Leadership Styles of Government Leaders Based on Lawmakers Prepare To Take Budget Debate Late Into Night

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Analysis
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Bickering politicians and other government officials are a common occurrence during budget hearing. Admittedly agreeing on how much the government needs, in totality and individually for each of its numerous agencies, is a tedious and complex process given the sheer number of politicians needed to ratify the budget.

In a human resource development point of view, the budget season stands out in that leaders will emerge to steer the common men to the common good, which is to ratify a budget that is for the best. This paper analyses the leadership styles exhibited by government officials in a specific situation.

Analysis

Money is a necessary but a finite government resource. Hence, come budget-time government officials and politicians alike are faced with very tough choices. In this instance, a politician exhibits a largely autocratic or authoritarian leadership style.

According to a study (Stewart & Manz, 1995, p. 750) autocratic leadership is exhibited by leaders who aim to achieve the sole possession of authority, power and control which is in contrast with a democratic leader in that he willingly shares authority, power and control within the group.

Though research (Appelbaum, Bartolomucci, Beaumier, Boulanger, et al, 2994, p. 13) suggests that the autocratic leadership has a significant direct impact on employee satisfaction, which affects the organizations trust environment and the strength of its corporate culture, studies also suggest that this type of leadership style is the most effective in certain situations.

For example, in situations wherein the leader has to make a tough call, an authoritative leadership stance can best serve the purpose of jump starting the organization in immediately following what the leader has decided. This situation can be observed whenever politicians have to make tough budget cuts.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that during the entire budget process the most effective leadership style is autocratic or authoritative. What is being said here is that during the Congress budget hearing, or even before that, there will be times that leaders must make decisive actions and decisions.

For example, the audio of the Lawmakers Prepare To Take Budget Debate Late Into Night, shows that a lot of senators are nervous with the magnitude of the cuts. However, these same senators also understand that these cuts are necessary and someway somehow. This desire for a compromise will take some time if there is no decisive voice among the legislators and that voice is the autocratic leader.

Another leadership style clearly exhibited in the audio presentation is participative or democratic. This type of leadership encourages followers to actively participate in the decision making process of the group.

Democratic leadership is evident in the budget debate specifically when Governor Granholm mentioned that the legislators are doing their best to meet the deadline in spite of the difficulties they are experiencing. This example shows us that the decision making process is by a group rather than dominated by a single individual.

In this particular phase of the budget approval process, participative leadership style is the most productive. Under a participative leader, legislators can make more supportive remarks as regards the budget issues at hand, and consequently, they will propose more solutions.

The third leadership style observed in the debate is the delegative or free reign leadership. This leadership style is exhibited by a leader who allows his followers not only to participate in the decision making process, but in actually making the decisions.

For example the identification of what government services and agencies budget will be cut, it is highly likely that the legislators staff made the decisions rather than the politicians themselves. However, this style doesnt mean that the leader is no longer necessary.

On the contrary, the leader must work harder if he chooses to practice this style. The decision making process of the group must be guided by the leader such that the decision made is the effective and efficient. At the end of the day, the success of the decision is the leaders responsibility.

This leadership style shows that leaders find ways to utilize the resources available to them and one of these is their people. After all delegative leadership is the extent to which a manager attains desired objectives by leaving subordinates or others free to make their own decisions (Oshagbemi & Ocholi, 2006, p. 748).

Without the proper delegation of functions and decision making authority, the leader and his group could end up not being able to finish anything at all.

However, it is clear that there are decisions that cant be delegated to subordinates. These decisions are of the leader alone which brings us back to the discussion on the autocratic leader.

Conclusion

In every situation, someone someway will exhibit leadership characteristics. Admittedly, all leadership styles, specifically the three discussed in this paper autocratic, participative and delegative, have advantages and disadvantages.

The responsibility of an effective and efficient leader therefore is to identify the combination of traits from of each of these leadership styles to use in a given situation. This is certainly true for government, non-profit and for profit settings.

References

Appelbaum, S., Bartolomucci, N., Beaumier, E., Boulanger, J., et al. (2004). Organizational citizenship behavior: a case study of culture, leadership and trust. Management Decision, 42 (1/2), 13.

Oshagbemi, T. & Ocholi, S. (2006). Leadership styles and behaviour profiles of managers. The Journal of Management Development, 25 (8), 748.

Stewart, G. & Manz, C. (1995). Leadership for self-managing work teams: A typology and integrative model. Human Relations, 48 (7), 747-770.

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Leadership Styles of Government Leaders Based on Lawmakers Prepare To Take Budget Debate Late Into Night

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