Thin line of difference between laissez faire leadership and absentee leader

Abstract

Concept of Leadership Prentice defined leadership as “the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants” and an effective leader as one who can recognize people’s motives and solicit employee participation in a way that aligns individual desires and concerns to the group’s objective. Leaders influence the organizational productivity by inspiring the team members. Tannenbaum and Schmidt proposed leadership continuum theory which highlights that there are many classifications of leadership. In this context autocratic or democratic are extremes and leadership practices in actual life conditions lie somewhere between these two extremes. Individual leadership styles listed within the continuum include telling, selling, consulting, and joining leadership styles. The full range leadership model integrates dimensions of charismatic, transformational, contingent reward, management-by-exception (MBE) and laissez-faire leadership into one single theory and opens up a new era of comprehensive leadership research. The original model comprised four factors, however it was revised after repeated empirical application. The latest model consists of nine single-order factors accounting for leadership effectiveness, active and passive leadership. Four transformational leadership factors, three transactional and one passive leadership factor are encompassed in the model.