Traditional And Modern Theories Of Leadership

Question 1

Traditional theories of leadership 1

Answer 1

Universalist theories of leadership

1. Look at the personal qualities or characteristics which are shared by great leaders.
2. One of the best known of these theories is the ‘Great Man Theory’ first proposed by Woods and now commonly referred to as the ‘Great Person Theory’.
   > Argue that great leaders are born and not made.
3. Consider the notion of a charismatic or transformational leader.
   > Someone with the charisma and the interpersonal skills to inspire and lead others.
   > Such people tend to have excellent public speaking skills and high levels of confidence.
   > They are sometimes described as ‘visionaries’ and are often unconventional in their approach.

Question 2

Traditional theories of leadership 2

Answer 2

Behavioural theories of leadership

1. Look at the specific behaviours shown by leaders as opposed to the personal qualities of leaders.
2. Researchers at Ohio State University have collected data from numerous studies (meta-analysis) of leaders and their workers and have identified over 100 different behaviours shown by leaders.
   > These behaviours were shown to fall into two distinct categories:
   A. Initiating structure
   > Includes allocating tasks to people, creating groups and defining their goals, setting deadlines and ensuring that they are met and making sure that workers are working to a set standard.
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   B. Consideration
   > The category of behaviours which are shown by leaders who express a genuine concern for the feelings of workers.
   > These leaders will establish a rapport with workers and show trust and respect.
   > They will listen to workers more often than the other category of leader and will try to improve performance by boosting self-confidence.
3. A similar set of studies were conducted at the University of Michigan.
   > Produced two main types of behaviours shown by leaders:
   A. Task-oriented behaviours
   > Refers to behaviours which focus specifically on the task to be completed.
   > Leaders focus on the structure (as in the ‘initiating structure’ leadership behaviour category) and will set targets and standards, supervise and monitor workers and progress.⛄⛄⛄⛄⛄⛄⛄⛄⛄
   B. Relationship-oriented behaviours
   > Focus on the well-being of the workforce.
   > Leaders would spend time examining and understanding the interpersonal relationships between workers and those between workers and managers.
   > This has clear overaps with the ‘consideration’ leadership behaviour.

Question 3

Modern theories of leadership 1

Answer 3

Adaptive leadership

1. As organisations grow even larger and more complex, it is possible to argue that traditional forms of leadership may be failing.
   > If these traditional methods are not working, then there is a need to change or a need for adaptation.
   > Working practices and organisational norms and values that made an organisation successful in the past may now be irrelevant and the organisation must confront the need for change.
2. Heifetz et al.’s concept of adaptive leadership.
   > They define leadership as the ‘art of mobilising people (in organisations and communities) to tackle tough issues, adapt and thrive’.
   > They argue that leadership itself has to change; that rather than leading by providing solutions, the leader of an organisation facing adaptive challenges must be able to shift the responsibility for change to the entire workforce.
   > This may be distressing for some people as employees may have to take on new roles, learn new skills, align with new values or even accept that there is no longer a place for them within the organisation.
3. Employees are used to management solving problems for them and this will also have to change.
   > This may mean that adaptive leaders can no longer protect their workers from the problems facing the organisation so that they understand the need to change.
4. The role of the adaptive leader is no longer to maintain and support the organisational norms and values but to allow disorientation, conflict and challenge to create a new organisation that can survive.
5. Six key principles of adaptive leadership
   A. Get on the balcony
   > An adaptive leader needs to see the whole picture and to view the organisation and the way it works as if they were observing from above.
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   B. Identify the adaptive change
   > An adaptive leader needs to not only identify the need for change but be able to determine the nature and extent of the change requires, be that to organisational structure, values, working practices or working relationships.
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   C. Regulate distress
   > Adaptive change will both stress and distress those who are experiencing it.
   > This cannot be avoided but it can be managed.
   > The pressure needs to be enough to motivate people to change but not so much that it overwhelms them.
   > The adaptive leader needs to be able to tolerate the uncertainty and frustration and to communicate confidence.
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   D. Maintain discliplined attention
   > An adaptive leader must be open to contrasting points of view.
   > Rather than avoiding or covering up issues that are difficult or disturbing, they must confront the issues directly.
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   E. Give the work back to the people
   > An adaptive leader must recognise that everyone in the organisation has special access to information that comes only from their experiences in their particular role.
   > Adaptive leaders must step back from the traditional role of telling people what to do and, by allowing them to use their special knowledge, recognise that they are best placed to identify the solutions to the problems.
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   F. Protect voices of leadership from below
   > Heifetz et al. argue that ‘giving a voice to all people is the foundation of an organisation that is willing to experiment and learn’.
   > In many organisations, those who speak up are silenced.
   > An adaptive leader needs to listen to these voices to learn of impending challenges.
   > Ignoring them can be fatal for the organisation.
6. As an example of leadership style, Heifetz and Linsky, in their book Leadership on the Line, refer to Henry Fonda’s character in the film 12 Angry Men as an example of the adaptive leader in action.
   > Henry Fonda plays the only jury member who initially votes ‘not guilty’ in a murder trial. Through the film, his behaviour encourages the other jurors to explore their own prejudices and biases and to look at the evidence from different perspectives.

