My department applies on a grander scale, both participative and hands-off leadership style. Authoritarian leadership occurs to a minimal degree. The contributing factor to this phenomenon is the fact that we are only two people in the department. I can testify to the effectiveness of leadership styles applied in my department from day-to-day activities by allocating duties and creating deadlines.

Being the assistant manager in charge of telephone calls, serving clients with tickets, hotel bookings, and car rentals, I have given room to my employee to use his skill in delivering towards the company’s main goals. This democratic space allows him to maneuver and get things done on time. I believe this leadership pattern has continued to work in the department because he has constantly proven that he can work well under minimum supervision. The leadership applied in our department has in it some traces of authoritarianist leadership. At the end of a task the company must accomplish goals. Clients have to be satisfied, and the company must make profits. My employee is answerable to me as the employer concerning every single detail of the job. If any form of the discrepancy is found with his work or any reasonable complaint is placed across by companies we help with bookings, his job on the line. This helps him stay focused and not take the democracy that I, as a leader, have chosen to apply in our department.

The kind of leadership style applied in my department is relatively different from that applied in the accounts department. This is due to the sensitivity of the financial records they have to deal with. The mode of leadership applied to this department is majorly authoritarian. Sometimes I am instructed to oversee the whole process, especially during high seasons as the assistant manager. It is done with the pure intention of increasing accountability within that department.

My ability to work with my employee as a team has enabled me to get some ideas on going forward in some crucial business matters. It has also allowed my employee to grow in terms of skill. However, as a leader, I slack in using authoritarian leadership when they are much needed. When applying this kind of leadership, it always comes out in a threatening manner.

Description of the Organization

Alpine Travel Limited is a branch of Alpine holding that involves making travel arrangements, ticketing, hotel bookings, and car rentals abroad. Our company provides business travel management solutions that aim to help companies reduce their expense on international travel and easily track employees’ expenses on flights, hotels, taxi services, and rental car use in a single package.

Mission statement

A good business sense is not without quality, affordable travel programs, meetings, and events.

Core Values

At the center of every deal and business transaction carried out by Alpine limited, some values act as the baseline for each operation we undertake. These values include Communication, knowledge, honesty, excellent service, valuing of relationships, and accountability.

Communication ensures the smooth running of company activities. Through effective communication, we can understand company objectives and expectations. We can also know our customers’ needs and expectations, and in return, we can communicate on what service we deliver. This involves ensuring travel, hotel, and hotel offers align with customers’ expectations.

As it is said, often knowledge in power. Our personnel is equipped with the right knowledge of hotels, flight arrangements, and even the people’s culture abroad destination of travels. This places us in a position to answer any questions that are customer based and concerns they may have about our services.

Our company had an outstanding reputation for being true to type. We deliver our offers strictly as advertised. This ensures that we meet clients’ expectations. It also gives room to demand accountability once that trust has been breached.

Our company exists to ensure that our final consumers get excellent service from our products. Our employees ensure booking arrangements come as ordered and advertised. We are also willing to address any questions and concerns, especially if our services fail to meet the agreement we had signed.

Alpine company believes in establishing, nurturing, and valuing relationships as a key to customer satisfaction and business success.

Impact of Prevailing leadership Styles on goals

The first type of leadership applied in my department is the authoritarian kind of leadership. This has allowed me to culture honesty and accountability in my employees. At the end of the day, I expect sales to have been done, goals to have been met, and our customers satisfied with the services delivered to them. This I can only see through by applying a firm hand. First, I will have to communicate clearly my expectations and put across the consequences that would result from my expectations not being met. Bearing this in mind, my employee will be forced to put his A-game on. He will observe proper communication with customers to ensure the needs and expectations are fully accounted for. Authoritative leadership allows for values such as excellent service delivery, honesty, and accountability on the part of the employee.

On the downside, sometimes the authoritarian style of leadership has a downside of communications. Sometimes when dealing with problematic clients, crossroads can appear in communication. An employee may agree to a bad deal, fearing to lose a client who puts on the table less than what is asked. In some instances, employees may hide significant information, such as being harassed by a client to maintain their job.

