Leadership Styles in Business - Assignment Example

Leadership Styles in Business Affiliation Leadership styles in business Introduction Leadership in business is the primary recipe towards success or failure. As a leader in any directorate or group within a business department, the most critical element to study is the best strategic leadership style that would create an overall positive prospect towards business success. As a group or department, each employee character is inherent in promoting development and progress of the unit and ultimately success of the business. Several factors are useful in determining leadership style to adopt. Notably, the success of the unit such as planning in ADNOC Exploration and Production has to adopt a particular leadership style based on a number of circumstances. 1.1 Factors that Influence Choice of Leadership Style in Workplace Firstly, in Exploration and Production planning a critical determinant of leadership style is the group maturity. Guenzi & Ruta (2013) describe group dynamics and ability to respond to an emergency and normal situation as a primary factor in choosing leadership style. A group that is too dependent in decision-making requires an authoritarian leadership in order to speed up the planning and execution of duties (Goleman et al., 2002). Besides, slow decision-making process due to fear of unknown and departmental lack of confidence within existing options informs the need for an autocratic leader whose words and actions allow for speedy duty execution (West 2011). In addition, leadership should be based on the study the effect of authority and counter-rebellion strategies often employed in planning departments. The best leadership should be seen to work towards the best results and not just authority exertion (Werhane 2007). In order to amalgamate the four divisions in E& P planning, leadership style adopted should be based on an already studied leadership pattern that has produced results either within the organization or even other established companies. As a core duty of a leader, the style of leadership adopted should not be experimental since planning is an enormous task that determines organizational direction (Velsor 2009). Forman & Ross (2013) identify organizational timelines of executing plans as a crucial factor to deliberate on when deciding on the appropriate leadership. For instance, in E &P planning system, the decision reached should be well-thought and based on concrete findings. It involves surveys and various studies, under such circumstances democratic leadership is ideal because it allows interrogation of facts and figures by key decision-makers. Hong et al., (2013) identifies slow pace of decisions in democratic leadership as the biggest contributor to inability to beat deadlines. Lastly, the organizational culture informs leadership style that one can adopt. Mukherjee (2014) notes that institutional values, team culture and power-relations cannot be easily replaced in an established organization. It is, important to consider exist power that leaders have over their departments ought to be a yardstick in designing a style of leadership. In a small planning department with few employees, democratic form of leadership will be ideal. 1.2: Effects of Leadership Style and Behavior in Groups and Individual Behavior Sadler (2003) states that the fundamental purpose of any style of leadership is to impact positively on the employees. Notably, in the E&P planning department, coherence in performance management, Agreement, Budgeting and business planning is mandatory. In order to achieve this, participative leadership is desirable because it allows employees across the departments and sub-units to own any decision reached. In addition, Kippenberger (2002) believes that through allowing individual employee participation, the participative leadership stands a chance to motivate employees towards putting much effort. Barrat & Korac-Kakabadse (2002) has a reservation of too much participative leadership; his concern is the lazy approach of some employees within a group. He notes that although democratic leadership may nurture employees to take up bigger organizational positions, some employees will be lost through "back bench participation." On the other hand, autocratic leadership has significant negative influence in interdepartmental power-relation. It can create acrimony and rebellion as some employees may feel patronized. In the light with E&P planning, a particular concern is on budgeting as an independent sub-system. With the financial documentation, the primary concern is that by democratic leadership, it may cause reluctance to compliance of financial reporting deadlines. Beerel (2009) identifies the lack of motivation and excitement to work in departments or organizations that adopt dictatorial leadership. The tendency to impose ideas to an individual or a group of employees is the greatest shortcoming of dictatorial leadership. In addition, Werhane (2007) agrees that forcing ideas without highlighting explicitly ahead of time has been a culture of autocratic leaders. Based on these observations, it is, therefore, clear that any form of leadership has either a positive or a negative repercussion to an individual or a group. This underpins the need to study each group behavior before designing leadership style. 