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LEADERSHIP

Leadership is about coping with change to establish direction by developing a vision

for the future. It is the ability to influence a group towards achievement of a vision or

set of goals.

Leadership is often confused with Management. While Management is about coping

with complexity, Leadership is about coping with change. Management establishes

FORMAL LEADER INFORMAL LEADER

Formal leaders are given leadership

based on their position with a group.

They are actually assigned to be leaders

as part of their role in the group.

Examples of formal leaders would be the

The informal leader is someone who

does not have the official authority to

direct the group. Despite this, the group

chooses to follow the lead of this

person. For example, the class clown

plans while leadership establishes direction for an organization.

Dynamic organizations require leaders who can lead the organization in the right

direction in times of turbulence. It is no guarantee that managers can lead effectively.

Thus, effective leadership is a must in the present business environment

of constant change.

Manager versus Leader:

Formal versus Informal Leadership:

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teacher in a classroom. may be someone that the students in

the class take cues from even though the

teacher is the official leader of the

classroom.

The formal leader has a responsibility to

organize and direct group members to

meet the goals of the organization or

team.

Informal leader has no assigned

responsibility as a leader yet she takes on

the responsibility of directing and

managing her followers

Communication from formal leaders

tends to take the form of directives the

leader expects employees to follow.

Informal leadership involves employees

in the decision-making process.

Employees may offer ideas and

suggestions for solving the problem,

though the leader may make the

ultimate decision. The sense under

informal leadership is that employees

can affect decision-making.

Formal leaders tend to have

boss/employee relationships.

Informal leaders welcome disagreement

and though such a leader may have

authority to ignore opposition, this

seldom happens.

Styles of leadership:

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• Autocratic-

o The autocratic leader gives orders, which must be obeyed by the subordinates.

o He determines policies for the group without consulting them.

o He tells the group what immediate steps they must take without sharing

future plans.

o Under this style, all decision making power is centralized in the leader.

• Participative or democratic leader-

o A participative leader is one who gives instructions only after consulting the

group.

o He sees to it that group discussions are carried out to decide upon policies and

future course of action.

o Participative leader decentralizes authority to subordinates.

• Free rein leadership-

o A free rein leader does not lead, but leaves the group entirely to itself.

o It is also known as permissive style of leadership, where there is least

intervention by the leader.

o In the diagram above, A is free rein leader who is not involved in any activity.

He just overlooks performance of group members.

• Paternalistic style- under this, the leader assumes that his function is fatherly. his

attitude is that of treating the group as a family with leader as the head of the

family. He works to help, guide, protect and keep his followers happily working

together as members of the family. This style of leadership is

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successful in japan due to its cultural background.

LIKERT’S MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND LEADERSHIP:

• Rensis likert and his associates of university of michigan developed a 4 level model

of leadership.

o Exploitative authoritative- level of trust of superiors in subordinates is low,

level of freedom to discuss things is low, level of motivation to get

• System 4 (Participative or democratic) was declared as the best method to

develop and utilize human assets of the organization.

subordinate’s ideas and opinions is also low.

o Benevolent authoritative- master servant type trust, not very free to discuss

things, get ideas and opinions at times.

o Consultative- substantial confidence and trust, freedom to discuss things,

constructive use of ideas and opinions.

o Participative/ democratic- complete confidence, completely free to discuss

things, always get ideas and opinions.

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Great man theory of leadership:

o Most of the early thinking on leadership suggested that ‘leaders are born, not

made’. This approach emphasized that a person is born with or without

necessary traits of leadership.

o Great man theory emphasises on “charismatic” leadership style where

charisma means gift.

o According to the great man theory, leadership calls for qualities like

commanding personality, charm, courage, intelligence etc. One either has or

does not have these qualities.

o On the other hand, Modern theorists argue that there is nothing inborn about

leadership qualities. Such qualities can be learnt through training and

experience. Modern theorists also point out that leadership qualities by

themselves are not sufficient for achieving effectiveness. Situational factors

have a considerable influence on effectiveness of leaders. A leader may be

effective in one situation and ineffective in another.

Trait theory of leadership-

• According to trait theory, various physical, mental and personality traits are

important in defining a leader. A list of universal personal characteristics were

determined to define an effective leader.

• According to trait theory, some of the important traits of an effective leader

are:

o Intelligence

o Physical features

o Inner motivation drive

o Maturity

o Vision and foresight

o Acceptance of responsibility

o Open mind

o Self confidence

o Objectivity

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It is to be noted that personal traits are only a part of the whole environment.

Leadership is related to a particular situation. Thus, Trait theory explains only a part

of the effective leader. A person may be successful in a certain situation due to some

traits but may fail in another situation.

authority used by boss and degree of freedom available to subordinates.

