Empowering and Directive Leadership Styles

Abstract

The present case study has been designed for students of organizational behavior courses that include a lesson of team leadership. To set the foundations of the topic and based on team leadership literature the definitions of the two most important leadership styles (i.e., directive and empowering) have been provdied. Besides, the authours summarize previous evidence on differential effects of both team leadership styles on both team processes and team performance. Authours propose some questions for discussion in order for students think which kind of leadership style is better for teams. Additionally, this activity includes an instrument so that students can assess their own leadership characteristics.