Critical Discussion on Leadership Styles, Theories and Approaches

This essay provides a critical discussion of various leadership styles, theories, and approaches. It begins by defining leadership and its core elements, then explores different leadership styles, including democratic, autocratic, transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, and charismatic leadership. The essay delves into the characteristics and merits of each style, examining how leaders influence, inspire, and motivate individuals to achieve common goals. Furthermore, it discusses the traits of an effective leader and how aspiring leaders can improve their skills by adopting the positive aspects of different leadership models. The discussion includes situational leadership, transformational leadership (emphasizing vision and inspiration), and transactional leadership (focusing on rewards and punishments), as well as the more traditional styles of autocratic and democratic leadership. The essay also touches upon the importance of continuous learning, adaptability, and conflict resolution in leadership, concluding with a reflection on the practical application of these theories.

LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATION

ESSAY: 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Critical discussion on leadership approaches, theories and styles........................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9

ESSAY: 2
Introduction
The discussion brings out the report that critically discuss the leadership ideas. Leadership is
an projection of the personality which has the combination of persuasion and example that
can make people do what the leader actually wants them to do to execute a successful plan.
Leading is an art of influencing, inspiring, and motivating the people to perform and execute
the activity in such a manner that it can achieve a common goal. Various leadership, which I
have studied in the classes, are briefly explained below with their merits and characteristics
named as democratic leadership, autocratic leadership, transformational leadership, team
leadership, transactional leadership, laissez-faire leadership, and charismatic leadership.
Moreover, the discussion carries what traits of a person can lead him to be an effective leader.
The matter also discusses other theories and approaches that can improve leadership skills.
The report brings out how well an amateur leader can improve its traits by using the
personality traits of famous leadership theories, traits and approaches (Changing minds,
2018a).
Critical discussion on leadership approaches, theories
and styles.
A sum of several tasks involve role, responsibilities, and interpersonal skills can constitute
leadership traits. A leader might not have intelligence while solving problems but it should
possess high level of integrity and character that are equally concerned with the ends.
Effective leaders have to work endlessly and interact with the people to inspire them in an
effective and efficient manner (Solomon, Costea, and Nita, 2016). In charismatic leadership,
a leader manifests his revolutionary power. Charisma does not mean a greater change in the
behavioural traits whereas the leader is distinguishable and he transforms the believe system
of the followers by influencing the followers by his personality traits and qualities. The
personality of a charismatic leader relies on the positive charm that influences and attracts the

ESSAY: 3
followers. I always wanted to adopt multi traits of various leadership styles such as a
combination of situational leadership and a transactional leadership or a combination of
situation leadership and the charismatic leadership. A situational leader utilises a range of
different styles that depends on the external environment and best suits it. I would personally
prefer a leadership trait that would work in various cultures in the society. This leadership
recognises the front-runners who work in the globalised and contemporary market.
Organisations at the International level requires this type of leader who have excelled in
various cultures and languages.
More styles of leadership such as transformational and transactional leadership have different
set of personality traits, which I consider are important to undertake such as transformational
leader typically inspires the staff to create an environment of an intellectual stimulation.
There are certain assumptions that a transformational leader follows such as people follow a
person who strongly inspires them, a person with the vision and passion can achieve great
things. Moreover, a way to get the things done is by enforcing enthusiasm and energy. I
ardently want to follow a trait list of transformational leader who can be wonderful when
uplifting his experiences. Transformational leadership starts with the development of a vision
and with a view of future that can excite and convert the followers into his favour. The leader
or the senior team with a future perspective develops the vision and they put their passion to
achieve it everything after a series of discussion. In the next step, the transformational leader
takes energy and commitment and further grabs the opportunity to use and work on
convincing others and the team members to climb the board of achievement. In order to
become a successful leader, a person should have a clear vision of direction. Learning should
be an ongoing process that can motivate the followers to constantly listen, sooth, and
enthusiasm the followers. Transformational leader always stand visible and will stand apart
too counted rather than hiding the career. When I get a chance to become a transformational

