Leadership Style and Employee Empowerment Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Leadership Style and Employee Empowerment. Answer: Introduction: Emirates Airlines is always highly praised for its highly diverse organizational culture implemented by the leaders of the organization. However, like other companies, Emirates also has both dominant and less dominant leadership styles in its workplaces. Dominant leadership means a precise line of authority that allows the leaders of an organization to have to power of delegation and the power of control over the subordinates (Kolachi 2014). It also allows the leaders to monitor and control the participation of employees in decision making method. This type of leadership style is present in Emirates which is autocratic leadership. Less dominant leadership styles means leaders value the expectations and requirements of the employees to some extend and implement policies that can provide the employees with benefits. In this context, democratic leadership style is present in the workplace of Emirates Airlines. Democratic leadership style is present in the workplace of Emirates. A video of the employees of Emirates was shared where those employees were singing and playing instruments from around the world. It looked like the employees were enjoying themselves which is a great thing to see (Kumar Steenkamp, 2013). Moreover, the video also displays how international and how diverse the organization is. The leaders of the organization are continuously motivating the employees. Motivation is the primary strategy of the organization to encourage the employees to perform appropriately. Through democratic leadership, the management of the organization, the management of the organization is also encouraging employees to respond differently in different conditions. Now Emirates is operating flights in several countries all over the world. Therefore, the management is not focusing more on diversity. The organization has recruited employees from nearly 30 countries who spoke 16 different languages (Alcacer Clayton, 2014). From this statistics it can be stated that the organization is less dominant in terms of recruitment and openly recruits employees who are eligible for the organization. Dominant and less dominant leadership in Emirates Dominant leadership: Because of the autocratic and dominant leadership style of Emirates management, the employees call the organization as a golden cage. The organization is accused for exhausting its employees beyond their limits. Besides, the management of the organization also employs punishments when complaints are registered by the consumers (de Brito Neto, 2015). This information was collected from a dedicated whistleblower site. As mentioned in the donotflyemirates.wordpress.com where pilots of Emirates Airlines publish their stories, the management has developed a culture of fear. In Emirates Airlines, employees feel like they are insecure, targeted and attentive. This administrator of the website also stated that UAE does not allow unions that are making the staffs of Emirates Airlines more vulnerable. In Emirates Airlines, if complaints are registered against an employee, the management does not allow him to provide explanations. That employee will receive a warning or wil l be fired from the organization (Guhl, 2015). The whistleblower site is already banned in UAE; therefore, the employees of the organization have almost no chance to inform the populace about the autocratic practices in the organization. However, the management of Emirates Airlines wanted to demolish the voice of the employees totally. That is why; Emirates lawyer was send to Word press and asked them to take down the contents about Emirates Airlines. The coordinator of the site also received several warnings for spreading negative influence on the consumers of Emirates Airlines (Girma, 2016). Some former employees and pilots of the organization confirmed that the management of Emirates used to force them to take heavy workloads and used to implement bullying techniques. On the other hand, as per mentioned by Rast et al., (2013), ex-employees of Emirates Airlines described the rosters of the organization as brutal. The pilots of the company are expected to switch from day to night duties without having ample amount of rest in between. Besides, the matter became worse when Emirates Airlines failed to meet the aviation safety related regulations of UAEs General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) (Hendriks Karsten, 2014). Besides, the Dubai based aviation watchdog is connected with the state government and that is why; they cannot fulfill their duties independently. Spokesman of Emirates stated that the organization is actively encouraging its employees to report all aspects of safety so that appropriate analysis and investigation can be conducted. Emirates pilots on the other hand stated that the organization has a Pilot Fatigue Risk Management system. However, it is does not do anything to meet the problems (Hackman Johnson, 2013). They also stated tha t the program actually pursues tactics of pilot intimidation to de-motivate any further complaints. Less dominant leadership: In spite of several flaws in the leadership styles of the organization, Giltinane (2013) mentioned that currently Emirates has gained huge competitive advantage because of their effective leadership and management styles. It is already mentioned that in spite of having a diverse bunch of employees the organization is successfully providing superior performance to the consumers (Gonos Gallo, 2013). Besides, several motivational strategies are also implemented in the organization that includes recognition and employee rewards. However, the question is whether these methods are transparent or not and whether employees are getting their rewards without partiality or not. Impact of present leadership style of Emirates on its employees From the above discussion, it is clear that the leadership style in Emirates Airlines is dominant. Employees are forced to perform on the terms of the organization. Another major thing done by the organization is using badges of old employees for the new employees. As result of using old badges, the organization is able to show how experienced their employees are. Therefore, consumers are expecting more from those employees where they