Key Leadership Theories
Main Theorists, Key Elements, Comments
Northhouse, P.G. (2007) Leadership: Theory and Practice.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. (4th Edition)
Compiled by Jacek Polubiec,
Urban Leadership Program Cohort 2009
TRAIT APPROACH
Bass, 1990;
Jago, 1982
1948
Stogdill
1974
Bryman, 1992
Lord,
DeVader, and
Alliger(1986)
Kirkpatrick
and Locke
(1991)
Judge, Bono,
Illies, and
Gerhardt
(2002)
Goleman
(1995)
COMMENTS
There are specific traits that distinguish leaders from followers
The leadership traits are not universal. Individual leadership qualities are
relative to the requirements of the situation in which the leader is
functioning. These traits are: intelligence, alertness, insight, responsibility,
initiative, persistence, self-confidence and sociability
Ten characteristics: drive for responsibility and task completion, vigor and
persistence in pursuit of goals, venturesomeness and originality in problem
solving, drive to exercise initiative in social situations, self-confidence and
sense of personal identity, willingness to accept consequences of decision
and action, readiness to accept interpersonal stress, willingness to tolerate
frustration and delay, ability to influence other people’s behavior, and
capacity to structure social interaction systems to the purpose at hand.
Resurgence of interest in explaining how traits influence leadership
Personality traits are strongly associated with individuals’ perception of
leadership. Dominant traits: Intelligence, Masculinity and Dominance
Effective leaders are actually distinct types of people in several key
respects. Dominant traits: Drive, Motivation, Integrity, Confidence,
Cognitive Ability, Task Knowledge
Examined the relationship between the Big Five and leadership:
Extraversion (strong), Conscientiousness (second strongest), Neuroticism
and Openness (third) and Agreeableness (weak)
People who understand
the impact of their own
emotions and emotions
of others, are more
effective as leaders.
Since Emotional Intelligence Competencies can be developed this approach to
leadership belongs in the Skills Approach and since Goleman discusses effectiveness of
different resonant and dissonant approaches, his ideas can be considered to be an
example of situational approach.
SKILLS APPROACH
Katz, (1955)
Mumford,
Zaccaro,
Harding,
Jacobs, and
Fleishman
(2000)
The trait approach to leadership does
not take into account the situation and
the followers.
Leaders are thought of being special
people who possess special traits
therefore they are born and cannot be
made.
There has been too much subjective
interpretations of the data and the
definitions of specific traits vary from
author to author.
How can we explain the existence of
people who have the leadership traits
yet they are not in leadership
positions?
What trait would make a person seek a
leadership role?
What is the difference between traits
that allow individuals to emerge as
leaders and the traits that allow them
maintain their leadership over time?
Effective administration (and leadership)
depends on three basic personal skills: technical,
human and conceptual. Human skills play equal
role on all levels of leadership but technical is
less critical with top management and
conceptual is less needed on the supervisory
level. The middle management requires equal
amount of all three.
Skill model distinguishes three main
competencies that link Individual Attributes to
Leadership Outcomes. They are: ProblemSolving Skills, Social Judgment Skills and
Knowledge. Developed using data from military
personnel
COMMENTS
It is important that this approach acknowledges the fact that
knowledge and abilities are needed for effective leadership.
Many people have the potential for leadership as long as they
are capable of learning from their experiences.
When upper-level managers don’t have strong enough
conceptual skills they can jeopardize the whole organization!
Social judgment skills are about being sensitive to how your
ideas fit in with others which is reminiscent of resonant
leadership.
The skill model acknowledges the existence of environmental
influence that are outside of the three competencies, although
doesn’t define their specifics,
STYLE APPROACH
Ohio State Studies
Based on Stogdill
(1948)
University of Michigan
Studies
Carthright & Zander
1960; Katz & Kahn,
1951; Likert, 1961,
1964
Blake and Mouton
(1964, 1978, and 1985)
COMMENTS
Emphasis on two types of leader behavior: task behavior and relationship
behavior and how combination of these two kinds of behaviors influences
subordinates in their efforts to reach a goal. Leader Behavior Description
Questionnaire LBDQ-XII The core findings: Leaders provide structure for
subordinates and they nurture them
Two types of leadership behaviors: employee orientation (personal needs) and
production orientation (technical aspect) and they are not on the opposite sides of
the spectrum.
