leadership Theories

Question 1

What does Mcgregors Theory X and theory Y have to do with?

Answer 1

How a manager perceives staff

Question 2

What does a theory X manager view employees as?

Answer 2

• lazy, disliking work and responsibility
• lacking the will and ability to work unsupervised
• lacking initiative
• largely motivated by money

Question 3

What does a theory Y manager view employees as?

Answer 3

• enjoying their work
• willing to accept responsibility and challenges
• able to exercise self discipline
• motivated by non-financial rewards

Question 4

What leadership style is a theory X manager likely to adopt?

Answer 4

Autocratic

Question 5

How does Theory X managers self fulfil their theory?

Answer 5

Because managers believe that their staff are lazy so closely monitor them, this makes staff unmotivated and lazy - confirming the managers belief

Question 6

What are Blake and Moutons 5 leadership types?

Answer 6

• Country club
• team leader
• middle of the road
• impoverished
• authoritarian

Question 7

If a manager is low on both people and task needs what are they described as by Blake and Mouton?

Answer 7

Impoverished

Question 8

If a leader is high on people needs but low on task needs what are they described as by Blake and Mouton?

Answer 8

Country club

Question 9

What does Blake and Moutons leadership grid look like?

Answer 9

Have task needs along the bottom and people needs going up the side with each leadership styles in each 4 boxes

Question 10

What are the advantages and disadvantages of country club style of leadership?

Answer 10

Advantages - Morale is high

Disadvantages - employees may take advantage and may miss deadlines

Question 11

What is middle of the road leadership style?

Answer 11

Neither sets of needs are truly met, and less than optimal outcomes are achieved.

Question 12

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Blake and Moutons authoritarian leadership style?

Answer 12

Advantages - task gets completed
- quick decision making

Disadvantages - low staff motivation

• resentment
• high staff turnover

Question 13

What is Carlyle and Galtons trait theory related to?

Answer 13

Concerns the five characteristics exhibited by successful leaders

Question 14

What are the five characteristics described by Carlyle and Galton?

Answer 14

Motivational
Integrity - sticks by their morals
Self-confidence
Creativity
Intelligence

Question 15

What are the advantages of Carlyle and Galtons trait theory?

Answer 15

• it is simple to understand and is straight forward to identify the characteristics which a leader does or does not possess

Question 16

What are the disadvantages of Carlyle and Galtons trait theory?

Answer 16

• there is no single set of traits that have been proven to be the most important and other research suggests that these characteristics cannot be traits

Question 17

What does Tannenbaum and Schmidts contingency approach look like?

Answer 17

Tell, sell, consult and participate along the bottom left to right while focus on use of authority is from left to right going into focus on subordinates.

Question 18

What does a sell and tell manager do?

Answer 18

Tell - manager informs employees of their approach.
- employees are expected to comply and are not given any opportunity to be involved.

Sell - manager makes decision but attempts to “sell” the decision ad quash resistance through persuasion and reason.

Question 19

What does a consult and participate manager do?

Answer 19

Consult - Manager presents ideas to the employees and invites discussion, and offers a more collaborative approach.

Participate - manager will ask employees to make a decision, similar to a more democratic style of leadership.

Question 20

What are the 4 types of leader in Tannembaum and Schmidt’s contingency theory?

Answer 20

Tell
Sell
Consult
Participate

Question 21

What are the three factors in Adair’s three circles model?

Answer 21

• team
• task
• individual

Question 22

Why does Adair’s three circles model overlap?

Answer 22

Because all the factors are interdependent.

Question 23

What are the benefits of Adair’s three circle model?

Answer 23

• more practical
• motivational
• easy to understand

Question 24

What are the drawbacks of Adair’s three circles model?

Answer 24

• only takes into account 1 task
• doesn’t describe the task
• may clash with other tasks