The Impact Of Leadership Style On Relationship Building And Employee Motivation

Relationship Building and Leadership Style

Questions:

1.Discuss the Impact of leadership style often Manifests in the quality of Relationships

2.Identify a situation where you felt that a certain Motivational Strategy that you (or observed) adopted was successful in motivating the followers.

3.Write a reflective analysis will be provided based on the article ‘Servant leadership’.

1.Leadership is the ability of a person towards making sound decision and leading others towards performing well as per that decision. Leadership is always associated with inspiring the followers towards achieving challenging goals through providing adequate support. However, the impact of leadership style often manifests in the quality of relationships which a leader builds over time with others, in particular subordinates and peers. The more the leaders will build relationship with their followers, the more the followers will be able influenced by their leaders. According to Willems (2016), the leaders cannot lead their followers unless they understand the perspectives of their followers. In other words, the leaders can effectively lead and guide the followers, who are having same values and principles. Therefore, the leaders need to build effective relationship and create communities with their followers for understanding their values and perspective properly. Apart from that, building effective relationship also facilitates the leaders to build trustable relationship with the followers. Such trustable relationship with the leaders also encourages the followers towards performing well as per the instruction of their leaders.

While considering the example of a particular situation, I can exemplify my experience as being a leader, where I have used high level of emotional intelligence for building relationship with the followers. One year back, I used to work in a reputed retail organization of Australia, where I was playing the role of a leader. My role was to direct and lead the people towards performing well and achieving the set target of the organization. Moreover, my role was to lead the team of customer representatives, where the employees need more of inspiration rather than pushing them towards dealing with customers effectively. Therefore, that time, I realized that I would be better able to influence on my followers, when I would build effective and collaborative relationship with them. Moreover, I also identified the importance of emotional intelligence for building effective relationship with the followers.

According to Bassi and McMurrer (2016), collaborative relationship with the followers facilitates the leaders towards identifying their strengths and weakness at the workplace. In this way, the leaders can identify the key areas of competencies of their followers and utilizing them in achieving organizational success. On the other hand, Peng (2014) opined that high level of emotional intelligence facilitates the leaders in understanding the deeper values and needs of the followers. Therefore, such high level of emotional intelligence also helped me in identifying the individual core needs and values of my followers. In this way, based on this understanding, I became able to encourage the followers individually towards performing well. Furthermore, it is also worth mentioning that I chose transformational leadership style for leading and motivating the team towards providing better customer service. Performance in customer service is not measured much in terms of quantitative measures, but it is all about the quality of the customer handling. It requires high level of involvement on the part of customer representatives towards effectively handling the customer queries.

Real-life Examples

Hwang and Lee (2015) opined that transformational leadership style suggests the leaders to involve the followers in the organizational decision making process. Moreover, they allow some sense of ownership to the followers so that they can complete their task in their own ways. Therefore, such leadership assisted me in encouraging my followers with high level of autonomy. The followers were also encouraged towards fulfilling their assigned task, as they were provided with high level of work flexibility. On the other hand, Paustian-Underdahl, Walker and Woehr (2014) opined that transformational leaders are always willing to adopt innovative approach for achieving organizational goals. Likewise, I also became capable of suggesting unique way of customer handling process, which was quite motivating to the followers. In this way, such transformational leadership was highly influential on my followers, which explore their skills and competencies through an innovative ways of customer handling process.

While considering another example a particular situation, I can exemplify my experience as being a leader, where I use dark side of leadership for leading my team leaders. Six months back, I used to work in a clothing manufacturing company of Australia. Moreover, my role was to lead the production team, where the productivity of the team members used to be measured in terms quantitative measures. Oftentimes, I had to push the team members for enhancing their productivity as per the organizational standards. I was unable to take the risk of being flexible in leadership style with the fear of any deviation in the team performance as per organizational standard. Therefore, I selected autocratic leadership style in managing the production team of the organization.

According to Khoreva and Vaiman (2015), autocratic leaders always tend to be highly structured and they remain extremely rigid in leading the people towards achieving the predetermined organizational goals. Likewise, I started to use perfectionism attitude for keeping the performance of my team members intact with the organizational standard. Such attitude led me in micro managing the work of the team members, so that there is no deviation between the organizational overall target and the team target. Such attitude helped me in meeting the team target in each month as per the organizational standard. However, the team members were sometimes discouraged with such leadership style. On the other hand, Seibert et al. (2017) opined that autocratic leaders always dictate the working methods and process for effectively achieving the organizational goals. In some situation, I felt that the employees are unnecessarily reluctant to work at their peak level, while they are provided with some space. It was actually hampering the overall productivity of the organization. Therefore, I decided to be arrogant in my leadership style for strictly dictating the working method to the employees for keeping them engaged with their job roles. It facilitated me in getting things done by the employees properly as per organizational standard.

