Chapter Outline:
· Define leader and leadership.
· Compare and contrast early theories of leadership.
· Describe the three major contingency theories of leadership.
· Describe contemporary views of leadership.
· Discuss contemporary issues affecting leadership.
Leaders: He is someone who persuade others and who have managerial authority.
Leadership: It is what managers do, it is a process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve its goals.
Leadership trait theories:
Researchers in 1920s and 1930s tried to identify characteristics or traits that may differ the leader from non-leaders.
These traits may include physical stature, appearance, fluency of speech, emotional stability and sociability.
But they fail to identify set of specific traits that will always be found in leader.
Then later from researchers tried to find out leadership traits, and results were more successful.
· Drive: they have high desire for achievement. They are ambitious.
· Desire to lead: leaders have power of influence on others.
· Honesty and integrity: they build trustworthy relationship with followers.
· Self-confidence: they are above self-doubts. They are confident of their doings.
· Intelligence: leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather and interpret large amount of information. And they need to create visions, solve problems and make correct decision.
· Job relevant knowledge: effective leaders have a high degree of field relevant knowledge about company, industry and technical knowledge.
· Extraversion: leaders are energetic, lively people, they are sociable and rarely silent and withdrawn.
Leadership behavior theories:
University of Iowa:
Democratic style: He is a leader who involves subordinates, delegated authority and use feedback in positive sense to improve employee’s performance
Autocratic Style: He dictates work methods, don’t involve anyone in decision making and so make unilateral decisions.
Laissez-faire style: In this leader make groups and let them take decisions in order to complete the work.
Conclusion: Democratic style was more effective, but later studies show mixed results.
Ohio State:
Initiating Structure: In initiating structure defines his or her role and the role of his or her teammates in attaining goal.
Consideration: here leaders help group members with their personal problems, and try to solve them. Was friendly, approachable and treat every group member equally.
Conclusion: high- high leader, i.e., high in initiating structure and high in consideration. Achieved high subordinate performance and satisfaction. But not in all conditions.
University of Michigan:
Employee oriented: taking care of employees and emphasizing on interpersonal relationships.
Performance oriented: put more focus on technical aspects of a job.
Conclusion: Employee oriented leaders were seen with higher job satisfaction and high group productivity.
Managerial Grid:
Concern for People: Measures leader’ concern for group members on the scale of 1 to 9 (low to high) respectively.
Concern for productivity: Measures leader’ concern for getting job done on the scale of 1 to 9 (low to high) respectively.
Conclusion: leaders perform best with 9,9 style, i.e., high in concern for people and high in concern for productivity.
Three contingency theories are:
The Fielder Model
Hersey and Blanchard’ Situational Leadership Theory
Path-Goal Model
Each one focused on, if this is the situation then this is the best leadership style
The Fiedler Model:
Fred Fiedler presented the first comprehensive contingency model for leadership.
There are two pillars on the basis of which Fiedler’ model stands. They are
a) Leadership Style
b) Situation that gives control to the leader.
Measuring Leadership Styles:
Leadership style may be task oriented or relationship oriented
Least-Preferred Coworker (LPC) Questionnaire:
This LPC questionnaire was developed by Fiedler to measure the leadership style, it contained 18 pairs of contrasting adjectives, for example, Pleasant vs Unpleasant, boring vs interesting, friendly vs unfriendly, cold vs warm etc.
Participants were asked to think of their past or current coworkers and rate them on the scale of 1-8,
On the scale, 8 means positive advective and 1 pose for negative adjective.
If the respondent or leader rate the least preferred coworker with positive number on the scale (i.e., 64 or above) that means leader or respondent is interested in making good relationships with his coworkers, and can be described as relationship oriented.
If the respondent or leader rate the least preferred coworker with negative number on the scale (i.e., LPC score is 57 or below) that means leader or respondent is task oriented.
Once leadership style is determined now is the time to discuss the assess the situation in order to match the leader with the situation.
Fiedler describe three contingency dimensions that are key defining situational factors in leader effectiveness.
Leader-member relations:
To which extent members have trust and respect for their leader.
Task structure:
To which extent work or job is formalized or structured.
Position power:
How much authority possessed by the leader, in terms of hiring or firing, discipline, promotions and increment in salaries, etc.
