Leadership Rahul Bajaj

Leadership, Leadership Role Models Page 1 of 20

LEADERSHIP, LEADERSHIP ROLE MODELS

CONCEPT QUESTIONS:

Give examples of ‘born’ leaders and ‘made’ leaders.

Born leader are the ones who have inborn qualities of an leader. Where else in case of

made leader it is often an mentor who shapes a leader. Examples of such leader are given

below:

Born leader: Dhirubhai Ambani, JRD Tata, Bal Thackeray

Made leader: K.M.Birla, Anil Ambani, Ratan Tata, I.K.Gujral,

The difference is only of degree and no one can be identified as being completely born

leader or made leader.

Management Styles

A management style is a distinctive way in which Planning, Organising, Actuating,

Controlling and other management functions are performed. Given the many choices in

the performance of each management function, an almost limitless number of

management styles can be visualized. In reality, however one encounters far fewer styles.

This is because styles tend to be internally coherent. If a management chooses to

coordinate activities participatively, it is also likely to set goals, develop strategies,

control operations, etc. participatively rather than in an authoritarian manner. Styles tend

to crystallize around major management convictions and commitments. That is, their

cores tend to be ideological in character, and commitment to a core management

ideology- of risk-taking in business or conservatism, professionalism in hiring staff or

intuitive choices, and so on- is likely to shape the rest of the style.

These commitments are not randomly generated. Nor are they exclusively the

commitments of the person who happens to be the CEO, although undoubtedly the CEO

usually does play a significant role in the evolution of a style of management. The style

evolved has to be viable, that is it has to be able to measure up to real-life situations. A

good deal of learning from experience plays a major part in the styles emergence. Social

processes within the ranks of management, such as information and experience sharing,


advocacy of points of view, political deals and so forth, also play a part. The purpose for

which the organisation is set up and the social, legal and economic environment, in which

it operates, too contribute to the viability of the style of management.

Good and Bad styles of Management

Human beings are an interesting species; they often talk about lofty ideals and perfection but practice quite the opposite.

Determined by the super-ego and identity, human behavior may be repulsive or sublime.

Hence the style of management adopted is an expression of the thoughts in the mind of

the decision makers and leaders.

Depending upon these thoughts the style could be good or bad. i.e. socially desirable or

undesirable. In society, ‘good styles’ are referred as professional and participative. If

there is variety in excellence, there is variety in incompetence. The corporate sickness

and dysfunctional forms of bureaucracy and professional management have uncovered a

large number of bad forms of management.

Describe the role of ‘Karta’ in a Hindu Undivided Family:

Karta is the head of a ‘Hindu Undivided Family’ more commonly known as an HUF. The

Karta of an HUF is the supreme authority in business matters. He is the leader of this

organization. The other members of the family i.e. the co-parceners are not allowed to

have their say in the matters relating to the organization. It is usually the Head of the

family who is named the Karta.

DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS

Q 1) Critically analyze the leadership style and its central characteristic of the Indian leading industrialist: Rahul Bajaj , Dhirubhai Ambani, Mr. N.R Narayan Murthy and J.R.D.Tata

Rahul Bajaj

Rahul Bajaj is the man who can be given credit for building Bajaj auto are the 4 th largest

two-wheeler manufacturer in the world. He has achieved an incredible growth rate of


1852% in the last decade. Following are some of the points that explain the reason of his

success.

Education: Bajaj is a highly educated person. He has done his BA (Hons) and is a

management graduate from Harward.

Concentration of Core Competency: Rahul Bajaj collaborated with Kawasaki for

production of motorcycle but for scooter he did not go for any collaboration.

Manufacturing scooters is his core competency and he does not want to experiment

with that.

Customer is King: Bajaj has often been accused of exploiting the customers with

delivery period of 10 years, black marketing, etc. but this is not true at the face value.

A deeper insight brings to picture that there were other elements who are responsible

for these accuses. Bajaj, in spite of a heavy demand, did not raise the price of his

scooters and avoided exploitation of customers.

Staunch believer in himself: Bajaj listens to each and everyone, but takes decision

on his own. His organisation is a little centralized. In spite of strong oppositions, he

sticks to his decisions.

Never give up attitude: ‘Licence Raj’ was a nightmare for Bajaj. He does not

believe in bringing Government officials and getting his license cleared. This is a

major reason why Bajaj Auto came under MRTP and was allowed to expand its

production capacity. But he did not give up to the Government conditions and after

some years, done lobbying through business housed and putting tremendous pressure

on Government learn his license.

