Leadership Style Is Fixed and Unchangeable

Leadership is essentially the core and spirit of an organization (Mills, 2005). As the people in control of the affairs of an organisation, leaders manage the organisation’s affairs, relate with employees on a daily basis, face to face. Hence leaders are given the task to communicate organisational goals, visions and ideas to employees, maintain and implement organisational rules and systems and even have the final say on promotion, retention and dismissal ((Murray, 2013). Hence, Leaders do not have same approach to issues; neither do they get things done in the same manner. Leadership style varies depending on the kind of individuals the leaders interact with as well as the nature of the organisation he leads. Leadership styles used by leaders have changed drastically as new information is discovered, accepted and used (Zhou et at 2008). The role of leadership now requires leaders to engage themselves more, strive to lead their teams by example and earn the loyalty of their subordinates thereby enhancing employee performance and creating a cordial relationship between employees and organizations (Zhou et at 2008).

An example of such the changing process is Apple Inc, since the death of former CEO Steve Job and the appointment of new CEO Tim Cook the company has gone through some kind of makeover, getting rid of some displeasing characteristics connected with Jobs and replacing with some of its new leaders features and qualities (Kelly 2012). Leadership: According to Nader (N/A), leadership is the influence that particular individuals (leaders) exert upon the goal achievement of others (subordinates) in an organizational context. Similar, Taleghani et al 2010) defines leadership as the process of having dominance on group activities in order to realize the objectives of an organisation. Therefore, leadership is said to be a process by which one person influences the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours of others (Mills, 2005).

Gitsham (2012) identified two types of leaders as; emergent Leaders and Assigned leaders. Emergent leaders are those who earn leadership positions through their abilities, skills and abilities to influence others, or personal acceptability by the group. While assigned leaders are those who are given power to exercise influence through appointment. Such leaders draw power and influence from sources outside the group, and in most cases, have been given some power to assign tasks, and hand out rewards and punishments based on performance (Vroom and Jago, 1988). Generally, these two types of leaders accomplishes two different functions that includes being able to provide social and emotional support to the group by listening, acknowledging, team building, and supporting other members in the group (Muller, 2002), the second factor is to provide direction and assistance to the group in accomplishing their tasks.

Successful leaders have the ability to identify and apply the appropriate strategy at the right time (Muller, 2002). Leadership style refers to the patterns of behaviours an individual leader uses across a full range of managerial and leadership situations (Dubrin, 2008). Goleman (2000) highlights six leadership styles that include commanding, Visionary, Affiliate, Democratic, Pacesetting and Coaching. Similarly, According to Vroom and Jago (1988), as quoted by Nader (N/A) highlights three different leadership styles. These are autocratic, consultative, or group decision-making style. In this context, six leadership styles will be discussed

Visionary: This is said to be the most appropriate leadership style for an organization that needs a new track (Zhou et al 2008). Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going, but not how it will get there. He encourages individuals to innovate, experiment, take calculated risks (Mills, 2005) Coaching: This is a one-on-one style that focuses on developing individuals, showing them how to improve their performance, and helping to connect their goals to the goals of the organization (Mills, 2005). Affiliative: This leadership style stresses on the importance of team work, and creates harmony in a group by connecting people to each other (Murray, 2013). Democratic: This style draws on the knowledge of individuals and skills, and creates a group commitment that ensures the accomplishment of set goals. This leadership style works best when there are uncertainties on the path of an organisation and the leader needs to tap the collective wisdom of the group (Lynham and Chermack, 2006).

Pacesetting: Here leader tend to set high standards for performance by making activities compulsively faster and better Commanding: This can be referred to as a military leadership style. It is probably the most often used, but the least often effective because of the high level of dictatorship (Murray, 2013). Similarly, Management Style is a function of behaviour associated with personality (Mills, 2005). Hence effective management style defines the degree to which a leader constantly and progressively leads and directs followers to a set destination (Uche and Timinepere, 2012). According to Efere (2003), managers display one or more of the management styles that includes; Authoritarian style, Authoritative style, Democratic Style, Afiliative, Indifference, Permissive, Coaching, Pacesetting and Visionary (Efere, 2003. Authoritarian Style: Also referred to as forceful style of management, authoritarian managers would normally demand immediate submission (Uche and Timinepere, 2012). Basically such managers would ask followers to just do as they say.

Whereas, in modern business organisations, this style of management cannot succeed, as it will ultimately cause staff demotivation or possible agitation and legal act. However, authoritarian management style may be suitable in crisis situations and in the military (Efere, 2003). Authoritative Style: This type of management style is characterised by chockfull authority and influence, managers who display this type of management style ensure easy mobilisation of people with a great deal of passion and with clear objectives (Efere, 2003). These are very confident and charismatic managers who are basically encouraging individuals to work together in trust. Some pessimists might feel that such managers are over confident and arrogant (Uche and Timinepere, 2012). Democratic Style: Just as the name implies democratic managers seek to achieve their objectives in agreement and staff participation (Uche and Timinepere, 2012). These are managers who would seek the opinion of their staff on serious issues.

