1. Leadership in the workplace - b. Leadership styles

A. Introduction to Excellence in management and leadership

1. Leadership in the workplace

b. Leadership styles

index of contents

Leadership History

Styles, decision making and staff motivation

Table 2. Classical Styles of Leading and Communicating with Others

Motivation, commitment and collective responsibility

Table 3. Leadership Styles and Methods of Group Decision Making

Leadership History
The study of leadership throughout history is marked by a focus on great men and women. From these men and women we derive benchmarks for leadership styles and attributes.

Study of political, military and religious leaders has been a constant source of the behaviours and skills that leaders must exemplify to be effective. Inherent in this study has been the belief that great leaders are borne, not developed. The elements that forge 'the great-man' or heroic leader are so innate to the person and their experiences that no-one other individual can hope to codify these attributes and successfully pass them onto another.

Perspectives on leaders are built into our psyche by writes such as literary classics like Homer's Achilles, Machiavelli's The Prince , Shakespeare's Henry V , or military writes on such figures as Caesar , Charlemagne , Napoleon , Frederick the Great , or the myriad of authors highlighting religious, national, moral, political, and current leaders. By the late 1980s and 1990s the management and personal development sections of bookstores began to evidence the rampant quest to prescribe the factors that could make the ordinary worker great leaders (e.g., Bennis, 1989; Kotter, 1990b; Kouzes and Posner, 1987; Manz and Sims, 1989; Yukl, 1989a, Covey, 1992).

This 'great man' view of leadership has raised some questions:

How do we develop leaders?
It seems to focus on men, what about women?
Why do many great leaders have similar behaviours and experiences?
What about collective leadership or shared leadership?
What about the importance of the followers, and the prevailing economic and social factors?
Why have so many great "men' developed followers who succeeded to the leadership mantle?
Why is it that many great leaders influenced followers more by the rewards received than personal desire to follow a charismatic individual?

By the late 1990s individuals were faced with an overwhelming theory on every aspect on leadership and leading. The fundamental reason for this is that leadership is so complex and open to so many variations in modern organisations that it cannot be explained by one set of prevailing theories and practices. Even faced with the overwhelming array of different ways to lead, and the imperative to seek and implement more effective leadership practices, there is still a need to convince many executives within organisations that workplace leadership exists below their level and does make an essential contribution to team performance and organisational competitiveness (Karpin, 1995:xviii-x).

Generally, managers in Western countries (Eg. US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.), have been oriented toward the management of structures. As such the focus for the executive manager as leaders has been to produce corporate visions that are underpinned with quantifiable and meaningful objectives and for the supervisory manager to translate goals into meaningful outcomes and resolve problems affecting goal attainment.

Reading

Steyrer, J (Winter, 1998) 'Charisma and the Archetypes of Leadership', Organizational Studies , 22 pages. Sourced October 2002, at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4339/is_5_19/ai_65379679

The changing emphasis to leading has occurred as organisations have to consider how to support and facilitate process improvement; and the complex relationships between individuals, technology, processes, and between processes and the external environment. Increasingly executives and shareholders are also placing organisational operations into a 'customer-driven' environment and challenging staff to respond to client needs. The autonomy and flexibility necessary to achieve these outcomes are enhanced through the formation of teams with 'ownership' of a process and problem solving capabilities.

Today the quest is for a more holistic approach to workplace leadership that encompasses the organisations search for improvement and the need to lead across corporate, process and human dimensions. What is required is an understanding of the different leadership models and how no-one universal model can permit every organisation and supervisory-level manager to make sense of the complexity surrounding leadership in a specific workplace context or point in time.

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Styles, decision making and staff motivation
Leadership styles are not just a template of competencies, roles, traits or behaviours possessed by the individual isolated from the situation. We will argue each individual has present a leadership style that fits his or her intrinsic motivations and characteristics. Balanced against the individual's style of workplace leadership is the need to adopt an approach consistent with what will motivate and encourage individual and team members. Flamholtz (1986) proposed team leadership and communication leadership styles could be sorted into Autocratic, Benevolent Autocratic, Consultative, Participative, Consensus and Laissez-faire. While the headings and titles vary between different authors we can refer to 'classical' groupings of styles. These tend to be:

