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Assignment Question Select an organization of your choice that exemplifies an autocratic style of leadership being used. State pros and cons of such a style of leadership being used in the organization. Support your discussion with the relevant examples. 1. Introduction to Leadership Leading is considered to be known as the foundation of the management. Leadership involves an equal distribution of power between leaders and group members. Therefore, it is extremely challenging to be an effective leader.
To become so, a leader must have such abilities as knowing instinctively how to inspire employees, ringing out their confidence, loyalty, and dedication, handling adversity, learning from even the most negative experience, to influence others to achieve organizational goals. There are three types of leadership styles: l. Autocratic or Authoritarian Leadership Style it. Democratic or Participative Leadership Style iii. Laissez-fairer or Leader Free Leadership Style. The manager’s ability to influence the organization’s members through leadership, will determine the extent to which employees and their organization realist their goals.
In organization categorized by poor leadership, employees can expect nothing costive. Poor leadership means an absence of hope, which, if allowed to go on for too long, results in an organization becoming completely non-functioning. That Is why It Is extremely interesting to observe the leadership styles In the business organization. 2. Company Background Health for All Purified Water Factory, the organization chosen, has been established at year 2000. The company has shown phenomenal progress since Inception.
The major role Is producing purified water and onward to distribution network to cover all area of Manner. Organizational goal of Health for All Purified Water Factory Is to meet people’s satisfaction providing qualified products with reasonable prices. Head office Is located at No. 72, Taught Street, Insole Township, Yang In Manner. The set up plan of Health for All Purified Water Factory Is not so different from other business organizations. There are three mall departments In this factory.
Operation Department Is responsible for vision, direction, leadership and administration of the organization In order to get relevant, safe and effective operational programs. There are such four sections In this department as Administration, Human Resource, Sales and Marketing, Research and Development and Finance and Accounts. Production Department Is answerable for turning Inputs Into finished outputs through a series of production processes performed by Purchasing Section, Production Section and Quality Control Section respectively. ND manufacturing management, controlling the sections of Design, Training and Maintenance and Engineering. Concerning leadership styles, this organization is practicing all three kinds of leadership styles. However, the operation manager mainly practices the autocratic or authoritarian leadership style. . Autocratic or Authoritarian Leadership Style The Autocratic Leadership Style was first described by Lenin, Lippies, and White in 1938. The leaders who make compact authority and keep all the power of making decisions are known as autocratic or authoritarian leaders.
On the other hand, they are one way command typed leaders. Autocratic leadership can be seen in the organization in which the top-level management has unlimited authority. At one time when kings and emperors ruled, all leaderships became autocratic. No one from lower levels could challenge individually their supreme leader unless they were repaired to put their life on the line in a struggle for power. Although most people consider autocracy is a thing of past, that kind of leaders can be observed in many types of governments, organizations, industries and also the militaries.
The autocratic leaders show high concern for the tasks and low concern for people. The word for autocratic leader is “law. ” In this style of leadership, only one person controls over all of the workers or followers. That kind of leader does not want others to involve in the decision making process. They highly convinced their skills and abilities as well as their techniques for workforces motivation. The autocratic leaders do not make effort to get close relationship to their employees. Therefore this leadership style is one of the most undesirable ones to build trust and make friends at work.
As communication and trust are important in the present CIT age, it is not able to use this leadership style constantly. However, in the case of emergency occurrence, there is no time to discuss or an immediate response is needed, the autocratic style is the most appropriate one. Therefore it cannot be assumed exactly hat autocratic leadership style is destructive for the organization. In general, the characteristics of the autocratic or authoritarian leaders are determining the work methods, limiting employee participation in most aspects of work and making the decisions in one-sided way. . Autocratic Leader in Business Organization The operation manager in Health for All Purified Water Factory, who is practicing accomplish the organization goals. Also in the case of communication, he treats his staff in unapproachable way. For Administration and Human Resource sections, he aridly ever accepts his staffs opinions. For example, he seldom holds the meeting for promotion, transfer and employment of staff and makes decisions himself without consenting others ideas. He also forces the sales and marketing staff to obtain the monthly sales targets.
He only gives his attention in operating process to accomplish the organizational goal without taking action the ideas, feelings and discussions of any other people. He trusts in his aptitudes to recompense and penalties to get work out and largely persuades the motivation of his staff. Moreover, his aptitudes are also not very effective in situations where your employees might become resentful or fearful. Conversely, he may create a competitive advantage by controlling his employees effectively.
