Leadership and Management Theory and Practice

This essay explores the effectiveness of Jeff Bezos' leadership qualities from the perspective of leadership theories such as trait theory and others. It discusses different leadership styles and their impact on organizational performance. The theories discussed include trait and behavioral theories, situational and contingency theory, transformational and transactional leadership, distributed leadership, ethical leadership, and critical leadership perspective. The essay also examines democratic and laissez-faire styles of leadership adopted by Jeff Bezos.

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT THEORY
AND PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is both aN area of research and a practical skill which encompasses the ability
of an individual, organisation or group to influence, lead and guide other individuals, team or
whole of organisation (What is Leadersip, 2019). It is simply the art of motivating group of
employees to act towards achieving the common goal of the company. Jeff BeZos is the owner
of Amazon group and the richest man on the earth according to the latest records. Present essay
will brief into the effectiveness of Bezos leadership qualities from the perspective of leadership
theories such as trait theory and other with various leadership styles.
MAIN BODY
There are being various theories which are being related with leadership qualities of Jeff
Bezos such as
Trait and behavioural theories- The trait theory seeks to determine the personal traits, features
and characteristics of a successful leader such as Jeff Bezos. A successful leader is being
supposed to possess the following traits such as good personality, intellectual ability, quality of
imagination, initiatives, emotional stability, flexibility. Leader also posses desire to accept for
the responsibilities of the organisation, sincerity, integrity, ability to make favourable decisions,
courage, power which is being persuasive and various other. This is being stated that this traits
are being adopted by Jeff Bezos to be one of the most successful leader (Offermann, Coats,
2018). However, this theory of leadership has drawbacks such as it considers only the personal
traits of the leader and does not leads to consider the situation or the environment in which they
have to applied. It assumes that leadership is in born quality and cannot be acquired by the one. It
assist that there is being no objective criteria to measure the trait of leader such as Jeff Bezos.
But, in spite of negative criteria the trait theory of leadership is not completely invalid.
This theory indicates that a leader should have certain personal traits. This will helps the
management to have qualities in leader by its various activities of training and development,
The behavioural approach, emphasis on the actual behaviour of leader Jeff Bezos and
action of the same (Fiaz, Su, Saqib, 2017). It not focuses on the traits and characteristics of
leader. This state that strong leadership is the result of effective role behaviour. It includes use of
leadership qualities such as human which is being related with the ability to interact with people

of the organisation and conceptual which relates with ideas of Jeff Bezos to design plans and
models. It leads with favourable behaviour of the leader results in greater satisfaction of
followers. However, the particular action and behaviour of leader may be relevant and effective
at certain point of time, while at another it may be ineffective and irrelevant.
Situational and contingency theory of leadership- According to this theory, leadership is being
affected by the situation from which the leader such as Jeff Bezos emerges and work in the
situation. The important aspect of this theory is the interaction between group and leader and the
employees tending to follow as the leader is being able to fulfil their desires. The quality of the
leader is that it recognises the desires if the followers and leads to satisfy the same. However,
the main trust of situational theory of leadership is that it is effective under one situation and not
in another (Cote, 2017). But, it assist that there is no one best style of leadership which can be
universally applicable where leader like Jeff Bezos adopt to change their style depending upon
the situation.
Contingency theory states that leader effectiveness is contingent to upon the leadership
style which matches with the situation. It implies with finding what is the best leadership style
which suits with the situation. This assist the leadership quality of Bezos which comprises of
effective decision making that leads with facing various challenging activities and tasks.
Transformational and transactional leadership-It is the leadership theory in which leader like
Jeff Bezos inspires, encourages and motivate its employees to create and innovate changes that
will helps the fostering growth of the business. This is being accomplished by setting example at
executive level whereby Jeff Bezos helps in building strong sense of corporate culture,
independence in the workplace and ownership on the end of employees (Bratton, 2020). Jeff
Bezos leadership quality include inspiring and motivating people of the organisation, without
micromanaging. Trust is being build among trained employees to take authority in decision
making in the company,However, it can lead to employee being casual towards their roles and
responsibilities as a result will lead to loss and hindering growth of the company. But, it is the
management and leadership style which is being designed to give more space to be creative and
finding innovative solutions for the problems.
Transactional leadership is part of leadership theory which is being adopted by Jeff
Bezos. It helps in focusing on performance and supervision (Steffens, 2020). It is the style
whereby compliance is promoted by the followers through punishment and rewards. By this it

helps the employees to me motivated for short term (Transactional Leadership, 2018). This
leadership style leads with achievement of goals as employee develop sense of understanding
that better they perform, more will be they rewarded. However, this could lead with increase in
stress as one might find it hard to achieve goals of the company as result leads with punishment
on the end of leader.
But, this is serves as effective leadership theory in situation of emergency and crisis such
as one being caused by COVID -19. It is being also suitable for the project which needs to be
carried in specific manner.
Distributed leadership -This theory of leadership is analytical and conceptual approach to
understand to understand how the work of leadership takes place among the people and in
context to highly complex organisation. It states that rather than focusing on the characteristics
of leaders such as Jeff Bezos, this leadership theory is being focused on how actors engage in
tasks that being distributed and stretched across the company (Bratton, 2020) . This leadership
theory does not relate with delegation. The purpose of this leadership theory is to increase and
grow leadership capacity within the company, so that it can improve in favourable manner. It is
being stated that that in distribution leadership, leaders like Jeff Bezos needs to give the
autonomy to make relevant decisions in the areas of responsibility. The autonomy is being at
centre to achieve the objective of empowerment of leader and which gives them with the
ownership to work. However, this theory of leadership can slow down the process of decision
making. It also implies with creating a certain level of uncertainty and requires leaders to have
specified experiences.
But, on the favourable note it gives the organisation with more of options where in case
of non availability of one can be fulfilled with that of the other. It allows people of the
organisation to take ownership of the work where the leader possess the quality of team work
and coordination among employees and people.
Ethical leadership- This is the vital leadership theory which is being adopted by Jeff Bezos as it
uses concepts of ethics to guide towards managing of subordinates. As ethics deals with
principles of behaviour which is being right and leadership with influence to other employees,
team members to achieve the goals. Ethical leadership implies to influence the people with the
ethics. This implies with the quality of leader to be honest in undertaking business activity
which helps in building trust and loyalty among the employees that what they do is right and on