Jach Welch’s theory: Rahul Bajaj holds same views of Mr. Jack Welch, the former

CEO of GE. He believes that if one is no No 1 or No 2, he should get out from that

business. This principle kept him away from the four-wheeler market.

Attitude towards workers: Bajaj has less kind of words for workers. Still, there has

been only one strike in the history of 35 years of the company. He takes care of the

needs of the workers and at the same time, he views workers as a tool for production.

In his word’ “Why do they strike and lose wages? They should work more, earn

more”


BBC: Rahul Bajaj is well known for his unflinching frankness and varied opinion on

every topic under the sun. His office is therefore popularly known as BBC (Bajaj

Broadcasting Corporation)

Straightforwardness: His quotes about the Governnment have found place in the

headlines of many leading newspapers and magazines in India and have also raised

controversies. But this does not stop him from doing what he considers correct.

All the above features are the hallmark of Bajaj. They has earned him a rare reputation as

one of India’s most successful industrialists.

Squeaky clean, he has never been involved in shady takeovers. He does not engage in

street fights, nor has he ever hijacked someone else’s project. He hasn’t burnt tyres

during hard drive for meteoric growth. On the contrary, he is something of a plodder,

routinely burning the midnight oil, and devoted to the virtues of hard work. He’s India’s

most admired industrialist along with Dhirubhai Ambani and the late Adity Birla.

Dhirubhai Ambani

When we talk about Indian leaders one name, which we cannot miss out, is Dhirubhai

Ambani. He has voyaged through a journey of rags to riches. He was born on 28 th

December 1932 to a local schoolteacher in a village called Chorwad, in Junagadh district,

Gujarat.

Dhirubhai has been an opportunist right from his childhood. All he needed was the whiff

of a business opportunity and he was off to tap it. During the Mahashivratri fair, he would

sell ‘ganthia’ a gujaratri savoury to earn money. Due to shortage of money, he left

education after matriculation and went to Aden to earn money. He worked for almost

eight years in a petrol station where he learned about oil business until a day came when

he was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. He came back to Bombay to start his own

business. He took a loan with which he started Reliance Commercial Corporation, which

has been a stepping-stone to one of India’s largest Corporation. They were involved in

general merchandising.


Dhirubhai has always shown all the critical leadership qualities. He would always grab an

opportunity and strike on it. He then started his yarn business in the 60’s and then he

build his own spinning mill in 1966 known as Reliance Textile industries.

He believed that if a person wants to succeed in something then he should have complete

access to information on that topic. Whenever he wanted to approach the government to

get licenses, information about the competitors, market size etc. he would collect all these

information, no matter at what cost it came. He also believes in destiny and gives all the

credit to his luck. This shows how down to earth he is. Even today he has a simple ritual

of Puja when a new machine is installed. He isn’t proud of what he is and he still believes

in ‘Simple thinking, Modern thinking.’

He always followed the rule to be the pioneer/first to do anything. He would just grab an

opportunity that would come up because of some government policy changes and would

implement it successfully. He believed not in meeting demand but in creating demand.

He always produced in large quantities. He was of the opinion that customer should be

provided with best quality goods at the lowest price. Moreover Dhirubhai as opposed to

most other leaders wasn’t expert in only one field. He was a manufacturing as well a

marketing whiz. He knew how to offer the right product mix, identify markets and

establish viable distribution structure, which holds true for one of his famous brand

Vimal. He is also referred to as ‘ Manchester of India.’

He didn’t mind copying someone else’s idea, which he could implement better than his

competitors. As in the case of copying the concept of selling through showrooms for his

brand Vimal to counter the resistance from the traditional markets which he copied from

Bombay Dyeing. He always had the dynamism and confidence in future and was always

ready to go against all odds. He always believed in himself.

He has always believed that his first responsibility is towards his company’s shareholders

and he was also concerned in protecting their interests. He also known as the ‘stock

market messiah.’ This is because when some Marwari clan were trying to bring down the


price of his shares by short selling, he counter attacked them and in turn earned a hefty

sum from them. He has always had a wide investor base and most of his subscriptions

were over subscribed. He has always been an innovator in the financial market. He

innovated and reintroduced successfully concepts like partial convertible bonds, fully

convertible bonds etc.