Each of these leadership situations were evaluated on the basis of these three contingency variables, which produced 8 possible situations upon combining with each other.
These eight situations were favorable or unfavorable for leaders.
See the table below, situation I, II and III were described as favorable for leaders, situations IV, V and VI were moderately favorable for leaders and situations VII and VIII were taken as highly unfavorable for leaders.
He studied 1200 groups, where he compared task-oriented leaders versus relationship-oriented leaders in each of eight different situations.
Results show that task oriented performed better in favorable and highly unfavorable situations, where relationship-oriented leaders performed well in moderately favorable situations.
How to Improve Leader Effectiveness:
Keep in mind that Fiedler take the individual’ leadership style as fixed, so in order to improve the leader effectiveness there were two options available, either to change the leader in certain situation (it may be from relationship-oriented to task-oriented leader), or change the situation which can be done by restructuring tasks i.e., increase or decrease in leader’ power in terms of employee’s salaries, increments, promotions etc.
Criticism:
One major criticism was to assume the individual’ leadership style as fixed, effectives leaders do change their leadership styles according to the situation.
2nd criticism was, LPC was not very practical.
3rd was, situations variables were difficult to assess.
Hersey and Blanchard’ Situational Leadership Theory:
SLT (Situational Leadership Theory) developed by Hersey and Blanchard gained strong following among management development specialists.
This theory focuses on followers and follower’ readiness.
Now, the point is, why this theory focuses on followers, it is because, they are followers who accept or reject leaders.
And readiness is described as willingness and ability of followers to accomplish the defined task
SLT also uses the same dimensions as used by Fiedler i.e., task and relationship behavior. Four specific leadership styles described as:
· Telling (High task – low relationship):
In this leadership style leaders defines roles and tell people when, what, how and where to do various tasks.
· Selling (High task – high relationship):
In selling as the leader’ style is both high task and high relationship, so he gives directions and show supporting behavior.
· Participating (low task – high relationship):
Leaders play role in facilitating and communicating, here leaders and followers share in decision making.
· Delegating (low task – low relationship):
Here leaders are less supportive and provides little directions to their followers.
Four stages of follower’s readiness:
· R1:
People are neither willing nor able to do the said or required task. That means follower are not motivated and don’t possess the required skills for performing job.
· R2:
People are willing but unable to do necessary tasks. That means followers are motivated but are not skilled.
· R3:
People are able but not willing to do something, that simply means followers are skilled but don’t want to do something.
· R4:
Here in this stage, people possess the required skills and are willing to do what is asked of them.
If followers are at R1 then leader should adopt telling style, and give them clear direction, regarding what is expected of them.
If followers are at R2 then leaders need to use selling style, and show them high task oriented to compensate followers who lack abilities.
If followers are at R3 leaders should adopt participating style to gain follower’s support.
And if followers are at R4 then leaders need to be delegated and doesn’t need to much.
Path-Goal Model:
Path-Goal theory is developed by Robert House.
It states that, leader is supposed to assist, support and give direction to their followers so that they can achieve their goals and can align their goals with the goals of organizations.
Path-Goal is derived from, leader remove hindrances from path and clear their way to success.
Four Leadership behaviors are:
· Directive leader: Gives directions to their subordinates, set their targets and guide them how to achieve those targets.
· Supportive Leader: supportive leader is friendly and show concern for the needs of subordinates or followers.
· Participative leader: He takes participation from his subordinates and followers in decision making.
· Achievement oriented leader: this type of leaders set targets for their followers and expect from them that they will put their maximum effort in achieving their targets or goals.
Above diagram shows situational or contingency variables that moderates leadership behavior.
Environmental factors determine the type of leader behavior, if subordinates’ outcomes are to be maximized.
And personal characteristics of follower or subordinate determines, how the environment and leader’ behavior is interpreted.
It simply proposes, the behavior of leader won’t be affected if it’s not useful or matching with environment structure or is dissimilar with follower characteristics.
Some predictions from Path-Goal Theory are:
· Directive leadership is best option when tasks are not fully structured or ambiguous and followers don’t know what to do, in this situation leader is supposed to give them direction.
· Supportive leaders give best results when task is structured and followers know exactly what to do, they just need little support from their leader, and this support results in high employee performance.
