For the past couple of decades, leadership has got a lot of awareness and review from researchers. Leaderships impact on organizational outcome is now clearly recognized and accepted in the relevant literature with evidence suggesting that effective leadership improves employee, group and organizational outcomes (Avolioet et al., 2009; Sarrow, 2009). Besides; effective leadership is one of the major fundamental components of an organizations overall strategy to sustain its business, even with the problems caused by the rapid growth of the economy (Cabeza Erikson, Edwards, and Van Brabant, 2008). In the word of Deng and Gibon (2008) & Draft and Lane (2005), there are more than 350 definitions for the term ‘leadership. Leader effectiveness refers to the ability to supervise and control subordinates (Enshassi and Burgess, 1991). There is an increasing trend to analyze and test the main feature of a successful leader to achieve high organizational outcomes (Jony et al., 2019). It seems that there is a range of attributes and behaviors that differentiate successful leaders from less successful ones. 

However, organizational success is dependent on effective leadership (Khan, 2002). In addition to it; leaders are the individual who manages and assumes responsibility for an organizations activity, and the great leaders will set optimistic goals and objectives while guiding the organizations operation through successful procedure toward those goals. Furthermore, great leaders can also influence and motivate their employees by strengthening a positive organizational culture and benefiting liberal employees such as protection of human services, pay for workers, leave advantage, etc. Apart from it; the leaders key role is to create the organizational and human resources needed to build an individuals capacity to support effective governance. 

Nowadays, organizations need a suitable leadership style that responds to the dynamic change in business environments and is more customers focused. Organizational leaders face prominent challenges in adapting to a new leadership model and paradigms while leading employees from a variety of backgrounds. Leaders should not be haphazard or inconsistent in their leadership style. In addition, the long-standing effectiveness of leadership development programs includes an organizational culture that views the development of future leaders as a priority of long-term strategy (Block and Manning, 2007). A large number of attentions have been given to leadership style; since subordinates like to work more efficiently and productively when their managers adopt a specific leadership style (Mullins, 1998). 

Leadership style is, therefore, the most important issue in the leadership process because managers develop leadership styles through their education, training and experience (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson, 2001). This caused leadership to be the greatest social phenomena studied and is critical for the effectiveness of business and social organizations functions. Many managers follow only one leadership style and management style has a big impact on the operation of the organization. Effective management style will increase productivity, inspire, enhance morale, encourage workers and make a positive contribution to the company and so on (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). Leadership can initiate ways to the greater efficiency and performance but the level of success depends on the style of leadership and the organizational climate of employee usability. Organization has to select a suitable leadership style for being successful in the current competitive market and there are a lot of restaurants in Mymensingh, Bangladesh; many of them have failed in this business and only a few have succeeded in this business, as their growth rate is very good. Our study is to identify the influence of the three leadership style: Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez-faire leadership on the output and identify which leadership style influences the most on the success of this restaurant. 

Autocratic Leadership Style: A type of leadership characterized by individual control over the actions of all group members and little input.  Usually, autocratic leaders make choice based on their beliefs and judgments and seldom consider followers advice which requires a groups absolute & authoritarian control (Cherry, 2019). These types of leaders want their subordinates to functions as they command (Al Khajeh, 2018). Autocratic leadership may be useful in emergency situations where there is a homogeneous workforce, where the leader is wise, fair and has a good understanding of the followers (Armstrong, 2012). Nevertheless, in some cases, it is appropriate to act autocratically. It is critical when the company is facing a crisis or an urgent problem requiring an immediate response (Bhargavi & Yaseen, 2016). 

Democratic Leadership Style: Democratic leadership, also known as participatory or collective leadership; a kind of style in where members of the group are more active in the process of making decision (Cherry, 2019). In a democratic system, decision making is not centralized and the quality is appreciated and rewarded (Puni et al., 2014). Contrarily, it is suggested that, depending on the contribution made by the employees or subordinates, there is potential for poor decisions to be made by subordinates (Nwochoka & Iheriohanma, 2015). This can be said to have a negative impact on the organization and may also give rise to employee turnover intention. Democratic leadership sounds good in theory but is often trapped in its sluggish decision-making process and the outcomes that might seem possible would always take a lot of time and effort (Nwochoka & Iheriohanma, 2015) and even though subordinates are encouraged to share their ideas; it can lead to better ideas and innovative solution to problems (Sadia & Aman, 2018).