2.1 Assessing Personal Leadership Behavior Using Others Feedback The monitoring and evaluation of the planning department at E&P ADNOC identify leadership as an integral component of assessing performance of the department or organization. As a leader adopting democratic leadership in planning it ensures that leadership is established based on the contribution of each employee. It is one of the effective leadership strategy that serves to promote a positive environment that can be seen in positive appraisal either by peer or junior employees appraisal. Secondly, democratic leadership encourages an individual leadership behavior of trusting colleagues and junior employees at equal measure (France 2012). Besides there is a significant level of positive influence on others towards because this form of leadership ensures capacity building, entrust employees with responsibilities and ensures balance authority that matches duties and responsibilities bestowed on employees. As a self-analysis finding, participative leadership model ensures there is effective two-way communication channels and positive feedback from employees can spur planning to the next level (France 2012). 2.2 Description of Positive Actions to enhance Own Leadership Behavior Beerel (2009) states that leadership is a self-correcting process whose experience ought to shape every other day. As a leader, one should learn from others, and own mistakes should be the basis of enhancing positive corporate practice. Forman & Ross, on the other hand, identifies revamping clear channels of communication as an important action that would streamline personal leadership behavior. Goldsmith (2010) identifies entrusting employees with responsibility and delegating powers and duties as the most important leadership action that should drive leaders. Besides through periodic and consistent performance appraisal and evaluation, the leaders will develop pro-active approach in correcting undesirable leadership behavior. In addition, monitoring and evaluation of actions and inaction will lay a fundamental cornerstone in planning. Velsor (2009) identifies evaluation of planning departments in any organization as a primary duty of leadership. With the evaluation, each department in E&P Company will be able to correct previous mistakes, thus saving organization great deal of resources. In addition, it will streamline the operations by removing wasteful processes and actions embodied within organizational short-term and long-term strategies. Also, leaders should endeavor to develop competitiveness through enhancing personal and professional growth (Kippenberger 2002). Through further studies, leaders would nurture and mentor many junior employees, and these actions help in building a positive business culture. Lastly, leadership periodic surveys on job satisfaction and related issues help to identify demotivators and strengthen on motivating factors (Goleman et al., 2002). It is easy to address employees concerns if they originate from them, unlike blanket problem-identification and generalized approach, personal contact with each department employees helps to address unique needs of each department. References Barratt, R., & Korac-Kakabadse, N. (2002). Developing reflexive corporate leadership: The role of the non executive director. Corporate Governance, 2(3), 32-36. Beerel, A. C. (2009). Leadership and change management. Los Angeles: SAGE. Forman, J. P., & Ross, L. A. (2013). Integral leadership: the next half-step. Albany: State University of New York Press. France, S. (2012). The definitive executive assistant and managerial handbook a professional guide to leadership for all PAs, senior secretaries, office managers and executive assistants. London: Kogan Page. Goldsmith, M. (2010). The AMA handbook of leadership. New York: American Management Association. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E., & McKee, A. (2002). Primal leadership: realizing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. Guenzi, P., & Ruta, D. (2013). Leading teams tools and techniques for successful team leadership from the sports world. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Hong, H., Woo, B., & Lee, B. (2013). Differences in Corporate Crisis Management Between CEOs Leadership Styles. The Journal of the Korea Contents Association, 13(9), 382-391. Kippenberger, T. (2002). Leadership styles. Oxford, U.K.: Capstone Pub.. Mukherjee, S. (2014). Corporate Coaching The Essential Guide.. New Delhi: SAGE Publications. Sadler, P. (2003). Leadership. London: Kogan Page Ltd.. Velsor, E. V. (2009). Introduction: Leadership and corporate social responsibility. Corporate Governance, 9(1), 3-6. Werhane, P. H. (2007). Women in business the changing face of leadership. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers. West, G. (2011, October 1). Leadership ANPA style: Alaska Native Professional Association grows young professionals into leaders.(NATIVE BUSINESS). Alaska Business Monthly , 2, 2-24. Read More