managment class

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Leadership is critically important to any organization’s success, and Chapter 16 will shed light on this complex subject by covering the following topics: what does leadership involve, trait and behavioral theories of leadership, situational theories, the full-range theory of leadership, and additional perspectives on leadership.

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Let’s take a few moments to contrast leaders and managers. Leaders have a broader focus than managers, and their goal is to influence and help guide people through change. Leaders need to motivate so that people will be managed in the direction that is best for the organization. Effective leaders need to be good managers themselves or else be supported by effective managers.

Broadly speaking leadership

• deals with inspiration, motivation, and influence
• produces change, often to a dramatic degree
• often transforms their organization, and
• creates vision for the organization

On the other hand, management

• is more formal and scientific, operating with a set of tools and techniques that can be widely used
• is more likely to produce a degree of predictability and order
• maintains their organization, and
• implements vision for the organization

In general, managers have to be focused on systems, structures, controls, and actions intended to achieve predictability and order in complex situations. These are the behaviors that ensure “stuff gets done.”

The bottom-line difference between leadership and management is one of emphasis because leadership and managerial characteristics do overlap. Effective leaders also manage; effective managers also lead. Organizations need both in order to reach their objectives. For example Dr. Martin Luther King is known for his excellent leadership because of his eloquence, vision, and inspiration; but we don’t think of him as a manager. His movement, however, would not have had the widespread impact it has had if it weren’t for the managerial talents of his supporting staff. Thus, leadership and management complement each other.

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Starting with this basic definition of leadership, let’s go through this list of key aspects of leadership together.

Creating and communicating a vision. A vision is a lofty goal that directs the organization in the future. For example: Palm Inc.’s vision is to be “the leading global provider of handheld computing products and to provide developers with the industry-standard platform for creating world-class mobile solutions.” Another example is Steven Jobs, Apple Computer: “To make computing simple and available to everyone.”

Influencing others through use of power. French & Raven’s five sources of power apply here; remember that a person can use multiple sources depending on the situation and that referent and expert are usually more successful than reward, coercive, or legitimate.

Motivating task behavior in pursuit of shared objectives, rather than personal goals.

Establishing and maintaining group culture by developing the social environment in which people work, an environment that is supportive of teamwork and the free sharing of ideas.

Empowering others by acknowledging their capabilities and granting them responsibility and decision-making ability.

Clarifying roles and niche in marketplace. The kinds of issues leaders can help followers understand are their roles and how they can fulfill them and how their group or organization fits in with the larger competitive marketplace.

Making tough decisions with limited information. Another hallmark of effective leaders is their ability to make good decisions in ambiguous situations with incomplete information.

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You will gain insights about what it takes to be an effective leader as we learn what OB research has to say about a topic that is so important to all organizations. We will begin with what the earliest research identified regarding the traits leaders possess and end with some of the newest research findings on the topic.

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As we turn our attention now to looking at some of the theories that have been developed to help us better understand this complex topic, we’ll begin with the trait approaches that laid the foundation for our understanding of what it takes to be an effective leader.

The “Great Man” approach was popular in 1930’s-50’s

Research produced one leadership prototype that includes traits such as intelligence, masculinity, and dominance. But similar studies from other countries reveal that leadership prototypes are different. A set of global leadership prototypes has not yet been identified.

Emotional Intelligence is also associated with leadership effectiveness. However the work on emotional intelligence has not appeared in academic journals or professional magazines so it is unclear to what extent emotional intelligence contributes to effective leadership.

In short, traits do play a central role in how we perceive leaders, and they ultimately impact leadership effectiveness. Bringing together the findings from various traits studies, you will see a list of positive traits on the next slide.

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The traits on this list are those that anyone wishing to assume a leadership role would benefit from cultivating:

Intelligence is the ability to think strategically, reason analytically, and exercise good judgment.

Self-confidence allows leaders to gain trust by being sure of their own actions and not being defensive about making mistakes.

Determination is characterized by high energy, motivation, need for achievement.

Honesty and integrity means being truthful and exhibiting a consistency between words and actions.

Sociability refers to being open, honest, competent, forward-looking, and inspiring.

Extroversion is deriving energy from others.

Conscientiousness is being responsible.

Problem solving skills – ability to identify causes of problems and generate appropriate solutions

Interestingly, executives and aspiring executives are often measured on these types of characteristics and then a personal development plan is put together for them to strengthen their weakest areas. Assessments include personality tests, business simulations, and role play exercises.

