QAB020N503A Project Management: Leadership And Its Impact

Topic: Leadership And Its Impact On Project Performance

For this assessment need a solid research question and data analysis for the research question. 

Answer:

Transformational Leadership In Software Projects By Maryam Mousavikhah

Required Characteristics and Behaviors in Relation to Leadership Theories

Here under each dimension first we describe what that dimension means, and then we explain to which of required characteristics and behaviors of software project managers it is related to. 

Leading and Developing Others

1. Showing genuine concern

A Transformational leader treats humanistically which means that he concerns his followers’ needs and feelings. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2007) He plays the role of a mentor. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2005)Showing concern about somebody needs to make an effective communication with her. Being good-tempered and friendly are prerequisites of an effective communication. It helps team members feel they are looked as humans not as instruments to get work done. Sympathizing is another sign of showing genuine concern because it’s not possible to sympathize with others unless you have been thought about them and their problems. Although other characteristics such as calmness and patience might be in some kind of relation to showing genuine concern but we don’t consider them under this dimension since it’s possible that leader shows genuine concern even if he is not patient and calm. Indirect stimulation of team members shows manager’s consideration about individual’s growth need.

2. Enabling

Enabling shows the level of empowerment team members have. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2007)Trusting staff and delegating responsibilities to them is what leads to empowerment. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2005) Indirect supervision leads to empowerment in two ways. First it causes employees feel their leader trusts in them and second it gives employees the freedom they need to blossom their creativity. By indirect supervision leader delegates the responsibility to staff and by some means apply his supervision. Indirect answering of team members’ questions also means that the leader believes that team members can find answers by themselves hence increase their self-confidence which itself leads to a higher level of empowerment.

3. Being Accessible

This scale has two aspects: first establishing not too formal communication, with emphasis on making face-to-face communication and second being in-touch with staff (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2007) We can place being good-tempered, friendly, spending time about technical problems and accompany with team members under this scale since being good-tempered and friendly implies first aspect of this scale and spending time about technical problems and accompany with team members implies second aspect of this scale.

4. Encouraging Change

Encouraging questioning about current solutions and stimulating staff to find new ways of doing things is an important scale of transformational leadership. This is what we found as posing questions based on staff’s individual interests and indirect answering. Posing questions cause staff start thinking about status quo. Also indirect answering stimulates them to think more, during which they have to find and criticize existing solutions. 

Personal Qualities

5. Being Honest and Consistent

Honesty and consistency is about being honest for the good of the organization. We have found same characteristic needed for the leader of software project manager under this dimension: honesty and trustworthiness of leader.

6. Acting with Integrity

This dimension encompasses two aspects. One is about honesty in communications and the other is equitableness. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2007)We also found honesty and trustworthiness as an important characteristic from team members’ point of view. Another behavior which is noteworthy for software teams is looking all team members the same. This is what Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe (2007) considered as equitableness.

7. Being Decisive

Transformational leader should be ready to take difficult decisions even if they’re risky. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2005) Under this dimension we found two required characteristics for software project manager. First one is being purposeful. When software project manager is purposeful it means that he has identified the way project must begin and go on and have articulated it to all parties such as client and team members. Second characteristic is what software teams call exactly the same as what our selected model suggests: being decisive when required.

8. Inspiring Others

One fundamental factor in transformational leadership is to inspire others in a way they like to join the group to achieve its objectives. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2005) To inspire others, leader needs to have good communication skills. Also he can visualize team members’ personal goals when he strengthens on those parts of their aspiration which are congruent with team’s objectives.

9. Resolving Complex Problems

This scale is related to personal abilities of leader to solve difficult problems. It enables him to handle lack of clarity and confidence his team confronts. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2007) Intelligence, a required characteristic of software project manager, is essential to resolve complexity exists in software problems. (Ilavarasan & Sharma, 2003) Also flexibility and liberality of software project manager helps him to find the best solution for the problems. 

