Content of book “Leadership Styles on Employee Empowerment

Author : Krishna Murari

Preface
In this era of globalization, there is a need for employee empowerment in the organization which
wants to be competitive and flourish. Level of employee empowerment in an organization depends
on the leadership style in the organization. The various types of leadership styles have different
impact on the empowerment of the employees. Fast changing business environment is a major
factor in the new emphasis on leadership. However, it is found that there is no consensus on the
definition of leadership among scholars. Definitions vary in terms of emphasis on leader abilities,
personality traits, influence, relationships, cognitive versus emotional orientation, individual
versus group orientation and appeal to self versus collective interests (Bass, 1990a, Yukl, 1994).

Similarly, there are many types of leadership styles identified by leadership models, leadership
theories and various scholars. Important leadership styles identified by the researches are
Autocratic leadership style, Bureaucratic leadership style, charismatic leadership style, democratic
leadership or participative leadership style, laissez-faire leadership style, people-oriented
leadership/relations-oriented leadership/ human relation leadership style, servant leadership style,
visionary leadership style, task-oriented leadership style, transactional leadership style,
transformational leadership style, abusive leadership style, ethical leadership style, primal
leadership style, entrepreneurial leadership style, holistic leadership style, Transcendental
leadership style. It is found that transaction leadership, transformational leadership, servant
leadership, abusive leadership and ethical leadership are distinct in nature and need focus for study
and understand them to develop the right leadership style for developing the right environment for
the success of the organization in present cut throat competition in local and global market . The
book is based on the research conducted in high technology-oriented organizations in India by
developing a questionnaire to measure the leadership characteristics for five distinct leadership
styles, empowerment and consequence variables based on ten characteristics of leadership styles
identified by various research scholars.

Significance of this book

During litarture survey, it has found that although many researches have been carried out in the
fields of leadership styles and empowerment separately linking these to the organizational
efficiency and effectiveness individually but there is no specific research to find out level of
significance of a particular leadership style for the empowerment of employees and the role of
various interventions to enhance the empowerment by overcoming the barriers created by certain
leadership styles in the organizations.

The various types of leadership styles have different impact on the empowerment of the
employees. The personality traits of the employees also play a significant role in empowerment.
The one kind of leadership may be supportive of some of the employees while it may be a barrier
for other kind of employees. Self empowered persons may develop themselves into leaders when
supported and they may become cocoons in the unfavourable leadership of their superiors.
Interrelationship of leadership is studied and found that following five leadership styles are distinct
in nature (Murari, 2011)
i) Transactional leadership
ii) Transformational leadership
iii) Servant leadership
iv) Abusive leadership
v) Ethical leadership

This book focuses on these leadership styles and their relationship with employee empowerment.
Also the employee characteristics and their impact of leadership and empowerment are covered in
this book.

There are following objectives of the book

 To explore the impact of various leadership styles on the empowerment of employees.

 To emphaise the personal traits of the employees which play a significant role in
empowerment
 To highlight how one kind of leadership is supportive of some of the employees while it is a
barrier for other kind of employees.
 To explain the role of various interventions to enhance the empowerment by overcoming the
barriers created by certain leadership styles in the organizations
 To underline the impact negative and positive roles of various leadership styles on self
empowered persons.

In the initial development of a framework for the relationship between leadership styles and the
empowerment, the exploratory research methodology was found to be beneficial as it helped in
finding out various possible relationships among the different variables. The literature survey was
used to examine and compare the various findings for better understanding.

Based on explorative study, the measuring instrument (inventory) was developed to find out some
concrete relationship among various leadership styles and empowerment at various levels of
managers and employees in some of the organizations, using the focused descriptive research.

Significant contributions of the book are:

 Understanding of the role of leadership styles in empowerment

 Development of Conceptual framework
 Development of an instrument to measure the leadership style and empowerment
 Effect of various leadership styles on empowerment
 Effect of intervention like rewards (promotion) . on empowerment
 Helping the Formulation of strategy by the organization to gain competitive advantage by
empowering the employees to increase their commitment, involvement and motivation.
These contributions have been discussed with the support of facts and figures. Recommendations
to organizations have been given in order to improve employee empowerment by adopting the
preferred leadership style.