This creates the feeling of joint participation and responsibility among the staff. It is said that such management style is likely to reduce staff rebellion (Efere, 2003). Affiliative Style: This management style is closely related to the democratic style as it seeks to create unity and harmony within individuals in an organisation by means of building an emotional bond between individuals (Lynham and Chermack,2006).. Such bonding is expected to create an atmosphere of friendliness, unity and love in an organisation, thereby bringing about motivation and share vision within individuals (Uche and Timinepere, 2012). Permissive Style: This is the management style where managers give followers a free hand in carrying out duties (Efere, 2003). That is little or no direction is been given to staff, basically, letting the staff to carry on with their job. This provides a great deal of empowerment for the staff especially those that may feel proud of their position without supervision. This kind of management style is sometimes referred to as Laissez-Faire Style (Uche and Timinepere, 2012).

Indifferent Style: The indifferent management style basically requires less work from the manager (Efere, 2003). It is more like the permissive style but here the manager is seriously demotivated as a result of lack of recognition, hence this style is rarely accepted in modern management. The relationship between Leadership styles and Management Styles cannot be overemphasised. A good match between the style of management and leadership of an organization will substantially influence its level of effectiveness (Uche and Timinepere, 2012). In each organization, management style influences the performance of individual employee and work groups, and thereby enhancing the whole organisation’s performance hence, it is argued that leadership and management styles are not fixed (Lynham and Chermack, 2006). Literature reviews on this discuss shows that human behaviour is as much a reflection of the differences between individuals, as it is a reflection of their similarities (Zhou et al 2008).

These individual differences are caused by a number of influences and characteristics that dictates the path of leadership and management (Lynham and Chermack, 2006). For instance, personality traits focus on individual differences that make each person a unique human being. That means the biological make-up of a leader concentrates on how he or she functions as a result of evolution and human inheritance (Zhou et al 2008). Therefore leadership is a function of individual differences and social changes that makes it transient. Furthermore, Gallos (2008), argues that leadership is underpinned by a dependency culture that encourages leader and follower dynamics.

Similarly, Nader (N/A) affirms that successful leadership depends to a large extent on the environment and situation in which these dynamics exist. Fundamentally, the leadership style adopted by leaders depends on the different values, personalities and targets of leaders and how comfortable it is to allow subordinates participate in the decision-making process (Lynham and Chermack, 2006). In conclusion, Organizations require good leadership as well as a strong management for optimum effectiveness. Conversely a good leader may communicate the path of an organisation, it still requires good managers to accomplish set objectives and target. Therefore, leadership style cannot be fixed and unchanging as a result of innovative changes in the society in which these organisations operate.

REFERENCES
Efere, P (2003), Management Styles. Trans-Atlantic College, London Gallos, J (2008) Business Leadership: A Jossy-base reader. Second Edition John Wiley and Sons Inc. Gitsham, M (2012) Leadership in a rapid changing world. How business leaders are reframing success (Available)http://ashridegweddings.org.uk/Website/IC.nsf/wFARPUB/Leadership+in+a+rapidly+changing+world:+how+business+leaders+are+reframing+success?OpenDocument (Accessed 20 April 2013) Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R.E and Mckee, A (2002) Primal Leadership: Realising the power of emotional intelligence. Boston Harvard Business School Press Jean, M (2010) A successful Organisation depends on effective Leadership (Online) http://assignmentstudio.net/Home/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/leadstyleimp.pdf (Accessed 10 April 2013) Kelly, H. (2012) How Apple has changed under Tim Cook: CNN News. [Online] Available from: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/04/tech/innovation/apple-tim-cook. (Accessed 21 April 2013). Lynham, S.A and Chermack, T.J (2006) Responsible Leadership for performance: [Online] A theoretical Model and Hypotheses. Journal of Leadership and Organisational Studies Vol.12, No.4, pp. 74-88 Mills, D.Q (2005) Leadership: How to lead, How to live (Online) www.cafanet.com/linkClick.aspx?fileticket=qwswE8roe74%3D&tabid=96 (Accessed 12 March 2013) Muller, R (2002) Choosing and Developing the right Leadership Styles for project. Boston Harvard Business School Press Murray, A (2013) Leadership Styles: The wall street journal guide to management (Available) www.djreprints.com (Accessed 18 April 2013) Nader, R (N/A) Leadership and Motivation (Available)