Leadership Styles 

Leadership is difficult to define and even more difficult to assess. We may have just seen a movie that has been used in leadership classes in all kinds of settings. You may use it as a source of examples for your observations on leadership.

Kurt Lewin has identified three leadership styles (other researchers have identified different taxonomies and types of leadership styles, but for this assignment we will use Lewin). The three styles are: authoritarian, participatory, and delegatory. Authoritarian leaders prefer to make decisions themselves and may not consult others in deciding how to structure and organize the work of an organization. Participatory leaders tend to be more democratic, inviting the participation of organizational members in making decisions, but keeping control of the final decision process. Delegatory leaders tend to delegate decision making to others, allowing members to make decisions themselves and inviting participation in decision-making at all levels.

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Suppose you work for an organization that includes teams that have each of these styles of leader. [While we recognize that a truly exceptional leader may need to adjust his/her style in different circumstances, most people may have a natural preference for one style or the other.] How would you evaluate the performance of the teams? What are the particular strengths and weaknesses of these styles? What criteria can be applied to determine whether a leader has performed well? Would you apply the same criteria as a yardstick for success, or would you apply different criteria depending on the style? What other aspects of the team might be important to consider in evaluating performance? What type of leader would you most prefer to work for? Why? What type of leader are you most likely to be?

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Include your answer in a product roughly equivalent to a 2-5 page paper.


You may use any tool you wish to accomplish this task (a document; a PowerPoint presentation; a Prezi presentation; anything)


But do be sure to place the deliverable in your online storage location and provide the instructor a link to that it may be retrieved. If you send the instructor a link in an email, also ensure that the same link is in your online portfolio as well.

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