Challenges of Leadership in an Organization

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The purpose of the assignment is to figure out the challenges related to leadership that
influence the organizational behavior. The various style of leadership is discussed in order to
know their influence in the employees and in turn the organization. The impact of leadership
on the performance of the employees is also mentioned. The aspects of the seven leadership
mindset has also been used for analyzing owns capabilities as a leader.
Challenges of leadership in an organization
I was working in a multi-national company for more than 2 years. I was appointed as
the branch manager. On the very first day of my job, I had interacted with the employees. My
higher authority helped me understand the task entirely. I was asked to lead 3 teams, 10
employees in each of the teams. My job role was to motivate these employees, train them,
interact with them in order to know the challenges and try helping them overcome it and
finally assist them to finish the projects assigned. On the 2 day, I called each of the groups for
a meeting where my intention was to interact with the employees to build trust and rapport. I
had asked them about the challenges they were facing before I was appointed. Only 2 people
out of 30 people spoke about the challenges. Rest of the employees claimed to be quite happy
with their previous leader. After an introductory session of 40 minutes, I explained them their
respective task and allocated group tasks to each of the teams. I informed them about the
deadline of the project and assisted them to begin with the task. After about a year, the
turnover of the company began to decrease and the attrition rate of the employees in the
organization has increased extensively. I along with the board of directors started
investigating to find out the reasons behind this. In a weeks’ time we were successful in
figuring out the loopholes of the company. Earlier, under the leadership of the previous

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leader, the employees had the freedom to work according to their convenience and were
encouraged to put forward new ideas for any tasks. When I was appointed, I changed the
structure of the organization and now the employees had to directly report to me. The
employee did not feel motivated working with me and started to leave the organization. They
did not recognize my transformational style of leadership (Goddard, Hazelkorn and Vallance
2016). Initially the employees failed to understand the importance of re-structuring the
strategies of the company. I had introduced the online test in order to understand their
knowledge and skills, post which the students who had failed were given training from the
beginning in order to overcome such a challenge. I was worried by the entire situation as my
inspirational leadership style in my previous organization turned out to be extremely
successful. Although, employees have started to coordinate and work with me in order to
fulfill the goals of the organization (Johnson 2017).
Thus, it is seen that every style of leadership depends on certain factors like culture,
history and geographic locations. Thus, the working culture and behavior of the employees in
the organization for the longest time did not allow the employees to accept the
transformational style of leadership as they were content with the old organizational structure
and working style. The employees only started to accept the new style of leadership after
getting accustomed to this. The geographical location of an organization is of great strategic
importance to the company. That also helps in analyzing the ideal style of leadership in the
organization.
The various leadership styles are-
Autocratic Leadership: In this style of leadership the leaders possesses all the
responsibilities and authority. Leaders make decisions on their own and they prefer not to
discuss it with the subordinates (Bosiok and Sad 2013). The leaders only communicate the

3LEADERSHIP
decisions to the employees and do not allow work flexibility (Rast III, Hogg and Giessner
2013). For example: Adolf Hitler followed this type of leadership where he was the dictator
and never chose to listen to any of the citizens of the country. The culture and the condition
of that place influenced the leadership style of Hitler. American racism influenced the
leadership style. He was culturally influenced by the D.A.P. It is the group that made him
realizes his hatred for the Jewish community. In his dictatorship, he had failed to inspire the
citizens and instead ordered them to ill-treat the Jews. Thus, culture, condition and geography
of a place influence leadership style (Toland 2014).
Democratic Leadership: This style of leadership involves the subordinates and allows
them to take decisions. Unlike autocratic leadership style, this style is not leader centric. The
leaders take the final decision but they delegate power to various other people. For example:
George Washington follows the democratic style of leadership. The geographic condition of
the place influenced the leadership of George Washington. The high-tech and medical
industries allow him to follow this style, as high amount of group effort is required to execute
the functions. His leadership style has influenced history. He was an inspiration to many and
he successfully had set standards in aspects like political power, economy policy and military
practice. He believed in a republican, independent and constitutional government. Thus,
democratic leadership differs from that of autocratic one in many ways depending on the
culture, condition and the geographic location and life.
Cross-cultural Leadership: This style of leadership pertains when there is a range of
various cultures in the society. Workplaces require leaders who can effectively cope up with
the multi-cultured environment. For example: Most of the organizations in United States have
cross-cultural environment and thus they require leaders who can follow this kind of
leadership style. Heisman Trophy winner Mariota Marcus showed this leadership style. His