To what extent would you argue that Steve Jobs is either a transformational or toxic leader?
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5.Leadership-Lecture11.pptxUnderstanding Organisations and People
Leadership
what makes leaders stand out?
Dr. Selen Kars
Room: 5X219 email: [email protected]
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Outline of this session
What is leadership?
Is leadership the same as management?
A chronological overview of theories of leadership
Concluding thoughts and discussion points
Next Session:
The emergence of Critical Leadership Studies (CLS)
Followership, anti-individualism and the ‘dark side’ of leadership
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Leadership may be considered as the process (act) of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal achievement. (Stogdill, 1950: 3)
Leadership is the behaviour of an individual when he is directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal. (Hemphill & Coons, 1957: 7)
Leadership is interpersonal influence, exercised in a situation, and directed, through the communication process, toward the attainment of a specified goal or goals. (Tannenbaum, Weschler & Massarik, 1961: 24)
Leadership is an influence process that enables managers to get their people to do willingly what must be done, do well what ought to be done. (Cribbin, 1981)
Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation. (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988: 86)
Leaders are those who consistently make effective contributions to social order, and who are expected and perceived to do so. (Hosking, 1988: 153)
Leadership is the art of influencing others to their maximum performance to accomplish any task, objective or project. (Cohen, 1990: 9)
Leadership is that process in which one person sets the purpose or direction for one or more other persons and gets them to move along together with him or her and with each other in that direction with competence and full commitment. (Jaques & Clement, 1994: 4)
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“There are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept” (Bass, 1981: 89)
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Is Leadership the same as Management?
Leadership is less visible? Management is more tangible?
However, the two are not mutually exclusive.
Leadership isn’t mystical or special… neither is management dull and boring…
Leadership is about establishing a vision; making it meaningful; communicating it effectively; motivating people.
Or: creating change
Management is about planning; designing; organising; staffing; directing; controlling.
Or: managing and directing change
Source: Kotter (1990)
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traits
skills
styles / behaviours
contingency
transformational leadership
1920s
1980s
1940-50s
1960-70s
1950-60s
What makes leaders stand out?
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Trait Theories
Personality will determine who will be leader – leadership as personal quality
Effective leaders are ‘gifted’ with divine inspiration and the right characteristics, meaning that leaders are born, not made
Many studies of individual leaders produced lists of traits, including: intelligence; self-confidence; determination; integrity; sociability; emotional intelligence
Intuitively appealing... but empirically questionable (Sexton, 2006)
“The history of the world is but the biography of great men”
Thomas Carlyle (1840) – The Great Man Theory
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Skills Approaches
Still leader-centric
But! We are now looking at the various skills and abilities that can be learned/developed
Skills are about what we do, traits are who we are
That is, these perspectives emphasise that leaders can be ‘made’
Katz (1955) ‘Three-Skill Approach’
Technical Skill
Human Skill
Conceptual Skill
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Style/Behaviour Approaches
Two types of behaviors:
Different types of leadership style:
Autocratic / Directive
(high task / low people)
Participative / Team-based
(high people / low task)
Laissez-faire
(low people / low task)
Concern for people
Building commitment and trust
Promoting personal worth
Good working conditions
Social relations
Concern for task
Organisational tasks
Work load
Policy decisions
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Contingency Theories
A criticism of earlier theories was that there was no talk of the situation in which the leaders found themselves…
‘Situations’ determine who will be leader
Different situations require different leaders.
In the situational/contingency models, behaviour changes as a result of the context
‘best fit’ – if this situation then …(variables)
E.g. Fiedler’s contingency model: Situational
factors in matching leader to the situation
Leader-member relations
Task structure
Position power
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Contingency Theories (an example)
Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model (1969)
Situational variable: Subordinate maturity
Leaders should adapt behaviour to follower’s readiness level for a specific task
Leadership is composed of
both a directive and supportive
dimension
Leaders do not possess one set
of characteristics, but have
different ‘faces’
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Transformational Leadership
Burns (1978) and Bass (1985) distinguished between transactional/transformational leaders:
Transactional leaders:
“meet subordinates [...] material and psychic needs in return for ‘contracted’ services” (Bass, 1985:14)
...refers to the ‘bulk’ of leadership models.
