discussion 4/5

Module 5

Discussion topics include: 1.    Follower motivation and satisfaction 2.    Groups versus teams

Assignments for Session 5 include: 1.    Text: Chapters 9-12

Chapter 9 deals with the very important topic of motivation.  This topic is quite complex and is usually covered in an organizational behavior class. Since this is a leadership course, the focus on motivation should be on how leaders can motivate their followers.  One way of looking at this is how leaders develop excellent followers.  

Chapter 10 deals with Satisfaction and Engagement, and Chapter 11 deals with follower Potential. No lecture notes are provided for these two chapters but please take some time to read these chapter.

Chapter 12 deals with groups and teams. The latter have become extremely important as in today’s organizations. At the most basic level, you need to understand group dynamics. To understand how people work together in groups effectively, you ought to know some of the major group characteristics and the effects they have on group interaction.  You should also understand that all groups go through a predictable progression of development.   The Four Developmental Stages of Groups are: forming, storming, norming, and performing. This section of the lecture notes examines four of the most important characteristics of groups: roles, norms, cohesion, and group size.  

Roles:    A “role” is an expected behavior.  In any group situation, members are concerned with three types of roles: perceived, expected, and enacted.  The “perceived role” is the way individuals believe they ought to act.  The corollary to the perceived role is the expected role. An “expected role” is the way others expect you to act.  Finally, the “enacted role” is the way a person actually does something.

Norms: Norms are implied and/or stated rules of behavior that have been accepted by members of a group.  Most groups do not have a large number of norms.  Usually only those areas or things that are important to the functioning or existence of the group become focal points for normative behavior.  For example, the average group does not care where its members attend church, but is usually very much concerned that no member of the group “squeals” to management about the behavior of any other member.  Typical company-wide norms include coming to work each day, arriving on time, and observing company holidays.

Cohesion: Cohesiveness refers to the closeness or personal attractiveness that exists between members of a group.  When cohesion is high, members are motivated to remain with the group; when it is low, they are motivated to leave the group.  Among formal organizations, if there is low cohesiveness, the members will seek promotions, transfers, or reassignments to other groups in the hierarchy or will simply leave the organization and seek employment elsewhere.  Within informal organizations, low cohesiveness will bring about intragroup conflict and tension.

Size:     Another important group characteristic is size.  Workers tend to be more satisfied in smaller groups of eight or less; as group size increases, there is less satisfaction.  The reason for the dissatisfaction can often be traced back to a decline in cohesiveness.  Group members find it difficult to interact and share feelings and work assignments with twenty people as easily as they can with five.

Is there a difference between a group and a team? Groups rely on interaction and mutual goals.  Teams probably have a greater emphasis on outcomes and task interdependence is typically greater.  In today’s workplace, teams exist for many purposes and employees may belong to more than one team. There is also the issue of virtual teams where interaction is done by electronic means rather than face-to-face meetings.  Read carefully the next two articles required for this week.  They will supplement your knowledge on these issues.

Module Five Discussion Questions

Note: Please type the question and then the answer which should be about 250 words for each question

1.    Chapter 9 introduces you to the concept of the Pygmalion Effect and the Golem Effect.  In your own words, tell us what each of these means and give a real example of each from your own experience.

Module Six

Discussion topics include: 1. Situational leadership 2. Contingency theory 3. Path-goal theory    

Assignments for Session 6 include: 1.    Text: Chapters 14 - 15

Chapters 14 and 15 are all about the situation and situational approaches to leadership theory. Your textbook authors look at the situation through the lens of organizational structure. Most of you are already familiar with concepts like departmentalization, centralization/decentralization, and organizational designs such as functional, product, geographic, and matrix.  

Chapter 14 looks at the situational leadership theories, all of which are considered much more useful than either trait or behavioral theories today.  Two important theories, contingency leadership by Fred Fiedler and Situational Leadership by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard are highlighted in this chapter.  

Fiedler’s Contingency Leadership is historically the first real situational theory and is important from that standpoint.   

Contingency Leadership Theory

Contingency Leadership Theory was the original situational leadership theory and belongs to a man by the name of Fred Fiedler. Study the model in your book and take notice of the three factors: 

1. Leader-member Relations: How are the leader and followers getting along? 2. Position Power: How strong is the leader’s power? 3. Task Structure: Is the task stable and structured or dynamic and changing?

Depending on the situational favorableness, Fiedler teaches that you need either a task oriented leader (what he calls low LPC) or people oriented (high LPC).  The LPC category comes from your score on his Least Preferred Coworker Questionnaire (LPCQ) which I, for one, find highly marginal to predict anything.  Nevertheless, I think you can categorize people into either task-oriented or people-oriented.

The theory concludes that if the situation is highly favorable or highly unfavorable you need a task person to lead.  Likewise if the situation is moderately favorable or unfavorable, you need a people person.  This seems to make sense.  If things are very bad, you need a take-charge, goal-oriented leader before you go out of business.  If things are very good, interpersonal relations are already smooth, and a goal-setter can take you to the next place.  I think, however, that most situations are somewhat in the middle and might demand someone with human relations skills.

The secret according to Fiedler is to match the person to the situation.  Analyze the situation and hire or promote the right type of leader.  Nor does he think that the average leader can change from one style to another.  Leadership style, according to Fielder, is very much a matter of personality and hard to change.  I agree.  By the way, research to validate Fiedler’s model is generally positive.

Situational Theory

Situational Theory, according to Hersey and Blanchard, however, does not agree. These theorists are of the mind that leaders can and do change styles depending on with whom they are dealing.  Situational Leadership is the most popular leadership theory of the day.  It is very friendly, easy to understand, and many corporate staffs have received training in Situational Leadership.  Study the model carefully in the book and note that the A situation@ depends on the readiness level of the follower.

R1: Unable and unwilling R2: Unable and willing R3: Able but unwilling R4: Able and willing

The four leadership styles that match these readiness levels are as follows:

S1: Requires Telling@ high task-low relationship S2: Requires Selling@ high task-high relationship S3: Requires Participating@ high relationship-low task S4: Requires Delegating@ low relationship-low task

Module 6 Discussion Questions

Note:  Please type the question and then the answer which should be about 250 words per question.

1.    Provide a brief scenario when each of the Situational Leadership styles would be appropriate.  Remember that the S1-S4 styles are used for very specific situations and not as overall styles.