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Leadership and Decision-Making A Study
Leadership and Decision-Making A Study
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Authors’ contributions
This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author BKK designed the
study, wrote the protocol, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Authors AQM and IAF,
managed data collection analyses and managed the literature searches All authors read
and approved the final manuscript.
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Received 24 June 2013
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Original Research Article Accepted 18 November 2013
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Published 9 January 2014
ABSTRACT
Aims: This paper introduces how substantial decision-making and leadership styles relates
with each other. Decision-making styles are connected with leadership practices and
institutional arrangements.
Study Design: Qualitative research approach was adopted in this study. A semi structure
interview was use to elicit data from the participants on both leadership styles and
decision-making.
Place and Duration of Study: Institute of Education international Islamic University
Malaysia 2012-2013.
Methodology: A semi structure interview was used to elicit data from the participants on
both leadership and decision-making. Two Head of departments (male) from Institute of
education international Islamic university Malaysia were interviewed.
Results: Findings from study show that leadership and decision-making styles are though
opaque in theory, but are highly connected in practice. Also the leadership and decision
style that is most favored are participatory leadership style and consultative decision-
____________________________________________________________________________________________
making approach.
Conclusion: This ideal relationship to some extent has substantial contributed to superior-
subordinate relationship and employee performance.
1. INTRODUCTION
Leadership, is the process of inspiring others to work together to achieve a common goal in
a given entity, it is an inevitable element of group dynamics [1]. However, the relationship
between leader’s participation and his or her effectiveness in accomplishing goals is
complex [2]. Leadership style is a term that has been defined in numerous ways—mostly
refers to the characteristic manner in which an individual leads others [3]. Researchers and
other practitioners have suggested a participatory theory of leadership, which assumes that
a group’s performance depends on the extent to which leaders share or retain their decision-
making authority.This is a way to assess leadership effectiveness [4].
Here leader may be singled out as an individual contributor or failure, it affects all other
organizational factors [5]. Leadership affects corporate culture, project culture, decision-
making and employees' commitment [6]. Without appropriate leadership, the risk of business
or school failure will increase [6]. Thus, leadership is viewed as the ability to make strategic
decisions, using skills such as communication, interpersonal relationship, motivation,
decision making, and emotional maturity, to achieve the school or organizational goals [7].
However, there are varieties of leadership styles known that may be applicable in dealing
with many challenges an organization could faced at all time. Although, getting leader who
can combine management principles with ethical justification of actions remains a challenge
in organization today.
1.1 Problem
Ethical lapses in leadership and decision-making style are undermining society trust in
schools and their leaders. In institutions like business and educational, people are known for
their higher standard of moral behavior than their peers in political arenas [8]. Issues such as
financial kickbacks, nepotism, conflict of interest, and reform scandals in educational
institutions are now frequently being reported in the media, especially the problematic
routine decisions school leaders make every day that can have a negative and long term
impact on schools moral compass [9,10], argued that superintendent, principal and school
heads make many decisions on a daily basis, and at the heart of every one of them, is the
resolution of a moral dilemma because every decision carries with it the potential to
restructure human life. As such, the work of educational leaders should be the semblance of
intellectual and moral—an activity that is characterized by a blend of human, professional,
and civic concerns [11] asserted that the moral challenges that confront schools are
enormous, and this necessitate a call for more moral leadership, by investigating leadership
style and decision approach of schools leaders which have subjected educational activities
to ethical criticism from the society.
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1.2 Purpose
The presesent research clearly shows how leadership styles and decision making relate to
each other. The related literatures perused showed need for more investigation on the
behavior and internal lives of school leaders. Therefore, this study aims at elaborating on
this issue with intention to stimulate researches in area of leadership and decision-making to
fill this gap. The relationship between decision making and leadership styles of schools is not
only worthy of study but is also needed, because this will enable us to always figure out the
kind of decision making style in a setting. Very few significant studies have been done in an
attempt to evaluate the ethical decision-making practices of public school superintendents,
principals and administrators in higher institutions [12]. A brief discussion on leadership and
leadership style are discussed in the next section.
