Leadership

Question 1

What are the key elements of leadership

Answer 1

–is a process 
–involves influence 
–occurs in a group context 
–involves goal attainment
(Northouse, 2007)

Question 2

Outline Freuds theory of leadership

Answer 2

Influenced by Le Bon
•Leadership emerges as the natural consequence of a group’s “thirst for obedience” (no evidence to support this actually occuring)

Evidence for the other three though:
•Leaders must be prototypical of the group
•Identification –unconscious desire to be like someone else
•Illusion –leader loves each of the group members alike

Question 3

What is the relationship between power and leadership?

Answer 3

Powerful people are those who have the ability to affect others’ beliefs, attitudes and courses of action

Question 4

What is referent power

What is expert power?

what is legitamate power?

Answer 4

Referent Power
Based on followers’ identification and liking for the leader

Expert Power
Based on followers’ perception of the leader’s competence

Legitimate Power
Associated with having status or formal job authority

Question 5

what is reward power?

what is coersive power?

Answer 5

Reward Power
Having the capacity to provide rewards to others

Coercive Power
Having the capacity to penalise or punish others French and Raven (1962)

Question 6

give the theory of the trait approach to leadership

Answer 6

• “Great man” theory
• No consistent set of traits differentiated leaders from non-leaders across a variety of situations (Stogdill, 1948)
• Leadership reconceptualised as a relationship between people and the situation (Stogdill, 1948)
• In recent years, resurgence of interest in how traits influence leadership (Bryman, 1992)

Question 7

give a study whic found certain leadership traits out of the big 5

Answer 7

Five-Factor Personality Model and Leadership: Meta analysis (Judge et al.,2002)
•Big Five Personality Factors •78 studies published between 1967 and 199
openess and conscientiousness found traits of leadership
Neuroticism and Agreeableness not usual for leaders

Question 8

give a leadership style

Answer 8

Leadership –Task behaviour: facilitates goal accomplishment
–Relationship behaviour: help subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and with the situation in which they find themselves

Question 9

give the difference between Autocratic-participative dimension

•Directive-permissive dimension (Muczyk & Reimann, 1987; Peterson, 1987)

Answer 9

Autocratic- Participative
divide in which who makes the decision

Directive-permissive
the extent to which leaders dictate how followers should carry out the assigned task versus giving them freedom to work in any way they wish. This is referred to as the directive-permissive dimension.

Question 10

give 3 leadership syles

Answer 10

Leadership Style: Lippitt and White (1943)
•Autocratic leaders–organised the club’s activities, gave orders, were aloof and focused exclusively on the task at hand
•Democratic leaders–called for suggestions, discussed plans and behaved like ordinary club members
•Laissez-faire leaders-left the group to its own devices and intervened minimally

Question 11

outline Blanchard’s situational model

Answer 11

Situational Leadership II (SLII) model (Blanchard et al., 1985)
Leadership style
The amount of direction – directive behavior.
The amount of support – supportive behavior.
Development level
The degree to which employees have the competence to accomplish a task

styles: 
Leadership styles (Blanchard et al., 1985) •Directive/Telling Style
 –high-directive-low supportive(S1) 
•Coaching/Selling Style 
–high-directive-high supportive(S2)
 •Participating/Supporting
 –high-supportive-low directive(S3) 
•Delegating 
–low supportive-low directive style(S4)

Question 12

Outline Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership

Answer 12

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership
Effectiveness of leader = function of leader style and situation control
The least-preferred coworker (LPC) scale classifies leadership styles.
–Describe the one person with whom you have worked the least well with.
–From a scale of 1 through 8, describe this person on a series of bipolar scales

Leadership styles:
Relationship oriented: A high LPC score suggests that the leader has a human relations orientationoutl
Task oriented: A low LPC score indicates a task orientation.
Fiedler’s logic: Individuals who rate their least preferred coworker in a favorable light derive satisfaction out of interpersonal relationship; those who rate the coworker unfavorably get satisfaction out of successful task performance

Question 13

Oultine how situational control affects leadership

Answer 13

•The focus is on three key situational factors
–Leader-member relations
–Task structure
–Position power

Question 14

Outline the strngths to contingency theory

Answer 14

Strengths

–Predictive theory that is supported by empirical research (eg. Strube & Garcia, 1981) –Provides a way to assess leader style that could be useful to an organization

Question 15

Outline the weaknesses to contigency theory

Answer 15

Weaknesses

–There is some doubt whether the LPC is a true measure of leadership style

–Only hi-low LPC is classified but what about middle? (performed best regardless of situation)

–Is leader-member relations more important than task structure, which is more important than position power?

