CHAPTER 9: Leadership part 2 Flashcards
2 main leadership behaviours:
o Consideration
o Initiating Structure
Consideration:
The extent to which a leader is approachable and shows personal concern and respect for employees.
o Leaders are friendly, express appreciation, and support group welfare.
o Associated with higher employee satisfaction, motivation, and trust.
Initiating
The degree to which a leader concentrates on group goal attainment.
o Leaders define roles, assign tasks, schedule work, and enforce procedures.
o Associated with higher job performance and group efficiency.
Leader Reward Behaviour
The leader’s use of compliments, tangible benefits, and special treatment for employees.
When rewards are contingent (clearly linked to performance), they enhance:
Trust in supervisor
Job satisfaction
Effort and performance
Organizational citizenship behaviour
Leader Punishment Behaviour
The leader’s use of reprimands or unfavourable task assignments, and withholding rewards.
o Ineffective when punishment is random (causes dissatisfaction and resentment).
o Contingent punishment leads to greater fairness perceptions and lower role ambiguity.
Situational theories
argue that leadership effectiveness depends on the situation.
* The effectiveness of a leadership style depends on:
o Employee characteristics
o Nature of the task
o Organizational environment
Two key situational theories
- Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
- Path-Goal Theory
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
- Leadership effectiveness depends on the fit between a leader’s style and the favourability of the situation.
- Key Idea: Some leadership styles work better in certain situations than others.
Least Preferred Co-Worker (LPC) Scale
o High LPC leaders → Relationship-oriented
Value interpersonal relations even with difficult employees.
o Low LPC leaders → Task-oriented
Focus on task completion and see poor-performing employees negatively.
Leadership effectiveness depends on three factors:
- Leader-Member Relations: Good relationships = easier to influence.
- Task Structure: Highly structured tasks = easier to manage.
- Position Power: Strong authority = more influence.
House’s Path–Goal Theory
- A situational theory of leadership that is concerned with the situations under which various leader behaviours (directive, supportive, participative, achievement-oriented) are most effective.
- Strengths:
- Generally supported by research
- Considers employees, situation, and leader
- Weaknesses
- Often better at predicting job satisfaction and leader acceptance than job performance
Leader Behaviour Types
- Directive path-goal clarifying behaviors
- Supportive Leader Behavior
- Participative Leader Behavior
- Achievement Oriented Leader Behavior
Directive path-goal clarifying behaviors
- Behaviors that clarify goals, clarify means to carry out tasks, scheduling, coordinating work, use of rewards/punishment contingent on performance, etc.
- Most effective: When individuals have difficulty doing tasks or the tasks are ambiguous
Supportive Leader Behavior
- Behavior that satisfies subordinate needs and preferences, display concern for subordinate welfare, creating friendly and supportive environment, etc.
- Most effective: When individuals are under stress or otherwise show that they need to be supported
Participative Leader Behavior
- Behavior that encourages participation in decision making. Consulting with subordinates, taking their opinions into account, etc.
- Most effective: When individuals need to buy into decisions
Achievement Oriented Leader Behavior
- Encouraging performance excellence, setting challenging goals, seeking improvement, emphasizing excellence, showing confidence, etc.
- Most effective: When individuals like challenges and are highly motivated
Employee Characteristics
- High-need achievers → Work best under achievement-oriented leadership.
- Employees preferring direction → Respond best to directive leadership.
- Low-confidence employees → Benefit from directive leadership.
- High-confidence employees → Prefer less directive, more participative leadership.
Environmental Factors
- Clear and routine tasks → Directive leadership is redundant and may reduce satisfaction.
- Challenging but ambiguous tasks → Directive & participative leadership help clarify goals.
- Frustrating or dissatisfying tasks → Supportive leadership compensates for job dissatisfaction.
Upward-Directed Gender Bias
- More difficult for females leaders to maintain effectiveness
- Legitimacy loss is greater for female managers
- Less help from subordinates
- More negative gossip about them
- More resistance to their leadership
What can we do to fix this?
* we need to change stereotypes and address equity issues
* Organizations need to realize that employee feedback may be biased
* Organizations need to take steps to legitimize female leaders (e.g., more representation in leader roles)
