Leadership and its impact on the organization

Question:

Discuss about the Leadership in Business for Occupational Health Psychology.

In the current scenario, leadership skills are one of the essential tools that is extremely as well as valuable for both the personal and the professional development (Northouse, 2015). Leadership is one of the important functions of the management, which helps an individual or the business to amplify the efficiency or achieve the objectives (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

This essay deals, with the critical analysis of the two leadership styles as defined by the current leadership theories. This essay also cites about two current business leaders who match to the leadership styles as portrayed in the essay. This essay also deals with the analysis of their effectiveness in terms of the theories and the principles. This essay also includes a leadership plan to develop individual leadership qualities.

The purpose of this essay is to understand and explain the different styles of leadership and specifically focusing on two of the important leadership styles as well incorporate these styles with relevance to two current effective leaders. This essay also effectively helps understand and analyze the methods to develop individual leadership styles and qualities with the help of a leadership development plan.

Leadership is the method with the help of which a person, a leader in this instance, influences a group of individuals towards the realization of any predefined and common goal (Antonakis, 2017). The efficiency of an effective leader is dependent on the style of performance and execution of the strategies (Giltinane, 2013). Thus, an effective leader is considered to know the strategies and the approaches in which others can be effectively guided or led.

In addition to the effective leadership qualities, the leadership approaches are instrumental in defining the personal leadership styles which an individual can possibly implement to develop the skills (Du et al., 2013).

The two main leadership styles that is specifically discussed in this essay are autocratic and democratic style of leadership (Arnold et al., 2015). The autocratic style of leadership as the name suggests is the style of leadership where the leader has the total control and the authority In this style of leadership the entire power or authority can be vested upon executing and imposing of crucial leadership actions such as the decision making process.

The autocratic style of leadership is based and relevant with the transactional theory of leadership (Chemers, 2014). This theory lays more effort and emphasis on the vitality of the relationships that exists between a leader and the followers. This theory prime believes in the fundamental proposition where the leaders would be leading the group whereas the followers would be following and obeying them without any hindrance. On further addition, this kind of leadership style lacks the participative nature since the staffs or the employees are not consulted under any condition. This style of leadership is driven by the using of structured outline of rewards and penalty, in terms of failure to comply with the directives from the leader (Chemers, 2014). The Autocratic leadership is normally effective in instances where supervision is needed in urgency for getting the things to be done with efficiency. It is also beneficial and effective in cases where the time for making crucial decisions is comparatively less. However, this style of leadership is ineffective in terms of resentful and immoral followers.

Autocratic leadership style and its theories

The second style of leadership that has been adopted is the democratic style, which is also known as the participatory or participative style of leadership which is based on the transformational theory of leadership. In this theory the core concept of leadership mainly focuses on the change and the visionary leadership with the objective of enhancing both the individual as well as the organizational performance. The democratic style of leadership usually involves the methods where the followers are also given the fair chance to develop their leadership skills through the process of shared leadership and participative decision-making. The employees are also involved with the process of problem solving and the decision-making, thus helping them understand the essence and the qualities of an effective leader. Democratic style of leadership is especially effective in the instances where the followers are in need of motivation and the urgency in the need to develop the an individual’s leadership abilities (Val & Kemp, 2012).

One famous example of autocratic style of leadership can be found with the leadership style of Raymond Albert “Ray” Kroc, an American business man who was instrumental in the global recognition of Mc Donald’s, as one of the quickest expanding fast-food restaurant chains in the world. Ray Kroc believed the fact that people go to restaurants with high anticipations. He believed that be it a fast-food chain or an upscale establishment, customers always expect reliable service, well-mannered hosts and efficient servers. No matter what kind of meals they order, customers expect their food and the service to be good. Dining establishments need an autocratic leadership style to meet these expectations. However, even the most cheerful and lively restaurant runs on lean margins that can tolerate minimal mistakes. This perception and vision of an autocratic leadership as well as style well fits with Ray Kroc, which made Mc Donald’s one of the popular food chains, even in till the present day (Chhokar,  Brodbeck & House, 2013).

