Occupational Health and Safety Management Practice Leadership

This document provides a critical analysis of two different leadership styles - transformational and transactional leadership. It discusses the ways in which these leadership styles can be implemented to enhance health and safety culture in the workplace. The document also includes examples of leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND
SAFETY MANAGEMENT
PRACTICE LEADERSHIP

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A- Critical analysis of two different leadership styles.........................................................1
PART B- Ways in which leadership style can be implemented......................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Leadership can be defined as a kind of process with the help of which leaders or
individuals leads a group to achieve desired objectives defined or shared by the leaders. it can
also be defined as an influential process that helps leaders or managers to get their work done by
subordinates or followers willingly, so that desired results can be achieved. Leadership is one of
the most important things which is required to be focused upon by organisations as it helps them
in performing and completing a task with high risk in an appropriate manner (Bongiorno, Rizzo
and Vaia, 2018). There are different kinds of leadership styles that help a leader to perform a task
in a proper manner and achieve desired results in an effective manner. Effective leadership style
helps the leaders to relate people within and outside the organization. Not only this, it further
helps the leaders to understand ways in which a process or task is required to be carried out and
also helps in understanding ways in which issues or risk associated with a task or project can be
reduced. Leadership style adopted by leaders within an organization directly impact, their
working condition and also helps in development of an effective health and safety condition
within a workplace. There are various kinds of leadership styles that are based upon situational
aspects because of which certain behaviour of leadership are impacted. There are different kinds
of leaders that focuses upon adopting different kinds of leadership style as per their workplace
environment. This report will focus upon different types of leadership styles and ways in which
these styles can be implemented within leaders of an organization for enhancing health and
safety culture within that workplace. For this report, the example of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill
gates will also be used to explain leadership style in a proper manner.
PART A- Critical analysis of two different leadership styles
Leadership is a kind of influential process which helps the top management or leaders to
manage their employees and get the work done assigned to them willingly. Leadership is a fluid
practice which is followed by most of the leaders so that they can bring improvement or changes
within the organization and lead it towards growth (Vial, 2019). Different kinds of leaders adopt
different kinds of leadership styles that helps them to lead people inside and outside the
organization for its growth. There are eight different kinds of leadership styles, each of these
styles has their own advantages and disadvantages and are used in different ways. Some of the
most common type of leadership styles are: Democratic leadership style which is used by leaders
to make decisions on the basis of input given by each team members. Autocratic leadership style
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which is used by leaders to make decisions without taking input from anyone. Laissez faire
leadership style is a kind of style in which all the authority is given to the employees. Strategic
leadership style is a kind of style which is used by leaders to take strategic decisions supported
by multiple employees. Transformational leadership style helps in transforming or bringing
improvement within companies’ conversation (Gimpel and et. al., 2018). In transactional
leadership in which employees are rewarded for their work. Bureaucratic leadership style is
rarely used in which leaders reject employees if there is conflict with companies’ policies and
practises.
Out of all of these leadership styles transformational and transactional leadership styles
are most commonly used. These types of leadership style help the leaders to guide their
employees and motivate them so that they can focus upon enhancing their work such that they
can achieve challenging goals that are required to be achieved by them.
Transformational leadership style
Transformational leadership style is a kind of leadership style in which leaders work with
their team members to identify required changes and create a proper vision so that so that
changes can be guided in a proper manner which further helps them to inspire their employees.
This type of leadership style is majorly used by leaders in order to bring changes within their
employees or organizational system. it is one of the most effective one of leadership that helps
the leaders to develop values and positive changes within their followers. It helps the leaders to
motivate their employees such that they can focus upon enhancing their overall performance and
bring required changes within themselves.
