What are the Different Approaches to Leadership, Management and Teamwork and Are They Relevant Today?

Nowadays, the majority of businesses tend to use several approaches and strategies as effective factors to reach a specific goal and manage the behaviour of employees in the organisation. However, those approaches and strategies may be applied incorrectly by the leaders or managers which can cause a negative impact within the organisation. This essay focuses on how leaders, managers and teams or groups can effectively function or use the accurate methods and techniques to be successful within an organisation.

Overall, this research consists of six different concepts to manage the behaviour of employees in the organisation. Firstly, it is researched that effective leadership styles can be classified as autocratic, democratic and Laissez-faire. Each type of leadership can be used in a different situation, which may cause positive or negative impact on the organisational performance (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider, 2015). Furthermore, MacGregor (2009) outlined that transformational leaders appear to operate better than transactional leaders on providing the best employees satisfaction. Secondly, According to Kotterman (2006), there are different focuses and responsibilities between leadership and management. For instance, managers use X and Y theory to improve the  skills of understanding their employees (McGregor, 1960). Thirdly, the differences between team and group were addressed to illustrate how they both function within an organisation. Finally, the formal and informal groups were justified to indicate how they can be used effectively within the business. Likewise, the group development approach was illustrated by explaining the different stages of group formation theory.

According to UkEssays (2013), leadership is the process of motivating the actions of an organized group to achieve a common goal. It appears that managerial leadership consists of three several styles. Firstly, autocratic leaders tend to guide their followers by telling them what to do which can lead a business to a clear direction; In fact, this method seems to be effective when a business faces a constant change or  crisis. This is because, according to Iqbal, Anwar and Haider (2015), autocratic leaders seem to react to the situation quickly compared to the other leader methods. Secondly, democratic leaders appear to make their decisions by using sharing policy within teams to ensure that there is an equity for all members. It is stated that Tesco employees seem to function better to the democratic approach. For example, Tesco managers are encouraged to share their ideas and develop plans when Tesco is planning a programme to reduce their stock, which is believed to have a positive impact on the team motivation and creativity (Hrelements.com, 2018). Finally, in Laissez-faire leadership style, leaders appear to take the hands-off approach which means all employees can involve in a team in identifying the fundamental goals and considering the successful strategies or methods to achieve those objectives. Both Frischer (2006) and Yang (2015) indicated that employees left with a full control to accomplish the tasks according to the business instruction. For example, Tesco education and skills programme manager seems to leave the training budget for an experienced or skilled manager that has a suitable knowledge to improve it (Hrelements.com, 2018). It is considered that the Laissez-faire leadership style involvement can be used in business techniques and volunteer organisations (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider, 2015).

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Leadership approaches consist of several types of leaders such as transformational and transactional leaders.  Firstly, Langston.edu (2018) defined transformational leadership as “a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems”. It is determined that transformational leader operates with teams, follows and employees to identify the important changes through creating vision and challenging objectives (Burns ,1978). For instance, the vision of Tesco is to keep leading the retail market globally by focusing on the set of long term goals with strategic decisions; which can be accomplished by the assistance of their efficient leaders . Furthermore, MacGregor (2009) and Bass & Riggio (2006) claimed that transformational leaders tend to be charismatic and have different strategic focuses but the majority of them appear to have a significant focus on fulfilling the improvement needs of their employees, which means transformational leadership approaches would be aiming on motivating, team building and collaborating with their employees at several levels of the organisation to achieve successful changes. Transformational leaders seems to set objectives to encourage their employees for better performance level, which may provide opportunities for the individual and professional growth for the employees (Northouse and Peter, 2013). For example, Tesco employees are offered a competitive wage and chance to improve their career with effective training, which may inspire the employees to be motivated and loyal in the work (Tescoplc.com, 2010). Secondly, Bass and Avolio (1993) explained that transactional leaders see the connection between leaders and followers as an exchange method, which is based on a system of rewards and punishments to encourage the performance. Transactional leadership consist of several factors, for instance, first, transactional leader function with their employees to improve clear and certain objectives to certify that the employees received the reward promised due to achieving a specific goals, second, exchanging reward and agreements depend on the performance or efforts of the employee, finally, the transactional leader tend to be responding to the direct self-interest of laborers if their requirements can be met while completing the work (Scott and Bryant, 2003). Furthermore, transactional leader tend to spend time to vision on their employees in order to understand their errors and perversion.  Odumru and Ifeanyi (2013) believed that this kind of approach can be effective on emergency workplace situation. it is illustrated that transactional or managerial leaders seem to have their major focuses on the function of supervision, employees performance and organization (Woods, 2007). It is slightly different than transformation leaders due to transactional method are not aiming to any future changes but simply keeping stuffs the same.

