Comparing and Contrast of the Leadership Styles Research Paper

Comparing and Contrast of the Leadership Styles - Research Paper Example Participative leaders are those who believe in democracy, â€Å"This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process (determining what to do and how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect.† (Leadership Styles) Leaders who delegate authority always take a risk but it endears them to their employees because employees want to be a part of the decision making process. This has pros and cons but works out well because employees put in extra when they realize that they are wanted and an important part of the organization. â€Å"Jon Howell in an interview with Sun-News (January 29, 2001: 7) states "A leaders' behavior must match the situation, and the news of his or her followers." And his summary is very appropriate here: Leader effectiveness is determined by what people do, not by some inherent personal characteristic... I'm not saying personal characteristics don't help; they certainly do. But leaders have to adapt their behavioral styles to fit the situations in which they find themselves" (p. 7).   Howell says the good news is most people can learn leader behaviors and learn to recognize situations in which certain behaviors are most important.   Howell and Costley (2001) argue for the match of leader behavior, leader traits and characteristics, follower characteristics, and the situation at hand.   And there are seven leader types, fit for various behavioral processes and situations in my read of their leader theory: 1. Supportive Leaders (those considerate, people oriented leaders). 2. Directive Leaders (fit for repetitive or work spread between sites and for cultures such as Mexico that prefer status well defined. 3. Participative Leaders such as Dwight Eisenhower who could tame the Primadonna generals and politicians of WWII, and by careful listening to many v oices craft an alliance.   4. Reward and punishment leaders (transactional). 5. Charismatic (heroic) leaders 6. Boundary spanning (network) leaders 7. Leaders who build and forge social exchange (also networkers).   And now we have left the obsession with one best style of leadership. There is no universal style. There is as I have suggested, a dimension of behaviors running between Transactional and Transformational. The behavior school to this point is fixated on the transactional. To find transformational we must sail to the Isle of Situation.† (Howell and Costley). The same principles of Howell and Costley are elucidates in the paper. Core leadership behaviors Every behavior pattern has its own pros and cons. But the behavior pattern which works out the best is undoubtedly participative leadership. In this the terms and conditions are made very clear to the employees, any breach of these terms and conditions result in punishment, on the other hand if the employee perfo rms well, he/she is rewarded suitably for his/her work. This is probably the best behavior pattern, simply because everything is made crystal clear to the employees. The harder the employee works more will be his/her chances of getting rewarded. This pattern also has some risks involved like if an employee is punished for some mistake, the employee may leave the organization or