Task Oriented and Employee Oriented Leadership Functions
Discuss about the Public Policy and Administration Research Styles.
To maintain a sustainable business, an organization requires a good understanding of leadership so as to address the good and personal results of the employees. The basic goal is happiness for each and every person and mostly things are related to that goal if thought profoundly. The personal results of the employees such as life’s meaning and being healthy is the most significant concern of the organizations in between the strong competition to attract and retain the new talent. If only work related results are to be focused on, they might not prove to be sufficient anymore. There will always be a need of the better understanding of the process of leadership so that employees can produce better outcomes (Krishnan, 2012). Effective leadership is the most important part of the whole process of the organization to sustain in the market even after facing the problems which are caused by economical environment. Only the leaders are the people those who take control and take the charges of all the operational tasks of the organizations and best leaders are always capable of setting the positive goals while they steer the operations of the organization and move them towards the goals and the effective strategies (S. & R., 2014). Apart from that, leaders also can influence the employees and can easily motivate them by promoting a good culture in the organization and providing benefits to the employees such as health care, compensation and other benefits (Hao & Yazdanifard, 2015). This essay focuses on the leadership functions that are task oriented and employee oriented and the leadership styles that are useful in the field of nursing.
Task orientation is a kind of quality of the leader who can maintain strict discipline in the completion of the tasks and meet the deadlines. Leader who is task oriented will always maintain his focus on the timing of the task and the quality of work which is being delivered but in all this, he might lose his concentration on the employees. Leader who has strong orientation will always be known as the authoritarian leader as he will put down his own plan in action and will keep the employees less involved (Hassan, Asad, & Hoshino, 2016). If something important is to be done in the organization, it surely has to be done in the right way. When a task oriented leader is involved, that leader will do his best to perform that task in the best way possible. Leadership which is task oriented is a kind of a large-scale project management. It is for the person who is easily able to break down the task into small-small components and then create the project into the given timeline and also ensured that every milestone is met (Fayyaz, Naheed, & Hasan, 2014). Such leaders are minded and focused for the end results instead of in between roles and functions of the project. This type of leadership function focuses on the plans, schedules and structures. A few other elements of the task oriented leadership are:
- Plans are created and also schedules are maintained.
- Goals are prioritized.
- Tasks are continuously reviewed in order to ensure if the project is on track or not.
- In this leadership, the leader would always stick to the strict schedule irrespective of the aspects of the task.
- All the elements of the tasks are reviewed constantly(Spahr, 2015).
In the year 1940, the research was done for looking for the components of individual leadership and analyzing its effect on the workers. Then in 2006, the study of the compared research was done on the wide range of the leadership techniques. Results were shown that the task oriented leadership is overall not effective than other leadership functions.
Employee Oriented leadership function is the one in which the best part of the leader is that he takes care of his employees. There are times when the employees are looking forward to their leaders in order to just feel that he cares for them. This type of a leader can sometimes overlook the failures of the task and deadlines that are missed. The leader who is employee oriented is the one who has a democratic style of leadership (Law, 2015). This leadership is just the opposite of the task oriented leadership because the leaders are directly connected with the employees all throughout the process. Every aspect of the work is done under the eyes of the leader in this leadership and he is always there for the ideas his employees provide and also to support his employees when in need. In this type of leadership, a great team work can be seen within the community and it allows a lot of collaboration and the flow of ideas within the team. This type of method is very cliché in the entertainment field and in the advertising firms where collaboration seems important.
Employee Oriented
If the downside is concerned, it is seen that often one person becomes more dominant in the team while working together. With this leadership, a leader can always give a chance to any of the tem member for participation. Also, the leader will have to make sure that the person who is given chance to participate shall not take over the conversation without letting other members to deliver their ideas (Gill, 2016). If this doesn’t happen, team work can lead to failure. In case of the leader does not set a clear process of working, this leadership can be bogged down.
Employee oriented leaders are optimistic. Their views are always positive about the world and even of the role they play in this world. They behave maturely rather than being cynical and act maturely in tough situations too (Oni, 2017). They are always self-assured and they maintain relations throughout their lives by maintaining networks in personal way. This is the quality which makes this type of leaders successful.
