Sources of Leadership Influence and Styles of Leadership - Essay Example

Effect of leadership influence and leadership styles on the role of a top executive, mid-level manager or supervisor, and the lowest level employee

Abstract

There is an increased need for the understanding of the current goals and the future needs of leadership at the varied hierarchical structures. This is mainly based on the fact that there are different levels of leadership within any organization. In addition, there are the leadership effect on the individuals, units and teams within the organization. Thus, in order to provide the required level of attention to the different levels, different leadership abilities must be applied to bring about the desired varied effects. This means that leadership influence and styles must be applied in various ways to help in the accomplishment of various tasks at the varied leadership levels of the organization.

Sources of Influence and Styles of Leadership at varied Organizational levels

As indicated by Goodall and Pogrebna (2015) in an organization, one of the items that are considered to be multilevel includes the elements of leadership. This is mainly because they are wide, broad and diverse to the extent that they can only be well applied under different scenarios. In essence, this is related to the kind of activities that are to be performed. Thus, each level of leadership would require its own form of leadership strategies in order to excel. This would imply that the varied sources of influence or power and the diverse leadership styles be used in a wide range to achieve the desired goals and outcomes. In this case, the effectiveness of any organization is greatly determined by the level of coordinated leadership that is exhibited by the leaders who are found within the various hierarchical , where the leadership factors that are used help in shaping the vital individual, team, unit and the organizational level results. It is evident that leaders usually have a significant effect on the collectives that include the teams, units and the entire organizations. However, a lot of studies that have been conducted place their focus mainly on the predicting outcomes that are found at the individual level of analysis. Nonetheless, it is important to consider that most of the situations and position that require the leaders to be most pivotal require interactions that are complex and collective. One of the problems that is experienced by leaders during the efforts to shape the collective and emergent phenomenon lies in their ability to combine and intersect two different elements that include the areas that are significantly linked to the dynamics of the leaders, their followers and the way they interact in the sense that they are concerned with leadership and the involved research. The other essential component that creates a problem to the leaders is the fact that an element should be focused on the ability of the leaders to understand the emergent characteristics that become necessary for an individual effort to combine with others in a way that produces the synergistic energy through the teams research. Therefore an integration of these two factors reveals the way through which the sources of influence in leadership through power and the styles of leadership affect the role of a top executive, mid-level manager or supervisor, and the lowest level employee in terms of their performance and achievement.

There are different leadership styles that can be applied in varied results in order to achieve the organizational goals. Some of these include the autocratic form of leadership. Majorly, as indicated by Adejuyigbe (2015), it is self centered and kin of automated in the sense that the leader does not have any belief in teamwork, consultation or delegation. In this sense, it is negative for team spirit and results in a low morale for the employees. The bureaucratic style of leadership follows a particular pattern and is associated with a lot of rigidity. It is not flexible and does not accept out of routine plans. Such leaders rarely change the activities conducted under organizational rules and regulations and are best for consultation for interpretation of directions. Diplomatic leadership styles is better than the bureaucratic and autocratic since the main aim lies in the ability to resolve conflicts, follow the rules, solve problems, and get a common ground. This requires the leader to know the people with whom he or she works and understand their needs. For this reason, it creates a better environment to face confrontations. The participatory style of leadership is the opposite of autocratic. These leaders are not centralized and seek the opinions of others by taking votes and accepting criticism. They have sufficient control of their abilities and have good shipping skills as team players. Finally, the free-rein or French laissez-faire leadership style reduces the instances where employees are regularly supervised and monitored. In this case, the leader acts more as a facilitator and trusts the judgment of his employees. However, it may not work well in the large companies, which require disciplined and firm leadership.

From this, the best leadership style should be participatory. This means that the input of both the leader and the subordinates are felt. There is great teamwork and the unified involvement in decision making. This means that the leader gives the other employees an opportunity to make decisions and makes those that are tough enough. This is an indication that various factors affect the manner with which activities are conducted within all the levels of management of any organization. In particular, they are based on the application of the different leadership elements. For instance, one of the elements that may be well used include the powers of the leaders in addition to the different styles of leadership In essence, the five sources of influence or power and the diverse styles of leaderships require appropriate usage at the different levels in order to achieve varied results. It is possible for the sources of leadership influence to be applied within the different areas of management. This means that it appropriately applies at the top executive level, the mid level manager or the supervisors as well as in the activities that are conducted by the lowest level employees (Adejuyigbe, 2015).

The leadership needs are mainly dependent on the level of the leader within the organization. In this case, the leadership in any organization is divided into three different tiers. These are well related to the three-tier organizational design that has been recognized for a long time. The bottom part of this design includes the leadership that mainly takes place largely by supervision. At this level, the leaders are involved in tasks that constitute the elements of hiring, firing and allocation of tasks. The middle management consists of the next layer. At this level, the leaders are concerned with the establishment of the operational goals and the coordination of the relevant tasks that must be performed to meet the stated objectives. The upper most layers constitute the top level leadership that is mainly concerned with the establishment of a visitation and the setting of broad objectives for the entire organization. According to Van Wart (2013) the leaders at the different organizational levels are involved in enacting similar functions. These include roles such as setting of directions, spanning of boundaries, and the maintenance of various operational duties. The only difference is that they take part in these activities in a diverse way. For instance, at the top, setting of directions is mainly concerned with the time horizon when compared to the lower levels. The time horizon at the lower level is shorter than that which is set by the top level leadership. In the same sense, spanning of boundaries also depend on the type of boundaries that the leaders are spanning. For instance, the lower leaders span boundaries between different units in the organization while the top leadership spans boundaries between the units and the other entities outside the organizational boundary. On the other hand, the maintenance and coordination of the operations is different in the sense that it is determine by the level with which the interaction of the leader is direct or indirect. Although the leaders at all the organizational levels enhance coordination, the coordination behavior is more direct when compared to that at the higher levels of the organization. This means that at the higher levels of leadership there are indirect actions that are used in the establishment of the operational procedures (Nicols & Kottrell, 2014). In order to achieve the varied functions at the different levels of leadership within the organization, the leaders must adopt varied sources of their influence or power as well as styles of leadership. The sources of influence refer to power, which is shown through the ability to influence others and have authority.

