Leadership Flashcards
Leadership
- Influencing others to achieve goals
- Effective leadership
- Enhances productivity, innovation, satisfaction, and commitment of followers
Leaders vs. Managers
Leaders
Create, originate, develop, inspire trust, think long-term, ask what and why, watch the horizon, challenge the status quo, do the right things, seek and implement change, provide vision, cause pain
Managers
Implement, copy, maintain, control, think short-term, ask how and when, watch the bottom line, accept the status quo, do things right, maintain the status quo
Exchange Relationship Based Theories
Focus is on type of relationship between leader and members.
- transactional leadership theory
- transformational leadership theory
- Leader Member exchange (LMX) theory
Transactional Leadership
Leadership based on a straightforward exchange between the leader and followers.
three styles/ behaviours with transactional leadership
- contingent reward behaviour
- managment by exception (active)
- managment by exception (passive)
Contingent Reward Behaviour -
Contracts exchange of rewards for effort, promises rewards for good performance, recognizes accomplishments.
Management by Exception (active)
Watches and searches for deviations from rules and standards, takes corrective action.
Management by Exception (passive)
Intervenes only if standards are not met
Transformational Leadership
Leadership that provides follower with a new vision that instills true commitment
Transfromational - the four I’s
- intellectual simulation
- individualized consideration
- inspirational motivation
- idealized influence (charisma)
Intellectual Stimulation -
Promotes intelligence, rationality, and careful problem-solving, challenges assumptions.
Individualized Consideration -
Gives personal attention, treats each employee individually, coaches, advises.
Inspirational Motivation
Communicates vision, high expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts,
Idealized Influence (Charisma)
Provides vision and sense of mission, instills pride, loyalty, respect and trust.
Transformatioanl Leadership Outcomes
Positively related to:
Job satisfaction
Satisfaction with leader
Trust in leader
Motivation
Organizational commitment
Leader effectiveness
Performance
Extra effort (by followers)
Transactional versus Transformational Leadership
Transformational
Positively related to performance
Leadership that provides followers with a new vision that instills true commitment
Contingent reward
Positively related to performance
Management by exception (active and passive)
Negatively (weakly) related to performance
Charisma
- the ability to command strong loyalty and devotion from followers and thus have the potential for strong influence among them
The Dark Side of Charisma
- Being in awe of the leader reduces good suggestions by followers
- Desire for leader acceptance inhibits criticism by followers
- Adoration by followers creates delusions of leader infallibility
- Excessive confidence and optimism blind the leader to real dangers
- Denial of problems and failures reduces organizational learning
- Risky, grandiose projects are more likely to fail
- Taking complete credit for successes alienates some key followers
- Impulsive, non-traditional behavior creates enemies as well as believers
- Dependence on the leader inhibits development of competent successors
- Failure to develop successors creates an eventual leadership crisis
Leader-member Exchange (LMX)
A theory that focuses on the quality of relationship between a leader and a follower.
Based on Social Exchange Theory
- The idea is that over time, with interactions, social exchange relps develop. High- quality relationships results in effective leadership.
- Involves the norm of reciprocity
- Repeated exchanges lead to trust, loyalty, and mutual commitments
LMX example
Ex, leader does something good for follower (such as giving attention) and follower will reciprocate with good performance
Can lead to in-groups and out-groups
High LMX
- Involves a high degree of mutual influence and obligation as well as trust, loyalty, open communication, and respect between a leader and an employee.
- In high-quality relationships, employees perform tasks beyond their job descriptions.
Low LMX
- Characterized by low trust, respect, obligation, and mutual support.
- In low-quality relationships, the leader provides less attention and latitude to employees.
- Employees do only what their job descriptions and formal role requirements demand of them.
Outcomes of LMX
LMX associated with:
More organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs)
Higher job performance
Higher commitment
Higher job satisfaction
Higher satisfaction with supervisor
Higher perceptions of organizational justice
Decreased role ambiguity
Less turnover
NOTE: LMX can lead to perceptions that some workers are getting preferential treatment… (in-group vs. out-group).
Formal vs Emergent Leadership
Formal
Individuals with titles such as manager, executive, supervisor, and department head occupy formal or assigned leadership roles
Emergent leadership
- Individuals emerge as informal leaders in leaderless groups.
- Perceived as leader by team members
Leader emergence positively related to:
Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, Intelligence, Authoritarianism, Leader experience, Self-esteem, Masculinity, etc.
Task Leader:
Concerned with accomplishing the task
Social-Emotional Leader:
- Reduces tension, manages disagreements, settles arguments, maintains morale
- Both have a role, particularly in new groups
- Referent power, high skills important in emergent leadership
Shared Leadership
Leadership roles are distributed amongst team members.
Trait theory of leadership
- concept of are leaders born or made
- leadership depends on the personal qualities or traits of the leader
- Idea that effective leaders possess a common set of personality characteristics
Traits associated (weakly) with leader effectiveness:
Intelligence
Energy and drive
Self-confidence
Dominance
Motivation to lead
Honesty and integrity
Need for achievement
Sociability
Emotional stability
Extraversion and Conscientiousness (best personality predictors)
Motivation to lead (MTL) -
the desire to attain leadership roles and to expand effort to fulfill leader role requirements
Limitations of the trait approach
- Does not tell us what leaders do to influence others successfully.
