Leadership Qualities
The management and leadership style adopted by a company is critical to its success (Grout and Fisher 2011). Any style used by a leader has to be focused in achieving the company’s goals to make it effective. Misuse of management styles may lead to a demoralized workforce who cannot meet the goals of the company and thus losses become inevitable. Therefore, leaders have to be visionary and self-motivated individuals who can take their companies to great heights.
There is a wealth of evidence to show that some people are born with leadership qualities. However, environmental conditions also mould a leader in the execution of his or her duties. For instance, by looking at the trait theory of several leaders can support this assertion. For instance, the trait theory shows leaders such as Richard Branson and O’Leary, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs are born leaders and that their traits determine their success and effectiveness (Mullins, 2007). The Feud’s psychodynamic and Esyenck’s trait theory indicates that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are born to lead. The neuroticism and emotional stability proposed by Esyenck shows that the Bill Gates has an emotional stability as he has a bearable attitude towards his employees (Mullins 2007). However, Steve Jobs was neurotic and got irritated occasionally. His emotional outbursts show the autocratic nature of his leadership orientation as supported by the Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) model.
In the case of O’Leary, it is evident that he possesses the trait of audaciousness as advocated by Stogdill’s (1974). This can be proved by his order to buy new airplanes after the September 11 attack and the subsequent collapse of the airline market (Mullins 2007). In addition, he was characterised as an aggressive and unapologetic person, which goes on to indicate that he is independent in making his decision. This trait most likely influenced his autocratic style of leadership in the airline industry. However, in the last few years, the demand for better social responsibility for employees has caused his style of leadership to lean towards a democratic one.
The trait theory is contested by situation and contingency theories, which proposes that leadership style is dependent on a given situation. For instance, when contingency theory as proposed by Fieder (1967), it can be seen that some leaders are deficient in leader-member relations. For instance, Steve Jobs and Michael O’Leary do not show a strong bond between themselves as leaders and their employees. Indeed, the two leaders’ autocratic style of leadership can be placed in Authority- Obedience Management point in Blake and McCanse’s (1991) leadership model. This means their behaviours leans more toward managerial prowess instead of leadership in their organization. However, when Bill Gates and Richard Branson are considered, we arrive at a different situation altogether. Gates and Richard Branson seem to embrace leader-member relationship because they have a strong focus on their employees by giving them training opportunities among other employee development initiatives (Resource Centre, 2010). In Blake and McCanse’s (1991) leadership Grid, the two leaders can be placed in Team Management level.
The four leaders consider culture, which is the “shared valued, norms, and behaviours that guide employees’ work with an organization” (Smith et al., 2012, p. 154). Mintzberg (2009) considered the importance of culture saying it was the soul of the organization (Mintzberg 2009). Organizational culture in the two organizations shows Steve Jobs and Michael Michael O’Leary embraced power culture according to Roger Harrison 1972 model. This is because the two leaders concentrated power at the centre, making most of the decisions (Westley & Mintzberg 1989). Bill Gates and Richard Branson seem to pursue a combination of team-oriented and aggressive culture as they motivate people to work in teams with a focus on diluting competition in the market. Richard Branson and Gates do not act on their power, which creates an organisational culture with little bureaucracy, and creates an encouraging perception of trust for employees (Mullins, 2010). Therefore, while Gates’ and Branson’s delegating styles may not be appropriate in certain circumstances, this kind of trust is at the heart of their company’s organisational culture.
Strategic leaders have to create opportunities for motivating their employees to be more productive. Indeed, motivation is important in empowering people to work hard (Mintzberg 2009, Mullins, 2010). Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs can be used to explain how the four leaders provide an environment for motivating their workers. Social needs are fulfilled through interaction and fun elements within the companies (Maslow 1943). Bill Gates and Richard Branson fulfil self-esteem by taking an active role in recruiting employees, which is followed by e-mails acknowledging their work (Bryant 2003). Self-esteem for Steve Jobs is met by producing award-winning products (Harvey 2001, Maslow 1943). Employees at Microsoft are empowered to make a difference in the company, which meets the self-fulfilment needs. These companies are well established and better managed, which meets the security needs of employees (Mullins, 2010). This is because the companies are likely to continue to meet their expectations in the future. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs operate under a flat structure because of the few tiers of management. This can be can be detrimental to meeting self-esteem needs of the workers. This can be overcome by promotions within the company. Steve jobs’ push for self-actualization can be seen in the revival of iMac 9Hunter, 2012). Steve Jobs led people to do thing they could not do on their own (Doeden 2011). His resilient nature was shown when the iMac flopped and he resorted to improve it by adding new software.
Richard Branson also uses Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs. For instance, junior level employees are given financial incentives which meet the physiological and esteem needs, and higher levels are motivated by the prospect of their own personal and career development which appeals to their higher needs and may lead to self-actualisation (Research Methodology, 2012). In the case of O’Leary’s, it is clear that his method of motivation relates more to Taylor’s (1911) rational-economic approach in motivating the employees. He uses money as a motivator and claims that his employees are highly paid and the standardisation of jobs helps him to keep costs low. However, employees at Ryanair have more pressure on them to work at a faster pace due to constricted turnaround times involved in being a short-haul airline. It is therefore more important for Michael Michael O’Leary to motivate and empower his employees (Mullins, 2010). This might become problematic because his autocratic style might lead to discontent among the workers.
The theories considered in this paper concerning leadership show that a leader plays an important part in the success of an organization. However, when a critical approach is undertaken to evaluate the effect that the leaders had on this organizations, it is evident that their decisions can be limited by certain factors. For instance, Bill Gate and Steve Jobs started their companies almost at the same time (Mullins, 2010). However, Bill Gates’ Microsoft has grown 10 times that Steve Jobs’ company. One point of difference is that Bill Gates’ success was more rooted in understanding the needs of the market and employees and taking a proactive approach to solve any inherent situations. This is evidenced by the democratic and participatory style adopted by Bill Gates. On the other hand, Steve Jobs was autocratic and made most of the decisions. With more decisions incline to the self, Jobs did not give much space to the external influences. His success was far less compared to that of Bill Gates.
In conclusion, the trait theory considers that leaders are born. It presumes that a leader has natural traits that make inspire them to command respect and strategically position their companies to succeed. However, this is not entirely true since the environment in which they operate influences the same leaders. The trait theory, as shown in this essay points to the fact that most people are born with leadership qualities. In addition, it has been shown that leadership is a continuous evolutionary process. In essence, qualities such as discipline, innovation, motivation and authority among others, are shown to be continually evolving in the leaders considered in this paper. Most of these qualities, if not all, have led to the success of the companies under the guidance of the leaders.
References
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