Leadership style

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A leadership style is a leader's method of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. [1] Various authors have proposed identifying many different leadership styles as exhibited by leaders in the political, business or other fields. Studies on leadership style are conducted [2] in the military field, expressing an approach that stresses a holistic view of leadership, including how a leader's physical presence determines how others perceive that leader. The factors of physical presence in this context include military bearing, physical fitness, confidence, and resilience. A leader's conceptual abilities include agility, judgment, innovation, interpersonal tact, and domain knowledge. Leaders are characterized as individuals who have differential influence over the setting of goals, logistics for coordination, monitoring of effort, and rewards and punishment of group members. [3] Domain knowledge encompasses tactical and technical knowledge as well as cultural and geopolitical awareness. [4] [ need quotation to verify ]

Contents

One of the key reasons why certain leadership styles are blocked with positive outcomes for employees and organizations is the extent to which they build follower trust in leaders. [5] Trust in the leader has been linked to a range of leadership styles and evidence suggests that when followers trust their leaders they are more willing and able to go the extra mile to help their colleagues and organization. Trust also enables them to feel safe to speak up and share their ideas. In contrast, when a leader does not inspire trust, a follower’s performance may suffer as they must spend time and energy watching their backs.

Daniel Goleman, in his 2000 article "Leadership that Gets Results", talks about six styles of leadership. [6]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, leadership styles are further developed through remote work. The development of leadership styles has led to increased efficiency and virtual team spirit in virtual teams. [7]

Autocratic

The autocratic leadership style particularly emphasises the distinction between authoritarian leaders and their followers. These types of leaders make sure to create only a distinct professional relationship.[ citation needed ] They regard direct supervision as fundamental in maintaining a successful environment and followership.[ citation needed ] Authoritarian leadership styles often follow the vision of those that are in control, and may not necessarily be compatible with those that are being led. Authoritarian leaders focus on efficiency, potentially seeing other styles, such as a democratic style, as a hindrance to progress. Examples of authoritarian leadership include a police officer directing traffic, a teacher ordering a student to do their assignment, and a supervisor instructing a subordinate to clean a workstation. All of these positions require a distinct set of characteristics that give the leader the position to get things in order or to get a point across.[ citation needed ] Authoritarian traits include: setting goals individually, engaging primarily in one-way and downward communication, controlling discussion with followers, and dominating interactions. [8]

Several studies have confirmed a relationship between bullying, on the one hand, and an autocratic leadership and an authoritarian way of settling conflicts or dealing with disagreements, on the other. An authoritarian style of leadership may create a climate of fear, leaving little or no room for dialogue, and where subordinates may regard complaining as futile. [9] As such, authoritarian styles have sometimes been associated with reduced group-member satisfaction as compared to that in more democratic leadership styles. [10] [ page needed ]

Authoritarian leadership became popular for a period in the inter-war years – witness for example Stalin, Mussolini and Pilsudski.

Paternalistic

Paternalistic leadership is useful in advocacy and advocating on behalf of another. [11] A paternalistic leader acts as a parental figure by taking care of their subordinates as a parent would. In this style of leadership, the leader supplies complete concern for their followers or workers. In return they receive the complete trust and loyalty of their people. Workers under this style of leadership are expected to become totally committed to what the leader believes and will forego opportunities to work independently. The relationship between these co-workers and leader are extremely solid. The workers are expected to stay with a company for a longer period of time because of the loyalty and trust. Not only do they treat each other like family inside the workforce, but outside too. These workers are able to go to each other with any problems they have because they believe it will truly help them. [12]

One of the downsides to a paternalistic leader is that the leader could start to play favorites in decisions. This leader would include the workers more apt to follow and start to exclude the ones who were less loyal. According to Padavic and Earnest, authors of "Business Dimensional and Organizational Counseling", paternalism is more difficult to come by in today's market. They believe this because there is a rise in lay-offs and stronger unionization. This affects paternalistic leaders because the co-workers may not believe that their jobs are 100% ensured. When this happens, workers begin to look for bigger and better job opportunities instead of staying at one company for a longer period of time. Because of this, the leader may not fully believe an employee staying with their organization when another job opportunity is discussed. This could put the workers and leader at risk for a bad situation. [12]

According to B. M. Bass, who wrote Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations, workers who follow paternalistic leadership also have better organization skills. The leader encourages organization because they allow the workers to complete tasks so that they can stay on top of their work. The workers complete tasks, which boosts self-confidence and it makes them work harder to reach and exceed their goal to prove to their boss they are working hard. Having this style of leadership can also help implement a reward system. This system will allow workers to work even better because there is something for them at the end of the tunnel. While doing this they will also be able to accomplish more work in a set time frame. [12]

