CEO wants to implement a practice which will roll all over the organization to achieve organizational objectives,
There are some examples, which co-operate level leadership, we can find in Enterprise 5
CEO wanted all branches use ESQi (Enterprise Service Quality Index), the customer satisfaction measure, because it met the business objective. In order to gain commitment to using the process.
When the Senior Vice President of European Operations at Enterprise decided on the company’s diversity programme, employees were clear that this decision was compulsory and not an option.
The Vice President of Corporate Communications for Enterprise established an environmental committee. Its aim was to influence the behavior of the whole organization by reducing waste and improving its carbon footprint. As the industry leader, Enterprise attempts to set high standards when it comes to the impact of rental cars on the environment.
All above strategic actions shows the Autocratic Leadership in the organization.
Democratic leadership at Divisional level
Enterprise use democratic decision making at divisional level. Where the branch manager have autonomy. This means that in many area of operation local managers have power to govern themselves and make changes without refereeing to the senior management.
Below incidents shows the application of democratic leadership.
A car has been in an accident and a customer needs a hire car urgently. Local managers take a consultative approach to understand the issues and find the right solution for customers who might be upset or worried.
A customer wants a vehicle for a weekend break. Branch staff will be more authoritative in recommending a specific vehicle to suit their needs. This helps to satisfy this customer and ensure repeat business.
In this process employees feels that, they are more valued, empowered and recognized. This increases the staff’s self-esteem and gives maximum service to customer.
Laissez-faire leadership
This derives from a French word “leave alone”. This is a loose leadership style. It allows skillful, well trained employees to carry out activities freely within broad limits. Enterprise staffs are decentralized and make many decisions on their own. Some advantages of this leadership are,
Leaders don’t have to always be watching them
Great relationship
Motivated
More relaxed environment
Less direction is required
However, this style got a disadvantage; some staff might not be able to make right decision by alone. Therefore individuals within Enterprise teams work to corporate guidelines for dealing with customers. Staff also receives regular training and feedback.Â
This type of style is also associated with leaders that don’t lead at all, failing in supervising team members, resulting in lack of control and higher costs, bad services or failure to meet deadlines.