Leading and Developing the Organization

10. Networking and Achieving

One crucial aspect of transformational leadership is what Tichy and Devanna calls vision and articulation and Conger calls communicating the vision. (Bennis & Nanus, 2012) Hence networking i.e. the capability of leader to create effective communications with both his team and external stakeholders is another dimension of the model we have selected. Networking with external stakeholders might be achieved if manager has good communications skills and in addition to this if he is good-tempered he would be able to create effective communications with team members.

11. Focusing Team Effort

Focusing team effort implies actions performed in order to concentrate effort of team on project goals and priorities. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2005) Clarifying project goals and limitations is a prerequisite of focusing team members on project goals. After the goals are clarified and team members start working based on them, indirect supervision and accompany with team members in different steps assures that the working process is appropriately following the way to meet such goals. If any contradiction occurs between what team members are carrying out and the appropriate working process, manager needs to interfere. Based on our findings it constitutes one characteristic of software project manager, being decisive when required. Focusing team effort requires that manager be very well aware of project borders and goals and the way to achieve those. We have found it as being purposeful.

12. Building Shared Vision

This factor emphasizes on one important aspect of “nearby” transformational leadership which is about not only the need to articulate the vision but also the need for engagement of different parties in forming the vision. These parties include team, client and any other party who plays a role in development of team, project, department etc. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2007) Building a shared vision should be an incremental process through which the goal and anticipations of project is defined with engagement of all stakeholders. In order to handle engagement of different parties, manager should have good communication skills. Also he should clarify project goals and limitations for team members in order to make sure that there is an agreement about project goals and anticipations.

13. Supporting a Developmental Culture

Supporting a developmental culture means being supportive even in case of mistakes and providing feedback to whom made mistakes. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2005) Using indirect supervision leader can get informed about mistakes team members might have made and pilot them to the correct way. Also one characteristic which is highly required to be supportive even in case of mistakes made by team members, is patience. If the leader shows patience also the flexibility and liberality, team members would easily talk about their questions and mistakes and ask help from him. In addition if team members perceive that their manager protects them against client or higher level managers they feel such a support which should exist in developmental climate.

14. Facilitating Change Sensitively

This dimension is related to the sensitivity of the leader on how changes on the environment impacts team, also his capability to survive with this impact in a way that team smoothly continue the work. (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2007) Under this dimension we didn’t find any specific behavior or characteristic for software project manager. The reason behind such a result might be twofold. First one is that scope of the leadership on which we have focused is a software implementation project.

Definition of the project usually means defining different aspects of project such as time, budget, partners etc. Hence leading a project is not like leading an organization which has undefined circumstances which might frequently change. The second reason is that, if any of project aspects changes it would be considered as a major change because of which negative impacts on project and team is inevitable and project leader cannot prevent them. However we should consider that we have looked on transformational leadership from team members’ point of view not from software organization managers’ (managers of project managers’) point of view. It means that if

we have been asked software organizations’ managers about required characteristics and behaviors of their subordinate managers, i.e. software project managers we might observe that they expect specific behaviors by project managers even in case of major changes in project.

Influence Of Leadership Traits On Team Performance As Correlates Of Success In Construction Project delivery

Discussions

The collaborative leadership trait of the construction project manager significantly influence project outcome if it delivers on key team spirit building factors. Respondents ranked as critical seven indicators of effective team spirit factors against twelve leadership traits which enhances collaborative working. Project managers’ ability to promote valuable level of involvement of all team members, enhance consultation, communication, level of commitment, collaboration, trust, self-confidence, and proven loyalty to each other among team members. The result of the findings reveals project managers who exhibit these traits will effectively build a good team spirit; hence they were rated above average signifying strong agreement. These finding of the study is supported by the findings of Oberlender (2000) and Oyedele (2010). Oyedele (2010) discussed ‘Team management: lessons from the leadership styles of successful team managers’ and opinionated that in order to build an effective team; the team leader must promote related factors.