▪ Point 1 characterizes high degree of control by the manager. Such a

leadership style is called boss centered leadership.

▪ Point 7 characterizes high degree of freedom to subordinates. Such a

leadership style is called employee-centered leadership.

▪ The continuum shows movement from point 1 to 7 wherein degree of

Continuum of leadership behavior:

▪ A continuum of leadership was given by tennenbaum and Schmidt.

▪ As can be seen in the diagram, each type of action is related to degree of

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authority goes down and degree of freedom goes up.

▪ It is important to remember the entire continuum. There is a clear movement

from direct control of manager towards delegation of work.

Behavioural theories of leadership:

There are a total of 4 major behavioral theories of leadership-

1. Michigan Studies

2. Ohio state leadership studies

3. Managerial Grid and

4. Reddin’s 3D management style

• According to Behavioral theories, Effective Leadership depends on Role

Behavior rather than traits. This means that success in leadership depends

more on what the leader does than on his traits. A leader uses conceptual,

human and technical skills to influence behaviour of subordinates.

• Behavioral theories suggest that specific behaviors differentiate leaders

from non-leaders.

• Behavioral theories are static as they consider leadership style and not

situational variables which are dynamic.

1. MICHIGAN STUDIES on behavioral theories of leadership:

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As a result of these studies, 2 distinct styles of leadership were identified-

o Task oriented (production centred) and

o Relation oriented (employee centred).

Task Oriented Employee Oriented

Task oriented style emphasized on

technical aspects of the job.

Employee oriented style emphasized on

human beings

Employees are treated as means to the

end of more production.

Employees are treated as an end in itself.

Well-being of employees is central to the

organization.

Task oriented style resulted in more

production but more turnover and

absenteeism as well.

Employee centred approach led to

improved work flow, more cohesion in

interactions and more satisfaction.

Task oriented style was found more

successful at lower levels of organizations

where workers want to be directed and

the focus is more on

technical aspects of the job.

Employee oriented style was found more

successful at middle and higher levels of

organizations where workers/ employees

demand participation and regular

interaction.

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2. OHIO STATE LEADERSHIP STUDIES:

• Initiating structure is similar to task orientation

• Consideration is similar to employee orientation

• Ohio studies showed that both styles of leadership are not mutually exclusive. A

leader can follow both styles in any possible combination.

3. MANAGERIAL GRID by ROBERT BLAKE AND JANES MOUTON:

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▪ Under this style, subordinates of the group are left to find for

themselves the ways of doing the job.

o Style 3- Middle Road (5,5)

▪ Under this style, people dimension is considered as important as

production dimension. This style seeks to maintain a balance

between the two.

▪ A basic assumption of this style is that people work willingly when

o The grid includes five styles- Impoverished, task oriented/ authoritarian,

country club, team oriented and middle of the road.

o Style 1- Task oriented/ authoritarian (9,1)

▪ People are regarded as instruments of production under 9,1 style.

▪ Heavy emphasis is placed over task or job.

▪ Human relationships and interactions are minimized under task

oriented style of leadership.

o Style 2- Impoverished (1, 1)

▪ The leader under this style is neither concerned about results/

tasks nor about people.

▪ The leader is found executing messenger carrier functions i.e.

communicating orders from the layer above to the layer below.

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they are told reasons behind the job and explained about the

mission.

o Style 4- Country club style (1,9)

▪ Under this style, work is done leisurely. Focus of the leader is

more on people and minimal on the task.

▪ Social relationships are given more importance. The aim is to

achieve harmony and friendliness in the organization.

o Style 5- Team leader style (9,9)

▪ The team leader style aims at integrating people ad production

dimensions under high concern for growth.

▪ There is continuous involvement and participation of employees

in planning and execution of work.

4. Tri-dimensional leader effectiveness model:

• M J REDDIN added effectiveness dimension to the two dimensions of

managerial grid. This was done to integrate “situational demands” of a

specific environment into leadership styles.

• When the style of leader is appropriate to a specific situation, it is termed

effective. The difference between effective and ineffective styles is not actual

behavior of the leader but the appropriateness of the behavior to the

environment in which it is used. Therefore, the third dimension is

environment.

(CHART)

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SITUATIONAL THEORY OF LEADERSHIP:

Fiedler’s contingency model:

(CHART)

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• Situational theory contends that there is no one best style of leadership

universally applicable to all situations. A leadership style may be effective

under one situation and ineffective under the other. Fiedler identified two

basic styles of leadership and analysed their effectiveness under different

situations. The two styles are task orientation and relationship orientation.

Steps followed to find out effectiveness of a leadership style in different situations:

Step 1. LPC scale or least preferred coworker scale- Fiedler developed LPC scale to

measure two basic styles i.e. task oriented or relationship oriented. Fiedler asked

respondents to identify the traits of a person with whom they could work least well.

