Lecture 7 - Leadership Flashcards
What is leadership?
A process of social influence through which an individual enlists and mobilises the aid of others in the attainment of a collective goal.” (Chemers, 2001; p. 376)
Identify the importance of leadership in business, sport and politics
- Business - Highly performing executives add $25m to the value of the company more than average executives (Barrick, et al. 1991)
- Sport – Success of Baseball teams linked with the ability of managers in terms of tactics or player development (Singell, 1993)
- Politics – Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Winston
Explain the great person theory
The great person theory is a 19th-century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great people, or heroes; highly influential and unique individuals who, due to their natural attributes, such as superior intellect, heroic courage, or divine inspiration, have a decisive historical effect.
The great person theory of leadership, in which effective leaders have special personalities, is generally not well supported.
Explain the personality traits of a leader
Tendency to personify leaders in terms of unique properties or characteristics. Social Psychology tells us that people tend to attribute others behaviour to underlying traits
It is not the mere possession of some combination of traits, and other social psychologists have suggested that the search for the leadership personality is simplistic.
Leaders are above average for: • Size • Health • Physical attractiveness • Self-confidence • Sociability • Need for dominance • Intelligence • Talkativeness
Everyone has the capacity, more or less, to be an effective leader if the situation is right. Some leadership behaviours or personal qualities may be more effective than others. Within Social Psychology leadership reflects task or situational demands.
What is the dark triad?
The dark triad refers to the personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. They are called dark because of their malevolent qualities. Dark leadership represents a part of leadership reality and describes the dark part of the coin, a selfish and impulsive leader, which may nonetheless be as effective or successful as bright and prosocially oriented leaders. On the one hand, dark leaders have excellent strengths (e.g., self-confidence and dominance) which could be considered in leader development; on the other hand, the knowledge about the weaknesses of dark leader traits could be used to handle or neutralise them effectively.
Explain extrovert/introvert in leadership
These expectations of leadership tend to favour extroverts in leadership roles but organisations may overlook the strengths of introverts as leaders losing out on the potential for effective management. An understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of personality types will help individuals as well as organisations in developing leadership in order to achieve organisational goals.
- How we gain our energy
- Speaks to clarify thoughts versus thinks to clarify thoughts
- Easy or difficult to get to know
- Prefer to work with others or independently
- Many or few relationships
Detail the Lippitt & White (1943) study
The 1940’s marked a shift in leadership research from traits to styles. A study in 1938 known as “Leadership and Group Life” was conducted under the leadership of Kurt Lewin and included Ron Lippitt and Robert White. It was destined to become a popular and often cited basis for managerial leadership in the following decades. At a time when the concerns about totalitarian governments was at its height, it was not surprising that a “democratic style” of leadership was found to be superior to more autocratic or “laissez faire” styles. The new democratic style was touted as more productive and was generalized from this study to corporate settings.
In this study, members were matched on ability, popularity, energy, etc., and divided into three groups under three different forms of leadership. The following table describes some of the differences discovered between each of the styles. Some cautions regarding the study are discussed at the bottom of the page.
Detail the 3 leadership styles
Psychologist Kurt Lewin developed his framework in the 1930s, and it provided the foundation of many of the approaches that followed afterwards. He argued that there are three major styles of leadership:
- Autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting their team members, even if their input would be useful. This can be appropriate when you need to make decisions quickly, when there’s no need for team input, and when team agreement isn’t necessary for a successful outcome. However, this style can be demoralizing, and it can lead to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover.
- Democratic leaders make the final decisions, but they include team members in the decision-making process. They encourage creativity, and people are often highly engaged in projects and decisions. As a result, team members tend to have high job satisfaction and high productivity. This is not always an effective style to use, though, when you need to make a quick decision.
- Laissez-faire leaders give their team members a lot of freedom in how they do their work, and how they set their deadlines. They provide support with resources and advice if needed, but otherwise they don’t get involved. This autonomy can lead to high job satisfaction, but it can be damaging if team members don’t manage their time well, or if they don’t have the knowledge, skills, or self-motivation to do their work effectively. (Laissez-faire leadership can also occur when managers don’t have control over their work and their people).
Lewin’s framework is popular and useful, because it encourages managers to be less autocratic than they might instinctively be.
Describe Bales’ (1950) two leadership roles
• Bales (1950) identified two leadership roles:
– socio-emotional leadership
– task-oriented leadership.
• No one person could occupy both roles (they are inversely related)
– Person filling the task-oriented leadership role would be the dominant leader
– Task specialists would be centrally involved, giving direction
– Socio-emotional specialists tended to respond and pay attention to feelings of other group members
Detail the Ohio State Leadership study
- Subordinates completed questionnaires about their leaders/managers (LBDQ)
- Two patterns of leadership
1. Initiating structure - task-oriented
2. Consideration – relationship oriented
• Effective leader – high on both dimensions
Explain Contingency theory
Contingency theory maintains that the leadership effectiveness of particular leadership styles is contingent on situational factors.
• Some styles are better suited to some situations or tasks than others
• A leader of a country, is different to a leader of an organisation, to a leader on the football field, to a leader in a student workgroup
• Fiedler’s (1964) contingency theory (like Bales, 1950) distinguished between task-orientated leaders (value group success, get self-esteem from accomplishment) and relationship orientated leaders (relaxed, friendly, sociable)
• Where the task is very well or very poorly structured (high versus low situational control), task-oriented leaders do best; otherwise, socio-emotional leaders are best.
Detail Fielder (1964) Situational Control
Situational perspectives
• Interaction of traits and situation
• Leaders accommodate to circumstances
• ‘To elicit the laws of history we must leave aside kings, ministers and generals, and select for study the homogeneous, infinitesimal elements which influence the masses’ (Tolstoy, 1869: p.977)
Situational control
• Leader-member relations (good or bad)
• Task structure (good or bad)
• Positional power (good or bad)
• Combination results in level of situational control
• Task-oriented best for good or bad situations
• Relationship-oriented best for moderate situations
Detail the normative decision theory
Normative decision theory (Vroom & Jago, 1988) 3 decision making strategies:
• Autocratic (subordinate input not sought)
• Consultative (subordinate input not sought but leader retains authority)
• Group decision making (leader and subordinates are equal partners)
Outcomes:
• Autocratic, fast and effective if support from subordinates is present and task is clear.
• Where task is not clear, or less support use of other strategies is productive
Detail the leader member exchange theory
- According to leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, effective leaders need to establish high-quality personalised relationships with individual group members.
- Role taking: The member joins the team and the leader evaluates his or her abilities and talents. Leader may offer opportunities to demonstrate capabilities.
- Role-making: In the second phase, the leader and member take part in an unstructured and informal negotiation whereby a role is created for the member and the unspoken promise of benefit and power in return for dedication and loyalty Detail place. Trust-building is very important in this stage.
- Routinisation: In this phase, a pattern of ongoing social exchange between the leader and the member becomes established. Being a successful member usually includes being similar in many ways to the leader.
Detail transformational leadership
“Transactional leaders appeal to followers’ self-interest, whereas transformational leaders inspire followers’ to adopt a vision that involves more than individual self-interest” (Burns, 1978).
• Transactional leaders appeal to self-interest, transformational leader inspire followers.
• Three components to transformation leadership:
– Individualised consideration: Attention to needs of follower’s needs, abilities and aspirations to help raise and improve these.
– Intellectual stimulation: Challenging followers’ basic thinking, assumptions and practices to help them develop new practices and thinking
– Charismatic/inspiring leadership: provides the energy, reasoning, and sense of urgency that transforms followers.
