Leadership
Mrs. McMahon and Mr. Thornberg
Fall 2006/Spring 2007
Current Leadership Theories
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Great Man Theory
Trait Theory
Behavioral Theories
Participative
Leadership
• Situational
Leadership
• Contingency
Theories
• Transactional
Leadership
• Transformational
Leadership
Great ManTheory
• Assumptions:
• Leaders are born not made. Great
Leaders will arise if there is a need
Great Man Theory
• Description:
• Study of people who were already great
leaders
• Aristocratic
• Leadership and breeding
• Mythic domain in times of need great
men will arise – Churchill, Eisenhower,
Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha
Great Man Theory
• Discussion:
• Gender issues not on table
• Most researchers male
Trait Theory
• Assumptions:
• People are born with inherited traits
• Some traits are particularly suited to
leadership
• People who make good leaders have
the right combination of traits
Trait Theory
• Description:
• Early research based on focus of the
day >inherited traits
• Attention focused on finding those
traits, often by studying successful
leaders
• If people could be found with these
traits they, too, could become great
leaders
Stogdill(1974) identified the
following traits and skills
• Traits:
• Adaptable to
situations
• Alert to the social
environment
• Ambitious and
achievement
oriented
• Assertive
• Cooperative
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Dominant
Energetic
Persistent
Self confident
Tolerant of stress
Willing to assume
responsibility
Traits – Stogdill (1974)
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Skills:
Clever
Conceptually skilled
Creative
Diplomatic and
Tactful
• Fluent in speaking
• Knowledgeable
about group task
• Organized
(administrative
ability)
• Persuasive
• Socially Skilled
Traits (con’t)
• McCall and Lombardo (1983) identified
four primary traits by which leaders
could succeed or ‘derail”
• Emotional Stability
• Admitting Error
• Good Interpersonal Skills
• Intellectual Breadth
Traits (con’t)
• Discussion:
• Many different studies and they agree
only in the general saintly qualities
• Inherited traits were sidelined for a long
time in favor of situational factors
• Twin studies have now shown us that
far more is inherited – perhaps a
leadership gene exists
Behavioral Theory
• Assumptions:
• Leaders can be made rather than born
• Successful leadership is based in
definable, learnable behavior
Behavior Theory
• Description:
• Behavior Theories do not seek inborn
traits or capabilities, rather they look at
what leaders actually do
• Leadership becomes teachable
Behavior Theory (con’t)
• Discussion:
• Opens the floodgates to leadership
development rather than psychometric
assessment
• With a large enough study, you can
correlate statistically significant
behaviors with success. You can also
identify behaviors which lead to failure
Behavior Theory subset - Role
Theory
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Assumptions:
People define roles for themselves
People form expectations about the roles
People encourage others to act within the
role expectations
Behavior subset - Role Theory
• Description:
• We all have schemas about the role of
leaders
• We send signals to leaders which
influence leaders
• Role conflict can occurr when people
have differing expectations of their
leaders
Behavior Theory subset –
Managerial Grid
• Description:
• Defined by Blake and Merton in the early
1960s
• Impoverished Management – lazy
• Authority-Compliance – focus on task
• Country Club Management – concern for
people low focus on task
• Team Management – People commited to
task and leader committed to people
Management Grid
Concern Country Club
for
Management
People
Team
Management
Middle of the
Road
Management
Impoverished
Management
Concern for
Production
Authority
Compliance
TASK
Behavior subset – Management
Grid
• Discussion:
• This is a well known grid that uses Task
vs. Person preference that appear in the
Michigan Leadership Studies and Ohio
State Leadership Studies
Participative Leadership
• Assumptions:
• Involve in decision making improves
understanding of issues
• People are more committed to actions
• People are less competitive
• Social Commitment greater
• Several people deciding make better
decisions than one
Participative (con’t)
Autocratic Leader
Leader
Proposes
Decision,
listens to
feed back,
then
decides
Team
Proposes
decision,
Leader
has final
decision
Joint
Decision
With
Team as
equals
Full
Delegation
Of the
Decision to
Team
Participative (con’t)
• Discussion:
• This can also be known as consultation,
empowerment, joint decision making,
democratic leadership, Management by
objective, and power-sharing.
• Participative leadership can be a sham if
leaders ignore opinions given to them
Participative subset – Lewin’s
Leadership Styles
• Description:
• Kurt Lewin did leadership decision
experiments in 1939 and identified 3
different styles of leadership
– Autocratic –The leader takes the decisions
without consulting others. This caused the
most discontent
– Democratic – Most appreciated people are
involved but can be problematic when
there is a wide range of opinions
Lewin (con’t)
• Laissez-Faire – Minimize leaders part.
Works best when people are capable and
motivated
Lewin (con’t)
• Discussion:
• Lewin discovered the most effective style
was Democratic. Excessive autocratic
styles lead to revolution, Whilst under
laissez-faire, people were not coherent in
their work and did not put in the energy
that they did when they were actively led
Situational Leadership
• Assumptions:
• The best action of the leader depends
on a range of situational factors
Situational Leadership (con’t)
• Style:
• The leader’s perception of the follower
and the situation will affect what they
do rather than the truth of the situation
• Leaders here work on such factors as
external relationships, acquisition of
resources, managing demands on the
group and managing the structures and
culture of the group
Situational Leadership (con’t)
• Discussion:
• Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958)
identified 3 factors that lead to the leaders
action
– 1. forces in the situation
– 2. forces in the follower
– 3. forces in the leader
Contingency Theory
• Assumptions:
• Leaders ability to lead is contingent
upon various situational factors,
including the leaders preferred style
the capabilities and behaviors of the
followers and also various situational
factors
Contingency Theory (con’t)
• Description:
• Contingency theories are a class of
behavior theory that contend there is
no best way of leading and that
leadership style that is effective in one
situation may not be successful in
others
Contingency Theory (con’t)
• Discussion:
• Situational Theory tends to focus more on
the behaviors a leader should adopt,
whereas contingency theory takes a
broader view that includes the contingent
factors about leader capability and other
variables in the situation.