fair grounds. This is the leadership which is being directed by the ordinance of ethical values
and beliefs and values and for the rights and dignity of other. It implies with the quality of Jeff
Bezos to be fair in his dealing of business operation all across, and which serves as the major
reason behind his success despite of the pandemic and various crisis being suffered (Bratton,
2020). However, it requires support which is being comprehensive to be effective. It requires
everyone to be on the same page. Once leader decides to act and perform in unethical manner it
creates snowball that will be difficult to stop as its starts with rolling downhill.But, on the other
hand it allows with the problem to be be reported on quicker note which increase organisational
efficiency resulting in the growth of the company. It leads with the ability and quality of Jeff
Bezos to create a culture which is being fun loving and by which employees are being highly
satisfied which increases there productivity to achieve goals of the company. This implies that
Jeff Bezos is being careful , vigilant and through with every decision being made. The leader
leads to take its position seriously which helps in understanding various business problem and
leads with solution to same.
Critical leadership perspective- Critical perspective on leadership helps in knowing the elevation
of leadership above all other qualities which will helps in building a first class company that
produces result that are often damaging and ludicrous. Critical leaders like Jeff Bezos possess
quality of integrity and honesty in the light of challenges and problems (Scott, 2018). Nothing
disengages the employees and makes them to leave the company more than by seeing their
leader act in shadily and deceitful manner . Great leaders in company helps its people to grow.
Jeff Bezos willingly share what he knows and look out to learn various opportunities with the
people he work with. It is the signal of the good leader. It comprise of providing clear direction
and Vision to the employees of what needs to be done. It implies with managing relationship of
various stakeholder being involved in the business operations
However, this could result in leader to face various kind of problems in developing a
team where- by the practice of developing an efficient team can be lagged as a result will lead
with company hindering growth prospects.
There are various types of leadership style being used by Jeff Bezos.
Democratic style of leadership is being used in encouraging members of group to share
viewpoints, ideas and opinions, where even though last say over the decision remains with the
leader. It is the style where the employees at the workplace feel more engaged with the process

(Al Khajeh, 2018). This leadership style of Jeff Bezos encourages creativity which is being
rewarded in favourable manner. However, it leads with failure to communication and projects
which are being in complete during unclear time. It implies that employees may not possess
necessary expertise and knowledge to make quality contribution in decision making process of
the company.
Laissez- faire style of leadership is based on trust. People enjoy a wide degree of latitude to
work with projects and make decision as they are more often comfortable with laissez faire
leader. It focuses on building strong team which will helps in achieving goals of the company.
This is the style where by Jeff Bezos allows certain group members to make the decisions.
However, as it has positive implication it can also leads wit possible pitfalls such as lack of
clarity of the role where it leads with poorly defined roles in the company. As employees no and
little guidance, it might not be clear to what is being done. (Gandolfi, Stone, 2018).
But, it implies with innovation among employees as it might develop a sense of
understanding regarding the responsibilities on the part of employees. The freedom leads with
encouraging innovation and creativity.
From the above essay it can be concluded that leadership is an important aspect while
managing the business operation of the company. Strong leadership in the company helps in
achieving the goals with more effectiveness and efficiency. The essay has concluded with
various leadership qualities of Jeff Bezos with taking into consideration various leadership
theories such as trait and behavioural, situational and contingency, transformational and
transactional leadership and various others. It described democratic and laissez faire style of
leadership being adopted by Jeff Bezos.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Khajeh, E.H., 2018. Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of
Human Resources Management Research, 2018, pp.1-10.
Bratton, J. ed., 2020. Organizational leadership. SAGE Publications Limited.
Bratton, J., 2020. RELATIONAL AND DISTRIBUTED THEORIES OF
LEADERSHIP. Organizational Leadership, p.171.
Bratton, J., 2020. TRAIT, BEHAVIOUR AND CONTINGENCY THEORIES OF
LEADERSHIP. Organizational Leadership, p.125.
Cote, R., 2017. A comparison of leadership theories in an organizational
environment. International Journal of Business Administration.8(5) pp.28-35.
Fiaz, M., Su, Q. and Saqib, A., 2017. Leadership styles and employees' motivation: Perspective
from an emerging economy. The Journal of Developing Areas. 51(4). pp.143-156.
Gandolfi, F. and Stone, S., 2018. Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership. Journal of
Management Research, 18(4), pp.261-269.
Offermann, L.R. and Coats, M.R., 2018. Implicit theories of leadership: Stability and change
over two decades. The Leadership Quarterly.29(4). pp.513-522.
Scott, C.P., and et.al., 2018. The impact of implicit collective leadership theories on the
emergence and effectiveness of leadership networks in teams. Human Resource
Management Review. 28(4). pp.464-481.
Steffens, N.K. and Haslam, S.A., 2020. The narcissistic appeal of leadership theories. American
Psychologist.
Online
Transactional Leadership, 2018[Online]. Available
through<https://managementstudyguide.com/transactional-leadership.htm>(Accessed on
5 January 2021)
What is Leadersip. 2019[Online] . Available
through<https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_41.htm> . (Accessed on 5
January 2021)