Leadership – Promoting New Ideas at Work

Question 1

Define leadership according to Robbins et al 1994?

Answer 1

the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals’

Question 2

Distinguish between managers and leaders?

Answer 2

1. Managers are usually chosen and appointed to their positions, while leaders are more likely to emerge from the working group (Robbins and Coulter, 2002)
2. Managers influence and direct others due to their recognised power, while leaders go beyond that
3. Although leaders anticipate change whilst setting direction for organisations, managers focus more on generating results than on forecasting and dealing with change
4. Managers are interested in how things are organized and implemented, while leaders are more concerned with what inspires and motivates people
5. Heller & Van Til (1982) point out that effective leaders need a ‘followership’.
6. There is a great difference in the way leaders and managers perceive and make use of their human resources

Question 3

What are the ingredients for leadership according to Weihrich and Koontz 1993?

Answer 3

1. Power
2. understanding of people: what motivates them, their needs, ambitions and requirements.
3. ability to inspire: leaders are able envision
4. a specific style

Question 4

What are the 6 common traits of leadership (Kirke Patrick and Locke 1991)?

Answer 4

Drive
 The desire to lead
 Honesty and integrity
 Self-confidence 
 Intelligence
 Job-relevant knowledge

Question 5

The university of Iowa studies; what are there three leadership styles (Lewin and Lippitt 1938)?

Answer 5

1. Autocratic: leader tends to consolidate authority commands, take decisions and expects compliance.
2. democratic: involves individuals in decision making and goal-setting, consults with subordinates and encourages participation. = most effective one
3. Laissez-faire: provides the group with a high degree of independence in setting their own goals and how they go about implementing them

Question 6

The university of Michigan studies; what were the two behavioural differences between effective and ineffective leaders? (Kahn and Katz 1960)

Answer 6

1. Employee oriented leaders: emphasise interpersonal relationships through focusing on the needs of their subordinates, and by acknowledging differences between work group members
2. product oriented leaders: tend to stress the task aspects of the job viewing the group as a means to achieve objectives

Question 7

What is the path goal contingency theory (Koontz, 1993) and House (1971)?

Answer 7

• the main job of the leader is to assist their subordinate to achieve their goals
• identified four leadership behaviours:
  1. directive leadership
  2. supportive leadership
  3. participative leadership
  4. achievement-oriented leadership

Question 8

What are the contemporary approaches to leadership?

Answer 8

1. the transactional leadership: tend to use rewards to motivate employees, tend to take corrective action only when followers fail to complete the required task and perform to a required level.
2. Transformational leadership: pay attention to concerns and developmental need of their subordinates and are usually portrayed as heroes within and out their organisational settings
3. Charismatic leadership: they have a vision. they are able to communicate that vision, they take risks to realise visions, they are sensitive to opportunities and threats posed by external environment, behave in extraordinary ways.
4. Visionary leadership: ability to explain visions to subordinates, walk the talk, ability to extend or apply the vision to different contexts.

Question 9

What is leaderships effect on leading creativity and innovation?

Answer 9

Leaders are a key influence on the context of work within which employees come together to tackle challenging tasks (Amabile, 1998)

Leaders influence culture, structure and resources, that are all likely to affect the generation and implementation of ideas within an organisation (Tushman and O’Reilly, 1997)

Leaders are responsible for developing a system that nurtures and rewards employees’ creative efforts towards innovative work processes and outcomes

Question 10

in order to influence creativity and innovation they need to have what set of characteristics? (8 things)

Answer 10

1. Expertise and technical skills.
2. Ability to create and articulate a vision.
3. Ability to set the direction.
4. Powers of persuasion.
5. Communication and information exchange.
6. Intellectual stimulation.
7. Involvement.
8. Autonomy.

Question 11

what is needed to lead an ambidextrous firm?

Answer 11

Rosing et al. (2011) note that companies that grapple with both exploratory and exploitative innovation have to adopt an ambidextrous leadership style.

Leaders must initiate exploratory and exploitative behaviour in their followers by:

focusing on ‘breaking up of routines and thinking in new directions’

focusing on ‘streamlining and narrowing down’