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INTODUCTION

Saville (1971) defines leadership as a way of arranging, systematizing and steering situation so that all persons in the company is able to accomplish the premeditated organisational objectives with diminutive cost and littlest time and endeavour. Wayson (1979) tells leadership is about a supervisor lending a hand to s

mooth the progress of a group to achieve certain common ends. Leader ship is different from power and authority. Leader ship can be a assigned when it is basedin on a position individual holds and also it can emerging when in a crisis situation a individual exhibits qualities needed for a leader and takes charge.

For the purpose of this study about leader ship styles and qualities my principle organisations of comparison will be leader ship panacheS of companies Fiat andOticon. Style of management followed by key staff of both organisations is strikingly different. Fiat is a century old, family controlled Italian Automobile manufacturer which was almost tapped out in 2006 but was brought back to profits bythe efforts of chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne.who implemented a set of radical changes in the company. In Oticon also there wa

s a organisational transmutation but both companies implementation strategy andfocus was different.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES AND THEORIES OF LEADER SHIP.( task 1)

Although there are many scientific theories in leadership like Great man theorywhich believed leaders are born with certain skills 2) Trait theory which identified key skills needed for leaders and first advocated training to improve them(Stogdill, 1974) 3) Behavioural school which studied leader ship from human kindred's point of view 4)McGregor published X Theory and Y theory this is not a clear leader ship theory but has been a use full one for leaders in practical life . in this main argument is that leaders thinking process and conclusions effe

ct style person pursues.(McGregor, 1960), 5)Robert Blake and Jane Mouton createda Blake and Mouton theory on Managerial Grid with focus on production and employee . Theory tried to link these two extremes,(Blake & Mouton, 1964), 6) Contingency / Situational school of leadership thought argued that leadership is cemented on influential markin's like people . firm, internal and outside environment and so on. Fiedler's Contingency Model whichis based contingency school managerial situations will determine style of leadership. He argued key determinants of leader ship styles are 1) The extend and limitations of managers own authority regulated by terms of official order of his appointment 2) Style and necessities of job that needs to be undertaken3) Currently existing managerial employee relationship in the firm.The Hersey-Blanchard Leadership Model here the argument is that staff abilities and skills t

hey process will determine the style managers needs to use off. It also argues that as staff is more experienced and confident more participative management canbe allowed & SchmidtS theory argues that leadership is a continuous process.Most commonly used styles of leader ship are 1) Autocratic leader ship or direct leader ship or classical approach is one of the mostly used leadership style in organisations by effective managers is a autocratic style. In this all the hirelings will be unequivocally briefed about what leader expects from them. Therules procedures , and work schedules relating to the work will be set . Guiding and co-coordinating will also be part of managers overall job. In this approach leader has more higher and important role. Leader will need to hold sway overthe entire organisation and also will be have to defrock employees who do not come up to the expectations.Main features: 1) Leader takes more responsibility 2) rewards and chastising met

hods are preset 2) no much consultation with staff. This style has been criticised because it almost no scope for employee input. and is much reliant on punishments and rewards. Human resource management should be aimed at helping the oper

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ational outcome of the firm( Guest 1997, Delery and Shaw 2001).This style is bound to effect the morale of the employees as their is less channels for expressing their views. This also prevents employees making innovative suggestions aboutimproving the processes.Participative approach: In this leader is more willing to share decision irresponsibility with the staff. This is also called consultative or consensual approach. This approach is found to be motivating and result creating mainly in industr

ies which needs specially skilled workers like in software industry. Here leadershows more concern for views of the staff which makes them feel more important.From aFree rein style: (lassex faire)Mostly in this approach staff is provided a irresponsibility and is given operable independence in achieving it. A typical example of this type of approach is Oticon where staff is delegated more powers of decision making and in operationallevel. This could be good in some firms but a free hand can be problematic sometimes. Leader ship styles Transactional, Creative,Changeand Intelligence Leadership as per the functions and situations.

Dynamic leader cannot be defined but some essentials which makes a person standout as dynamic leader can be found out. One is that he or she is not defeated by difficult situation but ceases the invisible opportunity inside it. Such individuals ability to influence others will be comparatively higher than rest , Mostleaders will try to develop fresh people and get new ideas from them or by means of constant education., Leaders main traits needs to be creating processes, organising people and inspiring them.

