Leadership and Trust

Question 1

Difine Leader and Leadership.

Answer 1

A leader is someone that can influence others and who has managerial authority. Leadership is the process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve its goals.

Question 2

What were the focus on the early leadership theories.

Answer 2

People and behaviors.

Question 3

Explain and compare the early leadership theories.

Answer 3

Behavioral Theories Studies: Democratic style of leadership was most effective although later studies showed mixed results; High-high leader achieved high subordinate performance and satisfaction, but not in all situations; Employee-oriented leaders were associated with high group productivity and higher job satisfaction; Leaders performed best with a 9,9 style (focus on production and on people)

Question 4

Explain and compare the major contingency leadership theories.

Answer 4

Least-Preferred Corworker Questionnaire: based on the premise that a certain leadership style would be most effective across all different types of situations, LPC questionnaire measured the leader’s behavioral orientation.

Fiedler Model: leadership effectiveness has three factors- Leader-Members Relations, Task Structure and Position Power, Fiedler argued that leadership style is innate to a person.

Situational Leadership Theory: Read a situation and lead according to what people are there and to the situation, using the four leadership styles- Telling, Selling, Participating or Delegating.

Leader-Participation Model: relates leadership behavior and participation to decision making.

Path-Goal Theory and Model: There are four leadership behaviors- Directive Leader, Supportive Leader, Participative Leader and Achivement-Oriented Leader.

Question 5

Explain and compare the modern views of leadership.

Answer 5

All the theories have similar views of leadership: Leaders who interact with, inspire and support individuals.

Leader-Member Exchange Theory: leaders create in-groups and out-groups and those in the in-group will have higher performance rating, less turnover, and greater job satisfaction.

Transactional vs Transformational Leaders: Transactional Leaders lead primarly by using social exchanges while Transformational Leaders stimulate and inspire individuals to achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Charismatic vs Visionary Leaders: Charismatic Leaders are enthusiastic, selfconfident leaders whose personality and actions influence people to behave in certain ways while Visionary Leaders have the ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible and attractive vision of the future that improves upon the present situation.

Question 6

Enumerate the contemporary issues of leadership.

Answer 6

1. Managers are increasingly leading by not leading
2. Managers have the diffucult task to adapt between leadership styles according to employees cultures
3. Deal with emotional intelligence :)

Question 7

What is trust? What dimensions define trust?

Answer 7

Trust is the belief of the integrity, character and ability of a leader. It has five dimentions: Integrity, Competence, Consistency, Loyalty and Openness.