Leadership Flashcards
What is leadership?
The ability to influence. “The influence that particular individuals exert on the goal achievement of others in an organizational context.”
What are the two components of leadership? What are they?
Emergence and effectiveness
Emerg: Who becomes a leader, how do they come into leadership?
Effec: What makes an effective leader?
What are some theoretical Perspectives of leadership?
- Universal Approaches
- Contingency Theories
- “Contemporary” Leadership Theories
What are some examples of theories under each perspective?
- Univ:
Trait Approach, Behavioural approach - Conting:
Fiedler’s contingency, House’s Path-Goal Theory - Contemp-
Transformational Leadership
Describe the question of whether or not leadership is a trait or a state.
A trait is something intrinsic to a person that is stable over the long term. A state is a temporary situation a person is in. Are all people in leadership positions leaders? Maybe not. Might just be in one for the time being.
What are the Implications of the Trait Approach?
That to be seen as a leader, be like a leader.
-Implication that effective leaders can, definitively be selected, leading to maximal utilization of human capital. Largest strategic benefit for an organization.
What is an implication of the Behavioural Approach?
If leadership is all in the behaviour, then it can be trained. To be seen as a leader you must simply act like one.
What are the two types of traits trait theory tries to distinguish between?
Traits causing emergence, and effectiveness.
What are some of the different domains of traits?
Domains are Personality (CANOE), Physical (features), Intellectual (IQ), social.
Which Personality Traits tend to indicate leadership?
Emergence- Emotional stability
Extraversion- Highly correlated with emergence, effectiveness
Conscientiousness- Correlated with performance, effectiveness
What effects does narcissism have on leadership ability?
Need be neither high nor low narcissism to be a leader.
Poor performance if either too high or too low narcissism.
Does IQ have an impact on leadership emergence or effectiveness?
Emergence at least yes.
What does the trait approach say with respect to physical features of a leaders face?
From real data:
Higher proportion of leaders are tall, relative to general pop.
-Firms with leaders with wider faces were more successful. (relatively small)
-Baby faces seen to be less likely to be leaders, less competent.
What is prototype Theory?
That things are generalized by very broad categories. Objects are categorized by their elements. A ‘prototypical’ object is one that embodies all or the most of the elements of a category.
Eg: Category: bird Element: beak, wing, feather, singing, clawed feet, small
Prototypical bird: robin. Penguin/Ostrich meet it less
How can prototypes be described?
Prototypes are culturally dependent cognitive schemas..
Prototyping various categories is preliminary to categorization in the first place.
What are the different tiers in categorization theory?
Superordinate level: ‘What is the category” Ex. Leadership
Basic Level: Simple level of differentiation bwtn items in category. Ex. ‘Business leader’ ‘Political Leader’ ‘Education Leader’ etc.
Subordinate Level: Differentiation beyond Basic level
Ex. Political Leader can be either Liberal or Conservative
How is prototype theory applied to Leadership?
The question is, what do people deem the Prototypical Leader? Possible Elements:
- ambitious
- goal oriented
- dominant
- Intelligence
- honesty
- verbally skilled
NOT prototypical:
Happy, helpful, easy-going
Where can prototype theory go wrong?
When people make basic flaws of categorization.
Eg. Someone might stay at work late bc they’re shit at their job, not bc they are hard working and determined and wanted to do more.
What is the difference between ‘Agentic’ and ‘communal’ behaviour?
Agentic behaviour is behaviour of an individual agent- > Self interested, task oriented, dominant and competitive.
Communal behaviour is interpersonally sensitive, kind, helpful, and sympathetic.
How does gender interact with leadership?
Steroetypical male behaviour is more agentic, and more in line with prototypical leader behaviour.
Stereotypical female behaviour is more communal and generally less in lien with whats typically seen as leadership behaviour.
As such, females in leadership roles are often seen as unlikeable, bossy, ineffective.
Only 30% business managers are female.
How did a study indicate that women are less likely to be seen as leaders?
When participants were tasked with encoding (determining motivation for behaviour) leadership behaviour between men and women, the encoding process took significantly longer to encode women as performing leadership roles.
Partc’pnts more likely to remember mens agentic behaviour, more likely to remember womens communal behaviour over agentic behaviour.
What core traits were leaders found to have?
