Principles And Characteristics Of Laissez Faire

The theory of leaders can be autocratic, a person who doesn’t consider the person undertaking the task only getting the results. A democratic leader takes opinions of the staff and understands how they believe the best results can be achieved, whereas Laissez-faire style leaves the experienced staff to implement the work processes.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” John C. Maxwell

Tenets of servant leaders include: the ability to listen with understanding and keep an open mind, hear without judgement, can deal with ambiguity and complex issues, provides clear goals and directions, uses honesty, and has vision (Marquis & Huston, 2014). The laissez-faire leadership style in contrast to the servant leadership style is a nondirected leadership style with little or no control, and decision making is dispersed throughout the group, which can lead to apathy among the staff and frustration (Marquis & Huston,

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

Grojean, Resick & Diskson (2004) suggest that leaders are responsible for facilitating their follower’s to become capable and guide them to improving their capabilities and strengths. Differentiating between different leadership styles can be done in a number of ways. It was determined that the traditional styles of leaders include authoritian (autocratic), democratic, permissive (laissez-faire) and bureaucratic (Viinamäki, 2009).

"There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust." Klaus Balkenhol

Leadership goes beyond management, for some, leadership is instinctual and pours over into your personal life. This paper will discuss a leader I admire in my personal life, and analyze their leadership style. I will discuss how that leader has influenced my leadership style, as well as how things like environment and the economy affect my leadership approach.

Have you ever had a leader that inspired you to develop your own leadership traits? “A leader is someone who demonstrates what’s possible” (Mark Yarnell, 2015). There are numerous leadership styles. Each of the numerous leadership styles can be beneficial if utilized in an appropriate means. I have chosen three leaders and their unique leadership styles to discuss in this paper. The unique styles that will be discussed are situational leadership, transformational leadership, and laissez-faire leadership. I will also discuss each leader’s approach, their fundamental leadership principles, and how each leader used their style within their profession.

The core idea in Laisse-Faire is one of non-involvement by government in the workings of a nations economy. This is typified by a lack of regulation or interference in the capitalist marketplace, allowing businesses and industries to compete for consumers dollars based on the efficiency of their production and the quality of their products. The roots of Laisse-Faire lay in the writings of English economist Adam Smith in his work The Wealth of Nations. In The Wealth of Nations, Smith hypothesized that no government regulation was necessary because the competition among businesses will insure that the best and most necessary products at ideal prices will be produced. This "self-regulating market" would, according to Smith, be guided by an "invisible hand". During the late 1800's, as the US economy expanded at a furious rate, the lack of government regulation over the economy led to many abuses by businesses. As a result by the Progressive Era of the early 1900's, the government was forced by public outcry to begin to enact consumer and worker protections via

The contents and assignment in this course has helped me understand the various theories of leadership and how different leadership styles can have a negative or positive effect on followers and organizations. The leadership theories helped me understand the concept of leadership better because it educates me on the different leadership options that are available. Leadership and followership is not based on specific characteristics. Leaders must draw from things and approaches to find the right style. A follower’s attitude determines the way a leader leads. According to Johnson (2011) “Being a good follower means ensuring your boss is supported, but only if he is making optimum decisions”.

According to Coleman (1980), “Smith believed that the natural efforts of every individual to better his own condition when allied to liberty would motivate the ‘invisible hand’ and thus create wealth and prosperity” (p. 775). After a period of time, many people began to revolt against the idea of mercantilism and stressed the need for free trade. The continued pressure resulted in the implementation of laissez faire economics in the nineteenth century.

Laissez faire is the absence of effective leadership (Yukl G, 2010). Laissez faire leaders ignore problems and follower (Yukl G, 2010) and they do not contribute to the growth of the follower ( (Northouse, 2007). Feedback, rewards and leader involvement are totally absent in this type of leadership hence reduced organisational commitment.

Laissez-faire is the style of leadership and management where employees are free to do work. In laissez faire style employees have more power, authority and influence in

Murphy (2005) maintains that leaders are accountable for helping their follower’s to become efficient and support them to develop their strengths and abilities. Distinguishing and categorising between different leadership styles can be done in several ways, (Gopee and Galloway, 2009). In this essay traditional classification of authoritian (autocratic), democratic, permissive (laissez-faire) and bureaucratic styles of leaders will be discussed.

The last style is called laissez-faire leadership. Here leader usually participates minimally and let team members find their own way out by allowing complete freedom in decision making (Simmons and Striley, 2014).