The study highlights that Transformational leadership, Servant Leadership and Ethical leadership
styles increase the employee empowerment while abusive leadership reduces the empowerment.
Transactional leadership has no impact on empowerment. A leadership style can be both
supportive and barrier for empowerment. Employee personal characteristics play a very important
role in employee empowerment. Employee empowerment results in Job involvement, commitment
and Work Environment Satisfaction leading to higher performance of the organization providing
the competitive advantage to the organization.

Outline of the book

The book is divided into the following sections:

Chapter 1: Gives a glimps of current changing business scenario and introduction to leadership
and empoyee empowerment and its importance. It also highlights the roel of leadership in
employee empowerment.

Chapter 2: Reviews the relevant literature on leadership, leadership styles and presents survey on
understanding of various leadership styles, interrelationship among various leadership styles. It
identifies five distinct leadership styles for study.

Chapter 3: Reviews the literature on empowerment, understanding of Empowerment. It defines

the empowerment, discusses the culture of empowerment and empowering factors identified by
various scholars. It explains the relationship between leadership and empowerment and outcome
of the empowerment.

Chapter 4: Identifies the Employee Personality and its impact on Empowerment, positive
Organizational Behaviour and Personal Characteristics of empowered employees

Chapter 5: Develops a conceptual framework among Leadership styles, Employee personal

characteristics and Empowerment

Chapter 6: Finds out the Interrelationship of Various Leadership Styles and identifies five distinct
leadership styles viz. transactional, transformational, servant, abusive and ethical leadership styles
for this study. It also reviews the characteristics of these distinct leadership styles.

Chapter 7: Covers the research methodology used in this study. It includes development of the
instrument, reliability test for the instrument, procedure for sampling and data collection, methods
of data analysis applied in research and interpretation. It covers the pilot study and finds out the
reliability of the instrument for sets of questions related to five selected leadership styles, employee
personal characteristics, empowerment and consequences. Final study, factor analysis, reliability
of modified scale and correlation analysis with variables related to selected leadership styles,
employee personal characteristics and empowerment is also covered.

Chapter 8: Covers

Chapter 9: Covers the Final study, data analysis and data interpretation including factor analysis,
, analysis of variance with demographic variables, correlation analysis. It also covers the
hypothesis testing and interpretation of the analysis.

Chapter 10: Covers conclusion on research hypotheses and other contribution, implications for
theory, implication for results, limitations and scope for further Research
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Title Page

Chapter 1 Changing Business Scenario, Leadership

and Empowerment
Changing Business Scenario
Leadership
Leadership And Leadership Styles
Empowerment & Its Importance
Leadership Style And Employee Empowerment
Conclusion

Chapter 2 Leadership- Models and Theories

Introduction
Definition of Leadership
Models of Leadership
Leadership theories
Other leadership styles
Conclusion

Chapter 3 Employee Empowerment

Introduction
Definition of Empowerment
Employee empowerment perspectives
Culture of Empowerment
Empowering factors identified by various scholars
Common Empowering Factors
Leadership and Empowerment
Outcomes of Empowerment
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Employee Personality and Empowerment

Introduction
Positive Organizational Behaviour
Personal Characteristics of empowered employees
Conclusion

Chapter 5 Significant Leadership Styles for Employee Empowerment

and their Characteristics
Introduction
Interrelationship of Various Leadership Styles
Limitation of Some leadership styles
Conclusion
Chapter6 Initial Conceptual Framework-Leadership styles,
Employees personal characteristics and empowerment
Introduction
Leadership styles Selected for study and their characteristics
Employee personal characteristics
Employee empowerment variables
Consequences of Empowerment
Conceptual Framework
Conclusion