Leadership and Management Theories and Practices: A Critical Evaluation of Jeff Bezos' Leadership Qualities
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This presentation critically evaluates the effectiveness of leadership qualities of Jeff Bezos from perspectives of the theories and practices. It covers trait and behavioural theories, situational and contingency theory, transformational and transactional theory, distributed leadership, ethical leadership and critical leadership perspectives.
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Leadership and management, theory and practice
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Contents Contents...........................................................................................................................................2 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1 Trait and Behavioural Theories...................................................................................................1 Situational and Contingency Theory...........................................................................................2 Transformational and Transactional Theory...............................................................................4 Distributed leadership..................................................................................................................5 Ethical leadership and Critical leadership perspectives...............................................................6 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
INTRODUCTION Leadership and management practices are essential elements of successful organisation. The term leadership is demarcated to individual’s potential for influencing, enabling and stimulating others for making contribution in success of company(Burfeind, 2019). Likewise, management refers to controlling set of people or entities so to accomplish an objective. The presentation is prepared on Jeff Bezos who is founder as well as CEO of Amazon. The presentation critically evaluates the effectiveness of leadership qualities of Jeff Bezos from perspectives of the theories and practices. MAIN BODY Trait and Behavioural Theories Trait leadership theory is propounded by Thomas Carlyle as well as Francis Galton who states that a leader possesses certain kinds of traits which makes them effective leader. As per traitleadershiptheory,goodleadershavepatternofcharacteristicswhichsupporttheir competence to mobilise resources for shared vision(Calvo, 2020) (Gobble, 2017). Jeff Bezos have certain traits that serves as benchmark to lead group of human resources for making claim of credibility. Traits of Jeff Bezos to manage an enterprise that is Amazon are as follows: Desire to lead:It is trait of effective leaders that they have strong desire towards roles and functions of leadership. In case with Jeff Bezos, the personality has strong desire to lead the team of Amazon by themselves. Integrity: Effective leaders demonstrate trait of high integrity and honesty level, Jeff Bezos have confidence and trust in working that inspire them to lead others effectively. Open mindedness: Leader such as Jeff Bezos has trait of open mindedness for new experiences and ideas. As per Jeff Bezos, innovation is valuable and they consider ideas from others to take leads. Extraversion: Leaders have trait of extraversion which tend to being social as well as outgone personalities that guide them to take lead together with act initiatively. Jeff Bezos is extraversion in nature that helps them to connect and inspire others through relationships. Slide 5: Behavioural theoryis developed by Dr. Rensis Likert who argues that leader’s success is based on their behaviour despite of natural attributes. It involves observing together with 1
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evaluating actions and behaviours of leaders when they respond to particular situation. Different behavioural leadership theories are as follows: Ohio state studies: In early duration, all studies on leadership were carried out at Ohio State University through Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire in order to identify observable behaviours of a leader. In context to Jeff Bezos, some behaviours of the leader are personal favour to group members, rules with iron hand, criticize poor work and maintain definite performance standards. Four factor theory: The theory was formulated after studying working of hundreds of leaders. Key factor of effective leadership of Jeff Bezos includes work facilitation, goal emphasis, support and interaction facilitation. All these factors are always considered while exercising leadership, however at different moments as they impact each other differently. Application of trait leadership theory benefits in understanding all elements and gives detailed knowledge about leadership process. Traits of Jeff Bezos help the personality to depict responses associated to any circumstances in certain manner(Jeff Bezos Leadership Style, 2021). Trait leadership theory emphasis more on personality differences among individuals. It makes personality assessment more valuable to determine strengths and weaknesses of a leader. However, the theory represents countless traits and lacks taking situation into consideration. Behavioural leadership theory addresses that behaviours of leader’s foster support on projects. Behaviours of Jeff Bezos promotes values of their leadership styles by focusing on people and collaboration. Behaviours of a leader have direct influences o progresses of company. However, leaders have consideration towards power along with influence approach to get workings completed and ways to work with others. In case with Jeff Bezos, the theory rejects ideas of genetics to have influence on behaviour of others. Situational and Contingency Theory Situational theory is work of Paul Hersey along with Ken Blanchard that states that effective leaders are able to adapt styles to situations as well as look towards cues including task, nature of group addition to other factors which contribute in completing of tasks. The theory is based on principle that there is no best leadership style, rather, kind and strategies of leadership are best suited to tasks or situations. Four styles of situational leadership style are as follows: Telling: Within this leadership style, Jeff Bezos tells people and team for things to do and ways to do them. 2
