Leadership Styles

In the past several decades, management experts have undergone a revolution in how they define leadership and what their attitudes are toward it. They have gone from a very classical autocratic approach to a very creative, participative approach. Somewhere along the line, it was determined that everything old was bad and not everything new was good. Rather, different styles were needed for different situations and each leader needed to know when to exhibit a particular approach.

Three Classic Leadership Styles
1) Autocratic Leadership Style
This is often considered as the classical approach. It is one in which the manager retains as much power and decision-making authority as possible. The manager does not consult employees, nor are they allowed to give any input. Employees are expected to obey orders without receiving any explanations. The motivation environment is produced by creating a structured set of rewards and punishments.

This leadership style has been greatly criticized during the past 30 years. Some studies say that organizations with many autocratic leaders have higher turnover and absenteeism than other organizations. Certainly, Gen X employees have proven to be highly resistant to this management style. These studies say that autocratic leaders:
 Rely on threats and punishment to influence employees
 Do not trust employees
 Do not allow for employee input

Yet, autocratic leadership is not all bad. Sometimes it is the most effective style to use. These situations can include:
 New, untrained employees who do not know which tasks to perform or which procedures to follow
 Effective supervision can be provided only through detailed orders and instructions
 Employees do not respond to any other leadership style
 There are high-volume production needs on a daily basis
 There is limited time in which to make a decision
 A manager’s power is challenged by an employee
 The area was poorly managed
 Work needs to be coordinated with another department or organization

The autocratic leadership style should not be used when:
 Employees become tense, fearful, or resentful
 Employees expect to have their opinions heard
 Employees begin depending on their manager to make all their decisions
 There is low employee morale, high turnover and absenteeism and work stoppage

2) Democratic/Participative Leadership Style
The democratic leadership style is also called the participative style as it encourages employees to be a part of the decision-making. The democratic manager keeps his or her employees informed about everything that affects their work and shares decision-making and problem solving responsibilities. This style requires the leader to be a coach who has the final say, but gathers information from staff members before making a decision. Democratic leadership can produce high quality and high quantity work for long periods. Many employees like the trust they receive and respond with cooperation, team spirit, and high morale. Typically, characteristics of the democratic leader are:
 Develops plans to help employees evaluate their own performance
 Allows employees to establish goals
 Encourages employees to grow on the job and be promoted
 Recognizes and encourages achievement
Like the other styles, the democratic style is not always appropriate. It is most successful when used with highly skilled or experienced employees or when implementing operational changes or resolving individual or group problems.

The democratic leadership style is most effective when:
 The leader wants to keep employees informed about matters that affect them
 The leader wants employees to share in decision-making and problem-solving duties
 The leader wants to provide opportunities for employees to develop a high sense of personal growth and job satisfaction
 There is a large or complex problem that requires lots of input to solve
 Changes must be made or problems solved that affect employees or groups of employees
 You want to encourage team building and participation
Democratic leadership should not be used when:
 There is not enough time to get everyone’s input
 It’s easier and more cost-effective for the manager to make the decision
 The business can’t afford mistakes
 The manager feels threatened by this type of leadership
 Employee safety is a critical concern

3) Laissez Faire Leadership Style
The laissez-faire leadership style is also known as the “hands-off¨ style. It is one in which the manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible. All authority or power is given to the employees and they must determine goals, make decisions, and resolve problems on their own.

This is an effective style to use when:
 Employees are highly skilled, experienced, and educated
 Employees have pride in their work and the drive to do it successfully on their own
 Outside experts, such as staff specialists or consultants are being used
 Employees are trustworthy and experienced

This style should not be used when :
 It makes employees feel insecure at the unavailability of a manager
 The manager cannot provide regular feedback to let employees know how well they are doing
 Managers are unable to thank employees for their good work
 The manager doesn’t understand his or her responsibilities and is hoping the employees can cover for him or her.

Transactional Leadership Style
Contrary to the belief of many, groups do not automatically accept a new "boss" as leader. We see a number of ineffective managers who do not know the behaviors to use when one taking over a new group. The approach emphasizes getting things done within the umbrella of the status quo; almost in opposition to the goals of the transformational leadership. It is considered a "by the book" approach, in which the person works within the rules. As such, it has commonly seen in large, bureaucratic organizations.
Transactional leadership seeks to motivate followers by appealing to their own self-interest. Its principles are to motivate by the exchange process. Transactional behavior focuses on the accomplishment of tasks and good worker relationships in exchange for desirable rewards. Transactional leadership may encourage the leader to adapt their style and behavior to meet the perceived expectations of the followers.

