Leadership in organizations
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Institute of Administrative Studies
University of Wrocław
Leadership in Organizations
Gary Yukl
Leadership is a subject that has long excited interest among
people. The term connotes images of powerful, dynamic
individuals who command victorious armies, direct corporate
empire from atop gleaming skyscrapers, or shape the course of
nations. The exploits of brave and clever leaders are the
essence of many legends and myths. Much of our description
of history is the story of military, political, religious, and social
leaders who are credited or blamed for important historical
events, even though we do not understand very well how the
events were caused or how much influence the leader really
had. The widespread fascination with leadership may be
because it is such a mysterious process, as well as one that
touches everyone’s life.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
Leadership
Amitai Etzioni (Werner Falk), born 1929:
Leadership is a special form of power, one that involves
the ability, based on the personal qualities of the leader,
to elicit the followers’ voluntary compliance in a broad
range of matters.
Leadership is distinguished from the concept of power in
that it entails influence, that is change of preferences,
while power implies only that subjects’ preferences are
held in abeyance.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Amitai Etzioni
Leadership in Organizations
Daniel Katz (1903-1998),
Robert L. Kahn (born 1918):
We consider the essence of organizational leadership
to be the influential increment over and above mechanical
compliance with the routine directions of the organization.
Thus, leadership involves more than simply the normal
exercise of authority that is based on a position in the
organization or claimed by a member or members of
organizations because of the formal requirements of
their jobs. It often involves attributions of particular
traits and abilities to people by their followers.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
From left to right: Daniel Katz, Basil Willerman, Robert L. Kahn, Kermit Schooler, Richard Snyder.
Robert L. Kahn
Leadership in Organizations
Leadership position
Leadership is not confined to any particular group or any
level within an organization, and at least in theory, does
not necessarily involve formal authority. Nonetheless, the
vast majority of studies of leadership have focused on
persons who have been assigned a leadership position,
that is, who have some authority by virtue of their position.
According to Philip Selznick (1919-2010) formal leaders
fulfill four fundamental functions.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
Functions of formal leaders as seen by Philip Selznik:

defining organizational mission and role

choosing the means to achieve the ends desired, or
ensuring that the structure reflects and is designed to
accomplish the mission effectively (the institutional
embodiment of purpose)

defending the organization’s integrity (leaders must
secure support for the organization from both the public and their own members, without allowing either
external or internal constituents to fundamentally reshape the organization’s mission)

ordering of internal conflict
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
G. Yukl identified fourteen functions of leadership:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Planning and organizing.
Problem solving.
Clarifying.
Informing.
Monitoring.
Motivating.
Consulting.
Recognizing.
Supporting.
Managing conflict and team building.
Networking.
Delegating.
Developing and mentoring.
Rewarding.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Philip Selznick
Leadership in Organizations
Components of leadership
Generally speaking there are three general types of factors that
determine who becomes defined as leader:
More or less permanent characteristics and traits of individuals: leadership traits (see the next slide
).

Behaviors and styles that individuals may exhibit (leadership
often involves two very different types of behavior: 1) task /
production oriented and 2) employee oriented).

Characteristics of followers and/or particular situation that a
group or organization is facing (in one situation, an individual,
who exhibits certain behaviors and styles is more likely to be
defined as a leader, whereas in other situations, different
individuals, exhibiting different behaviors and styles, are more
likely to be seen as leaders).

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
The „big five” personality characteristics / traits:
•
Extraversion refers to a person’s comfort level with relationships.
Extraverts are sociable, talkative, assertive, and open to establishing new relationships.
extraversion
•
conscientiousness
•
emotional stability
•
agreeableness
•
openness
Conscientiousness refers to the number of goals on which a person
focuses. People who focus on relatively few goals at one time are
likely to be organized, systematic, careful, thorough, responsible,
and self-disciplined as they work to pursue those goals.
People with less negative emotionality will be relatively
poised, calm, resilient, secure, and might be expected to
handle job stress, pressure, and tension relatively well.
Agreeableness refers to a person’s ability to get along with others.
Agreeableness causes some people to be gentle, cooperative, forgiving,
understanding, and good-natured in their dealings with others.
Openness refers to a person’s rigidity of beliefs and range of interests. People
with high level of openness are willing to listen to new ideas and to change
their own ideas, beliefs, and attitudes as a result of new information.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
Theories of leadership
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
James MacGregor Burns’ leadership theory
 transactional leadership
 transformational leadership
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
Transactional leadership
Transactional leadership seeks to motivate followers by
appealing to their own self-interest. Its principles are to
motivate by the exchange process. For example, business
owners exchange status and wages for the work effort of
the employee. In the political environment, politicians may
exchange favors or government jobs for votes. Transactional behavior focuses on the accomplishment of tasks
and good worker relationships in exchange for desirable
rewards. Transactional leadership may encour-age the
leader to adapt their style and behavior to meet the
perceived expectations of the followers.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
Transformational leadership
Transforming leadership (...) occurs when one or more
persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and
followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation
and morality. Their purposes, which might have started out
as separate but related, as in the case of transactional
leadership, become fused. Power bases are linked not as
counterweights but as mutual support for common purpose.
Various names are used for such leadership, some of them
derisory: elevating, mobilizing, inspiring, exalting, uplifting,
preaching, exhorting, evangelizing. The relationship can be
moralistic, of course. But transforming leadership ultimately
becomes moral in that it raises the level of human conduct
and ethical aspiration of both leader and led, and thus it has
a transforming effect on both.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
James MacGregor Burns, born 1918
With professor Susan Dunn
Leadership in Organizations
Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.
In real life, the most practical advice for leaders is not to
treat pawns like pawns, nor princes like princes, but all
persons like persons.
Woodrow Wilson called for leaders who, by boldly interpreting the nation's conscience, could lift a people out of
their everyday selves. That people can be lifted into their
better selves is the secret of transforming leadership.
James McGregor Burns
Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
– the transformational leader
Martin Luther King delivers his
famous speech I have a dream
on the 28th of August 1963
at the Lincoln Memorial,
Washington D.C.
Leadership in Organizations
Robert K. Greenleaf’s (1904-1990) servant leadership theory
Servant leadership is mostly a matter of attitude. The servant leader
is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to
serve, to serve first. This conscious choice brings one to aspire to
lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first,
perhaps because of the need to assuage one’s unusual power drive or
to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to
serve – after leadership is established. The leader-first and the
servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings
and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.
The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to
make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.
The best test, and difficult to administer, is; do those served grow as
persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer,
more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And,
what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit,
or, at least, will they not be further deprived?
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Leadership in Organizations
Servant leadership vs. Bicycle leadership*
* The visual picture implied in bicycle leadership is that managers
bend their back to those above while they trample those below.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Holy Bible. New International Version. Ezekiel; 34,
2.
Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take
care of themselves! Should not shepherds take
care of the flock?
Good News Bible. The Gospel According to Mark;
9, 35.
Jesus Christ:
„Whoever wants to be first must place himself
last of all and be the servant of all”.
Robert K. Greenleaf. Left in 1908 on his father’s
knee. Epitaph above his grave reads: Potentially a
good plumber. Ruined by a sophisticated education.
Concluding Remark
Leadership is action, not position.
Donald H. McGannon
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat