Leadership Style

Miscellaneous Leadership Concepts

• Trust and ethics in effective leadership
• Tests and interviews to identify people with leadership qualities.
• Leadership training
• Mentoring

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Are leader’s born or made?

Leader traits – the trait approach is the oldest leadership perspective and was dominant for several decades. The perspective is that some personality characteristics – many of which a person need not be born with but can strive to acquire distinguish effective leaders from other people.

 

Drive, which refers to a set of characteristics that reflect a high level of effort. It includes high need for achievement, constant striving for improvement, ambition, energy, tenacity (persistence in the face of obstacles), and initiative.

Leadership motivation – great leaders not only have drive, they want to lead.

Integrity is the correspondence between actions and words. Honesty and credibility are especially important.

Self-confidence is important because the leadership role is challenging, and setbacks are inevitable.

Knowledge of the business, industry, company, and technical matters.

The most important personal skill, according to the text, the ability to perceive the needs and goals of others and to adjust one’s personal leadership approaches accordingly.

 

B. Leader Behaviors

 

1. Leadership behaviors – the behavioral approach attempts to identify what good leaders do. Three general categories of leadership behavior are: (Figure 12.2)

 

a. Task performance behaviors are the leader’s efforts to insure that the work unit or organization reaches its goals.

i. This dimension is sometimes referred to as:

concern for production

directive leadership

initiating structure or closeness of supervision.

ii. It includes a focus on:

work speed

quality and accuracy

quantity of output

following the rules.

b. Group maintenance behaviors is where leaders take action to ensure the satisfaction of group members, develop and maintain harmonious work relationships, and preserve the social stability of the group.

i. This dimension is sometimes referred to as:

(1) concern for people

(2) supportive leadership

(3) consideration.

ii. Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory highlights the importance of leader behaviors not just toward the group as a whole but also toward individuals

The ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals.

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The process of influencing others to understand and agree what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives

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Goal of what leadership involves is also what makes leaders effective.

Result of influence is enthusiastic followers as opposed to indifferent compliance or reluctant obedience. Use of control over rewards and punishments to manipulate or coerce followers is not really leading and may involve the unethical use of power.

Specialized role – involves having one leader and more followers

Shared influence consists of many leaders in charge of different processes that affect the group

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Direct leadership – influence in person or email.

Leader’s direct influence on immediate subordinates. Behaviors used to directly influence immediate subordinates, but a leader can also influence other people inside the organization.

Leader’s direct influence on lower-level employees, peers, bosses, or outsiders

Indirect leadership – CEO leadership is transmitted through chain of command. Influence over formal programs.

Cascading effect of leadership influence

Influence over formal programs, management systems, and structural forms

Influence over organizational culture – shared beliefs and values of members.

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Trait – pertains to personality, motives, values, and skills

Behavior – pertains to what managers actually do on the job

Power-influence – pertains to the influence processes used by managers

Situational – pertains to outside factors that influence leadership processes (nature of the work, type of organization, and so forth)

Integrative – involves more than one approach

Leadership theory comparison

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Leader effectiveness is often measured by how goals such as sales and net profits are met. Followers view leaders as satisfying their needs and usually respect, admire, and trust leaders.

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Chapter 7 of Leadership in Organizations

Adaptive leadership is necessary when leaders must be more flexible and adaptive to their situation.

Managing immediate crises—managers should anticipate problems, recognize early warning signs, and have a prepared plan of action for dealing with them.

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Leader traits or broadly-defined behaviors are positively related to subordinate performance or satisfaction.

Lack of consistent results = contingency theories. Path Goal,

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Situational Leadership Theory – appropriate type of leadership behavior for the follower/subordinate in various situations.

LPC (least preferred co-worker) LPC Scores reveal a leader’s motive hierarchy. High LPC is strongly motivated to have close, interpersonal relationships and will act in a considerate supportive manner.

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Intra-individual – involves examining roles, behaviors, and decision styles

Dyadic – examines relationship between leader and subordinate

Group processes – focuses on leaders’ influence on team performance

Organizational processes – focuses on how a leader adapts to the environment and acquires resources necessary to complete tasks

Multilevel – involves application of more than one theory

Leader-centered versus follower-centered – extent to which a theory is focused either on a leader or a follower

Descriptive – explains leadership processes, describes the typical activities of leaders, and explains why certain behaviors occur in particular situations

Prescriptive – specifies what leaders must do to become effective and identifies any necessary conditions for using a particular type of behavior effectively

Universal or contingency – describes some aspect of leadership that applies to all types of situations

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Number of contingency or situational factors influence the choice of these design parameters.

• Age & Size – older an org the more formalized its behavior. Larger an org, the more formalized. Larger an org, more elaborate its structure, the more specialized its jobs and units and the more developed its administrative components.
• Technical System – the more controls the technical system has over the work of the operators, the more formalized the operating work and more bureaucratic the structure.
• Environment – more dynamic an orgs environment, the more organic its structure. More complex environment, the more decentralized its structure, more diversified an org’s markets, the greater the propensity to split it into market-based units or divisions, given favorable economies of scale.
• Power – the greater the external control of an org, the more centralized and formalized its structure.

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Select 12 people – each picks from a bag of words and definitions. Need to attach words and definitions to diagram on board.

Operating Core – at base of org – people who perform the basic work of the organization

Strategic Apex – where the whole system is overseen

Middle Line – hierarchy of authority between the operating core and the strategic apex.

Technostructure – outside the heirarch of line authority. They perform administrative duties by planning and controlling the work of others.

Support Staff – provide various internal services from cafeteria to mailroom.

Ideology – (culture) encompasses the traditions and beliefs of an organization

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True

Immediate outcomes easy to measure

Willingness to complete a project

Delayed outcomes difficult to assess

Influenced by extraneous events

Leader can effect both immediate and delayed outcomes

May be inconsistent and move in opposite directions

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Key Variables in Leadership Theories: Characteristics of the Leader, Follower, and Situation

Characteristics of Leader: Traits (motives, personality, values), Confidence and optimism, Skills and expertise, Behavior, Integrity and ethics, Influence tactics, Attributions about followers

Characteristics of Follower: Traits (needs, values, self concepts), Confidence and optimism. Skills and expertise, Attributions about the leader. Trust in the leader, Task commitment and effort, Satisfaction with job and leader

Characteristics of Situation: Type of organizational unit, Size of unit, Position power and authority of leader, Task structure and complexity, Task interdependence, Environmental uncertainty, External dependencies

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Charismatic leaders are rare and are often found in new organizations or those in need of change where previous authority has failed, especially in dealing with a severe crisis.

Followers perceive them as extraordinary, identify with them on a personal level, and are extremely loyal. Charismatic leaders may be targets of extreme measures such as assassination in order to remove them from their positions.

Some positives associated with charismatic leaders are that organizations under their leadership perform at a high level, communication is open, and followers are empowered.

 

Some negatives of charismatic leaders are that followers may lose sight of important factors due to their awe of the leader and may deny problems or failures and overlook the need for a successor.

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Transformational leaders often empower followers and encourage independence by delegating authority to individuals or teams. Transformational leaders use a rewards or incentive system to motivate followers and punish those who deviate from performance standards.

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Research on transformational and inspirational leadership – surveys such as the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, laboratory and field experiments, analyses of leader descriptions such as biographical studies and intensive case studies

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