He has been successful in manufacturing world-class products. He always believed in

‘Think big, think fast and think ahead.’ He has never had an ego problem and he knew

how to get his work done from people. He was never ashamed to ‘salaam’ anyone.

Another incident that shows his vision as a leader is that when Reliance’s Patalganga

Complex was damaged due to floods. Technical experts from Du Pont estimated hundred

days to make the complex operational but Reliance had the complete complex operational

in twenty-one days. This was possible because of Dhirubhai’s vision, his confidence, his

dedication proper logistical planning and making available all resources.

Dhirubhai has always believed in picking up the best talent. They have a motivated

workforce. He only believes in providing leadership, vision and strategy. He thinks that

he doesn’t run his business but his business leaders do it.

Dhirubhai is criticized for manipulating the government for his benefits. Apart from that

he has paid zero tax on corporate earnings for several years due to the loopholes in the

system. He was also involved in manipulating the L&T board to gain control. Apart from

that he was heavily criticized along with Pranab Mukherjee for buying shares under

dummy companies which never existed.

But be it whatever Dhirubhai is one of the greatest leaders of India who has the zeal to

achieve something big rather than just earning money and the obsession to build. He

wants to work till his death.

As a true leader Dhirubhai had once said that, “ People think I have finally arrived but I

think I have just begun.”


Mr. N.R Narayan Murthy

Mr. Narayan Murthy was born in a middle class family in Siddalghat in Karnataka, His

father inculcated importance of determination, discipline and good values. Since

childhood he had a very good academic record.

At present he is the Chairman of Infosys. Present market capitalization of Rs. 60,000

crores Infosys started with Rs.10, 000.Mr. Narayan Murthy is influenced by Mahatma

Gandhi who ‘walked his talk’ and demonstrated by, Example He says he wants to be a

doer and respects people who do things, rather than just talk.

Some of the traits that differentiates him from others are:

His Underlying principle:

Is that, you undertake to do something you are confident of and have the capability to

do it. This helps to lay the foundation to build a healthy relationship. He also believes

that it is better to have a small part of a large, growing pie; than a large part of small

shrinking one.

Simple living-high thinking:

A man who believes in ‘Simple living high thinking’. Even though he has a personal

wealth of Rs. 2,500 crores, his lifestyle remains modest. He lives in a simple 2-bed

room flat in Santacruz-Mumbai.

Under-promising & Over-delivering:

He has tremendous respect for people and sound philosophy of “under-promising &

over delivering”. This helps him build a healthy long-term relationship with his

colleagues, employees, family, friends, business associates and network of

shareholders.

Pioneer in HRM:

Mr. Murthy says that his is an HR-based industry. Software is a knowledge business

hence the focus is shifted to Brainware. It was he who started ESOP’s that is real

distribution of wealth. Now it is very common in the industry to have ESOP’s but it


has done wonders in Infosys. Thus Narayan Murthy is honestly awe-inspiring role

model for professionals.

Performance Oriented:

He is a man who always measures performance against value. According to Murthy

peoples performance in the knowledge industry is as valuable as gold. Thus by

introducing ESOP’s he motivated his employees to work smart and hard.

Strategy: ( Customer is the King):

Even though there is a lot of competition in the market he believes in one thing that

is, being unique in the market place and making sure that you are the 1st mover.

Tap the need of the customer and give them more than they expect. Believes in giving

value to the customer, being fair to people and transparency in working.

Mr. Murthy says that “Growth comes from repeat business, repeat business comes

from relationships, and relationships with customers are built on trust and trust is built

by delivering quality products.

Social being:

He believes in putting the public good ahead of private good in every decision he

makes. This differentiates the developed world from the developing world. Infosys

practices its Social responsibility very well. Rehabilitation drive, literacy programme,

donations etc are few ways in which he works for the society.

Visionary:

Though Infosys had so many professionals it did not venture into dotcom because of

the vision of Mr. Narayan Murthy. This saved them from going down. The downfall

of dotcoms has not affected his business much. Before starting Infosys this visionary

got together with 6 professionals and wanted to start have India’s first software

company of the professionals, for the professionals, by the professionals, and

because of his farsightedness Infosys has come this far and proved to be a winner.

Thus Narayan Murthy is honestly awe-inspiring role model for the professionals.


JRD TATA

When talking about India’s greatest leaders, one name just cannot be skipped—J.R.D.

TATA. For decades the sole Indian businessman, global leaders had ever heard of, was

Tata. It’s different today—the Sunday Times, Forbes and even the hallowed Harvard

Business Review now carries articles written by Indian mgt. gurus on Indian case studies.

