Individual Analysis: What Type of Manager Are You?

In a world of many successful as well as many unsuccessful businesses, management is one of the key components of success. There are many styles of management and leadership for businesses, and not all work for every company. It is vital to understand one’s own leadership style in order to better benefit their current organization. While taking the Leadership Styles Questionnaire (Northouse, 2011), my score ran closely between Authoritarian Leadership and Democratic Leadership. In the end, my Democratic Leadership score of 23 surpassed my score of 19 for Authoritarian Leadership. Democratic Leadership can be defined as when “...An organization involves the redistribution of power and authority between employees and managers to provide employee involvement in decision-making.” (Kinicki & Williams, Management: a practical introduction, 2013). Authoritarian Leadership is very different in meaning, and is defined as “a leadership style in which the leader dictates policies and procedures, decides what goals are to be achieved, and directs and controls all activities without any meaningful participation by the subordinates.” (Kinicki & Williams, Management: a practical introduction, 2013) It comes as no surprise to me that my score for this assignment had come so close to a tie for these scores as I have been in transition to become a management figure with more responsibility in my line of work.

Beginning my current job, I was coming from my past position where even as a manager, I had no say in scheduling, hiring or making any decisions in my place of work. Though I was paid and considered a manager, when it came to any leadership within my position, the owner of the establishment took on all the responsibility and would certainly be considered an Authoritarian Leader. This left me in the past with a very Laissez-Faire Leadership style with the employees, which is defined as “a manager who gives the least possible guidance to subordinates and tries to achieve control over less obvious means” ("What is laissez-faire leadership? "). In my current position however, managing my catering crew and event staff efficiently and independently is incredibly important. This has caused me to become fixed between Authoritarian and Democratic Leadership as I start to get a better feel for my own style that also works for my employees and causes as little stress on everyone as possible.

I feel that Democratic Leadership style fits me extremely well. From someone that has worked from the bottom as a Concession Stand Attendant to the position I am in now as the Wedding Planer/Event Coordinator and Catering Manager for a large campground resort, it comes as no surprise that sharing some of my responsibility and decision making with my employees and keeping them involved is important to my leadership style. Being involved in decisions with management in the past was what initially peaked my interest to begin with