Chapter 11

Question 1

What is the definition of leadership?

Answer 1

• _Leadership _is the ability to influence people toward the attainment of organizational goals.

Question 2

What are the four approaches (considered contemporary leadership) that are in tune with leadership for today’s turbulent times?

Answer 2

• Four approaches that are in tune with leadership for today’s turbulent times are Level 5 leadership, servant leadership, authentic leadership, and interactive leadership, which has been associated with women’s style of leading.

Question 3

What are the five levels of Level 5 Leadership?

Answer 3

• Level 1 Capable: contributes talent, skills, knowledge
• Level 2 Contributing: contributes individually; works well in group
• Level 3 Competent: manages team members and assets to reach set objectives
• Level 4 Effective: stimulates high standards; champions dedication to vision
• Level 5: builds excellence through dedication and humility

Question 4

What is a servant leader?

Answer 4

• A servant leader is a leader who serves others by working to fulfill followers’ needs and goals, as well as to achieve the organization’s larger mission.

Question 5

What are the characteristics of authentic leadership?

Answer 5

• Authentic leadership refers to leadership by individuals who know and understand themselves, who espouse and act consistent with higher-order ethical values, and who empower and inspire others with their openness and authenticity.
• Key characteristics of authentic leadership:
  
  • Authentic leaders pursue their purpose with passion.
  • Authentic leaders practice solid values.
  • Authentic leaders lead with their hearts as well as their heads.
  • Authentic leaders establish connected relationships.
  • Authentic leaders demonstrate self-discipline.

Question 6

What is interactive leadership?

Answer 6

• Interactive leadership is a leadership style characterized by values such as inclusion, collaboration, relationship building, and caring.

Question 7

How is women’s style of leadership different from men’s?

Answer 7

• When rated by peers, subordinates, and bosses, female managers scored significantly higher than men on abilities such as motivating others, fostering communication, and listening.
• Women were rated higher on social and emotional skills, which are crucial for interactive leadership.
• Women outshone men in almost every leadership dimension measured, even some considered typically masculine qualities, such as driving for results.
• Women were typically rated lower on developing a strategic perspective, which some researchers believe hinders female managers’ career advancement despite their exceptional ratings on other leadership dimensions.

Question 8

What does humility mean in the context of leadership?

Answer 8

• Humility means being unpretentious and modest rather than arrogant and prideful.

Question 9

What are the primary differences between manager qualities and leader qualities?

Answer 9

• Manager Qualities: Focus on the Organization
  
  • rational
  • maintains stability
  • assigns tasks
  • organizes
  • analyzes
  • position power
• Leader Qualities: Focus on People
  
  • visionary
  • promotes change
  • defines purpose
  • nurtures
  • innovates
  • personal power

Question 10

What are important traits of a leader?

Answer 10

• _Traits _are distinguishing personal characteristics, such as intelligence, self-confidence, energy, and independence.
• Physical Characteristics
  
  • energy
  • physical stamina
• Intelligence and Ability
  
  • intelligence, cognitive ability
  • knowledge
  • judgment, decisiveness
• Personality
  
  • self-confidence
  • honesty and integrity
  • optimism
  • desire to lead
  • independence
• Social Characteristics
  
  • sociability, interpersonal skills
  • cooperativeness
  • ability to enlist cooperation
  • tact, diplomacy
• Work-Related Characteristics
  
  • achievement drive, desire to excel
  • conscientiousness in pursuit of goals
  • persistence against obstacles, tenacity
• Social Background
  
  • education
  • mobility

Question 11

What is the single characteristic most common to top executives?

Answer 11

• optimism

Question 12

Rather than just understanding their traits, the best leaders recognize and hone their strengths. What are strengths as referred to here?

Answer 12

• _Strengths _are natural talents and abilities that have been supported and reinforced with learned knowledge and skills.

Question 13

What is the “Great Man” approach to leadership?

Answer 13

• Early efforts to understand leadership success focused on the leader’s traits. Traits are the distinguishing personal characteristics of a leader, such as intelligence, honesty, self-confidence, and even appearance. The early research looked at leaders who had achieved a level of greatness, and hence were referred to as the “Great Man” approach.
• The idea was relatively simple: Find out what made these people great and select future leaders who already exhibited the same traits or who could be trained to develop them.

Question 14

What is the behavioral approach to leadership? What are two basic leadership behaviors identified as important for leadership?

Answer 14

• The inability to define effective leadership based solely on traits led to an interest in looking at the behavior of leaders and how it might contribute to leadership success or failure.
• Two basic leadership behaviors identified as important for leadership are attention to tasks and attention to people.

Question 15

Two types of behavior that have been identified as applicable to effective leadership in a variety of situations and time periods are task-oriented behavior (initiating structure) and people-oriented behavior (consideration).

