Key Teamwork and Leadership Theories Essay

Authoritarian leadership style is where a leader has complete control and power over their team. They demonstrate their 'power' and 'control' by dictating policies and procedures, deciding what goals need to be achieved, and directs all activities to be done by the team. An authoritarian is usually most successful when things are going well or when in a crisis and decisions need to be made quickly.

In his article on the five big leadership ideas that he has summed over the years, Allio (2010) raises a few points that are relevant to a culturally diverse workplace when it comes to leadership, collaboration and team work.

Authoritarian leadership is a leadership style in which the leader dictates and controls all decisions in the group and task. Often referred to as Autocratic leadership, authoritarian leadership is about control, organization and discipline. Coach Haskins Leadership Style on the Court is authoritarian with his quota “You’re here to learn fundamental, disciplined defensive basketball. Now that means discipline both on and off the court. No girls. No booze. No late nights. Nothing besides fundamental basketball. I speak, you listen. I don’t wanna hear ‘can’t’ or ‘won’t’ or Coach, I’m bleeding. I don’t wanna hear anything except the basketball bounce. You play basketball my way. My way’s hard.” Bobby Joe This authoritarian style of leadership is often encountered in the world of athletics. During the beginning of their season Coach Haskins demands the respect of his players. His values included listening and obeying your coach, or repercussions will take place. If a player dared to disrespect the rules in place, either that person and/or the team would be put through punishment. There was no room for compromise, for whatever coach said was to be done. For example, when coach had said there was no partying some of the team members snuck out the first night. The next day at practice, coach had been informed of their disobedience and had the team running sprints for punishment until they physically could not do anymore. It happened again when coach caught Booby Joe Hill with a

Authoritarian leaders give clear orders to what should be done and are straight to the point. They settle on choices with no contribution from others. An Authoritarian leader would be for example an Officer as a part of the armed force, they are for the most part bossy,comanding and intimidating to some they think they are constantly right and they're way is the most ideal way. This could be utilized as a part of a circumstance where a group needs to do things quick and successfully e.g in a drugs raid, if the unit is under attack the leader must yell orders and the group must react quick as their life is at stake. This style is like Task Orientated in the way that the leader is the main individual who puts input, this doesn't make a welcoming

2. Background. The Authoritarian Leadership Theory can be defined simply as the establishment of strict, close control over followers by keeping close regulation of policy’s and procedures given to followers (Howell, 4). Authoritarian leaders set clear expectations as to what should be accomplished and how it will be accomplished. As such, the authoritarian leader fills the void as both the leader and the commander, which makes for a clear divide between the leader and follower. If executed poorly, this kind of leadership tends to lead to negative attributions towards subordinates and makes it ineffective and disruptive to the designated group (Hughes, 158).

Authoritarian leadership; also known as autocratic leadership; is an extremely direct style of leadership where the leader remains in control the whole time and tells the other team members what they must do. The team are expected to follow orders without question or negotiation, therefore this could demoralise a team due to their opinions and ideas not being heard. It is best to use authoritarian when: a leader knows all the information, there is a strict deadline to which the team must work to, or the team is used to this style of leadership as the leader can be very demanding which people may not be used to. Authoritarian leadership may not get the best response from a team as it mainly relies on intimidation to work efficiently.

Authoritarian leadership, also known as autocratic leadership. This leadership is over all control over all decisions with little to no input from the leaders group members. Authoritarians will make choices based upon their own judgements and ideas not allowing for any advice from any other persons. Benefits from this leadership are decisions being made quickly with out waiting the input of others. Projects or offices that require a strong leader would be looking for and authoritarian leadership style. Disadvantages to this style of leadership is that people in this position can be referred to as bossy , controlling and dictatorial (Cherry, 2015). These can lead to resentment from coworkers and group members.

Several team development models and theories have been published, particularly over the last few decades. One of the most widely known and referred to models is the Tuckman and Jensen five-stage team development model (Miller, 2003). Tuckman, an educational psychologist and researcher born in 1938, first introduced his four stages of team development in 1965: forming, storming, norming and performing and along with Jensen in 1977, later modified it into a five-stage version through the addition of adjourning. Tuckman proposed that a team’s interactions, functions and efficacy altered between stages and that in order for team to be effective, it needs to go through the first three stages: forming, storming and norming. Since then, numerous other

Lewin developed a theory in the 1940’s which is still entirely valid today. He identified 3 key stages in change - Unfreeze- Change – refreeze. He likened this to a block of ice shaped as cube, in order to change it you must melt (unfreeze) it to make it ready for change, then as water it can be re-moulded (changed) then you can solidify it (refreeze).

Authoritarianism is another form of leadership. Authoritarian leaders have qualities which include, good decision making, giving commands; their decision making does not usually involve others and they are motivational. According to Ballou & Landreneau (2010) they found that authoritarianism is influenced by personality through childhood and family characteristics. Those who practice an authoritarian leadership style believe in a hierarchy, where the ‘most powerful sits at the top, and the least powerful sits at the bottom’ (Ballou & Landreneau, 2010). These leaders can be extremely manipulative in order to achieve what they believe is necessary. Goals are devised by them alone, and command others to conform and achieve them together. Ballou

Team Leadership is the theory/model I would like to study further. Leadership is a journey taken together by leaders and followers to a common destination. Great leaders establish a plan, a map to help them organize and ensure they have an appropriate and effective team in place, clearly communicate the plan to and lead their followers to the destination. To lead the mission to a fruitful conclusion, a leader must establish priorities and utilize the talents, creativity, resources, and energy of his followers, generally imperfect individuals, and empower them to rise to and occasionally beyond their previously assumed potential. Only by empowering followers can a leader advance his progress. When people participate in the decision process

Once known for quality automobiles, Volkswagen is now perceived as a global corporation that deliberately deceived the U.S. government and defrauded customers. In this paper our team investigated the principles of teamwork, leadership practices, and how these influenced business outcomes. Research indicated that Volkswagen’s corporate culture has not always been the best. Dictatorial executive leadership and a culture where “success at all costs” outweighed ethics created an environment hostile to team input and management evading personal responsibility for decisions. Our research illustrated that the leadership in Volkswagen displayed a lack of honesty, morals, and personal integrity that in turn undermined the corporate culture, this lead to the unethical decision by teams to devise a strategy to bypass environmental regulations. This behavior was known to management, was covered up, resulted in losses of exceeding eighteen billion dollars, and forced the resignation of the CEO.

The importance of teamwork lies in the significant effect that it produces, especially when being properly applied and managed. It creates flexibility and coordination among members and enables them to use their talents and participate in taking decisions. It also

Improved team-work is the first area of development need that surfaced due to the clinical microsystem assessment. Tenured instructors who have been with the university for many years are accustomed to the content as it has been delivered since the last curriculum revision. The team teaching model is new for the school of nursing. The literature is limited in the most effective methods for team teaching implementation. Review of the literature results in themes; interdisciplinary teams across disciplines, team learning and teaching already established health care teams. Improved team work is an area of needed development for the microsystem. Instructors may have different definitions and approached to what is effective teaching team.