Leadership Styles of Company Owners - Essay Example

of the Number: Paper: Table of Contents Leadership styles 3 Organizational Structures 4 Performance Evaluation 6 Best practices to motivate employees 6 Managing diversity 7 Effective business strategy to mitigate the challenges 7 Leadership styles For the past few years, I have been working in a company in the retail sector. According to my knowledge, leadership plays pivotal role in the growth and development of the company. The leaders in the company such as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) follow various leadership styles to guide their employees toward accomplishing organizational goals. There are different types of leadership styles that exist in the company. The goal and objective of the company determine which leadership style fits it best. There can also be a situation when the company can follow multiple leadership styles depending on the work or to achieve any immediate goal. It is therefore useful to consider the different leadership styles and study their impact on the company (Amabile & Khaire, 2008). A brief examination of each kind of leadership style followed in the company is given as follows: Autocratic: An autocratic leader is given the power to take his decisions independently. They can impose their decisions on others and no one can question their decision. They do not consider commitment, creativity and innovation under their decision making process. Bureaucratic: These leaders are driven by policies and pre-established measures and structured procedures. This style fails to motivate people and has no space for exploration. Blind implementation policies can restrict desired outcome and may not lead to development of people (Amabile & Khaire, 2008). Democratic: A democratic leader takes into consideration the ideas and suggestions of the team members. However, final decision is taken by the leader. Charismatic: A charismatic leader is highly committed to the organization and always infuses energy into the team members. Situational: Situational leaders are flexible in their decision making process and can become accustomed to different styles depending on the given situation. Among the above leadership styles, the leadership style followed by the CEO positively influenced me. The CEO followed charismatic leadership style, which is the most popular trait-driven leadership style and help in accomplishing the goals of a company efficiently (Miles, 2007). The leader has a positive impact and constantly motivates the team members. Hence, the success of the company depends on the CEO significantly and in such a situation if he resigns, the company may be at risk and face diversities in their future endeavors. However, as the CEO is highly committed to the organization, he has the ability to provide effective ground for innovation and creativity within the organization and often encourage and motivate members to efficiently carry on the vision of the organization. The CEO has always motivated and encouraged his team members to execute the vision of the company effectively and had a positive impact on me. The CEO had a great role to play in the expansion and growth of the company. He directly guided his subordinates and also participated in team meetings. This motivated the employees and helped them to realize their contribution to the company’s goal. The CEO’s decision making process was not rigid and he also valued opinions from other employees. Organizational Structures Organizational structure determines how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned and allocated among different levels of management. It is a hierarchy of people and its functions. The organization in which I worked followed the Matrix structure. In the Matrix Structure, the company puts emphasis on a team to complete various tasks. The teams are formed based on the functions they belong to and product they are involved in. This structure is a combination of functional and divisional structure. For the company, the functional structure is the various departments that the company consists of like engineering, finance, production and marketing, headed by a vice president. The divisional structure is the product or new ideas headed by a project manager (Friesen & Cooper, 2001). Figure 1: Matrix Structure (Source: Friesen & Cooper, 2001) This organizational structure enhanced relationship skills to some extent. Generally, there are different teams in the organization structure. Teams of employees accomplish different task and take advantages of both the strengths and make up for the weaknesses of the functional and divisional structure. In this structure, order and regularity is maintained among the team members and therefore a strong professional relation developed among the team members. Matrix management is a dynamic structure and allowed team members to share information with ease across task boundaries. This structure encouraged development of my relationship skills and allowed for specialization that increased depth of knowledge in a specific sector (Dixon & Hart, 2010). Performance Evaluation The CEO of the company is one of the most effective leaders who empower and motivate and thereby enhance work performance. The CEO had maintained strong ethical conduct and communicates effectively in order to motivate the team members. According to Conger & Kanungo (1998 cited in Bonnic, 2011), vision, articulation and sensitivity to member needs are essential behavioral attributes of leader. The CEO follows the mentioned behavioral traits. He is highly committed and has significant ethical values. The leader has the capability of effectively elevating and transforming an entire company with his skills. According to Musser (1987 cited in Bonnic, 2011), these leaders are not only devoted to themselves but also to ideological goals. The CEO certainly has such a reputation among the employees. Best practices to motivate employees Motivation can be defined as something that causes a person to act. Organizations should motivate their employees in order to make them more committed and help them identify themselves with the organizational goals. The three best practices organizational leaders can use to motivate employees are given as follows: To meet the needs and connect employees with their organizations, managers should provide incentives on a regular basis to the employees. This would help the employees to meet their own goals and goals set by the organization. Organizational leaders should ensure stability or security for the employees. Security could mean financial security for the future in the form of retirement package, securing job position and insurance (Burton, 2012). Leaders should provide the employees with an enriching job which would give the employees opportunity for achievement and recognition. The employees must feel personally responsible for the work they are assigned (Giri & Santra, 2010). Managing diversity In business organizations, diversity is regarded as ethical and valuable and leaders often face several challenges while managing diversity. There can be difference in communication and culture. Understanding such cultural differences can be a challenge to diversity. Also effective communication is critical in an organization. Some members of an organization may be resistant to change and this may challenge diversity and this can make survival difficult in a corporate setting. Resentment and interpersonal conflict can also challenge diversity (Mujtaba, 2006). Diversity is vital for business organizations to compete in the global market. It helps in forming heterogeneous groups which can solve business problems effectively. This also encourages creative and innovative solutions which is crucial for business expansion and growth in long run. Effective business strategy to mitigate the challenges Communicational challenges can be addressed by learning new languages. This is also needed to survive in the global market. However, managing cultural difference is not straight forward. Different cultures adhere to different values. Hence, the organization should ensure that it is not promoting and encouraging a particular culture. Understanding varying perspective becomes important in the global economy and thus this needs to be cultivated internally for managing diversity. Corporate culture should be flexible so that change is always encouraged. Business strategies should always be dynamic and therefore the workforce should not be resistant to change. It is imperative to ensure that this change does not enforce a threat to a particular group of people in the organization. Employees should be provided equal opportunities and there should be respect and cooperation among groups and team members (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt & Van Engen, 2003). References Amabile, T. M. & Khaire, M. (2008). Creativity and the role of the leader. Harvard business review, vol. 86(10), pp. 100. Bonnic, C. (2011). Creating a successful leadership style: Principles of personal strategic planning. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Education. Burton, K. (2012). A study of motivation: How to get your employees moving. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/pubs/undergrad-honors/volumn-6/Burton,%20Kelli%20-%20A%20Study%20of%20Motivation%20-%20How%20to%20Get%20Your%20Employees%20Moving%20-%20Faculty%20Cheryl%20Hughes.pdf Dixon, M. L. & Hart, L. K. (2010). The impact of path-goal leadership styles on work group effectiveness and turnover intention. Journal of Managerial Issues, vol. 22(1), pp. 52-69. Eagly, A. H., Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C. & Van Engen, M. L. (2003). Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: A meta-analysis comparing women and men. Psychological Bulletin, vol. 129 (4), pp. 569. Friesen, M. N., Yassi, A., & Cooper, J. (2001). Return-to-work: The importance of human interactions and organizational structures. Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, vol. 17(1), pp. 11-22. Giri, V. N. & Santra, T. (2010). Effects of job experience, career stage, and hierarchy on leadership style. Singapore Management Review, vol. 32(1), pp. 85-93. Laohavichien, T., Fredendall, L. D. & Cantrell, R. S. ( 2009). The effects of transformational and transactional leadership on quality improvement. Quality Management Journal, vol. 16(2), pp. 7-24. Miles, R. E. (2007). Innovation and Leadership Values. California Management Review, vol. 50(1), pp. 192. Mujtaba, B. (2006). Workforce Diversity Management: Challenges, Competencies and Strategies. Retrieved from http://ileadacademy.com/resources/workforce.diversity.management/Chapter%20Intro-%20Summary%20%26%20Discussion%20Questions%20-%20WDM%202007.pdf Read More