LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVES

Leadership has been looked at as..

Both a process and a property…

The process of leadership is the use of non coercive influence to direct and coordinate activities of the members of an organized group toward the accomplishment of group activities.

¢ As a property, leadership is the set of qualities or characteristics attributed to those who are perceived to successfully employ such influence.

Elaborating the definition

¢ Leadership is not only some quality/characteristics that one possesses or is perceived to possess, but also something that one does.

‘It describes an act as well as a person ’

Elaborating the definition

¢ Leadership does not involve the use of force, coercion or domination.

¢ Leadership is expressed or displayed through interaction between people.

¢ This necessarily implies followership, because in order to influence, others must allow themselves to be influenced.

Most important of all ……

¢ The leader and follower must at least be loosely organized around some common purpose or agreed upon purpose/mission.

¢ Leadership does not restrict to designation. But is rather an evolving, dynamic process.

Universal v.s Contingent Theories

¢ Universal theories: There exists one best way to lead (leadership is invariant within and between roles).

¢ Contingent theories: leadership prescription is contingent on certain situation factors.

Traits v.s Behaviors Perspectives

¢ Traits: Leadership is stable because it endures characteristics of people. Hence, it is a measurable property possessed in different amounts by different people.

¢ Behaviors: Focus on observable leader behaviors/actions.

Type 1 Perspectives: The Search for Universal Leadership Traits

¢ The researches concentrated on the measurement and quantification of leadership traits and the relationship between such traits and criteria of leader effectiveness.

¢ Leadership as a second-level trait construct composed of more fundamental first-level trait constructs that include:

First Level Traits Second Level TraitsPhysical and constitutional activity, appearance, factors gr ooming etc

Skills and abilities k nowledge, intelligence,technical competence etc

Personality characteristics adaptabil ity, persistence, self-confidence etc

Social characteristics cooperativeness, sociability, tact etc.

Trait Approach

¢ Although in the mid 20 th century trait approach has been challenged and questioned with regards to its universality, in recent years, there has been resurgence of interest on the trait approach in explaining how traits influence leadership.

Major Leadership Traits Based on Researches¢ Intelligence or intellectual ability

Leaders are more intelligent than non-leaders (although the difference may not be that much)

Major Leadership Traits Based on Researches¢ Self-confidence

the ability to be certain about one’s competencies and skills.

Major Leadership Traits Based on Researches¢ Determination

the desire to get the job done

Major Leadership Traits Based on Researches¢ Integrity

quality of honesty and trustworthiness

Major Leadership Traits Based on Researches¢ Sociability

inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships

How Does the Approach Work for Organizations?¢ As mentioned earlier it focuses on

what traits leaders exhibit.¢ Suggests that organizations work

better if the people in managerial positions have designated leadership profiles.

¢ To find the right people, personality tests are used.

How Does the Approach Work for Organizations?¢ The assumption is that such procedure

would allow selection of right people to increase organizational effectiveness.

¢ That is why some organizations would specify certain traits important for particular positions and use personality test to determine the individual fitness.

How Does the Approach Work for Organizations?¢ Leaders can also analyze their own

traits and gain idea of their strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths of Trait Approach

¢ It clearly tells us that leaders are individuals who are out front and lead the way in our society.

¢ It builds the perception that leaders are different.

Weaknesses of Trait Approach¢ Failure to delimit the list of leadership traits.

The list of traits are endless.¢ Failed to take situation into account. Some

people with certain traits may be effective in one situation but ineffective in some other situation.

¢ Researches on trait approach has focused more on relationship between traits and leader emergence rather than relationship between traits and subordinate behavior outcomes.

An Attribution Theory of Leadership

¢ Calder suggests that leadership is disposition, but it only exist in the perceptions of others, particularly followers.

¢ However, the process by which people infer that real or imagined leadership qualities exists in others is indeed important and is capable of scientific analysis.

¢ The manner in which those labels become attached is the foundation of an attribution theory of leadership.

