Leadership Theories
Leaders move things forward
Study Questions
• What is leadership and how does it differ
from management?
-Trait Theories
-Behavioral Theories
• What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership
-Fiedlers Leadership Contingency
theory
-House’s Path –Goal Theory of
Leadership
-Substitutes for Leadership
Study Questions
• What are Attributional approaches to
leadership
-Leadership Prototypes
-What is implicit leadership?
-Exaggeration of the Leadership
Difference
• What are some emerging Leadership
perspectives and why are they especially
important in today’s organization?
-What are charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
-Leadership in self managing work teams
-Emerging Leadership issues
What Is Leadership?
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
•
Role of management is to promote
stability or to enable the organization to
run smoothly
• Role of leadership is to promote adaptive
or useful changes
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
•
Leadership
– process of influencing others to
understand and agree about what
needs to be done and how to do it, and
the process of facilitating individual
and collective efforts to accomplish
shared efforts
– Formal leadership
– Informal leadership
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
•
Formal leadership
– exerted by persons appointed to or
elected to positions of formal authority
in organizations
• Informal leadership
– exerted by persons who become
influential because they have special
skills that meet the resource needs of
others
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
•
Approaches to leadership
– Trait and behavioral theory
perspectives
– Attributional and symbolic
perspectives
– Transformational and charismatic
perspectives
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
Trait Theories
• Trait perspectives
– assume that traits play a central role in
differentiating between leaders and
non-leaders or in predicting leader or
organizational outcomes.
Traits with positive implications for
successful leadership
Trait Theories
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
•
Behavioral theories
– assumes that leadership is central to
performance and other outcomes
– Focuses on leader behaviors rather
than traits
Behavioral Theories
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
Two classic research programs at the
university of Michigan and Ohio state
University-provides useful insights into
leadership behaviors
• Michigan leadership studies
Two basic forms of leader behavior
– Employee-centered supervisors
• Place strong emphasis on
subordinate’s welfare(human
relation oriented)
– Production-centered supervisors
• Place strong emphasis on getting
the work done(task oriented)
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
Ohio State leadership studies
• Research identified two dimensions
similar to Michigan studies
– Consideration
• Sensitive to people’s feelings and
making things pleasant for the
followers(socioemotional
leadership)
– Initiating structure
• Concerned with spelling out the
task requirements and clarifying
other aspects of the work agenda
(task leadership)
Ohio State Studies
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
•
Leadership Grid
– Developed by Robert Blake and Jane
Mouton
– Built on dual emphasis of
consideration and initiating structure
– A 9 x 9 Grid (matrix) reflecting levels of
concern for people and concern for
task
The Managerial Grid
(Blake and Mouton)
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
•
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
theory
– Focuses on the quality of the working
relationship between leaders and
followers
– LMX dimensions determine followers’
membership in leader’s “in group” or
“out group”
Leader–Member Exchange Theory
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
theory-contd
• The more personalized in group
exchanges typically involve a leader’s
emphasis on assignments to
interesting tasks, delegation of
important responsibilities, information
sharing, participation in leaders
decisions
• special benefits-personal
support-approval and favorable work
schedule
What is leadership and how does it
differ from management?
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
theory-contd
• Research suggests that high –quality
LMX is associated with increased
follower satisfaction and productivity
• Decreased turnover, increased
salaries, faster promotion
• What happens when there is too much
disparity in the treatment of in group
and out group?
• Will out group become resentful and
sabotage team efforts?
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
• Trait and behavioral perspective
assume-leadership by itself would
impact outcomes
• Another development in leadership
thinking• Leader traits and behaviors can act in
conjunction with situational
contingencies-other important aspects of
the leadership situation –to predict
outcomes
• House and Aditya argue that the effects of
leader traits are enhanced by their
relevance to situational
contingencies-(example achievement
motivation for challenging tasks that
require initiative and require assumption
of personal responsibility for success)
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
• Leader flexibility should be most
predictive in unstable environments or
when leaders lead different people over
time
• Prosocial power motivation –most
important in complex organizations where
decision implementation requires lots of
persuasion and social influence
• Strong or weak situations also make a
difference (example of a highly formal
organization with lots of rules
,procedures-here traits have less impact
than in a weaker ,more unstructured
situation)-e.g cant show my dynamism
when organization restricts me
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
• Traits sometimes have a direct
relationship to outcomes or to leaders
versus non leaders
• They may also make themselves felt by
influencing leader behaviors (example -a
leader high in energy engages in directive
,take –charge behavior)
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
• Fiedler’s contingency model
• Fred Fiedler’s work began the situational
contingency era in the mid 1960’s
• The theory holds that group
effectiveness depends on an appropriate
match between a leader’s style(trait
measure)and the demands of the
situation
• Fiedler consists:– Situational control - The extent to
which a leader can determine what his
or her group is going to do as well as
the outcomes of the group’s actions
and decisions.
