Leadership

 Leadership

 

Meaning of leadership

Leadership is defined as personal quality of an individual that influence the behavior of followers. It is an important function of management. Leadership is an act of influencing people so that the followers follow the path of leader. The successful leader must lead to stimulate and inspire the followers to achieve organizational goals. In an organization the manager is a leader and other subordinates are followers. A manager cannot manage effectively unless he can lead his subordinates effectively. Hence a leader may or may not be a manager but a successful manager must be a leader.

Leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group work.

Function of managerial leader

·  Leader is true representative of the organization who represents the organization to those working for it as well as to the outside world. A leader functions as a chain between management and staff. S/he represents management before the workers and work before the management

·  A leader must establish organizational goals. It is the primary function of the leader. S/he also should participate with superior to get it done

·  When the skill and knowledge of the subordinates are not used properly a managerial leader must provide the guideline and effective path as motivational factor to them

·  A leader must act like a captain to the team, must win the confidence of most of the colleagues and encourage team work.

·  The leader must design proper system of communication and communicate authority and responsibility to its subordinates so that they can know about their work

·  A managerial leader must understand problems and feelings of the subordinates  and try to solve them tactfully

·  A leader must maintain good relationship with subordinates and other people

·  A good managerial leader must facilitate change in the organization whenever and wherever necessary.

·  A leader has the responsibility to control, supervise and see different departments to achieve organizational goals

·  A leader should be able to evaluate the performance of subordinates. There must be provision of both reward and punishment.

 

Leadership style

 

1.   Autocratic leadership style: – when the authority and decision making power are concentrated to the leader is known as autocratic leadership style. There is no participation by subordinates. The leader takes full authority and assumes full responsibility. Planning, policies and other working procedures are predetermined by the leader alone. The convey the information about what to do and how to do. He never takes any advice and suggestions of other people. They structure the entire work situation in their own way and expect the workers to follow their orders and tolerate no deviation from their order. They are just like tyrant rulers. The leader who believes and exercised the autocratic leadership style is known as autocratic leader.

Features:-

·  He/she makes his own decisions and he/she doesn’t not take any advice of others because he/she thinks he/she is only superior.

·  His/her position gives him/her personal authority and right to lead the members in any way he/she desires.

·  Reward and punishment is exercised by him/her very strictly. Autocratic leadership style believes on negative motivational tools.

·  An autocrat leader does not give full information to the members. There is only one way communication in order to maintain the position.

·  An autocratic leader describes each job in detail and imposes rigid work standard on his employees. It means the subordinates are compelled to certain work assigned for him.

Advantages:-

·  It is useful in emergency or in war,

·  When the workers are undisciplined and uneducated it gives the best results.

·  When the laborers are not organized, it is more effective.

·  There is no need of trained labor. It may be used for untrained workers.

·  It is a prompt process of decision making as the single person decides for the whole group.

Disadvantages:-      

·  Subordinates are not involved in the process of decision making in autocratic leadership style

·  It doesn’t emphasize on correct evaluation of employee’s performance

·  The moral of employees is so low.

·  There is no chance of management development.

·  There is no chance of two-way communication.

·  Creative ideas and thinking cannot be used in autocratic leadership style.

·  The employees perform the work with negative motivation.

 

2.   Democratic leadership style

 

When the authority and decision making power are decentralized to the subordinates is known as democratic leadership style. There is participation by subordinates. The leader delegates authority and provides responsibility even to the followers. Planning, policies and other working procedures are determined by the leader along with suggestions of the followers. He conveys the information about what to do and how to do just as a consultant. He takes advice and suggestions of other people. They structure the entire work situation in democratic way. They are just like democratic rulers. The leader who believes and exercised the democratic leadership style is known as democratic leader.

 

Features:-

·  A democratic leader delegates the responsibility as per the capability of the employee

·  There is participation of all subordinates in decision making

·  Human values are also given preference. The leader gives concerns for the followers

·  Democratic leader imposes flexible work standard, designs goals with freedom for the performance of work.