Laissez Faire Leadership Style: Laissez-faire leadership is a style of leadership in which leaders are hands in hands and enable members of the group to make decisions (Cherry, 2019). Moreover; the style in which the leader does not believe in his own supervisory capacity and the leader has no clear goals as to how they can work, does not help the group to make decisions and therefore; it leaves too much burden for subordinates, (Bass & Bernard, 1985). This leadership style cannot be functional in the banking sector or non-governmental organizations which allow both the leader and subordinates to contribute to the decision-making process and complete tasks to ensure the organizations performance. This is described as the style of leadership where leaders refuse to make decisions. However, laissez-faire leaders were argued not to invest in the advancement of workers because they believe that employees can take care of themselves (Puni et al., 2014) which results in unhappiness, unproductively and inefficiency (Deluga, 1992).

Organizational performance: Organizational quality in business literature is a dynamic and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Its success consists of an organizations outcomes or an organizations actual output that can be calculated against expected outputs, objectives and targets. Organizational performance is more of an organizations survival and profitability. Its measurement in both the service and manufacturing sector is critical (Atkinson & Brown, 2001). An organizations success can be evaluated subjectively and objectively. Real figures are taken into account in objective measures where the view of the entity in the community is clutched into consideration as in subjective measures (Johannessen et al., 1999).

The Style of Leadership and organizational Success: Leadership is the way how a manager decides to behave with his or her employees or subordinates and the way in which they exercise the leadership role (Mullins, 2000). Besides, effective leadership provides an adequate response to time, culture, desires and needs environmental factors and their harmonization to ensure that these factors operate smoothly to maximize the organizations profit and growth (Anuku & Achienu, 2001). Anyway, the success or failure of an organization, nations and other social structures was largely attributable to their leadership style (Oladipo et al., 2013). 

Not only does an outstanding leader inspire the potential of subordinates in order to improve performance but they also satisfy their requirements to attain organizational goals. There are indicators that there is a relation between the style of leadership and performance of the organization. The dynamic market today demands an innovative approach to competition, differentiated product/service, reduced margins and creativity that replaces existing skills (Santora et al., 1999). 

Nevertheless, the impact of styles of management on the output of the company and also found a strong relationship between styled management and organizational success. Leadership style has an influential relationship with organizational performance, and different leadership styles may have a positive correlation or negative correlation with organizational performance depending on the variables used by researchers (Wang et al., 2010).  McGrath & MacMillan (2000) conclude that the style of leadership and organizational output are strongly related. Effective leadership style is seen as a powerful source of sustained competitive advantage and development management (Al Khajeh, 2018). 

Leadership style helps the company meet its current goals more effectively by connecting job outcomes with valued opportunities and ensuring that staff has the tools to do the job. Sun (2002) compared leadership style with leadership performance in schools and businesses and found that leadership style in both schools and businesses had a significantly positive correlation with organizational performance. According to Kotter (1995), without management, the risk of errors happening rises and the prospects for success becomes more and more decreasing. In this way, leadership, along with incentives and opportunities, facilitates the motivation of people to achieve common goals and plays a key role in the processes of creating, distributing and improving organizational culture (Senge, 1990).

Ojokuku et al. (2012) explored a study on the effect of leadership style on organizational performance among the Nigerian Bank in Nigeria. The findings showed that the relationship between success and leadership style was both affirmative and unproductive in some cases. There was a performance variance of 23 percent found to jointly predict leadership-styles of organizational efficiency. This study concluded that constructive and inclusive leadership styles have positive effects on results and adherents. 

Dalluay & Jalagat (2016) conducted a study in Cavite, Philippines on the impacts of leadership style effectiveness of managers and department heads on job satisfaction and productivity of workers in selected small businesses. The result concluded that, although there is room for improvement, organizations must continually make the most of the leadership style that increases employee productivity and a reasonable level of employee work.