What is initiating structure and consideration?

Answer 15

• Initiating structure is the term that describes the extent to which a leader is task oriented and directs subordinates’ work activities toward goal accomplishment.
• _Consideration _is the term used by researchers at The Ohio State University to describe the extent to which a leader is sensitive to subordinates, respects their ideas and feelings, and establishes mutual trust.

Question 16

To be effective leaders, is it necessary to be high on both initiating structure and consideration?

Answer 16

• Studies suggest that effective leaders may be high on consideration and low on initiating structure or low on consideration and high on initiating structure, depending on the situation.

Question 17

What is the Leadership Grid?

Answer 17

• The Leadership Grid is a two-dimensional leadership model that measures the leader’s concern for people and concern for production to categorize the leader in one of five different leadership styles.

Question 18

What are the five styles of leadership described in the Leadership Grid?

Answer 18

• Country Club Management: thoughtful attention to the needs of people for satisfaying relationships leads to a comfortable, friendly organization atmosphere and work tempo
• Team Management: work accomplishment is from committed people; interdependence through a common stake in organization purpose leads to relationships of trust and respect
• Impoverished Management: exertion of minimum effort to get required work done is appropriate to sustain organization membership
• Authority-Compliance: efficiency in operations results from arranging conditions of work in such a way that human elements interfere to a minimum degree
• Middle-of-the-Road Management: adequate organization performance is possible through balancing the necessity to get out work with maintaining morale of people at a satisfactory level

Question 19

What are contingency approaches to leadership? What are the three contingency approaches to leadership discussed in the textbook?

Answer 19

• Contingency approaches to leadership explore how the organizational situation influences leader effectiveness.
• Contingency approaches include the situational model based on the work of Hersey and Blanchard, the leadership model developed by Fiedler and his associates, and the substitutes-for-leadership concept.

Question 20

What is the situational model of leadership?

Answer 20

• The situational model of leadership, which originated with Hersey and Blanchard, is an interesting extension of the behavioral theories summarized in the leadership grid. This approach focuses a great deal of attention on the characteristics of followers in determining appropriate leadership behavior.

Question 21

What are the four leadership styles described in the situational model of leadership? When should each style be used?

Answer 21

• Directing Style
  
  • Authoritative leader provides detailed goals and tasks, closely monitors operations and performance.
  • Use this style when followers have low readiness, low ability, and lack of confidence.
• Coaching Style
  
  • Dual-focus leader provides both task instruction and personal support as needed.
  • Use this style when followers have moderate readiness beacuse of confidence to proceed but lack ability.
• Entrusting Style
  
  • Delegating leader who displays little focus on either task or people needs.
  • Use this style when followers have high readiness because of ability and confidence to perform tasks themselves.
• Supporting Style
  
  • Engaging leader encourages, supports, consluts with, and develops followers’ skills and confidence.
  • Use this style when followers have moderate readiness because of ability but lack confidence and need personal support.

Question 22

What is the basic idea behind Fiedler’s Contingency Theory?

Answer 22

• The starting point for Fiedler’s theory is the extent to which the leader’s style is task oriented or relationship (people) oriented.
• Fiedler considered a person’s leadership style to be relatively fixed and difficult to change; therefore, the basic idea is to match the leader’s style with the situation most favorable for his or her effectiveness.
• By diagnosing leadership style and the organizational situation, the correct fit can be arranged.

Question 23

What is considered a highly favorable situation in Fiedler’s Contingency theory? What is considered a highly unfavorable situation?

Answer 23

• A situation would be considered highly favorable to the leader when leader–member relationships are positive, tasks are highly structured, and the leader has formal authority over followers. In this situation, followers trust, respect, and have confidence in the leader.
• A situation would be considered _highly unfavorable _to the leader when leader–member relationships are poor, tasks are highly unstructured, and the leader has little formal authority.

Question 24

What are situational substitutes for leadership? What is a neutralizer?

Answer 24

• A substitute for leadership is a situational variable that makes a leadership style redundant or unnecessary.
• A _neutralizer _is a situational variable that counteracts a leadership style and prevents the leader from displaying certain behaviors.

Question 25

What are examples of substitutes and neutralizers for leadership?

Answer 25

• Organizational Variables
  
  • group cohesiveness
  • formalization
  • inflexibility
  • low position power
  • physical separation
• Task Characteristics
  
  • highly structured task
  • automatic feedback
  • intrinsic satisfaction
• Group Characteristics
  
  • professionalism
  • training/experience

Question 26

Charismatic leaders are skilled in the art of visionary leadership. What is a vision and why is it important?

Answer 26

• A _vision _is an attractive, ideal future that is credible yet not readily attainable.
• Vision is an important component of both charismatic and transformational leadership.
• Visionary leaders speak to the hearts of employees, letting them be part of something bigger than themselves.
• Where others see obstacles or failures, they see possibility and hope.