1.3 Leadership
Theoretically, leadership is much like other abstracts concepts such as love, democracy,
freedom e.t.c. A general but working definition of leadership is the process of influencing
people to achieve a common goal. It is also define as a process whereby leaders influence
followers and followers influence leaders [2] Leadership is categorized by early researcher
such as [13] as autocratic, democratic, or laissez-faire. Evaluating leadership styles is a
challenging exercise. Great numbers of literature concerning leadership have attempted to
define and analyze leadership [14,15,16,17]. The literature, however, give relatively wide
range of varying approaches to leadership [18] Leadership is a complex and dynamic
subject that encompasses and influence by many variables—that is leaders assumed
varieties of roles and these roles have impact on factors that affect them. This intricacy
accounted for the absence of a comprehensive understanding of the constituents of good or
effective leadership [18]. Leadership as mentioned earlier is a dynamic relationship based on
“mutual influence and common purpose between leaders and collaborators in which both are
moved to higher levels of motivation and moral development as they influence others
through action to accomplish an objective” [19].
[1] defined a leader as one who exercised intentional authority over one or more other
individuals, in an effort to guide actions toward the accomplishment of some mutual goal—
which often requires mutually supporting actions among members of the group. In any
organizational setting, the leader is required to interact with followers on a regular basis and
at the same time, listen and direct them towards success[ 20]. For example Allah in the holy
Qur'an emphasis to Prophet the need for a leader to consult with his followers in any
decision making before it is finalized. [21] suggest that good leaders should be trusted by
their followers for whom they provide a sense of autonomy. The leader should be consistent
in decision making with followers as well as the overall good of the organization. Also leader
should be able to envisage problems and drawbacks before the event unfolds [22,23]
maintained effective leader should be able to balance many variables while mobilizing the
organization’s resources in pursuit of a common objective. They further affirmed that
achieving such objectives required the unification of purpose for both leader and followers.
Meanwhile, to achieve balance does not necessarily rely on the development of a particular
trait or style of leadership but more on the leader’s ability to analyze the situation and adopt
a leadership approach and decision that mobilize followers [24]. The general definition of
leadership as used within the context of this write-up, is the ability to recognize the need to
implement change, establish direction, align people, motivate and inspire, communicate,
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build teams and share decision making, mentor and coach subordinates and demonstrate a
high degree of integrity [25,26].
[27] argued that if the task of administrator of schools and universities is to merely comply
with the routine regulations to achieve the stated goal, then decision-making and
administrative activities in institutions will only portray a mere scientific procedure and not
the value of the actions. Essences of leadership and decision-making are to enact change,
and not to merely support current organization systemic processes [28].
Researchers such as [29] and [30] emphasized on the importance of ethics in decision-
making of principal and administrators of schools. To establish ethic decision making format
among administrators of schools, there is need to investigate the interplay between
leadership style and decision making approach.
The study of leaders and the leadership process stems from social psychology, sociology,
psychology, and organizational behavior [1]. Since late 1950’s there have been about 65
different classification of leadership [2]. The discussion in this paper viewed leadership from
two perspectives. Firstly, Leadership is viewed as the ability to make strategic decisions
using communication [31]. Second as human resource skills of interpersonal relationship,
motivation, decision making, and emotional maturity [7].
Leadership theories describe the behavioral pattern of leaders and the consequences of
various styles in terms of effectiveness. Concern for people, employee-centeredness, and
concern for production, production centeredness, and task orientation are other terms used.
These factors are found simultaneously in the behavior of leaders, but in different degrees.
This statement is profoundly established, both theoretically and empirically. There are
different classifications of theoretical approaches to leadership; these include the following:
transformational leadership, transactional leadership, Laissez Faire Leadership and
authentic leadership.
Laissez faire is a French term which connotes hands off. Laissez faire leadership therefore is
an absence of formal leadership; it is leadership that is informal and emergent. No one
attempts to influence anyone else. Few policies and procedures are established by
management; almost all are derived by the organizational stakeholders. Members of the
group often can do what they want to; members even determine the organization’s direction
and goals though management does provide the resources to achieve them.