There are several types of leaderships which are as discussed below:
- Strategic Style: In this leadership style, the leader who is also the head of the organization acts. This type of leader is not only connected with the upper ground people but also with the people who work at all levels including the lowest level of resources. Hence, this leadership works with the wider audience. This is done to create high productivity for the organization. This leader will fill the gap in between the needs of possibility as well as the practicality via providing a good set of habits. Approx 55% of the leadership involves strategic thinking (Dudin & Rbabah, 2015).
- Team Leadership Style: This leadership creates a future picture as to where the organization is heading and how and what it will stand for in the future. This future vision provides a sense of way and the purpose. This leadership is about working by putting all the efforts in the work of all those people who are involved in the tasks. Team work is not always about the trust of the cooperative relationships. The challenging part of the leadership is not knowing that it will be succeeded or not. Team leadership might fail in case of poor qualities of leader.
- Cross Culture Style: Where there exist a lot of cultures in the organization and the society, cross cultural leadership comes into the picture. Through this leadership, it can be easily recognized the front runners of the contemporary market. Leaders who can easily adapt themselves according to the different work conditions and the cultures are needed to follow this type of leadership(Snaebjornsson, Edvardsson, Zydziunaite, & Vaiman, 2015).
- Facilitative style: This style of leadership is too much dependent on the measurements and the results and not on the skills; however it takes too much effort and skills to master. The efficacy of the whole process defines the effectiveness of the community. In case of the high functioning community or group, the leader will use less effort in the process. Apart from that, if the group functions in a low manner then the leader helps the groups to run the process. This type of effective leadership consists of group dynamics, suggestions and interventions for helping the community to stay right on the track (Watt, 2009).
- Laissez-Faire Style: In this type of leadership, the authority is given to the employees. Subordinates are always allowed to work in the way they choose to work with the minimal of interference. This leadership style is responsible for the effective management and it is continuously found to be satisfying the employees in organizations(Khan, et al., 2015). This style is also known as the “hands-off” leadership style. No direction is provided by the manager in this kind of leadership style. Hence, freedom is very much there while working for such type of managers. This type of style sounds simple and an easy going relationship can be found in between the managers and subordinates. When this leadership occurs, absolutely nothing happens. The decisions making is not being done and any decision made is not carried out at last. If honestly being said, the responsibilities are ignored. As the leader is easy going, then there would be no much interaction seen of the subordinates and the leaders. This leadership style does not promote interaction which is purposeful and it might contribute to the downfall of the organization.
- Coaching style: This consists of the supervision and the teaching methods. The leader in this style operates on the higher level and set the results that are expected and also set the bar for the performance and the requirements in the improvement if any. Followers are always given help for improving their skills. This leadership helps the employees in motivation, encouragement and inspires them(Abedin, Esmaili, & Tojari, 2014).
- Charismatic Leadership: The leader always will display his powers in this type of leadership. Charisma just does not mean the behavior change. It involves the follower’s transformation of values and the beliefs. Hence, this type of leader is popular who may affect the attitudes for particular objects but he is not ready to transform the normative orientation which gives the structure to the particular attitudes(Ahmed, Nawaz, & Khan, 2016).
- Visionary Style: This style consists of the leaders who realize the steps and the processes are all obtained with the help of the people. Mostly every leader has a great vision for the future of the organization and in real life too. Those people who possess this quality of having vision in them are usually the followers of the visionary leadership style. Leaders with good vision mostly are successful in transforming their vision into reality.
- Transactional Leadership: This leadership is all about maintaining the status quo. In includes the exchange process in which the followers get the rewards for following the leader’s orders. It can be seen as basic as it includes the exchange process. To be clear, following the expectations and the feedback, all are important when it comes to the leadership skills. This style includes the behaviors like clarifying the expectations to the follower’s performance, to explain the way expectations can be met, rewards allocation and the objectives of the meeting etc. Leader in transactional style will always ensure that the complete staff should abide by the rules by involving rewards in the system as well as the punishments too. The staff members who achieve the given tasks and the targets will receive rewards according to the work they have done. On the other way round, if they fail to do the tasks nicely then they will be getting punished too. This type of leadership style is good in managing the situations of the crisis.
- Transformational Leadership: This leadership style is about making changes in the companies, oneself and the groups. These types of leaders always motivate other people to do more than what actually is intended and sometimes even more of what is thought was possible. They always set challenging expectations and usually achieve high performance. This type of leadership has more of the satisfied followers and they are very much committed too. This happens due to the leaders empowering their followers(Sadeghi & Pihie, 2012). In this style, the followers will always see the behavior of their leaders and then they get inspired for their own betterment. The followers perform in a much better way and sometimes even beyond expectations as they put in so many efforts than what they put in the reality. Leaders will always provide the clear vision which motivates the staff members to perform better always.
