Introduction
Leadership is critical to the organization’s success as it directly impacts employee motivation. Irrespective of the level of management within an organization, leadership is critical as the relationship that leaders maintain with their subordinates enables the development of organizational culture. Departmental leadership is considered less relevant but significantly impacts the overall performance of the organizations. In most cases, supervisors tend to use coercive powers over their subordinates to ensure that work is done their way, not realizing that such leadership models negatively impact the employees. By incorporating a combination of the Laissez-Faire and Transformational Leadership frameworks, one can encourage active improvement in team members’ performance and decision-making.
Concrete Experience
Working under supervision is one of the most challenging aspects an individual would experience, especially if the person overseeing the work is autocratic. During my first job as a casual laborer, I underwent one of the most memorable experiences in my work history. As a junior staff in the logistics company, I worked in a small team with a strict work schedule maintenance as the supervisor was highly dictatorial. The supervisor ensured that every minute counted, so he was always watching us under the surveillance cameras. He would often use the stereo and call the team leader to question why the person was not working as expected. In turn, my leadership role was to ensure that every team member performed corresponding tasks and that the production process was implemented seamlessly. Despite our working hard, the department’s performance during the quotas would remain the same. I used to question how such aspects were possible since we worked as per the established instructions.
Reflective Observation
Most of the time, I kept wondering why the supervisor would be so inhuman to make us work tirelessly. I felt unappreciated since the supervisor did not feel remorse for what he did to the other staff working under him and us. The supervisor did not feel our pain as he would not want to listen to anyone even if they were not feeling okay. His goal was to get work done his way, and whoever could not sustain the pressure would leave to look for work elsewhere. Most of us had no option as we needed the money to sustain our lives and experience in the field. As a rule, people felt insecure and would do as instructed since the supervisor could not listen to their complaints. To avoid exhaustion, they reduced the pace at which they worked to ensure that they sustained the working conditions for longer. Employees require an effective balance of work and time to execute their activities at a high level (Naderi et al., 2019, Mone & London, 2018). It was the only trick they would use to ensure that the supervisor would always see them busy and not complain.
Based on the leader’s behavior, behavioral contingency, and influence models can describe the leadership maintained in the department. The behavioral model effectively describes the situation as the supervisor was primarily concerned with having work done irrespective of the workers’ conditions. In addition, the leader needed to understand the contingency situation, making him fail to address the issues in the department leading to stagnated performance. The contingency theory states that effective leadership depends on the situation experienced during a specific time. A specific circumstance would make a leader effective or ineffective in this case. Power models can be used to describe the work conditions in the department. The supervisor utilized coercive power to keep the workers under pressure to ensure that work was done as he pleased. The use of such influence is the main reason the staff developed silence resistance. Such issues provided the underlying reason why the staff lacked the motivation to do the work, making them reduce their working pace to show their commitment to the course.
From the commitment perspective, our performance as only marginally positive since we had little incentive to perform to the best of our abilities. Therefore, the issue of motivation represented one of the main concerns for leaders in the specified setting. However, the levels of compliance were always high due to the rigid rules and large penalties. In retrospect, the specified combination was likely to minimize staff members’ engagement due to the lack of personal involvement. Finally, the extent of resistance was minimal since none of us had either the courage or investment to question the authority of the leader.
Active Explanation
In the course of completing this exercise, I have learned that effective leadership is a critical aspect of the success of any organization. Specifically, I have realized that encouraging collaboration and uninhibited communication is central to the team’s effective performance. The success of an organization depends on the decisions made by leaders and their ability to manage different resources (Helmold & Samara, 2019). Through the experience, I learned that one should use their power to influence positive culture within the organization. Particularly, I have learned that introducing the Transformational Leadership style is central to building motivation and promoting change, whereas the Laissez-Faire Leadership style helps encourage independence and active decision-making in staff members. To improve my leadership skills in the future, I will focus on active listening and similar techniques needed to obtain feedback from team members.
Conclusion
Based on the scenario, Transformational Leadership has tremendous impacts on the performance of an organization. Specifically, the integration of the Transformational approach builds motivation and engagement in participants. An analysis of the situation shows that leaders need to develop a close relationship with their staff, which is critical as it influences the organization’s performance. In addition, leaders must choose the right model of power to motivate their staff to use coercive power, making them develop resistance. Therefore, leadership is critical in the success of an organization for contingency situations and the overall success of the venture.
References
Helmold, M., & Samara, W. (2019). Progress in performance management: Industry insights and case studies on principles, application tools, and practice. Springer.
Naderi, A., Vosta, L. N., Ebrahimi, A., & Jalilvand, M. R. (2019). The contributions of social entrepreneurship and transformational leadership to performance: Insights from rural tourism in Iran. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 39(9/10), pp. 719-737. Web.
Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.