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Transformational leadership was first coined by [36]. Transformational leadership is the style
of leadership that is closely related with ethics. Individuals who demonstrate transformational
leadership characteristics often have a strong set of internal values and beliefs, and they are
effective at motivating followers to act in ways that support the greater good rather than their
own self interests [37].
[33] argued that transactional leadership and transformational leadership have strong
philosophical underpinnings and ethical components. Transactional leadership focuses on
the exchanges that occur between leaders and followers while transformational leadership
focuses on the link that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the
follower [2]. At the core of leadership and at the very core of life rests morality and value
judgment. Individual virtue in transformational leadership terminology is known as idealized
influence [26]. Idealized influence as explained by [2] is the characteristic given to
transformational leaders because they exhibit very high standards of moral and ethical
conduct. Idealized influence describes leaders who act as strong role models for followers.
Authentic leadership is a new term for a leadership style that is similar to transformational
leadership. Authentic leadership is rooted in hedonism and eudaemonia; that is to say,
authentic leadership focuses on human happiness and the worthiness of human life.
Authentic leadership involves self awareness, unbiased processing, transparent behavior,
and true relationships [38]. Authentic leadership is also described as the relationship
between personal values and leadership behaviors. A values approach to leadership is
essential in times of change and uncertainty because followers need to regain confidence
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British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 4(4): 473-484, 2014
through the reaffirmation of values when the environment becomes ambiguous, turbulent,
and even chaotic [39]. Leadership is a moral activity built upon virtues. Authenticity is always
relational with people, a cause, or a career. Finally, authenticity is the freedom of an
individual to choose and shape one’s own life. Authenticity demands that we shuold be true to
ourselves and to be true to others [11]. Authentic leadership then involves self-knowledge
because authentic leaders are resistant to social or situational pressures by being true to
themselves and to their core values [40].
1.9 Decision-making
[41] claimed that human are guided by one of the four formal functions used when solving
problems. These functions are: sensing which is a perception through our senses; thinking
which gives us meaning and understanding; feeling which judges and assesses, and
intuition which tells us about the possibilities in the future [42]. Every human being has one
function which is applied most when making decision- the dominant function. The opposite of
the dominant function (which is the strength of that person) is the inferior function (which is
the weakness of that person). When, the dominant function is thinking the weakest function
will be feeling. When the dominant function is intuition, the inferior function will be sensing.
According to Jung,there are two ways human being can perceive problems; the use of
sensing and intuition function. Problem can also be solved in two ways;—the use of thinking
and feeling functions. Example of this is cited in the Quran calls the attention of man to make
use of their thinking faculty in appreciating His existence and also in their problem solving
process. The combination of the perceiving and judging functions is called the decision-
making style. [43] adopted the theory and applied it to management. Keegan claim that
Jung’s typology gives a genuine insight into the question as to why individuals succeed or
fail in their decision-making.
Nevertheless, [3] studied how power is widely dispersed in European companies, which is
associated to an emphasis on gaining consensus in making decisions. Valuing consensus-
oriented decision-making processes reduces the power of the leader. Power is spread within
the management and supervisory boards and to experts elsewhere in the organization. It
involves worker participation at all levels. An overall participative climate enhances worker
satisfaction more than occasional participation on specific decisions or goal setting [44]. A
huge variety of classifications of decision making style and examples are available. The
following are some of the decision making style according to literature.
1.10 Facilitative
The facilitative decision making style indicates a joint effort between leaders and
subordinates, both providing input to make or shared decision. It is important that
subordinate have access to the information required to make the decision. They should also
have some degree of expertise /or motivation to ensure the best decision is made. Both the
leader and the fellowship share bear the responsibility of both intended consequences and
unintended consequences of this decision.This decision style can actually be very
empowering to subordinates.
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1.11 Consultative
Consultative decision making is said to occur when the leader asks for advice and opinions
from his subordinates, and makes the decision himself. As in the authoritative decision
making style, responsibility remains with the leader. If the subordinates are expertise or have
information that will help makes a more effective decision, a wise leader may seek advice or
information from the surbodinate. But this would be s the subordinates understand the
phenomena perfectly, unless it can lead to grudge or disappointment. The Prophet
Muhammad(SAW) exhibited this during the battle of khandaq(Trench) when he called upon
his companions to deliberate on the best approach to be used to crushed down the
Makkans, the final suggestion was made by Salman al-farsi which eventually led to the
Muslims victorious over the unbelievers of Makkah.
