Leadership Styles

Student’s name

Course id

Submitted to

Date

Leadership Styles

Anyone who takes on responsibility for staff must quickly think about the type of leadership. But not every situation makes every style of leadership promising. We inform about influencing factors, possibilities, and limits.

Leadership Styles Definition

The term "leadership style" describes how a person in a leadership position behaves in a lower place than his or her employees. The present variation of leadership styles is based on the fact that the chosen method of leadership style always depends on the character of the manager and the company. It is an integral part of HR management and has a direct impact on the working environment.

The distinction of leadership styles

The two most well-known theories are the following: Traditional management styles after the sociologist Max Weber and classical management styles after the psychologist Kurt Lewin. Weber dealt with the question of why people let themselves be dominated in authoritarian form. Lewin's goal was to illustrate how various leadership styles affect the group atmosphere. His observations related to satisfaction, productivity, group cohesion, and efficiency.

Max Weber’s leadership styles:

Patriarchal leadership style

This kind of guidance is protective. The subordinates have a relationship of trust with the patriarch. He cares about their wellbeing, and they are obedient. His position is based on his higher age, his wisdom or his wealth of experience. The patriarchal style of leadership is rare in modern times. Nevertheless, there are still some small and medium-sized family businesses under this model.

Charismatic leadership style: pros and cons

The charisma is constituted by many different positive character traits, which are crucial for human charisma. The charismatic has a high capacity for empathy and can demand anything from his subordinates without being indebted to them. His leadership is based on his pleasant appearance and his human abilities, which make him a role model.

Motivated employees are not the only positive result of a charismatic leadership style. Supervisors are much more flexible in this type of leadership, which means they can better respond to different situations in the organization. The employees have a high degree of self-determination and therefore tackle their work much more responsibly. The disadvantages of this style of leadership are its specificity. To become a charismatic leader, you have to have charisma. This can only be learned to a limited extent. If the leaders who live this leadership style do not have a positive attitude towards their subordinates, they cannot bring the organization forward.

Autocratic leadership style: pros and cons

The authoritarian leadership is the leadership in which a person with higher authority makes all of the decisions, to be more precise the employees have to follow what the boss decides. The advantage of such leadership is yquick decision making. Whereas, the disadvantage is that new ideas are not understood and there is a little room for creativity.

Bureaucratic leadership style: pros and cons

This style of leadership is not tied to a specific person. There are bureaucratic instances and a predetermined procedure. Mainly bureaucracy is found on authorities and in offices. No superior make decisions; they are governed by a set of rules, laws, and regulations. Administration offers less flexibility and efficiency than the other leadership styles. Specific leadership positions are assigned temporarily and are transferable.

The precise work instructions, as well as the improved internal business processes, are among the two advantages of the bureaucratic leadership style. Also, the relatively small number of wrong decisions that can be made in this type of leadership can be attributed to the benefits of bureaucratic administration. However, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the bureaucratic leadership style outweighs the latter. The limited scope for decision-making can hurt the mood of the supervisor. This, in turn, leads to a long-term demotivation of the employees. Both executives and their subordinates do not have the opportunity to revolutionize or take the business forward in any other way. The extremely long decision-making processes also hurt the company's success.

Kurt Lewin’s leadership styles:

Authoritarian leadership style: pros and cons

The strict or even hierarchical leadership style is characterized by the fact that the supervisor makes decisions without granting a voice to the employees. They are not involved and are faced with a firm choice. Then the boss is obediently expected. If mistakes are made, they will be punished and not helped. The authoritarian style of leadership is characterized by extreme rigor and consistency. An autocratic leadership style offers the following advantages: a high decision speed, a high level of competence and controlled processes. Due to respect or even fear of the employees, there is an increase in performance. However, this cannot be sustained in the long term, as the disadvantages such as fear, rivalries, and restrictions on the freedom of employees lead to lack of motivation. Even the supervisor can plague fear of making wrong decisions, as this type of leadership puts a lot of pressure on his authority, which should not be damaged. If the leader fails, there is a risk that employees have lost their unlimited power to take the initiative and fundamental helplessness prevails.

Laissez Faire management style: pros and cons

This type of leadership style gives employees self-determination. They choose their tasks and the organization itself. The flow of information to the supervisor happens at random. He neither intervenes nor punishes or helps. The benefits of Laissez Fair Leadership are that employees learn to work independently and make decisions. Their creativity is released, and they can unfold as an individual. On the other hand, there is the danger of chaos, lack of discipline or competence, and group disputes that continue unchecked. This could cause rivalries that would put some groups at a disadvantage.

Democratic management style: pros and cons

This type is also called a cooperative management style. Here, the supervisor includes his employees in the operational decisions. Open discussions and technical support are allowed. When mistakes are made, help is used instead of punishment. With the help of the democratic leadership style and the cooperation with the employees, they show themselves motivated and creative. Their performance is promoted by being able to work independently and to integrate their opinion. The supervisor is relieved by this assistance. There is no such a high risk of making wrong decisions. The working atmosphere is promoted through regular communication and employees are more likely to identify with the company if they bring their ideas and ideas to bear. The drawbacks are that the decision speed is slower than the authoritarian style, as employees need to be informed in greater detail and many ideas emerge that need to be filtered.

Situational leadership style

Each leader has a different leadership style in his or her work. The one leads with strict specifications a strict regiment, the other leaves the reins a little easier and opens up more freedom for his employees. Some rely on increased transparency and involve the team in every decision, but on the other hand, there are those who defraud employees and act on their heads. Employees go through various companies during their careers and thus also supervisors and have to adjust themselves again and again to the respective management style- it should be precisely the opposite. A situational leadership style adapts to different employees to promote and challenge them according to their situation.

Leadership Styles: Which is the Best?

A nurse leader, who involves her nurses in decision-making and allows them to work independently, is a democratic permissive. On the other hand, an autocratic directive gives instructions without affecting his nurses in decision making and closely supervises them.

Situational Leadership: An experienced nurse leader chooses leadership style as per the situation and which work best in that situation. For example, she may become a permissive democrat when it comes to buying new equipment for the unit. As per the wishes of the nurse, she can arrange to buy the latest stuff and allow them to use all of it independently as per their requirement. On the contrary, she may become an autocratic directive which gives unilateral instructions to less experienced nurse and closely supervises their work at the same time.

Considerations: A nurse leader can choose from different leadership styles based on the age and experience of her nurses. Veterans and experienced nurses will always like to share their hard-earned skill and expertise, but definitely, do not want or require close supervision on them. On the contrary, less experienced and younger nurses can work better under close monitoring with a lot of advice and feedback on their work, and it might benefit them.

REFERENCES

Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. (1987). Toward a behavioral theory of charismatic leadership in organizational settings. Academy of management review, 12(4), 637-647.

Papanek, M. L. (1973, August). KURT LEWIN AND HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO MODERN MANAGEMENT THEORY. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 1973, No. 1, pp. 317-322). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Sellgren, S., Ekvall, G., & Tomson, G. (2006). Leadership styles in nursing management: preferred and perceived. Journal of Nursing Management, 14(5), 348-355.