Style chosen by a dynamic leader depends on corporate culture traditions and his own personal experience and inhibitions. It is always good to follow a participative style not being seen as autocratic or being given a free hand. Yahoo comp

any which is one of the largest Internet based service providing company in theworld is passing through a crisis stage. It is losing both in market share and revenue. In a situation like this a directive leader or autocratic leadership will br the answer. In such a stage quick decisions will become necessary.In a company like infosys which is one among the leading software companies witha big pool of talented people. In such a company participative style will be more successfulness and will become a motivational factor.

British Hero of the second world war and former prime minister SIR Wilson Churchill once told that change was only that is permanent in this universe. Darwin'stheory of evolution which states that in the life span of earth only those species will be able to survive which demonstrate a ability to change with changingenvironment. This is applicable in bluishness Fields also. In long term only those firms will be able to survive which changes itself to the changes in environment. There are several theories which argue that failing firms should be allowedto fail as part of economic evolution. But this is not always possible due to impact which a closure of business will have on economy.

ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE( TASK 2)

Change process in big companies when it fails are often studied and one of themajor reason of failure us found to be lack of commitment from the top brass. Mostly a change process will involve changes in organisational culture, working style , corporate goals and also key distractions in production and distributionchannels. Here leader has a key role to play. He or she needs to give a clear m

essage to all stake holders mainly staff about need for the change. Staff meetings, circulars, memos , internal publications can be used for `this.Leader needs to adopt a change leader for this. He or she needs to clearly suppo

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rt change process in all actions. Leader needs to be innovative and provide suggest solutions to problems.

Any change process is bound to create oppositions. People will be reluctant to change from the ways they have accustomed to. This becomes a major challenge to both the ability and authority of the leader. Unions may organise industrial acti

ons to restrict change. Here manager will have to become a dynamic leader negotiating and convincing others to get in line , If opposition still persists leader should have courage to get rid of those people who are showing resistance.

Another thing leader has to do as part of change process is to develop a changeteam. This could be done either by hiring people from outside who have experience in managing organisational change or by picking up motivated individuals within the staff and give them training .Second scheme is more reliable as this creates less opposition.Leader should also convene or delegates power to convene meetings of these groups in fixed time so that they understands and act as ambassadors of the change wi

thin the organisation.There is always a tendency to drift to old habits or working styles. To avoid this monitoring and analysis becomes necessary. Before monitoring leader will needto set key milestones which needs to met as part of change process. This will help to compare achieved result and set goals. If there is shortcomings necessaryremedial measures will have to be taken. Leader will have to monitor the process and also evaluate how to make it more better.Managing Human resources is a important aspect in any change process. As most change process involves restructuring of the human resources staff is bound to develop apprehensions about future. It increases if staff have to be fired as partof the process. They will need to be reassured and taken into confidence.

COMPARISON BETWEEN COMPANIES:( task 3)

When the change process was started Fiat was in the verge of bank ruptcy. It wasmaking losses by millions every day. Problems where mainly attributes to a bureaucratic mode of organisation, with clear lack in employee motivation, problemsin production and designing which resulted in decrease in Brand value and product efficiency. Only solution was a entire change in the organisation.

In Fiat a radical change process was applied. Traditionally Main Leader or chief executive officer took more responsibility . One of the major aim of the change process to turn Fiat to meritocracies organisation where proving your abilitywas the only way for career progression. Next aim was to create a set of regional leaders within the company who could be delegated authority and decision making. CNBC (2008)It needs to be noted that chief officer was not part of the family that controlled Fiat. Owners and Chairman allowed chief executive officer a free hand in change process because he demonstrated key leader ship skills. But Chair man and major share holders where still part of decision making process and was involved in key negotiations and decisions. Sergio Marchionne fired considerable number ofstaff including members of top management who where not committed the process.This was certainly a display of courage and show of personal power he had in the organisation.One of the main aspects of success of change plan in Fiat was Sergio Marchionne was very vocal and highly committed to the change using every opportunity to stress it. FT.com(2010).Also he had complete support of key share holders which he effectively used to curb all opposition to change.Also Fiat experimented by promoting enthusiastic young staff which was both in

novative and also sucessfull. Performance based appraisal was introduced for theentire staff. New measures like Just in time was initiated in production department. Some alliance which where not profitable where sold off. This process alth

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ough very successful in terms of financial books of the company was criticised as more undemocratic by many . Haward Business Review(2008)

If we see from a leadership point of view style adopted by top management of theteam can be seen as autocratic . But as part of the change process government style hire achy based organisational structure which was in existence in Fiat wasremoved and in place open communication channels and employee participation wa

s encouraged. As suggested in Hersey-Blanchard Leadership Model in a future stage employees may be allotted more decision powers. Even though all the employees are encouraged to contact top management with fruitfully they will need to consider delegating more powers. Another important aspect is that many employees are removed from jobs if they are any way opposed to management plans. These employees might have been hired and trained at huge cost by company . Alternative measures like further counselling and training should have been planned to retainthem. Another important aspect is that all the top brass began tp spend more time in office. This set an example for all others to follow.

