Scarica Example - ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP e più Esercizi in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! Argumentative Essay on Leadership Styles INTRODUCTION Authoritarian or autocratic, democratic or participative and laissez-faire or delegative leadership are the three main styles of leadership which can be used to manage a group of people. An authoritarian or autocratic leader is a kind of leader who takes all the decisions him/herself without delegating any responsibility. He/she tells each member what they have to do, how to do it and when they have to do it (so what is the deadline that needs to be met). Moreover, he/she does not accept any dissenting voices or differing points of view. A democratic leader is a kind of leader who asks each member of his/her group for their opinions, listens to their ideas and keeps his/her own decision for last. He/she tends to delegate responsibilities, even though it remains available to give directions and support when needed. Lastly, a laissez-faire leader is a leader who leaves all the members of the group independent and responsible for their projects and deadlines. Even though he/she does not provide any support or guidance through the process, he/she might give some information and advice in the beginning. BODY It is not possible to identify which of these three styles of leadership is the best, since all of them have their strengths and weaknesses, even though there are of course situations where one kind of leadership is preferable to another, or people who work best under a certain type of leader, or also a leader who is able to use only one style of leadership. The main benefit of authoritarian leadership is that it defines clear roles and objectives for each member of the group, as well as the general purpose of the team. Furthermore, attention to details and rules makes it more likely that groups led by authoritarian leaders meet deadlines on time. Therefore, authoritarian leadership is suggested when there is emphasis on the respect of guidelines and deadlines. Democratic leadership has the advantage that every member can contribute with their ideas and advice, so everyone’s voice is heard and creativity is encouraged. In addition to this, collaboration among colleagues is favoured and, as a result, relationships are more friendly. To sum up, participative leadership creates a positive and open-minded environment. Laissez-faire leadership leaves a huge amount of independence to each member, as well as a lot of responsibilities. Since everyone’s creativity and expertise is reinforced, this style of leadership is suggested when the team comprises experts of the field or strongly organized people who would love to take on more freedom and responsibilities. One downfall of this style of leadership is that it does not define clear-cut roles and objectives. This may result in lack of coordination, which in turn may lead to not meeting deadlines or to the total failure of the project. Not only delegative leadership has its downsides, but also autocratic and participative styles of leadership have some disadvantages. On the one hand, authoritarian leadership could be perceived as bossy and dictatorial by the members of the group. Since there is no space for differing points of views or ideas, creativity is suppressed and there is not a positive or friendly environment. On the other hand, democratic leadership shares the same problem of laissez-faire leadership, which is that sometimes there are no defined roles and objectives, and this might result in lack of coordination. Furthermore, in a participative environment, if someone’s ideas are not chosen and pursued, that person could take it personally and be offended. All of these considerations have been made by Lewin, who carried out an experiment in 1939 on these three styles of leadership. Lewin and his team of researches took some schoolchildren and divided them into three groups. Each one of these three groups was led by a different leader who adopted one of the above styles of leadership. So one group was led by an authoritarian leader, another one by a democratic leader and the last one by a laissez-faire leader. The children were then asked to carry out an arts and crafts project under the supervision of their leader. In the meanwhile, researchers observed their behaviour in response to the leadership style. Results were those stated before.
