PSYCHOLOGY 305 / 305G

Social Psychology

Leadership
Lecturer: James Neill
 Overview

 Questions
 Theories
 Issues
 Conclusions
 Questions

 What is leadership?
 What is followership?
 Is leadership the same as
management?
 What are the characteristics
of successful leaders?
 Do leaders show distinctive
patterns of behavior?
 What leadership styles are
there?
 Questions
 How does leaders’ behavior
vary with the situation?
 What sources of power and
influence are used by
leaders?
 What are the effects of
different types of
leadership?
 Can we do without
leadership?
 How can leadership skills
be developed?
 A Leadership Story
 A group of workers and their leaders are set a task
of clearing a road through a dense jungle on a
remote island to get to the coast where an estuary
provides a perfect site for a port.
 The leaders organise the labour into efficient units
and monitor the distribution and use of capital
assets – progress is excellent. The leaders continue
to monitor and evaluate progress making
adjustments along the way to ensure the progress
is maintained and efficiency increased wherever
possible.
 Then, one day amidst all the hustle and bustle and
activity, one person climbs up a nearby tree. The
person surveys the scene from the top of the tree.
 A Leadership Story
 And shouts down to the assembled
group below…
 “Wrong way!”

(Adapted from Stephen Covey (2004) “The Seven

Habits of Highly Effective People”.)
Leadership vs. Management

“Management is doing
things right, leadership
is doing the right
things”
(Warren Bennis and Peter
Drucker)
 LEADERS AND
MANAGERS
“Leaders . . .are often dramatic and unpredictable in style.
They tend to create an atmosphere of change, ferment
even chaos. They are often obsessed by their ideas,
which appear as visionary and consequently excite,
stimulate and drive other people to work hard to create
reality out of fantasy . . . Managers are typically hard-
working, analytical, tolerant and fair-minded. They have a
strong sense of belonging to the organisation, and take
great pride in perpetuating and improving the status quo.”
(French, 1987, p475)
 Leaders Vs. Managers

Leaders Managers
 Innovate  Administer
 Develop  Maintain
 Inspire  Control
 Long-term view  Short-term view
 Ask what and why  Ask how and when
 Originate  Initiate
 Challenge the status
 Accept the status quo
quo
  Do things right
Do the right thing
 Leadership vs Management

Leadership & management are distinct, yet

complementary systems of action

Effective management Effective leadership

controls complexity produces useful change

Effective leadership + good management =

healthy organizations
 Leaders and Managers:
Distinguishing their roles

Establish
organizational
mission

Leader’s Job
Formulate
Strategy for
implementing
mission

Implement
Manager’s Job organizational
strategy
 Social Psychology of
Leadership?
Leadership is…
 A relationship
 A group phenomenon
 A form of social influence
 What is Leadership?
Leadership is…
the process of getting
the cooperation of
others in
accomplishing a
desired goal.
Leadership is…
the ability to influence
a group toward the
achievement of goals.
 What is Leadership?
Leadership is defined in a variety of ways
depending on the philosophical and
sociological position of the definer or
theorist. Since leaders are found at all
levels of groups, organizations, and society,
it seems almost everyone intuitively has a
concept or opinion of what leadership is or
should be, and those concepts throughout
history are as diverse as the theoretical
definitions present in the literature. Thus, it
is not surprising that leadership has been
conceptualized, studied, and theorized in
very different ways.
Organizational Leadership

Organizational
Leadership…
is the ability to
influence
employees to
voluntarily pursue
an organization’s
goals.
Leadership Characteristics