Question 4

Modern theories of leadership 2

Answer 4

The three levels of leadership

1. Introduced by James Scouller in 2011.
2. Explains how leadership presence can be developed and is sometimes referred to as the 3P model of leadership after the three key elements:
   > Public leadership
   > Private leadership
   > Personal leadership
3. Public and private leadership
   > Described as the ‘outer’ or ‘behavioural’ levels of the model.
   > Public leadership concerns the behaviours required to influence groups of people.
   > Private leadership concerns the behaviours involved in influencing individuals.
4. Personal leadership
   > Third level, shown in the centre of the diagram, is described as the ‘inner’ level and relates to the leadership qualities shown by the individual.
   > This will include their skills and beliefs but also their emotions, subconscious behaviours and their ‘presence’.
   > Scouller argued that leaders need to ‘grow their leadership presence, know-how (procedural knowledge) and skill’, through developing technical know-how and skill, cultivating the right attitude towards other people and working on psychological self-mastery.
5. This final aspect is the most crucial aspect of developing a leadership presence.
   > ‘At its heart is the leader’s self-awareness, his progress toward self-mastery and technical competence, and his sense of connection with those around him. It’s the inner core, the source, of a leader’s outer leadership effectiveness’.
6. Scouller argues that personal leadership is the most powerful of the three levels.
   > He likened its effect to dropping a pebble in a pond and seeing the ripples spreading out from the centre - hence the four arrows pointing outward.

Question 5

Evaluation

Answer 5

1. Nature explanation
   > Are leaders born or made?
   > The Great Person Theory described above would certainly be on the nature side of this debate while the other theories may leave room for some development of leadership skills.
2. Nurture explanation
   > Scouller in particular, whose theory brought together many of the older theories, including trait theories, behaviour theories and theories of leadership style, would argue that leadership presence can be developed but the arguments proposed by Heifetz et al. also suggest that leadership needs to be able to adapt and change and that leadership skills can be learned.
3. Situational explanations
   > The 3Ps model and the Theory of Adaptive Leadership clearly shows that different skills will be required for different situations, for example in trying to persuade an individual rather than trying to persuade a group.
   > Heifetz et al. argue strongly for the need for adaptive leadership particularly where the more traditional styles of leadership have failed or when the situation is one of great uncertainty.
4. Individual explanation
   > As with the earlier theories of leadership, we can also consider whether some individuals may be better able to provide adaptive leadership as well as considering the extent to which personal leadership skills may be developed.
5. Application to everyday life
   > The theories that have been discussed here have been applied in organisations all over the world and make a significant contribution to the success or otherwise of a wide variety of organisations.
   > We see adaptive challenges every day at every level of the worplace when companies restructure or reengineer, develop or implement strategy or merge businesses.
6. Research methods
   > Research conducted by Ohio State University and University of Michigan have data collection from numerous organisations and individuals, making their findings generalisable.
   > Heifetz et al. and Scouller present theoretical models of leadership.