Human Resource Management Leadership Styles

Leadership styles vary between different leaders, based on their values, attitudes and approaches towards tasks and employees. The case provided with Executive A, and Leaders B. And C. demonstrate the different styles of leadership which may be adopted by those in charge of an organization. The paper will start by looking at the style of each leader, examining the evidence in the case provided that indicates the chosen style. After the assessment of styles, the potential impact of Leader A or B. taking over from Executive A will be discussed.

The three styles of leadership that are present in the case study are Level 5, transactional and transformational leadership styles. Executive A this is a level 5 leader, leader B. has a transactional style, and leader C. has a transformational style. The identification of leadership style is achieved by examining the attitudes and behaviors of the leaders in the company and the characteristics associated with the different leadership styles.

The level 5 leadership style is relatively rare: Collins (2001) studied a total of 1,435 Fortune 500 companies, and found that only 11 had been able to attain stock returns in excess of three times that of the market. In every case the leaders of these highly successful companies could be categorized as having a level 5 style of leadership (Collins, 2001). Therefore, level 5 leaders have the potential to be highly successful. However, this is not sufficient to define and categorizes leadership style. Collins (2001) defines this leadership style of one where there is a combination of deep humility combined with an extremely high level of professional will. The leaders will often be mild-mannered, shy away from the limelight being happy to give others the credit, but have a clear vision and focus on the way in which the company should develop, and be intolerant of mediocrity (Collins, 2001). One example of a level 5 leader is the shy and awkward Darwin Smith who became leader of Kimberly-Clark in 1971, transforming the organization into one where stock returns a 4.1 times the overall market (Collins, 2001).

Executive...

After taking over executive A has transformed the organization, increasing the stock value by 128%. Therefore, there are indications of greatness in the way that the company has been transformed and growing aligned with the Level 5 leadership model. The media are stated as hailing Executive A is the reason for the transformation, but it is noted the executive shied away from the attention of the media, and was happy to give credit to others within the organization for the success. This indicates humility, which is also present in the Level 5 leadership style. The last characteristic identified by Collins (2001), was that of an intense professional will. Upon taking over as the CEO of the executive was described by colleagues as being fiercely ambitious as well as entirely focused on the company's success, indicating the professional will it is the last characteristic. Executive A embodies all of the characteristics of a level 5 leader. Collins (2001) also notes that level 5 leaders are good at choosing their successors, as they wish the company to continue to succeed and grow. The two potential successors are Leader B. And Leader C.
The next leadership style is that of transactional leadership. Transactional leaders may be argued as having a task focus, but this is not undertaken with disregard for the needs of employees. Transactional leaders have a solid understanding of the relationship between effort and reward, often relying on traditional approaches towards reward, motivation and punishment in order to manage and control employees (Mathis and Jackson, 2010). Motivation will often be undertaken by the setting of specific goals with the employees being promised specific rewards for achieving the goals (Mathis and Jackson, 2010). In the transactional style where a leader delegates responsibility, the individual will be held responsible for the relevant performance, rewarded when performance is good, or held accountable when targets are missed (Mathis and Jackson, 2010).

Leader B's style…