Even though paternalistic leadership style is practiced in majority of places such as India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa, there has not been concrete empirical research on the implications of this leadership style due to the pre-conceived negative notions in the Western literature. [13] These negative notions arise due to differences in the intrinsic cultural aspects defined by Geert Hofstede's study (1980). He stated that North American and Western European countries classify themselves as individualistic cultures centred around the principles of egalitarianism, lack of in-group interdependence, direct communication and low power distance. Therefore, from a western perspective, the authoritative aspects of paternalism are not accepted innately, whereas the parental aspect of this leadership style is looked upon as an invasion of privacy as personal and professional lives are two separate facets of life. On the other hand, the paternalistic leadership style is quite effective and successful in non-western cultures which are collectivistic in nature as these societies look up to their leaders as a fatherly figure and rely upon them for guidance and protection in return of deference and loyalty, thereby aligning with the principles of paternalistic style.

It is essential that extensive research be initiated from a non-Western point of view to understand the implications of this leadership style on social, cultural and organisational metrics without any negative bias. This would help in better comprehension of factors which lead to successful leaders and organisations in emerging economies where paternalistic leadership style is practiced at large.[ original research? ]

Democratic

The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members and by practicing social equality. [14]

The boundaries of democratic participation tend to be circumscribed by the organization or the group needs and the instrumental value of people's attributes (skills, attitudes, etc.). The democratic style encompasses the notion that everyone, by virtue of their human status, should play a part in the group's decisions. However, the democratic style of leadership still requires guidance and control by a specific leader. The democratic style demands the leader to make decisions on who should be called upon within the group and who is given the right to participate in, make, and vote on decisions. [15]

Research has found that this leadership style is one of the most effective and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members, and increased group morale. Democratic leadership can lead to better ideas and more creative solutions to problems because group members are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas. While democratic leadership is one of the most effective leadership styles, it does have some potential downsides. In situations where roles are unclear or time is of the essence, democratic leadership can lead to communication failures and uncompleted projects. Democratic leadership works best in situations where group members are skilled and eager to share their knowledge. It is also important to have plenty of time to allow people to contribute, develop a plan, and then vote on the best course of action. [16]

Laissez-faire

The laissez-faire leadership style is where all the rights and power to make decisions is fully given to the followers. This was first described by Lewin, Lippitt, and White in 1939, along with the autocratic leadership and the democratic leadership styles. [17]

Laissez-faire leaders allow followers to have complete freedom to make decisions concerning the completion of their work. It allows followers a self-rule, while at the same time offering guidance and support when requested. The laissez-faire leader using guided freedom provides the followers with all materials necessary to accomplish their goals, but does not directly participate in decision-making unless the followers request their assistance. [18] [ unreliable source? ]

This is an effective style to use when:

Note that these conditions would intuitively mean that the group is already likely to be effective.

This style should not be used when:

This leadership style has been associated with lower productivity than both autocratic and democratic styles of leadership and with lower group member satisfaction than democratic leadership. [10] Some researchers have suggested that laissez-faire leadership can actually be considered non-leadership or leadership avoidance. [19]

Transactional

Transactional leaders focus their leadership on motivating followers through a system of rewards and punishments. There are two factors which form the basis for this system: contingent reward; and management-by-exception.[ citation needed ]

This type of leader identifies the needs of their followers and gives rewards to satisfy those needs in exchange for a certain level of performance. Transactional leaders focus on increasing the efficiency of established routines and procedures. They are more concerned with following existing rules than with making changes to the organization. A transactional leader establishes and standardizes practices that will help the organization reach:[ citation needed ]

Effect on work teams

A survey was conducted by Jun Liu, Xiaoyu Liu and Xianju Zeng [20] on the correlation between transactional leadership and how innovations can be affected by team emotions. The research was composed of 90 work teams, with a total of 460 members and 90 team leaders. The study found that there is a relationship between emotions, labor behavior and transactional leadership that affects the team. Depending on the level of emotions of the team; this can affect the transactional leader in a positive or negative way. Transactional leaders work better in teams where there is a lower level of emotions towards a project. This is because individuals are able to think freely when setting their emotions aside from their work and place all of their focus on a given task. From this, it can be seen that a transactional leader is negatively affected when the emotional level is high and positively affected when the emotional level is low.

