Level 9 Leadership: Applying Theories and Models - Evaluation

This essay provides a critical evaluation of leadership theories and their application within organizations, focusing on the traits, behaviors, and skills necessary for effective leadership. It explores various leadership theories such as behavioral theory, contingency theory, great man theory, management theory, participative theory, and relationship theory, discussing their strengths and weaknesses. The essay also examines different leadership models and styles, including transactional leadership, and analyzes how leaders can utilize these approaches to motivate employees, improve performance, and achieve organizational goals. The importance of adapting leadership styles to different situations and the role of leaders in fostering a positive organizational culture are also highlighted.

Leadership essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Leadership theories..................................................................................................................4
Leadership models or styles....................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................12
REFRENCES...............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Leadership theories can be refer to as traits or theories that can be applied by the
organization to guide individuals, teams or companies so that goals and objectives of
the company can be achieved (Nason, Bacq and Gras, 2018). In every organization
leadership theories are being applied so that all the employees can work properly and
organizational goals can be achieved. In the essay leadership theories or traits that are
applied in the Apple company are described. Entrepreneurial theories are discussed
and what are the skills of a good leader. Qualities of good leader and how Steve Jobs
manages all the activities in the company.
MAIN BODY
Leadership is an important aspect in every organization because it helps in managing
the performance and it is essential to make leader so that work can be done on time. It
is the responsibility of a leader to give guidelines to its team members and motivate
them to complete the given work on time and work should be done efficiently. In every
organization work is given in groups so that work can be finished properly and on time.
For every group there is a team leader who gives instructions to the members about
how they have to complete their work, what are the goals and objectives of the
company that are to be achieved (Käll and et.al., 2020).
In the Apple company, Steve Jobs was the co- founder of the Apple company and
take all the necessary steps to make the organization grow and helps in building good
reputation in the market. Steve Jobs was the person who worked hard for the growth of
the company and make plans or strategies for the benefit of the organization.
Leadership theories refer to as the ability of an individual person to motivate or influence
other people to complete the work and focus on accomplishing goals and objectives of
the company. A leader plays an important role in every organization because a leader
has the ability to convince people and knows how to motivate employees so that they
can give their best.
There are some skills that are required to be a good leader are, they have the ability
to distribute work among employees, communication skills should be good, able to
convince other people , empathy and should have the ability to learn new things. These
are some qualities that that a good leader should have and they should have the

relevant skills and appropriate knowledge so that work can be done properly. Leader
should make plans or strategies that should be made so that work can be properly.
Some traits that are important for good leader are, they should have organizational
skills, follow rules and regulations, have organizational skills like, how to behave with
other people . Leadership theory plays an important role in the organization because it
helps in making plans or strategies that will help in generating more profit and it will also
help in gaining competitive advantage in the market (Klonoff, 2019).
There are leadership theories that are to be applied by the organization so that they
can focus on achieving goals and objectives. These are some theories that help the
company in generating more profit and employees are satisfied. Some of the leadership
theories that can be used by organizations for smooth running are, contingency theory,
situational leadership theory, transformational leadership theory, transactional theory,
behavioral theory, trait theory of leadership and great man theory of leadership. These
leadership theories helps managers to manage all the activities of the company and
give their best.
Leadership theories
 Behavioral theory
The behavioral leadership theory refers to how leaders behave in the
organization and how they motivate employees to complete their work. They provide
training to the employees and influence them to give their best to accomplish goals and
objectives of the company. The behavioral traits can be copied by other leaders
because it is most commonly used theories that is applied in the organization to improve
the performance of employees. According to this theory leaders are not born successful,
they learn new things and develop skills to become successful (Farhan, 2018).
Behavioral theories of leadership helps in determining that how a person
behaves. Action are more important in this theory rather than qualities of leader. Some
of the leadership styles are focusing on task, people , country club leaders and there
are many other theories that help company in improving the performance of employees.
The actions and actual behaviors of leaders defines what is success for the organization
and make plans or strategies that will be beneficial for the future growth of company.
Behavioral theory is a psychological framework which helps in examining and explain

