Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Learning

Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Learning

In an institution, the different style of leadership is employed. As a result of these leadership styles or techniques, they impact organizations in many different ways. The extent of the impact depends on the leadership style used. The effects range from productivity and metrics to decision making and employee morale. Different methods give different results, and organizations need to identify a leadership technique that suits them well. Leadership is a key to determine organizational success has been studied extensively. This essay attempt to analyze the various leadership aspects and their impact on organizational learning.

When discussing employee morale, leadership style is a vital aspect to consider. Autocratic leadership, more than often, yields a negative effect on employee morale. This is because employees are not given a chance to offer any kind of input and are also expected to follow orders without question. This creates a feeling of alienation among followers, which in turn leads to low team morale. The leadership style known to enhance employee morale is democratic leadership as it produces an environment of togetherness, and more than often, employees will work as a team as everyone feels that their contribution to the organization is highly valued and respected. The same case applies to liberal leadership, although for it to work, there needs to be self-motivation on the part of employees (Kennedy, 2002)

Management and Decision-Making Overview

Decision making is also an essential aspect of any business organization. If an organization is seen to be making poor decisions in critical situations, it is the manager that is put under scrutiny maintains that as a leader, one will be called upon to make crucial decisions at different times of his career. In the case of laissez-fair leadership, leaders delegate duties to their juniors. This means that subordinate members will make decisions. If the members are skillful and experienced, then arrangements can be made quickly enough. However, if they lack these ingredients, chaos will ensue. In participative/democratic leadership, more than often, decisions take longer to be made. This is because every member contributes their ideas and opinions upon which they are deliberated. This translates to a slow process of arriving at a decision. On the other hand, decision making under dictatorial leadership is fast and transparent. This is because it is the leader who has a monopoly of ideas that must be adhered to by their followers (Kennedy, 2012).

Management is a crucial task in any organization. The success and ability of an institution to achieve its objectives and goals depend on the kind of control and the management structures that exist in an organization. Organizational management is always a challenging task, as it involves a lot of functions. The management success of an organization implies that the manager(s) is effective in discharging his/her managerial duties. The administrative responsibilities of an effective manager consist of several managerial functions that determine the course of crucial operations in an organization. One of the most critical managerial roles that significantly impact the service delivery of any business enterprise is decision making. Decision making also influence the manager’s or management’s success.

The lives of human beings are filled with instances and situations that require making decisions. These decisions have impacts on our day to day lives. They also determine how people work towards achieving their goals and objectives. It should be noted that this basic principle is the same as with organizations. This is because they usually operate by people making decisions. Everyone in an organization from the junior employee to the most senior staff and these situation decisions form an essential role in the determination of the institution’s success story. The people in an organization who have the most significant mandate of decision making are the managers. A manager discharges his/her core duties of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling by making various relevant decisions. Decision making is certainly the primary management function and that in most cases, the managers are usually responsible for making crucial decisions that affect an organization.

The decisions made by managers in an organization can either be elaborate or simple with low or high impacts on the operations, finances, and the image of a business enterprise. “The primary role of an executive in any institution is decision making. This further shows the relationship that is there between a manager(s) and decision making within an organization. For the last few decades, several studies have been done about various factors that improve a manager’s ability to make the right decisions or what might be the hindrances to ethical decision making. It is essential to acknowledge that decision making has always been a continuous process because problems still emerge and may require a manager’s excellent decision-making skills. Therefore, decision making is considered as one of the core functions of management that has enormous impacts on the operations and success of an organization, and it is therefore required of managers to possess improved decision-making skills (Marchisotti, Almeida, & Domingos, 2018).

 Literature Review

As indicated in the introductory part, managers need to have excellent decision-making skills because solving the problems in an institution depends on one’s ability to make the right decisions and how fast they can make these decisions. Several works of literature have been done by researchers and professionals in the field of management that play a vital role in shaping the managements’ decision-making abilities. These pieces of writing cover the most critical topics in the decision-making process. The essential theme of review in this literature includes the decision making styles that a manager can employ in an organization and the crucial steps in the decision making process for better decisions.

Decision-making styles

A majority of people possess different techniques of making decisions regarding various problems that they pass through. Multiple people have suggested different decision-making styles that managers and people, in general, utilize when making critical decisions either knowingly or unknowingly. There are various definitions of decision-making. Anita defines the decision-making style as “the ways by which an individual applies the information to formulate a decision.” It should also be known that an individual’s decision-making style is a reflection of a cognitive process. In another term, decision making can be defined as the learned habitual response pattern exhibited by an individual when confronted with a decision situation.” There are mainly four decision-making techniques that people apply during decision making. These decision-making styles include; behavioral, directive, conceptual, and analytical. (Anita, Jasmina, and Ljupco, 2017).

Directive decision-making is a style that managers use in decision making. The technique is typically based on a relatively small piece of information. The directive decision-making technique is used when there is a lack of tolerance for vague details and is mostly used by autocratic leaders who, on most occasions, behave rather aggressively. Analytical managers are those type of managers that heavily rely on data and tend to do extensive research of data. These managers are tolerant of vague information and the use of complex cognitive terms. Conceptual managers are those who base their decisions on an extensive elaboration of data. They are always creative and inventive. In behavioral decision-making style, managers who use this management style, make their decisions with a subordinate in mind in that they aim to maintain good relations with their subordinates (Anita, Jasmina & Ljupco, 2017).

