Leadership Theories and Styles

This assignment delves into the realm of leadership theories and styles. It examines influential perspectives like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and analyzes diverse leadership approaches outlined in provided academic sources. Students are expected to critically evaluate these theories and styles, considering their practical applications in organizational settings.

ORGANIZATION
BEHAVIOR

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
(a) Impact of different leadership style on motivation during the change...................................3
(b) Comparing different motivational theories............................................................................4
(c) Usefulness of a motivational theory for managers.................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
(a) Nature of groups and group behaviour...................................................................................7
(b) Factors promoting/restricting the development of effective teamwork.................................8
(c) Impact of technology on team functioning.............................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
The study of performance and activity of group and as well as individual in an
organization is known as organizational behavior. This basically studies the impact which an
individual, groups and structures have on the behaviour of human in an organization. This is a
interdisciplinary field which includes sociology, psychology, communication and management
as well. Present report describes the the roles of Junior Manager at Innov8 which is a software
game development company based in UK. This company is initiating change and Junior manager
helps in identifying the change by comparing it with other countries. Further, this report also
discuss the relationship between organizational structure and culture. Moreover, this also
describes the different approaches to management and leadership and also about the use of
motivational theories. Furthermore, this report covers the development of effective teamwork in
an organization.
TASK 1
Covered in PPT
TASK 2
Covered in PPT
TASK 3
(a) Impact of different leadership style on motivation during the change
There are basically three types of leadership style which impacts on the motivation of an
employee in the organization when change is taking place in the Burberry (Adeniyi, 2007). The
three types of leadership and its impact are describes below: Autocratic Leadership Style: This style describes that leaders solely takes the decision
and does not involve any of the employee or team member. This style is adopted in such
cases when the change is immediate and it is compulsory to adopt that change. Further,
due to this style, employees get demotivated as their consent are not taken (Bergin,
2009). This leads to the resistance and also the turnover of employee. In the case of
Burberry, when the company has to regain focus on its competitive strength that is iconic
outerwear. If Angela Ahrendts have adopted this style than employee would not have
participated with an open heart. Instead they would have resist for this change.
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 Democratic Leadership Styles: Decisions are taken jointly in this case because this is a
participative leadership style. A leader always encourages their employees to take part in
the decision making process (Dion, 2012). This style helps in motivating the employees
at fullest because staff members are empowered up to some extent. Further, in Burberry,
Angela Ahrendts have adopted this style while implementing change for the re-inclusion
of iconic outerwear. This motivated the employees a lot and this way they did not resist
for the change. And due to which change were brought in an organization in effective
manner (Styles of Leadership, 2008). Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles: This kind of style include zero supervision. In this all
the team members are allowed to to take decision by their own. They are neither directed
nor supervised. This leads to the reduction of motivation among the employees because
lack of direction demotivates the workforce and this way they cannot take effective
decision for the organization (Edgar, 2007). If Angela Ahrendts have allowed their
employees to take decision by their own without any proper guidance, than the company
could have built its goodwill again. Further, the employee turnover rate would have
increased.
Thus, it has been inferred from above findings that Democratic style helps in building
high motivation among the employees at time of change occurring in the organization.
(b) Comparing different motivational theories
There are several types of motivational theory which the organization adopts in order to
motivate their employees on that basis. Some of the theories and its comparison have been
described below:
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: This theory have been propounded by Malsow and he
describes that every individual have several kinds of needs. He has bifurcated the needs
as per their priority and made the hierarchical pyramid for that (Mills, Bratton and
Forshaw, 2006). Their are in total five kinds of needs starting from basic needs, security
needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs. For example, in
British Gas, this theory have been employed and managers uses this theory to motivate
their employees. The company helps in achieving the basic needs and when it gets
satisfied then step by step firm assist to achieve all the needs of employees. Thus it
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motivates them to work properly. However, if any of the need does not get satisfied than
workforce start criticizing and eventually their performance become ineffective.
(Source: Cherry, 2016)
 Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory: There are two factors involved in this theory that are
Motivators and Hygiene factors. When the hygiene factors are not preset in the
organization than the employee get demotivated and this includes job security, salary,
work conditions, vacations, etc. Further, these are extrinsic elements to the work itself.
On the other hand, motivators are those which give positive satisfaction and they intrinsic
in the organization (Saame, Reino and Vadi, 2011). This include challenging work,
recognition, responsibility, etc. For instance, In TESCO, employees are motivated
through this theory because as they are provided with motivators and hygiene factors.