Importance of Understanding Individual Needs

Colbert, Barrick and Bradley (2014) pointed out that autocratic leaders always lead their followers with strict rules and regulation. Likewise, I never provided my followers any flexibility and never blindly trust on them. However, such attitude facilitated me to keep monitoring over the performance of the employees and achieve the predetermined organizational target.

2.Employee motivation is a critical aspect at the workplace, which lead to highly performing workforces in an organization. According to Dobre (2013), motivated employees can always lead to increased productivity and allow organizations towards achieving higher level of output. Moreover, employees are highly encouraged towards putting their best efforts towards completing their assigned task, when they are motivated at their organization. On the other hand, Lau and Roopnarain (2014) motivated employees are highly efficient at their work, which enhances overall organizational efficiencies. Moreover, the employees having high level of motivation have a good balance between their ability to do their job and their willingness to do their jobs. Therefore, such good balance between the ability and willingness to do their jobs fosters efficiency at their job role. Furthermore, Mikkelsen, Jacobsen and Andersen (2017) opined that satisfied and motivated employees are less likely to leave their current company and seek for new and better job options. In this way, high level of employee motivation also enhances the retention rate of their organization. However, the leaders seem to have the greatest difficulty in motivating their followers because of the complexity of human nature and the diversity of followers’ needs, differences, expectations, interests and responsiveness to rewards and punishment.

While considering the working situation, I can highlight my work experience as a leader in a clothing company of Australia, where I used to work 6 months back. There were wide varieties of employees having different backgrounds. In such situation, it was quite tough for me to understand the individual needs for the employees. According to Kim and Scullion (2013), human nature is highly complex and it highly differs from one another in regards to the way of thinking, ways of feeling, way of enthusiasm and the way of their acting. Therefore, it becomes very tough for the leaders to understand the inner motivational factors of individual employees. It is also quite difficult for the leaders towards understanding the individual expectation level of the employees. On the other hand, Gupta and Shaw (2014) opined that the complex human nature of the employees also make it difficult for the leaders towards identifying the actual rewards and punishment strategy for changing employee behavior. Likewise, it was also difficult for me to understand the individual motivational factors for my organization.

Transformational Leadership Style

In my working situation, I observed that some employees do not intrinsically like to work and try to escape from their responsibilities. On the other hand, there are some other people also, who are self-motivated towards completing their own work. In such situation, I realized that I would require two types of motivational strategies towards motivating the employees having two different perspectives at their work. Moreover, some people needed external treats for engaging with their own work, whereas some people needed more recognition and rewards for being more loyal at the workplace. Therefore, I used punishing strategies for employees, who are intrinsically unwilling to perform their job roles. On the other hand, I used reward and recognition strategies for motivating the employees, who are already self-motivated for doing their own jobs.

I had selected my motivational strategies from the concept of Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X and Theory Y suggests two types of human behavior at work, which demonstrates two different aspects of people at their job roles. Moreover, the perception of managers on the employees is created based on different assumptions. According to Olafsen et al. (2015), the assumption of Theory X suggests that an average employee is not intrinsically like to work. They are always indifferent about their job role and even try to escape from their own job responsibilities. Such employees need to be persuaded, compelled and warned with punishment for achieving organizational goals. Furthermore, Cherian and Jacob (2013) opined that such employees need direct supervision from their managers for achieving organizational success. It will keep direct control over the unwilling employees, which will help in engaging them with their job roles. Likewise, I also adopted the punishing strategies for engaging the employees with their job roles, who were intentionally unwilling to perform their jobs well. Moreover, the fear of punishment was quite influential on the unwilling employees, which kept them engaged with their job roles.

Dar et al. (2014) pointed out that Theory of Y assumption indicates the employees, who are happy to work on their own initiatives. Moreover, such employees are more involved in the organizational decision-making process and feel highly valued on their engagement in organizational decision-making process. Furthermore, Olafsen et al. (2015) opined that the Y assumption also indicated the employees, who want to enjoy the ownership of their own task. They always seek to accept the responsibilities and need little direction from their supervisors. Such employees are also willing to apply creative and unique solution towards solving their own job problems.

Autocratic Leadership Style

In my workplace, I used reward and recognition strategies for motivating the employees, who were in Theory of Y category as per my assumption. The reward strategies encouraged such employees towards being more responsible at their work. Moreover, the want of recognition motivated the employees towards more hard working, which was actually enhanced their productivity. The desire for more meaningful career encouraged them to be more effective and productive at their workplace. The motivational strategy was quite influential on the employees of the organization, as reward and recognition actually met their self-actualization needs. Therefore, the employees were highly motivated towards working hard for fulfilling their ultimate potential at their workplace. In this way, the selected motivational strategy was highly influential on the employees of my organization

3.Introduction

A reflective analysis will be provided based on the article ‘Servant leadership as a framework for organizational change’ by Baldomir and Hood (2016) and the focus will be on servant leadership approach. I will determine some of the points that are most crucial considering the backdrop of journal article. I will focus on the emotional intelligence part that is extremely required for a leader to elevate the followers while organizational change management comes into effective. Some evaluation will be done considering examples and literature from own works experience so that the effect of servant leadership on organizational change management is justified.

