i) THE BUREAUCRATIC STYLE (Weber, 1905) is very structured and follows the procedures as 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 stated by the organization. Leaders ensure that all the steps have been followed prior to sending it to the next level of authority. Universities, hospitals, banks, and governments usually require this type of leadership in their organizations to ensure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. In this style, leaders who try to speed up the process will experience frustration and anxiety.
ii) THE AUTOCRATIC LEADER (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) is given the power to make decisions alone, having total authority. Authoritarian leaders, also known as autocratic leaders, provide clear expectations for what needs to be done when it should be done, and how it should be done. There is also a clear division between the leader and the followers. Authoritarian leaders make decisions independently with little or no input from the rest of the group. Authoritarian leadership is best applied to situations where there is little time for group decision-making or where the leader is the most knowledgeable member of the group. This leadership style is good for employees that need close supervision to perform certain tasks. Creative employees and team players resent this type of leadership since they are unable to enhance processes or decision-making, resulting in job dissatisfaction. Researchers found that decision-making was less creative under authoritarian leadership. These leaders are usually viewed as controlling, bossy, and dictatorial.
iii) THE DEMOCRATIC LEADER (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) listens to the team's ideas and studies them, but will make the final decision. Lewin's study found that participative leadership, also known as democratic leadership, is generally the most effective leadership style. Team players contribute to the final decision thus increasing employee satisfaction and ownership, feeling their input was considered when the final decision was taken. When changes arise, this type of leadership helps the team assimilate the changes better and more rapidly than other styles, knowing they were consulted and contributed to the decision-making process, minimizing resistance and intolerance. Democratic leaders offer guidance to group members, but they also participate in the group and allow input from other group members. Group members feel engaged in the process and are more motivated and creative. In Lewin's study, children in this group were less productive than the members of the authoritarian group, but their contributions were of a much higher quality. A shortcoming of this leadership style is that it has difficulty when decisions are needed in a short period of time or at the moment Schultz, & Schultz (2010).
iv) THE LAISSEZ-FAIRE ("let do") leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939). Delegative leadership, also known as laissez-fair, gives no continuous feedback or supervision because the employees are highly experienced and need little supervision to obtain the expected outcome. Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave the decision-making up to group members. While this style can be effective in situations where group members are highly qualified in an area of expertise, it often leads to poorly defined roles and a lack of motivation. Researchers found that children under delegative leadership were the least productive of all three groups. The children in this group also made more demands on the leader, showed little cooperation and were unable to work independently. In addition, Schultz & Schultz (2010) observe that this type of style is also associated with leaders who 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.
Chatelaine answered the question on June 16, 2021 at 07:14