Northouse (2007) defined leadership as “a behavior; a style; a skill; a process; a responsibility; an experience; a function of management; a position of authority; an influencing relationship; a characteristic; and an ability”. The main focuses of leaders seem to be on motivation and inspiration, which is also claimed leaders have a significant aim on following their vision to accomplish long term goals (Kotter, 1990). Furthermore, individuals support or follow the leader voluntarily so they can be directed by using the transformational leader approach. In contrast, management defined as “a process by which definite set objectives are achieved through the efficient use of resources” (Northouse, 2007). Kotter (2001) illustrated that managers tend to concentrate on the direction and control of their associates, assets, structures, and frameworks (Kotter, 2001). Managers goal is to achieve short term objectives, trying to avoid all possible risks and to have successful efficiency (Kotterman, 2006). Beside, Kotter (2001) stated that managers direction are followed by their employees in exchange for getting paid salary, this approach is known as a transactional  (Kotter, 2001). The different approaches for leadership and management can be explained differently, which is believed that the major difference between leaders and managers is the methods they use to motivate their employees or followers and setting the techniques for the important features in the organisation (Algahtani, 2014). Leadership and management consist of special plans of functions, which is believed leaders and managers seem to do similar functions because they influence each other by using their abilities to reach certain goals (Northouse, 2007). However, studies stated that leaders and managers are considered very differently (Kotterman, 2006). Most significantly, both Kotterman (2006) and (Bohoris and Vorria, n.d.) agreed that it is important to have effective leadership and management to accomplish powerful and successful organisations.

The theory X and Y appear to be a fundamental approach that can improve the positive management techniques and styles. The definition of x and y theory is “the study of how a managerial leadership styles is determined by the manager’s view of their employees and their perspective of what motivates them” (Johnson et al., 2018).  McGregor (1960) considered that managers assumptions consist of two comprehensive styles. It is explained that each theory illustrates a vision of individuals behavior at work and it can be used to explain the different types of management styles (Mohamed and Nor, 2013). Firstly, theory X managers tend to have a pessimistic vision of their employees, which is suggested those employees are naturally disliked fulfilling their duty at work. Therefore, in order to motivate the employees to work, managers need to guided, controlled and threatened their employees with punishment to ensure they put an effort to accomplish the goals within an organization (McGregor,1960). For example, according to Johnson et al (2018), Amazon tend to use theory X frequently to monitored and evaluated their employees to have better productivity. Secondly, theory Y managers seem to have an optimistic vision of their employees, which means those employees are proud of their work and do extra challenges. Furthermore, theory Y managers seem to direct their employees simply to achieve an objective which can provide them with internal satisfaction (Hattangadi, 2014). For instance, Amazon uses theory Y to improve the creativity and development of their employees within the company by giving numerous rewards, promotions. Both McGregor (1960) and Johnson et al (2018) argue that using Theory X and Y approaches can aid managers to identify the behavior between their employees and the organisation.

