Leadership Style in Organizations - Essay Example

According to Thomson (2009), the leadership style that is best suited to run organizations in the 21st century is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership occurs when the leader broadens and elevates the followers’ interest and stirs the followers to look beyond their interests for the good of others (Shermerhorn, & Hunt, & Osborn, 2003. p. 301). President Obama could be considered a transformational leader. The four characteristics of transformational leaders are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration (Thompson, 2009).

In my workplace, I have seen how managers have applied different leadership styles to motivate employees to achieve higher levels of performance. Different managers within the organization used alternate leadership styles. The company’s general manager is a very outgoing person whose actions inspire the entire staff. His leadership style could be categorized as being a transformational leader. One of my supervisors only cares about the operating results. In the few instances this supervisor has spoken to me it has been to provide criticism and exaggerate things. Despite her lack of personality, the supervisor gets the job done. Her leadership style can be classified as a transactional leader. Transactional leaders involve leader-follower exchanges necessary for achieving routine performance agreed upon among the leaders and the followers (Schermerhorn, et. al., 2003, p. 301).

After a corporate restructuring a few years ago at my workplace, the managers wanted to change the corporate culture. The executives believed that applying a new leadership style was a good initiative that would help deal implement change. The leadership chosen was House’s path-goal theory. The use of this leadership theory requires the leader to adjust his/her behaviour to support situational contingencies. Four types of leadership can be applied with the use of House path-goal. The four types of leadership are directive, supportive, achievement-oriented, and participative. The two types that I liked the most are supportive and participative. Supportive leaders help employees achieve their goals by proving a helping hand whenever possible. Participative leaders consider the opinions of their subordinates in their decision-making process. There is a manager at my workplace from product development that talks to the employees all the time looking for input from them. This manager is using a participative style.