Transformational leadership was started by James MacGregor Burns but certain changes
within this leadership style were brought by bass (Ngcamu, 2017). Whilst Burns was majorly
focusing upon moral dimension of leadership but, Bass focused more upon its efficiency. Bass in
fact changed the name of transforming leadership to transformational leadership. Bass’s focus
upon efficiency of leadership helped in increasing its impact upon followers of leaders by
motivating them and enhancing their overall performance in a proper manner. the level till which
a leader is transformation is measured by their influence upon their followers. All the followers
or subordinates of the leaders should feel trust, admiration, loyalty and respect for their leaders
because of their leader’s qualities and their willingness to work harder as compared to original
plan of action. One of the most common example of transformational leadership style is Mark
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Zuckerberg. He is described as an encouraging and aggressive leader. All of his style of action
describes or illustrates his transformational leadership style (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016). Mark
Zuckerberg think that they motivate their employees to bring changes within themselves and
focus upon constant innovation and growth. He focuses more upon debates and challenges and
focuses upon bringing changes within the organizational setting such that their employees can
feel motivated and bring changes within themselves and enhance their overall performance. He
trusts his employees and believes in them, focus upon motivating them constantly so that they
can further focus upon bring changes within themselves and enhance their overall performance
in order to achieve goals set by Mark Zuckerberg for growth of the organization.
Transactional leadership style
Transactional leadership style is one of those kinds of leadership style in which they help
the employees to establish roles and responsibilities for each employee. This type of style is used
in incentive programs for motivating their employees but this style is majorly consistent with
organizational goals and is also used for gesturing appreciation as well. This leadership style can
also be defined as a kind of style in which leaders promote compliance by followers or
subordinates with the help of both punishment and rewards. This reward and punishment system
helps the leaders to keep their followers motivated for a short time period. Transactional
leadership style was first described by Max Weber in 1947 and then after him it was extended by
Bernard Bass in 1981 (Obeidat and Tarhini, 2016). Max Weber divided this leadership style into
three categories that are: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal, or bureaucratic. First of all,
Max Weber described rational-legal leadership which is known as transactional leadership. This
theory is majorly based upon the idea that managers of leaders provide employees with
something which is required by them so that, in exchange they can provide their excellent
performance. This style says that employees are never self- motivated, they are required to be
motivated. This style majorly focuses upon management process of controlling, organizing, and
short-term planning. Max Weber says that, in order to motivate employees they should be
directed or provided with appealing things of their own interest. Most of the leaders believe that,
if employees are provided with rewards and punishment, they will follow their leaders and focus
upon achieving a goal defined by their leaders. This type of leadership style is not fitted within
workplaces where innovative ideas and creativity are valued. There are various kinds of leaders
that uses this leadership style for motivating their employees. Bill gates is one of those leaders
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who uses transactional leadership style. He says that automation applied to an effective
management will enhance efficiency and automation applied to inefficient operation will
magnify its efficiency (Saravo, Netzel and Kiesewetter, 2017). He says that, for an effective
operation of business management is extremely important and that can be done by motivating the
employees.
PART B- Ways in which leadership style can be implemented
Choosing an appropriate type of style helps an organization to enhance their workplace
environment in a positive manner. Both the styles are important in its own ways. Both the type of
styles helps the leaders to motivate their employees so that they can focus upon bringing
improvement within their overall performance but in different manner. In transformational
leadership style, leaders focus upon bringing change within employees of their organizational
setting to motivate their employees to enhance their performance whereas in transactional
leadership style leaders focus upon providing rewards and punishments to their employees in
order to motivate them and enhance their overall performance. Both the type of style is
appropriate and effective in their own ways (Afsar and et. al., 2017). Choosing an appropriate
type of leadership style within an organization is extremely important as it helps them to
maintain an effective workplace environment and also helps the organization to develop a
healthy and safe workplace environment and culture.
Leadership style chosen to be discussed and implemented within leaders an organization
is transactional leadership style. This leadership style is chosen to be implemented within an
organization because it helps the leaders in valuing overall workplace order and structure in a
proper and appropriate manner. it is one of the most effective leadership styles that can help a
large organization to manage their overall operations in a proper and effective manner, achieve
their desired objectives. It is one of the most appropriate leadership styles that can be used to
develop a healthy and safe working environment. There are certain steps that can be used by an
organization for implementation of transactional leadership style within leaders.
