Management And Leadership Styles:
Organizational culture is affected by a lot of different management and leadership styles. These factors help a company move towards a better position where the company tends to achieve its goals more effectively (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). Managers adopt different management styles in different scenarios. Successful managers and leaders have a lot of flexibility in adopting these styles. Different organizational situations require the manager to adopt an appropriate style. No matter what type of management/leadership style a manager adopts, creating integrity and prosperity in the company is the key purpose of success (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). Here, a discussion is made about the effects of management and leadership styles on the overall organizational culture.
Autocratic:
In the autocratic management style, the manager gives commands to employees about what they should do. If the employees do not work according to the commands, they face consequences for the activity (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). In this style, employees are motivated by the fear of following commands and discipline. Companies give clear policies for employees to follow. In this style, management does not tend to hear any feedback from employees. In an organizational culture, this type of style creates a situation where employees feel like they are not a part of the company and that they depend on management to take on the processes. It leads to a negative impact on the sustainability of the organization’s culture. It also affects the ability of employees to develop innovative ideas for the company, and the culture of the company is highly affected by this. This means that the culture will be the outcome of management ideas only, which may be good or bad.
However, this type of style also enhances the culture because management gives clear instructions to the employees on what needs to be achieved. It also brings rapid responses and outcomes from the employees by focusing on the tasks they are given.
Consultative:
The consultative style differs from the autocratic style. In this style, management gets feedback from the employees and involves them in its decision-making. It helps to develop a relationship between employees and management, where both entities share their thoughts and processes. However, management only takes feedback from the employees and makes decisions on its own (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). An organization’s culture is greatly affected by the consultative style, where the employees feel more motivated towards the job and bring productive outcomes. It also improves the culture by giving employees the ability to say what they think. It ultimately affects the workflow and the company’s culture. The consultative style develops a positive culture where the employees can come directly to the managers at any time to talk about the issues concerning them (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015).
Persuasive:
In this style, management is still making decisions for the company but lets the employees know about the benefits of the decision. As the word says, management tries to let employees know that what it is doing is right and why it is right (Saeed et al., 2014). Instead of asking the employees, management tells them that it is right and that they should also think the same way. This type of management affects the culture diversely, where the employees will need to adopt what management has imposed on them. Every person has a different opinion, and practicing a persuasive style makes the employees feel that they have no right to say anything. It can lead to a negative side of the company’s culture because the persuasive style creates a bad manager/employee relationship (Saeed et al., 2014).
Chaotic:
As the word suggests, in this style, the manager or leader gives authority to the employees in decision-making. It depends on the long- and short-term decisions that the employee needs to make when given the authority. The chaotic style often leads to chaos in the culture of the organization, as the employees might not have the proper skills and experience to make decisions (Saeed et al., 2014). It has its positive aspects as well, depending on the situation where a group is working on any task. The culture of the company is affected positively in the short term, but in the longer term, it can lead to role confusion and inappropriate skills for making decisions (Saeed et al., 2014).
Laissez-faire:
This style of management tells us that a manager works more like a mentor than a leader or manager. Managers engage equally in the tasks employees are working on, and employees also take guidance from their managers. In a cultural context, it creates collaboration between the employees and managers (Chan, Sit & Lau, 2014). It is also able to produce creative results, where profitability is maximized. It creates a culture where employees think they are independent in certain situations and can move forward without any fear. This type of management style also has the effect of less monitoring being done by management towards its employees and improves the sustainability of the organization’s culture (Chan, Sit & Lau, 2014). Employees tend to be creative and productive, which improves their motivational and physical strength. This type of management style helps the culture of an organization develop a friendly environment, which improves the functioning of the company.
Transactional:
In this type of leadership style, the manager/leader tends to give rewards or punishments for certain tasks performed by the employees. It creates a good impression on the culture when rewards are given to employees and can lead to negative aspects when a leader punishes an employee (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014). However, the business is taken forward by both the leader and the employees. They set goals where the employee agrees to follow the leader’s criteria to achieve goals. In transactional leadership, training is also provided to the employees if they do not meet the targets, and bonuses are given when the target is achieved. It imposes a threat to the culture where the employees might seem stressed, and effects are imposed on their workflow. However, it can also improve the culture, where the employees might talk well about the company and seem to take an interest in the tasks better (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014).
Transformational:
This type of leadership includes a high level of communication between the leaders and employees of the company. Leaders create a high level of communication with their employees to meet the targets, and as a result, the tasks are also shared (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014). It creates a positive impact on the culture of the firm, where employees perform better due to good communication between departments. The culture of the organization is also enhanced, as there is no blind spot left with the amount of communication being practiced. It creates a diverse culture where everything is communicated rapidly, and the results are generated with great care (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014).
Cross-cultural leadership:
This type of leader is adaptive to any culture and is observed within the organization. This type of leadership includes organizations that have different cultures within their firms. Being adaptive to different cultures makes the leader more productive and diverse in different situations. Cross-cultural leadership creates a highly positive culture where the leader can deal with different situations quite efficiently and make a good reputation for the company (Northouse, 2018). Adjusting to different cultures also allows the culture of the company to adapt to different cultures if the company is a multinational.
Facilitative:
This type of leadership focuses on getting results and outcomes without the involvement of skills from the employees. Facilitative leaders tend to get results from the techniques and facilities needed for them, and skill is not a focus here. The effectiveness of a culture here is directed by the results produced to achieve goals. Management also creates a culture where it wants to achieve results without a focus on the skills needed to achieve them. The culture here is affected by getting information from the leader and using it to run the process (Northouse, 2018). It creates a culture where the leader facilitates a group to run the task, which improves performance.
Visionary:
Visionary leadership states that the steps, methods, and activities of a leader are all derived by and from the employees of the company. Vision, as the word suggests, has a long-term and broad perspective that creates a belief that everything can be achieved by the people of the company (Northouse, 2018). Highly visionary leaders transform their visions into targeted outcomes, which are achieved by the leader. Having a visionary leader in an organization creates a culture where everyone works together with a clear concept of vision in mind. It directly affects the culture, which in return produces a better environment and results for the company.
Conclusion
All these management and leadership traits discussed above have a direct effect on the culture of an organization. Every organization should focus on what type of style suits its workplace and can be beneficial for it. Having a variety of styles gives an opportunity for management to acquire the type of style that enhances and improves organizational culture. It is important for the company to have an effective culture in order to achieve better results and create an environment where everyone tries to focus on the culture and vision. It should contribute to the psychological and social environment of the company.
References
Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S. (2015). Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge.
Chan, J. C., Sit, E. N., & Lau, W. M. (2014). Conflict management styles, emotional intelligence and implicit theories of personality of nursing students: A cross-sectional study. Nurse Education Today, 34(6), 934-939.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict management styles. International Journal of Conflict Management, 25(3), 214-225.
Sethuraman, K., & Suresh, J. (2014). Effective leadership styles. International Business Research, 7(9), 165.
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