Motivation and Leadership Style

Literature Review

The purpose of this study is to explore the definition of leadership and the different types of leadership styles. Also describe what motivation is and establish the link between the various leadership styles and motivation.

The term leadership as defined by many can be narrowed down to getting others to follow. Leadership is critical in all levels of an organization and be used as a tool to achieve the company’s goals.

There exist a vast amount of leadership styles:  

1. Task Oriented Leadership – Which defines the leader that is more focused on goal achievement and forms a strict pattern for communication  
2. Relation Oriented Leadership – Depicts a leader that shows attention and respect towards their followers
3. Change Oriented Leadership – Is the leader that deals more with strategic decisions and moving with major changes and promoting with major changes and promoting flexibility and fostering innovation  
4. Participative Leadership – Leaders that are of the nature focus more on making critical decisions with the employees  
5. Charismatic Leadership – Includes the leaders that make their followers believe that the leaders themselves have superb abilities  
6. Autocratic Leadership – These types are the types that are more directive and controlling, who doesn’t make decision with the employees help
7. Ethical Leadership – This entails leading through appropriate conduct and building interpersonal relationships
8. Ethical Based Contingent Reward Leadership – Is a leader that is of a transactional nature which means this leader leads by making promises giving praises and rewarding to gather the data.  

Motivation can be seen as the most important factor within organization. Motivation is described as “a set of energetic forces” that are both external and internal to an individual. Those forces are what drive a person to complete a task or an assignment. Every leader should know what to use to motivate his/her employees and how to go about doing so. A person cannot be an effective leader if he/she has no idea of how to motivate. The leader must also know how to get the employees/followers to get along with one another and complete the work and also get their employees to perform to the best of their ability.