- Democratic Style: In this style of leadership, the subordinates are always considered while making decisions. This leadership is based on the subordinates and hence, it is just opposite to the autocratic leadership. The leader has all the end responsibility but he is authorized to give the responsibilities to the other people who work on projects. The communication in this leadership is both ways, upward and downward. In terms of the statistics, this leadership is a preferred leadership styles as it holds fairness, creativity, intelligence, competence, courage and honesty(Bhatti, Maitlo, Shaikh, Hashmi, & Shaikh, 2012). In this style, the subordinates are always encouraged to speak up their ideas and join the process of decision making. This makes the followers also feel good about themselves. They feel that they are respected as well as their ideas are important and have values. Main focus is on improving the performance of the staff. Hence, workers are given responsibilities too to achieve targets.
- Authoritarian Leadership: This leadership style revolves around with the boss. Leader is the one who holds all the responsibilities and also all the authorities. In this style, employees are not considered while any decision making is done. Leaders are the ones who take all the decision and whatever decision is taken by them later is shared with their subordinates and after that the leaders expect the subordinates to promptly do the tasks. Normally this leadership style has no flexibility in the work environment. The procedures and the guidelines are naturally added by the autocratic leader. There are a very few situations where autocratic leadership actually supports (Paracha, Qamar, Mirza, Hassan, & Waqas, 2012). This style is completely opposite to the democratic style. The decisions are made by the leader rapidly and he does not even consult his subordinates about the decision making. The team members who do not agree with the decisions of the leaders, then they are punished by the leader himself. This keeps the staff members in line. In case of mistakes happening, subordinates are punished in front of their fellow colleagues. This style is good for the crisis situations again.
There are a number of studies done when it comes to the leadership styles and the patients. For example: In the transformational leadership, it is linked with the limited medication errors in many studies that are being done. It can always be seen that the things that are done for the patients, are done very carefully inside the hospitals. Low patient mortality can be seen in such leadership style. Patients get better with time and the care that is provided within transformational leadership style. The leadership styles which include transformation and other collaborative styles might have an effect on the satisfaction of the patient. Patients are mostly satisfied with the service they were provided with for both the hospital care and the home care. Need for t he self control is also less as the patients acts carefully and cooperatively with the nurses. Apart from some errors in medication, there are a few cases reported infections sometimes. In case if anyone is going to the hospital then it is always preferable to be admitted to the leaders who are champion in their work.
National Institute of health and the Journal of Nursing Administration had published the stories related to nursing and the leadership styles. It was found that the transformational leadership styles were a very positive contributor towards a safe climate in the hospital. It helps in reduced staff turnover if it is compared to the others. Nurses were happy to work and they even chose to stay for long with the work they were doing. Apart from that the Laissez-Faire style was found to be very negative contributor in the society. Because of t hat culture blame within the team members were created and the staff also came to stress unnecessarily. Other findings also showed that the nurses quickly were able to make pout the difference in between transformational and transactional leadership styles. They might sound similar but they are different in terms of the implementation and their results are also different. Nurses were more leaned towards the transformational approach because it promoted motivation and satisfaction of job. The nurses always liked the idea of motivation and the inspiration with the positive behavior which was also helpful in the effective output. All styles have their own way of leadership but a good leader is the one who implements the right style at the right time.
Various styles of Leadership
Conclusion
This report focuses on the leadership two leadership functions. They are employee oriented in which the employees are given so much importance and their ideas are being heard. And the other one is task oriented in which the tasks are given so much importance rather than the employees. The nurse leaders always have the positive attitude towards the tasks as well as the employees in some cases (AL-Dossary, 2017). The awareness of the leadership styles should be done for improving the leadership in medical field. The courses of these leadership styles can be put into practice in clinical practice for nursing (Kvist, Tahka, Ruotsalainen, & Heikkinen, 2014). The different leadership styles are discussed which are important for the leaders to follow as they also define various types of leaders those who follow different leadership style out of the above mentioned one’s. Also, there are four leadership styles which differ in nursing ability to Influence Subordinates and reward them.
References
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