Leadership Styles and Theories: A Comprehensive Review

This assignment provides a thorough examination of leadership styles and theories, including transformational, transactional, servant, and adaptive leadership. It also discusses the importance of emotional intelligence, humility, and ethical values in leadership. The review covers various leadership models, such as Fiedler's Contingency Model and Bass's Transformational Leadership Theory. Additionally, it touches on the role of leadership in organizations, including its impact on performance, teams, and corporate social responsibility.

Leadership in
Organizations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Reflection on own experience of leadership and recommend areas required development...1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2. Leadership theories and Concepts for evaluating leadership of Jeff Bezos............................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership play a crucial role in every organisation so that it will assist in accomplishing
desired goals and objectives in proper manner. Leaders are those person who provide correct
guidance to their team members and give advice regarding job and help in reaching targets in
less time period. The major motive of leader is to encourage and motivate their employees so
that they do not aware about stressed and execute their all task or work in smooth manner (Yukl,
2012). The report is totally based on the leadership in enterprise where different concepts and
theories are majorly discussed and analysis of Jeff Bezos' (CEO of Amazon) behaviour of
leadership is done. Apart from this, self reflection will leading experience is also described in
this project.
TASK 1
1. Reflection on own experience of leadership and recommend areas required development
Leader is a person who is responsible to lead a team or group of members in order to
attain certain objectives or goals. In fact an individual who is leading a unit or specific
department is responsible for directing their subordinates, implementing plans, encouraging
people, as well as tries to enhance the overall personality of entire team. Being a leader of a large
company named as a amazon I am responsible to manage all the business activities which is
assigned on me in an efficient manner by satisfying needs of customers as well as employees. In
an organization major role which is played by me is that I have to handle or manage all the
inventory stock of an association and need to ensure that whole products are properly placed in a
warehouse. Thus by accomplishing these activities I have learned number of things which is
mentioned as follows:-
 Risk handling:- As a inventory head of selected firm it is my obligation to make sure that
uncertainty or risk must be reduced and members of my team know how to face various
kinds of business challenges. According to my experience I can say that management of
stock is a very tough job which requires attentive nature, sense of humour, sharp memory
and so on.
 Team management:- I can also learn how to manage or direct a large team which
requires leadership quality by effective interaction with subordinates. Along with this
able to encourage them towards their personal or professional goals.
1

 Communication:- One of the major strength of mine which is gained by me during
leading a inventory management team is that I have learned how to interact with juniors
while working in a group. As a result healthy environment will be maintained at
workplace as well as friendly relations between me and my team members.
Hence, according to above information it has been analysed that I am fully active while
managing inventory team because I have gained number of things which is very much
indispensable as a leader.
According to me leadership process is not an easy task because it needs to change
according to situation in order to acquire high performance at workplace. Basically this process
includes five major steps that is discussed as follows:-
Step1: Orientation and commitment:- Initially leader have to make commitment towards their
team goals which will take normally one or two days and leader have to learn from an
association about high presentation. Along with this they are going to identify the requirement
of change in an enterprise (Antonakis and House, 2013.).
Step2: Analysis of business:- In this phase an effective leader will go to assess the entire
company in order to design transformation process as per organizational model. Thus, after that
they have to systematically analyse seven indispensable components such as; present outcomes,
surroundings of business, recent strategy, core process, present structure and coordination or
upliftment systems.
Step3: Enhancement of strategies and vision:- In the third step of leadership process, team
head have to develop or adjust organizational schemes and direction of a company. Along with
this, they need to redefine their current strategies and tries to accomplished number of things
during this process such as; need to understand the requirement of current business surrounding,
future forecasting, clarification of mission to motivates their employees, identification of key
principles by which individuals may conduct themselves etc (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
Step4: Chartering the alteration procedure :- After understanding the company vision and
mission its time to identify hidden issues and barriers which affects success of an association.
Thus, they need to create a charter, framed expected result and then need to implement
changes .
Step5: Integrated management of organizational performance:- At the end of this process
2

