Components of Effective Leadership and Management Styles

Components of effective leadership and management styles

Leadership is defined as the ability to influence individuals to achieve a goal or vision (Robbins and Judge, page 332). A person that carries out this act is called a leader. It is been noted that effective and efficient leadership is the backbone of organizational success. Therefore in order for an organization to succeed and sustain it, it must be able understand the philosophy of leadership. Understanding the philosophy of leadership and implementing it will lead to the achievements of high level of productivity, progressive market share and profitability in an organization.

              Furthermore, a management psychologist Fred Fiedler (1987) mentioned leadership effectiveness in his findings in what is commonly known as “situational contingency”.  According to him, effective leadership is based on a leader’s individual traits and the situation at point in time. Friedler “Contingency model” argues that different leadership styles should be applied in different situations. Fred Fiedler’s contingency model illustrates the breakdown of the following; getting some co-worker and rating them on some work-related factors like loyalty, cooperativeness, trust, cheerfulness etc. Next, is to determine the favorableness of a particular situation and then a leadership style can be choosing to implement. To throw more lights, let us take a look at a brief description of Fielder’s contingency model.

               Given the above table, we can analyze a scenario whereby an employee within the organization is being asked to review and rate wok-related attitude of its peers from 1 to 3, sum their scores, and choose who least preferred co-worker to work with. The one with the smallest score definitely means they are least preferred co-workers.  Now, task-oriented leaders usually rate employees negatively (giving them low score) and so turn to have low least preferred co-workers and relationship-oriented leaders turn to have high least preferred workers by rate positively (giving high score).

                 To continue, leaders can implement a particular leadership style based on the situation. Fielder said this can happen when a particular situation is favorable or unfavorable. A favorable situation could occur when you have a team that has confidence and trust in you as a leader, when a task is well structured and defined and when you can exercise power to reward and punish team members. An unfavorable situation could be when faced with an unstructured task, lack of trust from employees etc.  

                 Lastly, a leader who is faced with a favorable situation will turn to be task-oriented and a leader faced with unfavorable situation will turn to a relationship-oriented. For example, when a new leader is assigned over a previously loved one, team’s members might have lack of trust and confidence in the new leader. In this unfavorable situation, a leader with a relationship-oriented behavior will be the most effective to make sure this trust and confidence is rebuild amongst team members.

                To proceed, management on the other hand is being defined as the art of getting work done through people in formally organized groups Harold Koontz (1961). Management based on the importance of individuals focusing to achieve to an objective through a coordinated effort. According to most management scholars, there are four basic management functions that need to be strictly followed to achieve a goal. These functions are planning, organizing, directing or leading and controlling.

                   In addition, we are going to look at the components of effective leadership and management styles and how it could be applied to a manufacturing company (Tiger Tire). Tiger Tire is a multinational company based in Japan with its headquarters in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, some major components leadership and management styles in Tiger Tire include;

                  Vision driven; this means that all companies imagine what they seek to become in the future (long-term). A company (Tiger Tire) may choose to use either leadership or management styles   to accomplish this vision. The vision of a global company should be unique so as to distinct it from its competitors. A company’s vision is its driving force and if not strictly pursued in a common manner globally, it might cause or have a negative impact on the organization.

                Honesty and Integrity; in (Tiger Tire) both leadership and management styles ensures to create an organizational culture built on these core values in which employees are held accountable for. Leaders and Managers of a global company where ever, should promote what the organization stands for.  The reputation of the organization should be a concern to them. A successful application of these virtues will yield benefits for the organization globally.

                 Communication skills, leadership and management styles go a long way in terms of communication.  Leaders or managers should have the ability to communicate effectively with it subordinates globally. When operating on a global scale, leaders and managers should update employees with information of what is expected of them in order to achieve stated goals of the organization.

           To proceed, communication is defined as an act of connecting people and places in which information, ideas, thoughts and feelings are being shared to reach mutual understanding. There are 6 elements of effective communication, which are; encoder, message, channel, barriers, decoder, feedback, (MbahKaram ,2003, leading through communicating, page 402). These ideas and feelings are being expressed through signs and symbols or through words of mouth. This means that a leader can either communicate verbally (oral and written) or non-verbally. Some components of verbal communication include; meetings, video conferencing, telephone, email, letters instant messaging etc. While non-verbal communication elements include; body movements, facial expression and physical distance.

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