Leadership Styles free essay sample

Nursing Armon Copeland Chamberlain College of Nursing 351: Transitions to Professional Nursing Spring Term 2011 Introduction Leadership in the 21st century has been redefined. As leaders we provide the voucher and guidance to begin the journey, while the managers are the ones who drive the team to the destination. Leadership is something you know when you see it, but is very challenging to describe. Leadership development in the nursing profession is important because it directly impacts the care that is delivered to patients. It is critical that the entire senior leadership have the self-same vision or mental image of what the organization intends to aim for as structure, management and organization in terms of changes for a solid foundation. Leadership Leadership is a blend of personal characteristics, abilities, strategies, and circumstances that enable a leader to influence individuals and organizations to accomplish a goal. Although there is no single formula for becoming a successful leader, some common elements include self- confidence, courage, a clear vision of the goal and how to reach it, the ability to clearly communicate the goal as well as strong personal commitment, and the ability to inspire trust and respect among followers. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership Styles or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Leadership differs from management in that leadership is a combination of personal qualities and abilities whereas management is a process. Leaders are more likely to be effective when they use the management process to achieve goals. Managers are more effective when their actions demonstrate leadership qualities; thereby earning the respect and trust of those they manage (Hamilton, 1996). Styles of Leadership Transformational and Transactional leadership styles are two very different methods of leadership in the nursing profession. This paper will compare and contrast these two leadership styles and support that transformational leadership style encourages quality care, job fulfillment and improved patient outcomes. The traditional authoritarian style of leadership the top-down directive approach has largely been replaced with a more democratic and/or participative style, which involves such collaborative behaviors as consulting, discussing, cooperating, or negotiating. No one style is effective for all situations, however, so flexibility is important. For example, an authoritarian approach may be the most effective in dealing with acute situations when decisions must be made and implemented quickly. Rapid technological growth, increased diversity in the workforce, and growing complexity within organizations has led to changes in the way effective leadership is defined. Leadership researchers and theorists define good leadership as future-oriented rather than present-oriented and as fostering followers commitment and ability to contribute creatively to organizations (Eagly, 2007). Political scientist James McGregor Burns (1978) described this type of leadership as transformational leadership. Transformational leaders establish themselves as role models by gaining followers trust and confidence. They establish the organizations goals, plan how to achieve the goals, and innovate. As Eagly (2007) explains, Transformational leaders mentor and empower their subordinates and encourage them to develop their potential and thus to contribute more effectively to their organization. Researchers also describe a more conservative type of leadership as transactional leadership, in which leaders establish exchange relationships with their frontline employees. After clarifying objectives and subordinates responsibilities, transactional leaders reward those who meet objectives and correct them when they fail to meet objectives. The word politics is a loaded term, heavy with images of shady characters in smoke-filled rooms, wheeling, dealing, and often stealing. But politics is really a neutral term. According to Policy and Politics for Nurses, Politics means influencing, specifically, influences the allocation of scarce resources. Politics is a process by which one influences the decisions of others and exerts control over situations and events. It is a means to an end (Mason et al. , 2002). Becoming influential is something that can be learned, and it has as much to do with attitude as with behavior. Both aspects are necessary (Sullivan, 2004). Becoming influential includes such skills as understanding power and how to use it, communicating effectively, understanding the political process, and dealing with difficult people and situations. Conclusion Work hard, play by the rules, be nice, be polite, hold yourself accountable and you will get ahead. Our mothers were right, up to a point. Taking that advice, you do get ahead and your hard work is rewarded until you hit the glass ceiling. Or, as one physician called it, the gauze ceiling. Being the best at what you do is not enough to break through the gauze ceiling into positions of leadership. Its not enough to have clinical skills; you need political skills as well. Leaders make a difference in their world by influencing others to support the leaders vision or cause. To mak e a difference, you need political skills. Everything is political in the work environment, professional organization, community, and government. References Hamilton PM. (1996). Realities of Contemporary Nursing, 2nd ed. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley. Eagley AH. (2007). Female leadership advantage and disadvantage: Resolving the contradictions. Psychology of Women Quarterly 31:1–12. Mason DJ, Leavitt JK, Chaffee MW. (2002). Policy and Politics in Nursing and Healthcare, 4th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders/Elsevier. Sullivan EJ. (2004). Becoming Influential: A Guide for Nurses. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Leadership styles free essay sample â€Å"The most effective executives use a collection of distinct leadership styles, each in right measure, at just the right time. Such flexibility is tough to put into action, but it pays off in performance. And better yet, it can be learned† (Daniel Goleman). The objective of this paper is to understand the concept that lies behind leadership styles, to analyze their significance and their impact, which illuminates and contributes toward the success of organization and reflects on employee work related attitudes and behaviors. It is an attempt to highlight the core concepts of these styles that a leader must need to know and demonstrates one may use these styles according to the situational demand. Introduction Leaders are regularly involved with other people to decide how they will achieve organization’s vision. They need to motivate, influence, and coerce people so that they can achieve the organizational goals and objectives (Kotter, 2001). In response to changes scholars of leadership emphasized that effective leadership emerges from inspiring, motivating, and mentoring followers thus it provides interpersonal exchanges in organization by leaders and their followers (Graen Uhl-Bien, 1995; Spillane Camburn, 2006). We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership styles or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The significance of leadership styles and their impact play a vital role in shaping employees behavior. Leaders perform different roles in an organization so that they may guide their followers in a desired direction and hence they adopt different styles to cope up with the change, diversity, motivating and influencing their employees at the same time. To get better understanding of the core leadership styles we need to explore its origin and historical background. Most of researchers agreed that major leadership theories are espoused either on the trait based approach, leadership styles or contingent factors while discussing leadership and leaders. This review is based on leadership literature that mainly focuses on leadership styles and contingency (situational) theories. Leadership styles approach is originated from Ohio State University that began in 1945(Warrick, 1981). Chief contributors were Hemphill, Stogdill, Coons, Fleishman, Harris, and Burtt. The significant findings revealed consideration and initiating structures as important dimensions of leadership behavior in formal organizations. Later on University of Michigan followed former studies and found similar results. They investigated relationship between supervisory behavior and employee productivity and satisfaction. Past investigations and other theories in leadership resulted in identification of four leadership styles such as autocratic, laissez faire, human relation, and democratic leaders. Each of the style was explained by the dimensions of high and low performance. Later on a transitional theory between leadership styles theories and contingency theories named as Managerial Grid was developed by Blake and Mouton (Robert Rogers Blake Mouton, 1978). They described two basic aspects in leadership as concern for production and for the people too. That Managerial grid was comprised of five basic styles rated on it separately. They concluded that leadership styles research was so inconsistent in conceptualization of different styles and that their research provided a consistent approach (Robert R Blake Mouton, 1981) . Their research suggested that if a leader continuously changed styles, employees would be constantly confused in their attempts to predict and adjust to their leader’s behavior. So after getting deep understanding about the typical styles researchers formulated contingency approach that suggested different situations need different approaches to leadership styles. Burns gave another two important aspects named as Transformational and Transactional leadership styles. In his research he explained these two dimensions of leadership styles and argues that the leaders who use transformational style are tend to be very supportive and they engage their employees to improve their performance to provide better results and individually gave them feedback for such improvement. Transactional leaders usually involve their employees in the process to encourage and to give  mutual support in the form of rewards etc (Burns, 1978). Later on these concepts were refined and researchers built arguments to favor the importance of one style on another. According to Goleman, leadership styles can be distinguished such as coercive, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching. He argued that these executives used these styles, but out of these six; four are having positive effect on climate and hence affect organization and employee’s performance too. He then defined each of these styles in correspondence to their impact on organization’s performance and employee’s behavior (Goleman, 2000). The significance of leadership styles and their impact play a vital role in shaping employees behavior, and it is known by few leaders who really understand the influence of their leadership style on their employees (Warrick, 1981). Effective leaders may use more than one style to delegate and that is based on the situation and demand that counts for it. Leaders set strategy, they create vision and mission; they build entire culture in that way. The styles appear to have a direct impact on the working atmosphere of a company, division, or team, and in return on its financial performance. If that impact is fruitful enough then organization easily attain its objective in a collective way. Past research indicates that leaders with the best results don’t rely on only one leadership style; they use multiple styles according to their needs and consequences (Goleman, 2000). Each of the leadership style describes different quality, characteristic, philosophy, and consequences associated with it. Organizational culture and leadership are thought to be highly related aspects of organizational life, because they serve similar functions, operate in similar ways, and have reciprocal influences on each other (Schein 2004; Schneider 1987; Trice and Beyer 1993). Researchers have identified six basic styles of leadership that influences the behavior of their employees. Each of the style has a distinct impact on employee’s behavior and hence affects organizational performance. Warrick defines the same by distinguishing it in to four categories of leaders such as autocratic, laissez faire, human relations, and democratic leaders. Other focused on transformational and transactional styles. Each of the style has its distinctive impact on employees’ behavior and determines specific consequences (Goleman, 2007; Warrick 1981). Significance of leadership styles Styles refer to the emphasis a person places on performance and people. Leadership styles can be identified through specific style characteristics (Warrick, 1981). Leadership style can be judged by the specific behaviors of leaders, and this behavior is adopted by the leader for many functions in organization (Casimir, 2001). They should be adapted to the particular demands of the situation, the particular requirements of the people involved and the particular challenges faced by organization. There are no doubt variables other than leadership styles that affect employees’ performance and satisfaction but understanding about leadership styles is quite significant to lead people better and in a dynamic way (Warrick, 1981). Leadership styles have strong relation with employees’ performance and hence create results in the form of positive outcomes if used intelligently. As per researchers, supportive and participative styles of leaders have a positive impact on satisfaction and performance of employees (Berson Avolio, 2004; Mondy, 2009). Whereas, instrumental styles of leadership (transactional and autocratic leadership) are found to be less associated with employees’ satisfaction (Bass Avolio, 1990). Leaders prepare organizations for change and diversity and help them to cope so they need to adopt the best style that fulfills their need of change and to compete globally. Leader’s styles may affect employee’s performance either in a positive or negative way by being supportive, fair, and encouraging, or unsupportive, inconsistent, and critical. Leadership styles can be identified by their specific characteristics, as per their leadership philosophy and by management skills in each of the leadership style that is distinct from one another (Warrick, 1981). As per researcher’s view the leaders who mastered authoritative, democratic affiliative and coaching styles they can create best business climate and performance (Goleman, 2007). Study of few executive styles and their impact on employees and organization Autocratic Style According to Warrick the leaders who have this style mainly focus on the high performance of the organization but they put low emphasis on people. Employee involvement is not considered trustworthy by those leaders. They rely on authoritative control, power, and manipulation to get the job done. Such kind of leaders assumes about the people as if they are lazy and undependable. So leader having that style is commanding and believes on strict control as he uses close supervision but employees feel stressed and uncomfortable while working under such kind of supervision (Van Vugt, Jepson, Hart, De Cremer, 2004). But under such command and control quality of work increases and hence productivity increases too. People are rewarded for the job well done through appraisals and punished for making mistakes. Laissez Faire Style These are the leaders who put low focus on the performance as well as they don’t pay attention to employees’ performance. They assume that it’s hard to control people so they try to resolve things by having view in mind that leader’s job is to get things done and that is more than enough for them. They keep low profile and try to stay out of trouble. It has lack of credibility, lowest employee productivity and low performance of organization is the consequence of this style. This leadership style is found to be positively related with role conflict, ambiguity, and conflicts with coworkers (Skogstad, Einarsen, Torsheim, Aasland, Hetland, 2007). The employees under such leaders are less creative and less confident about their skills. Such leaders avoid making decisions as much as possible (Warrick, 1981). Democratic Style They put high emphasis on the performance of organization and they involve their employee deliberately in achieving organizational goals and objectives and align these objectives that meet requirement of employee’s interest and their performance as well (Foels, Driskell, Mullen, Salas, 2000). They strive for creating an ideal environment and for well-organized and challenging workplace, they get the job done by motivating, empowering, managing groups and individuals to meet organizational as well as their personal objectives (Warrick, 1981). This style draws on people’s knowledge and skills, and creates a group commitment to the resulting goals. It works best when the direction the organization should take is unclear, and the leader needs to tap the collective wisdom of the group. Mr. Goleman warns that this consensus-building approach can be disastrous in times of crisis, when urgent events demand quick decisions. Coercive Style Coercive style demands immediate compliance. Leaders who have this style are normally authoritative. There is no welcome for any new ideas from employees. These leaders force their employees to get their tasks done by all means no matter whether they like it