leader have to react towards demands and need to make a management plan in order to manage
short term and long term performance of selected firm.
Thus, above process shows that if any person is becoming a leader of specific team then
they have to follow necessary steps so that they can able to accomplished it assigned task in an
appropriate manner.
Coming on my leadership style I am using participative leadership style which is also
known as a democratic because in this every person are getting chance to express their opinions
without any stress and taking equal part in decision making process (Bryman, 2013). As my
experience number of companies are following this strategy at workplace due to its effectiveness
and supports in creating friendly relations with employees. Mainly number of reason are
available due to which I am choosing this leadership styles that are explained as further:-
 Helps in creating healthy environment of an organization.
 Effective interaction between employees and employers which aids in creating a friendly
connection between them.
 Meet the needs or demands of customers as well as employees.
 Subordinates can also express their opinion.
Hence it has been analysed that with the use of democratic style of leadership my
subordinates become so lenient towards their goals due to which it may disturb the working
environment of overall company. Thus, I have to develop number of things in my leading style
or behaviour which is highlighted as follows:-
 I have to strict while dealing with juniors so that they can respect me as a leader.
 Required to remove confusion due to involvement of number of people.
 I need to enhance my assisting skills so that I can easily guide my team members.
Thus, it has been understood that these above quality needs to be enhanced with the help
of impressive action plan which shows an appropriate path of improving my skills (Fahed-Sreih
and Morin-Delerm, 2012). Along with this as a leader I need to improve my hidden weakness so
that I can manage all the business activities in an efficient manner by thorough various theories
proposed by different scientist.
3

TASK 2
2. Leadership theories and Concepts for evaluating leadership of Jeff Bezos
There are different leadership philosophies, concepts and theories of leadership which is
developed by different successful leaders and scholars. Jeff Bezos is known as the founder and
CEO of Amazon is also famous for his good leadership. He has acquired the idea of doing best
leadership from various theories. Some of the important theories of leadership are discussed
below :
 Trait theory : This conceptualisation basically represents that leaders are born. This
shows that some person has special qualities or attributes from their birth or this can be
said that they consist of charter traits (Leadership Styles. 2017).
 Behavioural theory : This act as contradict for the trait theory as it is totally opposite in
nature and are rejecting all discussion regarding inborn potential approaches to
leadership. As per this concept, this is not possible that people have inborn characteristics
of a good leader. On the contrary, an individual become leader by getting training and
experiences. Any of the person can be a better leader but only when they should receive
appropriate teaching and provided health environment.
 Contingency theory : This idea was coined by Austrian psychologist Fred Edward
Fielder. This theory emphasis on the importance of personality of team heads and
circumstances in which they operate. He and his subordinates provided two important
style of leadership which are stated below :
 Relationship motivated : This simply refers to the improvement of interpersonal
relations. Such type of leaders generally focus on developing good relationships from
their fellows so that they help one another in attaining aims and objectives of venture
very easily and smoothly without generating any kind of conflicts. Such type of people
used to maintain positive relations with their team members in order to build a healthy
surrounding at the working location (Werhane and Painter-Morland, 2011). As a result,
employees facing any type of problems come to share it with their heads without being
hesitated. Jeff Bezoz comes under this category of task motivated leaders because they
encourage their work forces to perform duty by maintaining good relationship with each
other so that disputes gets minimises and productivity of Amazon increases a lot.
4

 Task motivated : These type of supervisors are believes in achieving the goals by doing
hard work or labour. They think that employees should motivated towards their
performance as it is only their work which can uplift the company and supports it in
maintaining good position in market place (Wang and et. al., 2011). For doing this,
leaders normally set out some objectives and targets for their fellows so that they get a
path which they have to travel by facing several hindrances and at last achieve all the
objectives.
Illustration 1: Fiedler’s Contingency Model, 2017
(Source: Fiedler’s Contingency Model, 2017)
Fielder has measured leadership style by taking help of LPC scale that is Least Preferred
Co- worker Scale. Individual who scores more in this scaling are thought as relationship
motivated. While those workers who receives low scores are considered as Task motivated. The
core ideas or concepts to contingency theory are determined by three main factors which are
described below : Position power : This represents tradition of power which tells which people are at which
position and as per that their capabilities are recognised. Employers who are present at
higher posts are able to give rewards as well as punishment on the basis of performance
of their personnels (Groves and LaRocca, 2011).
5