This helps in maintaining better performance by the employees. However, this theory
overlooks situational variables and it assumed a correlation between satisfaction and
productivity.
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Illustration 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 McGregor’s theory X and Y: In this theory, two theories are considered. In theory X,
authoritarian management style have been described. It assumes that avarage person
dislikes the work and they will try to avoid it. For this purpose, they are given threat of
punishment by their managers to make them work in an efficient manner. This person
prefers direction and want security (Sheard and Kakabadse, 2004). This is basically a
negative motivational style. Whereas, Theory Y is a participative style of management in
which employee puts efforts in work naturally. They are self-controlled and self-directed.
People seek responsibilities. Thus, it is a positive style of motivating people in an
organization. In Burberry, if during the change, company has to adopt both the theories in
order to implement the change effectively. Some of the existing employees will resist for
the change and they should be motivated using Theory X and the freshers will be ready to
fulfill their responsibilities to grow in the company, hence Theory Y will be good to
motivate them. However, this theory cannot be useful because if theory X will be used in
a wrong situation may lead to the hostile and distrustful situation in the company. This
theory does not fit in all situations.
(c) Usefulness of a motivational theory for managers
Motivational theories described in the above question are highly useful for the manager
especially when they are going to implement the change in the organization. These theories helps
in motivating the employees who does not welcome the change with an open heart. At the time
of change, employees feel insecure and due to this their performance gets down (Bergin, 2009).
Further, during the change, work pressure increases and this makes the employees lethargic. In
order to boost their morale and to put the human resource on work, these motivation theories
assist the managers to get the work done by their staff members. For instance, in Innov8
company, CEO is going to change. For this purpose, structural change have to be brought in.
During this time period employees are unable to concentrate on their work as they are insecure
that the structural does not lead to the loss of job. This way their performance become ineffective
(Allio, 2013). For this purpose, manager apply Maslow's need hierarchy theory to satisfy their
security needs and also the Theory X to get the work done. This way the working of the
company does not get hamper the employees also get motivated. This is how motivational
theories help out the managers to motivate their employees.
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TASK 4
(a) Nature of groups and group behaviour
Group can be described as two or more individual interacting with each other with the
aim of accomplishing the shared goal. There are mainly two types of groups in an organization
that is formal group and informal group. Formal group are formed in order to complete a
particular task or project. Whereas, informal groups get formed without any intention of
accomplishing a task but they are formed for having social interactions (McIntyre, 2007). In
innov8 company, there are two types of groups. Formal groups are basically formed by the
managers in order build a new game software. When the task get accomplished than the group
get dispersed. Whereas, there are some other informal groups which are formed by the
employees due to friendship, same cultures, etc. Furthermore, group behavior refers to as the
behaviour of group members that are linked with the psychological process. When the members
are faced with the internal and external environment of the group, their psychological process
starts changing and this affects the behaviour of people. When there is more interactions among
the group members than this will help in building positive group behavior which will ultimately
leads to the group cohesiveness (Edgar, 2007). For this purpose, company encourages for more
informal groups to be created so that every employee of the company have an interaction with
each other.
The group members basically agree to a general task and this becomes mutually
dependent relative in their action and all the members work together to support success. There
are generally three views on the nature of act between team members in which first is normative
where group explains how to carry out performance and about the management of team. Further,
the second view involves a set of method, group building, role play, self managed groups. Lastly
the third is team dynamics (Tohidinia and Mosakhani, 2010). For example in Burberry, nature of
group is identified by the management through these views. The group members are normative
because they decide how to manage the work and secondly, management focus on building
group, role play and allows to self manage the group. Further, the team dynamics are identified
from the internal nature of the group.
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(b) Factors promoting/restricting the development of effective teamwork
Basically there are many factors which helps in promoting the development of team
work. In an similar aspect there are also some factors which restrict the development of team
work. Some of the factors along with the examples are enumerated below: Team Dynamics: These are the unconscious, psychological forces which influence the
direction of a behaviour and performance of a team. Through this team members get
diverted in a different direction (Zhang and Li, 2012). In order to strengthen the team
dynamics it is very necessary for the management to provide intrinsic factors which can
develop the team dynamics. This will help the team members to carry out effective work
so that shared goals of the organization can be achieved. However, if these dynamics are
negative than team's development get restrict and team members could not perform
effectively. Cohesiveness: The group members get linked with each other that time group
cohesiveness arises. Further, the team members development start arising when there is a
strong link between all the group members. For this purpose, management should aim to
build the strong cohesiveness so as to develop the effective team work in an organization
(Adeniyi, 2007). This is build through 4 aspects that is social relations, task relation,
perceived unity and emotions. If this is not involved in the group than this leads to
restriction of development of team work. For instance, if in Innov8 the team work is
having high group cohesiveness than the change can be brought in by the company in an
effective manner. This is because the team will work together to achieve the set task and
thus team work can be made effective.
