Leadership Theory Flashcards
Define Leadership
The art of motivating a group of people towards achieving a common goal
What is the key purposes of Leadership
- Motivating and inspiring employees to achieve business goals
- Ensuring a clear sense of purpose, direction and objectives are made clear to the organisation
What are some qualities of a good Leader?
- Emotional Intelligence
- Self-Confidence
- Honesty
- Innovative
- Inspirational
- Multi-talented
- Incisive Mind
What are some of the leadership positions in a business?
- Directors
- Supervisors
- Managers
- Worker Representatives
- Informal Leaders
What is an Informal Leader?
A person who has no formal authority but has the respect of some colleagues and authority over them
What is the Trait Theory in Leadership?
It believes that people are born with the personality characteristics of being a leader - the traits are innate.
Some traits include: initiative, determination, innovation, emotional intelligence, charisma, flexibility
What is the Behavioural Theory in Leadership?
It believes that capable leaders can learn the skills required to be an effective leader
What are the skills assessed in Behavioural Theory?
- Technical skills [Business processes]
- Human Skills [Ability to interact]
- Conceptual Skills [Ability to create new ideas/solve problems]
What is the Contingency Theory in Leadership?
The theory suggests that most successful leaders adapt their leadership style to different situations
What are the situations included in contingency theory?
- Subordinate experience and maturity
- Relationship between leader and followers
- Level of power as the leader
- Time needed to complete a task
What is the Power and Influence Leadership Theory?
It is based on the different ways a leader can use their power and influence to get tasks done. This includes:
1. Expertise of the leader
2. Charm of the leader [personal appeal]
3. Transactional Leadership
What is Transactional Leadership?
It assumes employees will undertake tasks in exchange for an end reward [incentivising]
Vice versa is a punishment
Best used in situations where time is of the essence and costs of incompletion of a project are high
What is Transformational Leadership as a Leadership Theory?
- It believes in a greater focus of leading, than managing employees. [Mostly used when the business is going through a period of change]
- It aims to change the culture of the organisation to achieve improved employee motivation, productivity and satisfaction
What importance is demonstrated through Transformational Leadership?
- Charisma
- Understanding
- Inspiration [Business vision]
- Stimulation [Offering new challenges]
Define Emotional Intelligence
The ability of one to understand their own emotions, and those of others, to help achieve better business performance
What are Golemans Competencies of Emotional Intelligence?
- Self Awareness
- Social Awareness
- Self Management
- Social Skills
What are the consequences of bad Emotional Intelligence?
- Managers take tasks beyond their abilities and lack self confidence
- Lack of trust and confidence in the organisation
- Perform poorly in social situations
- Difficulty into taking account views of others in the organisation during decision making