(Anita, Jasmina, and Ljupco, 2017) conducted a research study to evaluate which of the four decision making styles is most preferred. In their research, they selected 61 respondents, including secondary and primary school principals. The participants were given questionnaires containing questions for variable management styles. From the investigation, the results showed that most respondents preferred the management style motivated by building good relationships. It also shows that depending on the context, directive, conceptual, and analytical techniques are better when used. In an attempt to evaluate and determine the impacts of decision-making techniques on organizational learning, (Al Shra’ah, 2015) distributed a total of 152 questionnaires to 76 companies for a general manager and executive manager in each company. (Al Shra’ah, 2015) got back 119 usable responses, and the main findings indicated that most decision-making styles have positive impacts on the decision process in an organization. Therefore, depending on the organizational culture, managers need to align their different decision-making techniques to reflect the culture of the organization. By doing so, managers tend to make the right decisions.

 Decision-Making Process

Regardless of the decision-making technique that a manager employs when making various decisions in an organization, making successful choices tend to follow certain stages or steps. These steps are very crucial for an effective decision-making process. (Galak, 2010) argues that “understanding of the decision-making processes could help us in preventing bad decisions and in stimulating the good ones.” These steps of the decision-making process offer guidelines that managers can follow when making whether complex or straightforward decisions. According to (Puseljic, Skledar, and Pokupec, 2015), there are six steps or stages employed in the process of decision-making. The provides clear outlines for managers to follow when making decisions. Other researchers, however, have a varied number of steps in the decision-making process, but they all write the important ones.

According to (Puseljic, Skledar, & Pokupec, 2015), the first step to decision making is problem identification. The decision-making process begins by identifying a problem that needs a solution. (Al-Tarawneh, 2012) defines this step as problem definition, and he points out that it involves “identifying root causes, limiting assumptions, system, and organizational boundaries and interfaces and any stakeholder issues.” (Papadakis, Lioukas, & Chambers, 1998) point out that the aim of problem identification and definition in the process of decision-making is to ensure that the problem is clearly understood before going forward with other steps of making a decision. Gathering relevant information serves as the second step in decision-making. (Al-Tarawneh, 2012) says that before making a decision, it is vital to get all the necessary information required to initiate and support the decision-making process. The required information can be acquired internally by assessing the internal processor externally from other people, books, and any other source. According to (Monahan 2000), this stage also involves developing a model of the solution to a problem.

The third step is identifying alternatives to the model developed in the previous step (Monahan, 2000). A model developed in phase two is one of many possible solutions that can offer a solution to a problem. (Puseljic, Skledar, and Pokupec, 2015) point out that it is important to identify several other approaches to solving the problem because it helps to interpret and understand the problem from different perspectives. However, these alternatives must meet the requirements. The fourth step in decision-making is weighing the evidence and choosing among the options. Considering the other options involves brainstorming how it would look like if each of the options is carried out to the end. After that, choose one choice or a group of alternatives that will give the best solution (Monahan, 2000).

The fifth step is the implementation of the selected alternative of a group of other options. According to (Al-Tarawneh, 2012), this is the stage where the best-selected choice is employed to solve the problem. The sixth and final step is the review and evaluation of the decision adopted. (Puseljic, Skledar, & Pokupec, 2015) point out that this step evaluates the decision taken based on the results compared against the problem requirements. If the results reflect the desired results, then the decision made is considered as auspicious. However, if the resolution does not meet the required results, then there is a need to do more research to gather more accurate information and brainstorm on better alternatives.

 Conclusion

Decision making forms a very integral component in the management sector. Everything managers do in an organization must reflect the best decision because these decisions can have huge impacts on the organization’s operations, finances, human resources, organization’s image, and reputation, and quality of service offered. Many research studies have been done on various topics about decision making in organizations, especially for managers. Some of the most stressed factors of decision making are decision making processes and styles. According to the literature review, there are basically four decision-making techniques. These are directive, behavioral, analytical, conceptual, and analytical. Also, there are six essential steps in the decision making process that helps guide managers to make better decisions. Therefore, these factors contribute a lot to successful decision making and effective management (Puseljic, Skledar, & Pokupec, 2015).

Depending on the organization’s structure, different leadership styles will yield different results. Some organizations demand dictatorial leadership, while others need laissez-faire leadership. In an organization where employees are highly skilled and experienced, laissez-faire leadership is the best way to go. Authoritative guidance is, on the other hand, required where there is a need for a disciplined and strict team of employees. Caution, however, needs to be taken to ensure that such leadership does not lead to low morale among employees. This will more than often translate to low productivity, which will, in the long run, hurt the industry. To be able to work efficiently and be productive, leaders need to assess the environment that surrounds their organization before concluding the type of leadership they need to exercise. This will help them avoid chaos and bring the best out of every employee (Galak, 2010).

References

Al Shra’ah, A. E. M. (2015). The Impact of Decision Making Styles on Organizational Learning: An Empirical Study on the Public Manufacturing Companies in Jordan. International Journal of Business and Social Science.

Al-Tarawneh, H. A. (2012). The main factors beyond decision making. Journal of Management Research.

Anita, A., Jasmina, S., & Ljupco, K. (2017). Styles of decision making and management and dimensions of the personality of school principals. International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering, and Education.

Bavol’ar, J., & Orosova, O. G. (2015). Decision-making styles and their associations with decision-making competencies and mental health. Judgment and Decision making.

Galak, O. (2010). Decision Making: A Dynamic Perspective.

Marchisotti, G. G., Almeida, R. L., & Domingos, M. L. C. (2018). Decision-making at the first management level: The interference of the organizational culture. Revista de Administração Mackenzie.

Monahan, G. E. (2000). Management decision making: Spreadsheet modeling, analysis, and application. Cambridge University Press.

Papadakis, V. M., Lioukas, S., & Chambers, D. (1998). Strategic decision‐making processes: the role of management and context. Strategic management journal.

Polič, M. (2009). Decision making: between rationality and reality. Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems.

Puseljic, M., Skledar, A., & Pokupec, I. (2015). Decision-Making as a Management