have no idea how to provide satisfactory services. Besides, as the leaders of the organization are not allowing the employees to take proper amount of rest, the pilots and other staff members are quitting their jobs. New employees are also unable to handle the pressure they are having from the management of the organization (Men Stacks, 2013). As a result, new employees are also quitting their jobs within 6 months. Therefore, turnover rate of Emirates Airlines is increasing. From the report, I have mostly learned about two types of leadership styles which are dominant leadership style and less dominant leadership style. Dominant leadership style, what I learned is a type of leadership where leaders monitor everything and their decision is the final decision. Employees in the case of dominant leadership have a little voice. On the other hand, for less dominant leadership, employees are allowed to take part in the organizational activities frequently. In this type of leadership, leaders allow the employees to share their views and enjoy themselves in the workplace to a certain limit. After gathering information about the leadership styles used in Emirates Airlines, I could understand that autocratic leadership style is mostly followed in the organization. Autocratic leadership style is similar like dominant leadership style. In this leadership style leaders of the organization only think about profitability and give minimum or no attention to the problems of the employees. While going through several journals and articles about this leadership, I figured out that autocratic leadership is also called as authoritarian leadership where an individual controls all decisions. Autocratic leaders mostly make decisions based on their thoughts and judgments. These types of leaders hardly ever accept advice from their followers. I also learned that this type of leaders includes complete and strict control over the group. I have also learned about the unique characteristics of autocratic leadership which are mentioned below. Either minimum or no input is allowed from the group members of employees Leaders make all the decisions and non consultation is done before or after making that decision All the work related methods and processes are dictated by the leaders only Group members are trusted with decisions or with important projects and tasks Any type of work tends to be extremely structured and rigid Creativity is discouraged among the workers Rules and regulations get the top priority As autocratic leadership style do not allow others to take part in the decision making method and other activities, it has number of disadvantages. I have learned as this leadership style includes one way communication without feedback, the chances are high that misunderstandings and communication break downs will take place. On the other hand, autocratic leaders always make their own decisions. It can be dangerous in this era of technological and sociological complexity. Besides, as employees are not allowed to take part in anything, autocratic leaders will fail to establish commitment of those employees to the organizational objective and goals. Autocratic leadership also develops problems both with morale of the employees and production in the long-run. However, I have also learned about some advantages of autocratic leadership. Autocratic leadership can become beneficial in some conditions, such as when decisions require to be made swiftly without consulting with a large group of people. Besides, if the leaders are the most knowledgeable person in the group then autocratic leadership style can lead to quick and efficient decisions. From the report I have also learned about democratic leadership style. About democratic leadership style I have learned that it is also called as participative leadership style. This can also be considered as less dominant leadership style as here employees take more participative role in the decision making method. Every employee is given chances to contribute and ideas are exchanged recurrently. It can be considered as less-dominant leadership as leaders will be there to guide and control the ideas of the employees in the decision making process. I have learned that this leadership style is stated as the most effective style as leads to better productivity and enhanced group mo rale. Some characteristics of this leadership style that I have learned from several journals and books are mentioned below. Employees in an organization are motivated to share ideas and opinions. However, leaders will be there to have the final say. Group members and employees feel more engaged in the overall method. Democratic leaders normally possess some particular traits such as honesty, cleverness, bravery, innovation, competence and fairness. I have also understood that this leadership style has several benefits. Through this leadership style, employees can be motivated to share their thinking. Employees will also feel more engaged and committed to the projects which will make them more likely to care about the results. However, in some instances where the roles are not clear, democratic leadership can cause interaction failures and unfinished projects. However, as this leadership style is able to improve productivity, I would like to become a democratic leader in the future. In order to become a democratic leader, it is important for me to acquire the traits mentioned above. Therefore, a CPD plan is provided below through which I will be able to become a democratic leader in the future. CPD plan Objective CPD Activity Details/Reflection Duration Accurate and timely interaction Learn to collect important information from all employees in timely manner. I will have to improve my network of communication so that information exchange can be done efficiently. 1 week Organized structure Become organized so that responsibilities can be carried out in an appropriate manner I will need to have inclusive understanding about my group along with its strengths and weaknesses. I will also develop sub groups that will be accountable for carrying out significant duties. 1 month Deadline Showing competence at processing employee input I will have to improve my skills in gathering and processing information. 