• Involves noncoercive influence

• Is goal directed
• Requires followers
 Formal vs. Informal
Leadership
 Formal Leadership
– The process of influencing relevant
others to pursue official organizational
objectives.
 Informal Leadership
– The process of influencing other to
pursue unofficial objectives that may or
may not serve the organization’s
interests.
 What is a Follower?
A follower is an individual who
follows the ideas, goals, or tasks of a
leader.
 Followers are developed by working
together to identify goals and
strategies for achieving the goals.
 Leadership History
The study of leadership is not new:
“The study of leadership rivals in age the
emergence of civilization, which shaped
its leaders as much as it was shaped by
them. From its infancy, the study of
history has been the study of leaders –
what they did and why they did it.
(1990, Bass and Stogdill’s Handbook of
Leadership. 3rd Ed. p.3)
Evolution of Leadership
Theory
 Overview of Traditional
Leadership Theories
 Dispositional theories: there are
certain attributes which make a great
leader
 Behavior theories: great leadership is
based on what someone does
 Situational (contingency) theories:
interaction between leader and
situation is important
 Leadership Theory
 Leadership as a Person (Traits)
 Leadership as Role (Contingency
Theories)
– A person may be an effective leader in
one circumstance but perform poorly in a
different circumstance.
 Leadership as a Person x Role
 Leadership as power & influence
 New perspectives
 Modern Thought on
Leadership
 The end of WW1 brought the demise
of hereditary leadership
 First theories on personal qualities or
traits
 After WW2, shift to observable
behaviours
 1960’s - Situational leadership
 Recently - transactional to
transformational leadership
 Leadership: Person and
Role:
what personality goes with style?
 Personality traits: introversion,
optimism, need for power,
flamboyance
 Role attributes: Theory X, expressive,
participative
 Situational characteristics: stability,
uncertainty, complexity (remember
“contingency”)
Leadership: Traditional
Explanations

Person-based
Theories

Situational Theories

Dispersed Theories

Exchange Theories
 The trait approach

Early research into leadership can be characterized as a

search for ‘the great man’. Personal characteristics of
leaders were emphasized and the implicit idea was that
leaders are born rather than made. All leaders were
supposed to have certain stable characteristics that made
them into leaders. The focus was on identifying and
measuring traits that distinguished leaders from non-leaders
or effective from ineffective leaders. There was the hope that
a profile of an ‘ideal’ leader could be derived from the above
that could serve as the basis for selection of future leaders.
Trait Theories

Leadership
LeadershipTraits
Traits::
•• Ambition
Ambitionand
andenergy
energy
•• The
Thedesire
desireto
tolead
lead
•• Honesty
Honestyandand
integrity
integrity
•• Self-confidence
Self-confidence
•• Intelligence
Intelligence
•• Job-relevant
Job-relevant
knowledge
knowledge
The Trait Approach

Great Person Theory

The view that leaders
possess special traits
that set them apart
from others and that
these traits are
responsible for their
assuming positions of
power and authority.
 Great Man - Trait Theories
Early research attempted to identify
specific traits differentiating leaders from
followers. Personality, social, physical,
and intellectual traits were found to
differentiate leaders from others.
– Bernard, 1926
– Bingham, 1927
– Kilbourne, 1935
– Mann, 1959
– Stogdill, 1948
– Tead, 1929
 Trait Theories
People tend to perceive that someone is a
leader when he or she exhibits certain:
 Physical qualities
 Character attributes
 Intellectual qualities
 Personal qualities
 Attribution Theory
of Leadership

Traits of a Leader

•Drive and Ambition •Self-Confidence

•Desire to Lead •Intelligence
•Honesty and Integrity •Technical Expertise

Prentice Hall, 2000 Chapter 10 31

Big 5 Personality Predictors of
Leadership Ability

 Extroversion
 Agreeableness
 Conscientiousness
 Lackof Neuroticism
 Openness to experience
 Motivation and Leadership
 Leader Motive Pattern
– High need for power
– High need for achievement
– Low need for affiliation
Negative leadership traits that
prevent individuals from being
leaders
 Uninformed
 Non-participative
 Rigid
 Authoritarian
 Offensive
 Criticisms – Trait Theories
 No universal traits predict leadership in all
situations
 Unclear evidence of the cause and effect of
relationship of leadership and traits.
(Which comes first, trait or leadership position?)
 Traits predict behavior better in “weak” than
“strong” situations.
 Provides little guidance concerning what advice or
training to give current or soon-to-be leaders
 Better predictor of the appearance of leadership
than distinguishing effective and ineffective leaders.
 Overlooks needs of followers
 Fails to clarify trait's relative importance.
Summary and Conclusions
– Great deal of literature examining
the impact of individual differences
on leadership
– Literature provides some support
for the role of individual differences
 Appear to be key skill and traits for
associated with effective leadership
 Style Approach

