Leadership Theory
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Leadership theories and approaches to support organizational culture change
Introduction
Radwan (2020) explains, there are several reasons why organizational culture change is inevitable. Organizations change their culture because of various reasons such as new technology, performance gaps – where organizational goals and objectives fail to be met, or during a crisis. An excellent example of a disaster is this Corona Virus Pandemic, where the whole world is under distress. Various countries are under lockdown, and organizations have asked their employees to work from home following alarming rates at which the disease spreads. The current pandemic has created a significant economic crisis, and most organizations are forced to change their organizational structure to survive.
Body
A study conducted by Asaecenter explains that leadership style is the way a manager uses his/her power to lead his subordinates. Research has acknowledged various types of leadership styles used by managers in various organizations. Different situations call for different leadership styles. For example, in an emergency, the leader must handle the problems that require his immediate attention without consulting his subordinates. There are many different styles of leadership style, but we have discussed just a few for this discussion. The following are the different types of leadership styles
Autocratic Leadership style
All authority and responsibility rest on the leader. The manager in the sole decision-maker and does not consult his juniors. Decisions made are communicated to the subordinated who implement them. This kind of leadership style lacks flexibility. Autocratic Leadership style, however, works well during a crisis when important decisions need to be made.
Democratic Leadership style
In Democratic leadership style managers involves the subordinates in decision making. The leader delegates work to his subordinates and take responsibility for their action. In this type of leadership, communication is both upwards and downwards. Research findings show that the democratic leadership style is popular because it encourages creativity, honesty, and fairness. The medical industry uses this style of leadership because it requires high levels of cooperation among its members for it to be effective.
Strategic leadership style
Strategic leadership style involves the head of the company. This leadership style focuses on a broader audience of the organization to create a high performing team and organization. The strategic leader introduces a set of prescribed habits that ensures the possibility of attaining a specific objective. Effective strategic leadership delivers the goods in terms of what an organization naturally expects from its leadership in times of change. The sporting industry is one of the areas where strategic leadership style is crucial. Most strategic leaders anticipate the organizations’ needs and make decisions to meet their needs.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership style is leadership that initiates change in an organization. A transformational leader encourages their followers to go an extra mile. They set higher goals for the organizations and often realize higher performance. Studies show that transformational leaders tend to have a satisfied and committed following because they often empower their subordinates.
Visionary leadership
In this style of leadership, the leaders know that it’s through their followers that the leadership process is achieved. A visionary leadership style is made by visionary leaders who know where they are steering the organization. Visionary leaders often transform their vision for the organization in reality.
Leadership theories have evolved over the years, with each approach having their views on how leaders can effectively manage their followers. After critically analyzing the different leadership styles, the transformational leadership style emerged to be popular. One of the reasons for its popularity was its human approach to dealing with subordinates. Moreover, it creates an enthusiastic environment for working, which is useful in driving change and innovation. This method guarantees high levels of output since the subordinate is self- motivated. Motivated and inspired followers would follow their leaders with passion and thus steer their organization towards the desired change.
Transformational Leadership and sustainable organizational success
Bass and Riggio (2005) suggest that transformational leaders motivate and develop a relationship with their followers hence encourages high performance. (Rubin, Munz, & Bommer, 2005). Moreover, the leaders encourage their followers to achieve more than what they imagined or thought, helping them to realize the organizations’ goals (Arnold, Nick, Barling, Kelloway, & McKee, 2007). Transformational leaders empower their subordinates by altering the beliefs, values, and mindsets of their followers. Transformational leadership provides coaching, mentoring, motivation and inspiration to assistants. Transformational leadership affects the sustainability of the organization through psychological empowerment.
Integration of transformational leadership the organizational vision and mission
Transformational leaders use the organizations’ mission and vision to propel their followers. The leaders inspire and motivate their subordinates to meet the mission and vision of the organization. Through coaching and mentoring of the followers, the employees take the place of the transformative leaders and work towards archiving the organizational mission and vision. Transformational leaders are visionary in the sense that they set a realistic vision that they can achieve. The leaders then communicate the vision to their subordinates and inspire commitment and purpose to the organizations.
How transformational style increases value for stakeholders.
Through empowerment, transformation leadership inspires creativity among the subordinates. Followers take calculated risks and try new things by taking an innovative approach to growing the organization. Through the motivation of the leader, the organization improves its performance. Moreover, transformational leadership develops subordinates into leaders.
Conclusion
Different leadership styles aim at archiving different objectives. Some leadership styles can be useful, while others can fail to achieve the desired results. The right leadership style will always strive to achieve the organizations’ vision and mission. Moreover, it would give the company a competitive advantage over its competitors, thus ensuring the sustainability of the company.
References
Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. John Wiley & Sons.
Galli, B. J. (2019). A shared leadership approach to transformational leadership theory: Analysis of research methods and philosophies. In Scholarly Ethics and Publishing: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 751-790). IGI Global.
McClanahan, K. J. (2020). Viva la evolution: Using dual-strategies theory to explain leadership in modern organizations. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), 101315.
Meuser, J. D., Gardner, W. L., Dinh, J. E., Hu, J., Liden, R. C., & Lord, R. G. (2016). A network analysis of leadership theory: The infancy of integration. Journal of Management, 42(5), 1374-1403.
Siangchokyoo, N., Klinger, R. L., & Campion, E. D. (2020). Follower transformation as the linchpin of transformational leadership theory: A systematic review and future research agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), 101341.