Leadership in Small Groups
“Q’s Girls”
Regan, Ashley, Quentin, Jaemee, Sarah
Leadership is…?
• Leadership is defined as however
we see it at “that point in time.”
• There are almost as many ways to
define leadership as there are people
who have tried to define it.
• Some define leadership as an act
or behavior- the things leaders do to
bring about group change
Leadership: Components and Definition
• Leadership is a process:
- A transactional event that occurs between a leader & his or
her followers
• Leadership involves influence:
- How the leader effects his or her followers
- Without influence, leadership does not exist
• Leadership occurs in groups:
- This is the context where leadership takes place
Leadership: Components and Definition
Continued…
• Leadership involves common goals:
- Mutual purpose for the whole group
*Stressing mutuality lessens the possibility
leaders might act in unethical ways
Leadership Definition
(based off of components)
Leadership:
- Leadership is a process whereby an individual
influences a group of individuals to achieve a
common goal.
(leadership is interactive, this definition makes it
available to everyone)
Conceptualizing Leadership
• According to Fleishman et al. (1991)
“In the past 60 years, as many as 65 different
classification systems have been developed to
define the dimensions of leadership” (as cited
by Northouse, 2010, p. 2).
Conceptualizing Leadership
• Focus of group process
- In this perspective the leader is at the center of
the group
• Transformational process
-the leader moves followers to accomplish more
than is usually expected of them
• Personality perspective
-states that leadership is a combination of special
traits or characteristics and individual possesses
Leadership is a power relationship
Two Categories of Leadership
• Trait v. Process Leadership (picture)
– Trait:
• Individuals have special qualities that they were born
with
• (physical features-height, personality-extravert,
intelligence, fluency)
• Restrictive on those who don’t possess these
features
– Process
• Information processing, perspective or relational
standpoint
Assigned v. Emergent Leadership
• Assigned:
– Individual is occupying a
position in an
organization
• plant managers,
department heads,
directors,
administrators
– Not always viewed as
the leader
• Emergent:
- When an unassigned member
becomes viewed as the leader of the
group no matter what title emerges
over a period of time through
communication
- Verbally involved, stay informed, seek
other’s opinions, initiating new ideas,
firm but not rigid
-Dominant, intelligent, confident
• From social theory: leadership emergence
is how the person fits with the identity of
the group as a whole, usually most like the
group prototype
The Four Factors of a Group:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Establish overall intention and clarity of vision
Building the team moral
Monitor behavioral concerns between group members
Keep focused on group goal
Responsibilities of a Group Leader:
• Be aware of tension within the
group
• Overcome obstacles
• Establish goals for group
• Keep group focus on tasks
• Keep group motivated to reach
goal
Four Primary Tensions Within a Small Group:
• Managing commitment to the group
and life activities
• Whether group activities were ordered
and predictable and unplanned and
spontaneous
• Whether group boundaries included or
excluded certain members from group
activities
• What were acceptable and
unacceptable member behaviors and
norms
Dialectical Theory
•
Contradiction: “The essence of
dialectic theory is contradiction,
the ‘dynamic interplay between
unified opposition’ that ‘mutually
negate’ one another”
(Baxter & Montgomery, 1996, p. 8) (as noted in
Galanes, 2009, p. 411).
•
Change: “Assumes social
relationships are always in the
process of becoming, creating a
dialectical interplay between
stability and change”
(Galanes, 2009, p. 411).
•Praxis: “How participants in a
relationship act
communicatively within the
relationship
(Baxter & Montgomery, 1996, p. 8) (as noted in
Galanes, 2009, p. 412).
•Totality: “All communicative
behavior is contextual,
understood only relative to
other phenomena”
(Galanes, 2009, p. 412).
History Past-Present
•
1920s and 1930s
–
•
1940s:
–
•
group dynamics and
development of social scene
1950s:
–
•
focusing on human relations
movement on collaborative
efforts at work v. individual
efforts
sensitivity training and
T-groups
1960s and 1970s:
–
focused on organizational
development developing
team and leadership
effectiveness through
intervention
1980s:
focus on quality teams, benchmarking,
and continuous improvement
1990s:
focus on organizational teams, still
focusing on quality, shifted to global
perspective focusing on organizational
strategies maintaining competitive
advantage, focus on problems
confronting organizational teams, use of
teams leads to greater productivity,
services, innovation, creativity, and
failures are greatly visible
More recent:
more complex focusing on team
variables rather than outcome.
Investigates role of affective, behavioral,
and cognitive process in team success
and viability. Found that effective team
leadership is critical to team success
and ineffective leadership leads to
failure
Classical/Scientific Management Theory
• Henri Fayol (1841-1925)
• Key Concepts of Classical management theory:
• Planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating,
ruthless efficiency, quantification, predictability, deskilled jobs and controlling
• Style encourages mechanization of jobs
• Bureaucracy is name of the game
Behavioral Era
• Focus on effect communication between
leaders and followers
• Leaders need to motivate followers
• Humans are more complex
• Highly influenced by Behavioral Psychology
and B.F. Skinner
Late 1940s
• Academics moved focus of study away from
leader to follower
• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
– Hierarchy of Needs
• Group members productivity would only be possible if
a member’s physiological, security, and social intrinsic
needs were met
• Herzberg’s Dual Factor Theory
– Intrinsic/extrinsic needs can be met at the same
time
Leadership Scholar:
James MacGregor Burns
• 1978
– Transformational /Transactual Leadership
– power is not to dominate or achieve one’s
own ends, but is within the relationship to
promote collective goals through mutual
process
– Individual holds power within a group
• Potential to influence members
• Collaboration
– Ministers, doctors, coaches, and teachers
Transformational Leadership
• Leaders motivate followers to work together to change group to increase
productivity
• Focus on the future and goals
• Leaders surface assets of group members
• Transformation creates climate of trust
– Idealized and charismatic influence
– Inspiration motivation
– Intellectual stimulation
– Individual consideration
• Downfalls
– Based on the abilities of the leader
– Quality is based on level of morality
Leadership Roles & Power with:
Bertram Raven and John R. P. French
• 1959
• Bases of social power:
– Referent power: based on followers’
attitudes toward the leader
• teacher
– Expert power: based on followers’
perception of leaders competence
• tour guide
– Legitimate Power: having status or
formal job authority
• judge
– Reward Power: leader has capacity
to provide rewards to members
• supervisor
– Coercive Power: capacity to penalize
or punish others
• coach
• Designed these five bases of
power to see how power works or
fails in specific relationships.
• Believed power to be relative and
depends on specific understandings
between the people in the given
relationships. (If A could convince B or if
A could motivate B)
Future of Leadership:
Servant Leadership Theory
• Higher concern for people to be primary focus of the
leader
• Leadership based on teamwork, community, values
services and caring behavior
• Primary objective is the worker and their personal
growth
• Leaders gain influence through 7 Behaviors:
– Agape love, humility, altruism, vision, trust,
empowerment and service
Leadership in Small Groups
Now Go Be a Leader!!!!
“Q’s Girls”
Regan, Ashley, Quentin, Jaemee, Sarah
References
•
•
•
•
•
Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and Practice. CA: SAGE
Publications
Inc.
Stone, A. & Patterson, K. (2005). The history of leadership focus. Retrieved from
http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2005/stone_hist
ory.pdf
Jalanes- Jaemee
Wheatley
Mine (2)