1.12 Delegative
Delegative decision making, as the name implies, is when a leader passes responsibility for
the decision making and the decision to one or more subordinates. It may even be all the
subordinates. Again, the pros and cons are determined by the expertise and knowledge of
those actually making the decision. The style is gradually introduced as the organization gets
larger, and means the leader does not necessarily have to make all the decisions.
1.13 Flexibility
A good leader will chose easily among the styles depending on context. It takes quite a
degree of self wareness as well as understanding the limits of your own knowledge to be
able to use the flexible style
Leadership over human being. . is exercised when people with certain purposes mobilize, in
competition or in conflict with others, institutional, political, psychological and other resources
so as to arouse and satisfy the motives of followers [45]. According to Victor [4] contingency
model, there is a remarkable clarity that the central issue in contemporary leadership is
participation in the process of making decision. Findings shows that the complexities of
modern organizations require careful selection of decision-making processes in organization.
There may be situations where an autocratic style is most effective and other situation call
for highly participatory methods for greatest effectiveness. The major challenge for leader in
schools and business organizations is to analyze the contingencies in each situation and
handle it effectively.
1.15 Summary
From the findings different studies have shown that leadership and decision-making greatly
relate and influence each other. It is also clear that for every decision made or to be made,
goes with a particular leadership approach. Thus, it is not a gain-say that leadership style
has a high influence in decision-making. Authoritative decision style calls for an Autocratic
leadership approach. A facilitative decision making style will usually attracts democratic or
contingency approach of leadership. Delegative, consultative and flexible decision-making
styles attract democratic, participative and transformational leadership style respectively.
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2. METHODOLOGY
A qualitative research approach was the method adopted in this study. Qualitative
researchers generally study fewer respondents [46]. However the approach must delve more
deeply into those individuals, settings, subcultures and scenes. This will enable the
researcher to generate a subjective understanding of how and why people perceive, take-
role, interpret, and interact in a particular scenario. Generally, qualitative researcher made
little or no effort to generalized the findings of selected sample to the population understudy.
The ontological and epistemological tenet of qualitative esearch approach inretrospect is to
understand the phenomenon through the experience of the respondents. Based on
epistemological foundation of qualitative research, two department coordinators from
Institute of Education international Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) were selected as the
sample size and interviewed until saturated point. Each of the coordinators has at least 2
years experience as department coordinators. One of the participants (Associate professor)
is 56years old, while the other (Professor) is 54years old. Both of them involved in academic
activities in the faculty in addition to their administrative workloads.
The participants were asked about the kind of leaders they are and how they come to a
conclusive decision during meetings. The interview sessions were recorded and were later
listened to repeatedly, transcribed and read, in order to have an overall understanding of the
respondents’ view. The themes in these interviews were extracted and analyzed according
to the research questions and issue identifiable from the literatures.
Interviews were conducted on the study with two administrators from Institute of Education
IIUM, the responses were transcribed, and the following themes were derived from the
interviews.
1. Democratic-cum-Autocratic,.
2. Organizational goal
3. Subordinate assistance.
The interview reveal that, there is no absolute leadership style that can be permanently
used, although a leader may have a style of leadership but sometimes situation may warrant
a change in the leadership style in taking the decision. Below is the quotation from one of the
respondents
“when it comes to being the leader for the administrative staff I will say to some
extent am democratic but to some extent I have to be autocratic but I think that I
cannot allow them decide by themselves I have to decide but I think when they
have more knowledge about the area of the area of the scope then I will consult
them because being an academicians first and you are administrative is second
so the administrative post is always base on the rotation”
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British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 4(4): 473-484, 2014
as the leader. It is believed that leader direct the affairs of the organization in order to
achieve a set goals and objectives. Any effort to deviate from the goals and objectives, can
lead the organization to the state of jeopardy. Therefore, the next theme to be discussed is
the place of mission, objectives and goal of organization in decision making.