Nasir et al. (2014) conducted research on Leadership Styles Relationship and IPTA Educational Leadership and Organizational Success in Malaysias Klang Valley Area. The study used methods of correlation for evaluating the relationship between styles of leadership and performance of organizations.  The findings concluded that styles of leadership have had a significant impact on employee engagement.

Ukaidi (2016) investigated a study on the effect of styles of leadership on organizational performance to examine two Nigerian Universitys leadership styles. It was noted that the style of democratic leadership had a positive impact on the organizations results compared to other forms of leadership: autocratic & Laissez faire style of leadership.

Mohammad, Chowdhury & Sanju (2017) their research was aimed at defining the correct leadership in Bangladeshs banking industry. They found that the administrative style of leadership is mostly practiced in the banking sector relative to other leadership styles.

In their study, Basit, Sebastian & Hassan (2017) tried to pinpoint the numerous leadership style factors that mostly influence on employee performance in Malaysian private company. They also noticed that the style of democratic leadership has a greater influence on the organizations quality performance.

Khan & Adnan (2014) their study aimed to focus the organizations performance on the appropriate leadership style. They identified that the transformation leadership has a strong affirmative influence on the employees performance, resulting in greater for the business.

Akther (2015) conducted a study to investigate managers leadership styles during mergers in Bangladeshs hospitality industry. Ten managers were stripped from the Dhaka & Chittagong division to participate in this study, showing that their behavior is marked by tension, anxiety, cultural shock and job insecurity during mergers and acquisitions. 

The above literature suggests that many studies were explored in the area of leadership, but there is a noticeable gap that only a few of them are conducted in Bangladesh and none of them have demonstrated the effect of three leadership styles: Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez Faire leadership on the organizational success among the successful Organizations.

Research Questions:

This study provides us with the answer of the following questions;

I. What are the effects of the three style of leadership: autocratic, democratic and laissez faire leadership on the success of the organization?

II. Which of the leadership styles are being adopted in the successful restaurants of Mymensingh? 

Significance of the study:

To be effective, a leader has to determine which of the leadership styles are appropriate in which situations. If an organization can better identify the style of leadership on the basis of the changing nature of time or based on a situations. It will certainly manage its employee effectively and sustain eventually profitably. Throughout the conducting of this study; the organizations will successfully identify a suitable leadership style which will respond in the dynamic change of the business environment.  

Objectives of the study:

The main aim of this study is to describe and identify the nature of three styles of leadership and its impact on the success among the different popular restaurants of Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

The specific objectives are:

i. To explore about the three leadership styles; 

ii. To identify the leadership styles followed among the popular restaurants of Mymensingh;

iii. To identify the relations of three leadership style on the success of the different popular restaurants of  Mymensingh; 

Theoretical framework of the study:

The theoretical framework of the study is to explore the impacts of the leadership styles of managers on the organizational performance of staff working various popular Mymensingh restaurants. The leadership style of the manager is an independent variable and a dependent variable is organizational performance. The relation between styles of leadership was designed to be positive and has a good influence on the success of the company.

Fig. 1: Theoretical framework of the study.

Hypothesis of the Study: This study draws the following hypothesis to test -

1. H1: The style of autocratic leadership has a positive impact on organizations success. 
2. H2: The style of Democratic Leadership has a positive impact on organizations success. 
3. H3: The leadership style of Laissez Faire has a positive impact on the organizations success.

Data Collection, Tools and respondents: This analysis used both primary and secondary data. The data was collected from the randomly selected 60 employees of various popular Mymensingh district restaurants through a well-structured questionnaire.  The five point Likert-type scale where 5= Excellent and 1= Very Poor was also used in this study. 

This study used two iterations of the questionnaire. The first part is based on three leadership styles with 15 questionnaires (Source: Basit, Sebastian & Hassan, 2017); the second part is organizational performance based on 7 questionnaires (Kulkarni, 2016). 