 Emphasizes the behavior of leader

 Two kinds of behavior: task
behaviors (help group members to
achieve their goals) and
relationship behaviors (help
subordinates feel comfortable with
themselves, with each other, and
with the situation)
 Style studies since late 1940’s
 Leadership Style &
Emotional Climate
Autocratic style -
the leader uses Democratic style -
strong, directive, the leader takes Laissez-fair style -
controlling actions collaborative, the leader fails to
to enforce the rules, reciprocal, accept the
regulations, interactive actions responsibilities of
activities, & with followers; the position;
relationships in the followers have high creates chaos in
work environment; degree of the work
followers have little discretionary environment
discretionary influence
influence
 Leadership Roles
 Earlystudies identified three
different styles:
 Autocratic
 Democratic
 Laissez-faire
 Leadership as Behavior
 Leadership as Behavior or Function
(Skills)
 Leadership consists of certain behaviors, or
functions, that groups must have performed.
– 1. Task orientation
– 2. People orientation
– 3. Change-oriented behaviors
 Leadership
 Leadership Styles
– Manz and Sims (2001) reported:
1. The quality of group output was better under
democratic leadership.
2. Democratic leadership took more time than
autocratic.
3. Member satisfaction was higher under
democratic leadership.
4. The democratic group had the lowest
absenteeism.
5. The democratic group fostered more
independence.
 Contemporary Approaches to
Leadership
 Attribution theory
 Charismatic leadership
 Visionary leadership
 Transactional leadership
 Transformational leadership
 Emotional Intelligence
 TASK-ORIENTED V PEOPLE-
ORIENTED LEADERSHIP
(Blake and Mouton, 1964)
 TASK-ORIENTED  PEOPLE-ORIENTED
– task is uppermost; – concern for
– employee needs close subordinates’ needs;
supervision;
– climate building;
– supervisor upset when
tasks not accomplished; – inquiries about
– human aspect problems;
neglected; – can be
– regular checks on work counterproductive if
progress; “overdone”.
– perceived as “tough”;
 Contingency Approach

Effective
leadership
behavior
depends on
the situation
at hand
 Contingency Leadership Theory
 Given the right context, every
leadership theory or model is the
correct one.
 There is no one best style of
leadership
 Leadership style must match the
situation
 The Continuum of Leadership
Behavior
(Tannenbaum, 1974)
PUSH
Tells
Boss Sells
[Tests]
AUTOCRAT

Consults Employee

Joins

PULL
DEMOCRAT
Autocractic or Democratic?

Reasons for a more participative or

democratic style:
 Information or expertise exists
among subordinates
 Greater understanding, acceptance
and support of decision by
subordinates
LEADERSHIP STYLE MATRIX
High Supportive or Human- Participative or
relations Leadership Democratic Leadership

High Concern for People; High Concern for People;

Low Concern for Task High Concern for Task
People
Focus Directive or Autocratic
Abdicative or Laissez-
faire Leadership Leadership

Low Concern for People; Low Concern for People;

Low Concern for Task High Concern for Task
Low
Low High
Task Focus
Situational Leadership
Theory
 Situational Leadership
 Strengths
– Practical: easy to understand and apply
– Prescriptive: tells what to do or what to do
not in various situations
– Leader’s flexibility: employees and leading
styles differ from situation to situation
 Criticisms
– Leader’s styles and employee’s
development level do not always match,
there exist other factors too
 Task vs. Relationship

Task-oriented Leadership Is best under

situations of high
or low control
Relationship-oriented
Leadership Is best under
situations of
moderate control
The Managerial Grid
 Contingency Leadership
Framework Variables