Question 27

What is the difference between transformational leaders and transactional leaders?

Answer 27

• A transformational leader is distinguished by a special ability to bring about innovation and change by creating an inspiring vision, shaping values, building relationships, and providing meaning for followers.
• A transactional leader clarifies subordinates’ roles and task requirements, initiates structure, provides rewards, and displays consideration for followers.

Question 28

According to research which of the Big 5 personality factors has been shown to be associated with transformational leaders?

Answer 28

• agreeableness

Question 29

What are the top five qualities desired in a leader? What are the top five qualities desired in a follower?

Answer 29

• Leader
  
  • honest
  • competent
  • forward-looking
  • inspiring
  • intelligent
• Follower
  
  • honest
  • competent
  • dependable
  • cooperative
  • loyal

Question 30

What are the five types of follower styles Robert E. Kelley identified in his research?

Answer 30

• The alienated follower is a passive, yet independent, critical thinker. Alienated employees are often effective followers who have experienced setbacks and obstacles, perhaps promises broken by their superiors.
• The _conformist _participates actively in a relationship with the boss but doesn’t use critical thinking skills. In other words, a conformist typically carries out any and all orders, regardless of the nature of the request.
• The pragmatic survivor has qualities of all four extremes—depending on which style fits with the prevalent situation. This type of person uses whatever style best benefits his or her own position and minimizes risk.
• The effective follower is both a critical, independent thinker and active in the organization. Effective followers behave the same toward everyone, regardless of their position in the organization.

Question 31

What is the difference between power and influence?

Answer 31

• _Power _is the potential ability to influence the behavior of others.
• _Influence _is the effect that a person’s actions have on the attitudes, values, beliefs, or behavior of others.

Question 32

What is the difference between hard power and soft power?

Answer 32

• Hard power is power that stems largely from a person’s position of authority and includes legitimate, reward, and coercive power.
• Soft power includes expert power and referent power, which are based on personal characteristics and interpersonal relationships more than on a position of authority.

Question 33

What is position power and what are the three types of power that are considered in this category?

Answer 33

• The manager’s position gives him or her the power to reward or punish subordinates to influence their behavior.
• Types of Position Power
  
  • legitimate power
  • reward power
  • coercive power

Question 34

What is legitimate power?

Answer 34

• _Legitimate power _is power that stems from a manager’s formal position in an organization and the authority granted by that position.

Question 35

What is reward power?

Answer 35

• Reward power results from the authority to bestow rewards.

Question 36

What is coercive power?

Answer 36

• Coercive power stems from the authority to punish or recommend punishment.

Question 37

In contrast to the external sources of position power, where does personal power come from?

Answer 37

• In contrast to the external sources of position power, personal power most often comes from internal sources, such as an individual’s special knowledge or personal characteristics

Question 38

What are the two types of personal power and how are they defined?

Answer 38

• Expert power is power that results from a leader’s special knowledge or skill in the tasks performed by subordinates.
• Referent power results from characteristics that command subordinates’ identification with, respect and admiration for, and desire to emulate the leader.

Question 39

There are additional sources of power that are not linked to a particular person or position, but rather to the role an individual plays in the overall functioning of the organization. What are the three additional sources of power discussed in your textbook?

Answer 39

• Personal Effort
  
  • People who show initiative, work beyond what is expected of them, take on undesirable but important projects, and show interest in learning about the organization and industry often gain power as a result.
• Network of Relationships
  
  • People who are enmeshed in a network of relationships have greater power. A leader or employee with many relationships knows what’s going on in the organization and industry, whereas one who has few interpersonal connections is often in the dark about important activities or changes.
• Information
  
  • Information is a primary business resource, and people who have access to information and control over how and to whom it is distributed are typically powerful.

Question 40

What are the six interpersonal influence tactics leaders can use to get people to do what needs to be done? Which one is used most frequently?

Answer 40

1. Use rational persuasion.
   
   • The most frequently used influence strategy is to use facts, data, and logical argument to persuade others that a proposed idea, request, or decision is appropriate.
   • Using rational persuasion can often be highly effective because most people have faith in facts and analysis.
2. _Help people like you. _
   
   • People would rather say yes to someone they like than to someone they don’t.
   • Effective leaders strive to create goodwill and favorable impressions.
3. Rely on the rule of reciprocity.
   
   • Leaders can influence others through the exchange of benefits and favors.
4. Develop allies.
   
   • Effective leaders develop networks of allies—people who can help the leader accomplish his or her goals.
5. Ask for what you want.
   
   • Another way to influence others is to make a direct and personal request.
6. Make use of higher authority.
   
   • Sometimes to get things done, leaders have to use their formal authority, as well as gain the support of people at higher levels to back them up.