Title:
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Leadership Styles And Communication Between Leaders and Followers
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The aims for this research were (1) to profile leadership styles within one health
service organisation, according to Bass and Avolio's (1995) taxonomy of
leadership; (2) to identify leaders' characteristic 'forms of leading and
communicating and (3) to explore followers' perceptions of leadership
engagement. A three-phase programme of research was utilised within a single
case study starting with a pre-study, followed by 360-degree questionnaires
(Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire) distributed to leaders and followers within
this health organisation and finally, a series of qualitative semi-structured
interviews with selected leaders and followers. By approaching the issue of
communication practices inherent within specific leadership styles, this study
represents a uniquely comprehensive and in-depth analysis that contributes to
research and theory in the leadership field. In particular, the focus on followers'
perceptions provides this study with one particular point of differentiation from
previous research activity in the area of leadership and communication.
Although three leadership styles were identified within this particular case study
as a combination of transformational and transactional, transformational and
transactional, the majority of leaders were identified as demonstrating mostly
transformational behaviours. Consequently, semi-structured interviews were
conducted to depict the interplay of various communication practices inherent
within these specified styles. These results indicated that 'feedback', 'time
management', 'face-to-face' and 'daily' communication are practices rated highly
by followers and increase satisfaction levels during interaction. These results are
significant in terms of understanding, identifying and addressing communication
practices that are demonstrated by leaders within specific styles of leadership.
Thus the current study proposes that it is the identification and analysis of
followers' perceptions within the leader/follower interface that will move this area
forward.
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