It is defined that a team is a small number of employees who tend to have different skills and engaging with each other to committed to follow the same approaches and objectives. (Kozlowski, Bradford and Steve, 2018). Several opinions and ideas will be illustrated within a team and the finals decisions will be made by a team agreement or vote (Zoltan and Vancea, 2015). According to Paulus (2018), a group is two or more employees who have different abilities and are committed to leader approaches and goals, those employees are responsible to their leader (Kozlowski, Bradford and Steve, 2018). It is believed that each employee has various skills, which means the cooperation of skilled employees can have a significant positive impact on fulfilling the objectives of the organisation (Paulus, 2018). It is stated that the groups tend to have spontaneous and natural approaches teams although project-oriented method seems to be used within teams. In fact, it is argued that teams frequently have an important objectives to accomplish but the majority of groups not (Paulus, 2018) and (Kozlowski, Bradford and Steve, 2018). Furthermore, equity must be provided and shared between all team members which this can lead to team encouragement to have better output. For instance, according to Sainsbury's (2017), the company aims to provide better equality to all employees across all departments and levels regardless of of gender, age , race, religion, belief, sexual orientation or disability to accomplish and succeed their goals. It stated that a group consists of two several types, which are formal group and informal group. First, different segmentations and sections can be included in formal groupings where the similar activities are putted together. This type of group seems to be created with management rules guiding the formation to achieve certain organisational goals (Mullins, 2010). Secondly, informal grouping consist mostly on individuals or recognisable relationship. This type of group is used for psychological and social demand satisfaction rather than the organisational objectives (Mullins, 2010).

Tuckman and Jensen (1977) researched that group development consists of five different stages which are formed as Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning respectively. it is assumed that The effectiveness of the group improve when they progress through the first four stages. On the forming stage, the group individuals tend to communicate and get knowing each other, which this stage mainly described with uncertainty feelings between the employees in the group. Furthermore, leaders play an important part in this stage to explain the unclear roles and responsibilities for their employees  (Mindtools.com, 2018). The storming stage seems to have a significant amount of conflict, where employees often show aggressions and disagreements to each other and hold out against the control of their leader. it is argued that there is a slight number of groups tend to fail due to the employees conflict (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977) and (Mindtools.com, 2018). However, at the end of this stage, the majority of groups seem to gather in teams and be committed to the roles of the leadership (Komives, Lucas and McMahon, 1998). On the norming stage, employees seem to have better and close relationships with each other, which make them work as a unit to achieve the required level of performance. According to Tuckman and Jensen (1977), employees can be progressed to the next stage when all employees in the group agreed on the technique of accomplishing the same goal. On the performing stage, finally, the group appears to be completely prepared to function. Subsequently, employees tend to celebrate the achievements of the team objective after all the hard works they have done (Mindtools.com, 2018). The adjourning stage can be achieved at the end of the process, which means the group can be restructured or dissolved.

In conclusion, the research aimed to explain how can successful leadership, management and teamwork approaches have an impact on an organisation. This research outlined that according to Iqbal, Anwar and Haider (2015), selecting the perfect style of leadership can play an important role on encouraging the employees to function correctly and be motivated, which seem to improve the efficiency in the organisation to achieve certain goals. Likewise, leaders tend to focus on different type of skills and methods for each situation within the organisation to improve the engagement of their employees. both leaders and managers tend to depend on effort of each other within the organisation, although, they completely use different roles and strategies to function with their employees. Additionally, in x and y theory, it is impotent for managers to understand the vision and type of their employees which can aid the managers to  illustrate the weaknesses for their employees so they can lead them to the right direction. Paulus (2018) and Kozlowski, Bradford and Steve (2018) researched that team and group seem to function differently. Also, it appears that having an effective group can be created by processing five different stages to a number of employees.

On this essay, it is considered that using the approaches and techniques correctly can have a positive impacts on the organisational behaviour which tend to improve or boost the productivity and function of the employees, also,  this can guide the organisation to clear vision to accomplish its long and short term objectives. This is because, qualified leaders and managers appears to associated with their staff more effectively and they are more likely to provide wise strategies to lead the business for the success.

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