Chapter 6 Leadership
Chapter 6 Leadership
Chapter 6 Leadership
Leadership is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. It helps an individual or a group identity its goals and then motivates and assists in achieving the stated goals. The difference between Management and Leadership
Setting a Direction vs. Planning and Budgeting Aligning People vs. Organizing and Staffing Motivating People vs. Controlling and Problem Solving
Referent power: is the extent to which the employee likes and identifies with the leader.
Legitimate power: is the power inherited in the leaders job title. Reward power: the ability of the leader to reward employees with bonuses, desirable job assignments, promotions or raises. Coercive power: it is the ability of the leader to punish employees with the disciplinary actions, fines, firing, or salary reductions.
Leadership Skills
Technical skill: it refers to a persons knowledge and ability in any type of process or technique e.g. accountants, engineers, word processing operators, and toolmakers. Human skill: the ability to work effectively with people and to build teamwork.
Conceptual skill: it is the ability to think in terms of model, frameworks, and broad relationships e.g. long range plans. Successful leadership requires behavior that unites and stimulates followers toward defined objectives in specific situations.
Followers: leaders in formal organizations are also followers. Follower behavior includes: Not competing with the leader to be in the limelight Being loyal and supportive, a team player Not being a yes person who automatically agrees Penetrating questions
Autocratic
Participative
Free rein
Autocratic leader
They centralize power and decision making in them. They take full authority and assume full responsibility. Advantage: Satisfying for the leader Quick decisions permits Disadvantage: Employees dislike it Creates fear and frustration
Participative leader
Leadership Approach
Trait Theory
People are born with inherited traits. Some traits are particularly suited to leadership. People who make good leaders have the right (or sufficient) combination of traits.
Theories that sought personality, social, physical, and intellectual traits differentiated leaders from non-leaders.
Traits Adaptable to situations Alert to social environment Ambitious and achievementorientated Assertive Cooperative Decisive Dependable Dominant (desire to influence others) Energetic (high activity level) Persistent Self-confident Tolerant of stress Willing to assume responsibility
Skills Clever (intelligent) Conceptually skilled Creative Diplomatic and tactful Fluent in speaking Knowledgeable about group task Organized (administrative ability) Persuasive Socially skilled
Key traits
Intelligence: Successful leaders tend to have somewhat higher intelligence than their employees.
Maturity and breadth (wideness): Successful leaders tend to be emotionally mature and have a broad range of interest. Inner motivation and achievement drive: Successful leaders are result oriented; when they achieve one goal they seek another. They do not depend primarily on employees for their motivation to achieve goals. Honesty: Successful leaders have integrity. When individuals in leadership positions state one set of values but practice another set, followers quickly see them as untrustworthy.
Traits
Gandhi
Behavioral Theories
Leaders can be made, rather than are born. Successful leadership is based in definable, learnable behavior.This approach predicts effectiveness on what leaders actually do and how they do it. Effective leaders help individuals and teams achieve their goals in two ways: -
1. They build task-centred relations with employees and focus on the quality and quantity of work accomplished. 2. They are considerate and supportive of employees attempts to achieve personal goals e.g. work satisfaction, promotions and recognition and work hard at settling disputes, keeping peoples happy, providing encouragement, and giving positive reinforcements.
Contingency Theories
Contingency leadership models identify variables that permit certain leadership characteristics and behaviors to be effective in given situations. Four variables have influence on a leaders behavior. They are :
A leaders personal characteristics. The employees personal characteristics. The teams characteristics. The structure and task of the team, department or org.
Leaders Behavior
Employees Behavior
Feed back
The better the Leader member relations, the more highly structured the job and stronger the position power the more control the leader has.
Path-Goal theory
The theory that a leaders behavior is acceptable to employees insofar as they view it as a source of either immediate or future satisfaction. Leaders can enhance the motivation and satisfaction of employees by providing rewards for good job performance and by making it easier for employees to achieve their task goals. They can achieve it by one of the four leadership styles and the efficiency is determined by situational and employee characteristics. They are:
Directive style: it involves the structuring of job tasks for employees and letting them know what is expected.
Participative style: this involves seeking inputs from employees and allowing them to participate in decisionmaking. Achievement style: it involves emphasizing achievement and good performance. It includes the setting of challenging task goals and emphasizing high performance standards. Employees locus of control and the situational factor plays an important role.
Employee becomes satisfied and motivated and they accept the leader
Both employee and org. are better able to reach the goal
Leader-Member Exchange Theory, also called LMX or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory, describes how leaders in groups maintain their position through a series of tacit exchange agreements with their members.
These relationships, start very soon after a person joins the group and follow three stages. The LMX process: 1. Role taking The member joins the team and the leader assesses their abilities and talents. Based on this, the leader may offer them opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities. Another key factor in this stage is the discovery by both parties of how the other likes to be respected.
2. Role making In the second phase, the leader and member take part in an unstructured and informal negotiation whereby a role is created for the member and the often-tacit promise of benefit and power in return for dedication and loyalty takes place. Trust-building is very important in this stage, and any felt betrayal, especially by the leader, can result in the member being relegated to the out-group. This negotiation includes relationship factors as well as pure work-related ones, and a member who is similar to the leader in various ways is more likely to succeed.
. 3. Routinization In this phase, a pattern of ongoing social exchange between the leader and the member becomes established.
Distributing Power Delegation may be a better model than participation for truly empowering others.
Barriers to Empowerment There remains a pervasive belief that to empower others is to lose power oneself.