¢ Observers of leaders become focal in the attempt to understand the psychological processes that lead to certain perceptions, labels and attributions.

Actual Observation ofa Person’s Behavior

and Its Consequences

Observations are Accepted orRejected as Evidence of

Leadership on the Basis of 4 Criteria

2) Is the behavior typical of what leaders are expected

to act

1) Is the behavior distinctive?

4) Can other di spositional (or trait) causes of the behavior be

rejected?

3) Is the behavior consistent or extreme

across time and place

Central to the process of answering those questions is…

IMPLICIT LEADERSHIP

THEORY

Specifies differences between leaders and followers

LEADERSHIP

STYLES

Late 1940s…

¢ Began to examine leadership in terms of behavioral interaction between leader and follower (studies at Ohio State University, University of Michigan etc).

¢ Thus leadership becomes observable and not inherent (eg. trait).

¢ Effective leaders are distinguished based on how they behaved when interacting with followers.

¢ Central purpose of this approach is to explain how leaders combine their ways of behaviors to influence subordinates in the efforts to reach a goal.

2 Important Issues

Categories/Factors/Dimensions

Used to DescribeDifferences in

Leader Behavior

Effectiveness of Different Leader

Behavior

Dimensions/Factors

CONSIDERATIONCONSIDERATION INITIATING STRUCTURE

INITIATING STRUCTURE

OHIO

CONSIDERATION

¢ Involves the degree of two way communication and consultation, mutual trust, respect, and warmth a leaders exhibits toward his followers.

He is friendly and approachable

He puts suggestions into

operations

She looks out for the personal affair of group

members

Relationship Behaviors

¢ Help members to achieve their objectives.

¢ Help subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and with the situation in which they find themselves.

OHIO

Employee Orientation

¢ The behaviors of leaders who approach subordinates with a strong human relations emphasis.

¢ Leaders take interest in workers as human beings, value their individuality, and give special attention to their personal needs.

Michigan

Initiating Structure

¢ Involves the degree to which leader defines and organizes relationships among group members and establishes well-defined channels of communication and methods of accomplishing the group ’s tasks

He assigns people to particular tasks

He schedules the work to be done

OHIO

TASK BEHAVIORS

¢ Organizing work¢ Giving structure to the work context¢ Defining role responsibilities¢ Scheduling work activities

OHIO

Production Orientation

¢ Leaders stress on technical and production aspects of a job.

¢ Workers viewed as a means for getting work accomplished.

Michigan

Third Dimension..Combination of Consideration and Initiating

Structure

More effective!!

(military, educational, industrial settings)

Ohio + Michigan

Blake and Mouton ’s Managerial (Leadership) Grid

¢ Helpful for training and developing leaders.

¢ Explain how leaders help organizations to reach their purposes through two factors:

1. Concern for production2. Concern for people

Concern for Production

¢ How a leader is concerned with achieving organizational tasks

Attention To

PolicyDecisions Attention

To New

Product Dev.Attention To

Process Issues

Attention ToWorkload &

Sales Volume

Concern for People

¢ How a leader attends to people in the organization who are trying to achieve its goals.

Organizational Commitment

and Trust

Promoting PersonalWorth of

Employees

ProvidingGood Working

Conditions

MaintainingFair

Salary Structure

PromotingGood Social Relationships

Two Intersecting Axis

ConcernFor People

Concern for Results

1234

567

8

9

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1.1 9,1

5,5

1,9 9,9

Impoverished Management Authority-Compliance Management

Middle of the Road Management

Country Club Management Team Management

Autocracy and Democracy

¢ Autocracy: highly centralized decision-making and completely concentrated power.

¢ Democracy: highly participative decision-making and power-equalization. Provide followers with the opportunity to express and fulfill individual needs to accomplish group goals.

Democracy

¢ Leaders do not know all.¢ Information and knowledge sharing helps for

quality decision-making and ease implementation of decision.

¢ However, democratic leadership not necessarily be superior than autocratic leadership.

The effectiveness of democratic leadership depends on..

