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A leader can be described as someone who works with a group of people to help them achieve a goal. According to the book, business leadership, a leader has the role of helping us understand the current reality and bring a brighter future. This group of people are influenced by a leader who uses their knowledge and skills to coordinate workers to achieve business goals. A leader will do this by communicating their vision and objectives. In this assignment the theories of leadership styles used by many organisations will be discussed in detail and the effects of teams and ndividuals on different leadership styles.
This literature will then explain where these theories are used and how these theories have been applied to groups of workers who have worked with a leader to succeed in achieving business goals. Leadership is very important in an organisation as leaders hold the Job of making people work together to carry an aim and therefore make a company profit. A research will be carried out to write about different leadership styles and how it has helped an organisation such as Tesco’s to help run the company. Tesco is one of the leading retail companies in the I-JK.
Tescos have expanded from being one of the largest food retailers in world to selling items such as electrics and cloths. It is interesting to see the types of leadership styles adopted by such a big brand who are successful. Leaders have an important role in creating the future however different leaders will operate differently in order to build the future and different styles of leadership will be appropriate for different situations and for different teams. According to Kurt and Lewin’s leadership model that was developed in the 1930’s, leadership styles can be broken down into three types.
According to, google books, the art of leadership, in the 1930’s a growing emphasis in the behaviours in psychology moved researchers of leadership towards the study of leadership versus the study of traits. The first type of leadership is called the autocratic where the leader will take all decisions without consulting with anyone else. This type of style would work best where there is no need to consult with anyone and where the decision will not change due to anyone’s input. An example of this leadership approach would be the armed forces where a rigorous role is needed to achieve esults.
The second type is called the democratic. This is where the leader in an organisation would involve its people in decision making and the final say made by the leader. This process is run by the leader and the people in the organisation are involved in shaping the final decision and resolving differences. The main advantage of this type of style is that it will bring an involvement by experts with skills not necessarily carried by the leader. This type of leadership builds the commitment of team members by involving them in the development of the organisation and is the eams usually appreciate their views being heard.
Lastly the third type is laissez-faire is the type where the leaders involvement in the decision making is very minimal. The team/people in the organisation are left to make their own decisions and are responsible for the outcome. The leader is always available for consultation. This type of leadership will work best with people who are capable of making their own decisions and where there is no need for communication. However this type of leaaersnlp comes witn a rlsK 0T mlsunaerstanalng tne task wnlcn allows underperformance.
Teams and individuals The difference between management and leadership is that managers have the role of getting things done and will organise resources to increase performance and therefore make a profit, whereas leadership is influencing, motivating and inspiring people. They would coach and develop people as well as creating strong teams to achieve company goals. After deciding a suitable approach to achieving set company goals and manager would communicate and allocate this approach to its team of individuals. Thereafter there are, however many factors that may influence whether hese targets are achieved.
These can range from the task that needs to be completed, the skills of the people in the team or the style of leadership. The style of leadership is always different across many organisations depending on the task. Many managers will allow the team to make their own decisions in order to complete the tasks John Adair who studied leadership and explained what leaders have to do and the actions they need to take. John Adair developed a model of three overlapping circles that represented achieve the task, build and maintain the team and develop he individual.
The reason the circles are overlapping is because the task needs a team to complete a goal also if the teams needs are not met, the task may not be completed which will make the individuals suffer. Lastly if the needs of the individuals are not met, the team will suffer and there will be a decrease in performance. Adair also detailed 8 funtions needed for a leader to succeed. Please see Appendix A. Adair’s eight rules for motivating people can be seen in Appendix B. Adairs aim was to explain the need for having development of the team and to have team building.
This can be done through team building events and using theories such as Belbin. Belbin developed team roles to identify individuals behavioural strengths and weakness’s in the workplace. This can be used to: “Build productive working relationships Select and develop high-performing teams Raise self-awareness and personal effectiveness Build mutual trust and understanding Aid recruitment processes”. http://www. belbin. com/rte. asp? id=8 Tuckman http://www. businessballs. com/action. htm, 2000-2012 One leadership style that is highly used in todays organisations is the leadership grid.
The leadership grid below is a tool developed by Blake and Mouton which is used to help analyse a leaders own leadership style through grid training. By filling out a questionnaire, managers can work out how concerned they are with people and production. There are different levels leaders are able to reach and the grid training helps leaders reach a level of 9,9 which is the best level for a leader. Within the leaaersnlp gr10 tnere are Tlve leaaersnlp styles tnat nave Deen IOentlTlea wnlcn nave been based on the concern for people and production. Please see the model below which shows the leadership grid. Coachingcosmos. om, 2013 The impoverished style is used by leaders who avoid getting into trouble. Managers have little concern for the people or the production. The country club style is used by leaders who have a high concern for people however they have a low concern for production. The leaders using this style would have more concern for the security and comfort of the people in the belief that this would increase the production. The atmosphere is very friendly however not necessarily a productive environment. The produce or perish style is used by those leaders who feel that the needs of mployees are not important.
These leaders pay more attention on the production and no attention on the people as they feel the people are paid and should perform as expected. These leaders usually use pressure, rules and punishments in order to achieve their company goals. This style is usually linked to companies that are next to failure. The middle of the road style uses a balance between the company goals and the needs of the workers and by using this balance, managers hope to achieve a good performance. The team style is used by leaders who have a very high concern for both the production and the people.
These leaders would encourage all workers to be good team players and committed and the people generally feel a part of the company where their views are always valued. Tescos (expand) The managerial grid shows many ways in which leaders would behave towards the task or the employees. In relation to the managerial grid, at Tesco’s, the leaders would see themselves highly in the authoritarian style where they have a high concern for production and less on employees. The leaders at Tesco’s would take of the needs of the task rather the employees. Theory2 200 Theory 3 Thinking hats Conclusion