Oberlender (2000) discussed key factors in team leadership and emphasized that team communications are vital to a successful team because highly motivated and dedicated worker wants, and need to be informed. The high ranking of the project manager’s ability to promote effective participation of all members is not unexpected as earlier studies emphasized people as the key resources to successful project outcome. Makilouko (2004) found that project managers are primarily people- focused while Lee-Kelly (2003) found that half of their study sample was relationship – oriented. Contemporary approaches for delivering superlative results in timely completion, quality projects and on budget and possibly savings are built around collaborative working. Wood (2005) had found 20 -30% savings on time and cost with partnering delivery approach while not jeopardising quality.

The collaborative leadership trait of the construction project manager promotes team performance if it satisfies certain satisfaction criteria. The finding of the study revealed quality based satisfiers as the best team performance stimulators. Project consultants are responsive to questions and changes that is the ability to communicate effectively and adaptability traits of the project manager receive high rating alongside communication flow is consistent. Clients’ interactions are open and friendly (quality based satisfier) also rated third depicting emphasis on quality project delivery by project team members. Other performance stimulants considered critical by respondents include remuneration (project fee is paid for as agreed) fourth and changes are fairly introduced fifth.

 

However, the result with ‘project fee is paid for as agreed’ was not unexpected. This result is similar to Morgan Maslow proposition that people are driven by needs that actualises oneself than even the basic necessities of life. Similarly, Thamhain (2004) identified two sets of variables team leadership and team environment as strong indicators of team performance. The study’s satisfaction stimulators are a combination of these two variables as it evaluates leadership with factors in the project environment. Raiden,Dainty and Neale (2004) identified individuals need to meet expectation in terms of gaining experience or training as a stimulant to team performance while Dionne, Atwater & Spangler (2004) also found strong ties between leadership attributes and team performance. The implication from this study reaffirms the need for a complete move away from the adversarial traditional contracting towards relational contracting in order to promote collaborative leadership.

Relationship between leadership styles and project success in the South Africa construction industry

Muredeni Liphadzia, Clinton Aigbavboab*, Wellington Thwalac

4. Findings and discussions

Based on the correlation analysis between the various leadership styles and construction project, it was observed from the findings that the Pearson correlation shows positive moderate significance between transactional leadership and project success (r = 0.40; p<0.01). This suggests that there is a relationship between transactional leadership and project success. This indicted that transactional leaders in the South Africa construction industry is more likely to have success in construction projects than any other leadership style. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the Pearson correlation shows strong positive correlation between transformational leadership and project success (r = 0.50; p<0.01), but not as significance as the transactional leadership style. This also suggests that there is a strong relationship between transformational leadership and success. Transformational leadership was the first ranked leadership style in the South African construction industry. Hence, there is a strong relationship between transformational and project success. This infers that construction transactional leaders are prone to have project success in the South African construction industry.

It was further observed from the findings, that the Pearson correlation shows a weak correlation between democratic leadership and project success (r = 0.34; p<0.01). This suggests that there is a low relationship between democratic leadership and project success in the construction industry. This means that democratic leaders are less likely to have project success in the South African construction industry. Findings also shows no significance relationship between autocratic leadership and project success in the South African construction industry (r = - 0.05). Based on this finding, it is evident that autocratic leaders do not have successful project. In addition, there was no significant relationship between laissez faire leadership style and construction project success (r=0.14). This suggests that there is no relationship between laissez faire leadership style and project success.

In order to ensure that construction leaders are successful, they are required to employ an adaptive approach to leadership. Stated differently, successful leaders should acquire a wide range of leadership styles or approaches, and successfully match the required style to a particular situation. A leader that only has one type of leadership style will only be successful in a situation demanding that specific leadership style; whereas a diverse range of styles will guarantee success because of the dynamics of the construction industry. Turner & Pearce [15] indicated that leadership styles and competence is key to successful performance of construction firms, and other similar studies have confirmed a correlation between different leadership styles and construction performance. Additionally, Zhang [16] noted that the relationship between leadership styles and project success may depend on the type of project. However, regardless of the project type, leadership styles of the leaders plays a considerable part in project success.