ESSAY: 4
leader in an organisation, I would look to transform the organisational structure, if it is not up
to the mark. I would make tacit promises to my followers that would lead to positive
influence on the followers. The transformational theory states that in this process, a person
usually communicate and interact with others and are able to create a new relationship that
can result in increased motivation that should be both intrinsic and extrinsic for both leader as
well as followers.
A transactional leader have some assumptions according to the leadership studies such as
people in the transactional leadership are easily motivated by the reward and punishment.
Social system works best especially when there exist a clear and defined chain of command.
When people agree to do job, a part of their work is to impose all the responsibility to the
manager. The main purpose of subordinate is to do what the manager asks them to do. This
leader has a clear vision by creating clear structures where the subordinates require it. It is not
necessary that punishments are always mentioned but they are well understood among the
subordinates and it enforces a formal system of discipline. The initial stage of transactional
leadership is negotiating the contract where the subordinates are given salary and several
other benefits. The company through the implication of subordinate`s manager gets the
authority over the subordinates. When I as a transactional leader allocates work to the
subordinate, they are considered to be fully responsible for the tasks. To note whether the
leader has the capacity and capability to carry out resources in a right manner. Whenever the
situations get reversed or wrong, then the subordinates, which is considered as, fault
personally and can lead to punishment for the failures. I as a manager of organisational
structure uses management by exception and works on the principle that can operate
something and rinse out the accepted performance that does not need much attention.
Exceptional conditions to the expectation requires praise and reward system for exceeding the
expectations whereas, some kind of corrective actions is applied to the performance, which

ESSAY: 5
are below expectation. Transactional leadership is based on the contingency in which the
reward and punishment depends on the performance. Transactional leadership is very popular
approach with many managers. The limitation to the transactional leadership is the
assumption that it should be a “rational man” which a person is largely motivated by money
or reward system (Wilson, and Wright, 2017).
Apart from new and modernising leadership styles, there are some more common styles,
which are used from centuries such as autocratic leadership, democratic leadership and
laissez-faire leadership (Hollyer, Rosendorff, and Vreeland, 2015). Autocratic leadership is
more centred on boss. I would never have the traits where I would control my subordinates.
The best example of autocratic leadership was Hitler from the history. In this leadership, a
leader holds all the responsibility and authority. Leader makes all the decisions of the
organisation without consulting the subordinates. They reach a decision, communicate it to
the subordinates, and promote the implementation (Turnnidge, and Côté, 2018). An
autocratic business environment would normally have little or no flexibility. In autocratic
leadership, guidelines, policies, and procedures are natural traits of the personality of an
autocratic leader. Another opposing the traits of an autocratic leader is the democratic leader.
In this type of leadership, subordinates are properly involved in decision-making processes
but a democratic leader takes the final responsibility of the decisions. Moreover, a democratic
leader delegate the responsibility to authorise others to contribute to decision making that can
determine work projects (Kerzner, and Kerzner, 2017). The other most common
characteristics is that communication is both active upward as well as downward. Democratic
leadership is one of most acceptable leadership style because it entails fairness, creativity,
honesty, courage, intelligence, and competence (Burke, 2017).
According to current scenario, autocratic leadership is independent and less submissive and
imply rigidity to control the subordinates. People generally look for those jobs, which can