In order to implement transactional leadership style within an organization first of all
their leaders need to set goals and targets for all of their team. This will help them to provide a
vision to their employees so that they can understand goals that are required to be archived by
them and results that are expected to be achieved by them. After setting goals and objectives for
all the team members they set a reward and punishment system so that they can motivate their
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employees to work on set goals and objectives (Prasad and Junni, 2016). After setting a reward
and punishment system, leaders order their team members or employees and provide all the
resources or documents required by them to achieve the desired goals and objectives. Leaders are
also required to develop a matrix on the basis of which performance of their team members or
employees will be measured. This will help the leaders to measure whether their employees have
performed well and achieved desired goals or not. If the employees have passed set parameters
and achieved desired goals then they are rewarded so that they feel motivated and work upon
enhancing their overall performance in a much better and appropriate manner. But if the
employees has not achieved targeted goal and after measuring their performance their overall
performance is under set parameters or have performed extremely poorly then in such case they
are punished so that as a result they can understand areas where they need to bring improvement
upon and can work upon their overall performance in a proper and appropriate manner. It is a
continuous cycle with the help of which transactional leadership style can be implemented within
an organization. In this manner organizations can not only implement this style within the
organizations bit can also help the leaders to develop a purpose driven employee motivational
environment will help them to maintain a positive working environment.
There are various kinds of research that have been carried out in this field that helps in
explaining that there is strong relationship between type of leadership style chosen and
developing a health and safety culture within an organization (Sfantou and et. al., 2017). If
leadership style chosen by the leaders is not proper then it can result in development of negative
working environment which can further impact overall health and safety culture of an
organization. Proper and effective leadership style helps the leaders to focus upon their people
which helps in enhancing a safety and healthy culture within a workplace environment. There are
many factors that helps in choosing development of an effective leadership style within a leader
such as: personality traits, experience, values and the organizational culture in which one have
worked. Transactional leadership is a process focused leadership style whose main focus is to
motivate employees to achieve desired objectives. if employees are motivated then, they will be
working harder upon achievement of desired goals which will result in development of positive
working culture. This style further helps the leaders to engage with their employees to
understand hindrance faced by them in term of achieving target goals and objectives so that those
issues or hindrance can be reduced.
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Health and safety culture
Transactional leaders are the one who have high process focus and lower people focus.
These types of leaders are mostly autocratic and directive within their leadership style. This
leadership style sees leader and subordinate relationship as a transaction where reward is
provided to the employees in exchange of meeting or achieving desired objectives (Cooper,
2018). They naturally and quite comfortable create boundaries between them as well as between
their employees or subordinates. Transactional leadership style helps the managers to manage
workplace environment in an excellent manner which further helps them to reduce chances of
workplace accidents and also helps in maintaining overall health of the employees. Effective
leadership style helps in ensuring functional and excellent management system.
Health and safety are one of the most important factors which is regarded as an effective
factor for a safe working environment. Culture of an organization is based upon many factors
such as behaviour, day to day actions, decisions, organizational policies, core values of the
organization and many more. These factors together impact overall health and safety culture of
an organization. Effective leadership helps in development of positive behaviour not only in top
management authorities but also within employees and managers (Delegach and et. al., 2017).
Type of leadership style chosen also helps in development of organizational polices, practises.
These policies and practises of the company must not only focus upon overall working culture
but should also focus upon physical and mental health of the employees so that a safe and
healthy working culture can be developed. Development of such type of culture is strongly based
upon leadership style. There are following ways that can help in developing or building health
and safety culture within the organization. First is all the employees are treated equality and with
dignity. Rewards and punishment system are same for all kinds of employees which helps in
reducing overall work burden on a particular employee. Then value of skills and knowledge of
all the employees is done equally which helps in motivating the employees and also helps in
enhancing overall mental health of the employees. Organizational policies and practises also help
in motivating employees so that mental stress or work burden upon employees can be reduced.
not only this effective organizational polices also helps the employees to take any kind of band
news in a positive manner with stressing out or letting it impact their health. Transaction
leadership style continuously focuses upon monitoring and measuring overall performance of the
employees and work pressure upon them.
