Contemporary Leadership Themes

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1
CHALLENGES LEADERS FACE DUE TO REMOTE WORKING...................................................1
Remote working................................................................................................................................1
Shortcomings affecting the leadership in Microsoft..........................................................................1
Challenges faced by leaders due to remote working..........................................................................1
EVALUATION OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND PARCTICES............................1
Transactional leadership....................................................................................................................1
Authoritarian leadership....................................................................................................................2
Democratic leadership.......................................................................................................................3
TRADITIONAL VERSUS CONTEMPORARY LEADERHSIP STYLES AND TRAITS..................3
Contemporary leadership style and traits...........................................................................................3
Comparison of contemporary leadership style with traditional styles................................................4
Proposing leadership solutions..........................................................................................................5
SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION
The main aim of the present research report is to evaluate the challenges leaders face
in remote working due to current situation of COVID19. In this regards, Microsoft, an
American multinational technology company is chosen. This is being selected as the
company has allowed its employees to work from home right from the starting of the
pandemic till now and is connected with thousands of workers while they are working apart.

CHALLENGES LEADERS FACE DUE TO REMOTE WORKING

Remote working
It is referred as the working style which allows the employees to work outside from
traditional office setting. Talking in reference with Microsoft, the decision of sending
thousands of employees to work from home has been streamlined through Microsoft teams
wherein employees are connected with the help of videoconferencing tools as well as
software. This makes it easy for the workers to share files and work efficiently though
thousands miles apart (Iqbal and et.al, 2020).

Shortcomings affecting the leadership in Microsoft

Because of remote working in Microsoft, the leadership of the leaders will be highly
affected. Firstly, there will be ineffective communication as leaders will not be able to
converse with the workers on a continuous basis. Secondly, leaders are facing the problem
related to trust issues. They need a different skill set as compared to face to face management
and therefore, finding their leadership more difficult than before (Pontefract, 2020).

Challenges faced by leaders due to remote working

The present situation of COVID19 has posed many challenges to the leaders of
Microsoft. When the employees work from home, it is really not easy to track their progress
on a specified project as there is no direct contact. Furthermore, leaders of the company also
struggles to keep each and every worker on the same page due to lack of communication.

EVALUATION OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND

PARCTICES
Transactional leadership
Speaking in relation with the transaction leadership, it is defined as that leadership
style which values structure as well as order within each and every relationship. In addition to
this, this type of leadership needs strict rules and regulations to be considered for the purpose

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of fulfilling the set objectives. Beside this, in such kind of leadership, the staff members are
required to remain self-motivated all the time. In context with leading teams in a remote
working condition, one of the biggest advantage of this kind of leadership is that at times
when worker decided the deadlines than there is nothing to worry much as he or she will
complete the same effectively (Manning and Curtis, 2003). This is because, tasks are clearly
defined by the leaders and it is the trait of transactional leadership. Nevertheless, there is
some drawback as well. When employees work in a remote place, creativity will be highly
dejected as employees have to follow strict rules and regulations and there is no room for any
bend. This will become worse when leaders are not there. For maintaining competitiveness,
creativity and innovation are considered quite important.

Authoritarian leadership
Talking about the authoritarian or autocratic leadership style, it is referred as that style
wherein a leader dictates the policy as well as procedures to the followers and guides the
work to be performed by the group without considering any sort of input from them. Each
and every workers under this style of leadership are expected to finish their assigned
activities and actions under close supervision. Considering the case of current situation of
pandemic, where people are forced to work from their home and remotely from office,
autocratic leadership style poses both advantages as well as disadvantages. One of the biggest
advantage of such kind of leadership is fast decision making (Bass, 2010). As all the workers
are leading their projects and tasks remotely, there is little communication between the leader
and the workers. And when the leader is autocratic there is fewer levels of administration
which needs to be informed for each and every important decision within an organization.
Similarly, less amount of feedback from different levels of management is required. All this
will lead to have quick decisions as only one person has to decide the pros and cons of each
choice. This will also improve the performance level of the workers as timely decisions about
the task will be taken. But, there is some disadvantage of autocratic leadership when people
work remotely. Since, the workers are heavily relied on the instructions and feedbacks of the
autocratic leader, they can’t perform their work duties effectively if leader is not present by
their side (Levenson and McLaughlin, 2020). In the situation, when they work remotely away
from traditional office, the situation becomes worse as workers are dependent on the leader’s
decision making. This also hampers their level of performance.