human beings. The behavioral theory is having many benefits like the leaders can learn
new things, develop skills and decide what actions they should implement so that they
can become the leader they want to be. It helps leaders to be flexible and adapt all the
changes and handle all the situations. They should try to find out creative solutions of
the problem and helps in smooth running of the business. The biggest benefit of
leadership theory is that it helps in giving suggestions how to behave. Few
disadvantages of this theory is that it is flexible and it is not giving any idea about how to
act in a particular situation (Smulowitz, Rousseau and Bromiley, 2020).
 Contingent theory
The contingency theory of leadership focus on the behaviour of leader. It
identifies that how a leader takes decision in certain situations and what is the effect of
the situation on leader. This theory helps in determining that whether a leader gets
success or not. The personality of the leader does not affect much but the behaviour of
leader to handle the problem is important. This theory tells that how a leader has to
adjust in every situation and also helps in finding the best way to solve the problem.
(Bettinazzi, Massa and Neumann, 2020).
There are different kinds of contingency theory include Hershey and Blanchard’s
situational theory, the Evans and house path goal theory, and fiedler’s contingency
theory. There are many factors that affect the plans or strategies made by leader and
motivate leaders to deal with every situation. External factors for a leader can be what
type of organization it is, leadership style used by them, size of the firm and changes in
market.
 Great man theory
The great man theory can be refer to as some people develop skills which help them in
becoming a good leader. Some people are not born with the qualities or skills that are
essential for becoming a good leader. There are other traits which are responsible for
assuming positions of power and authority. According to this theory a person is not born
with the necessary skills or traits, they develop qualities after sometime. This approach
emphasis “ charismatic leadership”, the word charisma means gift in Greek. In this great
man theory a leader calls for certain qualities such as, courage, intelligence,
commanding personality, charm, aggressiveness. One of the negative point of this

approach is that all the people who have all the qualities of becoming leaders. As Steve
Jobs was not having all the qualities to become good leader but he develop skills and
enhance his knowledge by analysing the need in the market. Some skills he was having
like, having the ability to influence other people and knows that how to motivate other
people (Du and et.al., 2020).
In the company he make some strategies to attract employees so that they can
perform well and complete the work on time. The person who becomes good leader
work hard and they have some skills from the beginning but some qualities they develop
while they are working. For becoming a good leader, a person should possess some
qualities that are essential for the benefit of organization. All the necessary decisions
are taken by leaders for growth of company and for accomplishing goals of
organization.
 Management theory
This theory is also known as transactional theory, which focuses on the role of
supervision, development of organization and how to improve the performance of
employees. This approach helps in making plans or strategies for the betterment of the
company, rewards and punishments are given to workers so that they can focus on
achieving organizational goals. According to this theory when employees are doing well
they are given rewards such as, bonus , incentive, or any other benefit which will help
employee in satisfying them. If workers are not performing well then punishment is
given to them so that they can improve their performance. This helps in motivating
employees to give their best and training is provided so that they can improve their
performance by learning new things and develop skills which help them in
accomplishing targets of the company (Kanat-Maymon, Elimelech and Roth, 2020).
 Participative theory
In this leadership theory members of the team are involved in decision making
process but the final decision is of the leader. In this theory all the members are
involved in taking decisions and this will create good environment. This theory helps in
satisfying employees as they are considered as a part of organization. Advantages of
participative leadership style is that it helps in boosting confidence of employees and
motivate them to work hard for accomplishing targets of the organization. This theory

