The relationship of leadership to the politics of the organization - Essay Example

(Fryer, 2004: 342) Upon examining the case of George Latour, the researcher will discuss the leadership style used by George followed by assessing the appropriateness of the leadership style. On the part of Shelley, the researcher will provide some recommended strategies that she could employ to enable her to better manage her boss. Prior to the main discussion, the researcher will assess the relative political position of George and Shelley as well as its implications on the leader-follower behavior.

It is clear that George has been practicing autocratic or authoritarian leadership style. (Clark, 2005) Despite Shelley’s expertise in Marketing, George unconsiously directs Shelley on her every move causing her to feel very much demotivated with her job. In general, the use of authoritarian leadership style is more appropriate when the leader is training a new employee without any form of actual experience with the job. (Clark, 2005) Since Shelley has gained several successful experiences in the field of Marketing, George should apply a delegative or ‘free reign’ leadership style to empower Shelley to be a part of important Marketing-related decision-making.

(Clark, 2005) When applying the delegative leadership style, George should develop a clear organizational goal which will serve as a guide on where the company as a team should focus. Upon discussing with Shelley her main goal, George should give her an ultimatum of three- to six-months period to come up with a good Marketing result. (Lawrie, 2004: 38) George should learn and adopt the transformational leadership style. (Goodnight, 2004: 36) In general, transformational leaders are the ones that do not practice positional authority.

Instead of using authoritative leadership style, transformational leaders are committed to train and develop the rest of employees to become a leader