Comprehensive Analysis of Leadership Styles, Advantages and Theories

This essay provides an overview of leadership, defining it as a process of influence aimed at achieving organizational goals. It differentiates between formal and informal leadership, outlining how leaders can exert authority formally or through personal influence. Various leadership styles are discussed, including autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, persuasive, and consultative, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. The essay also explores prominent leadership theories such as trait, behavioral, contingency, and situational theories, and touches upon entrepreneurial and transactional leadership. The document concludes with a list of references.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Leadership is a process where the leader influences other in order to successfully accomplish
the goals and objectives of the organization. They are coherent and cohesive and help the
employees to smoothly complete the task and deal with the various challenges (Antonakis &
Day, 2017).
Formal Leadership
 Happens when a leader leads by exercising formal authority.
 Any manager or employee who is a leader has the reasonability and opportunity to
practice formal leadership.
Informal Leadership
 Occurs when an individual is influential without any formal responsibility or
authority. An individual becomes an influencer or a leader through his personal
attractions and actions (Daft, 2014).
Leadership styles
1. Autocratic– Leader centric. Leader takes all the decisions. Do not entertain
suggestions. People have high degree of dependency on this leader.
2. Democratic- Encourages new ideas. Encourages member commitment in taking the
final decision
3. Laissez faire- The leader gives the authority to his employees to make decisions.
Leader takes the final call.
4. Persuasive- Leaders convince, influence the subordinates.

2LEADERSHIP
5. Consultative- Leaders consult with the employees and ask specific people for their
opinion and ask them to solve the challenges (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy,
2014).
Advantages and disadvantages
Disadvantages
 The resource and training provided is not productive.
 Fosters a clash of personalities
 Accountability
 Group isolation
Advantages
 Personal branding
 Influence
 Guide
 Motivates employee
 Improve performance
Theories of leadership
1. Trait theory
2. Behavioral theory
3. Contingency theory
4. Situational theory

3LEADERSHIP
Entrepreneurial leadership
A charismatic individual inspiring other people to do business with him. Interested in dealing
with customers. Dislikes bureaucratic rules.
Transactional leadership
When followers and leaders are in some kind of exchange relationship for meeting the needs
(Hackman & Johnson, 2013).

4LEADERSHIP
Reference
Antonakis, J., & Day, D. V. (Eds.). (2017). The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Daft, R. L. (2014). The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2013). Leadership: A communication perspective.
Waveland Press.
Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in
management, 7(2), 57.