Exercising a participatory and hands-off leadership has allowed delivering excellent services. When hiring, I always look for specific skills needed for my department, such as good communication. To fully utilize their set of skills, they should be given room to deliver while being part of a team. This mode of leadership allows them to create customer trust with the company. If an employee is good at communication, you may get companies specific in who they want to deal with when making travel arrangements. This makes long-lasting contracts that are lucrative for the company.

However, allowing employees to go on free reign without a latch can prove detrimental. In particular, instances where an employee may choose to play favoritism to his more preferred client. Leaving other clients feeling dissatisfied, which goes against all the values of the company. We have had clients complaining about us giving preferential treatments to other clients, yet the money asked for packages is similar. This does not sell well in terms of company reputation.

Ability to Apply Leadership in a Range of Situations

Participative/democratic type of leadership involves letting my employees to be part of the decision making process. Even a good leader cannot come packaged with all the necessary skills for a particular job. For us to write tickets, book hotels, we need to have a constant flow of clients. Dealing with corporate clients needs good negotiation skills and, on top, requires good marketing strategies. To apply participatory leadership, I normally call a meeting on which our progress is to be accounted for in the whole month. In these meetings, I exercise a participatory form of leadership where my employee can give their own opinion on how we can properly market ourselves in a competitive environment. The employee can share strategies they feel can work better in trying to make lasting cooperate deals with clients. One incident where one of our clients had threatened to withdraw his clientship because he was no longer pleased with our services. He was a big client, and we were not willing to lose him. His withdrawal coincided with one of our meetings, so I decided to share it with my employee. It turns out our client was a nature fanatic. When my employee suggested we add a free trip to one of the nature parks in his most frequented abroad destination, it worked.

Hands-off management style places authority and responsibility to deliver on objectives of the company. I normally utilize this method after an employee has demonstrated that he can work alone and under minimum supervision. I have made exceptions for the employee who have shown extraordinary capabilities in delivering on the task in some instances. My employee recently approached me wanting my approval to go for a client who had just relocated his business in our town. Most of the big cooperate company always prefer dealing directly with the manager or assistant manager. In this case, our competitor had an upper because he happened to be a former schoolmate. My employee insisted he could make the deal, and so I let him. Within four days, he was able to bring us on the table with our client and thus to increase our income.

When employing hands-off leadership, I always have to be keen on what is at stake. There are incidents where we entrusted employees with tasks, and we ended up losing very lucrative jobs. Employees’ ability to see tasks through is a determinant factor in whether I can trust them to do a job. When an employee performs exemplarily, it is easy for one to be partial when treating these people. I have to be careful that partiality is not shown.

Authoritarian leadership is the most feared of all types of leadership and is commonly associated with negative effects. However, as a leader, some work situation requires total control; otherwise, no order or employees can cultivate accountability. At the end of the day, week, or month in a company’s calendar, there are set goals and objectives that are to be achieved. Our employees bear the responsibility to achieve this goal. There are customer expectations built by the company that employees should accomplish. In a situation where my employee is caught in dishonest conduct such as unscrupulous deals with clients or lying about specific transactions, such an action will require sacking. Other situations that are not theft-related such as coming late to work or lack of proper communication between clients and employees, may lead to warnings, suspension, and demotion.

Balancing all these leadership types in active situations is not easy. Some employees scare off easily and may not be willing to share their minds after seeing me dealing with a disciplinary case.  Due to the loss of some deals last, it is not easy to trust an employee with big tasks.

Ability to Communicate in the Organization

In any organization, communication not only includes leaders stocking their demands on employees’ throats but also listening to employee needs and opinions. For a system to work efficiently, information on aim, goals, objectives, what to do, and when to communicate effectively. How I communicate to my employees will greatly reflect on how they communicate back to me.

When communicating company objectives and goals, I normally apply situational leadership. This means how if communicate will vary depending on situation and circumstance. For a new employee or freshly promoted personnel, I adopt a coaching tone of communication. Firstly, I will have to tell the fresher about all expectations of the company. This does not mean that the employee will be well off after that. I, therefore, have to monitor closely and supervise the task accomplishment process. This process allows questions until we get it right. Through this coaching model, I have been able to transfer the knowledge effectively. I need my employee to have and encourage them to be independent decision-makers.