ESSAY: 6
satisfy their self-esteem. Moreover, every autocrat styles also brings positivity (Changing
minds, 2018b).
I am a curious person who always attempts to learn and adopt a learning and development
procedures that can give opportunities and experiences to develop the traits of the effective
leader (Antonakis, and House, 2014). I kept taking more projects together in such a way that I
could manage them all. I took only that number of projects, which I can handle. I simply
covered the concept of job description that can lead to growth in long term (Leadership-
central, 2018). I stepped out from my comfort zone that was the only way to learn something
new and form a proper development leadership strategy. A true scholar who is striving to
become a leader has problems and uncertainty. Initially, I had a sense of threat especially
when there was a chance to disagree my point by others (Dierendonck, Stam, Boersma,
Windt, and Alkema, 2014). I kept trying to keep open my mind and get an advantage of
situations. I respect others to grab the opportunity of learning and development procedures. A
good leader always sees bigger consequences of the actions that they play as actions. I learnt
to anticipate problems that could enhance the ability to handle the complex situations that
have tight deadlines (Geddes, Wright, and Frantz, 2014). A leader has the ability to foresee
and provide the suggestions accordingly to avoid the potential problems that are invaluable
for a leader. This ability allowed me to recognise the opportunities than other leaders can
overlook or subordinates do not pay attention to it. Being a recognised leader even among a
group of twenty people, a leader has the power to influence the subordinates’ style of
working (Fairhurst, and Connaughton, 2014). A leader has an influential personality. No
leader leaves the opportunity to empower its team members. Eventually, a responsible leader
should realise that to learn how to resolve conflicts. Instead of ignoring the interpersonal
conflicts in the organisation, a leader should strive to makes rules and regulation to build
team spirit among the team members and address those by assigning the tasks in teams. A

ESSAY: 7
leader should punish the workers, team members, or the wrongdoer who hampers any other
team member (McCleskey, 2014).
Conclusion
From the above discussion on various styles, theories, and approaches of the leadership. A
person can learn various positive traits, which were not kept into consideration while making
successful leadership strategy plan. A leader should always have a patiently listening capacity
to spot who is guilty among the team members. A good listener and a communicator are not
only traits to learn verbally. They have to be implemented in the traits of a leader with
suggestions, ideas, feedback, and consent from other people. Exceptionally, the leadership
theories, styles, and approaches give a sense of teachings to an amateur leader but these could
not become successful until a leader implies its practicality. Charismatic leader is made out of
authority but is made his influencing the decision making power of his behaviour. A
transactional and transformational leader transforms the organisational structure if there exist
any wrong behaviour. These leadership styles focuses on reward system and punishment to
motivate the people around them.

ESSAY: 8
References
Antonakis, J. and House, R. J., (2014) Instrumental leadership: Measurement and extension
of transformational–transactional leadership theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(4), pp.746-
771.
Burke, W.W., (2017) Organization change: Theory and practice. US: Sage Publications.
Changing minds, (2018a) Transactional Leadership. [online] Available on:
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/transactional_leadership.htm
[Accessed on 31/10/18]
Changing minds, (2018b) transformational leadership. [online] Available on:
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/transformational_leadership.htm
[Accessed on 31/10/18]
Dierendonck, D., Stam, D., Boersma, P., De Windt, N. and Alkema, J., (2014) Same
difference? Exploring the differential mechanisms linking servant leadership and
transformational leadership to follower outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(3), pp.544-
562.
Fairhurst, G.T. and Connaughton, S.L., (2014) Leadership: A communicative perspective.
Leadership, 10(1), pp.7-35.
Geddes, B., Wright, J. and Frantz, E., (2014) Autocratic breakdown and regime transitions: A
new data set. Perspectives on Politics, 12(2), pp. 313-331.
Hollyer, J.R., Rosendorff, B.P. and Vreeland, J.R., (2015) Transparency, protest, and
autocratic instability. American Political Science Review, 109(4), pp.764-784.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., (2017) Project management: a systems approach to
planning, scheduling, and controlling. US: John Wiley & Sons.

ESSAY: 9
Leadership-central, (2018) Leadership Theories. [online] Available on:
https://www.leadership-central.com/leadership-theories.html [Accessed on 31/10/18]
McCleskey, J. A., (2014) Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Solomon, I.G., Costea, C. and Nita, A.M., (2016) Leadership versus management in public
organizations. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 11(1), p.143.
Turnnidge, J. and Côté, J., (2018) Applying transformational leadership theory to coaching
research in youth sport: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Sport and
Exercise Psychology, 16(3), pp. 327-342.
Wilson, M.C. and Wright, J., (2017) Autocratic Legislatures and Expropriation Risk. British
Journal of Political Science, 47(1), pp.1-17.