Leadership
• Aligning people towards common goals and
empowering them to take actions needed to
reach them.
Historically important studies
The Iowa Leadership Studies
Important features:
• 1st attempt to experimentally determine
effect of leadership styles on groups
• Experimentally crude
• Results showed that different style of
leadership can produce different reactions
from similar group.
The Experiment (R.Lippitt & R.K.White,
1930s)
• 10 years old boys were subjected to
different leadership styles in hobby classes
• Styles of leadership: authoritarian,
democratic & Laissez-Faire.
• Purpose: examine patterns of aggressive
behavior in the boys
Findings:
• Authoritarian leadership:aggressive or
apathetic reaction resulting from frustration.
• Laissez-faire leadership: greatest number of
aggressive acts.
• Democratic leadership: fell in between the
two extremes
The Ohio State Leadership Study
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Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire
(LBDQ) was developed and used to analyze
leadership in various groups and situations.
Findings:
• Two dimensions of leadership emerged
1. Consideration (recognition of individual needs
or relationships). High scorers were:
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Open & friendly with subordinates
Treat subordinates as equals
Helped them solve personal/work problems
2. Initiating Structure (goal/task orientation). High
scorers were:
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put pressures to meet deadlines
Maintain standards of performance
Individuals who achieved ‘high-high’ were able
to achieve higher levels of performance & job
satisfaction
Relevance:
First study to emphasize importance of both task
& human dimensions in assessing leadership
Leadership was studied without being
effective/ineffective
The Early Michigan Leadership Studies
• Prudential life insurance company
• Twelve high-low productivity pairs of sections
were kept under observation.
• Each pair consisted of one high producing
section and one low producing section.
• Other factors were constant.
• 24 supervisors & 419 workers were
interviewed.
Findings
• Leadership behavior was categorized in two
dimensions:
• Employee-Oriented: emphasizes importance of
inter-personal relations. High scorers:
– personal interest in subordinate needs
– accept individual differences among members
• Production-Oriented: concerned with tasks &
goals. Employees are means to achieve goals.
Lead to lower motivation & productivity
Result
• Employee-Oriented leaders achieve higher
job satisfaction & higher group productivity.
• Production-Oriented leaders achieve lower
job satisfaction & group productivity.
Traditional theories of leadership
Trait Theories
• Concerned with identifying personality
traits of leaders
The great person theory
• Leaders are born with certain traits that
allows them to emerge out of situations and
become leaders.
• “Intelligence” :the only common trait.
Group & Exchange theories
• In ‘Group approach’ leadership is viewed in
terms of leader’s behavior & how it
affects/is affected by groups.
• Classic Exchange theory means that there
should be a positive exchange between
leaders & followers.
The Leader-Member Exchange Theory
• Leaders treat individual subordinates
differently
• Develop a dyadic (two-person) relationship
• Leader develops a ‘in-group’ & an ‘out-group’
of subordinates & treats tem accordingly
• Research shows that ‘In-group’ subordinates:
– Report fewer difficulties with leader
– Perceive leader to be responsive to their needs
– Assume greater responsibility & are high
performers
• The leaders tend to:
• ‘supervise’ those in the ‘out-group’
• Spend more time ‘leading’ those in the ‘Ingroup’.
• The basis for choosing groups:
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Similar attitudes & personality
Higher competence
Extraversion
Better performance
• LMX is reciprocal process
• Leaders help subordinate to achieve goals.
Contingency theory of leadership
• Leaders are viewed as products of time & situation
• Leaders have to change their style depending on the
situation
Fiedler’s Contingency model of Leadership
Effectiveness
• Relationship between leadership style & favorableness
of the situation
• Under very favorable/unfavorable situations, taskdirected / authoritarian leader is most effective
• For moderately favorable: human oriented / democratic
leader is most effective
• Situational favorableness is described in
terms of three dimensions:
• The leader-member relationship (extent to
which leader is accepted& respected by
subordinates)
• The degree of task-structure (task is highly
structured & everything is ‘spelled-out’
• The Leader’s position (authority & power
attributed to leader’s position)
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Criticism:
Narrow focus on one trait of leadership
Ambiguity in dimensions’ measurement
Contributions:
First contingency theory
Emphasizes importance of situation &
leader’s characteristics for measuring
effectiveness
Stimulated a great deal of research
Path-Goal Leadership theory
• Explains the impact of leader behavior on
subordinate motivation, satisfaction &
performance
• Four styles of leadership (House):
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Directive Leadership
Supportive leadership
Participative leadership
Achievement oriented leadership
• Using one of the styles, leaders provides
support & guidance to subordinates to achieve
goals
• Attempts to influence subordinate
perceptions & motivate them.
