Leadership Theories and Styles Analysis

This assignment requires a comprehensive analysis of different leadership theories and styles, including transformational, transactional, situational, and whole trait theory. The student is expected to discuss the influence pathways and organizational outcomes of each theory, as well as provide examples from literature and real-world scenarios. The assignment also touches on ethical decision-making and responsible leadership in a business context.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
Leadership and Culture in Organizational Contexts
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary:
The report gives an overview on leadership and culture in the organizational context. The report
commences with the definition and exploration of the character and personality by putting
forward various definitions. There is also exploration of the ethical beliefs and values in various
character dimensions by putting forward examples on where ethics, values and beliefs helps in
influencing leadership. The report also discusses about various relevant theories of leadership.
The report also discusses about some practical examples like Nelson Mandela, British Petroleum,
President’s Club and the Ethical dilemma of the hospital. The report also puts forward the impact
and role of the philosophical paradigms in relation to the tradition versus modern leadership
styles, leaders are born versus made and the challenges that the young leaders faces.

2LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
1. Definition and Exploration of Character/Personality..................................................................4
Definition of Leadership..............................................................................................................4
Definition of Character................................................................................................................5
Importance of Character of Leadership.......................................................................................5
Types of Character.......................................................................................................................6
Relevance of Character in Leadership.........................................................................................6
2. Exploring the Ethical Values and Belief Dimensions of Character............................................7
Defining Ethical Values and Beliefs............................................................................................7
Examples Where Ethics, Values and Beliefs Influences Leadership..........................................7
Change of Ethics, Values and Beliefs Changes in Different Situations......................................8
3. Contextualising a Range of Relevant Leadership Theories........................................................8
The Great Man Theory................................................................................................................8
The Trait Theory..........................................................................................................................9
Emotional Leadership Styles.......................................................................................................9
Situational and Transformational Leadership............................................................................10
Issues and Challenges of Leaders whose values differ from Leadership Style.........................11
4. Practical Examples.....................................................................................................................12

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Nelson Mandela.........................................................................................................................12
British Petroleum.......................................................................................................................12
President’s Club.........................................................................................................................13
Ethical Dilemma of the Hospital...............................................................................................13
5. Role and Impact of Relevant Philosophical Paradigms............................................................14
Traditional vs. Modern Leadership Style..................................................................................14
Leaders are Born Vs Made........................................................................................................15
Challenges Faced by Young Leaders........................................................................................15
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................16

4LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
Introduction:
The report aims at providing an overview on leadership and culture in the context of the
organization. The report therefore commences with the definition and exploration of the
character and personality by specially focusing on the definition of character and leadership with
focus on the importance of the character of leadership. In this section, the report would also
mention the types of character and goes on to explain its relevance to leadership. The report also
helps in exploring the ethical dimensions and values of the character in the range of defining the
ethical values and beliefs, put forward examples where ethics, values and beliefs influences
leadership and how changes occurs in the ethical beliefs and values based on the different
situations. The report would also provides an insight into the Great Man Theory, Trait Theory,
emotional styles of leadership, transformational and situational leadership and the challenges and
issues faced by the leader possess different values in respect of the leadership style. The report
would also mentions some practical examples including the leadership style of Nelson Mandela,
British Petroleum, President’s club and the ethical dilemma of hospital. In the report there would
also be a section dedicated to the impact and role of the philosophical paradigms in relation to
the traditional versus the modern leadership styles, leaders are born versus made and the
challenges faced by the young leaders.
1. Definition and Exploration of Character/Personality
Definition of Leadership
Leadership refers to the ability of the individuals or group of individuals in influencing
and guiding the followers or other members of the organization (Summerfield 2014) . Thus,

5LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
leadership involves making sound decisions, sometimes involving difficult ones thereby
resulting in the creation of a clear vision, establishment of achievable goals and providing the
followers with the tools and knowledge necessary for the achievement of the goals. Thus,
leadership captures the fundamentals for inspiring others. Effective leadership depends on
communication of both the original and borrowed ideas to others in a manner that engages them
enough for acting in a manner defined by the leader. In other words, leaders act as an inspiration
and director of the action. The leader represents the person belonging to the group who possess a
combination of the leadership skills and personality that encourages others in following
directions.
Definition of Character
Character represents the features or attributes that not only distinguishes but also makes
up the individual. Evaluation of character is done based on stable moral qualities of an
individual. The concept of the character implies a combination of various attributes that also
included the lack or existence of virtues including courage, empathy, fortitude, loyalty, honesty
and the good habits and the behavior (Kraatz and Flores 2015). Moral character primarily
represents the grouping of the qualities that distinguishes one individual from the other.
However, in the cultural context, the set of the moral values to which the social group adhere
helps in defining and uniting it in the cultural perspective in comparison to the others. Thus,
moral character is defined by disposition of expressing the behavior in the consistent patterns
across a range of situations (Inkeles 2017).
Importance of Character of Leadership

