LEADERSHIP STYLES

                     

                                              Organisational Structure – Autocracy or Democracy? 

 

                                      

This blog aims to resolve the debate as to whether an autocratic structure is more favourable than a democratic structure in an organisation.

 

In an organization motivation is a key aspect, employees need to be continuously motivated, since we live in a world that is changing and since we deal with humans that have feelings these changes can have and does have an impact on the emotions and performance level of the employees. Hence motivation is key in every organization and the role of motivation belongs to the leader assigned in a firm. Bass (1994) suggests that a leader is a person that can influence a person’s emotion and motivate him or her in acting in a certain way. There is a very strong link between a leader and motivation. There are numerous leadership styles, the autocratic leadership, charismatic leadership, transformation leadership and so on; each of these leadership styles has its own merits and demerits. Transformational and cultural techniques of leadership have been gaining much more significance due to the market situations; however every style of leaders is of significance that would be able to motivate the employees differently. Rewarding employees is extremely motivating as well however not all are only motivated by rewards, because individuals possess other emotions as well. Certain employees are de-motivated if there is lack of creativity and innovations. They prefer to be given a part in the firms activities, some employees like to be given respect, appreciation and treated as a part of the firm. Hence the best leadership style for a firm to thrive in today’s competitive market would be participative and ethical leadership as these are the leadership styles that bring out the best in ones subordinates. Now that the role of leadership is signified, let us have a look at different types of management structures as well as the leadership styles through examples of firms.

 

ASDA

ASDA the giant store in the UK with several branches all around the world, the employees at ASDA were not well pleased with the management style according to them leadership was highly. The nature of authoritarian is unkind and they do not involve themselves with their subordinates excluding a few selected ones, authoritarian leaders seldom appreciate their subordinates, but criticize more (McKee & Boyatzis, 2002). Participative, leadership was very low among the managers and the subordinates; in the process communication was effected. The employees operating the authoritarian leadership began to feel unsatisfied, though various other aspect prevailed in making them to continue work like the pay scale, rewards, future plans and so on, but nevertheless their satisfaction level was ill effected and they worked in an environment that was not satisfactory, which influenced their performance. There were very few innovation coming from the employees, this proved that the creativity in the human resource department was suppressed.

   

McDonalds

McDonalds recruits its leaders and Managers that display powerful leadership qualities and who possess high amount of experience in the field of managing and leading so that they can take up the challenges and share the responsibility with ease and confidence. The top management in McDonalds displays charismatic leadership, his speech and style of doing things is highly influential (McDonalds, n.d.). The leadership at McDonalds is a top to down flow and the subordinates look to their leader as heroes and they try their level best to imitate him. However, some leaders lose track of the situation and many leaders are found to be rude to the employees for mistakes generally meant to be overlooked, the job gets done despite the rude behavior of the leaders due to numerous factors, since working in a huge firm the mind of the employees are far more mature and the focus is on a bright future, bur nevertheless this attitude makes an employee unhappy and an unhappy employee always underperforms. In short the leaders lack ethics, hence ethical leadership in such a situation would be best to motivate and encourage the employees of McDonalds once again.

 

Unethical leaders tend to hurt the emotions of the subordinates. An ethical leader puts his subordinates feelings, emotions above all an ethical leader cares for his subordinates this instills trust among his subordinates and they choose to listen and follow an ethical leader (Trevino et al., 2000). An ethical leader tackles unethical issues with a firm hand among his subordinates, since ethical leaders focus on the conduct of its subordinates (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005). If such rude behavior is seen by an ethical leader it would have been dealt with a firm and immediately and this would increase the level of employee satisfaction, which influences their performance level as well.

 

 

Conclusion

Hence the best leadership style for a successful firm or team would be participative and ethical leadership where the employees or team members are given space to feel free and to be their real selves, while the leader continuous to be the head of the team (Bass, 1994). Autocracy seems to be more disadvantageous due to the lack of involvement of employees and hence due to the lost interest. Participative management hence is what is required.

                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

1. Brown, M. E., Trevino, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 97, 117–134
2. Trevino, L. K., Brown, M. E., & Hartman, L. P. (2000). Moral person and moral manager: How executives develop a reputation for ethical leadership. California Management Review, 42(4), 128-142
3. Bass, Bernard M. (1994) Bass & Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership. The free press
4. McDonalds (n.d.) McDonalds.com