Question 16

Outline transactional leadership

Answer 16

The leader sets goals & expectations
•Contingent reward & punishment
•What circumstances would allow leaders to be innovative?
–Conforming closely to group norms
–Ensuring that the group feels that leader appointed democratically: acquire credibility
–Seen to have competence to fulfil objectives e.g Theresa May strong & stable? No faith in her competence meant failure in leading (no confidence vote)

–Seen to identify with the group

Question 17

Outline LMX theory

Answer 17

Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1991) •Continuum of quality of exchange relationships (e.g., respect, trust, liking) between leader and follower

High quality LMX relationships are associated with better performing and more satisfied workers

Question 18

give some Characteristics of Transformational Leaders (Bass, 1985; Judge & Bono, 2000)

Answer 18

•Charisma: Provides vision and sense of mission, instils pride, gains respect and trust.
All transformational leaders are charismatic but not all charismatic leaders are transformational

• Inspiration: Communicates high expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts, expresses important purposes in simple ways.
• Intellectual Stimulation: Promotes intelligence, rationality, and careful problem solving. Stimulate creativity by questioning common assumptions.
• Individualized Consideration: Gives personal attention, treats each employee individually, coaches, advises.
• In rapidly changing, chaotic environments, companies with high transformational leaders outperformed those whose leaders were not transformational (Waldman et al., 2001

Question 19

how do transformational leaders do it?

Answer 19

By stating a compelling vision of what the group can –and should – accomplish (Howell & Frost, 1989)
•By offering a route of reaching their vision
•By engaging in framing (Conger, 1991)
•Masters of impression management

Question 20

what did House (1976) say on charasmatic leaders?

Answer 20

Charismatic Leadership (House, 1976) •Often Transformational and charismatic leadership are used interchangeably.
 •Charismatic traits and behaviors
 –Advocates a vision 
–Not keeper of the status quo
 –behavior is out of the ordinary
 –perceived as change-agent
 –Acts in several unconventional ways
 –counter to norms 
–Willingly makes self-sacrifices, takes personal risks, to support their vision 
–Strong self-confidence

Question 21

outline how social identy affects leadership

Answer 21

Leadership is an identity process where prototypical leaders are more effective than less prototypical leaders
Based on data from Hains, Hogg & Duck (1997)

Question 22

outline norm talk and entrepreneurship

Answer 22

• Talk up prototypicality
• Identify deviants or marginal members to highlight your own prototypicality
• Vilifying contenders for leadership and casting them as non-prototypical
• Identify relevant comparison out-groups that are most favourable to their own prototypicality

Question 23

Outline the gender gaps in leadership

Answer 23

• Women are rated just as effective
• Role congruity theory (Eagly, 2003) –social stereotypes of women inconsistent with people’s schemas of effective leadership

Question 24

outline how communication affects leadership

Answer 24

Communication a primary vehicle for leader influence as well as group task performance –Mastery-focused communication: Task instructions, correction of errors, etc.
–Connectedness-focused communication: Reassurance of positive esteem, relationship maintenance
–High-performance groups do both

Question 25

Outline the 2 types of communcation

Answer 25

centralised:
Y shaped
wheel

decentralised:
circle
all connect
grapevine

Question 26

Outline the differecnes between centralised and decentralised

Answer 26

Bavelas et al (1951) –Groups arranged in a centralised fashion made fewer errors on the task than decentralised arrangement
–Morale and job satisfaction higher in decentralised

•Shaw (1964) –Complex tasks decentralised were more superior

Question 27

Outline how electronic communication affects leadership

Answer 27

In organisations, communication often technologically mediated
–E-mail communication may alter nature of group interaction
•Smaller effects of status, gender, age?
•More equal participation by members?
What are the advantages of communicating by email or text message within an organisation?

What are the advantages of communicating by email or text message within an organisation?

• Focus on task content, but lack of nonverbal cues important for socioemotional interdependence, building trust
• Harder for members to gain impression of others’ expertise –So they rely more on stereotypes (Storck & Sproull, 1995)