Leadership Styles and Manager / Employee Relationships

Manager/employee Relations
Glen T. Mashburn, Consultant, United States
This can be a complicated question. The answer may have to do with a lack of manager training, insecurities, ego, fear of change or fear of relenquishing absolute control over their employees, direction from supervisors, etc..
An effective leader (or manager) has positive working relationships with their employees. I love making fun of the popular television show, "undercover boss." What these corporate leaders do in the show is what they should be doing already (minus the disguises, of course).
A true leader is visible to employees, open to contact and advice, shares the glory, recognizes employee contribution, shoulders the blame, etc.
Unfortunately, we seem to have very few true leaders. Those at the top need to recognize the problems with management and take appropriate action. Unfortunately, often they don't know what that should be. Too often, those in positions of leadership fail to see how human capital can translate into monetary capital.

Specialists
Wulf-Dieter Krueger, Teacher, Thailand
The majority of managers are in their positions by Peter's Principle, they are specialist who know little to nothing beyond the edge of their desks and are ground down by the per quarter end results thinking. Their general education is underdeveloped to non-existent and they have problems because of all this to think outside the box.
So they lack the flexibility of a generalist to vary their styles. Hence their inability to know their subordinates and being on good terms with them.

Managers and Employee Relationship Viz a Viz Leadership
Joseph I. B. Bakibinga, Accountant, Uganda
Part of the reason, I suspect, is that managers are busy being managers and doing very little at being leaders.
There has to be a deliberate effort on behalf of managers to look beyond the mundane operational issues in their organisations and take a closer look at their relationship with employees.
This requires leadership because it is about influencing and change management among other issues.