• Situational factors that effect leaders
behavior:
• Personal characteristics of subordinates
• Environmental demands & pressures facing
subordinates
The Path-Goal Relationship
Modern theoretical processes of leadership
Charismatic Leadership Theories
• Who by the force of their personal abilities
are capable for having profound &
extraordinary effect on subordinates
• Characteristics of charismatic leaders (Robert
House):
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Self confidence & confidence in subordinates
High expectations from subordinates
Vision
Leading by example
Bass included:
• Superior debating & persuasive skills
• Technical expertise
• Fostering of attitudinal, behavioral &
emotional changes in followers.
Transformational leadership theory
• James MacGregor Burns identified two types of
political leadership:
• Transactional (involves an exchange relationship
between leaders & followers)
• Transformational (leader’s shifting the values,
beliefs & needs of their followers)
Transactional leaders:
• Contingent rewards
• Management by Exception(active/passive)
• Laissez-faire
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Transformational Leaders:
Charisma
Inspiration
Intellectual stimulation
Individual consideration
Transactional leadership leads to mediocrity in
many situations & transformational leadership
leads to superior performance (Bass)
Characteristics of effective transformational
leaders:
Identify themselves as change agents
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Courageous
Believe in people
Value driven
Lifelong learners
Have the ability to deal with complexity,
ambiguity & uncertainty
• visionaries
Classic Leadership Styles
Blake & Mouton’s Managerial grid
Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational
Approach
Two major styles of leaders:
• Task style
• Relationship style
• Maturity level of the followers was incorporated .
Criteria for maturity:
– Degree of achievement orientation
– Willingness to take responsibility
– Amount of education/expertise
• Effective leaders match up the situation to
appropriate style of leadership
• Styles of leadership:
1. Telling style (high task; low relationship;
effective when followers have low
maturity)
2. Selling style (high task; high
relationship;followers have low maturity)
3. Participating style (low task; high
relationship; high maturity of followers)
4. Delegating style (low task; low
relationship; very high maturity in
followers)
Vroom’s Leadership-Participation model
• Relationship between leadership behavior &
decision making style.
• Leaders must adjust their behavior
depending on the situation
• Provides a sequential set of rules for
ascertaining the types and amount of
participation required in decision making in
different situations.
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Problem attributes
Leader should assess a situation in terms of the
problem attributes.
Two categories (for 12 attributes):
Decision Quality: cost consideration, information
availability,nature of problem structure
Employee- acceptance: need for commitment,
prior approval, conflicts, goal congruence
(personal & orgn).
Others: subordinate information level, time
constraint, geographical distance with
subordinates, leaders’ motivation
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Leadership styles:
After identifying the nature of the problem,
leader can adopt one of the following styles
of leadership:
Autocratic I
Autocratic II
Consultive I
Consultive II
Group II
Assumptions
• Leaders can precisely classify problems by
following the decisions tree format
• Leaders are willing to and can adapt their
style as per the situation
• Employees accept leader’s classification of
the situation & the leadership styles adopted
Leadership styles
• The way in which leaders influence their
subordinates
Various styles:
• Autocratic
• Consultative
• Laissez-faire or subordinate-oriented
• Democratic
• Manipulative
• Expert
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Likert’s four systems of management
System 1 management : ‘exploitiveauthoritative’ style
System 2 management: ‘benevolent
authoritative’ style
System 3 management: ‘consultative’ style
Style 4 management: ‘participative’ style
What skills do leaders need?
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Skills needed in the glogal economy:
Cultural flexibility
Communication skills
HRD skills
Creativity
Self-management of learning
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Whetten & Cameron’s list for effective leaders:
Verbal communication
Managing time & stress
Managing individual decisions
Recognizing, defining & solving problems
Motivating & influencing others
Delegating
Setting goals & articulating a vision
Self-awareness
Team building
Managing conflict
Characteristics of these skills:
• The skills are behavioral
• Skills are contradictory or paradoxical
• Skills are inter-related & overlapping.