Conclusions

The relationship between the different leadership style practices of construction and project managers towards project success in the South African construction industry was discussed. From the various leadership styles as studied by the research, it was evident that there is a strong relationship between transactional and transformational leadership styles and project success in the South African construction industry. It was specifically found in the study that transformational leadership style has significant relationships with project delivery. However, democratic leadership style showed a low relationship for project success. Findings further revealed that there was no relationship between autocratic leadership and project success in the South African construction industry and lastly, laissez fair also revealed no relationship for project success. The research findings of this study provide important contribution especially in the South Africa construction industry whereby it can provide some guidelines for construction and project managers to identify their leadership styles and how this has contributed towards success implementation and management of their projects in order to achieve project success. It is important to note that good leadership assist in the successful execution of projects.

Leadership Behavior of Project Managers in Sustainable Construction Projects

Discussion

Eight leadership attributes were assessed and kept by this research to measure the two constructs: intellectual competence and managerial competence (see table 4). The results of the study show that among all dimensions of leadership competencies, strategic perspective (=0.945) is the most significant factor, followed by critical analysis

(=0.936), engaging communication (=0.918), achieving (=0.906), developing (=0.896), resource management

(=0.848), vision and imagination (=0.796) and empowering (=0.658) in project managers. Our study validates the findings from [11] as well as those from .

Specifically, [24 and 26] argued that the effect of leadership on employee commitment and performance in a temporary arrangement such as a construction project is not the same as for long term projects. However, they observed that project managers in projectized organizations with transformational behavior same as that of managers in functional organizations have a lower impact on motivation and commitment of their followers. This might be explained by the multiple project leaders and the limited periods of time that they are involved with employees in a project context while team members in a permanent or a long-lasting environment are engaged with mainly one manager for a long period of time.

Our findings show that all attributes are essential to sustainable achievement and are relatively significant in facilitating sustainable building construction. The results also clarify that project managers should possess the necessary leadership competencies, skills and knowledge to be able to achieve sustainability in building projects. Aside from that, the essential aspects of leadership that highlighted in the study will contribute strategically to the transition towards sustainable societies. The ultimate result also provides support for the critical role of project manager in sustainable development, which prompted the LEED Rating System to involve project management development tools and techniques into the most up-to-date overhauling of the rating system. In this regard, the study would like to recommend other green building ratings systems, particularly the GBI of Malaysia, on the way to improve the current rating system in dealing with building construction by incorporating some points and credits for leadership as one of the project management competencies that related with increasing functionality and flexibility of the construction teams in sustainable or green building projects.

Effects of Project Manager Leadership Style on Employees' Job Satisfaction in Construction Projects in Pakistan KP Region

Bilal Khan, Saif ul Amin, Muhammad Shakil Ahmad, Abdul Wahid Sherani

All surveys were received by mid- February 2015 with the response rate of 78 percent and the collected data were analyzed. Among these 183 valid questionnaires 151 were male and 32 were female. Regarding age 55.70 percent respondents of sample have age between 25 to 35 years, while 38 percentage have age between 36- 45.Percentage of respondents have age greater than 46 year are just 5 percent of sample. Regarding to qualification 35.52 percent holds master degree; bachelor degree holders are 52.45 percent and undergraduate are only 2.5 percent. Respondents of having 4-5 year experience in their relevant field of construction sector projects are covers 53 percent. 

Leadership style and job satisfaction

Level of job satisfaction has a highest mean value of 3.96 with lowest value of standard deviation. Which means that most of employee in the construction sector project s is satisfied from their job and they are feeling happy and satisfied from the leadership style of their immediate managers, supervisor and leaders? The mean value for the transformational leadership is 2.9 with the standard deviation of 0.647 while mean value for the Transactional leadership in construction sector project is 2.87 with having 0.68 value of standard deviation. The above analyses describe that that transformational leadership has a highest mean as compared to transactional leadership. It implies that employees in construction sector projects are more satisfied with transformational leadership style of their managers. 

Relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction

The table 1 shows Pearson correlation between the transformational leadership and level of job satisfaction of employees. It indicates that there is a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership and level of job satisfaction. The numerical value of Pearson correlation coefficient is .758 and level of significant is .000. It means that there a significant relationship between job satisfaction and transformation leadership style of project manager. It can also concluded that leadership style of a project manager have a significant effect on the level of job satisfaction of his followers. Thus on the basis of above correlation analysis we accept hypothesis H1.

Discussion and Conclusion

An effective leadership style has a significant impact on project organization performance, goal achievement and job satisfaction, various type of leadership can identified from literature review but transformational and transactional leadership style. It is of immense importance for project manager to identify that which leadership style is most effective for employee job satisfaction and goal achievement. On the basis of these findings the research concluded that is there is a significant and positive relation between leadership style and job satisfaction. Result of this paper is in consistence with finding of previous studies (e.g. Nawar, 2014); Omar 2011).

Data analysis on basis of collected data shows the there is a positive significant correlation between transactional style and job satisfaction of employee. Regression analysis also shows a positive and significant impact of leadership style on employee job satisfaction. From research finding it can be concluded that in construction sector projects of Pakistan KP region, style has a significant impact on level of employee job satisfaction. The study also reveals that transformational leadership style as compared to transactional leadership style is more effective for managers of construction sector projects in KP region; by adopting transformational leadership style project managers can increase level of job satisfaction of their employee in project base organization.

Job satisfaction is a potential determinant of organizational effectiveness and employee performance. Dissatisfaction among employees caused by unsatisfactory working condition and inappropriate leadership style can decrease organizational effectiveness, employee performance and increase job turnover intentions. Previous empirical studies show that leadership style of a manager has a significant impact on employee job satisfaction. The main aim of the study was to examine the influence transformational and transactional leadership style on the job satisfaction of employee in construction sector of Pakistan KP region.

The study was guided by the following question:

• What is the relationship between Leadership style (transformational and transactional) of project manager and job satisfaction of employee in construction sector projects of Pakistan KP region?

The finds of the study shows that both of leadership style (transformational and Transactional Leadership) has a significant and positive relationship with job satisfaction. It was also found that transformational leadership style has more strong and significant impact on the job satisfaction of employee as compared to transactional leadership style. So it can be suggested on the basis of findings of this study that in construction sector projects the project managers should adopt and promote transformational leadership style because it can result in a higher level job satisfaction of employee and can increase the project organizational effectiveness and employee performance.

An Investigation of the Leadership Style of Construction Managers in South Florida

Kamalesh Panthi, Ph.D. Candidate, Rizwan U. Farooqui , Ph.D. Scholar, and Syed M. Ahmed, Ph.D.

Since the focus of this study is on the leadership style and not on the personal traits or characteristics of a leader, studies and models related to leadership styles are discussed. Leadership styles have to do with how people interact with those they seek to lead. Some of the leadership styles categorized are 1) autocratic leadership 2) democratic leadership 3) participative leadership 4) goal-oriented leadership and 5) situational leadership (Goetsch and Davis, 2006).Autocratic leaders tell others what to do and expect them to comply obediently. Although it may work in certain circumstances and in the short run but this is not effective in the long run. Democratic leaders are those who make their decisions final only after consulting with the people they are leading based on the consensus. Critics of this style say that popular decisions are not always the best decision to be taken and therefore may fail to produce the desired result. Participative leaders on the other hand empower their team members to develop their own decisions based on the information provided to them and exert little control over the decision making process. This may be a time consuming process but works well when the team members are very committed to the best interest of the organization. Goal oriented leaders are result based leaders who ask their team members to focus solely on the goals at hand. Opponents of this leadership style say that this is too narrowly focused and often centered on the wrong concerns. Situation leaders, also called the contingency leaders select one of the above mentioned styles based on the situation existing at a given time. Again this style is based on short term concerns and may not be the best solution for long term.

