Ch. 11: Leadership in Organizational Settings Flashcards
What is the definition of leadership, and what are the two key components of leadership?
Leadership Definition:
Influencing, motivating, and enabling others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of their organization.
Two Key Components:
* Motivation through Influence: Leaders use persuasion, communication skills, rewards, and other influence tactics to energize others toward achieving challenging goals.
* Enabling Success: Leaders allocate resources, improve work relationships, reduce external disruptions, and create work environment changes to make it easier for employees to achieve organizational objectives.
Additional Notes:
* Leaders focus on change and progress within the organization.
* Leadership requires some form of power to influence others effectively.
What is shared leadership?
Shared leadership is the view that leadership is a role, not just a formal position assigned to one person.
It means that people within an organization or team lead each other, depending on their expertise and the needs of the situation.
What is Transformational Leadership, what are its four key elements, and how is it evaluated?
Transformational Leadership is the leadership perspective that sees leaders as change agents who inspire and motivate employees by creating, communicating, and modeling a compelling vision.
(Brave Directors Encourage Movements)
🔹 4 Key Elements (Exhibit 11.1):
Develop and Communicate a Strategic Vision
* Inspires through a value-based, challenging, and unifying future goal.
Model the Vision
* Leaders “walk the talk” to build trust and demonstrate commitment.
Encourage Experimentation
* Promote learning, questioning, innovation, and view mistakes as part of growth.
Build Commitment to the Vision
* Use stories, symbols, and persistence to energize and align the team.
🔍 Evaluation:
✅ Positive Outcomes
* Higher job performance, satisfaction, commitment, creativity, and citizenship behavior.
⚠️ Criticisms
* Circular logic: Defined by its outcomes.
* Mixed models: Blurs behaviors with personality traits.
* Universal theory issue: May not fit all cultures or situations.
What is the Managerial Leadership perspective?
A leadership perspective stating that effective leaders help employees improve their performance and well-being toward current objectives and practices.
Compare and contrast the managerial and transformational perspectives of leadership.
Interdependent Perspectives
Managerial Leadership:
* Assumes stable objectives aligned with the environment
* Micro-focused (employee & unit performance/well-being)
* Concrete tasks: planning, problem-solving, budgeting, controlling
* Focus: “Do things right”
Transformational Leadership:
* Assumes misalignment with a dynamic environment
* Macro-focused (strategic vision for org/department/team)
* Abstract, visionary direction
* Focus: “Do the right thing”
Define and contrast the task-oriented and people-oriented leadership perspectives
Effective leaders use both styles, depending on the situation
Task-Oriented Leadership:
Focuses on defining and structuring work roles
Behaviors include:
* Assigning tasks
* Setting goals and deadlines
* Clarifying duties/procedures
* Planning work activities
People-Oriented Leadership:
Focuses on relationships and employee well-being
Behaviors include:
* Listening to employee input
* Creating a positive work environment
* Showing interest in staff
* Recognizing effort and showing consideration
Discuss the servant leadership perspective
Leaders serve their followers, not the other way around
Focus on helping employees fulfill their needs and grow
Leaders act as coaches, stewards, and facilitators of development
Emphasizes traits like:
* Selflessness
* Egalitarianism
* Humility
* Nurturing
* Empathy
* Ethical behavior
*
Core question: “How can I help you?”
What are the 4 leadership behaviors (path-goal theory)?
PADS
Situational Leadership Theory (Path-Goal Leadership Theory):
Leaders choose the most appropriate leadership style based on employee characteristics and work environment to influence desired results and positive outcomes.