Some researchers added to Burns original theory and it is thought by many today that transactional leadership can encompass four types of behavior:
• Contingent Reward – To influence behavior, the leader clarifies the work needed to be accomplished. The leader uses rewards or incentives to achieve results when expectations are met
• Passive Management by Exception - To influence behavior, the leader uses correction or punishment as a response to unacceptable performance or deviation from the accepted standards
• Active Management by Exception - To influence behavior, the leader actively monitors the work performed and uses corrective methods to ensure the work is completed to meet accepted standards
• Laissez-Faire Leadership – The leader is indifferent and has a “hands-off” approach toward the workers and their performance. This leader ignores the needs of others, does not respond to problems or does not monitor performance

Transformational Leadership Style
In the 1970s, researcher James McGregor Burns described leadership behavior as falling within two broad categories of influence. One category is called transformational leadership. This behavior is founded on the belief that leaders and followers can raise each other to higher levels of motivation and morality. The primary focus of this leadership style is to make change happen in our selves, others, groups, and organizations.
1. Charisma
A special leadership style commonly associated with transformational leadership. While extremely powerful, it is extremely hard to teach.
2. Visionary Leadership
The leadership style focuses on how the leader defines the future for followers and moves them toward it.

From the short review above, one can see that there are many different aspects to being a great leader; a role requiring one to play many different leadership styles to be successful.

Other Leadership Styles
1. Strategic Leadership
This leadership is practiced by the military services such as the US Army, US Air Force, and many large corporations. It stresses the competitive nature of running an organization and being able to out fox and out wit the competition.
2. Team Leadership
A few years ago, a large corporation decided that supervisors were no longer needed and those in charge suddenly were "team leaders." Since there also were no departments, workers suddenly became "a team." Today, companies have gotten smarter about teams, but it still takes leadership to transition a group into a team.
Team leadership differs from traditional top-down leadership in the following ways (Bradford, 1976, as adapted by Yukl, 1989:
 Responsibility for group effectiveness is not on the leader's shoulders but is shared by the group
 Control over the final decision is not held by the leader but is best left to the group
 The importance of one's position and power are de-emphasized in team leadership
 The leader perceives the group not as a set of individuals but as an "interacting and collective team.”
 The task-oriented functions of the team are not performed only by the leader but are shared by the entire group through its new roles
 Group maintenance functions are not performed systematically but are emphasized and shared by the group as a whole
 Socio-emotional processes and interactions, while mostly ignored by leaders in top-down settings, are observed closely by team leaders
 Expressions of members' needs and feelings are not discouraged but are encouraged by team leaders and are dealt with openly in meetings
3. Influence Oriented Leadership Styles. Here one looks at the behaviors associated how one exercises influence. For example, does the person mostly punish? Do they know how to reward?
4. Cross-Cultural Leadership. Not all individual can adapt to the leadership styles expected in a different culture; whether that culture is organizational or national.
5. Coaching. A great coach is definitely a leader who also possesses a unique gift--the ability to teach and train.
6. Level 5 Leadership. This term was coined by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great: Why Some Company’s Make the Leap and Other Don’t. As Collins says in his book, "We were surprised, shocked really, to discover the types of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Level 5 characteristics:
• Charisma didn’t matter
• Unwavering resolve
• Streak of humility/modesty (not meekness) – passionate ambition for cause – not self
7. Servant Leadership
Some leaders have put the needs of their followers first. For example, the motto of the Los Angeles Police Department, "To Protect and Serve." reflects this philosophy of service. One suspects these leaders are rare in business.

Varying Leadership Style
While the proper leadership style depends on the situation, there are still three other factors that also influence which leadership style to use.
 The manager’s personal background. What personality, knowledge, values, ethics, and experiences the manager has. What does he or she think will work?
 The employees being supervised. Employees are individuals with different personalities and backgrounds. The leadership style managers use will vary depending upon the individual employee and what he or she will respond best to.
 The company. The traditions, values, philosophy, and concerns of the company will influence how a manager acts.

Leadership Competency

According to Dr. Warren Bennis, competency of leadership focuses on the five personal characteristics, or competencies, essential to effective leadership and on the five skills with which leaders put these competencies into practice.
The five categories the instrument assesses are:
1. Focused drive
2. Emotional intelligence
3. Building trust/enabling others
4. Conceptual thinking
5. Systems thinking
Each competency and each skill has a definition and an associated set of behaviors that demonstrates the competency or skill. Additionally, ten of these behaviors described each competency and each skill described by five of the behaviors. Furthermore, the ten behaviors for each competency are organized into two groups of five, each corresponding to a component of that competency.

Focused Drive
The competency of focusing on a goal and harnessing your energy in order to meet that goal—a balance between the components of:
• Focus. The ability to identify an important goal or vision and to channel efforts at specific targets that support that goal or vision.
• Drive. The ability to persevere, sacrifice (when necessary), and expend high degrees of energy to reach high levels of performance.

Emotional Intelligence
The competency of understanding and mastering personal emotions in a way that instills confidence, motivates, inspires, and enhances group effectiveness—a balance between the components of:
• Perception. The ability to read the emotions and thoughts of others using insight and analytical skills.
• Emotional Maturity. The ability to master emotions and cope with stress in a way that instills confidence, motivates, and enhances group effectiveness.

