Impact of Leadership Styles on Strategic Management: A Case Study of Photoshop Worldwide

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1
MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Body...........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Reference..................................................................................................................................10

2
MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Leadership can be considered as the bridge that binds strategic management with the
target. According to Romager et al. (2017), the existence of leadership helps organisations
gain the required tasks and targets. It is the responsibility of the management to guide the
people and resources as per the rules and values that exist. Leadership helps to set up a
direction for the people within a group. In this regard, a link can be established between the
strategic management and leadership that help in the success of an organisation.
As stated by Yahaya and Ebrahim (2016) the success of an organisation can be
associated with the skills employed by the people that align with one another. Without proper
leadership, strategic management can be formulated mainly because the long term benefit of
an organisation cannot be made without any efficient leaders in the business. Effective
strategic management and leadership skills help in setting up a sensible direction to an
organisation in terms of allocation of resources and setting up of goals.
As a result of this an understanding of the leadership theories can be taken into
consideration so that a clear idea can be made about the leadership choices. One such theory
that can be used is the behavioural theory. According to Anderson and Sun (2017), this
theory states that leaders tend to take actions based on the requirements and expectations
from them. The behaviour of the leader makes them different from other team members and
based on this impact is build on the leadership style that exists.
Along with the behavioural theory, trait theory can also be implemented for
understanding the physical traits required for being a successful leader. It has been pointed
out by Arnold et al. (2015) that most leaders do not possess the traits of adaptability,
aggression and persistence that are required for success. Trait theory helps to understand the
characteristics among the individuals so that a suitable leader can be selected for the
organisation. In this regard, an outline of the form of leadership styles can be identified with
the most common forms being the autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire leadership styles.
According to Bolman and Deal (2017), leadership styles have a mixed impact on the
management as well as the strategic decision of an organisation. For example, in the case of
autocratic leadership, the leaders decide about the strategies without taking any consent from
the team members. This has a negative impact mainly because the members feel left out and

3
MANAGEMENT
feels de-motivated to work in the organisation. However, in the case of democratic leadership
style, the leaders take into account the opinion of the members associated with the
organisation. As stated by Tannenbaum and Schmidt (2017) this helps members to remain
motivated in the business and improve upon the performance that can help in the
development of the company.
Therefore, the positive impact of the democratic leadership style can help in the
development of an organisation and the strategic decision can be made by selecting the best
option provided by the group members. As stated by Antonakis and Day (2017) the laissez-
faire leadership style provides excess freedom to the members to decide upon the manner in
which they can make decisions and continue with the development of an organisation. This
can have a negative impact on the strategic decision of an organisation mainly because the
unprecedented decisions can be taken by the employees that may hamper the growth of the
organisations.
Leadership styles can be used in different situations based on the requirements of the
organisation. As stated by Klenke (2016) every situation requires the application of different
styles that can be effective in mitigating the situations. For example, democratic leadership
style can be undertaken while trying to lead from the front. It becomes the responsibility of
the leaders to identify the situation in which leading with an example need to be undertaken.
On the other hand, it is also necessary to set examples for the team members in the case of
working on critical tasks. Leaders need to provide their expertise about a particular task so
that members can respond to the situation accordingly.
The focus of the assignment is to identify the current leadership style that is suitable
for a company. Case study example of a company like Photoshop Worldwide is undertaken to
identify the impact different leadership styles have on the development of the company.
Theories associated with leadership are taken into account for understanding the impact of
leadership on the strategic management of the organisation.
Body
The current leadership style that is apparent in the case study is the democratic
leadership style. As stated by Lussier and Achua (2015) democratic leadership provides team
members with a more participative goal about the decision-making process of an
organisation. It is essential that every member in an organisation be given proper