Selling: Jeff Bezos uses selling style for selling ideas as well as messages to get stakeholders to purchase into process of working. Participating: Within this, Jeff Bezos offers limited guidance and permit group members to take part on taking more interactive roles in order to come with innovations and devising decisions. Delegating: Through this style, Jeff Bezos less involves in leadership and foster team members to make most of decisions as well as responsibility for things that occurs. Contingency Theoryis proposed by Fred Edward Fiedler who claims that there is no best way for organising an establishment, leading a venture and making decisions. Optimal course of practice is dependent or contingent on intrinsic together with extrinsic circumstances. Jeff Bezos is a contingent leader as they are flexible to select as well as adapt toward succinct strategies for suiting towards changes in situations at specific time period to run Amazon. Elements of contingent leadership theory in relevance to Jeff Bezos are as follows: Situational favourableness: There are three aspects of situational favourableness that are leaders and member relationship, leader’s position power along with degree of task structure manner(Graham, 2019). In case with Jeff Bezos, when all these aspects are high them situation are in favour to leadership. However, when these are low then situations in combination to styles of leadership determines effectiveness. Leadership style: Style of leaders are contingent to situation. For example, when situations are in favour then Jeff Bezos adopts task oriented leadership style. Matching styles to situations: Jeff Bezos matches their leadership styles with pertaining situations to lead people effectively and gain successful outcomes. Slide 9: Application of contingency leadership theory gives leader, such as Jeff Bezos a wide range of ways for reacting to issues and problems faced by Amazon as the theory provides significant discretion to make rational decisions. The theory assists Jeff to help people to grow addition to share ideas to the company. It also assists in designing suitable organisational structure as well as planning information decision systems(Moore, 2021). However, contingency theory is reactive in nature because of which leader such as Jeff Bezos faces complexities to handle uncertainties. Suggestions of the theory is simple, but in case with practical working, it becomes complex. 3
Transformational and Transactional Theory Transformational theory is working of James MacGregor Burns who claims that leader works with group or followers that are beyond their immediate self-interests for recognising needed change, inspiration, devising vision and executing change in tandem to committed group members. Elements of transformational leadership theory are as described in relevance to Jeff Bezos: Individualised consideration: It defines extent of leadership to attend needs of followers and guide them properly. Jeff Bezos listens concerns and needs of each employee and provides support to them (Jeff Bezos Leadership Style, 2021). Inspirational motivation: It is the extent in which leader articulates appealing vision whichmotivatesotherstoworkbeyondexpectation.JeffBezoshavehighinspirational motivation through which they set high standards for members. Idealised influence: It is extent to engage people in high standards for ethical behaviour. Jeff Bezos is known forhigh standards of moral as well as ethical conduct to do right thing. Intellectual stimulation: It is the extent towhich leaders encounter assumptions, take risks in addition to solicit followers’ ideas. Jeff Bezos recognises employees through creativity, innovation and stimulation. Transactional theory was first defined by Max Weber and further developed by Bernard Bass which emphasises towards basic management functions including controlling, organising along with short term planning. Jeff Bezos works with transactional leadership style so to motivate and direct workforce of Amazon through appealing towards their self-interest. The leader has believed to influence human resources by reward system and punishment. For example, when a subordinate in Amazon perform as per what is desired by Jeff then a reward is provided. However, when an employee does not follow guidance of leader then punishment is followed. Implementing transactional leadership style, Jeff Bezos moves human resources in organisedmannerforensuringattainmentofspecificresultsintypicaltimeframe.With transactional leadership practice, Jeff Bezos effectively motivate team members of the company to maximise productivity, eliminates confusion among chain of command, reduces costs to enhance level of performance, create system that is easy to follow and permit subordinates for selecting rewards that they want to attain(Jeff Bezos Leadership Style, 2021). However, 4
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transactional leadership limits innovation level in Amazon, eliminates individuality from process of operations, emphasis on results despite of rewards, do not motivate people for higher profitability and puts zero value on empathy. Transformational leadership theory is system of supervision whichgarners higher levels of respect, trust, and admiration. UsingTransformational leadership theory, Jeff Bezos is able to lowers turnover costs, engages full person, create and manage change, new corporate visions are quicklyformulated,createenthusiasmandencouragesongoinglearning.However, transformational leadership practice results in developing negative results and creates leadership more disruptive. Distributed leadership Distributed leadership style is developed by Edwin Hutchins that the model looks on leadership practice despite of particular responsibilities and roles(Mooers, 2020). The theory states that leadership is all about mobilising