or nor but they are compelled to do it forcefully. It is the least effective style in most of the situations. Apparently it seems that it has only drawbacks but there can be certain situation when it becomes effective too if used masterfully. This style works when employees are given less value and can be replaced easily or when a kick start is required to turn around or for change (Barker, 2001). Authoritative Style Vibrant enthusiasm and clear vision are the hall marks of this style. The authoritative style is to be considered as the most effective one driving up the every aspect of the climate of an organization. The authoritative leader is visionary; he encourages and motivates his subordinates by making clear how much importance employee’s work carry and how it contributes toward the performance of the organization. People like to work with those leaders who give them importance and value in that way. It enhances the commitment level of employees to greater extent (Goleman, 2000). The employees feel encouraged and privileged. Because of the positive influence on subordinates it works for every situation if it suits to fulfill organization’s requirements. Affiliative Style This style emphasizes the importance of team work, and creates harmony in a group by connecting people to each other. Mr. Goleman argues this approach is particularly valuable â€Å"when trying to heighten team harmony, increase morale, improve communication or repair broken trust in an organization. † But he warns against using it alone, since its emphasis on group praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected. Affiliative leaders are natural relationship builders as they try to create harmony and sense of belongingness by giving their feedback on regular basis to their employees that enhances the sense of recognition among employees. But then leader should see that extreme praise is not good all the times and it loses its sound impact too so he should employ this style intelligently with the combination of some other style (Fullan Ballew, 2001; Goleman, Boyatzis, McKee, 2002). Pacesetting Style As per researcher’s view it is the style in which leader try to foster high performance and sets high standards. This type of leader wants to get things done through excellence. It destroys the climate sometimes as well. Employee may feel that their leader don’t trust them as work becomes so much task oriented and less flexible. He or she is â€Å"obsessive about doing things better and faster, and asks the same of everyone. † But Mr. Goleman warns this style should be used sparingly, because it can undercut morale and make people feel as if they are failing. This style can be considered as leading by example and personal heroics. It is very effective for short span of time but can demoralize employees if used for longer time period (Spreier, Fontaine, Malloy, 2006). Coaching Style Coaching leaders are the ones who give courage to employees to get to know about their strengths and weaknesses and tie them to their personal and aspiration motives. It is very useful for longer professional development and mentoring purposes. Leaders drive their employees to rectify their mistakes in a constructive way. They are good at delegating effectively. They set agreements and challenging goals along with the continuous guidelines and feedback. This style helps a lot in cultivating employee’s abilities (Spreier et al. , 2006). It works better when employees are aware of their strength and weaknesses and want to seek more for outstanding performance as they feel that their leader have a lot of trust and faith on them so they like to face challenges and become more determined to take up well. Transactional and Transformational Leadership Styles Transactional leaders are those who are engaged with their employees in such a way that includes rewards and mutual support to incorporate outstanding performance of employees. It has two basic components one is contingent rewards and the other one is active and passive management by exception. One aspect shows that they attach rewards with the good and satisfactory performance to influence employees whereas active management by exception follows quick response to the mistakes and failures to meet the standards. Management by exception in passive means that these leaders wait until the problem resolved by itself and if it doesn’t get resolved and becomes severe they intervene at that time to resolve it (Bass, Avolio, Jung, Berson, 2003). Some of other researchers formulated their own measures of transactional and transformational leadership styles (Alimo-Metcalfe Alban-Metcalfe, 2005). Transformational Leaders have a great role in the success of an organization. Transformational leaders commit such behavior and practices that improves employee’s satisfaction with leader and employees perceptions about leader’s effectiveness(Howell Shamir, 2005; Judge Piccolo, 2004). The leaders who adopt this style gain the trust of his followers. They empower their employees and set targets, goals to produce effective outcomes in way that enhances employees’ capabilities too. Researchers exhibit four important dimensions of this style such as idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual simulation and individualized Consideration. All of these dimensions play a vital role in generating positive influence on employee performance and his commitment that leads to organizational performance (Avolio Bass, 2002). This style is very effective if rapid changes are occurring in organization thus it is having positive influence on employee’s performance sets a better direction for both employees and organization. From the above detailed discussion we may have a quick glimpse of these styles which relate to the organization performance and those as well which impacts on employee’s performance. Here few of them are summarized. Leadership