When we are studying the leadership styles of managers, it may become relevant to distinguish between leadership and management. Construction professionals are of the opinion that their focus should be on the completion of tasks. They are oriented towards achieving this goal of finishing their tasks on time and within budget. Leaders, on the other hand are more concerned towards how they can accomplish the task. Goetsch and Davis by quoting the statements of Bennis, distinguish the leaders from the managers by saying that managers focus on systems where as the leaders focus on people. Even more distinctive feature is that managers take the short view whereas the leaders take the long view. (Goetsch and Davis, 2006). Is it success in short term, for instance the project success or the success in long term, for instance achieving the long term vision of the company for which the construction professional?s success is bench marked against? This is where the majority of the construction professionals have contrasting views and this belief ultimately shapes their leadership style.

There are three major approaches to the theory of leadership according to Schermerhorn (Schermerhorn, 1986). They are trait, behavioral and contingency approach. In addition to the three theories mentioned recent publications have included some contemporary leadership theories. However, these three approaches to the leadership theory are discussed first.

It is sometimes assumed that leader?s personal trait can determine their leadership qualities or style and this in turn will determine success. With this approach, the belief is that the leaders are born with the qualities that they possess. These qualities of personal traits give them an upper hand in their workplace. Although there are certain traits that help us differentiate leaders from non-leaders, it is often difficult to substantiate which sets of personal traits fare better than the other. Moreover, it is equally difficult to agree on such a predefined, universal set of personal traits. This is why this theory is heavily criticized.

Traditional and behavioral approaches intertwine and compare behavior of the ineffective leader to those of the effective leader. The proponent of this theory believe that successful leadership depends more on appropriate behavior, skills, and actions, and less on personal traits. The distinction between this approach and the previous one is significant, because more than often traits are constant while skills can be learned and changed. For the managers to be effective they must be able to identify and apply the necessary leadership style apropos to the situation rather than based on the predefined sets of successful traits. Moreover they should be able to

adapt to changing and sometimes contradictory circumstances in which they need to show versatility and flexibility.

With the contingency approach, emphasis is on the external events and it is that this determines whether a person is a leader or not. External factors have a bigger control than the personal traits or the behaviors. The contingency approach is very popular and two contingency approaches namely, Fiedler?s Contingency Model and Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Model are discussed in detail in the paper. The Hersey and Blanchard model is used to analyze the leadership style of the managers of construction industry in this paper.

Results 

From the first part of the survey, .i.e. the demographic section, it was found that people having the supervisory capacity or holding managerial position had a much greater time of service in the industry. Over 50% of the supervisors surveyed had over 10 years experience in the industry. While this is to be expected, as many if not the most of those serving in supervisory capacity would have worked their way up through the industry.

The other notable finding from this part of the survey is the transient nature of the industry. About 71% of the supervisors surveyed had been with their companies for less than two years. This high turnover rate of the people even in the supervisory level indicates that there is very little room to establish oneself as a leader with a long term vision. These people in this supervisory capacity instead execute short term goals rather than establishing themselves as a leader with a long term vision. The survey?s second and major part dealt with the manager?s viewpoint of what they consider in the success of their project. More than 90% of the managers surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that completion of task was the most important aspect of their project success.

The same people perceived that relationship with their subordinates was also very important for them while executing the project, however this time they were less adamant.

To investigate the relationships among the items, a five point scale was used to represent the five allowable choices, with 1= strongly agree (SA), 2= agree (A), 3= neither agree nor disagree (N), 4=disagree(D), and 5= strongly disagree(SD).