 Relationship with leader – members : This highlights environment or atmosphere of
work place where members feels trust, reliance, confidence and faithfulness from their
leaders. These all factors helps in developing a healthy bonding between group members
and heads.
 Task Culture : This is linked with the clarity of task and designation so that job roles can
be accomplished effectively.
Situational leadership theory : This concept is referring to those leaders who used to follow
different life style according to the development and situational level of their workers (Van Wart,
2017). This says that no particular leadership style is best. On the contrary, it depends on the
situation and which types of strategies and planning is best suited to a specific task. Goleman
theory of situational leadership are stated below : Pacesetting leaders : This type of style is suited to self starters who are highly inspired.
They expects more from their associates. Coaching leaders : Such group heads concentrate on development of personal as well as
job associated skills of their followers. This is adopted by those people who know the
weaknesses of their subordinates and can easily eliminate it. Democratic leaders : This type of supervisors support the decision taken by the members
of team. But it so time consuming and are not appropriate when there is a deadline of the
project submission (Van Wart, 2014). Affiliative leaders : These types of leaders give priority to their associates. In some
condition where morale of their members is low then they use to praise and assist their
team so that they can develop self confidence. Authoritative leaders :Such team heads are good at analysing problems and identifying
challenges. So, they help their subordinates and partners in developing solutions for such
issues which they recognise while working. Coercive leaders : Individuals have clear vision and they are familiar with the ways of
achieving those missions (Helms, 2012). This style is used at the time of any disasters or
in such as a situation when an organisation needs an entire inspection and repairing.
 Ethical leadership- It is the form of leadership where an individual show and
demonstrate different activities and functions for the mutual good which is accepted and
6

it is best suitable for the each and every area of the person surviving. There are three
main composed factors that are discussed as follows:
◦ Be an example- An amazing dimension of a leader is lead by specific example.
Leaders follower are judge their team heads on the basis of their work, actions and
behaviour (Spisak, Nicholson and van Vugt, 2011). They also begin to earn with their
respect from their followers. Most of the people might be more movable to follow
those kind leader who respect other individual and correspond with their honesty.
◦ Champion the importance of ethics- The major role of leader is to main focus on
entire essential part of ethics which includes standard of ethics and also other related
problems and issues with this. Mainly champions are give importance to moral duties
and responsibilities which improving followers skills and knowledge.
◦ Communicate- The best ethical manager and supervisor are good in communication
which help in attracting large number of followers towards them. They have such soft
and impressive voice which motivate team members for doing best work as to attain
targets and goals in proper manner (Shahhosseini, Silong and Ismaill, 2013).
Jeff Bezos will included all necessary factors in their leadership as well as they can create
and develop positive environment in whole organisation. Along with this, this will help in
becoming good leader and increasing honour of them in front-most of followers. Critical leadership perspectives- It is states that critical position of leader in an
organisation. This will find out for difficulty the mutual assumption which emotionally
coherent in each manner. It will describe the emotion of a leadership and uncover or
disclose that how dysfunctionality and toxicity are not simple, confining phenomena,
negatively coercive, but it can also impact on production. Style of leadership- There are different leadership styles which should be followed by
Jeff Bezos. Some of these are explained as under: Laissez Faire leadership style- They are those leader which have lack of direct
supervising power among workers and after this they fail in providing correct feedback to
followers for reaching potential targets and objectives. They mainly experienced person
needs so that they fail in this style of leadership. Autocratic leadership style- Such type of leadership allow the managers for taking
individual decisions without taking any permission with top management. In this style,
7

