Leadership Styles: Analysis of Autocratic, Laissez Faire, etc.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of four key leadership styles – Autocratic, Laissez Faire, Transactional, and Transformational – within the context of the National Health Service (NHS). It examines each style's characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages, offering real-world examples to illustrate their application in healthcare settings. The report explores how these leadership styles impact nursing staff, decision-making processes, and overall organizational effectiveness. It discusses the roles of registered nurses as leaders and the implications of each leadership approach on employee motivation, productivity, and the ability to adapt to changing environments. The analysis includes critical evaluations of each style, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses, and considers the influence of leaders on achieving both personal and organizational goals.

Discuss and analyse the
use of the following 4
leadership styles

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Discuss and analyse the use of the following 4 leadership styles ...................................................1
Authoritarian/Autocratic Leadership..........................................................................................1
Laissez Faire Leadership.............................................................................................................2
Transactional Leaders.................................................................................................................3
Transformational Leadership......................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers to the process of influencing an individual for accomplishing their
goals in a specified time period. With the help of effective leadership, organisation can achieve
their pre determined objectives in an effective manner. Leadership plays very important role in
every sector as leader sets clear vision, motivates and encourage employees throughout the
working process. Health care environment is very complex and dynamic in nature as leadership
skills is required to perform their activities effectively. In this present report, NHS has been
chosen as the base company. NHS was launched by Aneurin Bevan in the year 1948, in order to
meet the requirements of needy people free of cost. NHS provide various kinds of support and
services to their patients (Abdelhafiz, Alloubani, and Almatari, 2016). In this project report,
majorly four types of leadership styles are followed by leaders(registered nurses) in health care
sector. Such leadership styles are Autocratic, Laissez Faire, transactional and transformational
leadership. Leadership styles of leaders plays very essential as well as crucial role in the overall
development of the company. With the help of leadership style, leaders can easily influence the
working of an employee in order to achieve organisational goals. Along with this, leaders
motivate the staff members by giving them financial or non-financial rewards and incentives in
order to work effectively. With reference to healthcare sector, all these leadership style has been
discussed in detail in this report.
Discuss and analyse the use of the following 4 leadership styles
Authoritarian/Autocratic Leadership
Authoritarian/Autocratic Leadership: Under the autocratic leadership style, leaders have
full power and command over their staff. Nursing staff of the organisation have no right to put
forward their views and opinions even if it is beneficial for the company. Leaders of the
organisation takes decision and staff members need to follow them. This can be well understood
with the help of an example where leader (registered nurse) of NHS decides everything in
advance, give orders and communicate it to all their junior team members. Staff members of
NHS are not allowed to criticise and ask anything if they face any trouble while implementing
leaders decision (Arnold and et. al., 2015). Under this style of leadership, workers or other staff
members work according to the guidance of leader. In addition to this, punishment and negative
reinforcement should be given to those who do not follow the rules properly. On the other hand it
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has been analysed that registered nurse of NHS instruct their subordinates to follow their
instructions while performing their assign task.
Team leader is a person who mainly provide instruction, guidance and supervision to a
group of people in order to achieve their organisational goal effectively. There are various roles a
nurse played as a team leader which normally includes to make every necessary things available
when it is required. Along with this, it is their duty to guide and direct the new staff in order to
perform their assigned tasks and responsibilities (Antonakis and Day, 2017).
Further, autocratic style of leadership has been critically analysed. One of biggest
advantage of this leadership style is it leads to speedy decision-making process as well as under
the guidance of leader, productivity of nursing staff has been increased. Also this type of
leadership style is highly effective at the time of emergencies or complex situations where there
is less time in order to take decision. On the other hand, one of the major drawback of this
leadership style is that it leads to high absenteeism of staff members as well as increase in
nursing staff turnover. The person in clinical sector who adopts autocratic leadership style is
Gerry Robinson. For example in an autocratic leadership style, in a health care sector, one of the
registered nurse while performing work, they order their juniors and does not take any kind of
suggestions in return. As a result, it will demotivate other nurses while working in the
organisation. In such situation it is the responsibility of the nurse to lead their juniors and trained
them about how they should work.
Laissez Faire Leadership
Laissez Faire Leadership: In the Laissez Faire leadership style, leader have full trust on
their staff members skills, capabilities and experience. It is the style where leaders provide little
or no supervision to their nursing staff in order to perform their task in an effective manner. In
context to NHS, before adopting leadership style, they must first build an effective, skilled and
responsible team. A Laissez Faire leadership style is more suitable when registered nurse is in
charge of a well trained and experienced team. As a result, such team do not need any kind of
directions or guidance from their leader (Choi, Kim and Kang, 2017). In the present context of
NHS, leader give full right and freedom to their staff members in order to implement their assign
duties and task. This type of leadership style increases trust and loyalty among staff members
and the leader of organisation. In addition to this, nursing staff of the organisation get the liberty
to work in a manner they want to do it, without any direction or supervision of the registered
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nurse. In this leadership style, staff members are responsible for all the decision, they set goals
and objectives as well solve issues on their own basis arise while performing their duties.
In a healthcare sector, various roles has to be played by a nurse as a team leader. Team
leader of an organisation in such cases, do not direct their staff. In addition to this, they give
freedom to their staff in order to perform their duties in an effective manner. Such leadership
style is effective only when nursing staff of organisation is well educated, experienced and
highly skilled.
