leadership styles

Leadership Styles

Leadership and Management

• Managers occupy a role in an organization that performs at least one of the management functions:– Planning

– Organizing

– Leading

– Controlling

• A leader is anyone who is able to influence others.

Leadership and Management

• Most good managers are also good leaders.

• It is possible to be a manager and not a leader.

• It is also possible to be a leader and not a manager.

Leadership Styles

• There are two basic leadership styles:1. Autocratic leader

– All decision making must be retained by the leader because employees are either unwilling or unable to make reasonable decisions.

– This can be an effective management style but it can lead to low morale and malicious obedience (passive aggressive behavior).

– Sometimes called Theory X.

Leadership Styles

2. Democratic leadership• Believe that authority should be delegated.

• Employees are both willing and able to make reasonable decisions.

• Democratic leadership is not a panacea.

• Can lead to greater employee satisfaction but not necessarily greater employee productivity.

• Can also have unexpected consequences.

• Sometimes called Theory Y.

Leadership Continuum

• There are actually four types of leadership styles:

1. Directive autocratic• Subordinates are allowed no discretion in decision

making or in carrying them out.

2. Permissive autocratic• Subordinates are allowed no discretion in decision

making but considerable discretion in carrying out decisions.

Leadership Continuum

3. Directive Democratic• Allows subordinates to participate in

decisions but supervises them closely when they carry out decisions.

4. Permissive Democrat• Allows subordinates great discretion in

making decisions and in carrying them out.

Japanese Management System

• All the rage in the 1980’s due to the fabulous performance of the Japanese economy since the end of World War II.

• Stresses a number of unique elements:– Lifelong employment with seniority the basis

of promotion– Temporary employees are typically women and

act as a buffer to protect men’s jobs.

Japanese Management Cont’d

• Participative decision making – everyone who will feel the impact is involved in the decision until a consensus is reached.

• Management training emphasizes company loyalty and is oriented towards the group not the individual and is designed to emphasize team spirit.

• Other characteristics include daily exercise , pep talks, identical uniforms, no unions, non specific job classifications and company outings.

Japanese Management

• Has become far less popular since the difficulties with the Japanese economy in the 1990’s.

• Weaknesses such as an oversized middle management have become evident.

• As Japanese culture has become influenced by the US workers have begun to express a desire for greater autonomy.

• Japanese management is sometimes referred to as theory Z.

Leadership Theories

• Two types of leadership theories have emerged:

1. Universalist theory suggests there is one best theory that is applicable in all situations.

2. Contingency theory suggests that different leadership styles are required for different situations.

Universalist Theory

• The trait approach emphasizes certain universal traits amount effective leaders.

• The leader behavior approach emphasizes the behavior of the leader rather than the traits which are more easily observable.

The Situational Leadership Approach

• Different situations dictate a different style of leadership.

• Employees with a low level of development are best managed with a highly directive style.

• Employees also tend to be very enthusiastic which also suggests the leader does not have to be very supportive.

Situational Leadership

• When employees with limited skill levels are presented with a new task requires not only a directive approach but also a supportive one.

• When employees have high skill level but low motivation a high supportive but less directive approach is called for.

• When employees have a high skill level and high motivation little support or direction is needed.

Situational Leadership

High supportive

Low directive

S3

High Directive

High Supportive

S2

High Directive

Low Supportive

S1

Low Supportive

Low Directive

S4

Directive Behavior

Sup

port

ive

Beh

avio

r

Impact of Technology on Management

• Technology has frequently been embraced as a means of increasing productivity.

• Also critical is the impact on employee morale.• Some employees feel isolated by the increase in

technology– Employees do not talk face to face but email each other.– Employees leave voice mail rather than meeting face to

face.– Projects are planned, organized and executed without

collaborators ever meeting with each other.


• Other employees embrace enthusiastically the ability of technology to make them more efficient.– Technology allows for fewer employees

performing low skill tasks and focuses on employees ability to perform analytical and other high level tasks.

– Technology also can provide far greater flexible work environment.


• Technology also poses unique challenges to managers.

• When dealing with employees who require a highly directive environment technology may be able to provide some of the direction.

• This is only true if the technology is well structured.


• Poorly structured technology or instructions can frustrate and alienate employees especially those who require a highly directive environment. (S2)

• Employees requiring less direction but motivation can be even more alienated by poorly performing technology (S3)


• Poorly performing technology requires quick attention by management to resolve any problems.

• When technology performs well managers have at times embraced solutions which maximize the use of technology for the sake of efficiency.


• Some extreme elements of these solutions are:– Telecommuting– Hotelling– Virtual office

• These solutions like leadership style need to be tailored to the situation.


• Employees with a high level of training and high motivation (S4) would likely flourish in environments where flexible work and work hours can be implemented.

• However, employees with low skill levels (S1) requiring a highly directive environment would likely perform poorly.


• Also need to also evaluate the impact of other work factors such as the social environment and team spirit.

• Employee loyalty and espri de corps could be unexpected casualties to a highly decentralized work environment.

• Managers also have expressed concern on the ability to monitor worker productivity.


• To address management concerns over productivity technology has been employed as a monitoring tool.

• A highly decentralized environment tends to focus on performance measures which are quantitative.

• Overemphasis on quantitative measures which may have flaws can also sacrifice employee morale so they need to be chosen carefully.

leadership styles

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