Introduction
Every organization have their own way forward in terms of operations, structural set up and business dealings, however, one aspect that creates a vibe in an organization are the people who work for the company.
The work dynamics come from the top i.e. leadership, and it permeates through the organization just like the blood flows from the heart to all body parts, and any lacking affects the organizations performance, just like, any issues with the heart affect all body parts.
In this era of globalization the leadership styles have also evolved and that has impacted the attributes that are required for a successful organizations leader in terms of creating positive work dynamic.
The report will discuss organizational leadership and the different aspects that comes with it.
A Leader:
The effects of a leader is significant in every type of business be it small, medium or a multinational, the styles of leadership impacts and leave an imprint on the employees on all levels be it a management person or an intern.
In the modern business scenario leaders such as Sir Richard Branson, Howard Schultz, Bill Gates, The late Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, have displayed immersed leadership qualities from professional and personal perspective that set them apart from their counterparts.
The aforementioned leader aptly defines the definition of a leader that is someone who has the ability to influence and inspire towards the collective goal in a dynamic manner by not only setting the parameters of direction towards the vision in an effective manner.
Leadership Styles:
There have been numerous theorists and theories that have been documented with regards to the style of leaderships over a period of time. The theories documented in detail the possible skills and traits of a leader to create a winning environment and execution of a collective effort in a successful manner.
Starting from the earliest studies documented that was led by Kurt Lewin, a psychologist, who with his team in 1939 documented behaviors in group and thus detailed three types of styles in leadership (R. C. Swansburg & R.J. Swansburg, 2002).
The first style of leadership was ‘autocratic’, the study illustrated the leaders tends to be control and authority personal making decisions for the team, they elaborated on the style of leadership as one of the most ineffective styles that leads to resentment, low motivation, layoffs and in essence an atmosphere of low productivity affecting the organizational flow and process tremendously.
The second style discussed was ‘democratic’; the style of leadership is the most preferred style of leadership considering the leader creating an environment of collective effort to reach the goals set by the organization. IN the group discussion during the research the style was categorized as the most liked by participants.
The third & last approach studied with the group was ‘laissez-faire’; the results from group behavioral discussion concluded that the aforementioned style had no leadership and no guidance to the tasks that created a environment that was bound to be un productive and directionless.
The premise of the research by Lewin and his team was that leadership and the skill set that is required to be a success in an organizational set up can be taught and the leadership is subjective by the team members influence immensely.
The modern leadership has been detailed in an explicit and detailed manner by Bruce Avolio, Fred Walumbwa and Todd Weber (2009) with regards to the current theories of leadership, and the future directions.
The research examined and reviewed numerous empirical developments and theories on the leadership literature. The focus by the authors was in essence to focus on leadership perspectives that have developed in tune to the globalized world and the e-connected aspect of the businesses affecting the leadership from an all around factors.
The emerging leadership interest started with the ‘Authentic leadership development’; the style focused on a process of transparency and the behavioral aspects of a leader from an ethical perspective, that promote information sharing on a more open basis that is needed to make a decision. Authentic leaders take input from the followers as part of this style of leadership philosophy.
Another widely studied leadership style discussed in the report is the ‘Cognitive Psychology Leadership’; the main essence of this approach is the way the leaders think and process information, this in turn also led to studies for cognitive leadership style.
New- Genre Leadership style discussed in the report is the one that is most current in terms of the attributes that a leader showcases. The focus of the study that is charisma, vision, values from an ideological and moral perspective have been studied in the earlier part of the century however, with the current crop of leaders i.e. Sir Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos to name a few are most pertinent.
The charisma and inspiring attribute that these leaders attribute has affected in a positive manner that have made their organizations a global force to reckon with. The current generation is more receptive to charisma and inspiration to achieve the targets and goals and with the choice whether in terms of products and more so in employment a plenty due to the globalized nature of the business.
Another current leadership theory discussed and that is very much relevant to organizational work structure is the ‘Complexity and Traditional leadership theory.
In view of the business practice of multitasking the sharing of projects and decision making in terms of different leadership set is very common.
The theories studied lay bare the facts that leadership style is dependent on the nature of the organizations work pattern and also the culture that it is operating in, one elaboration is that companies in Japan and USA have a total different understanding of leadership, hence besides the traditional pointers of a leader, it is seen that culture is also a very significant element.
Leadership Style:
As discussed in the earlier sections regarding the numerous theories it is imperative to briefly discuss the styles that gave light to the aforementioned theories.
Michael A. Germano (2010), in his article explained the impact of the leadership styles on organizations and how the styles shape the eventual success and failure in a big way. The leaders’ style shape the strategies that helps in creating leaders in all aspects of business operations.
It is to be noted that, leadership is not mutually exclusive to the top management and team members from every level can display leadership style and qualities depending on their roles that eventually gets the job done in an effective manner translating into both personal and organizations success.
The leadership theories as discussed focused on the traits and skills set, thus, some styles of leadership that are derived from the trait based description are the following.
Autocratic leaders have been discussed in the earlier section discussing earlier theories, and such style is outdated and in effective in terms of creating a winning culture.
Leadership depending on policies of the organization to achieve the results and outcomes is known as the Bureaucratic style; the issue with the style is that there is no out of the box thinking and such style that is only focused on policies results in eventual dissatisfaction and u motivated team.
Democratic style as discussed earlier relies on the leader to make the team part of the decision making; this style of leadership is most preferred by the team. However, the flip side is that it creates frustration in the leadership to create and build agreement on the most mundane decision making.
The charismatic style of leadership inspires and motivates and helps the team to bring the best out of them by out of the box thinking and innovative ways to go about doing the jobs. Charisma comes with a vision, however, the issue with charismatic leadership is that once they leave, the way forward of the organization becomes directionless, in view of the lack of the charismatic styled leader.
Another style of leadership that is very much evident in current times is the Situational Leadership, a leader who can channel themselves into molding their vision and decision making in view of the nature of the job. It says that leaders with experience and exposure adapt the style when they sense the need of a particular action for the organizational need.
Transactional leadership style is more result oriented as the leaders reward the team members for achieving the targets, the issue with this style is that during times of difficulty the motivational tool of transactions cannot be implemented and thus affects the motivational floe of the team innumerably.
And finally the Transformational leadership style is an amalgamation of all the aforementioned traits, the leader in this style seeks to change the team in order to create a sustainable and self-replicating lea leadership alternative.
The leadership style helps companies develop people and therefore, the team buying in the style to create a winning culture is very much evidence in this type of leadership style. The new age CEO’s lacks in experience however, with connectivity globally it is easier for the current generation to generate exposure through research and different communication channels available as opposed to the time tested way of gaining experience through experience.
On a concluding note leadership is one of the most important elements to run successful operations, and as evidence with regards to the study above, the leadership style needs to be changed on a constant basis in view of the requirement that organization may have.
The leaders in all kinds of styles should have attributes such as awareness of the situation, ethical, confidence, decision making process, focus and most importantly the ability to inspire team to achieve things that they can only dream.
The leaders should make sure to create an environment of trust and most importantly growth in professional terms, this will make them loyal and also do their jobs in a more responsive and effective manner.
References
B.J. Avolio, F.O. Walumbwa, T.J. Weber (2010). Leadership: Current Theories, Research, and Future Directions. The Annual Review of Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621
M. A. Germano. (2010). Leadership Style and Organizational Impact. Library Worklife. Retrieved from http://ala-apa.org/newsletter/2010/06/08/spotlight/
R. C. Swansburg & R.J. Swansburg (2002). Introduction to Management and Leadership for Burse Managers. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. 3rd Ed. Pg 398-399