Transactional leadership presents a form of strategic leadership that is important for the organization's development. Transactional leadership is essential for team innovation.[ citation needed ] A strategic orientation encompasses the ability to link long-term ambitions with daily tasks. [21]

Transformational

Advocates of transformational leadership portray the transformational leader as a type of person not limited by followers' perception. [22] Advocates should strive to assist individuals in regaining and enhancing their ideas in an efficient and timely manner which requires leadership. [11] The main objective is to work to change or transform followers' needs and redirect their thinking. [23] Leaders who follow the transformational style challenge and inspire their followers ideas with a sense of purpose and excitement. [24]

Transformational leaders also create a vision of what they aspire to be, and communicate this idea to others (their followers). [25] Schultz and Schultz identify three characteristics of a transformational leader: [22] [26] [ need quotation to verify ] [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

Industrial and organizational psychology "focuses the lens of psychological science on a key aspect of human life, namely, their work lives. In general, the goals of I-O psychology are to better understand and optimize the effectiveness, health, and well-being of both individuals and organizations." It is an applied discipline within psychology and is an international profession. I-O psychology is also known as occupational psychology in the United Kingdom, organisational psychology in Australia and New Zealand, and work and organizational (WO) psychology throughout Europe and Brazil. Industrial, work, and organizational (IWO) psychology is the broader, more global term for the science and profession.

Virtual management, is the supervision, leadership, and maintenance of virtual teams—dispersed work groups that rarely meet face to face. As the number of virtual teams has grown, facilitated by the Internet, globalization, outsourcing, and remote work, the need to manage them has also grown. The following article provides information concerning some of the important management factors involved with virtual teams, and the life cycle of managing a virtual team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leadership</span> Quality of one individual or group influencing or guiding others based on authority

Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "lead", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations.

Power distance is the unequal distribution of power between parties, and the level of acceptance of that inequality; whether it is in the family, workplace, or other organizations.

Transformational leadership is a theory of leadership where a leader works with teams or followers beyond their immediate self-interests to identify needed change, creating a vision to guide the change through influence, inspiration, and executing the change in tandem with committed members of a group; This change in self-interests elevates the follower's levels of maturity and ideals, as well as their concerns for the achievement. it is an integral part of the Full Range Leadership Model. Transformational leadership is when leader behaviors influence followers and inspire them to perform beyond their perceived capabilities. Transformational leadership inspires people to achieve unexpected or remarkable results. It gives workers autonomy over specific jobs, as well as the authority to make decisions once they have been trained. This induces a positive change in the followers attitudes and the organization as a whole. Transformational leaders typically perform four distinct behaviors, also known as the four Is. These behaviors are inspirational motivation, idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration.

Management consists of the planning, prioritizing, and organizing work efforts to accomplish objectives within a business organization. A management style is the particular way managers go about accomplishing these objectives. It encompasses the way they make decisions, how they plan and organize work, and how they exercise authority.

A toxic leader is a person who has responsibility for a group of people or an organization, and who abuses the leader–follower relationship by leaving the group or organization in a worse condition than it was in. Good and bad leadership styles can propagate downwards in an organisation, and there may therefore be little support to be gained by reporting toxic leadership upwards in the hierarchy.

Transactional leadership is a type of leadership style that focuses on the exchange of skills, knowledge, resources, or effort between leaders and their subordinates. This leadership style priortizes individual interests and extrinsic motivation as means to obtain a desired outcome. It relies on a system of penalties and rewards to achieve short-term goals.

Participative decision-making (PDM) is the extent to which employers allow or encourage employees to share or participate in organizational decision-making. According to Cotton et al., the format of PDM could be formal or informal. In addition, the degree of participation could range from zero to 100% in different participative management (PM) stages.

Narcissistic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader is only interested in themself. Their priority is themselves – at the expense of their people/group members. This leader exhibits the characteristics of a narcissist: arrogance, dominance and hostility. It is a sufficiently common leadership style that it has acquired its own name. Narcissism is most often described as unhealthy and destructive. It has been described as "driven by unyielding arrogance, self-absorption, and a personal egotistic need for power and admiration".

Cross-cultural psychology attempts to understand how individuals of different cultures interact with each other. Along these lines, cross-cultural leadership has developed as a way to understand leaders who work in the newly globalized market. Today's international organizations require leaders who can adjust to different environments quickly and work with partners and employees of other cultures. It cannot be assumed that a manager who is successful in one country will be successful in another.

