Classical Leadership Theories & New Leadership School Flashcards
1930: Trait Theories (“Great Man”)
-“Which personal leader attributes determine success?”
-More leadership attributes / characteristics
Leadership Theories in the Course of Time (page 28)
1930 : “Great Man theories”
1950 : “Behavioral theories”
1960: “Situational theories”
1980: “New leadership school”
2025: Next leadership
Which personal leader
attributes determine success? (“Great Man”)
Attributes
-Personality traits
-Stability in different environments
Empirical findings
-Only moderate correlation between
attributes and leadership success
-Partially contradictory findings regarding the relevance of examined attributes
More leadership
attributes / characteristics (“Great Man”)
- Abilities
- Attainments
- Responsibility
- Participation
- Status
Abilities (“Great Man”)
Intelligence, capability of expression, power of judgment, originality
Attainments (“Great Man”)
Success in school, knowledge, success in sports
Responsibility (“Great Man”)
Reliability, initiative taking, self assuredness,
stamina
Participation (“Great Man”)
Social activity, cooperation, flexibility, humor
Status (“Great Man”)
Socioeconomic popularity
Trait Theories Today
- A high number of decision-makers in organizations still
believe that the ability to lead is congenital - Yet, leadership can be learned and trained to a large extent
-In the selection process of leaders, personality and
intelligence tests still play a major role
- Yet, their prognostic quality is limited with complex tasks,
such as a leadership role
Trait Theories Today Rediscovered with limitations
Moderate relationships between leadership success
and the so called “Big Five” personality traits
Extraversion: r=24 (active, sociable, communicative,
determined, dominant)
Openness to experience: r= 24
(creative, cultivated, versatile,intellectual, open-minded)
Agreeableness: r=21
(friendly, flexible, trustful,cooperative, benevolent)
Conscientiousness: r= 16
(reliable, careful,
responsible, planful, persistent)
Neuroticism: r=22
(anxious, easily upset,embarassed, insecure, worried)
–> voir page 34 /35 pour graph
Trait theorie/ “Great Man” – Theories (Stogdill): Strenghts
Intuitively understandable
Long research tradition
Partially supported by empirical research,
particularly in the context of the “big five” theory
Trait theorie/ “Great Man” – Theories (Stogdill): Weaknesses
-Unidimensional explanation of leader
behavior and success through personality
traits and other attributes
-Prominent leaders exhibit different traits
-Disregard of situation, role and task factors
-Development of leadership competencies is
not taken into consideration
1950s: Behavioral Theories -“Ohio-State Studies” (Fleishman, Hemphill) - Leadership Orientations
- Relationship orientation: consideration
- Task orientation: Initiating structure
Relationship orientation
Leader regards the wellbeing of followers
Leader makes an effort to have a good
relationship to followers
Leader treats followers as equals
Leader supports followers with current
practices and concerns
Leader is committed to developing
followers’ skills and abilities
Task orientation
Leader criticizes inadequate work
Leader encourages slow working employees
to invest more effort
Leader rules with an ‘iron fist’
Leader makes sure that followers fully engage in their work
Leader demands inefficient workers to get more out of themselves
1950s: Behavioral Theories (ohio state studies : graph)
page 40
1950s: Behavioral Theories (ohio state studies) : Results
-Both leadership styles show moderately positive relationships with team/organizational performance
- Relationship orientation is on average more strongly related with indicators of leadership
success (e.g., employee motivation, satisfaction with leader, perceived leader effectiveness)
-Relationship orientation is in particular more strongly related to employee job
satisfaction than task orientation
Behavioral Theories (ohio state studies): Strengths
-Distinction of two essential leadership
styles derived from organizational practice
-Empirical research proves effectiveness of both leadership styles regarding different success indicators
-Studies indicate that the combination of
both leadership styles has a positive effect on leadership effectiveness
Behavioral Theories (ohio state studies): Weaknesses
-Rather weak implications of the model due
to the conceptual breadth of the two
categories
- Focus exclusively on leadership style, no consideration of situational or follower aspects
1950s: Behavioral Theories
Managerial Grid (Blake & Mouton)
(1,1) Impoverished Management – Low concern for people and results; minimal effort to manage.
(9,1) Authority-Compliance (Task Management) – High concern for results, low concern for people; efficiency is prioritized over relationships.
(1,9) Country Club Management – High concern for people, low concern for results; focuses on relationships over performance.
(5,5) Middle-of-the-Road Management – Moderate concern for both people and results; aims for balance but may not achieve excellence.
(9,9) Team Management – High concern for both people and results; considered the most effective leadership style as it fosters trust, respect, and commitment.