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Democratic leadership
Democratic leadership style allows each and every member of the organization to
equally participate in the decision making process. Leaders provides direction to the group
and at the same time also consider the input from the group members in decision making.
Thus, it can be said that leaders adopting participating style make their team feel like they are
also part of the organization. Because of this, there is a creation of commitment and
motivation within the group members. This traditional leadership style and trait has some
benefits and drawbacks when leading teams and projects remotely. As democratic leader
enables individual to collaborate effectively and develop innovative ideas and creativity, the
team members or employees will employ the utilization of novel ideas and deliver best
business outcomes even working remotely (Northhouse, 2010). In addition to this, even the
leader cannot communication regularly due to distance, each and every employee will make
use of their creativity and mutual respect for finishing a specified task or project. But, it
might not be fruitful for some reasons as well. Democratic leaders hear opinions of each other
and in this difficult times of pandemic when all are working apart, taking opinion from every
team member is very challenging. This might lead the leader to undertake ineffective
decisions during crisis.

TRADITIONAL VERSUS CONTEMPORARY LEADERHSIP STYLES

AND TRAITS
Contemporary leadership style and traits
Transformational leadership
Transformational leadership style is that style wherein leaders of the organization
works with the teams for determining required alterations and for developing a vision for
guiding the change by inspiration. Leaders motivates the workers and followers to innovate
and generate variation for growing and shaping the future of the organization.
Transformational leadership have some advantages and disadvantages (Leithwood, 2012).
Firstly, each and every employee feel confident and motivated. Moreover, employees are
more engaged and change is encouraged within the group. Nevertheless, transformational
leadership needs regular feedbacks and meetings and sometimes workers feel that they are
under constant pressure and force. Due to which they does not perform effectively And
contributes towards the achievement of the desired goal which the organization has planned
to achieve.

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4
Charismatic leadership
Articulating about the charismatic leadership practice, it is defined as the style of
encouraging behaviour of other through persuading, expressing and connecting with the
people. In other words, a charismatic leader makes use of his or her communication skills,
charm as well as persuasiveness for influencing others. Furthermore, they are being regarded
quite valuable in the organization considering their capability of connecting with the people
in a deeper level. Speaking about benefits of this type of leadership trait, it helps in creating
an emotional appeal and offer employees a chance to think out of the box (Conger and
Kanungo, 2017). However, there are some disadvantages of charismatic leadership as it is
solely based on the energy levels of the leaders and can also be utilized for selfish ambition.

Comparison of contemporary leadership style with traditional styles

Because of the current pandemic, people are forced to work remotely away from their
traditional offices. This is pouring great deal of challenges to the leaders. A comparison
between traditional and contemporary leadership style is must for them to analyse which one
best suits with the current need. The previous and current leadership styles are similar in their
general form however, they differ in terms of their approach and management of people.
Talking about the traditional leadership traits and styles, they mainly focused on supervisory
control over the workers. For example, in autocratic leadership leaders keep all control with
them and followers are allowed to do only what their leaders direct. Furthermore, it is all
about rules, regulations, boundaries and control (Rosete and Ciarrochi, 2005). Similarly,
charismatic leadership which is a modern leadership model also makes use of charm as well
as persuasiveness for influencing others. However, one of the biggest advantage of
charismatic leadership style is that it is highly inspirational as well as motivational. This will
be beneficial at times when the people are asked to lead a project or a task away from the
office or remotely as leader through his or her charisma will influence worker to attain a
specified goal or an objective. Leaders will encourage a sense of union, collaboration and
camaraderie among the followers and they will perform effectively to achieve higher growth
levels. On the other hand, there are few shortcomings of this leadership style when people
work remotely. It is the nature of the charismatic leader that they convince people to consider
their own vision and goal. In other sense, workers are dependent on the direction of the
leader. But, due to distant working from office, workers are not in regular contact with the
leaders and thus, there level of performance as well as productivity will be affected
negatively. Additionally, such kind of leadership is centred on the energy level of individual