But for years the world passed India by. Only J.R.D. Tata made an impact.

When J.R.D. became chairman of Tatas in 1938, British firms dominated the

environment, but the House of Tata towered above all others. It had 14 companies with

sales of Rs. 280 crores. The year he died, 1993, it was still India’s biggest business house.

Sales had mushroomed to Rs. 15000 crores and there were over 50 large manufacturing

companies besides innumerable holdings and concerns. He was a distinguished and

respected industrialist who was also awarded the “BHARAT RATNA”, remarkable

achievement.

What sort of value system made the great man achieve his greatness?

Following is an analysis of some of the virtues & vices, which J. R. D. displayed through

the course of his eventful life:

Virtues:

J.R.D. was………

Approachable: - J.R.D. had no problems making friends easily. He had one of the

most comfortable personalities that was probably his benchmark of becoming a

successful individual.

Diplomatic: - One of the most difficult talents is to say ‘no’ in a nice manner. But

Diplomacy was never a problem for J.R.D. Even when he was angry at Nehru for

going against industrialists, he was never rude but made his point diplomatically and

walked away friends.

Realistic: - J.R.D. never plunged into unviable projects, howsoever exciting they

might be. He briefly flirted with the idea of making bombers with “Tata Aircraft”—

but despite his love for flying, he shot down the project himself when it became clear

that there was no money to be made.


Charismatic: - When J.R.D. was elected chairman of the group, there was no

question about the selection. There was no one else who could have been chosen by

the board. J.R.D. by then was a hero. The daring pilot, the shrewd businessman. He

was already outstanding.

Courageous: - J.R.D. had always supported Nehru’s views on socialism. Something

that the board of Tata sons did not agree with. But J.R.D. refused to sign the

manifesto against socialism. It must have required considerable courage for a 30-

something to stand up for views, which differed so widely from those of the old

guard.

Compassionate: - People talk of Russi Mody but he manipulated people. J.R.D.

genuinely felt for workers. His approach to labor was that of Fabian socialism. After

J.R.D.’s entry, the management of Tisco changed its policy of confrontation. The

trade union became not only acceptable but also an association which was vital to the

interests of the workers.

Supportive towards innovation: - Apart from his supportive attitude towards

Tisco’s lab technicians, perhaps Tata chemicals provides the best demonstration of

J.R.D.’s willingness to support innovation in his business and among his managers.

Aware of a sense of responsibility: - There were opportunities for J.R.D. where he

was tempted to joined politics. But he rationalized to himself by concluding that he

could do more for the country in business and industry than in politics. He says, “I

had no doubt that freedom was on its way. But who knows, I might one day have an

opportunity to serve in more useful ways than by going to jail today!”

Committed to values: - J.R.D. never believed in paying under the table for getting a

license approved. He never believed in exploiting the workers, society and earning

more profits. It was believed that wealth and respect are disjoint. J.R.D. was

considered to be an exception to this rule.

A visionary: - J.R.D. was the only director on the board of the Tata group who

supported Ratan Tata’s plan to enter high investment – high risk industries like oil

manufacturing & computers. He believed, that being that stalwart business house of

India, such investments were a responsibility.


Vices:

J.R.D. was………..

Conservative: - J.R.D. always preferred the more conservative approach. His

conservativeness left Tisco unprepared for the outbreak of the second world war and

the license-permit raj of free India.

Aloof: - Unlike G.D. Birla, J.R.D. had kept aloof from the congress leadership. For a

group that depends as much as the Tatas did on government patronage, this was a

major lacuna.

Bad tempered: - Instead of trying to patch up the differences, J.R.D. withdrew into

himself. He rejected Nehru’s invitations to the UN session in Paris, and the invitation

to lead Indian Rare Earths, one of the first PSU’s. J.R.D. forgot the Public Relations

implications of these prestigious invitations and the signals his refusal emitted.

After going through the above virtues and vices of India’s greatest industrialist, we learn

a lot about what it takes to be successful in business, career, and in …………..life.

Q 2) Critically analyze the differences in the leadership styles of a family managed

Indian business organizations and MNC’s in India?