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These are some ways in which transactional leadership helps the organization to build
and enhance healthy and safe working culture with the help of which organization can focus
upon enhancing physical and mental health of their employees. Transactional leadership also
help the organization in influencing psychological risk and resources. This style helps in
reducing chances of work harassment upon employees and also reduces chances of occurrence of
unfavourable working environment conditions (Pilbeam and et. al., 2016). The manager mostly
focus upon management of working environment and working condition for the employees so
that their both physical and mental health can be enhanced. Transactional leadership style
focuses upon two main dimensions: first is motivational dimensions in which rewards and
punishment is provided to the employees with helps in enhancing their motivational factor
because of which level of performance of employees increases and second dimensions is
behaviour of leaders. In this dimension mostly leaders focus upon taking corrective measures so
that performance of the subordinates can be monitored and measured and if any kind of issue or
error is identified then it can be resolved or corrected in a timely manner. This further helps in
creating a positive health working culture because of which pressure upon employees is reduced.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion it has been summarized that there are various kinds of leadership styles that
can be adopted by leaders in order to provide guidance to their employees so that they can
achieve desired goals and objectives defined by them. It has been analysed that out of all the
leadership styles transformational and transactional leadership style is most commonly used by
the leaders for management and motivation of their employees so that they can work upon
enhancing their overall performance and work upon achieving desired objectives.
Transformational leadership is used by leaders to bring changes within their employees’
behaviour or within organizational setting so that employees feel motivated and work more upon
achieving desired goals and objectives. Whereas transactional leadership is used to motivate the
employees by providing rewards or punishment to them as per their performance so that they feel
motivated and work more upon enhancing their overall performance so that they can work upon
achieving desired goals and objectives in a proper an appropriate manner. It has also been
analysed that it is extremely important to adopt a proper and effective leadership style and
implement it within the leaders as it helps in building an organisational health and safety culture
within that workplace.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
Afsar, B., and et. al., 2017. Transformational and transactional leadership and employee’s
entrepreneurial behavior in knowledge–intensive industries. The International Journal
of Human Resource Management. 28(2). pp.307-332.
Bongiorno, G., Rizzo, D. and Vaia, G., 2018. CIOs and the digital transformation: a new
leadership role. In CIOs and the digital transformation (pp. 1-9). Springer, Cham.
Cooper, M.D., 2018. The safety culture construct: theory and practice. In Safety Cultures, Safety
Models (pp. 47-61). Springer, Cham.
Delegach, M., and et. al., 2017. A focus on commitment: The roles of transformational and
transactional leadership and self-regulatory focus in fostering organizational and safety
commitment. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. 26(5).
pp.724-740.
Gimpel, H., and et. al., 2018. Structuring digital transformation: a framework of action fields and
its application at ZEISS. Journal of Information Technology Theory and
Application. 19(1). pp.31-54.
Ngcamu, B.S., 2017. The effects of leadership traits on transformation: A case study of a South
African university.
Obeidat, B.Y. and Tarhini, A., 2016. A Jordanian empirical study of the associations among
transformational leadership, transactional leadership, knowledge sharing, job
performance, and firm performance. Journal of Management Development.
Pilbeam, C., and et. al., 2016. Safety leadership practices for organizational safety compliance:
Developing a research agenda from a review of the literature. Safety science. 86.
pp.110-121.
Prasad, B. and Junni, P., 2016. CEO transformational and transactional leadership and
organizational innovation. Management Decision.
Saravo, B., Netzel, J. and Kiesewetter, J., 2017. The need for strong clinical leaders–
Transformational and transactional leadership as a framework for resident leadership
training. PloS one. 12(8).
Sfantou, D.F., and et. al., 2017, December. Importance of leadership style towards quality of care
measures in healthcare settings: a systematic review. In Healthcare (Vol. 5, No. 4, p.
73). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.
Uhl, A. and Gollenia, L.A., 2016. Digital enterprise transformation: A business-driven approach
to leveraging innovative IT. Routledge.
Vial, G., 2019. Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. The
Journal of Strategic Information Systems.
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