A Study On Leadership Style Of Enterprises From The Perspective Of Power Distance

Leader is very important for enterprises and organizations. The appropriate leadership style is directly related to the overall performance of enterprises. At present, our society is in the violent transition period. The power value of people is changed. They are no longer afraid of power. On the contrary, they want equal and independent relationship. With the social, political, economic and cultural development, our traditions, social systems, market economy, education and the information’s direction of propagation have been changed. The power distance of our society is decreasing. However, the leadership style did not make the appropriate change. There are a lot of conflicts. Such as the contradiction between government and people, the average resignation rate contradiction of the new generation employees, the contradiction between universities and students.This change of power perception is one of the important factors that influence the leadership style. We called this power distance. The power distance means that the employees’views of the unequal distribution of the power. This essay will divided the power distance into two dimensions:one is function distance and the other one is emotional distance. Then we can divide the leadership style into four types:autocratic leadership style, market leadership style, paternalistic leadership style and shepherd leadership style. The leadership style itself is not good or bad, it depends on the power distance. Now our employees want the shepherd leadership style, but the leadership style doesn’t match it. Therefore, in order to cope with the changes of power distance, paternalistic leadership style should be changed to shepherd leadership. And the leadership behavior should be changed from the five areas:the first is group decision, the second is proper authorization, the third is reducing mandatory, the fourth is respect for employees and the last one is effective communication.