Table 1 summarizes the responses from the construction professionals in managerial positions regarding their propensity towards different leadership styles, i.e. whether they perceived completion of task more important than the relationship with their subordinates while completing the task. Of the total 26 professionals in managerial capacity surveyed (construction managers, supervisors, superintendents and project managers) which represents 100%, the percentage of these professionals agreeing or disagreeing to the statements is shown in Table 1. The second objective of the research is fulfilled by carrying out inferential statistics from the responses of these constructional professionals. The results of these inferential statistics, namely the t-test are presented in Table 2, Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5. Table 2 gives a comparison of mean and variance of experienced versus less experienced manager?s agreement or disagreement on the statement that they perceive task completion as the most important measure of their success. Note that the higher number indicated by means in Table 2, 3, 4 and 5 reveal that they agree strongly to the statement made in Table 1. In this research, experienced managers are considered to be those who have had more than five years of construction industry experience. Table 3 on the other hand presents a comparison of mean and variance of experienced and less experienced managers agreement or disagreement on the statement that they view their relationship with their subordinates as the most important measure of their success. Table 4 and Table 5 also present statistical data similar to those of Table 2 and Table 3 but this time the respondents are categorized based on the number of years they have worked for their present company. Those managers who have worked for less than two years for the present company are compared with those who have served their company for more than two years.

Data Analysis and Discussion

Leadership styles have significant and substantial effects in the small businesses and also in the world’s largest corporations. These styles affect everyone from senior and top management to the new entrant even of employees and new firms. They create the corporate culture that influences the organization and performance of employees in term of meeting deadline projects. Leadership style refers to a leader’s behavior and attitude of governance and supervision. It is the result of personality traits, experience, attitude and philosophy of the leaders. Rhetoric specialists have also developed framework for understanding leadership [8-10].

Different situations require different leadership styles. when there is little time to coverage on an agreement and quick work is required and where a designated authority has significantly more experience or expertise than the rest of the team, an autocratic leadership style may be most effective, however, in a highly motivated and aligned team with a homogeneous level of expertise, a more participative and democratic style may be more effective. The style should be one that most effectively meets the objectives of the team while balancing the interest of its followers and team members of that group which led by an effective leader. 

Autocratic style effects

Also known as authoritarian leadership, Milgron [11] said autocratic style clearly defines the division between leaders and workers. Autocratic leaders make decision with little or no involvement from employees. These types of leaders are more confident, more sure about and comfortable with the decision making responsibility for the strategy plans and company operating. Although research indicates that autocratic leaders display less creativity than more contemporary (new) styles.

Adair [9] only one person has the full authority and power over the followers or workers. His decision would be viewed and taken as the golden rule and should never be questioned and cannot be interrupted by any one. They make plans of each milestone and their followers are bounded to work or follow the rules. In short, the autocratic leader has full control of those around him and believes to have the complete authority to treat them as he wants. This is useful when immediate and quick decision and performance is required.

Dawson [12] state that the autocratic style may show great results in a short time period. However, excessive use of authority will distort productivity in the long term. People either get bored and dissatisfied and leave or fall into a malaise of hum-rum repetitive tasks without creativity and innovation and in short become demotivated.

Heneman and Gresham [13] under the autocratic leadership style, all decision making powers are centralized and remains in the hand of leaders, as with dictators. These leaders not welcome any suggestion and initiative from the follower’s side. It has not been successful as it not provides strong motivation to the managers and employees. This style allows quick decision making. These leaders don’t take any type of consult from their employee. They believe that leaders only have to takedecision and employees should have to follow only either they want to follow or not. This type of leadership is so much rigid and may be a cause of employees de-motivation.

Ittner [14] Autocratic leadership style promotes a one sided conversation and due to this the creative and leadership skills of the employees become restrictive and all are involved in repetitive work of daily activities. As leaders have the authority, there is a chance of exploitation and distortion of employees. This style restricts workplace communication and socialization. It’s important to have cordial work environment, where everyone is friendly and want social network. It can also lead to disagreements and conflicts, if a group or company is led by an autocratic leader.