· When there is Directive leader, it is often perceived as not of much use among considerable experienced and capable followers. As followers are capable of so they don’t need any directions from leader.
· In most of the organizations, tasks are often structured of or it is clear what is expected from followers, so leaders should be supportive rather than directive. And directive leadership is discouraged.
· When there is considerable conflict among group members then there is need of someone to take charge. In this situation leader’ Directive role will play important role and will result in higher employee satisfaction.
· Subordinates with internal locus of control will be more satisfied when leader is participative as they believe that they are responsible for their success, so they don’t need any direction from leaders.
· Subordinates with external locus of control will be more satisfied when leader is directive as they believe that the results are dependent on external environment so they need direction from their leaders.
· When tasks are ambiguously structured then Achievement-oriented leaders increase subordinates’ expectancies that effort will lead to high performance. By setting challenging goals subordinates know what is expected of them.
To summarize this model, employee’s performance and satisfaction should remain positive when leader determines the style of leadership.
If leaders spend time in defining tasks when it is already clear or employees have the capacity or knowledge about their work then subordinates or followers will take directive style as redundant or their insult even.
Leader-Member Exchange Theory:
Every one of you would have observed in routine life when you are a group member or even in leader’ role, leaders have “favorites”.
These favorites are In-groups.
These in-groups will have higher performance, less turn-over and greater job satisfaction.
The selection of favorites can be on different basis, it may be on the basis of demographics, languages, gender, performance etc. in simple words, leaders choose, but follower’ characteristic drive the decision.
Leaders do reward in-groups upon their best performance to motivate them.
Both the leader and the follower need to invest in the relationship to make a strong bond.
And, it is practically observed that, leaders invest their time and resources in those whom they expect will perform best.
Out-Groups are the participants of a group whose performance don’t match the minimum criteria of others group members. And don’t show involvement in group activities.
Other group members think that, discussing something with out-group member is wastage of time.
Transformational-Transactional Leadership:
Transactional Leaders are those who lead primarily by using social exchanges or transactions.
They guide or motivate followers to achieve established goals by exchanging rewards for their productivity.
Transformational Leaders focuses on the concerns and developmental needs of individual followers.
They change follower’ awareness of assessing issues by helping those them to look at old problems in new ways, so that they become exiting, more aroused and put extra effort to achieve the organizational goal.
· Both of these approaches are not opposite to each other.
· Transformational leader develops from transactional leader.
· Evidences show that transformational approach is more charismatic because they enable the followers to question the established views and the views hold by their leaders.
· Transformational leaders are strongly corelated with higher level of productivity, lowest turnover, employee satisfaction, follower well-being, goal attainment, creativity etc. specially in start-up firms
Charismatic-Visionary Leadership:
A charismatic leader is enthusiastic and self-confident whose personality and actions influence people to behave in a certain way.
Several authors have tried to identify personal characteristics of charismatic leader.
Five such characteristics are:
· They have a vision.
· The ability to articulate that vision.
· A readiness or willingness to take risk to achieve that vision.
· A sensitivity to both follower needs and environmental constraints.
· Behaviors which are out of ordinary.
Charismatic leadership is directly related with high performance and satisfaction among followers.
Some studies have shown that there is no impact of charismatic leaders on organizational performance, but still, it is more desirable style.
Some says charisma can’t be learned but most believe that individual can be trained to develop charismatic behavior.
Charismatic leader might not be always be used to achieve high performance but it may be most suitable style when followers have ideological purpose, or uncertainty and stress in the environment.
Vision is not a must have characteristic in charismatic leadership. Visionary Leadership is different.
It’s the ability to construct a attractive, credible and realistic vision of the future. If this vision is selected and implement, is so energizing that it “in effect jump-starts the future by effectively involving skills, talents and resources to make it happen.”
Vision should be clear and it should be able to look at new possibilities which are unique and offer new ways of doing tasks and are clearly better for organization and its members.
Team Leadership:
The role of leader in team is becoming more important. The role of team leader is different than the traditional leader.
How to become an effective team leader is a big challenge for managers. They have to learn;
· Patiently sharing information.
· Trust others.
· Know when to leave their team alone and when to get involved.
New leaders may leave their team when they need them and get involved when team members want autonomy.
The role of leadership is to coach, facilitate, handling disciplinary problems, reviewing team and individual performance, training and communication.
