Leadership and Leadership Styles Essay

Leadership, influencing other to willing do the work of an organization so that the objectives can be met. The main objective for any organization is to meet it’s goals. To do this you will need one major component in place, that is management. Management comes in and organizes the entire operation of the organization. You take it a step further when leadership comes in to place. An organization could not exist if it where not for the leaders.
It is not only important to have the title or the position of being a leader but it would also be important for the leader to be effect so that his followers will follow his leadership. To do this as a leader you will need to have certain skill and abilities. For example a good leader, will have the ability of acting as a leader. A leader is suppose to be able to motivate the employees, and communicate effectively in difference of the barriers that exist, he will organize teams, and be held accountable for supervising the team, and he most be able to manage organizational and cultural changes that are needed to improve the organization. Leaders have power and certain traits, the leader should have a vision for the where the organization will go, the leader should actually think as a leader would. A leader should have six personal traits. They should have the drive to achieve, and the desire to lead. He is confident in his decisions and knows what it take for the organization to meet its goals, he knows the business well, he displays integrity and honest in doing business and with his subordinates. Most important the leader will need to have the right leadership style in order to stand and be an effective leader. Leadership style is the behavior in which the leader has chosen to be, he will display certain values and a certain attitude. Even though there are several styles of leadership it is always be to select a style that best suites the organization it self.
Hour glass store is a small retail clothing store for the alternative sized woman 12-26. It is the creation of four creative imaginative and independently strong minded- woman. The store sells clothing that is very fashion forward and innovative. It features the following style nols (50’s-60’s era) ponk, gothic, street wear, club and military. The store also has accessories to complete the entire outfit and or wardrobe. Our objective is to remain unique and different by creating new and fashion flowing attire to dress teenagers and the mature woman. This will be achieved by offering the best direct customer service possiable. This is using heart skills
H-Hello to every customer
E-Establish the connection by introducing yourself
A-Ask questions
R-Recommend and reinforce by proudly making suggestions
T- Thank you by saying thank you to every customer
Our last objective is growth first we will offer our product line on the world wide web (Internet Service). This would expand our selling base and name recognition. Next we will expand our business to the North, South, East, West, Southeast Southwest regions of the country. According to the Management Theory Practice and Application (p.178), the university of Michigan studies stated when two set of leadership styles, production entered and employee centered and close gems.
We have decided to use the Employee- oriented leadership and the Job centered leadership for the leadership style for our company. The reason that we have made this selection, is because we feel that if we learn to focus on our employee rather than trying to learn as an individual and try to adhere to learn the need as an employee it would make a healthy work environment for everyone We prefer to focus on the personality and the individuality and emphasize building good interpersonal relationships. Next job centered style would assist in making sure that each and every employee is trained in the different aspect of the business, beginning with open selling power, to setting up the products in the store, and getting customers to closing at the end of the day We want to focus on production and the job’s technical aspect.
According to Likert (p.178) concludes “ Supervisors with the best record of performance focus their primary attention on the human aspects of their subordinates’ problems and on endeavors to build effective work groups with high performance goals.
These two leadership styles would feature the ownership type of employee, would be willing to participate as a manager in the absence of the manager when ever the opportunity present itself. In contrast to the other styles of leadership which can also be very effective in other companies, however based on the behavior we have chosen and would like for our company to display the Job centered leadership style and or the employee –Oriented leadership style. For example the Close Supervision leader the supervisor specifies the roles of subordinates and checks up to see that the employee has completed the task. Or the Laissez leader has a complete hand off policy with it’s subordinates. With the General leader this style is somewhat in the middle
In the leadership role motivation, communication, team building, organizational change, and culture change are techniques and theories a leader can use to implement changes required to improve an organizational situation. Leaders must first identify what is happening in the organization, than account for what is happening. To account for what is happening in an organization a leader should use behavioral science theories to identify why the situation is occurring. There is no particular behavioral science method specified for one to use, because all situation are not the same.
Research shows according to an internet article by T.K. Owston, “Motivation and Leadership Theories” states that the dictionary defines a leader as one who leads or goes first. Owston says the leader does not always go first, but a separate definition would develop on the idea of one who leads is. , one who motivates. It is very difficult to separate the theories and concepts of leadership and motivation. Owston farther stated that for leaders to fulfill their role, he or she has to know how to motivate people and must seek ways to do this so as to maintain their role as a leader(p.1)” Some leaders believe it is necessary to use pain or threat of pain to motivate, but others consider that this only motivates no one but the dullest and most idle of people. There are leaders who motivate with promises of food, deeds, excitement, companionship, involvement and other benefits. The industrialist and entrepreneur leaders motivates by means of increase in salary and bonuses. Owston believes motivation and leadership are inseparatable.
In reading Management: Theory, Practice, and Application it is noted that very often a leader who was eminently qualified and successful in one situation turns out to be less successful in another. This fact has driven many experts to try to figure out how to fit the leader and his or her style to the situation. Fred Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership sought to determine whether a leader who was lenient in evaluating associates was more likely or less likely to have a high-producing group than a leader who was demanding and discriminating. Three situational factors were combined to determine whether the high-LPC or the low-LPC style were appropriate:
1. Position power, the degree to which the position itself enables the leader to get group members to comply with and accept his or her decisions and leadership.
The leader using this technique is making an organizational change to fit his or
Satisfaction.
2. Task structure, how routine and predictable the work group’s task is.
3. Leader-member relations, The extent to which the; leader gets along with workers. This is an important theory because it has to do with how well a leader can communicate with their workers to make changes in the organization and get the work done in an efficient manner.
Path-Goal Leadership Theory is based on the expectancy theory of motivation.
Expectancy theory states that whether a person will be motivated depends on two things: whether the person believes he or she has the ability to accomplish a task, and his or her desire to do so. This is the style the Hourglass Store choose to use because we are a merchandise store and our business is built around motivation. If our employees are unclear about a situation we make sure that clarity is given in order that mistakes and problems will be minimum. By offering consideration and support to our employees and giving them incentives for meeting their sales quotas has proven to be an excellent theory for Hourglass. We try to advocate team building which helps us to keep our employees happy. Although the path-goal theory has received little support in other capacities, it has proven to be an excellent theory for The Hourglass Store.
The final theory is Leader-Member Exchange Theory. Different styles are used for different members of the same group. The leader tends to divide their subordinates into and “in” group and an “out” group. It would be very obvious who would get the better treatment. This method is nothing but a form of discrimination and leaves no positive impact on organizational and cultural changes.

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