Chapter 11: Basic Approaches to
Leadership

What is Leadership?
The ability to influence a group toward the achievement of
goals.
 Leadership plays a central part in understanding group
behavior.
 There are many definitions of leadership and various theories
have been proposed
 Is "Management" the same as "Leadership"? What does a
manager do? What does a leader do? Why is “coping”
important according to Kotter?
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Trait Theories
• Theories that consider personal qualities and
characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders.
• Some traits increase the likelihood of success as a
leader, but none of them guarantee success.
• Traits predict behavior better in “weak” than “strong”
situations.
• Unclear evidence of the cause and effect of
relationship of leadership and traits.
• Better predictor of the appearance of leadership than
distinguishing effective and ineffective leaders.
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Behavioral Theories
• Trait theory:
Leaders are born, not made.
• Behavioral theory:
Leadership traits can be taught.
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Behavioral Theories

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Ohio State Studies
Initiating structure vs. Consideration
University of Michigan Studies
Employee oriented vs. production oriented
The Managerial Grid
Concern for people vs. concern for production (i.e.
81 different styles on which a leader's behavior may fall)
Scandinavian Studies
Effective leaders display “development-oriented
behavior” (value experimentation, seeks new ideas, and
generates and implements change)
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Contingency Theories

Fiedler Model

Effective group performance depends upon the proper match
between the leader's style of interacting with subordinates and
the degree to which the situation gives control and influence to
the leader. Assumes an individual's leadership style is fixed.
Identify style via the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale
Leader-member relations
Task structure
Position power
Match leaders and situations

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Hersey and Blanchard’s
Situational Leadership Theory
Leader: decreasing need for support and supervision
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Leader–Member Exchange
Theory
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Path-Goal Theory and LeaderParticipation Model
Path-Goal Theory
 A leader's behavior is acceptable to subordinates insofar as they
view it as a source of either immediate or future satisfaction.
 Directive vs. supportive leadership
Leader-Participation Model
 Provides a set of rules to determine the form and amount of
participative decision making in different situations. There are
now 12 contingency variables in the latest revision of this model.
 This model is often too complicated for managers/leaders to
actually put into place in organizations.
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Implications for Managers

Leaders usually are the members of an organization who provide
the direction toward goal attainment.

Re: Traits - Generally speaking, individuals who are ambitious;
have high energy, a desire to lead, self-confidence, intelligence,
and are flexible are more likely to succeed as leaders than those
without these traits.

No particular style (behavioral theories) is effective in all
situations

Contingency models help us better understand leadership.
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Chapter 12: Contemporary Issues in
Leadership
Trust



A positive expectation that another will not act
opportunistically
Competence, consistency, loyalty and openness are
dimensions of trust
You cannot lead others who do not trust
you! Reengineering, downsizing, and the use of 'temps'
have undermined employee trust in management
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Three Types of Trust

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Deterrence Based Trust
(based on fear)
Knowledge Based Trust
(based on predictability
over time)
Identification Based Trust
(based on mutual
understanding of wants
and needs)
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Leaders as Shapers of Meaning:
Framing Issues
Leaders use framing
(selectively including
or excluding facts) to
influence how others
see and interpret
reality.
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Charismatic and
Transformational Leadership

Charismatic Leadership
Followers make attributions of
heroic or extraordinary leadership
abilities when they observe certain
behaviors (ex - Martin Luther King
and JFK)
Are charismatic leaders born or
made?
Can charisma be a liability?
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Transactional vs. Transformational
Leadership
Transactional - leaders who guide or motivate their
followers in the direction of established goals by
clarifying role and task requirements
Transformational - leaders who inspire followers who
transcend their own self-interests and who are capable
of having a profound and extraordinary effect on
followers.
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Visionary Leadership and Emotional
Intelligence

Visionary Leadership
The ability to create and
articulate a realistic, credible,
attractive vision of the future
for an organization or
organizational unit that
grows out of and improves
upon the present.

Key Skills: The ability to explain
the vision to others, the ability to
express the vision not just verbally
but through the leader’s behavior,
and the ability to extend the vision
to different leadership contexts.
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Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (EI) & Leadership Effectiveness

EI has 5 key components - which "great" leaders demonstrate:
 self-awareness
 self-management
 self-motivation
 empathy
 social skills
EI may be added to our list of "traits" of effective leaders
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Contemporary Leadership Roles

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Providing Team Leadership
Many leaders are not equipped to handle the change to
teams.
New skills such as the patience to share information, trust
others, give up authority, and knowing when to intervene are
paramount.
Team leaders are liaisons with external constituencies,
troubleshooters, conflict managers, and coaches
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Mentoring & Self-Leadership

Mentoring: A senior employee
who sponsors and supports a
less-experienced employee.

Self-Leadership: A set of
processes through which
individuals control their own
behavior.
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Online Leadership
Most research has been conducted with “face-to-face” and
“verbal” leadership situations.
What about online leadership?
There is no “non-verbal” component (you often cannot
“read” the other person via email).

Instead, the structure of words in digital communications
can influence reactions: full sentences, phrases, USING
ALL CAPS, formality, importance/urgency, style
(emoticons, jargon, abbreviations, etc). Messages can
convey trust, status, task directives, or emotional warmth.

Writings skills are likely to become an extension of
interpersonal skills in the future.
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Challenges to Leadership

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Leadership as an Attribution
Is leadership merely an attribution that people make
about other individuals?
Substitutes and Neutralizers to Leadership
 Some argue that sometimes leaders are not even needed!
Sometimes individual, job, and organizational variables can
act as substitutes for leadership or neutralize the leader's
effect to influence followers (ex = a highly structured task)
Finding and Creating Leaders
Can we use selection to help? (personality tests, interviews –
match to situation)
Training (can we train leadership? E.g. trust building, mentoring,
situation-analysis skills)
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Implications for Managers

Trust is important - as organizations are less stable,
personal trust is key in defining relationships and
defining expectations

Transformational leaders are in demand. Organizations
want leaders with vision and charisma to carry out the
visions.

Invest in leadership selection and training (and follow
up with assessment centers, courses, workshops,
rotating job responsibilities, coaching, and mentoring)
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