helps in increasing employees acceptance of decisions as sometimes workers give
better ideas because they know more about choice of people (Kao, 2018).
In Apple company all the members are free to share their views and they are
involved in decision making process. In the organization all the employees are having
right to have speak and they give ideas that are applied by companies for future growth
and to satisfy employees. Participative leadership encourages collaboration as when
employees are having good ideas then managers can take decision for collaboration
with other company. This will help in increasing efficiency of the organization and builds
good image in the market. This theory encourages workers to give suggestions and
facilitates free flow of ideas (Dixon, 2020).
This theory decreases competition among employees because all are given
equal opportunity to share their views. It increases morale of employees as they feel
motivated that they are being involved in the process of decision making. Some
disadvantages of this theory is that it requires lot of time and energy, workers may have
less knowledge and they are not able to give good suggestions. Training and
development sessions are required to improve the performance of employees and it
also helps in increasing overall productivity of the company.
 Relationship theory
Relationship theory of leadership refer to as relationship or connection that is formed
between leaders and followers. In this type of theory leaders motivate people by making
groups and giving task so that they can enhance their learning skills. Steve Jobs
maintain good relationship with his team members and make policies to attract them.
He gives his best so that employees can be satisfied and encourage workers to share
their views or any problem they are facing. It is important for leaders to make good
relationship with members to make them familiar with culture of the company and create
a friendly environment. Leaders are made so that they can solve the problems of
employees and influence them to focus on accomplishing organizational goals
(Kodama, 2019).

Leadership models or styles
There are some leadership models or styles that can be applied by the
organization so that proper working and employees can complete their work on time. It
helps in completing the task and leaders give instructions to employees for how to
achieve goals and objectives of the company.
Transactional leadership – Transactional leadership is a style that refers to the style in
which employees are given rewards as well as punishments for the work done by them.
Leaders measure the performance of every employee by comparing the actual work
with the standards that are set and then identify that which employee is not doing the
work properly. In this leadership style leaders want that everyone should give their best
and contribute in achieving goals and objectives of the company. Leaders want that all
the team members should work hard and try to accomplish target of organization. This
style is also known as managerial leadership because in this leaders play role of
supervisors and monitor the performance of employees. In this leadership style,
leaders evaluate the performance of employees and guide them how they can improve
their performance (McFadden, 2021).
Leaders should provide training to employees so that they can work better and achieve
goals of the company. It’s advantage is that in this leadership style confusion and
guesswork are eliminated, because tasks are clearly defined and employees have to
work accordingly. It’s disadvantage is that due to the rigid environment and
expectations, as there is change in technology so leaders should make plans according
to that (Mouton, 2019).
Transformational leadership – Transformational leadership refers to business or
groups in which they lead employees by influencing their employees to innovate. In this
leadership style leaders make changes in the working style of employees and try to find
best ways by which things can be done . In this style leaders make plans or strategies
for the development of the company, they inspire and empower other people to own
their work. It is a theory of leadership where a leader works with teams or groups so that
gaols can be achieve. Transformational leadership, in this leaders has the ability to
establish a high level of trust with employees and motivate them to achieve on goals

and objectives of the company. Its disadvantage is that when environment is changing
then leaders have to make plans accordingly and they should know how to handle the
situation and find creative solution for the problem (Campion and Campion, 2019).
Democratic leadership – Democratic leadership refers to participative leadership in
which employees are influenced to complete the work on time and should work
efficiently. In this more members are involved to take part in the activities of
organization and they are involved in decision making process. Employees are having
rights to give suggestions for the beneficial of the company and also give ideas that will
help the company in gaining competitive advantage in the market. Democratic
leadership helps organization in satisfying employees and workers are given rights t
take their decision on their own (Ali, 2021).
In this leadership style, groups are made of employees by the managers and a leader is
made so that goals can be achieved. A leader should have the ability to convince
employees and they can take decisions on their own if required. In this style leaders
give freedom to its members and they are more involved in decision making so that new
ideas can be generated. Democratic in leadership is important because it is effective
when a leader is working with highly experience workers then they should give some
powers or rights to members so that new ideas can be generated (Nielsen and et.al.,
2019).
Autocratic leadership – Autocratic leadership refers to the management style in which
one person has control over the company and an individual person is responsible for
taking all the decisions for the benefit of the company. These leaders make decisions
according to their own point of view , they do not take any suggestion from other people.
In this leadership style leaders do not delegate powers to employees and they cannot
take decisions on their own. Employees have to make decisions after consulting with
their leaders and they cannot take decisions without asking to leaders. In this all the
control is in hands of leaders and they manage all the activities. They make policies,
rules and regulations, according to that instructions are given to team members. All the
workers have to follow instructions given by leader they cannot give ideas or not having
right to work according to their own choice (Glambek, Skogstad and Einarsen, 2018).

