Being an enthusiastic, self-confident CEO of a hotel, Linda's personality has great influence on the hotel staff. She believes that her managers should provide direction and assist subordinates in attaining goals and encourages them to do so in whatever way they see fit. Due to the specific needs of their subordinates, her managers are encouraged to use different leadership behaviours in helping them achieve goals. For example, the Finance Manager tells inexperienced trainees exactly what to do, schedules the work, and sets performance goals. The Sales Manager establishes challenging goals for her staff and expects their best performance. The Project Manager treats subordinates as friends and creates a core group which is composed of three of his closest friends.

1. (a) Illustrate with relevant example from the case Linda's leadership style according to University of Iowa Studies. 
2. (b) Apart from University of Iowa Studies, Linda also adopts another leadership theory. Name THE OTHER leadership theory practised by Linda. In broader term, what is the type of this leadership theory? 
3. (c) Identify the leadership behaviour displayed by the Sales Manager. 
4. (d) Identify the leadership behaviour displayed by the Finance Manager. Illustrate why this behaviour fits the needs of the trainees. 
5. (e) Suppose the core group created by the Project Manager has lower employee turnover than the non-core group, define the other TWO characteristics of core group according to the Leader- member Exchange (LMX) theory. 

Answer:

LEADERSHIP THEORY AND SKILLS

Introduction

Leadership is the act of motivating people towards achieving a specific goal. It's both a research

and a political skill which involves the ability of an individual to direct and attain what they aimed

for. One can lead individuals, teams or even an entire organization. Linda uses the democratic skill

studied at Lowa University where she doesn't lead but participates in everything and is involved

with her workers too. She is confident and enthusiastic, which is an excellent motivation for her

workers.

Relationship and participative theories are essential leadership skills. That Linda emphasizes on

using in her company. She encourages good relationships between her head staff and the

subordinates (Naniundeswaraswamy, Swamy, 2014). A good connection between leaders and

followers leads to good performance since ideas can be shared up and down the hierarchy. Leaders

can also help the rest understand the importance of every task they take.

Sales manager in Linda's company is a pacesetter. He uses this skill, where he challenges his

subordinates by setting achievable goals. He holds them responsible when they achieve this goal

(Preston et al., 2015). This makes the members energized and motivated for they have a goal to

achieve at the end. This is a useful skill for t pushes members to accomplish objectives.

The finance manager uses the autocratic skill of leadership to lead the inexperienced trainees. The

manager tells them what they should do. He lays down all the rules (Peker et al., 2018). Financing

has strict guidelines, and no mistake should be expected. This style works effectively here. It is a

very beneficial style when used with people of little or no experience like the new trainees.

A core group is a small group of irreplaceable people. A company with a low turnover of a core

group is that there will be fewer promotion opportunities for the non-core group. The LMX theory

focuses on the relationship between managers and followers. It states that leaders form trust with

some members of the subordinate's and not all a retreated the same. Attitude of the workers will

depend on this relationship. Leaders should be chosen carefully for they have a significant influence

on workers.

Leadership is a crucial thing in every company. The theory to be used should be chosen depending

on a company and the skills depending on the people. Relationship and participative theories are

examples of these theories they have worked perfectly for Linda as the CEO of her company.

References;

Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in management, 7(2),

57.

Preston, G., Moon, J., Simon, R., Allen, S., & Kossi, E. (2015). The relevance of emotional intelligence in

project leadership. Journal of Information Technology and Economic Development, 6(1), 16.

Peker, S., Inandi, Y., & Giliç, F. (2018). The Relationship between Leadership Styles (Autocratic and

Democratic) of School Administrators and the Mobbing Teachers Suffer. European Journal of

Contemporary Education, 7(1), 150-164.