¢ The extent of leader follower. knowledge and expertise.

¢ Follower motivation.¢ Task attributes (eg.complexity).¢ The degree of conflict over goals or means

to attain goals.¢ Leader attributes.¢ Time pressures¢ Group and organization size and¢ Environmental stability

Assumption:

¢ Leadership behavior causes or determines group and organizational outcomes

How Far Is It True?

¢ Studies have shown that the opposite may occur…

¢ Leaders sometimes become more democratic when followers exercise initiative, offer ideas and set goals.

¢ Leaders sometimes become more autocratic when followers become more passive, request instructions and unquestioning.

Strengths of Style Approach

¢ A major shift in the general focus of leadership research.

¢ A wide range of studies validates the basic tenets of the approach.

Criticisms

¢ The research on styles has not adequately shown how leaders ’ styles are associated with performance outcomes (morale, job satisfaction, productivity etc) .

¢ Failure to identify universal style.

CASE STUDY

Situational Approach

¢ A widely recognized approach ¢ Developed by Hersey and Blanchard

(1969) based on Reddin ’s (1967) 3-D management style theory.

¢ Have been refined many times.

Focus

¢ Leadership in situations¢ Different situations demand different

kinds of leadership.¢ An effective leader adapt his/her style

to the demands of different situations.

Dimensions

¢ Directive and supportive dimensions.¢ Each applied appropriately in a given

situation.¢ To determine, evaluation must be

carried out to see employees ’ competence and commitment to given tasks.

¢ Of course, the evaluation should take place over time and not just once.

Dimensions

¢ Based on made assumptions on employees ’ skill and motivation, leaders should change the degree of being directive and supportive to meet changing needs employees ’ needs.

Situational Leadership II (SLII) Model

The Four Leaders hip Styles

SupportiveBehavior

(high)

(low) (high)DirectiveBehavior

S3 S2

S4 S1

High supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand High SupportiveBehavior

Low Supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand Low SupportiveBehavior

high moderate lowD4 D3 D2 D1

Developed Developing

Directive Behavior (Task)

Help group members to ¢ accomplish goals by giving directions¢ establish goals and methods of

evaluation¢ set time lines¢ define roles¢ achieve goals by showing to them

Directive Behavior (Task)

¢ Involve one way communication

What is to be done

How it is to be done

Who is responsible for doing it

Supportive Behavior

¢ Help group members feel comfortable about themselves, their co-workers and situations.

¢ Involve two way communication and responses that show social and emotional support to others.

Asking for input Solving problems

PraisingSharing information about oneself

listening

Situational Leadership II (SLII) Model

The Four Leaders hip Styles

SupportiveBehavior

(high)

(low) (high)DirectiveBehavior

S3 S2

S4 S1

High supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand High SupportiveBehavior

Low Supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand Low SupportiveBehavior

high moderate lowD4 D3 D2 D1

Developed Developing

S1: the leadership focuses communication on goal achievement and spendsa smaller amount of time using supportive behaviors. Gives instructions aboutwhat and how goals are to be achieved by the subordinates and then Supervisors them carefully

Situational Leadership II (SLII) Model

The Four Leaders hip Styles

SupportiveBehavior

(high)

(low) (high)DirectiveBehavior

S3 S2

S4 S1

High supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand High SupportiveBehavior

Low Supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand Low SupportiveBehavior

high moderate lowD4 D3 D2 D1

Developed Developing

S2: the leader focuses on communication on both achieving goals and subordinates ’ socio emotional needs. This stylerequires the leader involve him/herself with subordinatesby giving encouragement and input.

Situational Leadership II (SLII) Model

The Four Leaders hip Styles

SupportiveBehavior

(high)

(low) (high)DirectiveBehavior

S3 S2

S4 S1

High supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand High SupportiveBehavior

Low Supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand Low SupportiveBehavior

high moderate lowD4 D3 D2 D1

Developed Developing

S3: The leader does not focus exclusively on goals but uses supportive behaviors that bring out the employees’ skills around the task to be accomplished.

