Lecture 8 - Leadership

Question 1

What is leadership?

Answer 1

Chemers (2001) – “a process of social influence through which an individual enlists and mobilises the aid of others in the attainment of a collective goal”

Question 2

What is Great Person Theory?

Answer 2

• We personify history in terms of actions of great people.
  
  • Thatcher: “THATCHER YEARS”
  • Napoleon: French occupation of Moscow in 1812 – NAPOLEON
  • Lenin: “1917 Russian Revolution ‘caused’ by Lenin

Question 3

What did Kuhn (1962) say about paradigm shifts?

Answer 3

• Similar view of scientific history –Einstein, Darwin, Copernicus and Freud
• There is the implication of a paradigm shift here but again…
• Ignores incremental change driven by peers – history tends to forget lab members and research assistants!
• Form of attribution error? Attributing others’ behavior to stable underlying traits – much like how we see leaders

Question 4

What is the great person theory of leadership?

Answer 4

• Leadership – a constellation of personality attributes that imbue individuals with charisma and leadership ability?
• Some examples – above average size, healthy, physically attractive, self-confident, sociable, need for dominance, intelligent, talkative

Question 5

What did Stogdill (1948) say a leader was?

Answer 5

Intelligence
Alertness
Responsibility
Initiative
Persistence
Self-confidence
Sociability

Question 6

What did Mann (1959) say a leader is?

Answer 6

Intelligence
Masculinity
Adjustment
Dominance
Extroversion
Conservatism

Question 7

What are the different leadership styles?

Answer 7

• Autocratic
• Democratic
• Laissez-faire

Question 8

What is the importance of style in leaders?

Answer 8

Lippitt and White (1943) examined the effects of leader behaviour on group performance and morale within young boys’ after-school activities clubs.
- Autocratic
- Democratic
- Laissex-faire

Question 9

Which leadership style is liked the most (Lippitt and White, 1943)?

Answer 9

Democratic

Question 10

Which leadership style has the best group atmosphere (Lippitt and White, 1943)?

Answer 10

Democratic and laissez-faire

Question 11

Which leadership style has the highest productivity (Lippitt and White, 1943)?

Answer 11

Autocratic

Question 12

What are charismatic leaders?

Answer 12

Charismatic leaders are essentially very skilled communicators – individuals who are verbally eloquent. They are able to articulate a compelling or captivating vision, and to arouse strong emotions in followers.

Question 13

What is Fiedler (1965)’s Contingency Theory?

Answer 13

• Effectiveness of task-oriented versus socio-emotional leaders is contingent on their match with the situation.
• According to this model, the most important feature of the situation was the degree of situational control, determined by three things (in descending order):
  
  1. Quality of leader-member relations
  2. The clarity of the structure of the task
  3. Intrinsic power and authority granted to leader by virtue of their position

Question 14

What is the social identity theory of leadership?

Answer 14

Leadership has identity function – look to our leaders to express, clarify, focus, forge and transform our identities

Question 15

What are social identity processes?

Answer 15

• Prototypical leaders more influential in salient groups;
• Embody group attributes & are viewed as the source of conformity processes (other members align to them)
• Liked as group members, group as a whole likes the leader, facilitates influence
• Prototypical leaders find group more central and identifies strongly with it – behave in group-serving ways, embody group norms, favour & promote the in-group
• They themselves can construct and maintain the prototype – further securing their own leadership position

Question 16

What is Steffens, Haslam, Reicher et al, (2014) - Identity Leadership Inventory to Measure 4-Dimensional Model?

Answer 16

1. Identity prototypicality
2. Identity advancement
3. identity entrepreneurship
4. Identity impresarioship

Question 17

What is identity prototypicality?

Answer 17

representing the unique qualities that define the group and what it means to be a member of this group; embodying those core attributes of the group that make this group special as well as distinct from other groups. Being an exemplar of the group.

Question 18

What is identity advancement?

Answer 18

advancing and promoting the core interests of the group. Standing up for, defending, group interests (separate from personal interests). Championing concerns and ambitions key to the group as a whole. Contribution to realization of group goals. Acting to prevent group failures and overcome obstacles to achieve group objectives.

Question 19

What is identity entrepreneurship?

Answer 19

Bringing people together by creating a shared sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’ within the group. Making different people feel they are part of the same group, increasing cohesion and inclusiveness. Clarifying people’s understanding of what the group stands for by defining values/norms/ideals.

Question 20

What is identity impresarioship?

Answer 20

Developing structures, events and activities that give weight to the group’s existence and allow group members to live out their membership. Promoting structures to facilitate shared understanding/coordination/success. Creating group-related materials and delivering outcomes. Making the group matter within and without.

Question 21

What is the gender disparity in business leadership?

Answer 21

• Just one out of every three managers in the EU is a woman, despite being half of all those employed
• Only 18% of senior executives in the EU in 2019
• Among the largest publicly listed companies in the EU in 2020, only 7.9% of CEOs were women

Question 22

What is the gender disparity in academia leaders?

Answer 22

• Overall – women hold 41.3% of academic positions across the EU (2016)
• Only 21.7% of leadership positions in 2017 held by women

Question 23

What are the results of Schein’s studies?

Answer 23

Both male and female managers perceive that the characteristics associated with managerial success are more likely to be held by men than by women.

Question 24

What is the role congruity theory?

Answer 24

Suggests that stereotypes can produce two negative items:
- less favourable evaluation of the potential for women to take on leadership roles compared to men
- less favourable evaluations of the actual behaviour of female leaders.

Question 25

What is the Glass Escalator?

Answer 25

The “glass escalator” focuses on a phenomenon whereby men (particularly in stereotypically female professions) are promoted through career ranks in an accelerated fashion (Williams, 1992) - We see this all the time an example would be nursing where men make up 10% of the nursing workforce but hold half of the leadership positions:

Question 26

Why is understanding stereotypes important?

Answer 26

- They can affect how others see you, how they interpret your behaviour, and they treat you - They can affect how you see yourself, how you respond to others, and how you behave - They reinforce and perpetuate workplace inequalities