The leadership style that is to be used by the management mainly depends on the situation, the personality of his or her employees, their needs as well as the culture in the entire organization. It is in this sense that the hierarchy of leadership is expected to choose the appropriate leadership style in addition to the correct influence of power that helps it in the achievement of the goals that are placed at the particular level. The need to restructure the organizational culture and bring about transformations in the culture has brought about massive changes in the kinds of leadership styles that are employed in the different levels of management. Majorly, most of the leadership and especially those at the top tier that includes the top executives has shifted from the authoritarian form where the main concept that is considered is the need for control. In turn, the main forms of leadership styles mostly focus on the elements of teamwork, engagement and the empowerment of the employees. In most of the top tiers, the leadership styles that portray the managers as the technical experts who control, coordinate and direct all the work that is done by others have been largely substituted by those that democratic in the sense that the leaders are more of team leaders, facilitators, counselors and coaches (Adejuyigbe, 2015).

On the other hand the styles of leadership are mainly concerned with the relationship that exists between the leaders and the other employees. Most of the leaders at the varied leadership levels are able to yield power; however, the difference through which they are able to perform their varied and respective functions highly depends on the way with which the power is used. It is this that also determines the capability of the leaders to perform their distinct roles at the different leadership levels. The leaders get their power from different sources that include their followers. In this case, the distinct sources of power for a leader define their power. One of these is the expert power that is achieved when the leader possesses a distinct domain of knowledge or skills. For instance, an accountant who has expert skills influences the manner with which the junior accountants go about their tasks. As such, this power is adequately used at the top level of leadership where most of the executive functions are performed. This is additionally the area where the style of leadership that is most of the time used includes the autocratic since majority of the leaders at this level usually act as the superiors over others. At times, the bureaucratic style of leadership also applies at this level. Although there is a high variation in the expert power that is applied in various situations, most of the top leaders are competent in specific areas and use these knowledge and skills to guide the other employees into performing their duties to bring about the distinct capabilities and results. As such, less participation is required at this level as most of the decisions are made by the individuals who possess the required skills. The other employees are expected to take instructions and act according to the provided guidelines (Zhang, 2014).

In addition, there is also the positional kind of power that is achieved when the leader holds a position of authority in a legitimate. For example, in a typical way the CEO of any organization tends to hold the highest positional power. In this case, this source of power in influence and leadership can be appropriately applied at the high levels of leadership where the most likely style of leadership is the free rein and the participative forms of leadership. It is the case because a number of the leaders that are found at the middle position are mainly considered as those who have accomplished their goals through the management of relationships with the other employees at the lower levels of management (Caughron & Mumford, 2012).

The other kind of source of power that is commonly found within any organization is the reward power. This is usually evident in the event that the leaders are in a position to offer or take away a reward. This means that this kind of influence can be used by a leader at the low level of leadership, which is mainly made up of the lowest employees in an organization. At this level of leadership, the most appropriate kind of leadership skill that can be used is the participative style since the leader or the other employees are highly aware of the needs of the other individuals. They, therefore use these elements as a source of motivation. They work together through the decisions and activities of the organization.

Besides, there is also the kind of coercive power that is mainly felt when the leader comes up with a perception of threat. It is mostly used to accompany the actions of a leader who has the belief that his followers look up to him for the initiation of disciplinary actions. It is also commonly applied in the lower levels of leadership since it involves also involves supervision. Mainly, it is used alongside the free rein style of leadership where there is a sole leader who is given authority over a number of subjects or followers. Thus, there are cases when the use of threats becomes suitable in the achievement of the unit goals. The final source of influence or power in an organization is the personal power, which refers to the kind that is achieved through persuasion. In this case, the manager does not have to rely on anything more than a friendly expression of thank you and please in order to make an employee perform the task. This is mainly used at the middle or supervision levels of leadership. In this case, it is mostly accompanied by the diplomatic styles of leadership, which involves employee engagement in most aspects of decision making.

Conclusion

One of the elements that play an important role in the achievement of the organizational goals in a firm is the leadership skills that are applied. However, the leadership skills vary depending on the level of leadership that is in consideration within the organization. There are varied areas of leadership in any firm. These are vital since they play varied roles in the achievement of the objectives. As such, they require diverse sources of power and influence to attain the required goals. It is with the sources of influence that the leaders at the various levels are able to apply the specific leadership styles that motivate the people they work with and around. As such, it is advisable to choose the best style and influence in order to get the desired results at each organizational levels of leadership.