It does not take into account the situation in which leadership occurs. - Traits alone are not sufficient for successful leadership.
- Traits are only a precondition for certain actions that a leader must take in order to be successful.
- Traits are often a better predictor of whether one becomes a leader than leader effectiveness..
Leadership categorization theory
people are more likely to view somebody as a leader and to evaluate them as a more effective leader when they possess prototypical characteristics of leadership
Consideration
- The extent to which a leader is approachable and shows personal concern and respect for employees
- Slightly more strongly related to satisfaction and motivation.
Initiating Structure
- The degree to which a leader concentrates on group goal attainment.
- Slightly more strongly related to performance.
Situational Theories of Leadership
- The situation refers to the setting in which influence attempts occur.
- The basic premise is that the effectiveness of a leadership style is contingent on the setting.
Situational Theories
- Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
- House’s Path-Goal Theory
Fielder’s Contingency Theory
How effective a leadership style will be depends on how favourable the situation is for the leader
Fielder’s Contingency Theory - Style
Relationship oriented vs Task Oriented
What determines favourability: Situational factors
Leader Member relations
Task structure
Position Power
Task Orientation:
is most effective when the leadership situation is very favourable or when it is very unfavourable.
Relationship Orientation:
most effective in conditions of medium favourability.
Path Goal Theory
- The most important activities of leaders are those that clarify the paths to various goals of interest to employees.
- Leader’s job is to assist followers in attaining their goals
- Remove any pitfalls and roadblocks
- That is… clear the path to the goal
- Substitute anything lacking in environment or employee.
Behaviours and situational factors:
- Different leadership behaviors will be effective in specific situations.
- Situational factors will determine effectiveness.
The effective leader forms a connection between employee goals and organizational goals.
Path-Goal Leadership Styles
- 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.
Supportive Leader Behavior
Behavior that satisfies subordinate needs and preferences, display concern for subordinate welfare, creating friendly and supportive environment, etc.
Participative Leader Behavior
Behavior that encourages participation in decision making. Consulting with subordinates, taking their opinions into account, etc.
Achievement Oriented Leader Behavior:
Encouraging performance excellence, setting challenging goals, seeking improvement, emphasizing excellence, showing confidence, etc.
Contingency factors
- Environmental variables
- Employees’ characteristics
- Leader should compensate for what is lacking in the work setting or employee
Effective leaders enhance goal-oriented performance by:
Enhancing motivation
Enhancing abilities of followers
Providing guidance
Reducing obstacles
Providing resources to facilitate performance
When are the path-goal styles most effective
- directive
- supportive
- participative
- achievment oriented
Directive
When individuals have difficulty doing tasks or the tasks are ambiguous.
Supportive
When individuals are under stress or otherwise show that they need to be supported. Most effective in dissatisfying, frustrating jobs.
Participative
When individuals need to buy into decisions
Achievement Oriented
When individuals like challenges and are highly motivated
Path Goal: Strengths and Weakness
strenghts
Generally supported by research
Considers employees, situation, and leader
Weaknesses
Often better at predicting job satisfaction and leader acceptance than job performance
Weaknesses
Often better at predicting job satisfaction and leader acceptance than job performance
Servant Leadership
- Leadership that goes beyond one’s own self-interests and has a genuine concern to serve others and a motivation to lead
- Someone who wants to serve first, and lead second
Servant Leadership - Key characteristics:
Empowering and developing followers, leader humility, leader authenticity, interpersonal acceptance, providing direction, stewardsh
Positively related to:
LMX
Trust in manager
Job performance
Organizational citizenship behaviors
Engagement
Job satisfaction
Commitment
A challenge to leadership
- Leaders often have to do things that are seen as being unfair - deliver bad news
- Unfairness affects perceptions of the leader
- Perceived unfairness reduces perceived legitimacy of the leader
- Leads to resistance to leader (e.g., refusal to comply)
- Negative gossip about leader (e.g., spreading reputational info)
- Reduced citizenship toward leader (e.g., helping)
- Follower responses can limit a leader’s ability to lead
Positive leadership
leadership that focuses on leader behaviours and interpersonal dynamics that increase followers’ confidence and result in positive outcomes beyond task compliance
Empowering leadership -
implementing conditions that enable power to be shared with employees
Ethical leadership
the demonstration of normativity appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision making
Ethical organizational climate
the shared perceptions that employees have about ethical poliites, and practices, and procedures in formal organizational systems
Authentic leadership
a positive form of leadership that involves being true to oneself
Upward-directed Gender Bias
All of this is amplified for female leaders
Upward-directed gender bias
Role congruity theory - gender
prejudice against female leaders is the result of an incongruity between the perceived characteristics of women and the perceived requirements of leadership roles
What can we do to fix this - gender bias
- Instead, we need to change stereotypes and address equity issues
- Followers need to be aware of their biases
- Check ourselves… try not to act on stereotypes
- Understand that follower actions can negatively affect leaders
- 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)