High LPC rated leaders are considered relationship oriented and low LPC rated

leaders are considered task oriented.

Step 2. Situational variables- Fiedler identified 3 major situational variables-

o Leader follower relations,

o Task structure and

o Position power.

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• As can be seen in the diagram, a total of 8 categories are formed containing

different environmental/ situational possibilities. Effectiveness of a leader is

measured by placing him on the scale formed through these categories.

• X axis shows situations- favourable, moderate and unfavourable

• Y axis shows performance of 2 kinds of leaders depending upon 8 situational

parameters under 3 major heads i.e. favourable, moderate and unfavourable.

• Also known as LIFE CYCLE theory of leadership, situational theory advocates

linking leadership styles with various situations to ensure effective leadership.

• This approach is an integration of existing body of knowledge about

leadership- Grid approach, Ohio state studies and Argyris’ maturity-

immaturity model.

• As can be seen, task oriented leaders are more effective in extremes when

either leader follower relations, task structure and position power are all high

or when they are all low.

• Relationship oriented leaders are more effective in moderate situations.

Hersey and Blanchard- Situational Theory:

(CHART)

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• There is an interaction among 3 variables under situational theory-

o Task behavior that leader shows

o Relationship behavior that leader shows, and

o Maturity level that followers exhibit on a specific task.

• In short, this model includes task orientation, relationship orientation as

well as maturity level that followers exhibit on a specific task or function.

According to Hersey and Blanchard, as the level of maturity of the follower/

subordinate increases, the leader should reduce task behavior and increase

relationship behavior. As the follower moves into above average level of maturity,

both task and relationship behavior have to be reduced.

• 4 styles of leadership were concluded based on the study

o telling- high task low relationship style, effective at a very low

maturity level of follower.

o Selling- high task high relationship style, effective at a low maturity

level of follower.

o Participating- low task high relationship style, effective at a high

maturity level of follower.

o Delegating- Low task low relationship style, effective at a very high

maturity level of follower.

Path goal theory: by Robert House

• Robert house has created this situational theory by integrating “Vroom’s

Expectancy theory of motivation” and “Ohio state leadership theory”

• It states that leader’s job is to create a work environment that helps employees

reach organizational goals. Leader plays two major roles viz. “to create goal

orientation” and to improve “the path towards the goals”. An effective leader

is one who successfully creates goal orientation as well as

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improves path towards the goal.

• According to the theory, Subordinates are motivated by the leadership style

to the extent it influences expectancy and valences.

4 types of leadership styles according to House are:

• Directive/ Instrumental- this style is similar to Initiating structure style under Ohio

studies. This style is considered effective when the task is ambiguous. As the

followers do not know how to go forward in achieving organizational goals, a clear

path is laid down by the leader.

• Supportive- Leader is friendly and approachable to the employee under this style. It

is similar to consideration style of Ohio studies. Supportive style is more effective

under stressful tasks when the members/ employees need psychological support in

order to complete their job.

• Participative- leader consults subordinates and shares information with them. It is

more effective under non-repetitive tasks because such tasks face unique and

changing situations, which require active participation of all members to overcome

the challenge.

• Achievement oriented- leader sets challenging goals for employees and displays

confidence in their abilities. This style is more effective under ambiguous and non-

repetitive tasks.

(CHART)

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Successful leader versus effective leader:

• Successful- the ability to get the desired results from subordinates defines success

or failure of leader. If need arises, results are generated through coercion under

successful leadership but this results in low morale of employees.

• Effective- effective leaders concentrate on both production and needs and

aspirations of followers. They deal with different situations through different

leadership styles in order to reach personal and organizational goals.

Transactional versus transformational leader: by Burns

• A transactional leader guides and motivates his followers in the direction of

established goals by clarifying role and task requirements. Transactional leadership

is a prescription for mediocrity whereas transformational leadership leads to

superior performance in organisations facing demands for renewal and change.

• A transformational leader inspires success in the organisation by effecting the

follower’s beliefs in what an organisation should be. It is intellectual stimulation of

followers to subordinate their own self-interests for the good of the organisation.

Transactional leader Transformational leader

Rewards are Contingent on efforts,

good performance

Charisma- provides vision and

sense of mission, instills pride and

trust among followers

Management by exception- The leader

watches and searches for deviations,

takes corrective action in exceptional

circumstances.

Inspiration- the leader under

transformational leadership

inspires followers to perform better

laissez faire- The leader under

transactional leadership avoids making

decisions, abdicates responsibility

Intellectual stimulation- leader

promotes intelligence, rationality,

and careful problem solving

Individual consideration- the leader

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gives personal attention, coaches

and advises the employees.