Free «Organizational Culture, Ethics, Leadership Styles: Organizational Impact» Essay

The success of an organization is directly related to its leadership. Through leaders, values are established, organizational cultures are developed and tolerance is created among employees through motivation and other ways of employees’ appreciation. The First Gulf Bank and Etisalat Group are among the top companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The companies have successfully secured their place as market leaders in the banking and communications industry due to effective leadership. Andre Sayegh and Saleh Al Abdooli are the Chief Executive Officers of two companies respectively. The leaders have displayed remarkable leadership by shaping their company’s strategies and establishing effective measures to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness. Charismatic, situational and transactional leadership styles are viable approaches to leadership as justified by the height of excellence that Andre Sayegh and Saleh Al Abdooli have realized in their respective companies.

Andre Sayegh was appointment to the position of CEO at the First Gulf Bank in February 2006 by the company’s bank’s board of Directors. Prior to his appointment to the position of a CEO, Andre Sayegh was the bank’s Chief Operations Officer (Tsai, 2011, p. 32). He has received a lot of up louse for his ability to help the bank attain a remarkable growth besides introducing new products and modernizing the bank’s operational system. Saleh Al Abdooli has also been instrumental in facilitating achievements of Etisalat Group as evidenced by his successful creation of the Group’s technological integration strategies besides playing a vital role in enabling corporate and global expansion investments at Etisalat (Zumitzavan & Michie, 2015, p, 47). Under the leadership of Saleh Al Abdooli, Etisalat is currently placed top among all companies in the UAE. It is interesting to understand the leadership styles that the two leaders apply that have enabled them attain their current heights of excellence.

Based on trait based descriptions of leadership, there are charismatic leadership style, democratic leadership style, autocratic leadership style and bureaucratic leadership style. Afshar, Vala and Martin (2012, p.42) state that leaders can also be categorized in respect to the exchange of power and the way they use power to achieve the desired outcomes. As such, leadership can be transformational, situational or transactional (2011, p.24). Although leaders are often understood to have common characteristics that enable them drive the objectives of their respective organizations, it is important to note that they are not created in the same way hence the quality of leadership is likely to vary across organization.

Both Andre Sayegh and Saleh Al Abdooli use charismatic leadership style to enable them transfer their values to all members of their workforce hence exerting a great impact on the organizational culture of the companies under their leadership. For example, Andre Sayegh has successfully created a culture at the First Gulf Bank that is characterized by modernized operational systems. Whenever leaders seek to implement changes in their organizations, they are likely to face resistance from a section of employees due to the fear of the unknown (Exantus, 2012, p.52). Ekhaisomi (2011, p. 74) notes that when Andre Sayegh first introduced the idea of modernizing the First Gulf Bank’s operational systems, he faced opposition from a section of employees who expressed fear for their jobs. The leader had to consider ethicality of his proposed changes against his employees’ fears that were based on the perception that modernized operational systems would expose some employees to the risk of loss of jobs. Sayegh is ethical in his leadership in that he allows subordinates an opportunity to understand the reason behind his actions before they can decide to follow his footsteps. Despite the initial resistance, the leader used charismatic leadership style to effectively communicate his vision for the bank to all employees and to motivate them so that they could work towards executing the vision.

Similar to Andre Sayegh, Saleh Al Abdooli’s success is also attributed to his ability to establish a common culture of using technological integration strategies to expand its market share. Saleh Al Abdooli has a very strong personality that is characteristic of a charismatic leader. All employees at Etisalat Group are observant of the innovative operational ways that Saleh Al Abdooli managed to introduce in the company and they are always keen to respond to sensitive incidences and crisis that often result from the pursuit by the company to remain a market leader in the communications industry. Through his charismatic leadership style, Saleh Al Abdooli has managed to win the trust and loyalty of his employees. He acts ethically as evident in his investment in modeling, coaching and teaching employees besides developing effective rewarding criteria for employee motivation (Exantus, 2012, p.92). The leadership mechanism used relates to the second stage of charismatic leadership known as formulation and communication of a vision. As a charismatic leader, Abdooli is fully aware of the mechanisms that reveal his leadership values and he always put processes in place to enhance employees’ motivation. The leader is proactively involved in social influence behavior that helps him improve his subordinates’ determination to achieve Etisalat’s vision.

The management of the First Gulf Bank also shows application of situational leadership style by Andre Sayegh. The leadership style is observable in leaders who use different leadership styles for distinct situations and to achieve different desired outcomes. Globalization has increased competition in the banking industry. In response to the increased competition, Andre Sayegh has created a culture of resilience in the First Gulf Bank to enable him keep a motivated company. The leader is recognized among the top leaders due to his success in introducing new products in the banking industry like the introduction of health insurance cover that targets employees in the private sector.

A situational approach to the dynamic business environment has enabled Sayegh to outshine his rivals in the banking industry hence remain the second top company in the banking industry. According to Iqbal (2011, p. 84), situational leadership style is ethical in the sense that it does not encourage exploitation of employee but gives different approaches to specific situations with an aim of achieving the ultimate goal. The leadership style also promotes creation of an innovative culture across departments of in an organization. It empowers employees to take control of every emerging issue and apply the most appropriate approach in handling every specific situation.

On his part, Saleh Al Abdooli applies situational leadership style based on his awareness of his organizational need and the essence of individual motivation. Etisalat Group operates in the communications industry. Lyons (2013, p. 62) states that the industry experiences an influx of modern discoveries that call for leaders to be on the lookout for new developments and to adjust their operational approached in line with the prevailing needs. Saidi (2013, p 25) notes that Saleh Al Abdooli has made several achievements and scaled up the performance of Etisalat to a level that his rival companies only yawn to attain. The leader has evidently proved that he is a seasoned leader through his knowledge of modern customer’s needs and observing business ethics when introducing new products to safeguard customers and employees form any technology related risks. For example, Abdooli was among the first leaders to respond to customer’s need for service provision that overcomes geographical barriers. Through the launch of the company’s online support system, Etisalat has respondent to the necessities of modernization where customers do not need to physically visit the company to make enquiries of services.

As applied at Etisalat, situational leadership style provides different frameworks to encourage testing and development of different leadership styles for every situation. Adoption of different leadership styles is conditioned by the need to fine-tune leadership results. Situational leadership style enables leaders to respond to the demands of every emerging situation and lead their teams ethically towards meeting the company’s goals.

The two leaders also use transactional leadership style by rewarding employees in return to their loyalty to companies. The leadership approach adopted by the two CEOs is based on the need to appreciate top performance through issuance of rewards like promotions and change of duties as advocated for by Bacal (2016, p 6). In both companies, periodic performance appraisal is conducted to identify top performing employees who are handsomely rewarded for their hard work. Although Stephens (2013, p. 48) states that critics of transactional leadership identify sustainability as a challenge to transactional leadership, the success realized by the First Gulf Bank and Etisalat Group is enough evidence that transactional leadership can facilitate excellence. The leadership style is ethical in that it encourages reward for good performance hence serving as a motivational factor for employees. Application of transactional leadership style facilitates development of a competitive culture among employees. Rewards always encourage competition and innovativeness among employees.

To conclude, this discussion has clearly showed that using a combination of leadership styles can help leaders achieve efficiency as they create organizational cultures to favor growth and prosperity. Bacal (2016) suggests that before deciding on a particular style of leadership, it is advisable to understand the environment in which an organization operates and ethicality of leadership decisions that are associated with particular leadership styles. The cases of Andre Sayegh and Saleh Al Abdooli are clear justifications that a combination of charismatic, situational and transactional leadership styles can help leaders organize, influence and motivate employees towards meeting an organization’s goals.