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Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory

Introduction

Organizational teams are often characterized by dilemmas, which normally emanate from organizational changes that take place from time to time, thus changing the leadership strategy. Organizational changes in an organization, however, are inevitable because firms need to look for strategies for improving productivity. Therefore, each situation experienced calls for an effective leadership style to help overcome dilemmas in an organizational setting. By taking the position of an assistant manager of a construction company, this paper aims at analyzing a construction company’s leadership style using the Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership.

Analysis

Due to a tight working schedule and a high turnover of customers, the construction company has already adopted the use of email in handling communication between the workers, as well as in carrying out transactions with its customers. This strategy, however, is faced with challenges due to several reasons, including low levels of security from workers’ emails, lack of prioritizing information due to a huge number of emails, presence of scattered data due to saving the emails in diverse formats, ambiguity due to unclear terms used for products’ descriptions, and work overlap between the workers.

This made the leader to behave in a manner that portrayed referent power, which was evident while he asserted, “effective communication can be used as a vehicle for adopting a successful interpersonal relationship. And when done effectively, the workers can achieve a group cohesion that is necessary for performance achievement.” More so, the leader was charismatic and positive in the midst of the difficult situations as he added, “An effective communication within the company could only result from leaders who engage in communicating subjects that trigger the mind of all the workers, making them to process the data under discussion in a friendly manner.”

Using the Fiedler’s contingency theory, the leader in the construction company is a relationship-oriented leader, since his style of leadership embraces group cohesion (Daft and Dorothy 380). According to the leader of this company, the thought of having any resolution without the subordinates’ involvement is absurd. Also, as such, the full participation of the employees in the decision-making process is called for. This makes the subordinates to develop a sense of accountability for their tasks since they have already developed a sense of confidence with their leader (381).

More so, the leader expresses concerns on the subordinates’ abilities to learn how to share great information with their leader. In this regard, the leader advises the subordinates to learn how to focus on results by providing them with tips on how best one can acquire expected results based on teamwork, and this helps in building cohesion since the subordinates acquire knowledge on how to work effectively with the leader (Daft and Dorothy 388).

Additionally, the leader attempts to disseminate information on matters affecting job operations by using his legitimate power. The fact that the company embraces titles, such as the marketing manager and the assistant marketing manager, creates an avenue for the respect of leaders by the virtue of their identity in the organization (390). All these show that the leader of this construction company is relationship-oriented.

The leader/member relation is good since the leader is in a position of influencing the workers at varying levels. This is reflected by the fact that the company has adopted employee empowerment, which would ensure that the subordinates are acquainted with how one department affects the other. More so, the leader/member relation in this company is good, since this relationship is based on internal matters. The quick response from the subordinates emanates from the fact that the staffing requirements are carried out after the leader, through a charismatic discussion, achieves the benchmarks based on the current emerging needs instead of the past original plans, thus helping to build a good atmosphere with the subordinates.

The task structure in this company is low, as it does not portray an effective procurement process, which necessitates effective procurement strategies, adequate preparation of contracts, and maintenance of a long-term supply of construction products. More so, the employees lack consistent brand names for the products, job descriptions, and effective communication. This construction company, therefore, does not provide a clear understanding of the company’s goals and the way of achieving its goals.

The leader position power in this construction company is high since the procedures undertaken shows that the leader demonstrates both legitimate and reward powers. The extent of the authority, however, is limited to the company’s policies stipulated by the company’s administration. For case in point, the leader, despite his position, cannot command the subordinates to work for more than 8 hours per day. And as such, reward power is carried out by encouraging the subordinates to work for more than 8 hours per day by reminding them of their yearly bonus, while punishments are implemented by demotion and withdrawal of some amount of funds.

Conclusion

The above information helps us to understand that the performance of this construction company is highly dependent on the situation of the company, enabling the leader to determine the approach to take in his leadership style. Since the leadership position power is high, the leader/member relation is good, and the subordinates’ task structure is low, the leader’s responsibility is to create an avenue for eradicating tension between workers, anxiety emanating from unclear goals, as well as the presence of organizational conflict by using relationship-oriented leadership since it acts as the prime motivators for performance achievement.

Works Cited

Daft, Richard, and Dorothy Marcic. Understanding Management. Independence, KY: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

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StudyKraken. (2021, September 30). Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory. Retrieved from https://studykraken.com/construction-companys-leadership-style-fiedlers-theory/

Reference

StudyKraken. (2021, September 30). Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory. https://studykraken.com/construction-companys-leadership-style-fiedlers-theory/

Work Cited

"Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory." StudyKraken, 30 Sept. 2021, studykraken.com/construction-companys-leadership-style-fiedlers-theory/.

1. StudyKraken. "Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory." September 30, 2021. https://studykraken.com/construction-companys-leadership-style-fiedlers-theory/.


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StudyKraken. "Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory." September 30, 2021. https://studykraken.com/construction-companys-leadership-style-fiedlers-theory/.

References

StudyKraken. 2021. "Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory." September 30, 2021. https://studykraken.com/construction-companys-leadership-style-fiedlers-theory/.

References

StudyKraken. (2021) 'Construction Company’s Leadership Style: Fiedler’s Theory'. 30 September.

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