styles Autocratic Democratic Laissez Faire Transformational Transactional Coaching Employees’ performance Less focused More focused Less focused More focused More focused More focused Organizations’ performance More Focused More focused Less focused More focused Less focused More focused Here a conceptual model is developed. It is a simple framework which represents effective styles that are positively linked with the employees’ performance and are thought to have sound impact on organization’s productivity. Figure 1: A Conceptual Model of Leadership Styles and Their positive influence This model depicts the influence of key leadership styles on employee’s behavior. Implication of this model can be useful, if significant styles are to be explored which a leader may adopt to see sustainable performance and positive outcomes in an organization. An effective leader chooses the style according to the demand of the typical situation. He may shift from one style to another but that move should not be frequent as it can create difficulty in employee’s understanding about their leader’s attitude. Effective leaders are capable of using all leadership styles and they know when and where to use the appropriate one. Leader motivates his followers towards a common goal and then provides those required resources to accomplish that goal and inspires them to improve their knowledge, skills and abilities (Vigoda-Gadot, 2007). Literature illuminates the significance of leadership styles, the relationship of the leaders’ behavior and its effect on employees’ motivation toward the work are correlated with each other. If this relationship (among employees and their leader) is significant and directed positively then it contributes to the healthy organizational commitment (Bass Avolio, 1994; Rai Sinha, 2000). Organizational culture transforms well if there is sound collaboration and exchange of thoughts exists between supervisors and their subordinates. Researchers found that leadership styles have an impact on organizational culture as leader defines the cultural norms and values within the organization(Bass Riggio, 2006). When employees receive continuous feedback, motivation the feel recognized they contribute in the development of organization. Leaders consider the problems of subordinates and suggest the possible solutions, which motivate subordinates and enhance their commitment towards organizational goals and in turn help to increase organizational outcomes (Walumbwa, Lawler, Avolio, 2007). Discussion, reflection and implications Leader-follower relationship integrates together to produce desirable outcomes in an organization. The nature of such relationships and interactions is followed by the styles of the leaders which they pursue to achieve organizational goals and objectives in a meaningful way (Ahlquist Levi, 2011). Awareness about leadership styles and their outcomes is very important for successful leadership. With my trivial effort I tried to explore these styles by examining their pros cons and focused on those which are positively associated with employees and organizational performance. A style that facilitates trust and respect helps the leader to switch between skills with the changing situations. Warrick favors the argument that style projects special emphasis on performance and people which can be expressed in number of ways in different situations. Researchers proposed that situational factors contribute to the effectiveness of a certain type of leadership over the others. So these styles need to be utilized sensibly. Scholars of leadership suggested that effective leadership emerges from the behavior which a leader adopts as per given circumstances. Potential benefits of such behaviors can be attained by developing insight of leadership styles from diversified groups (Ayman Korabik, 2010). Leaders may need different styles and they may switch between different styles flexibly. They are sensitive to the impact they have on others. Goleman argued that the leaders who have mastered on authoritative, democratic, affiliative, and coaching styles have best climate in the organization and enhance the performance level of employees and organization and then he puts more influence to expand leaders’ own style repertory (Goleman, 2007). Some others favored transformational leadership style as the most authentic one and argued that it is positively related with organizational culture and proposed that it contributes towards the development of strong culture (Schimmoeller, 2010). A few also favored democratic style as well when leader is uncertain to take corrective action and seeks help from able employees. So there is no final outcome that one may conclude any specific style to be considered as the best one. Different styles are best for different situations so an effective leader must know how to switch between styles in changing and diverse environment in order to attain best favorable outcomes for organization and people who work for it. Managers should recognize the impact of different leadership styles as these may affect organizational politics and eventually, formal performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (Vigoda-Gadot, 2007). Further quantitative research can be conducted to measure the impact of each of the style to get more empirical exploration regarding organization’s performance. It is very critical to adopt a unique way of leading in dynamic environment. Effective leaders are those who are not affected by the diversity, they formulate their own ways as per their need to establish cohesiveness among their employees and organization to get desirable outcomes and hence become role model for others. History tells us about so many leaders who set example for others but I consider prophet PBUH’s style as the best leadership style a true practice of HRD ever in the history and in future as well.a