One significant example of democratic style of leadership can be with the leadership style of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com. Initially Amazon was known to sell only books. The company prospered under the theories of Lewin Leadership models. It began the implementation of the Laissez-Faire theory with Jeff Bezos as the final arbitrator of all the prime and crucial decisions, recruited many highly professional programmers, and implied the democratic or participatory style of leadership. In the current situation, Amazon sells almost anything and everything. Since Amazon is an online retail shopping portal sometimes the situations demands the autocratic style of leadership due to the commitment to its customers and service, however the company has retained and maintained its democratic values amongst the employees, executives, division heads and the project directors (Bhatti et al., 2012).

Democratic leadership style and its theories

An efficient leader should plan for the personal as well as professional growth. This section devises a leadership development plan to highlight on the strengths, weakness including the personal goals and objectives for the future reference.

An effective leader should be able to draw his/her strengths to lead the subordinates in a better way. The first key strength is Organization, which would be helpful to manage the daily activities as well as manage the chaos to help the subordinates to work under determination and help them structure their goals as well. The other strengths that can be included are being responsible, articulated, structured, task oriented, determined, confident, and visionary and effectively management of resources. Combining these skills can effectively help assemble followers to embark on a journey to help the organization achieve its goals.

The areas, which can be subjected to change or improvement, are considerably the possible weaknesses. The acknowledgement and improving of these weaknesses can be helpful in the subjugating of crisis. The areas, which possibly need improvement, are expansion of the administrative skills, laying emphasis on the interpersonal skills, improving self-confidence. The other areas of improvements are communication skills, interpersonal skills, confidently handling of relationships and technical competence. Mitigation and improvements in the cited areas can help a leader to strengthen his unique propositions (Rast III,  Hogg & Giessner, 2013).

With the identification of the strengths and the weaknesses, the primary goal that can be set for oneself is the improvement of the strengths and the weakness. Apart from this te other five goals that can be stated are improving of the communications skills, improving of the interpersonal skills, improving of the technical knowledge as well as competence, improving of the confidence, focusing more on the relationships. These goals are primarily set based on the weaknesses that needs to be improved (Gonos & Gallo, 2013).

There are certain leadership skills that need to be established from within to ensure the efficiency of a leader. Based on this certain skills needs to be cultivated, helps understand the significance and the values of being a good leader. With reference to the personal objectives, certain skills can are to be implemented. The implementation of these skills are supposedly the personal objectives, which includes the managing the team, leading the team towards a definite goal or success. Improving the self analyzed strengths and weaknesses, managing people and relationships as well as help the team gather and understand its full potential to perform under pressure. Understanding and incorporating these skills, which are perceived as the personal objectives can in turn help the organization achieve its own objectives on personal terms (Gonos & Gallo, 2013).

Conclusion

With the help of this essay, it can be concluded that all the theories of leadership style has certain relevance to the actual practice and the implementation of the leadership styles in business. With the help of this essay, the two relationship styles proved that they are different from each other in practice, however they have similar objectives that are considered for the implementation of the same. The autocratic and the democratic style of leadership are different in theories yet, they both are crucial in the governance of the organization as well as managing the internal sectors of the organization.

References

Antonakis, J. (2017). The nature of leadership. Sage publications.

Arnold, K. A., Connelly, C. E., Walsh, M. M., & Martin Ginis, K. A. (2015). Leadership styles, emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(4), 481.

Bhatti, N., Maitlo, G. M., Shaikh, N., Hashmi, M. A., & Shaikh, F. M. (2012). The impact of autocratic and democratic leadership style on job satisfaction. International Business Research, 5(2), 192.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Chemers, M. (2014). An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.

Chhokar, J. S., Brodbeck, F. C., & House, R. J. (Eds.). (2013). Culture and leadership across the world: The GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. Routledge.

Du, S., Swaen, V., Lindgreen, A., & Sen, S. (2013). The roles of leadership styles in corporate social responsibility. Journal of business ethics, 114(1), 155-169.

Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard (through 2013), 27(41), 35.

Gonos, J., & Gallo, P. (2013). Model for leadership style evaluation. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 18(2), 157-168.

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Rast III, D. E., Hogg, M. A., & Giessner, S. R. (2013). Self-uncertainty and support for autocratic leadership. Self and Identity, 12(6), 635-649.

Val, C., & Kemp, J. (2012). Leadership Styles. Pathways: The Ontario Journal Of Outdoor Education, 24(3), 28-31.