Leadership Styles
Different leadership styles
There are many different types of leadership styles that are adjusted to suit different roles of jobs. All leadership styles have a direct reasoning to provide direction, as well as motivating individuals.
Authoritarian Leadership (also known as autocratic) has a high level of control. It empowers people to follow the directions given. It is frequently considered a classic leadership style and is used when the leader wants to take as much control as possible. It is mainly used to high demand jobs where life or death situations occur eg. Army. The followers of the leader will do whatever is told to them because they are lower in authority and are inspired by the leader.
The advantages of
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A team can give their input into a decision and then the team leader can make a final decision. This form of leadership will be used when a team needs to be closely organised, for example, in the fire service when planning a rescue situation.
The advantages of Democratic Leadership is that the team will feel a sense of belonging because they have say in the decisions being made, this will give a sense of empowerment and courage as they will feel in control. However there are weaknesses to this leadership style. As the decisions being made will have a lot of people’s involvement, it can be a lengthy process. This style can be seem as time wasting and wouldn’t be effective where quick decision making is essential, like the front line Army.
Laissez-Faire or ‘Loosely’ approach is where the team is left to fulfil the leaders aim. The leader may have employed strong minded team members to be in control with very little guidance from the leader. The leader will give the team members the resources they need to complete a task. Laissez-Faire will be used when the leader has full trust in the team, and where the team members are highly skilled, so they will not need any guidance. For example, in the police a high ranked officer will have experience of what to do and will not need showing what to do, where as a new recruit will need
The theory of leaders can be autocratic, a person who doesn’t consider the person undertaking the task only getting the results. A democratic leader takes opinions of the staff and understands how they believe the best results can be achieved, whereas Laissez-faire style leaves the experienced staff to implement the work processes.
According to the leadership theory by Kurt Lewin (1939), there are different leadership styles that affect group dynamics such as decision-making, effectiveness of group work, communication, collaboration, and etc. The two of leadership styles, authoritarian and participative, are highly related to the concept of groupthink. Groups with autocratic leaders who promote their preferred solutions are more likely to fall into groupthink than groups with non-promotional leaders (i.e. democratic and impartial) (Ahlfinger & Esser, 2001). In other words, groups led by controlling leaders who fail to encourage participation of group members in decision-making process would produce symptoms of groupthink and poor quality of decisions. On the other hand, groups with democratic leaders who make decisions by consulting with the group members while still maintaining control of the group are guarded against groupthink (Kearney & Gebert, 2009). So allowing greater input from group members protects groups from making faulty irrational decisions and encourages open discussion and critical appraisal.
Authoritarian leaders, also referred to as autocratic leaders, take complete authority when making decisions. Punishment, threats, demands, rules, and procedures are tactics authoritarian leaders use to gain control. Authoritarian leadership involves managing the completion of a task within the given deadline. Employees will be subject to inspections and scrutiny under this type of leadership system.
the one that provides no guidance to the members of the team and fully let them make their own decisions. The fact that the author turned out a democratic leader was not surprising because the author believes this approach to be the most effective and focused on the members of the team rather on the leader.
An Autocratic style means that the manager makes decisions unilaterally, and without much regard for subordinates. As a result, decisions will reflect the opinions and personality of the manager; this in turn can project an image of a confident, well managed business. On the other hand, subordinates may become overly dependent upon the leaders
However the team has a lot more freedom to achieve because they are highly motivated and feel empowered. For example the most effective way this style could be used is if you gave a police forensic team to go out and complete a task.