·  A democratic leader emphasizes in results than on action

 

·  Advantages: –

·  Good cooperation among employees is made in democratic leadership style.

·  Employees are highly satisfied and their morale is increased

·  Human efforts are highly recognized

·  It helps in increasing in productivity.

·  Policies, planning and other working procedures become better because different kinds of logic ideas and creativity are mixed.

·  Subordinates have grown considerable freedom of action that helps to increase the personal growth and gets opportunity to utilize their capabilities

Disadvantages: –

·  It takes long time in decision making.

·  It is not suitable for untrained subordinates’

·  A leader may  to be responsible in his style

·  It is not suitable when the followers are undisciplined and untrained

 

3.   Free rein leadership style

when all the authority and responsibility are delegated to the subordinates is known as Free rein leadership style. The leader who believes on this style is known as free rein leader. The free rein leader doesn’t use the power and leaves the power to the subordinates. He/she doesn’t provide any contribution to make planning and policies. This type of leadership style is very useful when group members are intelligent and fully aware of their roles and responsibilities.

Features

·  Subordinates have complete freedom in decision making

·  The subordinates are self-directed, self-motivated and self-controlled

·  The role of free rein leader is to provide facilities, materials and information to the employees.

·  The leader doesn’t interfere in making planning and policies

 

Advantages: –

·  The employees are satisfied in their job because they are free in decision making

·  The morale of employees is developed.

·  The employees are highly developed because there is maximum possibility for the development of workers.

·  The creativity and potentiality of subordinate are fully utilized.

 

Disadvantages:-

·  Leader contribution is ignored.

·  Sometime the subordinates are not self-directed.

·  Subordinates should not get the guidelines of the leader.

 

Managerial grid style of leadership

Introduction

Anticipating situational leadership, American Robert Blake and Jane Mouton arrived at the conclusion in 1964 that the behaviour of a leader stems from two criteria: people orientation (concern for people) and task orientation (concern for production) In the so-called managerial grid, they combined these two criteria as a result of which a grid with 81 leadership styles was created.

Under the microscope

On the vertical axis of the managerial grid, the concern for people is depicted from low to high. On the horizontal axis of the managerial grid, concern for production is represented from low to high. The more a  leader aims at result orientation, the more attention he pays to working methods, work preparation, rules and regulations and the results of the employees. The more emphasis a leader puts on his employees, the more he aims at motivation, guidance and instruction of employees. He will stimulate group connection and fully aim at motivational labour conditions and learning processes of his employees.

Basic styles of the managerial grid

In the Managerial Grid Robert Blake and Jane Mouton score the criteria ‘concern for people‘ and ‘concern for production‘ from 1 (low) to 9 (high).  The Managerial Grid creates 81 combinations that result in 81 different leadership styles. All these styles are subdivided into four quadrants and five basic leadership styles that are given a name and marks:

1.1 Impoverished Management (avoiding)

In this leadership style the leader shows little or no concern for production and little or no concern for the employee. When the leader does not wish to engage with his employees and lets them muddle on, this is a bad leadership style. Robert Blake and Jane Mouton indicate however that this style can be a conscious choice. By giving employees the freedom to solve a specific problem, this will affect the production for a short while. But eventually, this will lead to independence and an improved production. When this leadership style is used overly much or continuously, Robert Blake and Jane Mouton recommend to take on a different leadership style.

1.9 Country club (ironing out)

Many new leaders orient themselves towards this style with a high concern for people but a low concern for production. In this style of leadership, leaders just want to be ‘liked‘ by their employees and they do not want to come across as too authoritarian. The leader wants to understand his employees continuously and wishes to maintain a good relationship with them whatever the cost with the risk that the employees might cut corners and do not pursue the objectives enough. This style may also be the leader’s conscious choice. The moment an employee has to deal with personal problems the manager’s care and support will be experienced as positive. It will temporarily affect the production but the backlog will be caught up at a later time.