In Oticon change process was more needed because of a steady lose in market share compared to its competitors. There was not much leadership initiatives and product research. This had lead to a situation where company was not adequately responding to market and was selling state of past products. Lars Kolind who initiated the change process in his book called this time death cycle meaning company could have been virtually dead if this state continued for long. Lara.k (2006)

This New head Lars Kolind decided to move away from conventional organisationalstrategies to more worker empowerment strategies. He basically used the scout system of organisation where volunteers are encouraged to be take up more challenges. As part of this all the organisational broadlooms where blot out. Plan wasto make firm as informal as operable. Poulson K.T.(1993). He decided to implemen

t resource based theory recognising employees as the key resources. Aim was to develop a knowledge based organisation with out traditional hierarchies giving more powers to the hands of workers. Staff was even encouraged to select their jobresponsibilities meaning they could join any project team as they liked. This was a extreme experiment democratic style of management almost nearing co-operative establishment. After the change process was over he resigned handed over thereins to his successor.

This was democratic / participative management styles used at its peak because it delegated operations management of firm to the staff. They became decision makers. They where seen as middle level leaders. Efforts where also made to seek comments from key stake holders like customers as part of process. In market oriented organisations this strategy can work more because as people in market collaborate with product designing staff a more good product and service can be given.Employees over the time may begin to abuse these unguided powers which might bedetrimental to the firm.Oticon example has proved that this can create multi skilled persons with immense knowledge whom company can employ in diverse areas. This can work in certain companies but not in all. Former socialist nations had same kind of programs butin the long run it was failures. Also every employee has aspirations to get recognition for work this needs to be addressed. Company also profit from diversification in its product range . Courage to experiment into diverse fields need to be more.

CONCLUSION

Both the leaders where highly committed to the cultural and organisational change. Both stressed the importance of empowering the staff. In my opinion Fiat can

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adapt Knowledge management policies of oticon. Althrough the process both leaders have leader ship skills like courage to pursue change , imagination, influenceand innovation.During the change process both companies realised the need for research, new products , empowerment of employees. These seems to me the key to buisness sucess in this age.

References:

Lewin, K., LIippit, R. and White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behaviorin experimentally created social climates.Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271-301Newstrom, John W. & Davis, Keith (1993).Organizational Behaviour: Human Behaviorat Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.Schriesheim, Chester A. The Great High Consideration: High Initiating StructureLeadership Myth: Evidence on its Generalizability.The Journal of Social Psychology, April 1982, 116, pp. 221-228.

Tannenbaum, R. & Schmidt, W.How to Choose a leadership PatternHarvard Business Rev

iew, May-June 1973, No. 73311 (originally published in March-April 1958 issue).

Kolind, L. 2006. The Second Cycle: Winning the war against bureaucracy. Wharton School Publishing.Foss, N. J. 2003. Selective intervention and internal hybrids: Interpreting and learning from the rise and decline of the Oticon spaghetti organization. Organization Science 14: 331-349.Lovas, B., & Ghoshal, S. 2000. Strategy as guided evolution. Strategic ManagementJournal 21: 875-896Guest, D.E. (1997). Human Resource Management and Performance: A Review and ResearchAgenda, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 263-276.

Delery, J., & Shaw, J. 2001. The strategic management of people in work organizations: Review, synthesis, and extension. In G. Ferris (Ed.), Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, Vol. 20. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Sciencehttp://www.cnbcmagazine.com/story/sergio-marchionne/429 /" Leadership" Simon Hobbs interview with Sergio Marchionne accesed on 19-12 -2010" Fiat Extreme Makeover " Sergio Marchionne (2008 December ) available on http

://hbr.org/2008/12/fiats-extreme-makeover/ib#Fiats accesed on 19-12 -2010

High stakes for Fiats Sergio Marchionne By John Reed Published: February 19 2010available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d968a56a-1b6b-11df-838f-00144feab49a.html#axzz19YanzXv0 accesed on 19-12 -2010Kotter, 1999, What Leaders Really Do, Harvard Business School Press, p 53Poulsen, P.T. 1993. Tnk det Utnkelige Revolutionen i Oticon. J.H. Schultz A/SLars Kolind, 2006 "winning war against Bureaucracy, Pearson Education, 2006 - New York.