Bureaucratic leadership – In this leadership style it refers to organizational leadership
through which they set a formalized set of process, procedures, rules, regulations and
structures. In this style leaders set standards for employees which they have to achieve
and also shows ways to members by which they can accomplish goals and objectives of
the company. It is a system in which employees are made to follow rules and
regulations for betterment of company and lines of authority are clearly defined so that
employees did not face any problem (Donkor and Zhou, 2020).
This leadership style is applied by some companies in which proper rules are made and
followed by everyone. It also helps in creating good environment in the organization and
also helps in satisfying employees which builds good image of company in the market.
Some disadvantages of bureaucratic leadership are, it has a structure which is to be
followed by all members, it can be a challenge for increasing productivity, in this
leadership style, decisions are based on cost structures, it does not offer freedom or
creativity because employees are not having right to share their views or they cannot
decision on their own without asking to their leaders.
Laissez faire leadership – Laissez faire leadership refers to the leader who take few
decisions and rest of the decisions are taken by the team members according to the
situation. This leadership is effective in which supervisors are highly skilled and they
give instructions to employees in starting so that employees know what they have to do,
when workers know what work they have to do then they take decisions according to
the requirement and they did not consult with their leaders (Glambek, Skogstad and
Einarsen, 2018). Some advantages of this leadership style are, it helps in maximising
skills of team members, it provides freedom to employees and they can take decision
according to their choice, it creates good environment in the company. Few
disadvantages are, leaders are not involved in any activity, employees make wrong use
of freedom and sometimes they take wrong decisions , it is difficult to handle changing
situations.
In the Apple company, democratic leadership is applied as it helps in satisfying
employees and motivate workers to perform well. In democratic leadership style leaders
delegate their powers to its group members and give rights to employees so that they

can take decisions on their own. In this leaders tell employees that they can do
whatever they want to do but it should be for the benefit of the company. All the
employees should focus on achieving goals and objectives of the company. In
democratic leadership all the employees are having rights to speak and share their
views. In the company all the workers are having right to share their views and give
ideas for the development of the organization. It is important to have leader so that
employees can get proper guidelines to complete their work (Siangchokyoo, Klinger
and Campion, 2020).
Democratic leadership helps company in satisfying employees and as workers
can take decisions on their own which will be beneficial for the company. Some leaders
also apply autocratic leadership in which leaders do not delegate the powers to the
employees and workers are not having any right so they are not satisfied. Due to this
employees leave the company and this is not good for anyone. Autocratic leadership
style helps in maintain proper balance in the company. As in the autocratic leadership
leaders make policies and procedures, and decides what employees have to do for
achieving goals and objectives of the organization. In the Apple company Steve Jobs
acts as a leader and control all the activities of the company, make strategies or plans
for the development of industry and motivate employees so that they can give their best
to accomplish organizational goals (Breevaart and Zacher, 2019).
Steve jobs gives his best in achieving goals of the company, he makes good
plans and strategies to attract customers. Before making plans he conduct market
analysis and identify that what type of products customer wants and ask employees
also that if they have any idea or suggestion for making new products. After analysing
the need and requirement of customer they make products which was according to the
demand of customers and satisfy them. They make improvements in policies and
procedures, ways of working or plans that were made to achieve goals, influence
workers to focus on accomplishing objectives (Blomberg, 2020).
In this type of leadership style, all the control is in hands of leaders and they
manage all the activities of the company. Members of the team cannot take decision
without consulting with leaders and they are not allow to give suggestions which is a

negative point because it creates dissatisfaction among employees and increases
absenteeism which is not a good thing.
CONCLUSION
From the report it can be concluded that, leadership plays a crucial role in every
organization. As a leader gives instructions or guidelines to employees for what they
have to do and what are the ways to achieve goals and objectives of the company.
There are many leadership theories that can be applied by the organization such as,
behavioral theory, contingency theory, great man theory, management theory,
participative theory, power theory and relationship theory. There are some leadership
models like, transactional, transformational, democratic, autocratic, laissez faire
leadership are described.