Managerial Grid: Strenghts
-Integration of both dimensions
consideration and initiating structure:
Interplay between the two dimensions is considered
-Intuitively understandable
-Shared understanding and vocabulary in
business world
- Considers the behaviors of leaders and what they do
- Leaders can assess their actions and
determine how they want to develop
alternative/additional leadership styles
-Implication for organizational practice:
“Adequate” leadership behavior is learnable
(–> leadership training)
Managerial Grid: Weaknesses
-Inconsistent research findings
-Match between leader behavior and
situational characteristics not clear
-What skills do leaders need to balance task
and relational leadership behaviors over
time?
- Leadership style as single determinant of leadership success may be oversimplification
of the complexity of everyday leadership - Neglect of the role of situation and
organizational structure in measuring
leadership success
Situational Leadership Model (Hersey & Blanchard)
low maturity (unable und unwilling)
–> low to moderate maturity (willing but unable)
–> moderate to high maturity (able but unwilling)
–> high maturity (able and willing)
page 53
Situational Leadership Model (Hersey & Blanchard): Suggestions for leaders
- Try to use the whole spectrum of leadership types
- Analyze your employees’ competencies and potentials precisely
-Differentiate leadership behavior: Leader is required to practice all 4 leadership styles in parallel and adapt them to the respective situation (i.e., depending on the maturity level of the followers)
- Analyze the causes for the qualification and motivation levels of your employees
- Invest into your employees’ maturity in order to be better able to delegate
Situational Leadership Model (Hersey & Blanchard): Strengths
-Incorporation of the situation in which
leadership occurs
- Frequently used in practice
Situational Leadership Model (Hersey & Blanchard): Weaknesses
-High demands are set on leaders: They
must be able to carry out 4 different styles simultaneously
- Leaders are expected to have no preference for one style of leadership
- The classification of employees into the four quadrants may be too rigid
- Employee maturity is the only situational factor taken into account
Limit of Classical research on leadership leads
to a dead end
-Limited predictive power of leadership success
-Primary focus on employees’ extrinsic motivation
-Neglect of change in employees’ work-related values,
attitudes and expectations
-Marginalization of leaders’ influence
New Leadership School: Development of a new approach
- Emphasis on leader‘s charisma
- Focus on emotions
-Goals:
–> Stimulate intrinsic motivation
–> Personal growth of employees
-New terms: Transformational / charismatic / visionary leadership
Transactional
Leadership
-Focus on goal definition
-Task fulfillment in
exchange for reward or
punishment
-Purely rational approach
–> Goal and results oriented
Transformational
Leadership
-Emotional approach
-Leadership via
inspiration, vision,
charisma
-Transformation of
subordinates’ values
–> value and goal transforming
Transactional Leadership:
Main Assumptions
Exchange is based on rational motivation; the
desired reward is achieved when the task is completed
according to the leader‘s expectations; exchange is
assumed to be independent from the employees’
preferences
Transactional Leadership: Two main behavioral patterns
- “Contingent reward”: goal clarification coupled with rewards for goal achievement
- “Management by exception”: delegation – leader
interventions only in exceptions
Goal and Results-Oriented (Transactional) Leadership: process
- Define or agree upon clear goals
2.Establish transparent performance standards
- Management-by-exception
4.Ensure that work environment promotes employees’ goal achievement
5.Systematic and open feedback
6.Contingent reward - reward goal achievement
Transactional Leadership: Objectives and Key Results
is a method to define, communicate
and track objectives and their results in a VUCA-environment
It is an individual/ team performance management process
to…
-Motivate/ engage in the management process
-Align the whole organization with the strategy
-Focus on fast learning
-Dynamically adjust priorities and develop the business
model
Transactional Leadership: advantages
-Development of followers’ performance
motivation, initiative taking, and readiness
to take
responsibility
-Establishing transparent and comparable
performance standards
-Individual analysis of critical points and
possibilities for improvement
Transactional Leadership: Limitations
-Qualification and motivations of followers
-Limitation of leadership to MbO (Management by Objectives)
- Quantitative aspects of tasks tend to be
over-valued as compared to qualitative
aspects
-Individual goals and performance may be given priority at the cost of teamwork
Transformational Leadership
Definition
Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the
organization and are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on their followers.
Leadership is not getting people to do things they don‘t want to do, but getting them to do things they
never thought they were able to do.
