L4 - Teamwork & Leadership

Question 1

Define team

Answer 1

Team: interdependent collection of individuals who work together a common goal and who share responsibility for specific outcomes for their organisations

Question 2

Define leadership

Answer 2

Leadership is the process whereby an individual influences group members in a way that gets them to achieve some group goal that he or she has identified as important

Question 3

Discuss the input and process factors that affect team performance

Answer 3

Inputs:

• environment or context
• task characteristics
• team members

Processes:
- norms
- communication and coordination
- cohesion
decision-making

Question 4

What are the 6 theoretical approaches to leadership

Answer 4

1. Trait approach
2. Behavioural approach
3. Power and influence approach
4. Contingency approach
5. Leader-member exchange theory
6. Transformational leaderhip

Question 5

What is the TRAIT APPROACH to leadership?

What are personal traits related to leadership success?

Answer 5

Trait approach: argues that some traits are shared by all effective leaders

Originally little relationship was found between traits and leadership

Now, some traits correlate with leadership due to advances in personality assessment

Personal traits related to leadership success:
 High energy level
 Tolerance for stress
 Emotional maturity
 Integrity
 Self-confidence
 Motivation (need for power, achievement, affiliation)
 The Big 5
• Relatively strong relationship (.48) between leadership and Big Five
 Intelligence

Question 6

What is the BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH to leadership?

Initiating structure vs. consideration behaviours

Answer 6

Emphasises what leaders actually do on the job and the relationship of this behaviour to leader effectiveness

Consideration more strongly related to satisfaction and initiating structure more related to performance

Question 7

What is the POWER AND INFLUENCE APPROACH to leadership?

What are the 5 types of power involved?

Answer 7

A conception that leadership is best understood by the use of the power and influence exercised by a person with a group

Reward power
• Give positive incentive for desirable behaviour

Coercive power
• They punish undesirable behaviour

Legitimate power
• Person is in a position of authority

Expert power
• Followers believe that the leader has a special expertise in their area

Referent power
• Follower wants to be like the leader because of their personal characteristics

Question 8

What is the CONTINGENCY APPROACH to leadership?

Control if contingent on what 3 factors?

Answer 8

Effective leadership depends on a match between the characteristics of the leader and the situation

Control is contingent on 3 factors:
 Leader-follower relationships
 Degree of tasks structure
 Leader’s authority or position

Question 9

What is the LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE THEORY to leadership?

Answer 9

Leadership is based upon mutual influence between leader and members of group

Leaders differentiate their subordinates in terms of:
 Their competence and skill
 The extent to which they can be trusted
 Their motivation to assume greater responsibility

Question 10

What is the TRANSFORMATION LEADERSHIP APPROACH to leadership?

Answer 10

Transformational leadership: the process of influencing major changes in the attitudes in assumptions of organisation members and building commitment for major changes in the organisation’s objectives and strategies

Question 11

What are similarities between theories of leadership? (Yukl 1994)

Answer 11

Yukl (1994) notes that there is some convergence in the findings from different lines of leadership research:
o Importance of influencing and motivating
o Importance of maintaining effective relations
o Importance of making decisions