RE: Discussion - Week 1

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Evaluation of Leadership Styles Assessment & Leadership Style Approach

Northouse (2019) suggests that people are leaders because of the position held in an organization or because of the way others respond to them.Leadership assessment allows employers and employees to assess the abilities of current and potential employees. Assessment allows employees, like Janelle, in the discussion narrative, to assess their abilities to determine what their strengths and weaknesses are. Specifically, organizations use skill assessments to ensure that the right people are hired while having the confidence that they will adapt and success in the workplace. Today's workplace requires visionaries who can make decisions and be empowering to others. Organizations must invest in developing leaders by conducting leadership assessments to determine their strengths and weaknesses.

I completed the leadership behavior questionnaire at the end of Chapter 4 and obtained the following results:

Task Score - 43Relationship Score - 48

Given the description of what the scores represent, my leadership style is more substantial on the side that measures my relationship between the team and myself. More consideration is taken on how the team feels about themselves, their co-workers, and the overall group (Northouse, 2019, p. 90). In comparison, my task score measured how well direction is given to specific tasks. The Ohio State group performed a study in which they evaluated both orientations and in an academic journal written by Tabernero et al. (2009), expands on the study by expressing the relationship-oriented style of leadership has a more substantial effect on subordinate satisfaction, empowerment, and motivation while the task-oriented style of leadership focuses more on the actual effectiveness of the leader. Research has shown that scoring high in both behaviors is the best form of leadership (Northouse, 2019).

Leadership Behavior for Global Change Agents

Assessments such as this and a leadership style approach are instrumental in providing insight into leadership behavior for global change agents. For global change agents, leadership involves having certain behaviors that would make someone a leader. Dr. Mary Ul-Bien described it perfectly when she talked about the differences between managers and leaders. She stated that the leaders possess a specific behavior that allows them to be an influence on others to create change (Laureate Education, 2015). Assessments can help organizations determine who the best individual will be to lead a project or to lead the company, thereby becoming a global change agent.

The impact of the use of such assessments is seen by both individual and organization. Suresh and Prabhu (2012) determined that there is a causal link between leadership styles and employee performance. Concerning assessing those leadership styles, the performance of employees become impacted in a way that allows the organization to determine if someone will be a good leader that "understands the importance of employees in achieving the goals of the organization, and that motivating employees is of paramount importance in achieving these goals." The use of leadership assessments can help employees become more empowered, motivated, and their commitment to the organization increased when the proper leader is in place that can influence these things.

In comparison, the impact to the organization is also substantial. In the same research study, it was determined that organizational performance suffers when the proper leaders are not in place (Suresh and Prabhu, 2012). It is imperative that organizations take decisions about leadership just as seriously as the decisions they make about finances and business strategy. Assessing their leadership outlines their actions to ensure that their company has the talent in place that is needed to drive and continuously improve performance, now and beyond. The use of leadership assessments can help organizations put effective leaders in place that can maintain their reputation, become more profitable and ensure that they are maximizing the utilization of all of their resources, thereby decreasing unnecessary expenses.

Potential Impact of Assessment

The potential impact of the style approach to leadership for individual change agents and organizations is also essential. There are two types of behaviors within the style approach to leadership, and it consists of task behaviors and relations behavior. Guo et al. (2016) concluded that the main task of the style approach to leadership is to improve individual job performance and the organization as a whole. Task behavior impacts the organization by focusing on achieving goals. Their quantitative study revealed that leaders who exhibit task behaviors are good at assigning jobs to employees, assisting employees with how to solve problems, and telling employees how to work. "Therefore, the leaders performing task behavior will provide employees with close guidance which will make employees feel their working process and results out of control and feel no interest and significance of work, then resulting in alienation" (Guo et al., 2016).

Potential Impact of Style Approach to Leadership

On the other hand, the leaders who exhibit relational behaviors are good at communicating with their team. They are good at communicating organizational performance goals with their employees, which in turn reduces work alienation (Guo et al., 2016). "The leader with relational behavior cares about employees' sense of personal happiness and let them get along well and comfortable. The good interpersonal relationship helps reduce work alienation" (Guo et al., 2016).

Work alienation is a variable that was introduced by Guo et al. It can be a form of detrimental impact to the organization and the individual change agent if the correct leadership style is not assessed before implementation. Some industries perform better under the task leadership style, while others perform better under the relational leadership style. It is essential to assess the work environment and the culture of the organization in order to effectively determine what type of leader will contribute the most to the success of each change agent and the organization as a whole.

I liked your connection of work alienation to leadership style,Cynthia.Do you think there are times (or certain organizations) where a task style might be more appropriate?