As per the above mentioned, Laissez Faire has been critically analysed where both
strength and weakness of such leadership style has been examined. One of biggest strength of
this leadership style, is that they provide freedom to their staff in order to work on the basis of
their past experience, skills and educational qualification (Hughes, 2015). This will bring new
and innovative ways to perform their task effectively without the guidance of leader. As a result,
staff members of the organisation give their best result. On the other hand, one of the major
drawback in leaders (registered nurses) who have adopted this leadership style is that there
chosen staff members are completely new at workplace. Thus, its not possible for these workers
to manage their work within provided time limit. As a result, it might bring negative outcome for
healthcare sector with extra ordinary freedom of performing their work on the basis of their past
experience. The leader that adopts laissez faire in the clinical department is Louise Houson. For
example in Laissez Faire leadership style, registered nurse working in a health care sector, give
opportunity to their staff members to perform freely. This will motivate them to perform their
task in an effective manner. In such situation, efficiency of staff members will be increased if
registered nurse shows full trust.
Transactional Leaders
Transactional Leaders: Leaders who follows transactional leadership style, provide
rewards and encourage their staff to perform effectively. This is a straightforward style of
leadership where leaders mainly focuses on work, rewards and results. In this type of leadership
style, leaders mainly focuses to keep everything perfect in the present and do not focuses on the
future performance of the organisation. In addition to this, leaders (registered nurses) pays
special attentions to the mistakes performed by staff members (Kim and Cruz, 2016). As a result,
according to the performance leader provide rewards as well as punishment to the staff members.
These rewards can be financial or non-financial. This type of leadership style is adopted by
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leaders when they mainly focuses on results along with the performance. In various cases
positive performance means more money through bonus or in some other cases punishment for
poor performance of staff members.
In a healthcare sector, nurses as a team leader plays various role. Team leader of the
organisation give proper direction to their employees in order to perform their assigned tasks and
duties. Also, it is the responsibility of a nurse as a team leader, to properly evaluate the working
performance of each and every staff members on a regular basis.
As per the above mentioned, transactional leadership style has been critically examined.
In addition to this both positive or negative outcome has been analysed. One of the biggest
strength of this leadership style, is leaders give positive incentives or rewards which might
motivate employees to increase their productivity (Larsson, Eriksson and et. al., 2015). Also,
leaders evaluate the performance of each staff members on a regular basis and set goals and
objectives for them. On the other hand, negative outcome of this leadership style is that they
punish those employees who are unable to meet the set objectives. In addition to this, Self
motivated staff members of an organisation considered it as an interference between their
working. The person who is a transactional leader is Fiona Marshall that is a head of discovery
research facility in Medicare. For example in transactional leadership style, registered nurse
working in a health care sector, provides rewards to those employees who perform well in the
organisation. In such situation, staff members of the health care sector motivate to perform their
work in an effective manner. As a result they will get financial as well as non-financial benefits.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational Leadership: At last, leader who follow transformational leadership
style encourage employees to perform their assigned task within given time duration. They are
the leaders who motivate staff members to perform their task beyond expectations, as a result
efficiency of the nursing staff can be increased. In context to NHS, Leaders (registered nurses)
encourage their followers to perform their assigned task and duties in an effective manner. For
this they encourage their staff members to give their best and bring positive outcome rather then
negative. By such leadership style, leaders encourage the staff members of an organisation to
deal with complex and changing environment effectively. In transformational leadership style
leader motivates and encourage staff members to adopt the changing environment effectively. As
a result, with the help of leaders encouragement, it is quite easy for the nursing staff to easily
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adapt the changing culture. This can be seen as the positive influence on the performance of
employee (Merrill, 2015).
In a healthcare sector, nurse as a team leader plays very important role as they direct,
supervise or guide the staff members. One of the major role perform by the team leader is they
encourage their staff members in order to perform their assign task effectively. As a result by
proper guidance or direction performance of nursing staff can be enhanced.
As per the above mentioned, transformational leadership style has been critically
examined where both advantage and disadvantage of such leadership style has been evaluated.
One of major advantage of this leadership style, is that employees of the organisation are highly
motivate to adopt the changing environment. As a result, with the encouragement of leader
(registered nurses) staff members easily adapt the changing culture, and perform according to the
requirement of external environment. On the other hand, changes in outer environment, might
affect the performance or productivity level of staff in a negative manner. Also, sometimes
leaders negatively influence staff members so that they can achieve their personal goals rather
than accomplishing organisational goals (Monzani, Ripoll and Peiró, 2015). The
transformational leader in this sector is Rachel Dunscombe who is a chief Executive at NHS
Digital Academy. She is one of the most experienced and accomplished leaders in digital
transformation of NHS services. She is a transformational leader who treat the employees very
well and guides her subordinates in performing their tasks in an effective manner. For example in
transformational leadership style, the high authority nurses or registered nurse working in a
health care sector, motivates their employees to perform assigned task in an effective manner. In
such situation, health care sector registered nurse motivate staff members on a regular basis, so
that they can perform in an effective manner.
As per the above analysis, it has been examined that best suitable leadership style for the
organisation is Laissez Faire. In this style of leadership, leader have full trust on the skills,
experiences and capabilities of staff members of the company. Also this is the style where
leaders provide little or no direction, guidance or supervision to their nursing staff in order to
perform their task effectively.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned it has been concluded that, leadership plays very essential
role while achieving organisational goals in effective manner. Healthcare sector is complex in
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nature and require constant changes in the leadership style of leader. There are various types of
leadership style which has been examined in this report. These leadership styles includes
Autocratic, Laissez Faire, transactional and transformational leadership style. An examination
has been conducted on different leadership styles as provided in the report. In addition to this,
critical analysis of these leadership styles have helped in understanding the best suitable style of
leadership. As a result, Laissez Faire leadership style is adopted by leaders (registered nurses) of
the chosen organisation. With the help of this leadership style, leaders encourage their staff by
giving them freedom to speak and bring their thought in action. Along with this, by improving
the productivity of their staff members, company can increase their stability at the competitive
marketplace. With this, leaders of healthcare sector increase their profitability along with market
share.
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