Leadership Styles and Their Impact

This assignment delves into the realm of leadership styles, examining their influence on key aspects of organizations. It explores different leadership approaches, such as transformational, servant, and transactional leadership, and analyzes their effects on factors like employee motivation, innovation, and overall organizational performance. The assignment encourages critical thinking about the relationship between leadership styles and success in modern business environments.

Running head: EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Discussion about the leadership styles
The leadership styles of an organization have a significant effect on the culture of that
particular organization. The effect of the leadership styles on the organizational culture is
irrespective of the size of the organization. The different leadership styles as discussed in the
theory are Laissez-Faire leadership style, Autocratic leadership style, Democratic leadership
style, Transactional leadership style and Transformational leadership style. These five styles
of leadership are effectively used in any type of organization whether the organization is
small or big in size (Buble, Juras and Matić 2014). The leadership style and the culture of an
organization are linked with each other. The leadership style is decided based on the culture
of the organization and the similarly the organizational culture is also dependent on the
leadership style of the organization. The organizational culture is the main factor that helps in
the achievement of the goals of the organization. The leadership style that is undertaken by
the leaders of the organization helps in motivating the employees as well.
The first leadership style that is discussed in this essay is the democratic style of
leadership which is followed by the most successful brand of the world Google. The
leadership style that is followed in Google is of the distributive style. The company was
started up in a garage by the two founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Graham, Ziegert and
Capitano 2015). The essay will be however based on the present CEO of Google Sundar
Pichai and the leadership style followed by him. Sundar Pichai was appointed as the CEO of
Google in the year 2015. The leadership principles followed by Sundar Pichai have made him
an effective leader in the organization. As discussed by Strom, Sears and Kelly (2014), the
distributive leadership of an organization involves the opinions of the employees and the
team members. This decision making process is followed in Google. This process helps in
boosting the confidence of the employees and making them feel as the part of the
organization and the decision making process as well. The new CEO of Google, Sundar

2EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Pichai follows certain principles which make him a successful leader. The first principle deals
with the ability of the leaders or the employees to remain grounded and connected to the
roots. This helps him to connect with the employees and maintain a fruitful relationship with
them. The next principle followed by Sundar Pichai is to focus not only one’s individual
success, also focus on the success of others. According to Sundar Pichai, it is the duty of the
leader to ensure the success of the members of his team and make them successful. This will
encourage collaborative work environment in the organization thereby helping them to
achieve their goals. The third principle that is followed by Google’s CEO is the thought
regarding giving more power to the youngsters in the organization (Iveybusinessjournal.com
2017). The hard work done by the young people of the organization are recognized by
Google and the company aims at providing opportunities to the young people so that they can
grow with the growth of the organization. The fourth and most important principle that is
followed by the leader of Google is the way by which a leader should always be humble and
try to learn from every situation. Sundar Pichai had encouraged the founders of the company
regarding the launch of many new products of the company, including Google’s own web
browser, “Google Chrome”. The encouragement and the contribution of Sundar Pichai in the
various products of Google acted as the opportunity for Sundar Pichai to move up the ranks
and learn more and more about the organization. This style of leadership followed by Google
CEO Sundar Pichai has contributed immensely in the success of the company (Hamstra et al.
2014). The leadership style followed in Google helps in motivating the employees to become
a part of the business and thereby achieve their goals and increase the profitability of the
organization. The motivational theory related to the leadership style of Google is the goal
setting theory. The goals of the company are set along with the employees of the company
and they are also clarified. Further, the goals are accepted based on the relevancy and the
goals are achieved by the employees and the organization’s profitability is increased.

3EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
The leadership style followed by the Google CEO has been effective for the company
and has contributed a lot giving the company the position where it is now. However, another
style of leadership followed by the CEO of a successful organization is the transactional style
of leadership. The organization’s name is Amazon and the leader of the company is Jeff
Bezos. The leadership style of Jeff Bezos is unique and inspirational at the same time. The
employees of the organization are considered to be an important part of the team and they are
employed in the company not as mere employees, they are made the partners or the
shareholders of the company (Kang, Solomon and Choi 2015). The main motto of the
company is “Customer is King” and the employees are expected to work towards this goal of
the organization. The expectations of the leader of the company from the employees is
always high. The most important goal of the Amazon is to understand the needs and the
desires of the customers. The work process in Amazon is not at all easy as the employees
need to fulfil the high expectations of the CEO. Transactional leadership as discussed by
Kang, Solomon and Choi (2015), mainly refers to the leaders who receive a set of goals and
the employees or the members of the team work towards achieving that particular set of
goals. The employees are rewarded if they can achieve the goals and they are punished if the
goals are not achieved as well. However, Bezos has created an efficient work environment for
the employees of the organization and the way by which they achieve their goals by
satisfying the customers of the company. This efficient system of management has increased
the market share of Amazon over the years. The transactional style of leadership followed in
Amazon is increasing the profits of the company, however, the motivation provided to the
employees is not enough and the company has been facing problems due to this issue. The
goal-setting in Amazon is done by the management of the company and the employees are
just made to follow the instructions. This lowers the level of motivation in the company. This
leadership style as compared to the leadership style of Google is different and is effective for

4EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
the company as well (Rao 2015). However, the leadership style and the organizational culture
of Google has made it the best company to work for. On the other hand, the view of the
people regarding the work culture in Amazon is not positive. The work culture in Amazon is
competitive, whereas, the culture in Google is innovative in nature (Ramchunder and Martins
2014). The cultures of these two giant companies are completely different from each other,
however, none of the cultures can be deemed as right or wrong.
Another technical giant following a completely different leadership style is Microsoft
and the CEO of the company is Satya Nadella. The leadership style followed by Satya
Nadella is the transformational style. As discussed by Choudhary, Akhtar and Zaheer (2013),
the transformational leadership style involves the communication of the managers with the
team members or the employees of the organization. This levels of communication in this
leadership style is high and the management believes in motivating the employees to achieve
their goals, just like the way the CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella encourages the employees
of Microsoft. The main principles of Satya Nadella lie on the collaboration and innovation in
the work environment. The technology industry is the most thriving industry and is growing
faster as compared to the other industries (Ruggieri and Abbate 2013). This factor has been
taken into consideration by the CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella. The leadership of Satya
Nadella is based on some principles as discussed further. The first principle of Satya Nadella
lies on the fact that he believes in improving his own skills as the well as the skills of the
employees to increase the knowledge of a particular domain. Nadella believes in creating an
impact by remaining humble and take on the challenges along with the employees of
Microsoft. Innovation is another factor that is given utmost importance by Nadella and the
focusses on the goal of making innovations for his company that are better than the others
(Fortune.com 2017). Nadella has given importance to the well-being of the employees and
further make a team with them to work in a collaborative manner to achieve the goals of the

5EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
organization. The principle of Nadella depicts his belief in directing the goals to the
employees rather than controlling them. This enable the employees of Microsoft to work
together along with the CEO towards the goals of Microsoft. The leadership style followed in
Microsoft helps in increasing the market share to certain extent, however the employees are
not involved in the decision-making of the company and the lack of innovative ideas affects
the business. The goal-setting theory is also followed in Microsoft and the goals are set
according to the needs of the organization, however the needs of the employees are taken care
of by the management. The leadership style of Google and Microsoft are therefore different
in terms of the involvement of the employees in the decision making process of the
organization. In case of Google, the employees are actively involved in the decisions that are
made by the company based on the innovative ventures. However, in case of Microsoft the
goals of the company are decided solely by the management and the employees are made to
work as team to achieve their individual goals as well as the goals of the company (Shafie,
Siti-Nabiha and Tan 2014).
Conclusion
The analysis of the leadership style of Google has proved that the effect of this style
on the organizational culture of Google has made the company the most successful
organization in the recent years. Google owns approximately 82.83% shares in the market of
United Kingdom. On the other hand, Amazon holds 22% of the market share in United
Kingdom and Microsoft has acquired around 20% shares in the market of United Kingdom.
Google has also been named as the best organization to work for in the year 2016. This
proves that the democratic or participative leadership style followed by the CEO of Google is
the best amongst the three types of leadership as discussed in the essay.

6EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

7EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
References
Buble, M., Juras, A. and Matić, I., 2014. The relationship between managers’ leadership
styles and motivation. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 19(1),
pp.161-193.
Choudhary, A.I., Akhtar, S.A. and Zaheer, A., 2013. Impact of transformational and servant
leadership on organizational performance: A comparative analysis. Journal of Business
Ethics, 116(2), pp.433-440.
Fortune.com (2017). What Makes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Such a Visionary Leader. [online]
Fortune. Available at: http://fortune.com/2017/04/14/data-sheet-be-like-jeff-bezos/ [Accessed
23 Nov. 2017].
Graham, K.A., Ziegert, J.C. and Capitano, J., 2015. The effect of leadership style, framing,
and promotion regulatory focus on unethical pro-organizational behavior. Journal of
Business Ethics, 126(3), pp.423-436.
Hamstra, M.R., Van Yperen, N.W., Wisse, B. and Sassenberg, K., 2014. On the perceived
effectiveness of transformational–transactional leadership: The role of encouraged strategies
and followers' regulatory focus. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(6), pp.643-656.
Iveybusinessjournal.com (2017). Distributed leadership at Google: Lessons from the billion-
dollar brand •. [online] Iveybusinessjournal.com. Available at:
https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/distributed-leadership-at-google-lessons-from-
the-billion-dollar-brand/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].
Kang, J.H., Solomon, G.T. and Choi, D.Y., 2015. CEOs' leadership styles and managers'
innovative behaviour: Investigation of intervening effects in an entrepreneurial
context. Journal of Management Studies, 52(4), pp.531-554.

8EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Ramchunder, Y. and Martins, N., 2014. The role of self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and
leadership style as attributes of leadership effectiveness. SA Journal of Industrial
Psychology, 40(1), pp.01-11.
Rao, M.S., 2015. Spot Your Leadership Style–Build Your Leadership Brand. The Journal of
Values-Based Leadership, 8(1), p.11.
Ruggieri, S. and Abbate, C.S., 2013. Leadership style, self-sacrifice, and team
identification. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(7), pp.1171-
1178.
Shafie, S.B., Siti-Nabiha, A.K. and Tan, C.L., 2014. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE,
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND PRODUCT INNOVATION: A
CONCEPTUAL REVIEW. International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 7.
Strom, D.L., Sears, K.L. and Kelly, K.M., 2014. Work engagement: The roles of
organizational justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among
employees. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(1), pp.71-82.