Chapter 7
Leading Technical People
Advanced Organizer
Managing Engineering and Technology
Management Functions
Planning
Decision Making
Organizing
Leading
Controlling
Managing Technology
Personal Technology
Research
Time Management
Design
Ethics
Production
Career
Quality
Marketing
Project Management
Chapter Objectives
• Explain the difference between leaders and
managers
• Describe the nature of leadership and its
significance to an organization
• Address the application of servant
leadership in current organizations
• Recognize the different views of motivation
Leadership & Management
Management
Function
Formal & rational methods
Experienced
Leadership
Relationship
Passion & emotion
--Michael Maccoby
Leadership & Management
Managers
Administer
Ask how and when
Focus on systems
Do things right
Maintain
Short term perspective
Imitate
Are a copy
Leaders
Innovate
Ask what and why
Focus on people
Do the right things
Develop
Longer term perspective
Originate
Are original
--Warren Bennis
Nature of Leadership
Leadership is the process of getting the cooperation
of others in accomplishing a desired goal.
“mixture of persuasion, compulsion, and example
that makes men do what you want them to do.”
--Sir William Slim, commander of the British Army
“You know what makes leadership? It is the ability
to get men to do what they don't want to do and
like it.”
--Harry Truman
Types of Leaders
• Formal leaders are appointed branch manager or
committee chair or team captain and have the
advantage of formal authority (including the power
to reward and punish), but this only gives them
the opportunity to prove themselves effective at
leadership.
• Emergent, or informal leaders evolve based on
their expertise or referent power as it is expressed
in the process of group activity.
Identifying Potential Leaders
• Leadership Traits
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Leadership Traits
• Physical qualities of health, vitality, and
endurance;
• Personal attributes of personal magnetism,
cooperativeness, enthusiasm, ability to inspire,
persuasiveness, forcefulness, and tact;
• Character attributes of integrity, humanism,
self-discipline, stability, and industry; and
• Intellectual qualities of mental capacity, ability
to teach others, and a scientific approach to
problems.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI)
1. The most favored Energy Source:
– The way people prefer to interact with the world, and the way they
prefer to receive stimulation and energy.
(E) Extraversion <> (I) Introversion
2. The most favored Perceiving Mental Process:
– The way people prefer to get data.
(S) Sensing <> (N) Intuition
3. The favored Judging Mental Process:
– The way people prefer to make decisions
(T) Thinking <> (F) Feeling
4. The mental process leads to Outside World Orientation:
– The way people prefer to orient their lives
(J) Judging <> (P) Perceiving
Classification of Leadership Style
I. People/Task Matrix Approaches
• The Leadership Grid
• Ohio State studies
• Hersey and Blanchard life-cycle theory
II. Situational Approaches
• Leadership continuum
• Other viewpoints
People/Task Matrix approaches
The Leadership Grid
Concern for People
(1,9) Country Club
Management
(9,9) Team Management, in
which individual objectives
are achieved in the process
of achieving organizational
goals,
(5,5) Middle of the Road
Management
(1,1) Impoverished
Management
(9,1) Authority
Compliance Management
Concern for Production
Ohio State studies
Initiating
Structure (IS)
High
Low
Consideration (C)
Low
High
H(IS)/L(C)
L(IS)/L(C)
H(IS)/H(C)
L(IS)/H(C)
Findings:
•High IS – High C may not be the most effective
•High IS helps only if task is unstructured.
•High C helps only if there is no adequate alt.
source of satisfaction
Hersey and Blanchard life-cycle
theory (or "maturity" theory)
"the most effective leadership progresses with time
through the four quadrants”




High Initiating Structure, Low Consideration
High Initiating Structure, High Consideration
Low Initiating Structure, High Consideration
Low Initiating Structure, Low Consideration
Situational Approaches
Contingency theory
The manager must develop a reward system, a leadership
style, or an organizational structure to be appropriate for
the unique combination of such factors as
• the nature of the subordinates,
• the technology of the business and the tasks that result,
• the rate of change in the organization,
• the degree of integration of functions required,
• the amount of time the manager has to accomplish the
assignment,
• the quality of the manager's relationship with
subordinates.
Leadership Continuum
"a continuum of leadership style extending from complete
•
•
•
•
retention of power by the manager to complete freedom
for subordinates"
Autocratic ("Telling"). Manager makes decisions with
little or no involvement of non-managers.