 Communication: This is the most important factor which helps in developing the team. It
is highly necessary for the group to have proper communication in order to carry out the
task in an effective manner. However, lack of communication leads to the downturn of a
team. The team work cannot be carried out in an effective manner if there is no proper
flow of communication (Zhang and Li, 2012). In case of Burberry, there was not a proper
communication process when the company was initiating change. That time the team
work became ineffective. This way the company has to face many difficulty at the time of
change and this leads to the closure of factories.
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(c) Impact of technology on team functioning
There is a great technological changes going on in the world. This demands the regular
technological up-gradation in order to stay ahead in the industry. Similarly, team work is also
influenced by the technological changes (Mills, Bratton and Forshaw, 2006). For this aspects
management of Sony company has adopted various technological changes in order to assist the
team functioning. Its bis because Sony is a MNC and they have teams all around the world.
Some of them are discussed below:
 Tele-conferencing: In this, meeting or conference is held on a telephone. Further, this
helps in getting the work done without wasting time. Further, this also impacts the team
in a negative manner. It is because, if any part is missed ion the phone than their evidence
cannot be generated (Dion, 2012). This also does create interest among the team. Thus,
this have a negative impact more.
 Virtual Teams: The Sony company is a MNC and it has many employees working all
round the globe. Thus it is quite necessary for the company to make virtual teams so that
effective utilization of resources can be done (Allio, 2013). Further, this encourages the
team members to interact with the people who belongs to other culture and this way more
ideas can be generated. Thus, this impact the team functioning in a positive manner.
CONCLUSION
After preparing this report, it can be concluded that its is highly important for the Innov8
to assess its organizational behavior in order to cop[e up with the change. Further, the
organizational structure and culture should be selected by taking due care. Moreover, this also
conclude that leadership style should be changed as per the situation and circumstances in order
to achieve success. Furthermore, these styles have a direct impact on the motivation 0of
individual and groups. Along with that technological aspects has a major impact on the
functioning of a team.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adeniyi, M. A., 2007. Effective Leadership Management: An Integration of Styles, Skills &
Character for Today's CEOs. AuthorHouse.
Allio, R., 2013. Leaders and leadership – many theories, but what advice is reliable. Strategy &
Leadership. 41(1). pp.4 – 14.
Bergin, E., 2009. On becoming a manager and attaining managerial integrity. Leadership in
Health Services. 22(1). pp.58 – 75.
Dion, M., 2012. Ethical theories relevant for ethical leadership. Leadership & Organization
Development Journal. 33(1). pp.4 – 24.
Edgar, F., 2007. Just Work. Personnel Review. 36(6). pp.1000 – 1002.
McIntyre, M., 2007. Board of director performance: a group dynamics perspective. Corporate
Governance. 7(2). pp.209 – 224.
Mills, J. C. H., Bratton, J. and Forshaw, C., 2006. Organizational Behaviour in a Global
Context. University of Toronto Press.
Saame, I., Reino, A. and Vadi, M., 2011. Organizational culture based on the example of an
Estonian hospital", Journal of Health Organization and Management. 25(5). pp.526 – 548.
Sheard, A. G. and Kakabadse, A. P., 2004. A process perspective on leadership and team
development. Journal of Management Development. 23(1). pp. 7–106.
Taber, T., 2010. A prosocial self-concept approach to understanding organizational citizenship
behavior. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 25(7). pp.741 – 763.
Tohidinia, Z. and Mosakhani, M., 2010. Knowledge sharing behaviour and its predictors.
Industrial Management & Data Systems. 110(4). pp. 611–631.
Zhang, M. and Li, H., 2012. Performance appraisal process and organizational citizenship
behavior. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 27(7). pp.732 – 752.
Online
Cherry, K., 2016. Maslow's Needs Hierarchy. [Online]. Available through;
<http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/maslows-needs-hierarchy.htm>.
[Accessed on 19 February 2016].
Styles of Leadership. 2008. [Online]. Available through; <http://www.ustudy.in/node/6032>.
[Accessed on 19 February 2016].
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