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
Fiedler uses an instrument called:• Least preferred co-worker (LPC) scale
– measure of a person’s leadership style
based on a description of the person
with whom respondents have been
able to work least well
– Unfriendly-------------------------------------Friendly
1
8(relationship motivated style)
– Pleasant----------------------------------Unp
leasant
1
8(Task motivated style)
Summary of Fiedler’s situational
variables and their preferred
leadership styles
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
•
Fiedler’s situational control variables
– Leader-member relations
(good/poor)—membership support for
the leader
– Task structure (high/low)—spelling out
the leader’s task goals, procedures,
and guidelines in the group
– Position power (strong/weak)—the
leader’s task expertise and reward or
punishment authority
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
Fiedler’s cognitive resource theory
• Cognitives are abilities or competencies
– A leader’s use of directive or
nondirective behavior depends on the
following situational contingencies:• The leader’s or subordinate group
members’ ability or competency
• Stress
• Experience
• Group support of the leader
Application of the theory-developed
leader match training (leaders are
trained to diagnose the situation to
match their high and low LPC
scores with situational control
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
• House’s path-goal theory of leadership
• Developed by Robert House based on
earlier work of others
• Has roots in the expectancy model of
motivation
– assumes that a leader’s key function is
to adjust his or her behaviors to
complement situational contingencies.
– “Path goal” is used because of its
emphasis on how a leader influences
subordinates perceptions both work
goals and personal goals and the links,
or paths, found between these two sets
of goals
Summary of path goal relationships
in House’s leadership approach
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
•
•
Directive leadership
– spells out the what and how of
subordinates’ tasks
Supportive leadership
– focuses on subordinate needs,
well-being, and promotion of a friendly
work climate.
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
•
Achievement oriented leadership
– emphasizes setting challenging goals,
stressing excellence in performance
and showing confidence in people’s
ability to achieve high standards of
performance.
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
•
Participative leadership
– focuses on consulting with
subordinates and seeking and taking
their suggestions into account before
making decisions.
Paul Hersey &
Kenneth Blanchards
Substitute for leadership(Examples
of leadership substitutes and
neutralization)
What are situational contingency
approaches to leadership?
•
Substitutes for leadership
– make a leader’s influence either
unnecessary or redundant in that they
replace a leader’s influence
• Romance of leadership
– is where people attribute romantic,
almost magical, qualities to leadership
What is implicit leadership?
•
Inference-based
– Emphasizes leadership effectiveness
as inferred by perceived
group/organizational performance
outcomes
What is implicit leadership?
•
Recognition-based
– is leadership effectiveness based on
how well a person fits characteristics of
a good or effective leader
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
•
Charismatic leaders
– Leaders who by force of their personal
abilities, are capable of having a
profound and extraordinary effect on
followers
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
Conger and Kanungo’s three-stage
charismatic leadership model
Stage 1: the leader critically evaluates
the status quo
Stage 2: the leader formulates and
articulates future goals and a idealized
future vision.
Stage 3: the leader shows how the goals
and vision can be achieved.
Characteristics of distant and close
up charismatics
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
•
Transactional leadership
– Involves leader-follower exchanges
necessary for achieving routine
performance that is agreed upon by
leaders and followers
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
•
Leader-follower exchanges involve:
– Use of contingent rewards.
– Active management by exception.
– Passive management by exception.
– Abdicating responsibilities and
avoiding decisions.
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
•
Transformational leadership
– Leaders broaden and elevate
followers’ interests, generate
awareness and acceptance of the
group’s mission, and stir followers to
look beyond self-interests
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
•
Dimensions of transformational
leadership
– Charisma
– Inspiration
– Intellectual stimulation
– Individualized consideration
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
Can people be trained in the new
leadership?
– People can be trained to adopt new
leadership approaches.
– Leaders can devise improvement
programs to address their weaknesses
and work with trainers to develop their
leadership skills.
– Leaders can be trained in charismatic
skills.
What are
charismatic/transformational
perspectives?
Is new leadership always good?
– Not always good
– Dark-side charismatics can have
negative effects on followers
– Not always needed