Exchanges that occur between leaders and followers.
Transformational leaders:
“engage the full person of the
follower” (Burns, 1978: 4)
...changes and transforms
people.
Often incorporates charismatic&
visionary leadership.
Defining Charisma (Weber, 1947):
a “certain quality of and individual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specific exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as not to be accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader”
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So… what does a transformational leader do?
Show complete self-confidence
Show strong determination
Are eloquent speakers
Are active and energetic
Individualised Consideration
- Show concern for individuals
- Identify individual needs
- Providing (appropriate challenges) and opportunities to learn
- Giving developmental feedback
Intellectual Stimulation
- Stimulating intellect and imagination
- Questioning the status quo
- Encouraging imagination and feedback
- Supporting a willingness to think
Inspirational Motivation
- Articulating possibilities
- Communicating a clear vision
- Aligning organisational goals with individual goals
- Treating threats, problems and mistakes as opportunities
Idealised Influence
- Displaying charisma
- Expressing confidence in the vision
- Personally taking full responsibility
- Displaying a sense of purpose, persistence and trust
- Emphasizing accomplishments
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Core Assumptions
Many different perspectives and approaches, but if you read in between the lines they :
believe the leader to possess a set of skills, qualities and behaviours
believe that only certain people can ‘do’ leadership, which requires centralisation and hierarchical division
solely focus on the individual leader and ignore followers – followers are “passive recipients” of a leaders orders and goals (Collinson, 2005: 1424)
create a romanticised and heroic conceptualisation of leadership have raised leaders into an almost heroic or saint like status (Alvesson and Spicer, 2010)
view leadership as ‘positive’ and unproblematic
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For next time, think:
What – in your opinion - is the one best way to lead? Does such a thing exist?
What do the theories we covered today not consider? What might be problematic about them?
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References
Bass, B. (1981) ‘Stogdill’s handbook of leadership revised’. New York, NY: Free Press.
Burns, J. (1978) ‘Leadership’. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
Carlyle, T. (1840) ‘On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History’. New York, NY: Chapman and Hall.
Cohen, W. (1990) ‘The Art of the Leader’. London: Prentice Hall.
Cribbin, J. (1981) ‘Leadership: Strategies for organisational effectiveness’. New York, NY: Amacom.
Gemmill, G. and Oakley, J. (1992) ‘Leadership: An Alienating Social Myth?’ Human Relations, 45(2): 113-129.
Hemphill, J. and Coons, A. (1957) ‘Development of the leader behaviour description questionnaire’. In: Stogdill, R. and Coons, A. (Eds) ‘Leader behaviour: Its description and measurement’. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University: 6-38.
Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. (1988) ‘Management of Organisational Behaviour’. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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References
Hosking, D. (1988) ‘Organising, leadership and skilful process’. Journal of Management Studies, 25: 147-166.
Jaques, E. and Clement, S. (1994) ‘Executive leadership: A practical guide to managing complexity’. Cambridge, MA: Carson-Hall.
Katz, D. (1955) ‘Social psychology of organisations’. New York, NY: John Wiley.
Kotter, J. (1990) ‘What leaders really do’. Harvard Business Review, 68: 103-111.
Sexton, J. (2006) ‘The Safety Attitudes questionnaire: Psychometric properties, benchmarking data, and emerging research’. Available online: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/6/44 [accessed 25th May 2013]
Stogdill, R. (1950) ‘Leadership, membership and organisation’. Psychological Bulletin, 47: 1-14.
Tannenbaum, R. Weschler, I. and Massarik, F. (1961) ‘Leadership and organisation’. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
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