Every organization or institution has its set goals, mission and objectives, these will
determine the modus operandi of the organization. Equally the leadership and decision
making style largely depend on the goals and mission. This was revealed during the
interview when one of the respondent asserts thus:
The first consideration in taking any decision in an organization is the philosophy and goal of
the institution. However the leader cannot implement the decision alone, he needs the
support of his subordinates, therefore, it is then imperative on the leader to find means to
convince his/her subordinates. This is where the issue of value arises, hence in this stage
the leader need to use value laden leadership style, in order to win the support of his/her
subordinates. [39], asserts that, a values approach to leadership is essential in times of
change and uncertainty because followers need to regain confidence through the
reaffirmation of values when the environment becomes ambiguous, turbulent, and even
chaotic. For this reason authentic leadership style will be preferred. Authentic leadership
involves self awareness, unbiased processing, transparent behavior, and true relationships
[38]. Support from the subordinate is also one important aspect of decision making and
implementation, therefore, the next theme derived from the interview centered on the effort
of the leader making the subordinates implement the decision made.
The major function of the leader is to coordinate and organize the subordinate, for a targeted
task. From the interview it was made to know that, one of the ways to accomplish
institutional task with the support of the subordinate is through, consultation, monitoring, as
well as assisting them on the task they could not accomplish, on this, one of the respondent
explained thus:
“So usually after, at least the longest is one week I will look at the minutes and
follow up those who are suppose to take the action and ask about the progress of
each of the things each are suppose to be done and if it get stocked somewhere we
will basically have to look at the where it got stocked and why and then, if I find out
that my subordinate are not able to carry out what has been ask to do or requested
them to do if I feel that my subordinate are not able to do it I will take up the
responsibility myself.”
The respondent made us to know that, leaders cannot take decision alone no matter how
intelligent he is, ideas from the subordinates must also be considered, their views must be
acknowledged and respected as well as accepted, if it does not contradict the need, goals
and the philosophy of the institution. An overall participative climate enhances worker
satisfaction more than occasional participation on specific decisions or goal setting [44].
During implementation it is also important for the leader to monitor the steps, in order to
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British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 4(4): 473-484, 2014
guide against any deviation from the decision made. At the same time, a good leader could
also assist when he find out that task has not been implemented correctly.
4. CONCLUSION
Generally, from the interviews and the literatures reviewed, we find out that:
Institute of Education IIUM leaders and administrators use almost, all leadership
styles in making decision, whatever styles used depends on the situation. But they
are democratic, transformational, and authentic in nature. Even, where autocratic
style is used they employ an authentic way of implementing it or transformational
way this is supported by argument of [38,11,40] that for leaders to gain the support
of subordinates and community, decision making must be transparent as well as
ethical justified.
Leadership and decision making style in Institute of Education IIUM depend largely
on the philosophy, mission, vision and goal of the institution. Despite that, there is
good relationship between the administrators and the subordinates this result is in
line with studies of [42] and [3] who emphasized collaboration between school
administrators and academic staff to gain consensus in making decisions.
Subordinate are consulted in every decision to be made, their views are respected
and acknowledged. Thuogh they have targeted objectives and goals. There is good
interaction between the leader and the subordinates. Even whenever subordinate
view is rejected, such subordinate do not feel bad.
RECOMMENDATION
Leadership is a very sensitive aspect in an organization because it deals with human being.
Human beings are the most difficult set of beings to direct. For this reason, the most
important thing in leadership is the ability of the leader to be of good conduct in order to have
good human relation with his subordinate and win the heart of the surbodinate. This can lead
to effective service delivery and work with interest and love to achieve the set goal This is
what operates in Institute of Education IIUM, therefore, the findings suggest that the sole
administrators and leaders treat surbodinate with respect, by consulting them, respecting
their views and acknowledging it makes them feel they are part of decision makers this make
them feel sense of belonging and develop interest towards the institution and see the goals
and aims of the institution as a collective one to be achieved together. Since this study is
focusing only on one faculty in a university, future studies should include leadership and
decision making across entire faculty in the university either in the same institution or
relevant organization order to make comparison, perhaps using a large sample.
COMPETING INTERESTS
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