The leadership styles dilemma in the business world

Abstract

The present study is an exploratory study that is conducted in 31 companies of automobile parts and accessories manufacturers located at Lahore, Pakistan to integrate dozens of leadership styles available in leadership literature. Factor analysis technique was used for dimensions reduction. SPSS and smartPLS3 software were used for data analysis. The study identified four basic leadership styles that could represent most of the leadership styles available in the literature. The results resemble leadership studies conducted at Ohio and Michigan State Universities with one basic difference of the dimensions suggested by the researchers to explain leadership styles, which are consultation and the relationship instead of task oriented and relationship oriented dimensions. The concept of representative leadership styles will make it simple to understand and handier to practice leadership styles' theories. The representative leadership styles will add a new perspective about the relationship and mutual exclusiveness of different leadership styles by looking at the bigger picture that was sketched through micro level studies. Research will help organizations in hiring of new leadership and in the setting priorities of leadership development. Though this study has been carried out in Pakistan but due to the size of the sample and extensiveness of the study its results can be considered generalizable.