Anthropological Accounts of Leadership

Question: How should the leader deal with the situation? Answer: The leader of your client organization has observed a lack of flexibility and a slow decision-making process in many of the departments. He believes that he is not serving his customers well, and has decided to move to a team environment and to push many of the decisions to the lowest possible levels. In other words, he wants to create a team-based, empowered organization. Several of his best managers are resisting the idea strongly. They not only feel that many employees are not ready for the change, but they also believe that they personally could never change from a "command and control" style to allowing more participation. According to the given situation been stated there was a lack in the decision making system policy of the organization as a whole. He was not been able to serve his customers well. He suggested to move the management system to a team oriented business strongly but to which many of the employees had opposed because they felt that they are not ready for such a change and also they felt that this sort of change was very commanding. The leader should deal with this kind of situation very tactfully. He should go for developing his own leadership styles so that the employees can be able to work and exist in the various work environments and can also adjust accordingly. The culture and goals of an organization determine which leadership style fits the firm best. Some companies offer several leadership styles within the organization, dependent upon the necessary tasks to complete and departmental needs. There are mainly five types of leadership styles which a leader may choose according to the type of the organization and then this can help in taking and managing the decisions of a company as a whole (Edwards, 2014). Here the leader had chosen laissez faire style of leadership which means that the entire system did lack from direct supervision of the employees and also the system had mainly failed to provide with regular feedback to the employees who were in need of supervision and guidance from their leaders. It is not mandatory that all the employees will fall under this style of leadership style but still there are few employees as well. It is the responsibility of the leader to strictly follow up for those employees. This style of leadership hinders production of employees that need strict supervision. The laissez faire style needs no leadership or supervision efforts from their managers or the senior level people as well (He, 2013). This leads to poor production, lack of control as well as the increasing costs associated with it. The leader is been suggested to follow autocratic type of leadership that will allow the managers to make self-decisions alone without taking any such input from others as well. Here in this type the managers possess total authority and also impose their will on the employees as well. No one is able to challenge the decisions of the managers that have been taken. This style of leadership also requires close attention as well as supervision. The creative employees who are able to thrive in group functions detest this type of leadership style (Parker Welch, 2013). As an effective leader he must persuade his managers by involving the transformational type of leadership to its employees. The transformational leadership style depends on high levels of communication from management to meet goals. Leaders motivate employees and enhance productivity and efficiency through communication and high visibility. This style of leadership requires the involvement of management to meet goals. Leaders focus on the big picture within an organization and delegate smaller tasks to the team to accomplish goals (Zhu, Newman, Miao Hooke, 2013). References Edwards, G. (2014). Anthropological accounts of leadership: Historical and geographical interpretations from indigenous cultures.Leadership. doi:10.1177/1742715014536920 He, H. (2013). Participative Leadership and Follower Creativity: Do Different Types of Trust Play Different Roles?.Academy Of Management Proceedings,2013(1), 12324-12324. doi:10.5465/ambpp.2013.12324abstract Parker, M., Welch, E. (2013). Professional networks, science ability, and gender determinants of three types of leadership in academic science and engineering.The Leadership Quarterly,24(2), 332-348. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.01.001 Raelin, J. (2014). Imagine there are no leaders: Reframing leadership as collaborative agency.Leadership. doi:10.1177/1742715014558076 The 13th international studying leadership conference (ISLC). (2014).Leadership,10(2), 261-262. doi:10.1177/1742715014529687 Zhu, W., Newman, A., Miao, Q., Hooke, A. (2013). Revisiting the mediating role of trust in transformational leadership effects: Do different types of trust make a difference?.The Leadership Quarterly,24(1), 94-105. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.08.004