Democratic leadership effects

Milgron and Ittner [11,14] state that this style is usually considered a benefit for the most companies. This style focuses the management that provides guidance and help to its team and departments while accepting and receiving the inputs from individual team members. These leaders not reserve to their activities and authority only but in actual they bother about consultation of employees.

Heneman and Gresham [13] under the democratic style promote the sharing of responsibility, the exercise of delegation and continual consultation. In this style managers suggestions and recommendations on all major issues and decisions and effectively delegate tasks to subordinates and give them full control and responsibility for those tasks, and encourage others to become good leaders and involved in leadership and employee development. That led to more commitment of employee to department goals, performance to meeting deadlines.

Kirega [15] evaluated worker’s views of their senior and top leadership team and state that this style focuses on using the skills, experience, and ideas of others. However, the leaders or managers using this style but still remains the final decision making power in the leader’s hand. To his or her credits, they will not make major decision without firstly getting the input from those that will be affected, provide proper recognition, and delegate responsibilities. This leadership styles improve the performance in both short term and long term and can be used for any type of work project.

Debashis [16] conclude that when organization need creative problem solving, conducting meetings for organization or department, training people for leadership roles and performing the day to day organizational tasks. This style provides confidence to employees who will help them for meeting deadlines, and departmental goals, to provide efficient team inputs.

Participative leadership effects

Waggoner [17] said this is viewed as effective option. As compared to other typical styles, delegative leaders rarely make decisions; leave this portion on the employees. Mostly, these leaders delegate responsibility to their employees and offer guidance to trusted team members. Graver and Austin [18] states that a participative style will be unproductive in the short term. But in longer time period, this style is more productive for an organization. This productivity increases due to feeling of empowerment and more commitment to their work and departmental goals. Northouse [19] argue that Participative leadership style: the leaders invite and encourage the team members to play an important role in decision making process, though the ultimate decision making power rests with the leaders. Leaders tell and guide the employees what to do? and how to do? And at the other hand, employees communicate to the leader their experience, suggestions and recommendations. The main benefits of this leadership style are that it leads to satisfied, motivated and more skilled employees. It leads to an optimistic and open work environment and also encourages creativity. This leadership style has the only negative aspect is that it is more time-consuming.

Mullins, Kerr [20,21] of participative leadership is that the process and behavior which allows for the development of additional leaders who can serve the organization at a later date or in future. Because advocate of this leadership who favor this style state that this type of leaders encourage active involvement on the part of employee on the team, people seldom are able to express their creativity and express abilities and talents that would not be made apparent otherwise.

Conclusions

As elaborate by Myron Rush and Cole the participative style of leadership has a greater positive effect on employee performance in which situation employee feel power and confidence in doing their job and in making different decisions. And in autocratic style leaders only have the authority to take decisions in which employees’ feels inferior in doing jobs and decisions. In democratic style employee have to some extent discretionary power to do work so their performance is better than in autocratic style.

The authoritative style is appropriate

When new employees are unfamiliar and don’t have sufficient know how about their jobs If the employee constantly misusing their authority When company rules are violated by employees When the sole person responsible for a decision making and implementing

The consultative style is appropriate

When organization needs creative problem solving

When organization is conducting planning meetings for the department’s working improvement.

When organization is training people for leadership roles

When you need good and efficient performance of the day-to-day organizational tasks

The participative style is appropriate

When organization have competent and talented team members

When company or department planning meetings for improvements

When company conducting evaluation sessions

When you are motivating top-performers in an organization

When you need of innovative and creative work

Recommendations

1. In respect of the above conclusion, the democratic leadership style in Al-Ghazi tractor factory would further empower their employees by developing teams and according some measure of power and authority to their employees. In this way, employees would ignite their potentials, feel part of an organization and perform maximally for the organization.