Leadership Theories, Management Styles, Motivation and Decision-Making Approaches

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Activity 1
Leadership theories can be classified into personal approaches, behavioral approaches,
situational approaches and modern approaches According to personal theories, leaders are born
with specific traits that can make them lead naturally. These traits include the level of
intelligence and knowledge, attractive appearance, honesty, common sense, initiative, a reliable
socio-economic basis and self-confidence (Northouse, 2012). The second approach is behavioral
approach. According to the behavioral approach to leadership, its effectiveness does not depend
on the personal qualities of the leader, but, first of all, on his behavior and relations with his
subordinates. Early theorists of behaviorism believed that the most effective in modern
organizations will be democratic leaders who are attentive and sensitive to their subordinates.
However, according to a group of authors who summarized the results of different studies, "there
is no one best leadership style. However, none of the first two approaches has been able to
identify a stable relationship between the personal qualities or behavior of the leader and his
effectiveness. This does not mean that they are not important; These are integral elements of the
success of any leader. However, more recent studies have shown that other, situational factors
often play a decisive role in leadership effectiveness: the needs and characteristics of
subordinates, the nature of the task, the requirements of the external environment and the amount
of information available to the leader. This approach is based on the fact that different situations
require not only different organizational structures, but also different ways of leadership,
conditioned by the characteristics of a particular situation. Modern approaches include
charismatic leadership, transformative leadership and supportive leadership (Brooks, 2008 p.
104)

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Some management styles motivates, challenge and encourage employees to work hard
while others restrict employees. Authoritarian style for example consider the leader as all-
knowing and expert in everything and employees as deficient of certain skills (Handy, 2009
p.99). This style does not give employees chance to contribute in strategic decisions. The
drawback of this style is that the removal of responsibility from subordinates; the knowledge and
skills of subordinates are used to a small extent; reduces the initiative and creativity of
employees; requires constant monitoring and specifics of tasks; does not facilitate the
participation of subordinates in the performance of tasks. Unlike the authoritarian one, the
democratic style has its roots in the "Y" theory of McGregor and assumes that the employee is
ready to devote his knowledge and energy to the goals he considers his own and, under
appropriate conditions, can responsibly and creatively solve the organization's problems. In a
democratic style, subordinates have the right to participate in decision-making. The head sets the
goal of the action, as a result of which the employees are given the opportunity to act freely in
choosing the ways of realizing these tasks. This creates favorable conditions for expressing one's
own initiative (Nelson and Quick, 2012 p. 109). The implementation of the democratic style of
work increases motivation, and the use of certain pressure, creates a single positive social and
psychological atmosphere and focuses on strengthening personal interest in the work and the
opportunity to participate in the creation of development and implementation of the
organization's goals. Liberal (passive) management style is characterized by low activity,
reluctance and inability of the manager to make any decisions, an attempt to avoid any
innovations, shifting production functions and responsibilities to other managers and units. An
effective management style should be oriented both to the characteristics of the external
environment of the organization and to external indicators that determine the quality of its