Leadership Flashcards
Leadership
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.
Why is good leadership important?
Bad leadership in the workplace leads to
increased stress in one’s personal life and
has significant negative impact both
inside and outside work
Implicit Theories of Leadership
- We hold implicit expectations and assumptions about what re good leadership characteristics, traits, and qualities.
- In general we tend to prefer leaders who are caring, honest, open to new ideas and have charisma, sensitivity, ddication, intelligence, attractiveness, masculinity, tyranny, and strength.
- But implicit theories are open to bias.
- For example: If you believe that a good leader should exert control over the group, you will tend to focus on that aspect but ignore others.
- We need testable theories and models – make the implicit explicit.
Theoretical Approaches to Leadership
- Universalist theories
- Behavioural theories
- Contingency theories
- Path-goal theory
- Transformational and charismatic leadership
Universalist Theories of Leadership
• Emphasises the personal attributes common to all effective eaders
• Early leadership theories (e.g., the great man/woman
theory) assumed that leaders are born, not made
• The Trait Approach: Argues that some traits are shared by
all effective leaders, however originally little relationship was
found between traits and leadership
• Most reviews now, however, uncover some traits relating to
leadership due to recent advances in personality
assessment
The Trait Approach: Personality
• Personal traits related to leadership success: 1. High energy level 2. Tolerance for stress 3. Emotional maturity 4. Integrity 5. Self-confidence 6. Motivation (need for power, achievement, affiliation) 7. The Big Five Personality Factors* 8. Intelligence*
• Overall, the five-factor model had a multiple correlation of .48 with
leadership
• Strong support for the leader trait perspective when traits are organized ccording to the five-factor model
Is intelligence necessary to be a leader?
Meta-analysis revealed correlation of .27 between leadership and
intelligence (Judge, Colbert & Ilies, 2004)
• “Results suggest that the relationship between intelligence and
leadership is considerably lower than previously thought”
Behavioural Theories of Leadership
• Emphasises what leaders actually do on the job and the
relationship of this behaviour to leader effectiveness.
1. Initiating structure vs. Consideration
Consideration more strongly related to satisfaction and initiating
structure more related to performance (Judge et al., 2004.
2. Task-oriented vs. Relationship-oriented
Relationship-oriented leaders found to be more effective than
task-oriented (Likert, 1967)
Leadership Grid (Blake and Moulton) Impoverished Management (1, 1):
Managers exercise minimum effort to get the work done
from subordinates. The leader has low concern for employee satisfaction and work deadlines so
there is disharmony and disorganization. The leaders are often merely aiming preserving job
and seniority.
Task management (9, 1):
Dictate or perish style. Focused on production not people.
Employees’ needs not met and they are seen as means to an end. Leader believes that
efficiency results only through proper organization of work systems and seeks to reduce input of
people where possible. May increase performance in short term but high people cost in
engagement and staff turnover.
Middle-of-the-Road (5, 5):
A compromising style where leader tries to keep a balance between
goals of company and people’s needs. Does not push for achievement so leads to average
organisational performance. Neither employee nor production needs are fully met.
Country Club (1, 9):
Collegial style with by low task and high people orientation. Gives people
attention and sets a friendly and comfortable environment. The leader believes that this leads to
h self-motivation and will find people working hard on their own. But a low task focus can lead to
poor performance
Team Management (9, 9):
High people and high task focus. Seen as most effective style by
Blake and Mouton. The leader believes that key elements in creating an effective and satisfying
team atmosphere are empowerment, commitment, trust, and respect
Leadership Grid
• The Leadership Grid shows that placing too much emphasis on
one area, and not others stifles productivity.
• The model proposes that the team leadership style - both
production and people - boosts employee productivity.
Need leadership flexibility
Contingency Theories
Contingency theories state that effective leadership
depends on a match between the characteristics of
the leader and the situation.
• Types of Contingency Theories
1. Fiedler’s Contingency Model
2. Path-Goal Theory
3. Leader-Member Exchange Theory