Leader
Followers Situation
Personality
Capability Task
traits
Motivation Structure
Behavior
Environment
Experience
 Leadership Continuum
“A continuum of leadership style
extending from complete retention
of power by the manager to
complete freedom for subordinates"
 Autocratic ("Telling")
 Diplomatic ("Selling)
 Consultative ("Consulting")
 Participative ("Joining")
 What are the situational or
contingency leadership
approaches?
 Leader traits and behaviors can act in
conjunction with situational contingencies.
 The effects of leader traits are enhanced by
their relevance to situational contingencies.
 Major situational contingency theories.
– Fiedler’s leadership contingency theory.
– House’s path-goal theory of leadership.
– Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership
model.
– Vroom-Jago Normative decision theory
– Substitutes for Leadership
 Contingency Leadership
Theories
 The appropriate style of  Least Preferred Coworker
leadership is contingent on (LPC)
the requirements of the – Fiedler (1964, 1967, 1971)
particular situation and the
situational variables 
mediating the interaction Path-Goal Theory
between leadership – House (1971)
behavior and situations – House and Mitchell (1974)
resulting in effectiveness
or “situational  Normative Decision-Making
favorableness” Model
– Vroom and Yetton (1973)
 Only the leader possessing – Vroom and Jago (1988)
particular qualities will
arise due to the specific
situational circumstances
requiring specific
leadership abilities
Path-Goal Theory
“You know what makes leadership? It
is the ability to get men to do what
they don't want to do and like it.” --
Harry Truman
 Path-Goal Theory

 A theory of leadership suggesting that

subordinates will be motivated by a leader only
to the extent they perceive this individual as
helping them to attain valued goals.
 Four basic leadership styles:
– Instrumental (directive): An approach focused on providing
specific guidance and establishing work schedules and rules.
– Supportive: A style focused on establishing good relations
with subordinates and satisfying their needs.
– Participative: A pattern in which the leader consults with
subordinates, permitting them to participate in decisions.
– Achievement Oriented: An approach in which the leader
sets challenging goals and seeks improvements in
performance.
Path-Goal Leadership Model

Used to select the

leadership style that is
appropriate to the
situation to maximize
performance and job
satisfaction.
4 Basic Path-Goal Leadership
Types
Instrumental (directive): An approach
focused on providing specific guidance
and establishing work schedules and
rules.
Supportive: A style focused on establishing
good relations with subordinates and
satisfying their needs.
Participative: A pattern in which the leader
consults with subordinates, permitting
them to participate in decisions.
Achievement Oriented: An approach in
which the leader sets challenging goals
and seeks improvements in performance.
 Path-Goal Guidelines to Be
Effective Leader
 Determine the outcomes subordinates want
– e.g., good pay, job security, interesting work,
and autonomy to do one’s job, etc.
 Reward individuals with their desired
outcomes when they perform well
 Be clear with expectations
– Let individuals know what they need to do to
receive rewards (the path to the goal)
– Remove barriers that prevent high performance
– Express confidence that individuals have the
ability to perform well
Path-Goal Leadership Styles
 Directive
– Informs subordinates of expectations,
gives guidance, shows how to do tasks
 Supportive
– Friendly and approachable, shows
concern for status, well-being and needs
of subordinates
Path-Goal Leadership Styles
 Participative
– Consults with subordinates, solicits
suggestions, takes suggestions into
consideration
 Achievement oriented
– Sets challenging goals, expects subordinates to
perform at highest level, continuously seeks
improvement in performance, has confidence
in highest motivations of employees
 The Path-Goal Theory
Environmental
Situational Factors

Leader
Outcomes
Behavior

Subordinate
Situational Factors

Prentice Hall, 2000 Chapter 10 67

 Transformational
Leadership
 Since late 1970’s
 Part of the ’New leadership’ paradigm
 Attention to the charismatic and
affective elements of leadership
 A process that changes and transforms
individuals
 Emotions, values, ethics, standards,
long-term goals
 Incorporates charismatic and visionary
leadership
 Transactional and
Transformational Leaders

Transactional Transformational

Use formal rewards and Uses personal attributes to

punishments inspire followers

Deal making Excites followers

Contractual obligations
“The most powerful kind of
leadership is to offer people
pathways and permissions to do
things they want to do but feel
unable to do for themselves. That
sort of energy evokes energies
within people that far exceed the
powers of coercion.”

