Leadership styles

Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing(приведение в жизнь) plans, and motivating people. Kurt Lewin (1939) led a group of researchers to identify different styles of leadership. This early study has been very influential and established three major leadership styles. The style of leadership represents the concrete way of exercising the role of a manager. According (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973) the three major styles of leadership are:

o Authoritarian or autocratic

o Participative or democratic

o Delegative or Free style

Although good leaders use all three styles, with one of them normally dominant, bad leaders tend to stick with one style.

Factors that generate or influence leadership styles:

§ Physical and constitutional factors (age, height, weight, physical, energy, health, appearance).

§ Psychological factors (intelligence, training, knowledge, originality, behavioral traits, etc..)

§ Psychosocial factors (diplomacy, sociability, popularity, prestige, etc …)

§ Sociologial factors (socio-economic, social and economic status, etc..)

§ Factors related to the particular work (technological organization of labor, division of labor)

Authoritarian style is characterized by centering authority by one person.The main is on formal authority, the right decision and only starring control manager. Staff is a follower. The employees should just do the tasks. Human relationships are valued as less important or even ignored.Leader makes decisions without reference to anyone else. High degree of dependency on the leader. Leader tells employees what they want done and how to do it (without getting the advice from others).

Autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting their teams. This is considered appropriate when decisions genuinely need to be taken quickly, when there's no need for input, and when team agreement isn't necessary for a successful outcome.

Generally, this style is not a good way to get the best performance from a team. Authoritarian style may be appropriate to special situations such as a military units, but is incompatible with modern systems.

BENEFITS

— Reduced stress due to increased control

— A more productive group ‘while the leader is watching’

— Improved logistics of operations

— Faster decision making

DISADVANTAGES

— Short-termistic approach to management

— Manager perceived as having poor leadership skills

— Increased workload for the manager

— People dislike being ordered around

— Teams become dependent upon their leader

2. The democratic leadership style is a very open and collegial style of running a team. Ideas move freely amongst the group and are discussed openly. Its participative style. Everyone is given a seat at the table, and discussion is relatively free-flowing. Democratic style is characterized by a high degree of confidence in the manager’s subordinates. They are stimulated to make suggestions and even to participate in decision making process. For this, motivation methods are used as forms of rewards. Workers feel ownership of the firm and its ideas.

Democratic leaders allow the team to provide input before making a decision, although the degree of input can vary from leader to leader. This type of style is important when team agreement matters, but it can be quite difficult to manage when there are lots of different perspectives and ideas.

Democratic leadership style provides great satisfaction in work and contribute to the interest of subordinates to perform the tasks. For democratic leadership style to be effective, it is necessary that subordinates have collective leadership skills, have a high level of competence and are highly responsible.

BENEFITS

— Positive work environment

— Successful initiatives

— Creative thinking

— Reduction of friction and office politics

— Reduced employee turnover

DISADVANTAGES

— Lengthy and ‘boring’ decision making

— Danger of pseudo participation

— 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.

3)The free style: This management style is characterized by total lack of involvement of managers at the company’s activity – the group is allowed to organize its own activity. In this style, the leader allows the employees to make the decisions. However, the leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made. This is used when employees are able to analyze the situation and determine what needs to be done and how to do it. You cannot do everything! You must set priorities and delegate certain tasks. Leaders rely on good team work, on good interpersonal relations.

Laissez-faire leaders don't interfere; they allow people within the team to make many of the decisions. This works well when the team is highly capable and motivated, and when it doesn't need close monitoring or supervision. However, this style can arise because the leader is lazy or distracted, and, here, this approach can fail.

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.

Disadvantages

— 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.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14