Drive(ambition, achievement, energy) and Motivation (driving DESIRE to lead)
Honesty and Integrity, self confidence and emotional stability (Personal attributes)
High Cognitive Ability, Knowledge of Business (task competence: they CAN lead)
What are some *’s to these findings:
- One core trait alone is not sufficient
Trait theory found to be better at predicting emergence than effectiveness
Some traits might be situation specific
What are the bases of three different studies surrounding the Behavioural Approach to leadership study?
Ohio: “Initiating Structure” and “consideration” as key EFFECTIVE leader behaviours
Michigan: Task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership
Iowa: Different “styles” of leadership: autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire
What is the ‘initiating structure’ and ‘Consideration’ found to be implemented by effective leaders by the ohio state study?
Note: Leaders could be good in one department and bad in the other. Relative importance of each of these factors are situational
Initiating Structure, Leader:
- Communicates performance standards and expectations
- Defines and organizes group activities, members roles, procedures, schedules
- Task orientation
Consideration:
- Extent to which leader is approachable and shows personal concern, respect.
- Friendly, egalitarian, appreciative, supportive
- People orientation
What is the conclusion of the Universal Approaches to leadership?
There is no “One best” approach to selecting or training or identifying leaders.
What are the 3 major models of Situational Theories of Leadership?
Fiedler’s Contingency Model
House’s Path-Goal Theory
Vroom’s Decision Making Model
What is the general model of Fiedlers Contingency Theory?
That the effectiveness of a leadership style is contingent (dependent) upon the situation it finds itself in.
What are two orientations a leader can have according to Fiedler?
Task vs. Relationship Orientation
How is the leaders orientation assessed?
By having them described their Least Preferred Coworker (LPC)
- If they describe the LPC with positive terms, they are RELATIONSHIP oriented (score ‘high’’ on LPC)
- If they describe LPC with negative terms, they are TASK oriented (score ‘low’ on LPC)
These designations affect motivational factors
What are the 3 elements of a leaders orientation?
Leader-member Relation: how ell do they get along
Task Structure: How clear are goals and procedures etc
Position Power: How much power/formal authority does the leader have (strong vs weak)
What are some Assumptions, Implications, Problems of Fiedlers Model
Ass’m- Leadership orientation is difficult to change
Implication- You can select leaders based on orientation and assign them to tasks based on that for optimal results
Prblm- Meaning of ‘LPC’ measure is not clear
-Not all contingency predictions are supported
What is the crux of Houses Path-Goal Theory?
That different situations as well as the nature of the workers involved req diff behaviours for effective leadership
What are 4 different types of Leader Behaviours according to House’s Theory?
Directive
Supportive
Achievement-Oriented
Participative
What are the characteristics of the ‘Situation’ as described by House?
Empl. Char.- Experience, abilities, personality, need for achievement etc
Work Env.- Tasks tht are routine bs novel, clear vs ambig. etc.
What is the model of House’s Path Goal Theory?
That the leader behaviour style, in conjunction with Environmental Factors (nature of work tasks) AND ‘Subordinate Characteristics’ (Empl. task ability, nAch etc) determine Employee Outcomes (Job Satisf., Acceptance of Leader, Effort)
How can leadership styles change in different conditions?
->Leaders who score high on Extraversion and Openness to Experience are more likely to be seen as charismatic but only in low stress conditions
What are some examples of good and bad leadership schemes for different situations?
High Empl Ability, Directive Mngmnt Style, BAD match.
High nAch matches with nAch leader, BAD match with Participative Leader
Low empl. ability -> GOOD with directive
What is the Contemporary Style/Theory of Leadership?
Transformational Leadership strategy. These theories are currently very present in the world Eg. Steve Jobs
Transformational leadership is in contrast to Transactional leadership
What is the center of Transformational Leadership?
- Providing Vision, instilling Commitment
- Broadening and elevating goals, incr. people confidence in ability to go beyond expectations
- In contrast with Transactional Leadership, which emphasizes exchange of rewards for desired performance
What are the 4 components of Transformational Leadership?
- Intellectual Stimulation - Challenging empl. to think creatively, innovatively
- Individualized Consideration - Showing concern for needs and personal development.
- Inspired Motivation - Communicating a vision that appeals to and inspires followers
- Idealized Influence (Charisma) - Ability to command strong loyalty and devotion (req emotional intelligence)
