W9 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”
What is not leadership?
Social influence/compliance
Exercise of power
Conformity to norms
Group rather than interpersonal process
Why does leadership matter?
High performing CEOs increase the value of theri companies by millions. Sport leaders: teams with superior managers are more successful at winnign games. Political leaders, Activists.
What makes a successful leader?
Personality determinants. Situational determinants. Interactionist perspectives.
Leaders born with something more?
Are more confident
Are more talkative
Are taller, more physically attractive
Are more extroverted, open, conscientious
Have above average intelligence
What is associated with dark side of leadership
Narcissim, psychopathy, machiavellianism.
Autocratic leaders scored significantly higher than non-autocrats on the Dark Triad of personality
Affect of leadership style on group atmosphere, moral and leadership effectiveness
Autocratic
remained aloof (distant) and focused on organising the group’s activities and giving out orders.
Task focused
concerned with achieving the aims and goals of the group by focusing on the tasks needed to achieve those goals
Socioemotional
concerned with group dynamics and ensuring that the group members form a cohesive and friendly group.
What makes an effective leader?
Effective leadership not explained by the personality of the leader.
Situational factors alongside the leader’s attributes seems to play a role.
Instead of who leader are, what they do could also be important leadership styles.
Would certain leadership style to be more suited to certain situations.
Contingency theory
Effectiveness of a leader
Particularly situational control which is determined by (in order of priority):
Quality of leader-member relations
The clarity of the structure of task
The legitimacy of the leader’s authority
Task oriented leaders vs socioemotional leaders
Developed Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale to measure leadership style
LPC rated positively: socioemotional leader
LPC rated negatively: task-oriented leader
Situational control and leadership style
Low control: group needs guidance to achieve its goals, less time for building relationships with group members ->Task oriented
High control: leader-member relations are already positive; leader can instead focus on achieving the group’s goals -> Task oriented
Moderate control: leader does not have total control of the group, or the task structure is unclear-> relationship oriented
Glass ceiling
A metaphor to represent invisible and systemic barriers that prevent women and other minorities from rising to leadership positions within organizations
Experimental studies: evidence for glass cliff
Participants are given a vignette about a company that is either performing well/poorly.
Select the most suitable candidate for leadership (only differ in gender)
Rate the traits that are desirable or characteristic of leaders of successful and unsuccessful companies and men/women
Women were ranked as more suitable and more likely to be selected for leadership positions than men during times of crisis or poor performance.
Archival studies evidence for glass cliff
Analyse relationship btw company performance + appointment of female/minority CEOs
Analysing election performance + types of seats contested by gender
Analyse relationship btw past performance of sports team + appointment of coaches from minority backgrounds
Women were more likely to attain leadership positions in times of crisis.
What is behind the glass cliff?
Stereotypes: “beliefs about the characteristics, attributes and behaviours of members of a particular social group” (Hilton & von Hippel, 1996, p. 240)
Think Manager - Think male
Masculinity and femininity of Schein’s Descriptive Index: Ryan, Haslam, Hersby, Bongiorno 2011
Participants rate Schein’s Descriptive Index as a characteristics either the manager of a successful company or manager of an unsuccessful company.
Traits rated as characteristic of men also rated as characteristics of managers of successful companies: decisive, dominant, able to separate feeling from ideas, hides emotions
Think crisis -think not male: men as unlikely to be seen as leaders of unsuccessful companies
Prejudice
Defined as “a negative evaluation of a social group or an individual that is significantly based on the individual’s group membership’
Effect of leadership styles on atmosphere
Democratic
very hands on, discussed plans with group members and made them feel part of decision making.
Effect of leadership style: Laisser-faire
little interest in the groups’ activities, left the group to organise and carry out activities on its own.