Download Leadership in Organizations 1 UNIV 1213: Leadership and

Leadership in Organizations 1
UNIV 1213: Leadership and Teamwork
Prof. Simon Meade-Palmer
Section: 108
Name: Hussni Osman
ID: 201000343
Major: Mechanical engineering
Assignment 1: Leadership in Organizations (10%)
Leadership in Organizations 2
CRITERIA
Assessment Rubric for Individual Written Report
SCORES
Introduction
Contains thesis statement, states why assignment is important, a
reference to justify assignment, outlines the body topics (R)
3%
Leadership
Definition, importance, difference to management (R)
2%
Leadership qualities
Six qualities of effective leaders with explanations (R)
2%
Leadership styles
Four styles with organization types and famous examples (R)
4%
Conclusion
Restate the thesis statement, include a summary of the key points
from the body paragraphs, and say how these key points answer
the assignment.
3%
Mechanics
Punctuation and spelling and capitalization are correct, words are
well chosen, writer uses own words, no cut and pasting, use of
headings, third person, full sentences, no bullet points
3%
References
Contains 3 relevant references, references in text of report, correct
referencing rules
3%
TOTAL
20%
Leadership in Organizations 3
Leadership in Organizations
Introduction
This report will cover some of the most important types of leadership styles. The world is
always working in groups and teams to do a better job a leader must be in charge. Leaders
organize give orders, and help get the work done easily and more effectively. Why is leadership
important? Simply because every interaction between people has some simple or complicated
form of leadership, leadership does not happen in companies only. It also happens during a sales
call, a customer service response, a family decision or a meeting with some friends. (Gollent2007). In this report leadership will be defined and clarified to help give a better understanding
of what a leader is. Six leadership qualities will be presented to help make a good leader be
better in what he is doing. There are also many leadership styles in this report only four of them
will be discussed and explained.
Leadership
There are many definitions of leadership. One of them is that leadership is what happens
when a group of people follows the rules and laws that someone “the leader” gives them.
Another way of explaining this is Leadership is about setting a method for people to follow so
they can achieve a task (Shukla, 2009). Leadership is important because it sets the base for
management. In other words management and organization of anything will not work properly
and might end up in failure if the base and foundation is not set properly by a good leader. This
brings us to the difference between leadership and management. Management is more like the
law informant. A manager makes sure the employees are following the set of rules and
regulations that the leader has given them. The manager does not make rules along as he goes.
The leader however, makes the rules accordingly to what is best for the situation. The leader
must also have qualities for people to follow him.
Leadership Qualities
A leader must have some qualities to help improve his leadership skills the more positive
qualities a leader has, the better his performance in leading his people. One of the most important
qualities is a clear sense of purpose, for any leader leading any type of group a clear goal has to
be set. If the leader has no idea what the goal is, every one working for him will be confused
causing slow or no progress at all. One other important quality is cooperation; this means the
leader has to have a good relation with the people working for him. People who work for a leader
Leadership in Organizations 4
that is cooperative usually enjoy working with their leader. This quality might be better for
businesses but maybe won’t work that well for the military. A third quality is the ability to
encourage your people helps you to get the most out of your people. A person never knows who
can make the difference but if the leader believes that anyone can make a difference, he will
definitely find those people. By encouraging and supporting new ideas the difference will
definitely show. A fourth ability is Self-knowledge the leader must know his abilities and what
he can do and what he might need help doing, for sure no one can do everything perfectly that’s
why a good leader needs good advisers by his side, but if the leader does not know what he is
good at and what he needs help doing he will not be able to choose the right advisers (Gertler,
2003). Self-awareness is a fifth ability; we could think of this as a requirement for selfknowledge, this makes it more important. It may be a necessary condition for self-knowledge. If
someone does not have this quality cannot be self-knowledgeable. One last quality I should
mention is Empathy. Every leader who wants the best out of his people he must listen what they
have to say and put himself in their shoes. That way the leader will make better choices to suite
the people making them enjoy working for him.
Leadership Styles
Leadership styles have been categorized according to the qualities a leader has. First
leadership style I would like to point out is the bureaucratic style. Leaders who follow this style
are very careful about following the sets of rules (Oates, 2009). This type is usually used when
the task in hand has to be done perfectly like in hospitals. Following exact procedures is the
important thing for this style. This is usually found in hospitals and military. A very good
example for this style is Adolf Hitler (Founder and leader of the Nazi Party). Hitler set the base
and moved every step according to a very strict plan.
A second style would be the autocratic style. Leaders with this style like giving orders
and have minimal consultation with others. Those leaders usually take full responsibility for their
decisions. This type is found in the military. An example for this type of leadership is Saddam
Hussein (the president of Iraq from 1979 until 2003). Saddam made most of the leading
decisions himself without consultation.
A third type is the democratic leadership style. Leaders who use this style are always
using consultation in major issues. This style promotes sharing of responsibility. An example for
this is Barack Obama (the president of the United States of America elected in 2008). Obama
Leadership in Organizations 5
takes into consideration the voice of the people, and consults his advisers making him a good
example of a Democratic leader.
A fourth style is the laissez-faire style. This style is used when there are highly trained
and professionals working for the leader. Leaders of this type just give the task they need done to
the workers and leave the rest for the workers to deal with. The laissez-faire style leaders give
minimum supervision sometime no supervision on the workers. This type is usually found in
companies and governments. A good example for this is Queen Elizabeth (the queen of the
United Kingdom). The prime minister is the head of government in the system of the United
Kingdom. The prime minister is elected by people to represent them and is usually
knowledgeable of his job. Therefore, the queen is head of state and leaves the government issues
to the prime minister to deal with them.
Conclusion
Leader ship is very important to get work moving to get the job done. Some of the
important qualities of leaders have been mentioned in this report like, a clear sense of purpose,
cooperation, and the ability to encourage people, self-knowledge and self-awareness. Those are
some of many other important qualities a leader can have. Four important leadership styles that
are found around the world in governments have been mentioned, with examples to clarify each
style. The report does not cover all the leadership styles but it covers the bureaucratic style,
Autocratic style, democratic style and the laissez-faire style. The report did not cover all the
leadership styles neither did it cover all the qualities of a good leader.
Leadership in Organizations 6
References
Gollent, M. (2007, June 3). Why Are Leadership Skills Important - For Everyone?. Retrieved
March 19, 2010, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Are-Leadership-Skills-Important---For-Everyone?&id=591333
Shukla, A. (2009, June 1). What Is Leadership? What Are Components of Effective Leadership?.
Retrieved March 19, 2010, from http://www.paggu.com/entrepreneurship/what-isleadership-what-are-components-of-effective-leadership/
Gertler, B. (2003, Feb 7). Self-Knowledge. Retrieved March 20, 2010, from
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/self-knowledge/
Oates, S. (2009, May). Leadership Styles – Autocratic vs Democratic vs Bureaucratic. Retrieved
March 20, 2010, from http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/leadership-styles/