In a more meaningful way, leader’ role can be described as:
· Managing team’ external boundary.
· Facilitating the team process
Managing Power
Five sources of leader power are as following:
· Legitimate Power:
It can also be named as authority. Legitimate power represents the position of leader in the organization. Authoritative leader also has the coercive and reward power but legitimate power is broader aspect then coercive and reward powers.
· Coercive Power:
It is a power of control and giving punishments. For example, having power to suspend, or demote and employee or assigning them work they find unpleasant or undesirable.
· Reward Power:
It is the power of giving positive rewards. A reward can be anything like bonuses, performance appraisals, preferred work shifts, interesting work assignments etc.
· Expert Power:
It is based on special skills, knowledge or expertise. If an employee has these skills which is critical to a work group that person’ expert power is enhanced.
· Referent Power:
If Mr. A like Mr. B and want to work with him. Then Mr. B can exercise his power over Mr. A so that he can work with him. This is referent power.
Developing Trust
In today’s world, building trust and credibility is so important and both can easily be damaged.
Credible leaders are honest, competent, and worthy of follower’ trust and ability to inspire. They can communicate effectively.
The belief in the integrity, character and ability of leader is Trust.
Followers trust a leader because they know that their rights and interests will not be abused.
Five dimensions that make up the concept of trust are as follows:
Ø Integrity: truthfulness and honesty
Ø Competence: technical and interpersonal knowledge and skills.
Ø Consistency: predictability, good judgment in handling situations and reliability.
Ø Loyalty: willingness to protect a person, emotionally and physically.
Ø Openness: willingness to share ideas and information freely.
For Example: Managers have to trust their employees to fulfill their work responsibilities and employees have to trust managers to treat them fairly.
Researches have shown that follower’ trust on leader result in positive job outcomes, performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Actions that effect the trust are downsizing, financial challenges, contractual employments etc.
According to a survey only 39% of US and 51% of Canadian employees trust their leaders. So, in today’ world building trust is not an easy job.
Empowering Employees
Managers are increasingly leading by empowering their employees. This involves decision making power of employees.
In today’s world, many employees and employee teams are making essential decisions which directly affect their work. They do budgeting, scheduling workloads, solving quality problems, controlling inventories and other important decisions which were once the part of manager’s job. This increases the pace of work to confront today’ challenges quickly.
One reason is why organizations are empowering their employees is to give decision making authority to lower staff because they are more knowledgeable. As they are directly in contact with customers or work.
Leading Across Cultures
Cultures vary from country to country and region to region.
Effective leaders do not use single leadership style. They adjust their style according to situation.
National culture is most important variable in determining which leadership style will be suitable because it influences how followers will respond.
In Asia managers prefer leaders who are competent decision maker supportive of employees and effective communicator.
Followers don’t choose style just randomly; they are constrained by the cultural conditions.
GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) found some characteristics of transformational leaders, which are vision, providing encouragement, foresight, dynamism, trustworthiness, Proactiveness and positiveness.
On the basis of these findings, two members of GLOBE concluded that:
“Effective business leaders in any country are expected by their subordinates to provide a powerful and proactive vision to guide the company into the future. Strong motivational skills to stimulate all employees to fulfill the vision, and excellent planning skills to assist in implementing the vision.”
Becoming an Effective Leader
Organizations need leaders.
There are two issues which are related with becoming an effective leader are leader training and substitutes for leadership.
Leader Training:
Organizations are spending billion of dollars on leadership training and development.
Leadership trainings are more successful with individuals who are high self-monitors then with low self-monitors. Because they are flexible and can adjust there behavior according to situation.
Individuals who are motivated to lead get more opportunities of leadership development programs.
What can be learned to become effective leaders are vision creation, trust-building, situational analysis skills, evaluating situations how to modify situations to make them better fit with their leadership style, mentoring and to asses which leadership behavior will be more suitable in given situation.
Substitutes for Leadership:
Some leadership styles will always be effective in all situations but leaders may not always be important. In some situations, leader’ any kind of behavior is irrelevant.
For example: follower’ characteristics like his professional orientation, training, experience or need for independence can neutralize the effect of leadership.
Organizational characteristics such as rigid rules, formalized goals, and procedures or cohesive work groups can substitute for formal leadership.