Social Psychology
Lecture 5: Leadership
(Chapter 9; Hogg & Vaughan)
At the end of the lecture …
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personality
Emphasis within Social Psychology
Types of Leadership
Contingency theories
Transactional Theories
Transformation Theories
Leader categorisation theory
Social Identity Theory
Personality Traits
• 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
• The great person theory of leadership ,
in which effective leaders have special
personalities, is generally not well
supported. 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
Leadership
• Autocratic leadership
– Organised, gave orders,
aloof, focussed on task in
hand
• Democratic leadership
– Calls for suggestions,
discussed plans,
behaves like other
members
• Laissez-faire leadership
– Leaves the group to its
own devices, very low
level of intervention
Figure 9.1
Leadership styles and their effects
Source: Based on Lippitt & White (1943)
Leadership
• Bales (1950) identified two
leadership roles:
– socio-emotional leadership
– task-oriented leadership.
• No one person could occupy
both roles
• 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
Leadership: 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 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.
Leadership: Other contingency theories
• Normative decision theory (Vroom &
Jago, 1988). Three 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
Leadership: Other models
• Limitation of contingency theories is that
they are somewhat static. They identify
styles, but do little to look at the fluid nature
of the work places, this is where other
leadership models comes in.
– Transactional Leadership: leader-member
exchange (LMX) theory
– Transformational Leadership: Charisma
– Leader categorisation theory
– Social Identity approach
leader-member exchange
(LMX) 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 takes place. Trustbuilding 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.
Transformational Leadership
• Transactional leaders appeal to selfinterest, 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.
leader categorisation theory
• According to leader categorisation
theory, we all have schemas of
particular types of leaders
• The effectiveness of a leader is a
matter of the extent to which the leader
matches the appropriate leadership
schema with the situation.
social identity approach
• Linked to the social categorisation
• As people identify more strongly with a group,
they pay closer attention to the group prototype
(someone or something that serves to illustrate
the typical qualities) and identify what or who is
most prototypical of the group.
• Therefore the person who is most prototypical
of the group is likely to become a leader, or a
leader who maintains attitudes and behaviours
consistent with the prototype will be successful
Leader effectiveness as a function of group prototypicality of the leader
and salience of the group
Figure 9.4
Source: Based on data from Hains, Hogg & Duck (1997)
Applied Context 9.1
Norm talk and identity entrepreneurship
Revision Advice
• Identify core frameworks from the reading,
and furnish with explanation.
At the end of the lecture …
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personality
Emphasis within Social Psychology
Types of Leadership
Contingency theories
Transactional Theories
Transformation Theories
Leader categorisation theory
Social Identity Theory