Trusted Influence
The competency of evoking trust from others and placing trust in others to enable them to succeed—a balance between the components of:
• Commitment. The ability to evoke trust from others by keeping commitments, adhering to high ethical standards and principles, and building shared goals or values.
• Empowerment. The ability to help others reaching higher levels of performance through trust, delegation, participation, and coaching.

Conceptual Thinking
The competency of conceiving and selecting innovative strategies and ideas for the organization—a balance of the components of:
• Innovation. The ability to create/enhance ideas, products, and services that lead to bottom-line success.
• Big-Picture Thinking. The ability to see all of the forces, events, entities, and people that are affecting (or are being affected by) the situation at hand.

Systems Thinking
The competency of rigorously and systematically connecting processes, events and systems—a balance between the components of:
• Mental Discipline. The ability to sort through ambiguity and alternatives in a way that crystallizes and puts ideas into action.
• Process Orientation. The ability to increase overall learning and performance by designing, implementing, and/or connecting processes.

What Is a Leader?

Richard M. Cyert, president of Carnegie-Mellon University and author of books and articles on organizational theory, has divided leadership into two dimensions:
1. The Consideration Dimension is characterized by an emphasis on good relations. The leader is friendly, approachable and a good listener. Leadership behavior can be described as open and enlisting mental trust.
2. The Initiating Structure represents the leadership behavior involved in directing the organization, helping it to define its goals and structure for execution – including the ability to understand the actions others can act upon.

From these two dimensions, it is possible to generalize three basic functions that a leader performs:
1. Organizational function
The organizational function involves the organizational structure and the selection of people who operate within this structure. It involves various units or segments and the control of internal and external communication flows. The leader has to make certain that the participants in the organization and related groups external to the organization are knowledge and working well together.
2. Interpersonal function
The interpersonal function involves the morale of the organization. It reflects the degree of concern about the humanness of the organization. It requires that the leader pay attention to individual concerns.
3. Decision function
The decisional function involves the making of decisions that must be made in order for the organization to achieve its goals. This traditional function has been associated with leadership.
Although there is no single definition of leadership, these three functions are clearly part of any definition of leadership. Moreover, more to this point, creating a compelling vision that can be constantly reshaped is the hard task of a leader. The leader is the captain of the ship and the vision is the means by which the leader steers the organization. However, there are many people on the ship and if this ship is to reach its final destination, it depends on the behavior of these people.

Warren Bennis, which called as “the father of modern leadership” by Fortune Magazine, had observed several observations about leaders:
• Leaders pull rather than push
• Leaders empower and trust others to act
• Leaders have a clear vision and communicate that vision
• Leaders work through teams and not through hierarchies
• Leaders possess a strong doss of self-esteem and positive attitude
Leaders have a good grasp of self – they realize their strengths, develop their skills, and identify how to use their talents to meet organizational needs. Even more so, leaders evoke positive feelings in others, in which Bennis refers to this as an “attitude of positive other regard.” This gives leaders creditability in the eyes of the follower.

Bennis described four essential qualities of leaders – Vision, Trust, Communication, and Management of Self. These qualities apply to everyone throughout the entire organization. Therefore, leadership does not reside in isolated places, but is infused and threaded everywhere – everyone must become a leader. Bennis also argues that leaders have a responsibility for making sure people get a kick out of what they are doing – people believe in the cause and purpose set forth.

Human Resources Management

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.
The terms 'human resource management' (HRM) and 'human resources' (HR) have largely replaced the term 'Personnel Management' as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations.
Human resource management (HRM) is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce. Synonyms include personnel administration, personnel management, manpower management, and industrial management, but these traditional expressions are becoming less common for the theoretical discipline. Sometimes even industrial relations and employee relations are confusingly listed as synonyms (e.g. Encyclopædia Britannica) although these normally refer to the relationship between management and workers and the behavior of workers in companies.
The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process.

HRM is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise overall.
Nowadays, the more traditional synonyms such as personnel management are often used in a more restricted sense to describe those activities that are necessary in the recruiting of a workforce, providing its members with payroll and benefits, and administrating their work-life needs. These activities can require regulatory knowledge and effort, and enterprises can benefit from the recruitment and development of personnel with these specific skills.

Academic theory
The goal of human resource management is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively. The basic premise of the academic theory of HRM is that humans are not machines, therefore we need to have an interdisciplinary examination of people in the workplace. Fields such as psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, industrial relations, sociology, and critical theories: postmodernism, post-structuralism play a major role. Many colleges and universities offer bachelor and master degrees in Human Resources Management.

Careers
The sort of careers available in HRM are varied. There are generalist HRM jobs such as human resource assistant. There are careers involved with employment, recruitment and placement and these are usually conducted by interviewers, EEO specialists or college recruiters. Training and development specialism is often conducted by trainers and orientation specialists. Compensation and benefits tasks are handled by compensation analysts, salary administrators, and benefits administrators.