4 Leadership Styles:
Directive Leadership (Task-Oriented): Provides structure for subordinates
Supportive Leadership (People-Oriented): Provides emotional and psychological support
Participative Leadership: Energizes and facilitates employee involvement in decisions
Achievement-Oriented Leadership: Sets challenging goals and encourages peak performance, applies goal-setting theory
Key Situational Variables:
Skill and Experience:
* Directive and Supportive for inexperienced employees; Directive is ineffective for skilled employees
Locus of Control:
* Internal locus: Prefer Participative and Achievement-Oriented leadership
* External locus: Prefer Directive and Supportive leadership
Task Structure:
* Directive for non-routine tasks to reduce ambiguity; Supportive for routine tasks
* Participative for non-routine tasks
Team Dynamics:
* High cohesion substitutes for Supportive leadership
* Low cohesion requires Supportive leadership; Directive for teams with conflicting norms
Define leadership substitutes. (Ex. 11.4)
Theory identifying conditions that either limit a leader’s ability to influence subordinates or make a particular leadership style unnecessary
Task-oriented substitutes:
* performance based awards
* employee is skilled and experienced
* guidance form coworkers
* term norms reinforce task objectives
* work is intrinsically motivating
* employee applies self leadership
People oriented substitutes:
* supportive coworkers
* employee is skilled and experienced
* work is intrinsically satisfying
* employee uses effective stress coping
What does “The Romance of Leadership” mean?
- Followers inflate the perceived influence of leaders on organizational success
- Leadership simplifies complex events, making it easier for people to understand outcomes
- People, especially in the U.S., want to believe that leaders make a difference rather than uncontrollable forces; employees look for evidence to support this belief
- Fundamental Attribution Error: Employees give leaders credit for success because they don’t see external factors influencing outcomes; leaders often reinforce this by taking credit
- The romance is shaped by followers’ perceptions, not actual behaviors or formal leadership norms
List and describe eight personal attributes associated with effective leaders.
(Pandas Swim Madly Down Icebergs Bouncing Coconuts Everywhere)
Personality: Effective leaders tend to have higher levels of extroversion and conscientiousness.
Self-Concept: They have strong self-beliefs and a positive self-evaluation of their leadership skills and ability to achieve goals.
Leadership Motivation: Effective leaders have a need for socialized power to achieve team or organizational goals, not personal gain.
Drive: They possess an inner motivation to pursue goals and achieve success.
Integrity: Effective leaders demonstrate strong moral principles through truthfulness and consistency between words and actions.
Knowledge of the Business: They have deep knowledge of the company’s environment, which allows them to make more intuitive decisions.
Cognitive and Practical Intelligence: Leaders possess above-average cognitive ability to process information and solve real-world problems by adapting to or shaping their environment.
Emotional Intelligence: They can recognize and regulate their own emotions, as well as understand and manage the emotions of others.
What are the 4 components of Path Goal Leadership Theory
(Every Leader Enjoys Learning)
Employee contingencies:
* Skills/experience
* Locus of control
Leader Effectivenes:
* Employee motivation
* Employee satisfaction
* Leader acceptance
Environmental Contingencies:
* Task structure
* Team dynamics
Leader Behaviors:
* Directive
* Supportive
* Participative
* Acheivement-oriented
Define Authentic Leadership.
The belief that effective leaders are aware of, feel comfortable with, and act consistently in alignment with their values, personality, and self-concept.
Summarize the cultural and gender similarities and differences relating to leadership.
Cultural Similarities and Differences in Leadership:
* Culture shapes leaders’ values and norms, influencing their decisions and actions
* Followers’ expectations of leaders are shaped by culture
* Leaders whose actions deviate from cultural expectations are often seen as ineffective
* Leaders may face pressure to conform to societal leadership norms
* Cultural differences in leadership practices are partly explained by implicit leadership theory (the belief that certain qualities are universally associated with leadership)
Gender Similarities and Differences in Leadership:
* No significant difference between male and female leaders in terms of task-oriented or people-oriented leadership
* Both genders exhibit similar behaviors in real-world jobs
* Women tend to adopt a more participative leadership style due to socialization (raised to be more egalitarian and less status-oriented)
* Women often have better interpersonal skills, contributing to their greater use of participative leadership
* Employees expect female leaders to be more participative due to gender stereotypes
* Women are rated higher in coaching, teamwork, and empowering employees
* Women face negative evaluations when using more directive or autocratic leadership styles