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The notion of character holds utmost importance for an effective leader since it helps in
building trust without which people would not follow him or her (Alfano 2013). By gaining the
trust of the people, leaders can not only motivate them but also ensure accomplishing extra
ordinary things. Our character represents a mark into something that is enduring. Similar to
moulding mannerisms character needs a chiselling touch. The most enduring thing about an
individual represents the features and the traits that apparently form the nature of the individual.
A leader in possession of a good character has higher score for integrity, compassion,
responsibility and forgiveness (Cooper 2014). Thus, character represents an essential trait for
leadership.
Types of Character
A leader with character helps in achieving results that transcends everyday organizational
outcomes and imperatives. There are various types of characters possessed by a leader like
integrity, honesty, intelligence, courageous, fairness, straightforward and inspiring. Integrity
represents having stronger core values and moral principles with which the leader conducts his or
life along with guiding his followers (Bauman 2013). Honesty on the part of the leaders
represents telling the truth. Leaders should be intelligent enough in reading, studying and seeking
challenging assignments. They should also be courageous that is possess enough perseverance in
accomplishing the goals regardless of the persisting obstacles. Fair-minded leaders ensure fair
treatment to all the people. Leaders should be straightforward enough for making sound
judgment and taking good decisions. The mental, physical and the spiritual stamina possessed by
the leaders inspire others in reaching newer heights.
Relevance of Character in Leadership

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Character is relevant to leadership since it helps them in adding the following
characteristic (Crossan et al 2013):
Moral Courage and Self-discipline: This enables the leaders in practicing self-control
for balancing their desires with others need and have enough courage for dealing with risk, fears
and dangers
Instil Core Values: This involves developing a sense of values that helps in guiding
everyday behaviour
Instil Sense of Identity: Helps the leaders in knowing and believing in themselves
Integrity: This helps the leaders in aligning their actions, thoughts and feelings with
his/her values.
2. Exploring the Ethical Values and Belief Dimensions of Character
Defining Ethical Values and Beliefs
Ethical values represent a set of established principles that governs the virtuous
behaviour. For assuring the good business reputation of the company many business managers
concerned with the public relations helps in developing and promoting a suitable set of ethical
values for the staffs within the company so that they are kept in mind while dealing with the
customers(Ford and Richardson 2013). Ethics also reflects about the beliefs regarding what is
right, wrong, just, unjust, good as well as bad in terms of the human behaviour. Ethical beliefs
helps in shaping the ways in which one lives with focus on what one does, what one makes and
the world created through the choices.

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Examples Where Ethics, Values and Beliefs Influences Leadership
Ethics, values and beliefs remain open for interpretation. However, there exist few
defined interpretations of how the ethics is viewed in terms of the behaviour. Ethics, values and
beliefs influences leadership in an organization. Ethical leadership based on values and beliefs
helps in handling diverse situations in an organization. Leadership influenced through ethics are
able to handle the diverse interest of the multiple stakeholders and help in developing a vision for
the organization (Doh and Quigley 2014). Such leaders only deliver their work with integrity but
also ensure taking risk. They also help in communicating relevant operations and provide
necessary response to any kind of criticism. A leader influenced by values, ethics and beliefs also
helps in the development of the self-confidence and follower skills.
Change of Ethics, Values and Beliefs Changes in Different Situations
This is explained with the concept of situational ethics. Situational ethics takes in account
a specific context of a particular act when undertaking ethical evaluation instead of judging it as
per the moral standards (Jones, Kelsey and Brown 2014). In situational ethics in order to have
an the intent for ensuring a fair basis of the judgements or actions, one need to look at the
personal ideals that seems appropriate for guiding them rather than changing the universal ethical
code of conduct. For instance, one might seem right when he or she lies to some person when
asked about his or her opinion even when lying in some other situations would be ethically
wrong. Again a man sacrificing himself for saving the lives of majority of the people is
considered an ethical behaviour which otherwise would have been an unethical act.

