Leadership Styles (Part I)

Leadership style varies depending on how decisions are made on a business. A leader might be making decision alone or in association with people. Some leadership styles also provide authority to its people to make decision. Let’s take following cases to clarify concepts of various leadership patterns.

Case I: Mrs. Paula owns a shopping mart. She does not prefer to discuss or share anything with her staffs with regard to problem or progress in the mart. The only thing she thinks is she has to yell at the staffs to make them work better and command her staffs each time what they got to do. Tim, the manager at the mart is experienced for years and he is always annoyed for her shouting at him. He and some of his co-workers are looking for job elsewhere.     

 Case II: Mr. Sam is the principal at a school. Since his appointment as a principal, number of students attending the school has been dramatically increased. He develops frequent seminars and meetings with his staffs so that they can be well communicated on the school’s situation. Before making any decision, he develops a discussion table with the relevant staffs. There have been lots of changes in schools since he became the principal. However, he gives credits to relevant staffs whose creativity came forth for the change. Sam has explained the success of school is not only for his effort but also for the efforts of all his team members.

Case III: Mr. Edward owns a small petrol station. His two sons, one daughter along with 3 other staffs work with him. However, the business is under his sole ownership. Last year, he added a workshop for repairing automobiles. Before deciding to open the workshop, he asked for opinion of his sons and daughter for expansion option. His daughter suggested him to add a retail selling additional lubricants required for vehicles. Both on his sons asked him to add on taxi service to serve local people nearby. He listened to all but he made the decision by himself and added the workshop hiring three mechanics as his additional staffs.

Case IV: Miss April has expanded her business to various industries. She owns a retail shop, a diamond shop, a real state and a travel agency. Recently, she took over a bakery house. For the bakery house, she appointed Mr. William and other 3 other people whom she has given whole responsibility to make it a success. All are MBA graduate. Mr. William got specialization in hotel management while others have specializations in other different fields. They have been given full authority to make any decision on their own including hiring of any staffs required. But she outlined the bakery should only be targeting to provide quality items to 4-star or above hotels. Mr. William is so much enthusiast to use his creativity and his decision making power. However, other three are anxious for the extended freedom. They think they neither will have any guidance nor will have any feedback for his work from Miss April. 

Now, let’s analyse all the cases outlined above. ‘Case I’ is case of autocratic leadership style. Paula seems to be authoritarian leader. She has been making decision alone without anyone’s consent. ‘Case II’ refers to democratic leadership style. Mr. Sam is making the decision in consultation with his people. In ‘case III’, Edward listens to his people but makes decision on his own. So, it is the case of paternalist leadership. ‘Case IV’ shows freedom in making decision given a limit of dealing with 4-star or above hotels only. Here, even Miss April has given authority to Mr. William and other three people in making decision within the given limit. Thus there is ‘Laissez- Faire’ style of leadership.

The clue comes over here. Specific leadership style might not be clearly said but implied. CIE A-level Business candidates are required to identify which specific leadership style the case is dealing with.

Note that: Case III is just for simple understanding. CIE A-level Business has not included paternalist leadership in the syllabus. However, CIE A-level candidate can add on that concept in his writing.

CIE A-level Business might also be asking advantages and disadvantages for a leadership style adopted in the case. CIE A-level Business candidate should make sure not to escape what is given in the case along with other possible answers. Such references improve the score in CIE.

Referring to above ‘case I’, with autocratic leadership of Mrs. Paula, Tim and some of his co-workers are leaving the shopping mart. That outlines demotivated staffs as a disadvantage of that leadership style. Similarly, in ‘case II’, with democratic leadership style, Mr. Edward is able to use creativity of staffs for the business success. Most probably, the staffs are motivated for proper communication and consultation in making-decision. Referring to ‘case IV’, for ‘Laissez-fair’ style of leadership, people are motivated to work for freedom to work. Mr. William seems highly motivated to use his creativity and most probably reach self-actualisation. That can be added as advantages for the leadership style. On the other hand, the disadvantages can be outlined with reference to other three people who are anxious for lack of confidence for their doing due to no guidance and feedback provided.  

(‘Leadership Styles - Part II’ will be posted soon.)