Diplomatic ("Selling). Manager makes decisions
without consultation but tries to persuade non-managers
to accept them.
Consultative ("Consulting"). Manager obtains nonmanagers' ideas and uses them in decision making.
Participative ("Joining"). Manager involves nonmanagers heavily in the decision (and may even delegate
it to them completely).
Leadership continuum (cont.)
3
•
•
•
deciding forces:
Forces in the manager
Forces in the subordinate (or non-manager).
Forces in the situation.
Servant Leadership
• Practical philosophy which supports
people who choose to serve first,
• Then lead as a way of expanding service
to individuals and institutions.
Other viewpoints:
14 types of executives by their behavior
"merely successful" (Table 7-3)
• Bureaucrat
• Zealot
• Machiavellian
• Missionary
• Climber
• Exploiter
• Temporizer
• Glad-Hander
Other viewpoints:
14 types of executives by their behavior
"effective leaders" (Table 7-4)
• Entrepreneur
• Corporateur
• Developer
• Craftsman
• Integrator
• Gamesman
True Leader
"A leader is best when people barely know
he exists. Not so good when people obey
and acclaim him.
Worse when they despise him.
But of a good leader who talks little, when
his work is done and his aim fulfilled, they
will say, "We did it ourselves."
-- Lao Tsu, 600 B.C.
Motive & Motivation
Definition of Motive:
• “An inner state that energizes, activates, or moves, and
that directs or channels behavior toward goals.”
– Berelson & Steiner
Definition of Motivation:
• “The willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach
organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to
satisfy some individual need.”
– Robbins
• “3 measures of resulting behavior: direction, strength, and
persistence”
– Campbell
Nature of the Individuals
• McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y (2
assumptions about basic nature)
Nature of the Individuals
"Theory X":
• Management is responsible for organizing the elements of
productive enterprise--money, materials, equipment, people-in the interest of economic ends.
• With respect to people, this is a process of directing their
efforts, motivating them, controlling their actions, modifying
their behavior to fit the needs of the organization.
• Without this active intervention by management, people
would be passive--even resistant to organization needs.
They must therefore be persuaded, rewarded, punished,
controlled--their activities must be directed. This is
management's task....
Nature of the Individuals
Additional beliefs of "Theory X":
• The average person is by nature indolent—he/she works as
little as possible.
• He/She lacks ambition, dislikes responsibility, prefers to be
led.
• He/She is inherently self-centered, indifferent to
organizational needs.
• He/She is by nature resistant to change.
• He/She is gullible, not very bright, the ready dupe of the
charlatan and the demagogue.
"Theory Y"
• Management is responsible for organizing the
elements of productive enterprise--money,
materials, equipment, people--in the interest of
economic ends.
• People are not by nature passive or resistant to
organizational needs. They have become so as a
result of experience in organizations.
"Theory Y"
• The motivation, the potential for development, the capacity
for assuming responsibility, the readiness to direct behavior
toward organization goals are all present in people.
Management does not have to put them there. It is the
responsibility of management to make it possible for people
to recognize and develop these human characteristics for
themselves.
• The essential task of management is to arrange
organizational conditions and methods of operation so that
people can achieve their own goals best by directing their
own efforts toward organizational objectives.
“Theory X” v.s. “Theory Y”
“Theory X places exclusive reliance upon external
control of human behavior, while Theory Y relies
heavily on self-control and self-direction. It is
worth noting that this difference between treating
people as children and treating them as adults.”
--McGregor
Motivation Theories:
Content Theories:
Based on human needs and people’s effort to satisfy them
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Herzberg's 2-factor theory
• McClelland’s Trio of Needs
Process Theories:
Assumes that behavioral choices are based on expected
outcomes
• Equity Theory (Adams)
• Expectancy Theory (Vroom)
• Porter-Lawler Extension
• Behavior Modification (Skinner)
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
(The appearance of one need usually rests upon the prior
satisfaction of another.)
• Physiological needs: air, water, food, shelter, sex
• Safety needs: safe work, with security that the
physiological needs will continue to be met (through job
tenure and medical, unemployment, and disability
insurance and retirement provisions)
• Love needs: affectionate relations with friends, family,
and people in general, and group acceptance
• Esteem needs: self-respect or self-esteem, and the
esteem of others (expressed in reputation, prestige, and
recognition)
• Self-actualization (or self-fulfillment) needs: the
desire to become everything one is capable of becoming
(to become actualized in what one is potentially)
Herzberg's 2-factor Theory
• The growth or motivator factors that are intrinsic to the
job are [in order of decreasing importance]: achievement,
recognition for achievement, the work itself, responsibility,
and growth or advancement.