Ans. Family business is same like any other organization because essentially it is a

venture for profit like any other MNC’s. But the difference stems up because of the fact

that family business is a fusion of business system and the family system this fusion is

absent in other forms of organizations. This difference manifests itself in the style of

leadership of an organization, which is given in detail below:

Variables under consideration

Family managed Indian business organization

Multi national corporations in India

Born vs made leader More often then not, made leader

More of born leader

Role of a leader Many a times deviates from policy formation, planning etc. and role is reduced to conflict manager engaged in

Involved more in business issues and concentrates in formulating long term business plans. Keeps away


solving clashes and reduces the role of leader to merely a mediator

from day to day operations.

Funding strategy Conservative equity funding. Does not believe in ‘participative funding’. Domestic, local currency funds are preferred financers (mostly family friends or relatives)

Capital has no colour or quality. It has only cost & applicability. Hence, ‘live and let live’ policy with global capital is welcome, with hedging arrangements.

Partnerships & strategic alliances

Family-relationships were more important than ‘high value – high return partnerships with outsiders’.

Do not bother for close linkages. Growth is welcome, from whatever sources available

Recruitment & remuneration policy

Low wages, high job security to the employees. Trusted persons are generally preferred to others who may be better qualified.

Higher wages with profit-sharing but without job security. Recruitment is based on pure merits.

Profitability & empowerment

As empowerment was limited, employees were (at the most) responsible for volumes & costs. Sharing of business results was missing.

Extreme of empowerment is possible i.e. an employee may be treated as a ‘profit centre’. ‘Responsibility Accounting’ is predominantly used.

Strategic financial planning

Inward-looking, conservative financial strategies are used for business growth.

Long term strategic plans are well-designed with greater clarity.

Decision making process

Control is tight and is achieved by posting relatives of owners or members of their community in decision-making process

Decentralized decision making. There is more delegation of authority

Leader member relationship

More of emotions based. Leader holds sympathy for others because they are his own family members.

Relationship is very professional and has empathy towards other.

No one style can be said to be the best. Each style has its own advantages and

disadvantages. One cannot deny that, we need phase of multinational leadership style

and grace of Indian family business style.


Q 3) Depending upon the structure of task-high or low - analyse what impact will it

have on leadership

Ans: Task structure refers to the degree to which the task is clearly defined. A bank

teller’s job has relatively high task structure; the branch manager’s job has less. The

nature of the situation, specifically the characteristic of the task affects the impact of the

leader’s behaviour on follower satisfaction and effort.

Basically, the leader chooses among four styles:

1. Directive. The leader tells employees what he expects of them, gives them

guidance about what they should do, and shows them how to do it.

2. Supportive. The leader shows concern for the well-being and needs of her

employees by being friendly and approachable.

3. Participative. The leader involves employees in decision making, consults with

them about their views of the situation, asks for their suggestions, considers those

suggestions in making a decision, and sometimes lets the employees make the

decisions.

4. Achievement oriented. The leader helps employees set goals, rewards the accomplishment of

these goals, and encourages employees to assume responsibility for achieving the goals.

Situational

characteristics

Leadership styles

Task Directive Supportive Achievement

oriented

Participative

Structured No Yes Yes Yes

Unstructured Yes No Yes No

Clear goals No Yes No Yes

Ambiguous

goals

Yes No Yes No

When the task is structured; the supportive, achievement oriented and participative

leadership styles are preferred. But the directive style of leadership is not preferable

when the task is structured. This is because when the employees are aware of what

the task they are supposed to finish there is no need for the employer to direct them.


When the task is unstructured, the directive and achievement oriented styles are

preferred rather than the supportive and participative style. This is because the

employees are not fully aware of the task to be performed and therefore a leader who

tells or helps employees to set goals would be more effective rather than a leader

shows concern or involves employees. Consider the president of a new start-up

company in which the ten employees are hand picked, the tasks are highly

ambiguous, but the president’s authority is clear. A directive or achievement oriented

style would work well.

When the goals set are clear the leadership style that is preferred is supportive and

participation. The only difference between a structured task and clear goals is that an

achievement oriented leadership style is not preferred. This is because when the goals

are already set, you don’t require a leader who sets them and rewards them.

The last case where the task has ambiguous goals, the leadership style to be adopted

is similar to that of the unstructured task. This is because one would require a

directive and achievement oriented leader to set goals, instruct the employees, guide

them, reward them when the goals are ambiguous.

Conclusion: there is no golden rule as to which leadership style to be adopted

depending upon the task structure but the analysis given above would have a higher

probability of success ratio so as to effectively lead.

