LEADERSHIPPSY 633
What Is Leadership?
Leadership myths – Leadership is power
• (with people rather than over people)
– Leaders are born • (but leaders are also “made”)
– All groups have leaders • (large groups tend to require a leader)
– People resist their leaders• (most groups accept the need for a leader)
What is leadership?
Leadership myths (cont.)– Leaders make or break their groups
• The “romance of leadership” exaggerates the impact of a leader
• Leaders do make a difference (e.g., sports teams)
What is leadership?
Leadership defined: guidance of others in their pursuits, often by organizing, directing, coordinating, supporting, and motivating their efforts. – Reciprocal– Transactional– Transformational– Cooperative– Adaptive
Leadership is a Reciprocal Process
any aspect of the leader, member or setting can influence and be influenced.
Leadership is a Transactional rocess
leader/members trade time and energy in exchange for rewards
Leadership is a Transformational Process
The transformational leader heightens members motivation, confidence and satisfaction.
• uniting
• changing beliefs, values, needs.
Leadership is a Cooperative Process
legitimate power given to most influential member.
Leadership is a Goal-seeking Process
organizes and motivates members to achieve goals.
Who Will Lead?
Perspectives on leadership emergence – Trait model: The great leader theory of
Thomas Carlyle– Situational model: the Zeitgeist theory of Leo
Tolstoy– Interactional model: depends on the leader,
followers, and the group situation.
Who Will Lead?
Early explanations of leadership studied the “traits” of great leaders– “Great man” theories (Gandhi, Lincoln,
Napoleon)– Belief that people were born with these traits
and only the great people possessed them
What is leadership?
Components of leadership – Task leadership: focuses on the group’s work
and its goals– Relationship leadership: focuses on
interpersonal relations
Personality Variable
MotivationalStructure or
Leadership Style
“In oversimplified terms, … the leader manages the group in either of two ways. He can:
• Tell people what to do and how to do it.
• Or share his leadership responsibilities with his group members and involve them in the planning and execution of the task.”
Fielder, Harvard Business Review, p. 116
MeasuringMotivational
Style
The Least Preferred Coworker Scale, or LPC scale.
• Think of the person who you least like to work with
LPC Scale
Think of a person with whom you can work least well. He or she may be someone you work with now or someone you knew in the past. This coworker does not have to be the person you like least but should be the person with whom you had the most difficulty in getting a job done.
Pleasant :.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.: UnpleasantFriendly :.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.: Unfriendly. . .Insincere :.1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8.: SincereKind :.8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.: Unkind
.
Low score = Task Motivated (57)
High score = Relationship Motivated (63)
(If 58-62, “socioindependent”): ambivalent, mixed motivations, socially independent, not clear
High LPC leaders most effective in “moderately” favorable situations
Low LPC leaders most effective in very favorable or very unfavorable situations
In moderate situations, the correlation between LPC and Effectiveness is POSITIVE
In highly favorable or highly unfavorable situations, the correlation between LPC and Effectiveness is NEGATIVE
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
Situational-Leadership Theory
Lewin’s Leadership Styles
Autocratic
the leader takes decisions without consulting with others. The decision is made without any form of consultation. In Lewin's experiments, he found that this caused the most level of discontent.
An autocratic style works when there is no need for input on the decision, where the decision would not change as a result of input, and where the motivation of people to carry out subsequent actions would not be affected whether they were or were not involved in the decision-making.
Democratic
The leader involves the people in the decision-making, although the process for the final decision may vary from the leader having the final say to them facilitating consensus in the group.
Democratic decision-making is usually appreciated by the people, especially if they have been used to autocratic decisions with which they disagreed. It can be problematic when there are a wide range of opinions and there is no clear way of reaching an equitable final decision.
Laissez-Faire
Goal is to minimize the leader's involvement in decision-making, and hence allowing people to make their own decisions, although they may still be responsible for the outcome.
Laissez-faire works best when people are capable and motivated in making their own decisions, and where there is no requirement for a central coordination, for example in sharing resources across a range of different people and groups.
Normative Model
Decision quality is the selection of the best alternative, and is particularly important when there are many alternatives. It is also important when there are serious implications for selecting (or failing to select) the best alternative.
Decision acceptance is the degree to which a follower accepts a decision made by a leader. Leaders focus more on decision acceptance when decision quality is more important.
Vroom and Yetton defined five different decision procedures. Two are autocratic (A1 and A2), two are consultative (C1 and C2) and one is Group based (G2).
Normative Model
5 different decision procedures. Two are autocratic two are consultative and one is Group based
A1: Leader takes known information and then decides alone.
A2: Leader gets information from followers, and then decides alone.
C1: Leader shares problem with followers individually, listens to ideas and then decides alone.
C2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group, listens to ideas and then decides alone.
G2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group and then seeks and accepts consensus agreement.
Leadership style models: Effectiveness depends on the leader's task and relationship behaviors.
– The Leadership Grid: Blake and Mouton assume that people vary in their concern for others and in their concern for results and that individuals who are high on both dimensions (9,9) are the best leaders.
– Situational leadership theory: Hersey and Blanchard suggest that groups benefit from leadership that meshes with the developmental stage of the group.
Other Models
Leader-member exchange theory (LMX): Leaders and followers are linked dyadically – Two subgroups of linkages exist (the inner group and
the outer group). – Groups with more inner-group members are more
productive.Participation theories of leadership
– Lewin, Lippitt, and White’s study of autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leaders
– Shared leadership models: co-leadership, collective, and peer leadership.
Transformational, charismatic, and visionary leadership models, such as Bass's transformational model
Sex differences in leadership effectiveness:– Women tend to adopt participative and
transformational styles of leadership – men are more likely to enact autocratic,
laissez-faire, and transactional styles.