9.1 Task Management (pushing through)

The leader is completely focused on task-orientation. As the production is the leader’s focal point of attention, he forgets and neglects the well being of the employees. This leader is authoritative and he exerts disciplinary pressure. The leader requires the utmost of the employees and imposes sanctions when they fail to meet the requirements. Robert Blake and Jane Mouton indicate that there are situations in which this style of leadership is necessary. For instance when unpopular measures are taken like cutbacks or reorganization. The leader should not be afraid to show his human side from time to time, however.

5.5 Middle of the road (compromising)

In this leadership style the ‘happy medium‘ course is adopted. The leader maintains a balance between the needs of the people and the production and the leader scores an average mark on both criteria. According to Robert Blake and Jane Mouton this is not always an ideal leadership style but because of pressure of time such as meeting deadlines, it is a good way to encourage the employees.

9.9 Team Management (team-oriented)

The leader that is oriented towards this style should not change this. His employees form a close-knit team and work together on the execution of objectives. The leader has got a lot respect for his employees and enthuses and motivates them. This is why they are able to bring out the best in themselves, Mutual involvement among the employees is high and they are very loyal to their employer. Such an optimal cooperation is often linked to short-term projects that are carried out by (highly) experienced employees. By paying a lot of attention to the needs of the employees and the production this leader works very efficiently.

Green zone within the Managerial Grid

As the style of the leader is also determined by the situation, Robert Blake and Jane Mouton indicated that the best starting position within the Managerial Grid can be found between 5.5 (middle of the road) and 9.9 (team). They called the space in between the ‘green zone‘. The leadership style is only effective when other styles are applied per situation. They recommend that the basic leadership style must be taken from the green zone.

It is advisable to eliminate all emotions towards the employees and to fully focus on the production. But when emotions are running high among employees, a leader would do well to focus his attention on the people’s needs, even if this is at the expense of the production. It is therefore more efficient to apply various leadership styles.

Four system style of leadership

Rensis Likert identified four main styles of leadership, in particular around decision-making and the degree to which people are involved in the decision.

Exploitive authoritative

In this style, the leader has a low concern for people and uses such methods as threats and other fear-based methods to achieve conformance. Communication is almost entirely downwards and the psychologically distant concerns of people are ignored.

Benevolent authoritative

When the leader adds concern for people to an authoritative position, a 'benevolent dictatorship' is formed. The leader now uses rewards to encourage appropriate performance and listens more to concerns lower down the organization, although what they hear is often rose-tinted, being limited to what their subordinates think that the boss wants to hear. Although there may be some delegation of decisions, almost all major decisions are still made centrally.

Consultative

The upward flow of information here is still cautious and rose-tinted to some degree, although the leader is making genuine efforts to listen carefully to ideas. Nevertheless, major decisions are still largely centrally made.

Participative

At this level, the leader makes maximum use of participative methods, engaging people lower down the organization in decision-making. People across the organization are psychologically closer together and work well together at all levels.

Situational leadership style

The situational leadership theory (or situational leadership model) is a leadership theory developed by Paul Hersey, professor and author of the book The Situational Leader,[1] and Ken Blanchard, leadership trainer and author of The One Minute Manager, while working on the first edition of Management of Organizational Behavior.[2] The theory was first introduced as "Life Cycle Theory of Leadership".[3] During the mid-1970s, "Life Cycle Theory of Leadership" was renamed "Situational Leadership theory".[4]

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, the authors both developed their own models using the situational leadership theory; Hersey - Situational Leadership Model and Blanchard et al. Situational Leadership II Model.[5]

The fundamental underpinning of the situational leadership theory is that there is no single "best" style of leadership. Effective leadership is task-relevant, and the most successful leaders are those who adapt their leadership style to the maturity ("the capacity to set high but attainable goals, willingness and ability to take responsibility for the task, and relevant education and/or experience of an individual or a group for the task") of the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence. Effective leadership varies, not only with the person or group that is being influenced, but it also depends on the task, job or function that needs to be accomplished.[4]

The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model rests on two fundamental concepts; leadership style and the individual or group's maturity level.

 

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