Q 4) Explain the conservative, entrepreneurial, professional, bureaucratic and

organic styles of management.

Along with the ten pure styles of management, a defective version of each pure style was

also developed. The pure styles were developed on the basis of research done on

management styles both in India and abroad, as well as extensive management

consultancy and training experience. Similarly, the defective forms were conceptualized

on the basis of research and consultancy and training experience.


The ten pure management styles are the conservative style and the sharply contrasting

entrepreneurial style, the professional style and contrary to it the intuitive style, the

participative and the opposing authoritarian style, the organic or free form and the

opposing bureaucratic style, the familial style or paternalistic style, and the altruistic

style.

Some of the important ones are enumerated below:

a) The conservative style:

The essence of conservatism is conservation of what has worked in the past and has

demonstrated survival value. The principle of survival is at the core of the conservative

style of management. Conservatism does not necessarily mean refusal to change. It

means instead, caution in changing.

The pure conservative style was defined as follows:

‘A cautious one-step-at-a-time approach to problems. Decisions are generally

compromises between the conflicting demands of board, unions, government managers,

customers, etc. Precedents and traditions are given importance. The primary concern is

with stability and steady growth’.

b) The entrepreneurial style:

While conservatism facilitates survival, enterprise facilitates conquest and the unfolding

of opportunities for growth. The entrepreneurial style has emerged from this spirit of

adventure, probing and innovation. Entrepreneurship not only creates new industries,

opens up new markets and transforms old or mature industries, it also builds civilizations.

The pure entrepreneurial style was defined as follows: ‘active search for big new

opportunities; large, bold decisions despite the uncertainty of their outcome; a forceful

leader at the top wielding great power; and rapid growth as the major organization goal’.


c) The Professional style:

A scientific approach, high level of formal expertise, reasonable consensus about do’s

and don’ts and formal training are traits of a professional approach to management.

One focus of this movement was the manual work performed in the organization. The

other focus was managerial work performed in the organization.

The pure professional style was defined as follows: ‘systematic search for growth

opportunities and systematic anticipation of problems through formal forecasts; a

systematic consideration of costs and benefits of alternatives and a carefully coordinated

formalized top management strategy’. The emphasis is on long-term planning,

professional management, a sophisticated control and information system and the

extensive use of expertise and all-pervasive research before making decisions.

d) The Bureaucratic Style:

The core of bureaucratic style is quite primeval: management by programming the

behavior of the members of collectivity. According to Max Weber, the bureaucratic mode

of management was more efficient as well as more fair. It was more efficient because by

programming everyone’s behavior rationally the organization could operate like a well-

oiled machine. And it was fair because everyone knew what he or she was to be

evaluated on.

The pure bureaucratic style was defined as follows: ‘a strong emphasis on smooth

functioning by prescribing in writing objectives, procedures, rules, and the powers, duties

and responsibilities of managers and other staff. The emphasis is on clear reporting

relationships, precise job descriptions, formal communications, strict control and above

all, correctness of procedures and accountability’.

e) The Organic Style:

Following are some of the characteristics of organic management:-

Tasks are seen in their total contexts


Continuous redefining of individual tasks through interaction with others, as

during product design

Commitment to getting a job done overrides definitions of responsibilities, rights ,

obligations or methods to be used

The pure organic style was defined as follows: ‘A strong emphasis on the free flow of

information and communication within the organization. Widespread awareness of the

organization’s goals, problems and business plan of actions among managers at all levels.

Dislike for paperwork and formalized procedures and job descriptions. The emphasis is

on administrative flexibility, openness, innovation, the importance of the effective

problem solver, and above all on resourcefulness and getting things done’.

Q 5 Explain the importance of values in leadership? How leader/managers should

respond to human values?

Ans:Leadership is an indescribable ability based on concrete principles and a tool that

anyone can learn that helps one guides an organization or group of people in a beneficial

direction or to a valuable destination.

A value is something considered worthy in and of itself by a person or a group. It can be

a one-word standard of conduct or a policy everyone in a company adheres to and

believes in. it helps people to understand what is desirable behavior and what isn’t. They

are more powerful than rules.

Values play a very important role in everyone’s life and also in leadership. A leader is

someone who has followers. Thus he has to follow a pattern of ethics and values. Our

nation needs ethical and imaginative leaders at every level. The future of the

society depends on leaders who are capable of providing strong leadership, who

understand that leadership means service, and who believe that their very citizenship

carries the obligation to lead when circumstances require. The study of ethical leadership

is a critical component of any leader, and he must incorporate it along with the traditional

emphasis on policy analysis and formulation.


