Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Management - Assignment Example 329). Leadership has many functions that bring the team closer to their goals to carry out .The significance of leadership is reflected in the following functions: providing inspiration to employees, securing cooperation in the team, creating confidence among individuals, providing a conducive environment for employees, implementing changes, maintaining discipline among the members, representing them, and setting goals. (Murugun, pg.328) There are many factors that affect how a manager exerts leadership. The most important and the first one that comes to mind is his personality. Leadership style largely depends on the nature of a manager. Moreover, the experiences of a manager also define his leadership style. He may lead in a certain way because his practices and situations in the past expect him to go forward in that manner. In addition to that, it is also based on the beliefs and values of the leader. He will also manage and lead his team according to the organisation's environment, culture and needs. To get to the point, there are a number of leadership styles, defined by a number of individuals. For example, Likert's four main leadership styles: Exploitative authoritative, Benevolent authoritative, Consultative and Participative styles (Likert 1967). Or , for example, Goleman's, Boyatzis' and McKee's (2004) six emotional leadership styles: The Visionary Leader, the Coaching Leader, the Affiliative Leader, the Democratic Leader, the Pace-setting Leader and the Commanding Leader. But in this paper, we will only go over the ten most common ones out of which the first three are Lewin's Leadership styles (Lewin, Lippit and White 1939): 1. Autocratic leadership 2. Democratic leadership or Participative leadership 3. Laissez-faire leadership 4. Bureaucratic leadership 5. Charismatic leadership 6. People-oriented leadership or Relations-Oriented leadership 7. Task-oriented leadership 8. Servant Leadership 9. Transactional leadership 10. Transformational leadership Autocratic Leadership Style is a rigid way of leading. It is when the leader feels no need to consult his team members before making important or even unimportant decisions. This makes one think that it will essentially de-motivate workers or employees. This is, in fact, very true so ideally, this style is adopted when not seeking employees' input doesn't motivate or de-motivate them. It could be implemented in a situation where employees are inexperienced and are unable to make decisions for themselves let alone for the team as a whole. It could also be used in a situation where the leader is extremely experienced, competent and blindly trusted by the team members. The limitations of this style of leadership are apparent; it leads to de-motivation and low self-esteem of the subordinates. They are never allowed to make decisions, even the smallest ones, and this puts pressure on their self-actualization or self-realization needs. Their job satisfaction must be close to nil. It discourages subordinates that could be potential managers and leaders to reach their aptitude. It seems like this style of leadership would hardly produce leaders in the future. Furthermore, an autocratic leader creates a very unfriendly and peculiar environment which prevents employees from showing any innovation at all. Democratic