1 week Suggestion Able to establish concrete guidelines for decision making process I will have to create a handbook for the employees. It will help them to understand what kind of decision I will be making without the help of the staff and what type of decisions will need attention of everyone. 1 week Value systems of the organization using the concept of Meme Stack The concept of Industry Meme stack will be used in this section in order to describe the value systems of Emirates. Emirates is a reputed organization, where problems regarding the autocratic leadership, elongated duty hours of the pilots, roster issues, lesser gaps of the day and night shifts, poor relation between the senior management and junior management employees. These problems of the company are to be described in details along with the solution along with the industry meme stacking system. Meme stacking of Emirates will be used in terms of the keywords of the problems of the industry concept, industry controversy, industry belief, etc. The stack will be completed when it will be covered by the selected solutions for the problems. It can be seen that the company does not have any types of leadership practiced in the organizational context (Lam, Huang Chan, 2015). The issues are related to the internal problems of the company in the perspective of the business operations of E mirates. Meme stacking is a vital framework that describes both about the problems and solutions of the internal problems of the company. The leadership is not present in all levels of business operations. People are ordered while their suggestions are not taken in order to frame any type of decisions and strategies for the employee development. It is a form of autocratic leadership. Elongated duty hours are a vital problem for the workers of Emirates (Bell Mjoli, 2014). Due to the stretched duty hours, the employees are not able to work properly or give their best to their field of work. However, the roster problem is the main problem between the management of the Emirates and the ground staffs, pilots, etc. The solutions to the problems are different to the problems mentioned in the above. The solutions that will be suggested in the Meme stack are participative leadership, relatively shorter duty hours, enhanced communication system, regular gaps between the different shift hours of the day. These solutions along with the problems are described and illustrated within the meme stack diagram (Bryman, 2013). Specific leadership challenge along with the variation in change It is already mentioned earlier that the company has serious problems in the field of leadership and development. Autocratic leadership is followed by the senior management of the company which is the main source of problem to the employees working in it especially the ground staffs, flight attendants and the pilots. Sometimes it is seen that the pilots are doing duties up to 100 hours at a stretch which is very hectic and tiring (Miao, Newman Huang, 2014). Pilots are not allowed to provide their feedback to the management regarding their elongated duty hours as they are very strict and rigid to their decisions and their procedures which sometimes do not work for them in every circumstance. This in turn results in the lower productivity of the employees as well as dissatisfaction towards their management and their work spheres. These also lacks in good employee relations between junior and senior employees of Emirates (Vann, Coleman Simpson, 2014). Participative leadership is the only form of leadership that can be used in this context. The senior management along with the junior management all must participate in the decision making process of the company. Simultaneously it will help in finding the solutions of different types of problems in the company. If the employees are consulted with their team leaders or the senior officers not only in the formation of roster of their work schedule but also to their different categories of problems, then there will be no problems regarding work schedule and other problems that occurred while working in the shifts (de Poel, Stoker Van der Zee, 2014). Eight variations of change includes fine tuning, reforming, upgrade, stretching down, stretch up, break out, up shift and quantum change. These eight forms should be maintained with the efforts of both the strategic management department as well as the different types of ground staffs, pilots, etc. The different stages are to be participate d by the above mentioned employees in the organizational context. Along with that, participative or democratic leadership will be incorporated in order to make the process of change management more effective (Mulki, Caemmerer Heggde, 2015). However, it is a step of change management that will reduce the hindrances of the employees. In these circumstances, stretch up will be used in order to reduce the identified problems in the system. Reference of different value systems to the problem Apart from that, communication must be improved at a significant level so that the distance between the different levels of employees can be abolished. This distance will create a negative impact on the work of them in a way so that they cannot participate in the different forms of programs and sessions of participative leadership in terms of the decision making process of the companies. The only way to improve the level of communication and the employee relations of the company is the participative leadership (Nahavandi, 2016). By practicing it at the organization level, the company must put their employees a certain level of importance to the different sections while listening their inputs in the varied strategies and in the development of their work schedule (Girma, 2016). The value chain of the change management as well as different processes of the management operations of Emirates will be enclosed in a value chain system. All the works are done in a way so that they can be incorporated in the open, closed and arrested value chain system. In the open value system the information is transferred into all individuals. In the arrested value system, the information should be floated in the current value systems, nothing will be incorporated from the other individuals. On the other hand, the closed value chain system will not accept any information from any of the value chain system provided (Saleem, Saqib Zahra, 2015). Reference List Alcacer, J., Clayton, J. (2014). 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