• The dissatisfaction-avoidance or hygiene factors that
are extrinsic to the job include [also in order of decreasing
importance]: company policy and administration,
supervision, interpersonal relationships, working conditions,
salary, status, and security.
Applications of
Herzberg's 2-factor Theory
• Job Enrichment: To increase the content of
motivators in a job.
• Reducing the number and frequency of controls
• Making the worker responsible for checking his/her
own work
• Establishing a direct relationship between worker
and the customer (internal or external)
• Increasing authority and autonomy
McClelland’s Trio of Needs
(Different people have different needs)
• Need for achievement: the drive or desire to
excel, to accomplish something better than has
been done in the past. (entrepreneurs)
• Need for power: the desire to control one’s
environment, including resources and people.
(managers)
• Need for affiliation: the need for human
companionship and acceptance. (coordinators,
integrators, counselors, and sales)
Process Theories:
Process theories treat human needs as just
one part of the mechanism that people
use in choosing their behavior. These
theories place greater emphasis on the
expectation of favorable consequences or
rewards.
A. Equity Theory
“People want to be treated fairly relative to the
treatment of others.”
Input/outcome ratio:
• Inputs: person’s contribution to the organization
(education, experience, ability, effort, and loyalty)
• Outcomes: pay, promotion, recognition, and social
relationships
B. Expectancy Theory
Environment
Effort
Performance
Outcome
Ability
Effort to
Performance
Expectancy
Performance to
Outcome
Expectancy
Valence of
Outcomes
B. Expectancy Theory
• Effort-to-performance expectancy
• Performance-to-outcome expectancy
• Valence: Strength of a person’s desire for
these outcomes
C. Porter-Lawler Extension
• Personal effort, abilities and traits, and role perceptions (the
employee's belief that certain tasks need to be done to do
his or her job effectively) determine performance.
• Performance, in turn, leads to intrinsic and extrinsic
rewards, as in the expectancy model.
• The perceived equity (fairness) of these rewards determines
the satisfaction the employee gains from the work.
• This satisfaction colors the value placed on the rewards
anticipated for future cycles of work, and therefore it
influences future effort.
D. Behavior Modification
(Reinforcement Theory)
Behavior is followed by an event (reinforcement) that
affects the probability that the behavior is repeated.
• Positive reinforcement increases the probability that desired
behavior will be repeated by providing a reward (praise,
recognition, raise, promotion, or other).
• Negative reinforcement, or avoidance, seeks to increase the
probability that desired behavior will be repeated by letting the
employee escape from undesired consequences.
• Punishment seeks to decrease the probability that undesired
behavior will be repeated by imposing penalties (undesired
consequences) such as reprimands, discipline, or fines.
• Extinction seeks to decrease the probability that undesired
behavior will be repeated by ignoring it and withholding positive
reinforcement.
Motivating And Leading Technical
Professionals
General Nature of the Technical Professional
• Having a high need for achievement and deriving their
motivation primarily from the work itself.
• Desiring autonomy (independence) over the conditions,
pace, and content of their work.
• Tending to identify first with their profession and
secondarily with their company.
• Seeking to maintain their expertise, gained through long
and arduous study, and stave off obsolescence through
continuing education.
Motivation Factors for Engineers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Type of work, interesting, diversified (45.0%)
Salary (33.9%)
Location, good place to live, family (31.2%)
Opportunity for advancement (29.8%)
Challenge, more responsibility, chance to use creative
ability (16.9%)
6. Reputation, prestige of company (13.7%)
7. Working conditions, personnel policies (11.7%)
8. Growing organization, growing field (6.9%)
9. Security, retirement plan, benefits (6.8%)
10. Opportunity to learn, broaden experience, training
programs (6.6%)
Leading Technical Professionals
Dimensions of technical leadership
• Coach for peak performance
• Run organizational interference
• Orchestrate professional development
• Expand individual productivity through teamwork
• Facilitate self-management
Leading Technical Professionals
Leading as orchestration -- McCall
• Technical competence.
• Controlled freedom.
• Leader as metronome.
• Work challenge.