expertise at all business levels to generate more opportunities to change as well as build improvement capacity. Aspects of distributive leadership in context to Jeff Bezos are as follows: Takes in form of instructional team:Through distributed leadership, Jeff Bezos involve team members due to their pedagogical expertise despite that years of experience in Amazon. Enables and sustain working of team: Jeff Bezos does this through building capacity in the organisation as well as devising conditions in which expertise is spread across the premise can work individually addition to collectively to improve outcomes for employees. Do not bifurcate tasks and responsibilities: Jeff Bezos drive instructional improvement addition to improved results of employees through development of high-quality inspirations and a culture where all manpower thrives. Application of distributed leadership theory gives Jeff Bezos more options, retains elements of traditional commanding chain, shares bigger picture, allows employees to take ownership over working,provides upward movement opportunities, creates potential for a substantive change, gives everyone a chance to serve and provides opportunities for mutual learning(Kelly, 2019). In contrary, distributed leadership theory creates difficulty among leader such as Jeff Bezos to maintain accountability, slows down decision-making process, creates an expectation of importance, generates a certain level of uncertainty and foster arguments. 5
Ethical leadership and Critical leadership perspectives Ethical leadership perspective is said to leadership which is directed through respect for ethical values as well as beliefs towards dignity of others. Principles of ethical leadership perspectives that are adhered by Jeff Bezos are as follows: Respect: As per the perspective, leader such as Jeff Bezos respect others to allow them for creative desires as well as wants. Jeff Bezoslisten to ideas of others as well as confirm them as human beings. Service: Jeff Bezos is a leader whoplace focus of subordinates’ welfare at the top of the lists. Justice: Jeff Bezos treats all followers and subordinates in equal manner and do not provide special treatment to any of employees. Critical leadership perspective does not make any attempt to change object as well as enhance efficiency rather emphasises towards subjectivity(Lang, Handley and Jablokow, 2018). Jeff Bezos have cultural leadership perspective that aims for enhancing collective human agency addition to autonomy for fulfilling human potential. As per Jeff Bezos, leadership is significant so is working of team in collective manner, participation of workforce, reliable communication, desire to use talents and create more resilient business. It is abroad, diverse addition to heterogeneous set of viewpoints which share a concern to analysis of power relations as well as determine constructions wherein leadership dynamics are reproduced, frequently rationalized, resisted and occasionally transformed. Ethical leadership perspective of Jeff Bezos is directed through promoting normatively suitable conduct via actions as well as interpersonal relations. In present era,ethics are significant element as well as point of discussion in leadership. In context to Jeff Bezos, leadership with ethics is very important to understand, develop and recognize in the business world. It is responsibility of leader to model moral behaviour in the workplace of Amazon when they are in position of power. Integrity, moral behaviour and ethics are key of great leaders. Critical leadership perspectives of Jeff Bezos help people or human resources involved in Amazon to grow(Jeff Bezos Leadership Style, 2021). The leader permits sharing perceptions and learning opportunities to employees.They build up a team along with foster strong relationships, rapport and cooperation within that team. Jeff Bezos have clear convictions about what is right 6
and wrong. The leader is respected for being principled, consistent and genuine. They possess a strong sense of character, keep their promises and communicate openly to direct others. CONCLUSION From the presentation, it is concluded that leadership and management practices are key for success of company. Leadership theories are said toexplanations of how addition to why certain people become leaders. Key traits of good leadership are strong ethics, high moral standards and many more. Theories of leadership that are adopted by fonder of a company are Behavioural theory, Trait Theory, Transformational theory, Transactional Theory and many more. Having strong leadership perspectives guides a leader to work with ethics and within critical manner. 7
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REFERENCES Books and Journals: Burfeind, J., 2019. Leading Cultural Change in the Newspaper Industry: How Jeff Bezos saved The Washington Post.Manager, (29), pp.125-138. Calvo, J., 2020.Journey of the Future Enterprise: How to Compete in the Age of Moonshot Leadership and Exponential Organizations. Libros de Cabecera. Gobble, M. M., 2017. The value of followership.Research-Technology Management,60(4), pp.59-63. Graham, S., 2019.Identity Leadership: To Lead Others You Must First Lead Yourself. Hachette UK. Kelly, R., 2019. Leadership Development and Structure—From Egosystems to Ecosystems. InConstructing Leadership 4.0(pp. 69-99). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Lang, D., Handley, M. and Jablokow, K., 2018. The competencies of innovation leaders. InInnovation Leadership(pp. 15-28). Routledge. Mooers, J., 2020. Review and analysis of all shareholder letters from Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos.Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University Working Paper, (243). Moore,D.A.,2021.PerfectlyConfidentLeadership.CaliforniaManagementReview, p.0008125621992173. Online: JeffBezosLeadershipStyle.2021.[Online].Availablethrough:< https://financhill.com/blog/investing/jeff-bezos-leadership-style> (Burfeind, 2019) (Calvo, 2020) (Gobble, 2017) (Graham, 2019) (Kelly, 2019) (Lang, Handley and Jablokow, 2018) (Mooers, 2020) (Moore, 2021) (Jeff Bezos Leadership Style, 2021) 8