Furthermore, as there are few places for lengthy debate in many work environments, this form of leadership limits arguments. Employees carry out their tasks and become proficient enough to achieve the organizational goal. That is why it will be unfair to state that the operation manager who is utilizing the autocratic or authoritarian leadership style is not a good leader for his staff as well as or the whole organization. 5. Pros of Autocratic Leadership Style In actual fact, almost everyone thinks that there will not be any of good things to say about autocratic leaders.
However, like other leadership styles, there is a time and a situation where this style of leadership is appropriate. In the workplace, there may be some conditions that call for urgent action, and for this situation, the best leadership style to adopt is none other than autocratic. There are times like dealing with crisis, when people want strong leadership. Moreover it becomes useful when followers are tot sure what to do by themselves. Authoritarian followers also want strong autocratic leadership during meetings. Also in the organizations like militaries, the ability to be told what do next may be preferred.
Even though people will not desire strong leadership all the time, the autocratic leadership styles offer many advantages and these have been observed in Health for All Purified Water Factory. First of all, workers can feel safe when the manager is responsible legally and personally for a project. It makes them to relieve and reduce their stress levels due to knowing that hey have control over their fate. Then as the leader is watching their performance, problems can be noticed in advance and deadlines can be met because of having one leader with heavy involvement in many areas.
This makes autocratic leadership ideal for unique projects with tight deadlines, or complicated work environments where efficient cooperation is key to success. Finally, autocratic leaders can be made decisions faster and so the management team is able to respond the changes in the organization more quickly. That is why “Health for all” factory has been listed in the Top-Ten Purified Water Factories in Manner. To summarize – the autocratic leadership style is very effective when times are stressful, but very stressful during those times when the pressure is off the followers or co-workers.
Anyhow, we still cannot omit the autocratic leadership style in today’s modern business organization since that style of leadership has such advantages. 6. Cons of Autocratic Leadership Style Although autocratic leadership style is still effective, it is the nature that nothing is perfect, there can be many problems due to this kind of leadership style. Since the communication style is one way, employees are being told exactly what the leader wants to do. So the feedback gets from this type of leader would generally be unplanned. This can be annoying due to receiving very little praise.
It can cause a company without any fresh ideas. Next, the decision making process is usually unilateral and goals are being accomplished by directing people. The autocratic style can create fearful and unpleasant working environment. Those who have to do with the autocratic leaders can face many different types of people problems. One big issue with this style is how it affects morale. According to Health for All Purified Water Factory, although the autocratic leader gets certain behaviors and obedience from his staff, he cannot capture the heart or mind from them.
While leading autocratically, faster decisions are being made and it is like the manager is holding up the opportunity to gain experience from the subordinates and start on their own leadership development, and learn from their mistakes. It can lead to poorer decisions and productivity in the long run. Then by taking on as much responsibility ND involvement as possible, an autocratic leader naturally works at their full capacity, which can lead to long term stress and health problems and could damage working relationships with colleagues.
In “Health for all” factory, the workforce becomes upset of being ordered sometimes. So this autocratic leadership style can result in a denominated workforce. As the manager is always taking action for every work areas, workers lose initiative and confidence to make decisions on their own. Then workers’ teams which become useless at running operations if they lose contact tit their leader. This is the result of a lack of time devoted to leadership development on the employees’ part. To sum-up, there can be so many inconveniences to work with the autocratic leaders in the organization.
Anyway, it is the major responsibility for people to be flexible to respond the changes in the environment. 7. Conclusion as follows: Manager seeks to make as many decisions as possible Manager seeks to have the most authority and control in decision making Manager seeks to retain responsibility rather than utilizing complete delegation Consultation tit other colleagues in minimal and decision making becomes a solitary process Managers are less concerned with investing their own leadership development, and prefer to simply work on the task at hand.
Moreover, according to above statements, pros and cons of autocratic leadership are clear for certain situations such as autocratic leadership style for emergencies and, discussing an issue before proceeding in less stressful circumstances, to be able to get the best result. Autocratic leaders may not be good at communication, but they sometimes have the best ideas. Furthermore, autocratic leaders must also take full responsibility for the results.
In addition, manager should make his subordinates happy and feeling that they are valued for the organization. In summary, leadership cannot be shown by instructing people what to perform every time. Anyway managers still have to be autocratic at times to resolve conflict that cannot be resolved in any other way. The dynamic of the relationship in the professional environment must change to become more equal so that there can be the right direction by the strong leader followed by active employees.