Leadership Grid: leaders help organizations meet their goals through concern for
production and concern for people. Five major leadership styles: AuthorityCompliance (task 9, people 1), Country Club Management (1,9) , Impoverished
(1,1), Middle-of-the-Road Management (5,5) Team Management (9,9) !
Benevolent Dictator (1,9 or 9,1 but does not integrate the two) Opportunismusing combination of all styles for personal advancement.
SITUATIONAL APPROACH
Hersey and
Blanchard (1969)
based on Reddin’s
(1967) 3-D
Management Style
Theory
COMMENTS
Different situations demand different kinds of leadership. Leadership
has two dimensions: directive and supportive. Leader needs to match his
style to the competence and commitment of the subordinates.
Leadership styles are: directive style (high directive-low supportive),
coaching style (high directive-high supportive), supporting style (high
supportive-low directive), delegating style (low supportive-low
directive). First leader needs to address the nature of the situation and
adopt one of the styles.
How can leader supervising several
employees and several different
situations decide what style to
apply? How does the dynamic a
group of subordinates impact the
leader’s decision?
CONTINGENCY THEORY
Fiedler (1964,
1967)
Fiedler &
Garcia (1987)
Fiedler &
Chemers
(1974)
COMMENTS
Matching leaders to appropriate situations. Leaders effectiveness depends on how
well leader’s style fits the context. Leadership styles are either task motivated or
relationship motivated. Situation can be categorized using three factors: leadermember relations (confidence, loyalty or attraction towards leader), task structure
(how clearly are requirements of the task spelled out) and position power (the
amount of authority to reward and punish does the leader have). Leader whose
style does not match particular situation experiences stress and anxiety which
results in reverting to less mature ways of dealing with situation which leads to
poor decision making and negative work outcomes
Requires objectivity in
assessing the situation in order
to assure that there is a match
between the leader and
situation. If there is no match,
serious consequences can
follow.
PATH-GOAL THEORY
Evans (1970),
House (1971),
Michell (1974)
Graen, (1976)
Graen & UhlBin, 1995)
COMMENTS
Subordinates will be motivated if they think they are capable of performing their work.
Leadership style must meet subordinates’ motivational needs by choosing behaviors that
complement of supplement what is missing in the work setting. Leaders define goals, clarify
paths, remove obstacles and provides support. Characteristics of the subordinates’ needs
determine to what degree behavior of a leader causes satisfaction. These characteristics are:
need for affiliation, preference for structure, desires for control, and self-perceived level of
task ability. Leaders need to choose a leadership style that fits the needs of subordinates and
the work they are doing
LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE THEORY-LMX Theory
Leadership is a process which is centered on the interaction
between leaders and followers. Subordinates and part of ingroup and out-group. Subordinates must be interested in
taking on new and different job responsibilities to be in the
in-group. Leadership making develops in three phases:
stranger, acquaintance and mature partnership.
A person has a
dominant style and a
back-up style he/she
reverts to under
pressure when usual
ways don’t work or
don’t seem to work.
Intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation
is an important topic
to study in depth.
COMMENTS
Research indicates that high-quality leader-member
exchanges produces great result but are those
different for the in-group and out-group?
It is only fair if everyone can be considered for
being in the in-group. What about the bias?
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Burns’
Leadership
(1978)
Bryman,
(1992)
Bass and
Riggio, (2006)
Lowe and
Gardner (2001)
Bass (1985)
COMMENTS
Transformational Leadership is a process that transforms people and it is concerned with
emotions, values, ethics, standards, long-term goals and includes assessing followers’
motives, satisfies their needs and treating them as human beings. It moves followers to
accomplish more than what is usually expected. Transformational Leaders seeks to change
company’s values by promoting justice and fairness. It often incorporates charismatic and
visionary leadership. Leaders and followers are inextricably bound together.
