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 smooth 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 based in 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 panache�S of companies Fiat and
Oticon. 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 by
the efforts of chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne.
who implemented a set of radical changes in the company. In Oticon also there was a
organisational transmutation but both companies implementation strategy and focus
was different.

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

Although there are many scientific theories in leadership like Great man theory
which 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 effect
style person pursues.(McGregor, 1960), 5)Robert Blake and Jane Mouton created a
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 which is
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 undertaken
3) Currently existing managerial employee relationship in the firm.The Hersey-
Blanchard Leadership Model here the argument is that staff abilities and skills
they process will determine the style managers needs to use off. It also argues
that as staff is more experienced and confident more participative management can
be allowed & Schmidt�S 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. The
rules 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 over the
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
methods 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
operational 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
about improving 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
industries which needs specially skilled workers like in software industry. Here
leader shows more concern for views of the staff which makes them feel more
important. From a
Free 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 operational level.
This could be good in some firms but a free hand can be problematic some times.
Leader ship styles Transactional, Creative,Change
and Intelligence Leadership as per the functions and situations.

Dynamic leader cannot be defined but some essentials which makes a person stand
out 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 ,
Most leaders 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
company which is one of the largest Internet based service providing company in the
world 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 with a
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's theory 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 changing
environment. 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 allowed to 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 the
major 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 distribution
channels. Here leader has a key role to play. He or she needs to give a clear
message 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 support
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
actions 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 change

team. 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 within
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 need to
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 necessary remedial
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 part
of 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 was
making losses by millions every day. Problems where mainly attributes to a
bureaucratic mode of organisation, with clear lack in employee motivation, problems
in 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 ability was
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 of staff
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
innovative and also sucessfull. Performance based appraisal was introduced for the
entire staff. New measures like Just in time was initiated in production
department. Some alliance which where not profitable where sold off. This process
although 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 the
team 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 was removed
and in place open communication channels and employee participation was
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 retain them.
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 organisational
strategies 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
was to make firm as informal as operable. Poulson K.T.(1993). He decided to
implement 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 job
responsibilities 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 the reins
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 be
detrimental 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 but in
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 adapt
Knowledge management policies of oticon. Althrough the process both leaders have
leader ship skills like courage to pursue change , imagination, influence and
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.

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