In a democratic leadership style, the decision making process and overall responsibility among team members is shared. Decisions are made by the leader consulting each member of the team; therefore the outcome becomes a group effort. In the democratic leadership style, tasks are delegated to employees effectively, where the implementation is mostly in their hands. As opposed to the authoritarian leadership style, the democratic leader welcomes feedback from every team member. Team members are also encouraged to function as a
In the assigned type of leadership, the leader proposes to support and coaching the team. The team gaining confidence in making decisions for the organisation. The leader examines abilities and skills ensuring proper decision-making and knowing duties. The leader does not hand over responsibilities and in case of wrong doings and cannot blame the team. The other style of leadership is authoritarian. In
Authoritarian leadership; also known as autocratic leadership; is an extremely direct style of leadership where the leader remains in control the whole time and tells the other team members what they must do. The team are expected to follow orders without question or negotiation, therefore this could demoralise a team due to their opinions and ideas not being heard. It is best to use authoritarian when: a leader knows all the information, there is a strict deadline to which the team must work to, or the team is used to this style of leadership as the leader can be very demanding which people may not be used to. Authoritarian leadership may not get the best response from a team as it mainly relies on intimidation to work efficiently.
Beyond communication, leadership types affect how Groupthink plays a role in a company or small group. Each member creates their own style and the leaders response develops their own. In response to the group's actions the leader can respond in an autocratic style. This style of leadership lays out a set of rules they deem fit to govern the group. This type of leader has a certainty about their headship which causes less mistakes. This type of leader doesn’t incorporate everyone else’s idea. A bureaucratic style leader follows the existing rules, but leaves rules for adjustment. According to Cragan and the other authors from the worksheet on leadership perspectives, This is one of the most ideal styles of leadership out of the others. Democratic style of leadership, although it allows for group input, it takes longer
One of this style’s is the autocratic style, a style designed for leaders to teach others to follow by example; letting others knows what you expect from them by using a straight forward approach. Basically, they lay out the situation to others, and take full responsibility for their own and others actions; through the process of decision making. Though, most people would say that this style is not be any means the most positive, other would disagree since it seems to work quite well were leadership is concerned; especially at accomplishing the goals they set for the organization. However, for this to be beneficial in all aspects, one needs to have a wide range of choice
The purpose for this study is to confirm whether or not the laissez-faire leadership style is inferior to the democratic style. To help confirm this theory, there will be an evaluation on a particular squad in Alpha Company that exhibits the laissez-faire leadership style. When describing the key factors of an effective leader, Dave Ulrich addresses that leaders “identify what skills are required, draw talent to their organizations, engage these people, communicate extensively, and ensure that employees turn in their best efforts… [and] generate intense personal, professional, and organizational loyalty” (Ulrich, para, 3). As a result, the attitudes, actions, and evaluations of the squad leader will be taken in account to determine whether or not the laissez-faire leadership style, a style where the leader gives all authority to the squad members, is most effective, meaning which leadership style is more preferred by cadets and establishes the most respect and results in a unit. As described by Eric Gill, the laissez-faire leadership style can result “in a lack of accountability for organizations… and failure to achieve goals…if groups or team members lack sufficient skills, experience or motivation to complete projects” (Gill, para. 18). This will be evaluated when observing the squad leader to confirm the data presented. Additionally, when compared to the laissez-faire leadership style, John Gastil describes democratic leadership to “aid the deliberative process through
A person’s style of leading is hardly equivalent to their behavior. It is known as the way in which the leader influences the followers. There are many ways to lead and every leader adopts their own style. According to the Public Policy and Administration Research (2015), different styles were needed for different situations and each leader needed to know when to exhibit a particular approach. The democratic approach can also be referred to as the participative style seeing as it encourages employees to be a part of the decision making. A manger utilizing a democratic style keeps their employees informed about everything affecting their work and shares decision-making and problem solving responsibilities. In a sense, this style requires the leader to be a coach who has the final say, but gathers information from
When researching the different styles of leadership, one question that likely comes to mind is the relationship of the leadership style to the performance of the organization. Organizations in the same industry can have vast differences based upon their corporate culture. The corporate culture itself can promote an environment of one style of leadership over the other. Also, there are styles such as coaching that overlap onto other leadership styles. We will explore the
The employees are given a say on what goes on and power is distributed equally. Studies shown in groups run by this style, the work output was less but the quality of the work was higher. The democratic leadership style helps team members feel valued, creates balanced, and has more in common with modern day governments.