Module 3 Flashcards
Leadership & Motivation
Trait Theories
- Great leaders excel because they have the “right” traits
Traits:
- extraversion
- charisma
- confidence
- men (effect is waning over time)
- height
Issue: These traits are linked with leadership emergence, and don’t prove leadership effectiveness
Additional problems:
- Takes no account of the situation
- Vague
- Impossible to agree upon a set list of traits
Behavioural Theories
- Focus on what leaders DO (not who they are)
- Thus, believes people can be trained to be good leaders
3 Basic Leadership styles
1.) Autocratic
- Manager has all the power
- Takes an authoritarian “command-and-control approach
^ tells them what to do
2.) Democratic
- Power is shared among the team as a whole
- employees have a greater say in decision-making
*argued to be the best of the 3: Effective in getting things done + leads to higher worker satisfaction
3.) Laissez-faire
- “Non-leadership” approach
- All decision-making + control is left to the group
Blake + Moutan Leadership Grid
2 Axis
1. People’s concern
2. Task concern
According to Blake + Moutan, effective leaders balance people and production
Why?
- A leader who’s all about production might as well replace their team with robots
- To get people to excel you need to pay them attention
–
- Alternatively, a leader who’s all about people might struggle to meet targets
Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership
Transactional
- based on processes + control
- rewards followers for specefic task preformance behaviours
- requires strict management
Transformational
- posses the ability to transform other to preform beyond their expectations
*- Able to motivate others to: *
- view their own work from new prespectives
- look beyond their own interests to those of the group
- have an awarness of the misison + values of the organization
The need for both is important!!!!
Ohio State Leadership Studies
Identified 2 key leadership behaviours
1. Initiating structure
- focus on task-oriented leadership
- leaders define roles, set goals, and enforce rules o ensure productivity
2. Consideration
- emphasizes people-oriented leadership
- leaders show empathy, build trust, and maintain positive relationships
Effective leaders weight them based on the situation + team needs
Distributed leadership
“Leadership is found throughout the organization”
- leadership functions may be shared & the leader role may bounce around depending on the situation
Benefit: good for team-heavy flexible environments
Problem: suffers from too many cooks in the kitched
Servant Leadership
Reverse power hierarchy
- Places the good of the followers over the self-interest of the leader
Problem: difficult to be assertive
Contingency Theories
Believes: Most appropriate approach to leadership depends on the situation
How it differs from the other 2:
- Trait + Behavoural attempt to give “one best solution” for all situations
- i.e. Always balance tasks + people
Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model
**Same 2 dimensions as Blake + Mouton… **
- Difference is that the need for higher/lower people or task concern depends on follower maturity
- Meaning “good” leadership depends on follower maturity (or readiness)
4 Situations:
1. Telling -* low follower readiness*
- focus on the task
- tell subordinates what to do + how to do it
2. Selling
- explain decisions and provide opportunity for clarification
3. Participating
- focus on relationship + support
- less direction on task behaviour
4. Delegating -* high follower readiness *
- little task or relationship involvement
How to Choose the Most Relevant Approach to Leadership?
Factor in Characteristics of the:
Manager
- personality
- values
- beliefs
confidence in subordinates
Subordinates
- need for independence
- tolerance of ambiguity
- level of knowledge
Situation
- organizational customs + norms
- size of group
nature of the problem
Extrinsic Motivation
- comes from outside the person (tangible)
- often the first source of action when someone is doing good
Extrinsic motivation: Effectiveness + How to Use It
In industries like sales where bonuses can be linked to reaching quantifiable goals
- still need to thoughtfully intrinsically motivate
If using financial incentives make them:
1. Fair
2. Consistent
3. Obvious to all
Extrinsic Motivation: Problem
Research has found little evidence showing that monetary benefits are a major driver of performance
It can do more harm than good
Equity Theory:
* States that motivation is driven by ideas of fairness
The Issue of Fairness:
* Picking who should be financially rewarded can undermine both teamwork and performance —- Who gets the boost? The marketers, designers, engineers????
* It’s harder to resolve issues of fairness when rewarding certain team members so DON’T try: everyone gets same payout
Intrinsic Motivation
Comes from a person’s internal desire to do something
Research shows that Intrinsic motivation is MORE effective at sustaining high performance + engagement
Gallups “State of the American Workplace”
High engagement leads to:
- 10% increase in customer satisfaction
- 17% increase in productivity
- Lower turnover (24% and 59% in low-turnover)
- 20% increase in sales
Intrinsic Motivation: Benefits
Produces non-quantifiable personal satisfaction:
- sense of accomplishment
- personal control over one’s work
- a feeling that one’s efforts are appreciated
When intrinsically motivated employees do things for their OWN sense of accomplishment
How to Intrinsically Motivate?
3 Tactics
1. Acknowledge Good Work
- take into account personalities when recognizing individuals
- tailor your approach to what you know about them
- do it frequetly
2. Provide Decision-Making Opportunities
- employees become enegrized when empowered to make decisions that effect their own work
- increases their sense of ownershi + control (boosts motivation)
3. Introduce Challenge
- tackling new challenges can reward, inspire, and motivate employees
