LEADERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP STYLES

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Georgia Kristin Harris
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1 LEADERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP STYLES The success of a business concern depends upon the ability of its leadership. For example Microsoft, Reliance, Mittal Steels would not have attained their present success but for the able leadership of Bill Gates, Dheerubai Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal. Every enterprise may have will to do, but this will to do is triggered by leadership. According to Koontz and O Donnel, leadership is generally defined as influence, the art of process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group goals. A leader is one who guides and directs other people. In the words of Alford and Beatty, Leadership is the ability to secure desirable actions from a group or followers voluntarily without the use of coercion. A clear distinction can be made between a leader and a manager. A leader emerges out from situations where as a manager is put into his position by appointment. A leader has informal power and a manager has formal power. A leader seeks those very objectives which are the objectives of his subordinates where as a manger seeks those objectives which his subordinates do not regard their own. The leaders while influencing the subordinates perform the following functions: (1) Taking initiative: A leader has to take all initiative to lead the business activities. He himself should come in the field and take all steps to achieve predetermined targets. Hence a leader is initiator. (2) Guide: A leader has the primary duty of guiding others by communicating instructions and orders. (3) Representation: A leader is a representative of the organization. (4) Encouraging others: A leader is the captain of the team. Encouragement is necessary to build team work. The leader must win the confidence of his colleagues. (5) Arbitrator and mediator: A leader has to create a smooth relationship among employees. In addition, he has to settle disputes arising among employees. (6) Planner: A leader makes decisions concerning the ways and means by which the organizational goals can be achieved. (7) Administrator of rewards and punishments: Leaders encourage, upgrade, promote deserving people and reprove, transfer and fine inefficient workers. Leadership Styles Leadership styles are the patterns of behavior which a leader adopts in influencing the behavior of his followers (subordinates in the organizational context). These patterns emerge in the leader as he begins to respond in the same fashion under similar conditions: he develops habits of actions that become some what predictable to those who work with him. Various researchers have proposed different leadership styles. These styles are either based on either behavioural approach or situational approach as follows. Based on behavioural approach (1) Power generation (2) Leadership as a continuum (3) Employee-production orientation (4) Likert s management system (5) Managerial grid (6) Tri-dimensional grid

2 Based on situational approach (1) Fiedler s contingency model (2) Hursey and Blanchard s situational model (3) Path-goal model Leadership styles are also broadly classified based on three points of view: Motivation, Authority and supervision. On the basis of motivation leadership style can be positive or negative style. In positive style a leader motivates his followers to work hard by offering them rewards, for example, higher bonus. In negative styles, a leader forces his followers to work hard and punishes them for lower productivity. On the basis of Authority, leadership styles are divided into three types namely autocratic, democratic and free-rein. Autocratic leadership: An autocratic leader is one who dominates and drives his subordinates through coercion, command and the instilling of fear in his followers. An autocratic leader alone determines policies, plans and makes decisions. He demands strict obedience. Such leaders love power and love to use it for promoting their own ends. They never like to delegate their power for they fear that they may loose their authority. The merits of this type of leadership is that, it can increase efficiency, save time, and get quick results under emergency conditions, chain of command and division of work are clear. The demerits are people are treated machine-like cogs without human dignity, one way communication without feedback and the leader receives little or no input from his sub-ordinates for his decision-making which is dangerous in the current dynamic environment. Democratic leadership: This style of leadership is also known as participative leadership. As the name itself indicates, in this style, the entire group is involved in goal setting and achieving it. A democratic leader follows the majority opinion as expressed by his group. Subordinates have considerable freedom of action. The leader shows greater concern for his people s interest, is friendly and helpful to them. He is always ready to defend their subordinates individually and collectively. This type of leadership encourages people to develop and grow, receives information and ideas from his subordinates to make decisions, and boosts the morale of employees. The demerits of this type of leadership are (1) Some leaders may use this style as a way of avoiding responsibility. (2) Can take enormous amount of time for making decisions. MOTIVATION A manager gets work done through others. Getting the work done depends mainly on whether a person has been motivated to do it. Motivating an employee is to create a need and a desire on the part of employee to better his performance. This can be done by creating in him a sense of responsibility and feeling of special interest in his work. Motivation concern itself with will to work. It is a behavioural concept by which a manager tries to understand why people behave as they do. Motivation is inspiring the subordinates to contribute with zeal and enthusiasm towards organizational goals. Performance of an employee depends on two factors, ability to work and willingness to work. Mathematically