Transformational Leadership Factors: Idealized Influence (followers identify with and
emulate the leader) Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation (stimulating creativity
and challenging their values, supports followers as they try to think things out and engage in
problem solving), Individualized Consideration (supply supportive environment and listen to
the needs of individuals). One of the first theories that specified these varieties of leadership:
directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented.
TEAM LEADERSHIP
Porter and
Beyerlin
McGrath
COMMENTS
Groups are composed of members who are interdependent, share common
goals and must coordinate their activities. Effective leadership processes are
the most critical factor in success of organizational teams. Shared and
distributed leadership is a team leadership capacity. Leadership decisions that
must be made: Should I monitor or take action? Should I intervene to meet
the task or relational needs? Should I intervene internally or externally?
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Berens (2001)
Maccoby
(1981)
Zaleznik
(1977)
Based of Freud
and Jung
Probably the most
effective type of
leadership best
suited for
contemporary
progressive
organizations.
Can’t other types of leadership be
used to assure success of
organizational teams?
COMMENTS
Several different ways of looking at leadership with the underlining
concept of personality: consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and
acting with regard to people and environment. Several questionnaires
can be used to characterize the personality of a person. Certain
personality types are better suited for particular leadership situations
but there is no need to match it to the personality types of
subordinates. Personality characteristics are ingrained and difficult to
change so the key is to accept them and accept the fact that
subordinates have them too.
To what degree does this approach
encourage leaders and followers to reflect
on their personalities and where they are
coming from when dealing with people
and situations?
GENDER AND LEADERSHIP
COMMENTS
Dobbins &
Platz (1986)
Engen, Leeden
& Willemsen
(2001) Powell
(1990)
Building relationships is often considered as one
of the most important aspects of leading a school
so wouldn’t “typical” (democratic and
transformational) leader women be better
leaders?
Gender has little or no relationship to leadership style and
effectiveness although women’s styles tend to be more
democratic and more transformational. Women are devalued
when they lead in masculine manner (autocratic or directive).
Women face the glass ceiling but the disparity is slowly eroding.
CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP
House and
Javidan (2004)
Hofstede
(2001)
Globalization has created interdependence between nations and created a need to
understand how cultural differences affect leadership performance. Related
concepts: ethnocentrism (can prevent respecting others), prejudice which we all
have to certain degree. Leader needs to negotiate with followers from different
cultural backgrounds. There are 9 cultural dimensions and each has high and lowscore clusters. Each cluster has a leadership profile which is most effective with this
cluster. There are universally positive and negative leader attributes.
COMMENTS
Choosing school leaders is
often driven by
ethnocentrism but it should
be driven by leadership
profile.
LEADERSHIP ETHICS
Plato,
Aristotle,
W.K. Kellogg
Foundation,
Dr. Lee 9/12/09
5 Principles: respect, service, justice, honesty and community. Theories fall within two broad
domains: conduct (what are their actions) and character (who they are as people). Conduct of a
leader: consequences of actions and duty (rules) governing his/her actions. Teleological theories
(focus on consequesnces): Ethical egoism, utilitarianism (greatest good for the greatest number)
and altruism. Deontological theory (moral obligation to do the right thing). Three perspectives
tied by the theme that leader-follower relationship is central to ethical leadership. Heifetz’s
perspective-leaders use authority to help followers deal with conflicting values, Burnstransformational leaders should be involved in moving followers to higher standard of moral
responsibility, Greenleaf-servant leadership where leaders attends to and empathizes with the
concerns of followers. Principles of Ethical Leadership: Respects Others, Serves Others, Shows
Justice, Manifests Honesty, Builds Community.
COMMENTS
Ethics must be
taken into
account any time
people with
different levels of
power or
influence are
working together.
It is important to have a common language for talking about leadership and educational leadership. Most leadership studies originated
outside of the education. Qualifying paper: Late May this chart will be very useful for writing it. Meaningful long-term leadership is
a process that takes place over time and not an act. One of the issues of being charismatic leader is that once you are gone there is
nothing left. BLOG IDEA: Do leaders ever throw in a towel? Dissertation needs to be relevant, compelling.