Introduction to Leadership style and virtues
There are various approaches related to the leadership style and virtue, and this is a widely studied subject as it majorly impacts not only the decision-making process but also the employee relations, corporate performance and image of the company in the market. Although there are various studies conducted in order to study the behaviour, the leadership styles are one of the most important topics considering the impact of the same. There are two major aspects of leadership's which will be studied, and there are major other factors related to the same which can be extremely subjective in nature and may not have a direct link to a theory or concept.
If we look into the first major form of leadership, utilitarianism is one of the most commonly known factors which include the moral worth of actions and the leadership style where happiness and pleasure for all is interpreted as success. This type of leadership style, originates from the idea that there must be happiness among the employees and the people who are delegated work and it's a very employee centric way of managing a particular task. On the other hand deontological style of leadership is different and is far more ethical in terms of the assessment of right and wrong, which means that there is a lot of reliability on the ethical considerations which are made in this kind of leadership. Similarly there are many more, which can be discussed over her like the ethical egoism and altruism which are a part of the teleological approach wherein the first one in the interests related to a particular objective are interrelated and fulfilled and on the other hand in the latter, the actions supporting the moral objective are taken without considering the actual impact of the same on the others.
There is another way, to discuss the leadership styles which are edging taken communal and on one hand where energetic leadership relates to focusing on problems and resolving the issues, on the other hand communal behaviour includes attention to words interpersonal issues rather than concentration on the actual task. The qualities of energetic leader would include influence attempts, assertive speech and looking for attention however on the other hand a leader who follows communal behaviour would show tentative speech, support and would include the others while taking directions. Usually the styles which are considered and studied are related to participative, directive, a Democratic and autocratic. There have been several studies which have been conducted in order to compare the various leadership styles and their impact on both employers and the organisation, however it is easy to understand that it is not only the leadership that puts an impact on the organisation but at times the organisation also directs the leadership to display a particular behaviour.
Hence, considering the fact that the actual leadership style can instead the organisation and the kind of work which is performed, there can be an important possibility that the leadership style may impact the innovation that happens in a particular company, and since the interrelation between the application of innovative approach and company performance is a strong therefore it is important to analyse and research whether what are the basic leadership styles prevalent in today's environment. In this paper, we would analyse the various kind of leadership styles that prevailed in UAE as of now, and would interlink the same with the kind of innovative strategy that a company possesses. There will also be a survey which will be conducted, in order to find out the perception of people and their tendency in a leadership role.
Literature Review of Leadership styles in UAE
One of the most well-known and effective definitions of leadership that can be provided is that the ability of leadership to drive confidence and support on the people and inspire them so that the organisation can achieve its goals. Leadership does not depend only on the senior roles within an organisation but it prevailed at every level and in each employee, it is the sense of ownership and the sense of leading by example, therefore a person who does not have any major leadership role assigned can also display important traits of leadership.
If we talk about the leadership style, it is nothing but a pattern of behaviour while a person is in a leadership position and it is a combination of behaviour and attitude which is regularly shown by a person while dealing with particular group members. It is important to understand that leadership style is a constant this play of a certain behaviour related to a leadership role, and it is primarily based on initiating structure and consideration. The styles which are majorly considered for a discussion are autocratic, bureaucratic, laissez-fare, charismatic, participative, Democratic, situational, transactional and transformational leadership. Although there are various leadership styles which are into consideration, there is a lot of subjectivity related to this topic due to which it is not possible to relate a particular style of leadership to produce an effective form of organisational behaviour however there are lot of considerations interlinkages which decide a particular behaviour which is expected from the leaders.
Leadership style is the situation-based concept, and it depends upon the actual situation in which a leader is performing therefore a particular style for a particular leaders in a particular situation may be said to be the right one however there is no actual scale to rate the leadership behaviour in a particular manner. There are various purposes that can be fulfilled by the right leadership style and the success of the organisation and the performance of managers within the organisation are often looked at as a result of applying the right leadership style. If we break down the word leadership style into various functions, we can consider it as a combination of behaviours, managerial attitudes, skill bases, characteristics, individual and organisational values. There is a lot of literature that is available, which comments on the factors that affect the choice of leadership style and its impact on an organisation in a given situation however there are situations where combination of leadership styles are noticed to be displayed by a particular person as there are various factors that can frequently impact the style.
Literature suggests that, majorly the factors that impact the kind of leadership style are three forces which are the leader himself, the subordinates and reporting into the leader and the situation in which a particular leaders performing. There are various other small factors that can also impact the leadership and they are function of the organisational unit, lateral interdependence, crisis situation task characteristics and technology, authority hierarchy, stages in the organisation life cycle and subordinates competence and performance. Most of the times, the review of leadership style is done with the kind of the output that is generated by the same and that is one of the reasons why most of the leadership style that performance driven and change according to the situation in which a particular organisation exists.
If we consider the success of an organisation to be the deciding factor to display a particular leadership style, then in that case the analysis will be majorly depending on the nature of the task, the experience of the subordinates, the power of the leader, the preferred style of the leader, the style preferred by subordinates and time available for task completion. Hence, it is clear that there is positive relation between the leadership style and the behaviour of an organisation, although the impact of the style may be unpredictable but the behaviour has a positive or a negative reinforcement on the kind of leadership style which is taken by the leaders to govern the organisation or a particular unit that they are leading. Since there has been a major discussion based on the literature which is assessed, related to leadership style at the same time it is important to consider the leadership values as well as it is the values that help to determine a particular style.
The human values are categorically divided into two with a subdivision of three each; the outer directed is the category which includes tribalistic, social centric and conformist values, and the highlights of this kind of value is acceptance of rules, policies, following group norms and maintaining acceptable structure of work. On the other hand the inner directed category includes the values which are egocentric, existential and manipulative, the speciality of this category is that it primarily highlights behaviours which are related to being assertive and expressive, may include some bending of rules to achieve the goals and is usually surrounded by influential attempts in order to create favourable environments. Hence, we discuss these values in detail the tribalistic value is displayed by a behaviour which is submissive to the authority and follows a particular tradition, at the same time a leader possessing conformist values would have a low tolerance for ambiguity and would be quite particular about adherence towards norms. A social centric leader would display a high need for affiliation however at the same time he would not be noticeably concerned, and following that any egocentric leader would be aggressive, selfish, impulsive, restless and would not be in a position to accept the limitations and constraints of the society. On the other hand, a man ape related leader would be quite calculative to achieve success which may have selfish interlinked profits, would be materialistic and expressive. Lastly, an existential leader would show high tolerance towards ambiguity and would be much more lenient than the others.
The literature which talks about the Arabic leadership styles, mentioned that the consultative style is quite predominant in case of decision-making. There is also an observation which has been discussed commonly about the Arabic companies that consultative or participate in leadership is commonly found within these organisations due to the fact that the employees are quite satisfied with their jobs, and a display high potential and provide the organisation with high-performance. Discussing about the values, another observation is that the influence of Islam leads to tribalistic values being commonly found within the organisational settings where a consultative leadership style is prevalent.
In order to find out, the actual perception and preference of population on the effective leadership style and the kind of style that they possess a survey was conducted where the respondents were suppose to reply to several questions based on their perception of leadership and the ethical considerations that they would make as a leader. The questionnaire was prepared in order to invite the responses; based on the various day to day activities that leader performs within an organisation.
The survey has been divided into two parts, and the first part concentrates on creating a questionnaire which will help the respondents to answer the questions which will lead to the determination of their preferred leadership style. On the basis of the responses which will be received, the preferred leadership style would be assessed among autocratic or directive, Democratic or participative and delegate or nondirective. Similarly in case of leadership values a set of 20 questions is provided to the respondents so that they can reply to the same, and on the basis of the replies there is an interpretation table which can help to determine whether which value is primarily persisted in a particular individual. The values which are a part of the survey are courage, impartiality, empathy, judgement, enthusiasm, humility and imagination.
Analysis of Leadership Skills
Based on the responses that have been received, it can be considered that leadership style which is primarily possessed by the respondents is democratic or participative. Every drill down to the exact questionnaire, this category involves the questions which are, inclusion of team members while taking a decision, taking the ideas and inputs from the staff while deciding on new plans, creating a strategy in order to fulfil the needs of a particular project process, inviting information by a group in order to take a particular action, expectation of ownership from the group and multiple participation in decision-making, invitation of ideas and vision in order to plan the success of the organisation, prioritisation of tasks on the basis of leadership commitments, transparent approach to conflict resolution, growth of staff through leadership efforts and the expectation from the staff to deliver on the commitments. Hence, considering the fact that the population participating in the survey mostly replied by accepting this kind of style, it can be considered that it is one of the most preferred leadership styles within an organisation.
The delegate of leadership style is quite effective in aligning the work to the employees in a proper manner and ensuring that everyone has a sound contribution to an organisation will being. Since the goals are effectively allocated and are well interrelated, it can be expected that the organisation would behave in a homogeneous manner so that a particular goal which is set and followed by the leadership is met by the organisation due to the joint effort in place, by all the employees.
The second major style of leadership which has been chosen by the respondents was autocratic style, and although the style is mainly present within the leaders of Asia, it is usual that this kind of leadership style may be directly associated with autocracy and manic relations, and it is mostly seen that there is a lot of employee dissatisfaction which is associated with this particular leadership style.
Hence, it can be inferred on the basis of the survey results that most of the people appreciate the Democratic style of leadership, and although it may not be concluded that in all situations this particular style can be termed as effective but on the basis of survey if we interlinked the same with the review of literature which has been done in this paper, there would be a couple of points that come out and they would suggest that it is important to engage the employees well in order to drive them towards achieving a common goal. At the same time it is also important to be well-planned and transparent as far as the perception goes, so that the effort from each employee within an organisation remains perfect.
Analysis of Leadership Virtues
If we discuss about the leadership values, on the basis of the survey questionnaire which was placed before the respondents the results received were quite interesting. Judgement and empathy were the most commonly chosen values on the basis of the responses received, and it can be considered that for an effective leader to operate within an organisation it is important to have the ability to take the right decisions and display the capability of giving the right judgements. At the same time it is also important to show empathy in case if there is any problem or challenge related to the employees or direct subordinates of the leader, and in case if these two values are not present in a leader than in that case there is a possibility that the leader may fall under the category of possessing and autocratic style of leadership. The literature suggests that, a leader who ensures that his judgements are right and has the right empathy towards his employees would be following tribalistic values and would also be quite submissive to the leaders that are above them and at the same time would ensure that his subordinates are also taken care of. The assessment of values, becomes important due to the fact that at times they are the primary driving factors of leadership style, and every connect the results received from the leadership values survey to the leadership style survey, it can be concluded that leaders who would possess a democratic leave leadership style would be appreciative about the values related to ethical judgement and empathy.
Conclusion
The leadership style is prevailing in UAE are primarily impacted by the Organisation performance, and due to the high and performance of the employees most of the times the commonly preferred leadership style is democratic, which means that although there is strong effort to meet the organisation goals, there are moral and ethical values which are also considered to be important for the organisation and therefore the value proposition is also equally important in a similar setting. The analysis at the survey results show that in order to ensure that the organisation has a direct link between the corporate performance, goal setting and leadership style, and democratic leadership style is the most preferred option to achieve desired organisation goals and to drive innovation through smart tools like continuous improvements.
Conclusion
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