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employee (Leadership and the Impact of Long-Term Remote Working., 2020). Working
virtually and remotely can be sometimes an exhaustive experience. Consequently, if the
energy levels of employees initiate to sink, there will be no willingness left among the
workers to come along.
Likewise, concentrating in regards with the transformational leadership, in the current
situation of pandemic where employees have to work outside from their traditional office
space, they feel encouraged, motivated, evolved and inspired with transformational
leadership in place (Conger and Kanungo, 2017). This is because of the fact that, workers are
ready to evolve, improve and adapt when leaders introduces a vision to them. They embraces
change and even encourage other staff members as well to adapt a new vision and attaining
their potential. Whereas, such kind of leadership proves unfavourable when employees work
from home or remotely. For the success of transformational leadership, open lines of
communication is essential with the team members for the purpose of transferring vision
about a particular task (Zeidner, 2020). This can be made possible only when regular
communication is maintained and continuous feedbacks are offered to the team members in
meetings. All this is next to impossible when workers work remotely as they starts feeling out
of the loop due to lack of proper communication ((Stay productive while working remotely,
2020).). Similarly, democratic leadership style also needs effective communication as they
hear opinions of each other and in this difficult times of pandemic when all are working
apart, taking opinion from every team member is very challenging. This might lead the leader
to undertake ineffective decisions during crisis.

Proposing leadership solutions

Thus, after evaluating, comparing and contrasting traditional and contemporary
leadership styles and traits, it can be proposed that Microsoft should make use of
transformational leadership style for successfully achieving the needed organizational
objective and outcome. This is due to the fact that this kind of leadership works quite well in
remote teams when executed effectively. It is important on the part of leaders to establish
clear goals and objectives, foster participation, developing connection with the workers and
motivating them constantly (Stay productive while working remotely, 2020). Furthermore,
transformational leaders are more intellectual in the virtual world. To end, it can be
concluded that the main key to this style is communication. If right communication tools and
channels are executed by the transformational leader than they can motivate the team without

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having them in office. Consequently, transformation leadership style is the proposed solution
to Microsoft.

SUMMARY
Therefore, from the above analysis it can be established that traditional and
contemporary leadership styles are similar in their general form however, they differ in terms
of their approach and management of people. For attaining success and needed organizational
objective and outcome in this current time of pandemic, transformational leadership style is
best suitable.

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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bass, B.M., 2010. From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the
vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(3), pp.19–31.
Conger, J.A. and Kanungo, R.N., 2017. Toward a Behavioural Theory of Charismatic
Leadership in Organizational Settings. Academy of Management Review, 12(4),
pp.637-647.
Leithwood, K.A., 2012. The move toward transformational leadership. Educational
Leadership, 49(5), pp.8-12.
Manning, G. and Curtis, K., 2003. The Art of Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc.
Northhouse, P.G., 2010. Leadership; Theory and practice. 5thed. USA: Sage Publications,
Inc.
Rosete, D. and Ciarrochi, J., 2005. Emotional intelligence and its relationship to workplace
performance outcomes of leadership effectiveness. Leadership & Organization
Development Journal, 26(5), pp.388-399.
Online references
Iqbal, S., Suh, J., Czerwinski, M., Mark, G. and Teevan, J., 2020. Remote Work and Well-
being. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2020/07/NFW-Iqbal-et-
al.pdf>. [Accessed on 10thMarch 2021].
Leadership and the Impact of Long-Term Remote Working. 2020. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.hortoninternational.com/news/leadership-and-the-impact-of-
long-term-remote-working>. [Accessed on 11thMarch 2021].
Levenson, A. and McLaughlin, P., 2020. New Leadership Challenges for the Virtual World
of Work. [Online]. Available through: <https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/new-
leadership-challenges-for-the-virtual-world-of-work/>. [Accessed on 12thMarch
2021].
Pontefract, D., 2020. Over At Microsoft, Remote Work Is Having Both Good and Bad Effects.
[Online]. Available through:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2020/07/22/over-at-microsoft-remote-
work-is-having-both-good-and-bad-effects/?sh=24a69a3f2883>. [Accessed on
12thMarch 2021].

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Stay productive while working remotely. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-teams/work-remotely>. [Accessed on
10thMarch 2021].
Zeidner, R., 2020. Coronavirus Makes Work from Home the New Normal. [Online].
Available through:
<https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/remote-work-has-
become-the-new-normal.aspx>. [Accessed on 11thMarch 2021].