The long-term success of an organization, community or society depends on good

leadership, not just on technical proficiency and skillful management. Good leadership

must be grounded in ethical values. There are tensions between personal values and

goals, on the one hand, and organizational, community, or societal values and goals on

the other. Ethical leadership involves recognizing and reconciling those

tensions.

A leader should be able to identify human values and act on them. Human values include

gratitude, loyalty, humility, patience, gentleness, dignity, honesty, etc. and a good leader

has to consider all these characteristics. It must be understood that archetypal human

being in a sustainable, living earth system has to be nearer the ascetic rather than in

acquisitive type, even if the former re-emerges conspicuously only a hundred years or

more.

Therefore to be a leader Reflection is essential i.e. he should respond to a particular

situation as it generates the inner toughness needed to be an effective person of action.

Leadership is the sum of two vectors: competence (your specialty, your skills, your

know-how) and authenticity (your identity, your character, your attitude). For e.g. When

leaders get stuck, they tend to apply more steam, more competence, to what got them into

trouble in the first place: "If I try harder, I'll be successful," or "If we exert more control,

we'll get the results we need.”

The problem is, when you're stuck, one not likely to make progress by using competence

as his tool. Firstly, the leaders need to dedicate to understanding himself better, in the

philosophical sense of understanding what it means to exist as a human being in the

world. Second, need to change his habits of thought, for e.g. how you think, what you

value, how you work, how you connect with people, how you learn, what you expect

from life, and how you manage frustration. Changing those habits means changing ones

way of being intelligent. It means moving from a nonleadership mind to a leadership

mind.


Values are extremely powerful and they guide the leaders to identify what human

behavior is acceptable and what behavior is not while practicing leadership. Leadership

and learning are important individual values and form a symbiotic relationship for a

leader.

Q 6)Does leadership style change according to situation?

Any style of leadership cannot be successful under any situations. Although a leader

tends to have one dominant style, but he needs to make alterations depending upon the

situation. By taking example of work in an organisation, different styles of leadership

and different situations can be explained as follows:

Different leadership styles are:

1. Autocratic: leaders with this style centralise the power and decision making in

themselves. The employees are expected to do what they are told. Autocratic

styles mostly is negative, that is, it is based on threats and punishments, but

sometimes it is positive as it also gives rewards to employees.

2. Consultative: a leader adopting this style makes decisions after consulting groups.

He is supportive and accessible. However he retains the responsibility with

himself.

3. Democratic: A leader making most use of this style shows that he has greater

confidence in his employees. The decision-making is placed in the hands of the

whole group. All members participate actively and the leader only supports.

The situation in the work environment can change based on the following

parameters:

1. Employees’ task: it may be structured or unstructured, routine or new and

challenging. Structured task requires less backing from a leader, but when task is

highly unstructured, the employee will not be motivated to work if his leader does

not guide him.

2. Leader-member relation: this shows how is how is the leader’s acceptance in the

group and what is the attitude of the employees, i.e. whether they like to work

independently or want more support.


The main aim behind finding all this is to evaluate whether the situation is favorable

or unfavorable and accordingly he has to adjust his style to get the desired output.

This is because, the situation (the external environment) cannot be changed, but the

leadership style can be changed as per the demand of the situation.

For example, when an emergency order has to be completed, the decision cannot be

left on the employees of how they will execute the order. The leader has to be quick,

take decision on his own and has to have the capability that everyone follows his

isstructions. Although, under normal circumstances he may be allowing group

participation, but in that course of time he should develop such credibility that his

authority is not challenged and accepted without resistance during emergency.

Similarly, if the situation demands creative thinking, he can get the best out of his

employees if he allows group participation. To stimulate creative thinking, he has to

give them more liberty even though otherwise he has always centralized the decision-

making process.

The leader sets an example for his followers and his success depends on his ability to

handle different situations. It can be noted that any leader has one style permanent

that makes him a leader, that differentiates him from the others and that has made him

the leader. But that cannot be so rigid that it becomes a hurdle in managing

situations.

In the dynamic environment, where things change rapidly, one style of working

cannot be an answer to all situations. However, one ting has to be permanent, the

determinacy to get the work done from employees under all situations and to keep

that unchanged, the styles need to be changed.

Leadership Rahul Bajaj

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