Question

You are working in an organization that has had a very good track record with respect to profits. Every year, the organization breaks its own past records of profits but this year something went wrong. Recently there was a change of leadership. The new CEO of the firm is a retired Army officer and is only concerned about results. He sets all goals by himself and then enforces them upon all employees. He does not consider if the employees are motivated enough or have any personal issues, all he focuses upon is the results. In a recent project, the goals were set by him, all teams were organized by him, he made team leaders himself but the end results were not satisfactory.

Comment on the leadership style of the leader relating it to any suitable leadership theory(ies).

Answer 1

The current leadership style is similar to - Autocratic leadership style

It is a leadership style where the leader is of the opinion - "Do as I say". The decisions made by such a leader are believed to be the smartest & have little input or feedback from others.

Key characteristics -

• This is a command and control approach & is a difficult motivation in today's world.
• Such a decision becomes difficult when things have to be planned immediately or when dealing with team members who are not that experienced.
• The individual controls the overall decisions.
• The decisions are made on a leader's ideas & judgement.
• Leaders like in the case CEO will make most of the decision.
• The leaders dictate the methods & processes that will be adopted.
• The rules are established and very clearly outlines & communicated to everyone.

Benefits & disadvantages -

• It is only useful in some situation where decison has to be made without consulting everyone on the team.
• Few projects require strong leadership in order to achieve the tasks quickly and efficiently and then such style is useful.
• It can help when the leadership is lacking but here the firm has shown considerable progress and profits over the years.
• Since the environment is over-controlled the members may lose the motivation and feel that their opinions are not valued.
• It leads to the discouragement of the inputs on the group - they are unable to give feedback or new ideas and hence the creative solutions to challenges don't come up easily.
• It also impacts the morale of team members & as given in the case study the members will not feel happier or motivated.

For such leaders, it is important to listen to team members, implement and understand their feedback and give them space to show creativity and results. The rules can be clearly established but the tools and resources must be provided to support the team.

It is important to recognise success & give the environment where leadership is built for the future so that it leads to sustained profits rather than early burn-outs.

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