Autocratic
Laissez-faire
Paternalistic
Democratic
Charismatic

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Table 2. Classical Styles of Leading and Communicating with Others

Style- Grouping	These style of leaders typically:
Autocratic (non-participative)	Direct and control Seek power and reinforce their authority by not delegating it to others Direct - downward communication Highly interventionist in processes and decisions Authority from position and power
Laissez-faire (free reign)	Loose control and direction of day-to-day operations Non interventionist Organic approaches to setting goals and implementing plans Wide channels of communication
Paternalistic	Reinforces authority Central control and decision making Benevolent direction and leadership systems Controlled communication and feedback channels Hierarchical goals with tangible sanctions and often intangible rewards
Democratic (participative)	Encourages involvement Shared power and responsibility Control and direction shared Tangible and mutual ownership of goals and rewards Multi channel two-way communication, with strong lateral communication
Charismatic	Personality driven Authority and power through peer and group recognition Sells decisions by the power of his/ her personality Intangible rewards and persuasion to gain commitment Narrow communication channels with emphasis on vertical communication

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These classical groupings of leaders and their styles is a somewhat limited way of viewing leadership styles. The ways leaders act can vary with their personal preferences and their situational context. Let us now move on to study these factors in more depth.

Leader's styles will influence the motivation of others to achieve a desired course of action.

Motivation, commitment and collective responsibility
How a workplace leader communicates expectations and responsibilities can revolve around an individual's style of decision making. Vroom and Yetton (1973) and later Vroom and Jago (1989) identified different methods of leadership directly related to the leader's preferential basis for making decisions. The following table examines the seven methods of decision making and identifies how leaders may either use these styles in given situations, or indeed, have a preference for a particular style. The following table is based on the work of Vroom, Yetton and Jago to confirm how certain methods of decision making may be evidenced by leaders.

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Table 3. Leadership Styles and Methods of Group Decision Making

Vroom & Yetton Methods of Group Decision Making	Evidenced in Styles where the leader:
AI Autocratic or directive style of problem solving	Rationally defines the problem, completes the diagnostic process relating to the problem, generates solutions, evaluates solutions and choose best alternative solution (satisfies - best solution in their judgement)
AII Autocratic with group information input	Rationally defines the problem, completes the diagnostic process relating to the problem, and generates solutions. At this point or earlier they involve the group in evaluating the proposed solution and/ or evaluation of alternatives. The choice of solutions and data collection by the group to evaluate options is usually limited.
AIII Autocratic with group's review and feedback	Rationally defines the problem, completes the diagnostic process relating to the problem, generates solutions, evaluates solutions and choose best alternative solution. The solution is then presented to the group for review of issues relating to implementation and overall understanding and feedback.
CI Individual Consultative Style	Defines the problem and completes the diagnostic process relating to the problem. Investigation of problem causes and potential solutions is completed with input from select individuals. Feedback on solutions and evaluation of options usually involves expert group prior to choice of optimum solution. Choice of 'best' solution remains with the leader.
CII Group Consultative Style	Defines the problem and completes the diagnostic process relating to the problem. Investigation of problem causes and potential solutions is completed with input from the affected group. Feedback on solutions and evaluation of options usually involves experts identified by the group prior to choice of optimum solution. Choice of 'best' solution remains with the leader
GI Group Decision Style	Defines the problem and completes the diagnostic process relating to the problem. A group is then identified and involved in completing a proceeds to diagnose the causes of the problem. Following diagnosis, the group generates and evaluates solutions. Guided by the leader the group then chooses the solution.
GII Participative Style	The leader engages the group to complete the whole decision making process. The group defines the problem and performs all other functions as a group. The leader removes themselves from directing the process but remains to facilitate the process.
GIII Leaderless Team	The leader removes themselves from the decision making process completely. The group is constructed without a leader. If no substitute for task leadership , or process leadership is present, a process leader often emerges. This person may change from problem to problem. The group generates its own problem definition, performs its own diagnosis, generated alternatives, and chooses among alternatives

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To examine how different leaders lead, examine the sub topic on approaches to leadership.

Some of the more common aspects of style include:

Leadership communication
decision making
problem solving
learning style
Risk management
Conflict
Structure of team
Motivation

We will explore these topics and styles in other topic areas within this course.

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