Backdrop of the Article

Considering the article, it can be said that organizational leaders are the most vital resources while change management takes place (Baldomir and Hood 2016). This is because followers are directed and motivated to respect organizational decisions. I found that leaders ensure the practicality of change by communicating with employees and mitigating the resistance to change that might have occurred by healing their emotions. The article has clearly depicted that Lewin’s change model is effective only when altruistic calling approach of leadership is ensured along with emotional healing. I understood that leaders try to ensure benefits for others without reward expectation and by ensuring harmony within group that brings out the positive desire to change.

Relevant Literature and Examples

According to Baldomir and Hood (2016), servant leaders mostly listen to the emotional needs of followers and by ensuring the mode of empathy, the disappointments are addressed. On the other hand, Liden et al. (2014) pointed out the same thought that since an organization is mostly people based, hence emotion is the only method that can address positivity and change. Transformational leadership approach deals with the same notion where leaders become one member among other teammates. While considering the viewpoint of Barbuto Jr, Gottfredson and Searle(2014), it can be said that servant leaders are mostly found to be well aware of the surrounding environment. Therefore, it becomes easy for them to guide actions for their followers. While working in the workplace, I came to understand that often management fails to communicate directly with every employee and therefore organizational change intentions are not accurately communicated. In such a situation, servant leaders become the communicator and mental invader to create greater opportunities for employees. Eventually, employees become satisfied with organizational change management. Therefore, I agree with the point that servant leadership approach creates a positive mindset among followers, due to which resistance to change becomes limited.

Baldomir and Hood (2016) pointed out that servant leadership creates a powerful positive approach of implementing change within an organization and same has been proposed by Parris and Peachey (2013)where it is clear that follower-focused approach makes an environment of employee career growth. I, while working in the organization, came across that servant leaders create a powerful communication approach that influences stress or anxiety towards a positive direction, which adhere to change management. Therefore, according to me, before the application of change management, leaders must create an emotional healing so that employees respect change management.

Role of Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Focusing on the article by Baldomir and Hood (2016), it is prominent that emotional healing creates a mindset of willingness and ability among the followers with respect to change management. On the other hand, similar view has been placed by Yoshida et al. (2014) where it is clear that the ability of servant leaders to listen, learns, share and communicate with the followers’ concerns help in creating and characterizing emotional healing. This ultimately helps in initiating the unfreezing step from Lewin’s model. Furthermore, while considering the viewpoint of Van Dierendoncket al. (2014), I understand that through the servant leadership approach, followers become able to express their thoughts, reasons for anxiety, and feeling of distress with leaders. Therefore, it is evident that change management is the most effective when servant leadership is followed, as I believe that when employees are communicated emotionally, they can surely be guided towards positivity.

Dark side Manifestations in Servant Leadership

Parris and Peachey (2013) pointed out that servant leaders mostly try to satisfy management by creating false promise among the employees. Even though before change management, leaders communicate plenty of benefits for employees however finally most of the followers gain a little. This creates biasness among team and finally leadership issues generate. On the other hand, Liet al. (2016) highlighted that in servant leadership approach, followers become too much dependent on leaders and they feel that issues, shortcomings and concerns will be surely mitigated by the leaders without even highlighting those. This affects employee performance and more stress among leaders. Furthermore, Winston and Fields (2015) opined that servant leaders tend to lose authority with progress of time as followers feel that no matter what the situation will be, leader will surely make a way out for employee benefit. However, this ultimately impacts leadership approach. Therefore, I feel that servant leadership has certain negative manifestations that might not be suitable for continuous future change management.

Servant Leadership a strong Motivating Factor

Servant leadership is the most effective before unfreezing stage of Lewin model (Baldomir and Hood 2016). Leaders become able to address employee grievances and satisfy them with communicating new objectives of change that might eventually tend to career growth (Barbuto Jr, Gottfredson and Searle 2014). When employee grievances are not addressed before change management initiation, it leads to more dissatisfaction and resistance to change. Therefore, according to me, motivation before change initiation will surely entrust positivity among employees, which is only possible before unfreezing stage.

Conclusion

While concluding, I must highlight that organizational change management is mostly effective when leaders have justified the reason for change and the new objectives that might lead to career growth. I have understood that followers can be guided and directly emotionally only through servant leadership approach. Altruistic Calling will help in creating harmony among team members and emotional healing will justify positive mindset among employees. Therefore, I have analyzed that servant leadership guides, motivates, directs, educates and communicates a follower towards accepting change management. Ultimately, it becomes beneficial for the management to justify change within the organization with limited resistance.

Reference List

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