Situational Leadership II (SLII) Model

The Four Leaders hip Styles

SupportiveBehavior

(high)

(low) (high)DirectiveBehavior

S3 S2

S4 S1

High supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand High SupportiveBehavior

Low Supportiveand Low DirectiveBehavior

High Directiveand Low SupportiveBehavior

high moderate lowD4 D3 D2 D1

Developed Developing

S4: The leader offers less task input and social support, facilitating employees’ confidence and motivation in referenceto the task. The leader ’s involvement is lessen in planning,control of details, and goal clarification. Lets subordinates Take responsibility for getting the job done they way they seefit.

Development Levels of Subordinates¢ Refers to the degree to which

subordinates have the competence and commitment to accomplish a task or activity.

¢ Employees are at high development level if they are interested and confident in their work.

Development Levels of Subordinates

¢ Employees are at low development level if they have little skill to do a task but feel as if they have the motivation or confidence to get the job done.

Development level of subordinates¢ D1: low in competence, high in

commitment¢ D2: having some competence, low

commitment¢ D3: have moderate to high

competence but lack in commitment¢ D4: high degree in both competence

and commitment

Strengths

¢ Well-known and frequently used for training leaders including in the Fortune 500 companies.

¢ Practical: easy to understand, sensible and easily applied in various settings.

¢ It emphasized leaders’ flexibility: willingness to change leadership style based on task requirements and subordinates ’ needs.

Type III PerspectivesFiedler’s Contingency Model

¢ Represents the complexity of leadership effectiveness in the sense that ‘leadership depends on situation ’.

¢ Concern with identifying the conditions under which certain leader traits (rather than behaviors) are effective.

¢ Fiedler and associates argued that group productivity is dependent upon the match between (1) trait labeled as task versus relationship motivation, and (2) the favorableness of the leadership situation.

1. Leader-Member Relations: the degree to which members trust and like the leader, and willing to follow his guidance

2. Task Structure: (elements of goal clarity, number of different ways job can be performed, the degree to which the job provides knowledge of results and the degree to which there exists optimal solution or outcome of task)

3. Position Power: The degree to which authoritative power is vested in the leader (to direct, evaluate, reward etc).

Measured with LPC (Least Preferred Co-Worker) Scale.

¢ High LPC leaders (who described their least preferred co-worker in more favorable terms) are more concerned with interpersonal relations.

¢ Low LPC leaders (who described their least preferred co-worker in more unfavorable terms) are more concern with task-relevant problems.

According to Fiedler ..Even though there are 8 combinations of situational

characteristics

¢ The best combination of the critical situations is good leader member relations, a structured task and strong position power.

¢ The least favorable combination is poor leader member relations, an unstructured tasks and weak position power.

Type IV Perspectives

Behavioral Contingencies

¢ Also make the assumptions that effective leadership depends on the situation. But, effective leadership is defined in terms of behaviors rather than traits.

¢ Path-Goal Theory¢ The Vroom-Yetton Model

Path-Goal Theory (House et al.)¢ Leadership is viewed in terms of the motivating impact

and the need satisfaction impact that leader can have on followers.

¢ Path-goals indicates how the leader is influential is carving the path and route of followers’ work and personal goal attainment.

¢ Effective leadership leads to increase in followers’ performances, motivation, and need satisfaction.

Path-Goal Theory

¢ Two main propositions:

1) Leader behavior is acceptable and satisfying to subordinates to the extent that they see it as either an immediate source of satisfaction or as instrumental to future satisfaction

Path-Goal Theory

2) Leader behavior will be motivational to the extent that:

- It makes satisfaction of subordinate ’s satisfaction contingent on performance.

- It complements the environment of subordinates by providing coaching, guidance, support, rewards etc).

Path-Goal Theory

¢ In contrast to situational approach (suggests that leaders must adopt to development level of subordinates

¢ In contrast to contingency theory (emphasizes the match between leader ’s style and the characteristics of the subordinates and the work setting.