Líder versus liderados: uma comparação da percepção sobre o estilo de liderança

Abstract

The leadership topic constitutes itself of innumerable concepts and definitions which have been greatly debated within companies in order to increase productivity and efficiency. According to Melo (2004), there are three leadership styles: a) task-oriented: the leader emphasizes the tasks and goals; b) relationship-oriented: the leader values personal relationships, friendship, and his or her employees’ mutual trust; c) situational: a leader who possess the ability to adapt to an environment’s reality and act accordingly to the situation and its necessities. Thus, the objective of this work is to understand and compare the perception of the employees and the manager of a freight company in relation to the company’s predominant leadership style. Therefore, a descriptive and qualitative study case was developed. The data was collected through interviews as well as by observing the participants. Four employees of the company as well as the manager were interviewed and they were observed for 15 days. A content analysis method was used to review the data (BARDIN, 1977). The main results of the work verified that not only the manager (leader) but also the employees (the ones leaded) perceived the company’s predominant leadership style as task-oriented. Hence, it can be concluded that the leadership focus in the studied organization are the goals, meeting deadlines, and the compromise to clients. The leader demonstrates that the work is to be performed intensively, focused on production, in order to achieve the results and concentrate the decision-making power in his or her hands.