Leadership and Change Management

Chapter 2 :Leadership Styles

Leadership styles

Authoritative style
Autocratic style
Benevolent style
Coaching style
Democratic Style
Pacesetting style
Expert style
Manipulative style
Bureaucratic style
Participative style

Likert’s four styles

System 1 management System 2 management System 3 management System 4 management

Tannenbaum & Schmidt Continuum of leaders behavior

The pattern of behavior

The impact of leadership styles on work climate

Chapter Summary

Leadership style is the way leaders choose either consciously or subconsciously to influence their followers. The authoritative style is the most effective of all leadership styles. An authoritative leader is a visionary. He is clear about what his business is and where it is headed. The least effective leadership style is an autocratic style. An autocratic leader creates a reign of terror, bullying and demeaning his executives, showing his displeasure at the slightest mistakes.

Communication flows only from the leader to the followers. The primary focus of a benevolent leader is his people. He values individuals and their emotions. This type of leader keeps his employees happy and creates harmony among them. This ensures better communication and sharing of ideas, while providing inspiration and building trust. A leader who prefers the coaching style identifies the strengths and weaknesses in his employees and tries to align these with the employees’ personal goals and career aspirations.

He encourages them to plan and pursue their long-term development goals. A democratic leader brings flexibility and responsibility into the organization by involving his people in the decisions that influence the way they work and achieve their goals. He boosts their morale by listening to and addressing their concerns. The pacesetting leader sets high performance standards and he himself adheres to the stipulated standards.

He is passionate about improving quality and productivity. In the expert leadership style, a person with a high level of knowledge and abilities leads the group. A democratic leader delegates his responsibilities, and decision making power to the subordinates. A manipulative leader believes that employees should be manipulated to get them to behave in the way he wants. Bureaucratic leaders set certain rigid rules, regulations and procedures. Both leaders and their subordinates are expected to obey these rules.

Participative leaders encourage employees to participate in decision making. The leader listens to subordinates’ ideas and opinions, but takes the final decision himself. According to Likert, an effective manager is one who is strongly oriented towards subordinates and relies on communication (to a great extent) to keep all the departments or individuals working in unison. He suggested four systems of management: System 1 management, System 2 management, System 3 management, and System 4 management. Tannenbaum and Schmidt suggested a framework, which managers can employ to choose an appropriate leadership style.

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