supervisor use their power and enforce control on their followers (Hoch and Kozlowski,
2014). Participative leadership style- These type of leadership style provide importance to the
input of their team members and colleagues and participative leaders are responsible for
developing accurate final decision in appropriate manner (Schneider and George, 2011).
This leadership style give encouragement to the personnel by providing them power to
take part in decision making process. Transformational and transactional leadership- This is that leadership style which
motivate and encourage different type of team members for achieving required goals and
objectives in effective manner. This style will encourage compliance the existing and
present goals of an organisation and also analyse performance of their team members by
doing monitoring and supervising. They also give them rewards for good work and
punishment for bad performance within an enterprise. Mainly leaders are task and result
oriented in each manner. In this style, leaders are provide major focus on that how
employees are done their jobs and give warning to them for completion of required work
at given time period. Jeff Bezos follow transformational leadership (Owens, Johnson and
Mitchell, 2013). On this context, transformational leadership focus on increasing the
motivation level of workers and participation and try to related employees sense of self
with corporation-al value. Leadership style, leaders concern regarding building strength
and reducing weakness of their followers by enhancing their abilities and capabilities and
they also do commitment to achieve desired goals of entity. They use this style for
analysing transferring ability and share their views with their team members and
colleagues.
 Distributed leadership- It is that style of leadership which mainly concerned with
different activities of leader instead of specific roles and responsibilities of leadership in
proper manner. This will help in distributing various types of views and reviews among
each member and focus on the end point of major goals and objectives. It also considered
with shared, collective and extended leadership practices which generate capabilities and
capacities for alteration in development and growth of the company (Northouse, 2015).
This mainly includes mobilize skilfulness of various leadership at different levels by
8

which more opportunities will be formed for making accurate changes and build strong
capacity for improvement.
Illustration 2: Leadership styles, 2017
(Source: Leadership styles, 2017)
By going through all the above based theories of leadership, it can concluded that Jeff
Bezoz is a best leader as well as chief executive officer who fall under Behaviour theory as they
learns the qualities and attributes of a good team heads by doing hard work and from their
working experiences. In addition to this , they also receives training and teaching for becoming a
good leader. Thus, this violates the trait theory of leadership as this stated that leaders are inborn.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report it can be concluded that leadership play an essential
role in functioning of each entity so that leader should be exist to provide correct direction to
their employees by show them their fault issues. They also motivate and encourage the
employees so that they reach with the target goals and objectives of the organisation. There are
various leadership theories and concepts which are given by different authors and successful
leaders for make their business better. Jeff Bezos is considered as a leader and he required to
follow different types of style of leadership in Amazon that has been discussed in this project
report.
9

REFERENCES
Books & journal
Antonakis, J. and House, R. J., 2013. The full-range leadership theory: The way forward. In
Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary
Edition (pp. 3-33). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Bolman, L. G. and Deal, T. E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons.
Bryman, A. ed., 2013. Leadership and organizations. Routledge.
Fahed-Sreih, J. and Morin-Delerm, S., 2012. A Perspective on Leadership in Small Businesses:
Is the Need for Achievement a Motive in Predicting Success?. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship. 16. p.1.
Groves, K. S. and LaRocca, M. A., 2011. An empirical study of leader ethical values,
transformational and transactional leadership, and follower attitudes toward corporate
social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics. 103(4). pp.511-528.
Helms, L. ed., 2012. Comparative political leadership. Springer.
Hoch, J. E. and Kozlowski, S. W., 2014. Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership,
structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology. 99(3).
p.390.
Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Owens, B. P., Johnson, M. D. and Mitchell, T. R., 2013. Expressed humility in organizations:
Implications for performance, teams, and leadership. Organization Science. 24(5).
pp.1517-1538.
Schneider, S. K. and George, W. M., 2011. Servant leadership versus transformational leadership
in voluntary service organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
32(1). pp.60-77.
Shahhosseini, M., Silong, A. D. and Ismaill, I. A., 2013. Relationship between transactional,
transformational leadership styles, emotional intelligence and job performance.
Researchers World. 4(1). p.15.
Spisak, B. R., Nicholson, N. and van Vugt, M., 2011. Leadership in organizations: An
evolutionary perspective. In Evolutionary psychology in the business sciences (pp. 165-
190). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Van Wart, M., 2014. Contemporary varieties of ethical leadership in organizations. International
Journal of Business Administration. 5(5). p.27.
Van Wart, M., 2017. Leadership in public organizations: An introduction. Taylor & Francis.
Wang, G and et.al., 2011. Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and
levels: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. Group & Organization
Management. 36(2). pp.223-270.
Werhane, P. H. and Painter-Morland, M., 2011. Leadership, gender, and organization. In
Leadership, gender, and organization (pp. 1-8). Springer Netherlands.
Yukl, G., 2012. Effective leadership behavior: What we know and what questions need more
attention. The Academy of Management Perspectives.26(4). pp.66-85.
Online
Leadership Styles. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.leadership-central.com/leadership-styles.html>.
10

11

12