The feminine style of management is a management style generally characterized by more feminine quality soft skills and behaviors such as empathy, effective communication, and a generally more democratic or team-styled work environment. The style is a growing trend within businesses and is characterized by a form of transformational leadership style. The feminine style of management, although characterized by traits commonly labeled as feminine, is not a style of management that is only used by females; it is also a style which has been found beneficial for particular types of businesses and organizations.

Entrepreneurial leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal using proactive entrepreneurial behavior by optimising risk, innovating to take advantage of opportunities, taking personal responsibility and managing change within a dynamic environment for the benefit of [an] organisation".

An authoritarian leadership style is described as being as "leaders' behavior that asserts absolute authority and control over subordinates and [that] demands unquestionable obedience from subordinates." Such a leader has full control of the team, leaving low autonomy within the group. The group is expected to complete the tasks under very close supervision, while unlimited authority is self-bestowed by the leader. Subordinates' responses to the orders given are either punished or rewarded. A way that those that have authoritarian leadership behaviors tend to lean more on "...unilateral decision-making through the leader and strive to maintain the distance between the leader and his or her followers."

Innovation leadership is a philosophy and technique that combines different leadership styles to influence employees to produce creative ideas, products, and services. The key role in the practice of innovation leadership is the innovation leader. Dr. David Gliddon (2006) developed the competency model of innovation leaders and established the concept of innovation leadership at Penn State University.

Authentic leadership, while having no formal or unequivocal definition, is a growing field in academic research. The idea has also been embraced by leaders and leadership coaches, who view it as an alternative to leaders who emphasize profit and share price over people and ethics. There appears to be some consensus in the literature about the qualities an authentic leader must have. These include self-awareness, the ability to trust one's thoughts, feelings, motives and values, self reflection, responsiveness to feedback, and the ability to resolve conflict in honest and non-manipulative ways. An authentic leader is supposedly able to further the success of an organization within the confines of social and ethical values, even when that seems impossible. Authentic leadership is claimed to be a superior model due to the greater trust and motivation it invokes in subordinates. Much of the evidentiary basis for authentic leadership has been called into question and papers have been retracted.

Machiavellianism in the workplace is a concept studied by many organizational psychologists. Conceptualized originally by Richard Christie and Florence Geis, Machiavellianism refers to a psychological trait concept where individuals behave in a cold and duplicitous manner. It has in recent times been adapted and applied to the context of the workplace and organizations by many writers and academics.

The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire(MLQ) is a psychological inventory consisting of 36 items pertaining to leadership styles and 9 items pertaining to leadership outcomes. The MLQ was constructed by Bruce J. Avolio and Bernard M. Bass with the goal to assess a full range of leadership styles. The MLQ is composed of 9 scales that measure three leadership styles: transformational leadership (5 scales), transactional leadership (2 scales), and passive/avoidant behavior (2 scales), and 3 scales that measure outcomes of leadership. The MLQ takes an average of 15 minutes to complete and can be administered to an individual or group. The MLQ can be used to differentiate effective and ineffective leaders at all organizational levels and has been validated across many cultures and types of organizations. It is used for leadership development and research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Full range leadership model</span> Theory of leadership

The full range of leadership model (FRLM) is a general leadership theory focusing on the behavior of leaders towards the workforce in different work situations. The FRLM relates transactional and transformational leadership styles with laissez-faire leadership style.

Ambidextrous leadership is a recently introduced term by scholars to characterize a special approach to leadership that is mostly used in organizations. It refers to the simultaneous use of explorative and exploitative activities by leaders. Exploration refers to search, risk taking, experimentation, and innovation in organizations, whereas exploitation has to do with refinement, efficiency, implementation, and execution. Successful ambidextrous leaders must be able to achieve the appropriate mix of explorative and exploitative activities, unique for each organization, that will lead them to high firm performance outcomes.