(Palmer 1993)
 True Leader
"A leader is best when people barely know he
exists.
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him.
Worse when they despise him.
But of a good leader who talks little, when his work
is done and his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We
did it ourselves."
-- Lao Tsu, 600 B.C.
Bass’s Theory of Transformational and
Transactional Leadership
 Transformational leaders possess
charismatic-leader characteristics (vision,
rhetorical skills, etc.).
 Transactional leaders do not possess these
leader characteristics, nor are they able to
develop strong emotional bonds with
followers or inspire followers to do more than
they thought they could. Instead,
transactional leaders motivate followers by
setting goals and promising rewards for
desired performance.
 Transactional &
Transformational
Leadership
As a
transactional leader,
I use formal rewards
& punishments.

As a
transformational leader,
I inspire and excite
followers to high levels
of performance.
 Transformational
Leadership Theory
 Transformational leaders
– Are capable of charting new courses for their
organization.
– Are visionaries who challenge people to do
exceptional things, above and beyond the plan.
 Transactional leaders
– Monitor people to see that they do the
expected, according to plan in order to maintain
the status quo.
– Get people to do things by offering a reward or
threatening them with a punishment.
 Understanding
Transformational Leadership
 Transactional leaders – pursue an
economic exchange with the employee in
return for contracted services rendered

 Transformational leaders – support

employee’s needs to move to higher levels
of achievement while simultaneously
encouraging them to transcend their own
self-interest for the sake of the team or
organization
 REMEMBER . . .

25% of organisational productivity

is due to

employee satisfaction.
 Chris Argyris:
Personality and Organization
 Traditional management principles produce
conflict between people and organizations.
– Task specialization produces narrow, boring jobs that
require few skills.
– Directive leadership makes workers dependent and treats
them like children.
 Workers adapt to frustration in several ways:
– Withdraw—absenteeism or quitting
– Become passive, apathetic
– Resist top-down control through deception,
featherbedding, or sabotage
– Climb the hierarchy
– Form groups (such as labor unions)
– Train children to believe work is unrewarding
ZONE OF INDIFFERENCE

The Area Within Which an

Individual Will Comply With
Directives Without Question.
 Follower Characteristics
 Identification with the leader and the
vision
 Heightened emotional levels
 Willing subordination to the leader
 Feelings of empowerment
 Five Types of Followers

Independent, critical thinking

Alienated Effective
followers followers

Survivors
Passive Active

Yes
Sheep people
Source: R. E. Kelley, “In Praise of
Followers,” Harvard Business Review 66
(1988): 145.

Independent, uncritical thinking

Dynamic Follower
 Responsible
steward of his or
her job
 Effective in
managing the
relationship with
the boss
 Practices self-
management
McGregor’s Theory X & Theory
Y
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y. (2
assumptions about basic nature)
 Theory X
– Workers are passive and lazy
– Prefer to be led
– Resist change
 Theory Y
– Management’s basis task is to ensure that workers
meet their important needs while they work
 Either theory can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
 McGregor’s Theory of
Motivation Motivation

THEORY Y
 Work is necessary to man’s
THEORY X psychological growth
  Man wants to be interested in his
Man dislikes work and will avoid it if
he can. work and, under the right conditions
 Man must be forced or bribed to put he can enjoy it
out the right effort.  Man will direct himself towards an
 Man would rather be directed than accepted target
accept responsibility, which he  Man will seek, and accept
avoids.