Transformational Leadership:
Basic Assumptions
-Transformational leadership complements transactional leadership
-Transformational Leadership considers emotional aspects of leaders
-Transformational leaders change the needs and preferences of their subordinates
-Leadership through inspiration, vision, and charisma
Transformational Leadership:
Dimensions of Transformational Leadership
- Idealized
influence - Inspirational
motivation
3.Intellectual
stimulation
4.Individualized
consideration
Idealized
influence
-Communicate
enthusiasm
-Show behavior
with which
others identify
-Exhibit integrity
at all times
Inspirational
motivation
-Motivate others
with an exciting
vision
-Engage people
emotionally
-Augment the
importance of
goals and tasks
Intellectual
stimulation
-Break out of
established
modes of
thinking
- Communicate
new insights
Individualized
consideration
- Consider each
employee as an
individual - Reinforce each
employee individually - Promote self-
confidence
Vision – An image of our desired future
- A vision is a picture of the future you seek to create. A statement of “our vision” shows
where we want to go, and what it will be like when we get there. - The word comes from the Latin videre , “to see”
-Because of its tangible and immediate quality, a vision gives shape and direction to the
organization’s future. It also helps people to set goals to get the organization closer to what it
wants to become
Transformational leadership increases…
-Employee satisfaction and motivation
-Effectivity rating of the leader and the work performance
-Objective organizational performance
–> augmentation effect: Transformational leadership has a positive effect on workload in addition to the effect of transactional
leadership
Transformational Leadership: limitations
-There are few charismatic leaders/visionaries
- Charisma, inspiration, and intellectual stimulation can only be learned to a certain extent
-Qualifications and motivation of the leader set the boundaries
-May be time-intensive, especially for individualized consideration
The Ohio State Studies narrowed the independent dimensions of leader behavior to two that substantially
accounted for most of the leadership behavior described by employees: consideration and ________
initiating structure
Dyadic Leadership Approach: Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX, Graen)
The relationship between leaders and individual followers may differ for followers in the ‘in-group’ versus
those in the ‘out-group’
In-group
high quality relationships, e.g. strong support from leader,
greater responsibilities
Out-Group
low quality relationships,
e.g. in extreme cases, only monitoring of compliance with the
work contract
Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX, Graen): Development
Role taking –> Role buiding –> stabilization
Role taking
-Leader tries to get
information about skills, abilities and traits of followers
Role building
- Mutual expectations and
demands are negotiated
-Shaping of the working
relationship
–> in-group/ out-group
Stabilization
- Developing routine
behaviors - Reinforcement of role patterns
Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX, Graen): Suggestions
-Establish a positive relationship to each member of your working group
-Consider the capabilities and needs of each employee
-Treat each employee fairly
- Meet each employee with trust and respect
-Promote diversity by recognizing the individual skills of employees
-Turn the whole working group to an in-group
- Develop a respectful working climate
- Critically examine one’s own attitude toward individual employees on a regular basis
Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX, Graen): Results (positive)
Positive correlation between good relationship quality and
Performance of employees (r = .30)
Satisfaction with leader (r = .57)
Organizational commitment (r = .41)
OCB: Organizational citizenship behavior (r = .34)
Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX, Graen): Results (negative)
Negative correlation between good relationship quality and
Role conflict (r = -.27)
Role ambiguity (r = -.34)
Turnover intention (r = -.34)
Actual turnover (r = -.15)
Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX, Graen): Strengths
-Incorporation of the diversity of
employees
-Stresses the dyadic relationship between
leader and individual follower
-Emphasizes the importance of
communication in leadership
-Positive relationship between high-quality
relationships and leadership success
empirically proven
Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX, Graen): weaknesses
-Validity of empirical measures sometimes
unclear
-The concept has not been researched
thoroughly enough, e.g. what exactly
constitutes a ‘high-quality relationship’?
Health-Oriented Leadership
-Integrative approach for evaluating health-oriented leadership
-Consideration of leader and follower perspectives:
–> Self-Care: Management of one‘s own health (leader and follower)
–> Staff-Care: Management of follower health by leader
-Three dimensions: value, awareness, behavior
page 18
Servant Leadership
- Paradox and counterintuitive perspective on leadership
- First conceptualization by Robert K. Greenleaf in the 1970’s
- Growing interest and popularity in recent years in practice and research
-Main ideas:
–> A servant leaderprimarily focuses on the needs of his/her employees and aids them in becoming more competent, free and independent.
–> This is contradictory to other leadership approaches, which tend to place the leader and his/her needs in the
center of attention.
Servant Leadership: Characteristics of a servant leader according to L. Spears
Servant:
-Listening
-Empathy
-Healing
Leader:
-Awareness
-Persuasion
-Conceptualization
-Foresight
Leader and Servant:
-Stewardship
-Commitment to
people
-Building
community
Page 22