3 Performance = Ability willingness Motivation is enhancing the willingness to work which improves the performance. Motivational Theories What can enhance the willingness to work are explained by a number of motivational theories as discussed below. Maslow s Need Hierarchy Theory Every person has a variety of needs, some of these needs are satisfied and others are unsatisfied. An unsatisfied need is the starting point in the motivation process. When a person has an unsatisfied need, he attempts to identify something that will satisfy the need. This is called as goal. Once a goal has been identified, he takes action to reach that goal and thereby satisfy the need. A.H. Maslow has identified five categories of need which are arranged in hierarchy as shown in fig Self actualiza tion needs Esteem needs Social needs Security needs Physiological needs Figure 4.1: Hierarchies of needs (1) Physiological needs: These are the basic needs for sustaining human life itself, such as food, water, shelter and sleep. Maslow took the position that until these needs are satisfied to the reasonable degree necessary to maintain life, other needs will not motivate people. (2) Security or safety needs: People want to be free of physical danger and of the fear of losing job, property or shelter. (3) Social needs: Since people are social being, they need to belong, to be accepted by others. (4) Esteem needs: Once people begin to satisfy their need to belonging, they tend to want to be held in esteem both by themselves and by others. This kind of need produces such satisfaction as power, prestige and status. (5) Self-actualization needs: It is desire to become what one is capable of becomingto maximize one s potential and to accomplish something.

4 According to Maslow, people attempt to satisfy their physical need first. As long as the needs are unsatisfied, they dominate behavior. As they become reasonably satisfied, they loose their motivational power and the next level i.e., security needs becomes the dominant motivational force. This process continues up the need hierarchy. Hertzberg s Two Factors Theory Fredrick Hertzberg and his associates have proposed a two factors theory of motivation. In one group of needs are such things as company policy and administration, supervision, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, job security and personal life. These are called as dis-satisfiers and not motivators. If they exist in a work environment, they yield no dissatisfaction. Their existence does not motivate but their absence result dis-satisfaction. Hertzberg called these factors as hygiene or maintenance factors. The second group he listed certain satisfiers and therefore motivators, which are related to job content. They include achievement, recognition, challenging work, advancement and growth in the job. The first group of factors (the dissatisfiers) will not motivate in the organization, yet they must be present otherwise dissatisfaction will arise. The second group or the job content factors are real motivators because they have the potential of yielding a sense of satisfaction. It means managers must give considerable attention to upgrading job content. Table 4.1: Hygiene factors and motivators Hygiene factors Status Interpersonal relations Quality of supervision Company policy and administration Working conditions Job security Salary Motivators Challenging work Achievement Responsibility Growth in the job. Advancement Recognition Vroom s Expectancy Theory According to Victor H. Vroom, people s motivation towards doing anything will be determined by the value they place on the outcome of their effort multiplied by the confidence they have that their efforts will materially aid in achieving a goal. Motivation is a product of anticipated worth that an individual places on a goal and the chances he or she sees of achieving that goal. Using his own terms Vroom s theory may be stated as Force = Valence Expectancy Where force is the strength of a person s motivation, valance is the strength of an individual performance for an outcome and expectancy is the probability that a particular action will lead to a desired outcome. When a person is indifferent about achieving a certain goal, valance is zero. Valance is negative when the person do not achieve goal. In either case there is no motivation. Similarly, there is no motivation to achieve a goal if expectancy is zero or negative. The force exerted to do something depends on both valance and expectancy. A motive to accomplish some action is determined by the desire to accomplish

5 something else. For example, a person may be willing to work hard to get out a product for a valance in the form of pay valance. Adam s Equity Theory This theory points out that people are motivated to maintain fair relationship between their performance and reward in comparison to others. For the comparison of his performance and reward with others people use equity. Equity refers to individual s subjective judgements about the fairness of the reward he or she gets. In this theory equity is defined of as a ratio between the individuals job inputs (such as effort, skill, experience, education and skill) compared to the rewards others are receiving for similar job inputs. Person's Reward = Others Reward Person Input Others Input If people feel that many are inequitably rewarded, they may be dissatisfied, reduce the quantity and quality of work or leave the organization. They also can ask for a greater reward. If people perceive the reward as equitable, they probably will continue at the same level of output. If people think the rewards are greater than what is considered equitable, they may work harder. McClelland s Need Theory According to McClelland, the three important needs are; the need for achievement, the need for affiliation and the need for power. The need for affiliation reflects a desire to interact socially with people. A person with high need for affiliation is concerned about the quality of an important personal relationship. A person, who has a high need for power, concentrates on obtaining and exercising power and authority. The person is concerned with influencing other and winning arguments. A person with need for achievement is concerned with setting moderately difficult but potentially achievable goals. He does most of the things himself rather than getting them done by others. If the needs of the employees can be accurately measured, organizations can improve the selection and placement process. For example, an employee with high need for affiliation could be placed in a position that would enable the person to achieve. Thus, it is important to identify the behaviours required to perform a set of tasks effectively, and then to determine what individual characteristics are most associated with these behaviours.

Reflect on the Types of Organizational Structures. Hierarch of Needs Abraham Maslow (1970) Hierarchy of Needs

Reflect on the Types of Organizational Structures 1 Hierarch of Needs Abraham Maslow (1970) Self- Actualization or Self- Fulfillment Esteem Belonging, Love, and Social Activities Safety and Security Psychological