Pre-Test and Pilot Testing: The study pre-tested the questionnaire to see if the actual survey requires changes. In the pre-testing (pilot survey) session, 10 people with the same characteristics as respondents were selected.  The pilot survey found some important questionnaire correction areas such as core and functional meaning comprehension, and some potential areas of confusion or ambiguity. The questionnaire has been modified based on pre-test results and unnecessary items and confusing words have been removed. 

Data analysis tools: The responses of the participants were put into SPSS version 16.0 software to arrive at the intended analysis and several sets of statistical analysis were performed to interpret the data. Descriptive statistics were used to demonstrate the existence of the three styles of leadership on employee performance in organizations and analysis of regression was also used to analyze factors relating to the dependence of managers leadership styles on the output of the company.

Reliability of data: The initial reliability of the items was evaluated by calculating the alpha of the Cronbach. The following thumb rules were provided by George and Mallery (2003): " >0.9 – Excellent, >0.8 – Good, >0.7 – Acceptable, >0.6 – Controversial, > 0.5 –Poor, and < 0.5 –Improper.” The alpha value of Cronbach for all variables was 0.753 (Table 1). Thus, as the alpha of the Cronbach was much higher than the 0.6, the constructs were considered to be reasonably accurate. 

Table 1:  Reliability Statistics.

Demographic information of the respondents: The table below (Table 2) shows the composition of the respondents:

Table 2 above shows that most respondents are 20-40 years of age (43.8 percent), most of them earn a salary below 15,000 (49.3 percent) per month, nearly all of them (92 percent) have not completed graduation and are in permanent employment (67.7 percent). The table also reveals that most respondents (50.7%) have 3-6 years of work experience and most of them are married (53.1%).

Table 2: Profiles of the respondents.

 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS:  

Respondents opinion regarding the factors of three leadership styles and success of the company.  Table 3 below shows the descriptive statistics based on the opinion of the respondents for each of the factors of three leadership styles and organizational performance.

Table 3: The respondents opinion regarding the factors of three leadership styles and success of the company.

Scale: 5=Excellent, 1=Very Poor

The Table 3 indicates that the highest mean value for the factors Advice, Decision Making, Involvement, Consultation and Shared are 3.75, 3.70, 3.65, 3.63 and 3.62 respectively. It indicates that as per the opinion the respondents these factors are sufficiently available in their organizations, conversely, the opinion of the respondents also indicates that, the factors Leadership barriers (2.41), Expression of views (2.45), Communication (2.51), Stay out of the way (2.53), Freedom (2.73), Rewards or Punishment (2.80), Policies (2.88), Refusal to explain (2.91) and Order and Procedures (2.95) are not satisfactory in their organizations. The level of organizational performance according to the response of the respondents shows that it is 3.57 on the scale of 5.00.

Leadership Styles Effect on Organizational Success: This study used the multiple regression analysis to show whether the factors of three leadership styles have any influence on the organizational outcomes or employee performance. The output of the analysis and the interpretation are in the following Table 4.

Table 4: Leadership Styles Effect on Organizational Success. 

The above table (Table 4) shows the value of the coefficients of the regression model. It shows that the democratic leadership style (5.699) has a major productive influence on the organization outcome whereas the autocratic leadership style (-0.374) shows a negative influence on the outcomes or performance of the employees and the laissez-faire leadership style (0.328) has no prime effect on the success of the restaurants because its T value is less than the threshold (1.96). 

The results of the study indicate that democratic leadership has a strong positive influence on the success of the organizations. Through adopting a democratic approach, employee satisfaction and organizational efficiency would increase. To some degree, the power of employees of democratic leadership has the discretion to do work that leads to better results which means the hypotheses 1 is accepted.

The findings also advocate that autocratic leadership style has a major obstructive effect on the performance of employees. This suggests that by implementing an autocratic policy, workers productivity would not improve. H2: Rejected

Laissez-Faire Leadership does not have any major impact on the success of restaurants. This strategy is ideal when workers have a good understanding of their roles and strong analytical skills, as well as when managers have a high degree of staff trust and do not blame each other for mistakes in any case. H3: Rejected

Many thanks to the co-author for their cordial support and assistance in writing and analysis which helps to conduct this study successfully.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests with respect to the research.