responsibility under the right
Man is motivated mainly by money.
conditions
 Man is motivated by anxiety about
 The discipline a man imposes on
his security.
 Most men have little creativity - himself is more effective, and can
except when it comes to getting be more severe, than any imposed
round management rules! on him
 Under the right conditions man is
motivated by the desire to realise
his own potential
Servant Leadership
Servant Leaders
focus on providing
increased service to
others—meeting the
goals of both the
followers and the
organization—rather
than themselves
 Ten Characteristics
of the Servant Leader
1. Focus on listening
2. Ability to empathize with others’
feelings
3. Focus on healing suffering
4. Self-awareness of strengths and
weaknesses
5. Use of persuasion rather than
positional authority to influence others
 Ten Characteristics of
the Servant Leader
6. Broad-based conceptual thinking
7. Ability to foresee future outcomes
8. Belief that they are stewards of their
employees and resources
9. Commitment to the growth of people
10. Drive to build community within and
outside the organization
Benefits of Leading Without
Authority
 Latitude for creative deviance
– Easier to raise questions
 Issue focus
– Freedom to focus on single issue, rather
than many issues
 Frontline information
– Often closer to the people who have the
information
 Substitutes for Leadership
 In
some situations, leader may not
be necessary
– Other factors may substitute for or
neutralize leader’s influence
 Potential substitutes:
– Individual characteristics
– Job structure
– Organizational characteristics
SUBSTITUTES FOR
LEADERSHIP
Subordinate Characteristics
Subordinate Characteristics
 Ability
 Experience
 Training
 Knowledge
 Professional Orientation

Task Characteristics
 Unambiguous and Routine
 Methodologically Invariant
 Providing Feedback Itself
 Intrinsically Satisfying

Task Characteristics
 Closely-knit, Cohesive Work
Group
 Culture
 Workers That Are Jobs That Are
Experienced or Unambiguous or
Highly-Trained Highly Satisfying

Is Leadership
Always Relevant?

Goals That Are

Workgroups
Formalized or
That Are Cohesive
Rules That Are Rigid
Prentice Hall, 2000 Chapter 10 90
 Implicit Leadership Theory
 We have a subjective mental
prototype of what leaders are like
– Attribute typical set of traits to leaders
– People who fit the prototype more likely
to be judged as effective leaders
 Prototypes and gender
 Leadership as Power
Power is the extent to which one person
can exert more force on other group
members than they, in turn, can exert to
resist the leader's intentions
 What is power?

 Power is the ability to …

– Get someone to do something you want
done.
– Make things happen in the way you want.
 Influence is …
– What you have when you exercise power.
– Expressed by others’ behavioral response
to your exercise of power.
 Five Sources of Power

1. Legitimate Power all managers have; results

from managers’ formal positions within the
organization
2. Reward Power all managers have; results from
manager’s authority to reward their subordinates
3. Coercive Power all managers have; results from
the manager’s authority to punish subordinates
4. Expert Power is power resulting from one’s
specialized information or expertise
5. Referent Power power derived from one’s
personal attraction
 Outcomes of Power Use
 Commitment
– Influence target agrees with and internalizes request
– Referent & expert power
 Compliance
– Influence target is apathetic about request but agrees to carry
it out
– Legitimate & reward power
 Resistance
– Influence target opposes request and avoids carrying it out
– Coercive power
 Men’s and Women’s
Leadership Styles
 In general, women fall back on a
democratic leadership style
– Encourage participation
– Share power and information
– Attempt to enhance followers’ self-worth
– Prefer to lead through inclusion
 Men feel more comfortable with a directive
command-and-control style
– Rely on formal authority
 Cultural Issues in
Leadership
 Societal cultural values and practices
affect leaders:
– Shape the leader’s values and norms
– Influence decisions and actions

 Some features of leadership are

universal, others differ across cultures
– “Charismatic visionary” seems to be
universal
– Participative leadership works better in
some cultures than others
 Conclusions
 Leadership plays a central part in
understanding group behavior.
 Our understanding of leadership and the
dynamics continues to grow.
 Theories offer incomplete explanations.
 A lot of research has been done, illustrating
the complexity of leadership
 Leadership as person, role, & situation.
 Leader as an active, flexible pursuer of vision
who influences others towards achievement of
vision.
 Conclusions
 Male and female leadership styles
tend to be more alike than different.
 No one style of leadership is always
the preferred leadership style.
 Leadership is not value free and
culturally-bound.