leadership styles

Types of leadership styles

The

bureaucratic leader

(Weber , 1905) is very structured and follows the procedures they have been established. This type of leadership has no space to explore new ways to solve problems and is usually slow paced to ensure adherence to the ladders statedby the company. Leaders ensure that all the steps have been followed prior to sending itto the next level of authority. Universities, hospitals, banks and government usually require this type of leader in their organizations to ensure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. Leaders that try to speed up the process will experience frustration and anxiety.The

charismatic leader

(Weber, 1905) leads by infusing energy and eagerness intotheir team members. This type of leader has to be committed to the organization for thelong run. If the success of the division or project is attributed to the leader and not theteam, charismatic leaders may become a risk for the company by deciding to resign foradvanced opportunities. It takes the company time and hard work to gain theemployees' confidence back with other type of leadership after they have committedthemselves to the magnetism of a charismatic leader.The

autocratic leader

(Lewin ,Lippitt , & White, 1939) is given the power to makedecisions alone, having total authority. This leadership style is good for employees thatneed close supervision to perform certain tasks. Creative employees and team playersresent this type of leadership, since they are unable to enhance processes or decisionmaking, resulting in job dissatisfaction.The

democratic leader

(Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) listens to the team's ideas andstudies them, but will make the final decision. Team players contribute to the finaldecision thus increasing employee satisfaction and ownership, feeling their input wasconsidered when the final decision was taken. When changes arises, this type of leadership helps the team assimilate the changes better and more rapidly than otherstyles, knowing they were consulted and contributed to the decision making process,minimizing resistance and intolerance. A shortcoming of this leadership style is that ithas difficulty when decisions are needed in a short period of time or at the moment.The

laissez-faire

("let do")

leader

(Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) gives no continuousfeedback or supervision because the employees are highly experienced and need littlesupervision to obtain the expected outcome. On the other hand, this type of style is alsoassociated with leaders that don’t lead at all, failing in supervising team members,resulting in lack of control and higher costs, bad service or failure to meet deadlines.

The

people-oriented leader

(Fiedler , 1967) is the one that, in order to comply witheffectiveness and efficiency, supports, trains and develops his personnel, increasing jobsatisfaction and genuine interest to do a good job.The

task-oriented leader

(Fiedler, 1967)

focuses on the job, and concentrates on thespecific tasks assigned to each employee to reach goal accomplishment. This leadershipstyle suffers the same motivation issues as autocratic leadership, showing noinvolvement in the teams needs. It requires close supervision and control to achieveexpected results. Another name for this is

deal maker

(Rowley & Roevens, 1999)

andis linked to a first phase in managing Change, enhance, according to the Organize withChaos approach.The

servant leader

(Greenleaf , 1977) facilitates goal accomplishment by giving itsteam members what they need in order to be productive. This leader is an instrumentemployees use to reach the goal rather than an commanding voice that moves tochange. This leadership style, in a manner similar to democratic leadership, tends toachieve the results in a slower time frame than other styles, although employeeengagement is higher.The

transaction leader

(Burns , 1978)

is given power to perform certain tasks andreward or punish for the team’s performance. It gives the opportunity to the manager tolead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predeterminedgoal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correctand train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level and rewardeffectiveness when expected outcome is reached.The

transformation leader

(Burns, 1978)

motivates its team to be effective andefficient. Communication is the base for goal achievement focusing the group in the finaldesired outcome or goal attainment. This leader is highly visible and uses chain of command to get the job done. Transformational leaders focus on the big picture,needing to be surrounded by people who take care of the details. The leader is alwayslooking for ideas that move the organization to reach the company’s vision.The

environment leader

(Carmazzi , 2005)

is the one who nurtures group ororganisational environment to affect the emotional and psychological perception of anindividual’s place in that group or organisation. An understanding and application of group psychology and dynamics is essential for this style to be effective. The leader usesorganisational culture to inspire individuals and develop leaders at all levels. Thisleadership style relies on creating an education matrix where groups interactively learnthe fundamental psychology of group dynamics and culture from each other. The leader

uses this psychology, and complementary language, to influence direction through themembers of the inspired group to do what is required for the benefit of all.Leadership associated with positions of authorityAccording toThomas Carlyle , leadership emerges when anentity as "leader" contrives toreceive deference from other entities who become "followers". The process of gettingdeference can become competitive in that the emerging "leader" draws "followers" fromthe factions of the prior or alternative "leaders