For already acclimatized employees, daily communication involves delegation of duty on tasks to be done. Company short-term goals can easily change. When they do, I have the task of informing the employee about the necessary changes to implement. For instance, we may have to stop and completely cut off customers at work due to their failure to pay or contract termination. As a leader, I have to pass this across to avoid unnecessary situations that might emerge. In the monthly forums, employees can communicate ideas on proposed changes or even create a new idea that could be implemented.

When passing across information on expectations, the company values must be checked too. It’s easy for people to want to get ahead through scrupulous means in the corporate travel business. That taints the integrity of our job and does not give a fair advantage to other employees. I have to communicate across that such things are not tolerated. This will involve mouth talk and communication through a consequence for the employees to take it seriously.

There are challenges that I face as a leader when trying to communicate. There are instances I have used threats to try to get my employee to deliver work on time. This kind of thing leads to creating a tensed environment between the employee and me and reduces the efficiency of work done. The coaching process of a new employee requires a lot of patience. Sometimes in communicating, I omit important instructions with the assumption that a new employer knows. This leads to a lack of efficient delivery of work. There was an instant when I asked a new employee to book a hotel abroad for a client. I had assumed that he would be able to look up the client folder and see the company’s specification on preferred hotels. He booked a different hotel that the client refused to accept, leaving us with the extra costs.

Motivation to build commitments

According to Fredrick Herzberg’s motivation theory, some factors can be exploited within the work environment. Such factor includes; achievement, job security, interpersonal relationships, advancement, individual growth, pay and perks, recognition, responsibility, status, supervision, and working conditions. In my leadership style, I tackle motivation at three different levels.

The first level is motivation aimed towards meeting the needs inner needs of the employee. For an employee to be a hundred percent committed to achieving the company’s goals, he must be happy and fulfilled by the job. As an employer, I cannot easily read the mind of my employee. However, I can decipher what they love on the job based on their actions. This aspect can be picked out during coaching in orientation and close monitoring of their actions at work. In the past, I have noticed that some employees enjoy planning. They can organize and plan for travel of a whole company and are only satisfied when the clients have given a five star to service. As an employer, I have to keep these people’s need to perfect a work-filled, and this will cause them to be more motivated and oriented towards achieving our travel goal. Other employees are good negotiators and are much satisfied when they are part of getting new clients. To keep such employees motivated, one has to allow them to be part of all possible negotiating processes.

While striving to motivate employees using extrinsic factors, one method has successfully kept my employees motivated. This is the payment of salary on time and giving extra benefits for all the extra miles gone. In the example where my employee was able to identify a new client and bring him to the table with us, I gave him a 50% bonus check on top of his salary. This made him sort after other deals. As a result, his salary has seen an increment of 100% within 12 months. There are few setbacks in terms of motivation. Due to the few numbers of employees, it is impossible to motivate through promotion and status.

Justification for Mode of Motivation

The most effective means of leadership that will motivate my employees is balancing all three leadership types, such as authoritarian, hands-off, and participative leadership types. This does not mean that all the types of leadership will be applied and the same rate. My leadership choice is controlled by the need to motivate my employee, the need to get the job done, and the stuff’s size.

Exercising a purely authoritarian mode of leadership will completely alienate me from my employ. This will completely hinder communication between us. Despite the fact it gets work done faster compared to the rest of the styles, it denies effective teamwork. Effective teamwork is key in knowing my employees’ strengths and weaknesses and putting them to full use to benefit the company and personal growth of the employee. Implementing a purely participatory form of leadership can greatly hinder me from making abrupt decisions when needed to. Using a handoff leadership style can decrease productivity through employees, mistaking it as permissiveness for slackness.

Considering that I have one employee in my department, an authoritarian form of leadership will be at the bare minimum. This leaves the hands-off and participatory leadership style as the most preferred for employee motivation. Working as a team is much more effective because I have a single employee in my department. It will also be easier to discuss business issues without calling for meetings, which saves a lot of time. In terms of keeping employees motivated, the employee’s sense of self-worth and importance will be elevated. This will, as a result, heighten their sense of responsibility towards achieving the company’s goals. It is easy to monitor progress with fewer employees while giving no room for slackness when the employees are permitted to carry tasks under supervision. Authoritarian leadership will only be applied if slackness is sensed, which is highly unlikely in such an atmosphere of few employees.