References

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  2. ↑ Lindsay, Douglas. "Shared Leadership in the Military: Reality, Possibility, or Pipedream?". ResearchGate.
  3. ↑ Stanik-Hutt, Julie (2008-07-01). "Developing Leadership". The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 4 (7): 493. doi:10.1016/j.nurpra.2008.05.011.
  4. ↑ Army Leadership. Competent, Confident, and Agile. Washington, D.C.: Headquarters, Department of the Army. 12 October 2006. p. 18. Publication available at Army Knowledge Online (www.us.army.mil) and General Dennis J. Reimer Training and Doctrine Digital Library at (www.train.army.mil), FM 6–22.
  5. ↑ Legood, A., van der Werff, L., Lee, A., & Den Hartog, D. (2021). A meta-analysis of the role of trust in the leadership-performance relationship. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(1), 1-22.
  6. ↑ Goleman, Daniel (March 2000). "Leadership that Gets Results". Harvard Business Review . Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  7. ↑ Gross, Raushan (2018-06-01). "Connecting the Links Between Leadership Styles and Virtual Team Effectiveness". Journal of Enterprising Culture. 26 (2): 185–205. doi:10.1142/S0218495818500073. ISSN   0218-4958. S2CID   158634354.
  8. ↑ Chira, Robert (2016). International Logistics Management. AuthorHouse. p. 412. ISBN   978-1524632090.
  9. ↑ Salin, D.; Helge, H. (2010), "Organizational Causes of Workplace Bullying", Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice
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  11. 1 2 Hooper, Vallire D. (2008-06-01). "Leadership, Management, and Their Relationship to Advocacy". Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing. 23 (3): 220–221. doi:10.1016/j.jopan.2008.04.007. ISSN   1089-9472. PMID   18501844.
  12. 1 2 3 Erben and Guneser, Gul and Ayse (November 2008). "The Relationship Between Paternalistic Leadership and Organizational Commitment:Investigating the Role of Climate Regarding ethics". Journal of Business Ethics. 82 (4): 955–968. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.469.3530 . doi:10.1007/s10551-007-9605-z. S2CID   22599571.
  13. ↑ Cheng, Bor-Shiuan; Chou, Li-Fang; Wu, Tsung-Yu; Huang, Min-Ping; Farh, Jiing-Lih (2004). "Corresponding Western Leadership Scales". doi:10.1037/t60537-000.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ↑ Foster, D. E. (2002). "A Method of Comparing Follower Satisfaction with the Authoritarian, Democratic, and Laissez-faire Styles of Leadership". Communication Teacher. 16 (2): 4–6.
  15. ↑ Woods, A. P. (2010). "Democratic leadership: drawing distinctions with distributed leadership". International Journal of Leadership in Education. 7 (1): 3–36. doi:10.1080/1360312032000154522. S2CID   143943616.
  16. ↑ Martin-dale, N (2011). "Leadership Styles: How to handle the different personas". Strategic Communication Management. 15 (8): 32–35.
  17. ↑ Kevin Wren (15 April 2013). Social Influences. Routledge. p. 75. ISBN   978-1-134-66357-6.
  18. 1 2 "Styles Of Leadership". Essortment. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
  19. ↑ Bono, J. E. & Judge, T. A. (2010). Personality and Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology 89, 901–910.
  20. ↑ Liu, J.; Liu, X.; Zeng, X. (2011). "Does transactional leadership count for team innovativeness?". Journal of Organizational Change Management. 24 (3): 282–298. doi:10.1108/09534811111132695.
  21. ↑ Davies, Barbara J.; Davies *, Brent (2004-02-01). "Strategic leadership" . School Leadership & Management. 24 (1): 29–38. doi:10.1080/1363243042000172804. ISSN   1363-2434. S2CID   26707597.
  22. 1 2 Schultz, Duane P.; Schultz, Sydney Ellen (1998). "Chapter 7: Leadership". Psychology and Work Today (10 ed.). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge (published 2015). ISBN   978-1-3173-5080-4 . Retrieved 2016-05-22. Transformational leadership[:] A leadership style in which leaders are not constrained by their followers' perceptions but are free to act to change or transform their followers' views.
  23. ↑ Schultz, Duane P. Schultz, Sydney Ellen (2010). Psychology and work today : An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall (published 2015). p. 201. ISBN   978-0-2056-8358-1. Transformational leaders [...] are not limited by their followers' perceptions. Rather than believing that they must act in accordance with what their followers expect of them, transformational leaders work to change or transform their followers' needs and redirect their thinking.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. 1 2 Schultz, Duane P.; Schultz, Sydney Ellen (2010). Psychology and work today. New York: Prentice Hall. pp. 201–202. ISBN   978-0-205-68358-1.
  25. ↑ Carless, S. A., Wearing, A. J., & Mann, L. (2000). "A short measure of transformational leadership". Journal of Business and Psychology. 14 (3): 389–405. doi:10.1023/A:1022991115523. S2CID   143249478.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ↑ Schultz, Duane P. Schultz, Sydney Ellen (2010). Psychology and work today : An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall (published 2015). p. 201. ISBN   978-0-2056-8358-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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