No one set of traits results in leadership effectiveness in every situation. The next stream of research we’ll discuss shifts the focus to effective leader behaviors.

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The traits on this list have been found to be associated with ineffective leaders by Barbara Kellerman. In an analysis of poor leader/follower cases she found the following key traits:

Incompetent – lack of skill or will to create positive change

Rigid – stiff and unyielding, unable or unwilling to adapt to new ideas

Intemperate – lacks self control

Callous – uncaring and unkind, needs, wants and desires of most members are ignored or discounted

Corrupt – lie, cheat, steal – put self-interest ahead of public interest

Insular – disregard welfare of others outside the group they are directly responsible for

Evil – commit atrocities, use pain as an instrument of power

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How much consideration and structure behavior a leader exhibits determines which quadrant a leader’s style is associated with.

High consideration and low structure as described in the maroon box of this model is a leader who seeks advice from others and gets consensus before making a decision and taking action.

High consideration and high structure described in the green box is a leader who reaches a goal by using suggestions and encouragement to reach a group consensus.

Low consideration and low structure, the gray box, is a leader who is passive and noncommittal with little impact on followers from whom he seeks little participation in decisions.

Low consideration and high structure, the blue box, is a leader who is characterized by unilaterally taking charge and giving assignments to others.

While it was predicted that leaders who were high on both dimensions would be best, the research has been mixed. It seems to depend on the situation. Thus, the research focus shifted to the situational leadership theories. But before we look at situational theories, we have one more slide on leadership behaviors.

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Well-known management expert and consultant Peter Drucker recommended these nine behaviors managers can focus on to improve their effectiveness.

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You will gain insights about what it takes to be an effective leader as we learn what OB research has to say about a topic that is so important to all organizations. We will begin with what the earliest research identified regarding the traits leaders possess and end with some of the newest research findings on the topic.

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Because the findings about leadership traits and behavioral styles were inconsistent, researchers turned their attention to developing the theory that leadership traits and behaviors that will lead to success are contingent upon the situation.

One of the oldest and most widely known models of situational leadership—Fiedler’s Contingency Theory—is described on this slide.

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While the research evidence for Path-Goal is scant there are three takeaways from this model:

First, effective leaders possess and use more than one style of leadership so managers should try new behaviors based on situational demands

Second, leaders should clarify paths to goal accomplishment and remove obstacles

Third, employee and environmental characteristics impact the type of leadership style that will be most effective

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Next, we’ll examine House’s theory, which is based on the expectancy theory of motivation. It suggests that leader behavior is motivational to the extent that it:

• Reduces road blocks that interfere with goal accomplishment;
• Provides the guidance and support needed by employees; and
• Ties meaningful rewards to goal accomplishment.

The theory focuses on the idea that there are eight leader behaviors and leaders need to foster intrinsic motivation through empowerment. While research is not definitive regarding this theory, it is useful to think about a variety of leader behaviors being applied differentially based on the employee and situational characteristics.

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A more recent approach to leadership describes these two important dimensions of leadership—transactional and transformational leadership.

Two underlying characteristics of transactional leadership are that leaders use contingent rewards to motivate employees, and leaders exert corrective action only when subordinates fail to attain performance goals.

Let’s discuss transformational leadership on the next slide.

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As we finish the chapter we will examine four additional perspectives on leadership: the leader-member exchange theory, shared leadership, Level 5 leadership, and servant-leadership.

The LMX model is based on the idea that one of two distinct types of leader-member exchange relationships evolve, and these exchanges are related to important work outcomes.

In-group exchange: a partnership characterized by mutual trust, respect and liking

Out-group exchange: a partnership characterized by a lack of mutual trust, respect and liking

In order to improve the quality of your LMX, following these tips can help:

• New employees should offer their loyalty, support, and cooperation to their manager.
• If you are an out-group member, either accept the situation, try to become an in- group member by being cooperative and loyal, or quit.
• Managers should consciously try to expand their in-groups.
• Managers need to give employees ample opportunity to prove themselves.

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Servant-leadership is not a quick-fix approach to leadership. Rather, it is a long-term, transformational approach to life and work. The ten characteristics presented on this and the next two slides identify qualities that could help to improve any leader’s effectiveness.

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[No narration required.]

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[No narration required.]