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3. Contextualising a Range of Relevant Leadership Theories
The Great Man Theory
According to the Great Man Theory of Leadership, some people take birth with
necessary attributes that sets them aside from the others and such traits held responsible for
assuming the positions of the power and the authority (Spector 2016). This theory portrays the
leader as a hero who can accomplish the goals against all obstacles for the sake of his followers.
The Great Man Theory puts forward that those in power deserves to stay there because of their
special abilities. Moreover, the theory also puts forward that the great leaders share similar
characteristics irrespective of the place they are in or the role they played.
The Trait Theory
The Trait Theory of Leadership depends on the characteristics of leaders, both
successful and unsuccessful and is used for predicting the effectiveness of leadership (Fleeson
and Jayawickreme 2015). The list of traits is held as parameter for comparing the potential
leaders in accessing their likelihood of failure and success .However, core set of traits of
successful leaders has been identified which includes achievement drive, leadership motivation,
integrity and honesty, self-confidence, cognitive ability, business knowledge, emotional
maturity, charisma, creativity and flexibility. However, the mentioned traits are not solely
responsible for identification of a successful leader but they do act as preconditions that endow
people with the leadership potential.
Emotional Leadership Styles

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Six emotional leadership styles include (Giltinane 2013):
1. Visionary Leader: The visionary leader helps in moving people towards shared vision
thereby telling them where to go without guiding them how to reach there. Thus, such leaders
motivate people for struggling forwards. They share information openly thereby providing
knowledge power to the others.
2. Affiliative Leader: The affiliative leader helps in creation of connections amongst people
and hence maintains harmony with the organization. This represents a collaborative style that
focuses on the emotional needs over the work needs.
3. Coaching Leader: The Coaching Leader helps in connecting the wants to the organizational
goals by holding longer conversations that reaches beyond workplace, helping the people find
their strengths and weaknesses and thereby tying them to the career aspirations and the actions.
4. Pace Setting Leader: The Pace-setting Leader helps in building exciting goals and challenges
for the people thereby expecting excellence. They themselves exemplify the goals and identifies
poor performers.
5. Commanding Leader: The Commanding Leader helps in soothing fears and provides clear
directions through his or her powerful stance and commanding attitude with the expectation of
full compliance. These leaders require emotional self-control for determining success and may
seem distant and cold.
6. Democratic Leader: The Democratic Leader ensures valuing commitment and inputs
through participation through listening of both the bad and good news
Situational and Transformational Leadership

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Situational leadership emerged as prominent approach of organizational leadership
during the first half of the 21st century (McCleskey 2014). While other leadership approaches
depends on the approach and trait of the leader, the situational leadership depends on the idea
that the leader is able to adapt to the situation that he faces. A transformation in the organization
represents a virtual makeover where the company goes through the change in the philosophy or
moves in newer direction. Transformational leaders are brought for specifically heading the
operation when it either is in a flux or is embarking on some significant changes. These leaders
have stronger passion and a vision for accomplishing greater things (Odumeru and Ogbonna
2013)
Issues and Challenges of Leaders whose values differ from Leadership Style
The issues and challenges faced by leaders whose values differ from leadership style
differ includes:
1. They lack in the development of managerial effectiveness: This includes time
management, strategic thinking, prioritization, decision making and be more effective at work.
2. Lack of Inspiring Others: Faces challenges in inspiring and motivating others for
ensuring that they are satisfied with the jobs and are working smarter.
3. Lacks Capability in Developing the Employees: Faces challenges in developing others
including coaching and mentoring
4. Lacks Efficiency in Leading a Team: Lacks efficiency in building a team thereby
developing and managing it

12LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
5. Unable to Guide a Change: Finds challenges in mobilizing, managing, leading and
understanding the change. Guiding a change involves mitigating consequences, overcoming the
resistance to the changes and dealing with the reactions of the employees to any kind of changes.
6. Effective Management of Internal Stakeholders and Politics: They also face challenges
in managing politics, relationships and image. This challenge involves gaining the managing
support and getting the buy-in from the other departments, individuals or groups.
4. Practical Examples
Nelson Mandela
The evolution of Nelson Mandela as strategic leader attributed to the sacrifice, courage,
wisdom and nobility of his life and elevated him to a level where he could be compares to
Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi. The strategic leadership brought about by Nelson Mandel
helped in ensuring genuine democracy in the country. Nelson Mandela initiated three strategic
decisions that make him stand out. He made the first strategic decision shortly after the
government declared his conditional release from prison that he denied as he thought that it
would betray his leadership, ideals and the long struggle of the African National Congress
(ANC). His second strategic decision came before being the elected president and during the
assassination of Chris Hani, a popular and well-known black leader who fought for the equality
of rights. The third strategic decision came in the year 1994 after he became the elected president
of South Africa for celebrating political emancipation (Denning 2018).
British Petroleum

13LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
British petroleum (BP) was one of the largest oil and gas companies of the world with
widespread operations across the diverse sectors. BP underwent the deepwater horizon oil spill
during the year 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico (Holcomb 2018). This is regarded as one of the worst
accidental oil spill occurring in the oil and gas industry that killed around 11 people with
millions of oil barrels gushing over the Mexican gulf thereby resulting in negative impacts on the
ecology, tourism and fisheries. The crisis at such a massive scale resulted in the failure of
management and leadership.
President’s Club
President Club represents a British charity known for annual charitable dinner between
the years 1995 to 2018. The dinner was held only for the male guests and at The Dorchester
Hotel in London (Lusher 2018). The club engaged in various types of club meeting and board
meeting. Horizontal leadership was preferred at the club meeting while vertical leadership
followed at the board meetings.
Ethical Dilemma of the Hospital
The ethical dilemma faced by hospital is as follows (Fritch et al 2013):
1. Avoidance of the conflict of interest: Nurses and doctors are the primary targets for
the promotions of equipment and the medical device manufacturers. Medical specialty societies
have announced voluntary code of ethics in the year 2010 for limiting the influence of the for
profit enterprises.
2. Balancing the profit with the serving patients and ensuring charity care: Ethical
decisions involving the business operations needs a harder look in considering whether

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organizations should invest in scarce resources in the profit making areas or invest in the areas
that provides them with the basic care of a larger number of patients.
3. Wresting with equality of payments for VIPs and the public: To understand how
hospital treats wealthy people or public differently, monitoring of the individual cases should
take place before the policies are put in places for clarifying the expectations.
4. Managing geriatric and pediatric patients without capacity of decision-making: If
a patient is unable to provide an informed consent to the medical provider then it becomes the
responsibility of the legally authorized representative to take the decision based on the
preferences of patients.
5. Addressing the moral distress of the nurses: Nurses often feel that they are hurting
people instead of helping them and bothered that some patient have to goes without required care
due to lack of funds.
5. Role and Impact of Relevant Philosophical Paradigms
Traditional vs. Modern Leadership Style
In Traditional Leadership Style, leadership represents an individual position where a
leader tries to keep his position and thereby move up the ladder. According to traditional
leadership style, it was not possible for to have more than a single leader (Kellis and Ran 2013).
Here, the leader played the role of providing necessary guidance and controlling the followers.
The traditional style of leadership took tough decisions without considering the conditions of the
other community members. However, the Modern Style of Leadership represented a concept

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where the purpose of the leadership represented a structure where the community members
worked in synchronization with one another. The modern leadership style is not only concurrent,
collective, collaborative and compassionate (Schedlitzki and Edwards 2017).
Leaders are Born Vs Made
Great Man Theory and Trait theories put forward that people inherit certain traits and
qualities that makes them suited for leadership (Sethuraman and Suresh 2014). Some inborn
characteristics predispose people in becoming leaders. Moreover, there lies a significant
difference between learning a skill and mastering it. People born with these characteristics will
naturally excel in the areas. Thus, leaders are born.
On the other hand, the behavioral theories determine that people can become a leader
through the process of learning, teaching and observation (Antonakis and Day 2017). Leadership
represents a set of skills learnt through training, practice, perception and experience. Hence,
leadership is an acquired skill.
Challenges Faced by Young Leaders
The challenges faced by the young leaders include (Maxwell 2018):
1. Delegation: Young leaders have more reliance on their ability than trusting on other’s
abilities.
2. Leading those who are older: Young leaders sometimes miss the vital aspects that the
older employees can inculcate in the team

16LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
3. Limitation of Experience: They simply does not have the years of experience related to
the process of decision-making and faced the consequences of decisions from which they can
learn.
4. Impatience: They possess a lot of impatience and come with a lot of desires and ideas
that the organization is not ready to accept for the time being.
5. By Focusing beyond Self: The young leaders seem to be concerned with their success
and advancement compared to any other thing.
Conclusion:
The report ends by providing an insight into the challenges faced by the young leaders.
Leadership is an art rather than a science. It is a set of innate traits, refined and perfected over
time with education, training and experience. Through the report, one is able to develop an
insight ethical, values and beliefs of leadership along with the description of the various theories.
The report also focuses on practical examples like Nelson Mandela, British Petroleum,
President’s Club and the Ethical dilemma of the hospital.

17LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
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