Leadership is an integral part of a firms’ life. It impacts not only the culture of the organization but also its ability to make profits and sustain. Hence, leadership has attracted scholarly attention for a very long time. Many researchers have aimed to determine the “best” leadership strategy. The Iowa leadership studies are one such study. We will discuss the Iowa leadership studies and their implications in this article.
Background of Iowa Leadership Studies
A group of researchers: Lewin, Lippitt and White connected the Iowa leadership studies in the 1930s. Their main motivation for this work was to find answers to the following key questions about leadership:
- Why do groups rebel against authority?
- Is not a democratic style of leadership more pleasant than an authoritarian style of leadership. If this is true, will not followers prefer a democratic leader over an authoritarian leader?
The group of researchers conducted a series of experiments on school children in order to answer these questions. The result was the development of an interesting tripartite theory of leadership.
The three styles of leadership
Authoritarian
An authoritarian leader is one who likes to exercise control over the followers. As per the Iowa leadership studies, followers do not enjoy such a style of leadership. Such leaders make all decisions and expect blind obedience from followers. Due to the inherent arrogance, decision-making may sometimes be compromised as the diversity of opinions is not allowed.
Authoritarian leaders are most commonly seen in centralized and formalized organizations. Very few people have decision-making power. Although it allows speedy decision-making, employees are mostly unhappy.
Democratic
Unlike an authoritarian leader, a democratic leader is more people-oriented. Democratic leaders do not hoard power. Instead, they focus on developing cohesive group structures and participative decision-making. They exercise control where required but let followers have their bit of autonomy. Followers are seen to be confident, responsible and accountable. They like their boss and are much more productive.
Since followers have high autonomy, it is also important that the employees are competent enough to take decisions. Therefore, if employees are not talented enough, the organization can land into trouble due to democratic leadership. Democratic organizations have higher corporate costs. This is because the skilled and talented employees need to be paid higher salaries.
In addition, decentralization of power may not be very useful and economical in large organizations. However, it may prove very beneficial for small organizations.
Laissez-fair
Laissez-fair leadership refers to the absence of leadership. The leader does not exercise any power or authority. The group becomes a rudderless ship. There are a lot of followers but there is no one to guide them in one direction. Hence such groups often tend to lack focus and direction. Their productivity and creativity also tend to be low.
Laissez-fair leaders lack competence. A laissez-fair leader is not good for any type of organization because they lack passion and initiative.
FAQs
The Iowa leadership studies were conducted in 1939 by Lewin, Lippitt and White.
According to the Iowa leadership studies, the three types of leadership style are:
1. Democratic leadership
2. Authoritarian leadership
3. Laissez-fair leadership
There are a number of leadership styles. No one leadership style can be said to be the best. It depends a lot on the context, culture and nature of the task. For instance, in organizations with high power distance, it is fine if the leader is authoritarian or even abusive in certain cases. However, in cases of low power distance, a democratic leader would be better. Laissez-fair leadership may also be beneficial in situations where the team is extremely well skilled in the tasks to be performed. A democratic organization may need an authoritarian leader in situations of extreme crisis, like financial losses or difficult and unpredictable market conditions.