HRMT413 Week 8 Discussion

This week's discussion will focus on leaders and leadership.

1. List and define the key leadership styles.

2. What type of leader do you work best with? Why do you believe that to be the case? What type of leader are you? Has your leadership style changed over time

Leadership is an act or a concept of providing direction, guidance and showing the way for a group of people. According to (Klingborg, Moore, & Area-Hammond, 2006), the charismatic and people-oriented leadership that can positively contribute to the high performance in organizations continues to be desired. The authors go on and state that from 1940s, companies all over the world have theories and concepts of the key persons they desire to be the right leaders. There are some who believe that proper leaders are those who understand the differences between the social exchanges and the work that the employees do in the organization. For example, the similarity between increased organizational productivity with the type of compensation in the firm. Therefore, leadership in the organizations assumes many definitions, understandings and

has an effect on organizational behavior.

Leaders have different methods, means and styles through which they exhibit the leadership in the manner they deem fit. The key leadership styles are as follows: Authoritarian leadership, democratic or participative, delegative leadership, transactional and transformative style of leadership. The authoritarian leader decides and other people in the organization follow without questions (IMD Business School, 2020). He defines the performance expectations in the company and he expects the subordinates to follow suit without questioning. The participative leader guides the group leadership where people’s opinions are heard. The transactional leader focuses on the transactions or a series of exchanges including the rewards and even punishments just to get things to be done. Democratic leader respects the views of the people and knows that the ideas of other worker can help him achieve goals. A delegative leader does not carry out all the roles or functions in the organization, he leaves some work to be done by the subordinates. A transformational leader aims at providing transformation and leadership that aims at changing the people so that they become better.

I work best with a participative leader. I believe that everybody deserves a chance to be heard in the organization. The best decisions and suggestions can come from any corner in the organization and just because a person is a leader does not mean that they have the monopoly of leadership and or the thought process in the firm(IMD Business School, 2020). I have always been a participative, democratic and people-oriented leader. I believe in the power of other people and I also believe in team work. As a result, I will never impose my will on other people. This has not changed. I have always been like this since my school days.

References

IMD Business School. (2020). The 5 Leadership Styles you can use & How to implement each. Retrieved from IMD business school website: https://www.imd.org/imd-reflections/reflection-page/leadership-styles/

Klingborg, D. J., Moore, D. A., & Varea-Hammond, S. (2006). What Is Leadership? Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 33(2), 280–283. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.33.2.280