The quality of leadership is an important element in an organization’s success, since leaders influence employees to work together toward the fulfillment of a company’s mission and the achievement of its goals.
WHO ARE LEADERS, AND WHAT IS LEADERSHIP Certain distinctions can be made between managers and leaders. A. While managers are appointed and have legitimate power within the organization, a leader is someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. B. Leadership is the process of influencing a group to achieve goals.
A. EARLY LEADERSHIP THEORIES
Researchers began to study leadership in the early twentieth century and developed behavioral theories that focused on the leader (trait theories) and how the leader interacts with his or her group members.
1. Leadership Trait Theories
Research in the 1920s and 1930s focused on traits of the leader, with the intent to isolate characteristics that might by used to differentiate leaders from non leaders. Identifying a set of traits consistently associated with the process of leadership proved to be more successful than one set of traits that would always differentiate leaders from nonleaders.
2. Leadership Behavior Theories Researchers began to hope that a behavioral theories approach would provide more definitive information about the nature of leadership than did trait theories. - University of Iowa Studies- Kurt Lewin and his associates explored three leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. - The Ohio State Studies identified two important dimensions of leader behavior: initiating structure and consideration. - University of Michigan Studies identified two dimensions of leader behavior: leaders who were employee oriented and leaders who were production oriented. - The Managerial Grid is a two-dimensional grid used to appraise leadership styles using “concern for people” and “concern for production” as dimensions. Predicting leadership success involved more than isolating a few leader traits or behavior. The lack of success in attaining consistent results led to a focus on situational influences.
B. CONTINGENCY THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP 1. The Fiedler contingency model, developed by Fred Fiedler, is a contingency theory proposing that effective group performance depended upon the proper match between a leader’s style of interacting with his/her followers and the degree to which the situation allowed the leader to control and influence. - Fiedler developed the least-preferred coworker (LPC) questionnaire, which measures whether a person is task or relationship oriented. This questionnaire contained 18 pairs of contrasting adjectives. Respondents were asked to think of all the coworkers they had ever had and to describe the person they least preferred to work with, using the 18 sets of adjectives. Fiedler believed that a person’s basic leadership style could be determined on the basis of their answers.
- Fiedler also isolated three situational criteria that he believed could be manipulated to create the proper match with the behavioral orientation of the leader:
a. Leader-member relations described the degree of confidence, trust, and respect subordinates have in their leader.
b. Task structure described the degree to which job assignments were formalized and procedurized.
c. Position power described the degree of influence a leader had over power-based activities such as hiring, firing, discipline, promotions, and salary increases.
- Next, Fiedler used the above variables to evaluate the situation. He defined eight different situations in which a leader could find himself or herself. (See Exhibit 17-3)
- The Fiedler model proposes matching an individual’s LPC and an assessment of the three contingency variables to achieve maximum leadership effectiveness.
- Fiedler concluded that task-oriented leaders tend to perform better in situations that are either very favorable or very unfavorable to them.
- He concluded that relationship-oriented leaders perform better in moderately favorable situations.
- Fiedler believed that an individual’s leadership style was fixed; he concluded that leader effectiveness could be improved in only two ways:
- Bring in a new leader whose style fits better to the situation.
- Change the situation to fit the leader.
2. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) is a leadership contingency theory developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard that focuses on followers’ readiness. - Hersey and Blanchard propose that successful leadership is achieved by selecting the right leadership style that matches the level of the followers’ readiness. - Readiness is the extent to which people have the ability and willingness to accomplish a specific task. - SLT uses the same leadership dimensions identified by Fiedler: task and relationship behaviors. - Each of the two leadership dimensions is considered either high or low and then combined into four specific leadership styles. - Research efforts to test and support this theory generally have been disappointing, possibly because of internal ambiguities or inconsistencies in the model itself.
3. Path-goal theory is a leadership theory that purports that it is the leader’s job to assist his or her followers in attaining their goals and to provide the direction or support needed to ensure that their goals are compatible with the overall objectives of the organization. Four leadership behaviors were identified by House: - The directive leader lets subordinates know what is expected of them, schedules work to be done, and gives specific guidance on how to accomplish tasks. - The supportive leader is friendly and shows concern for subordinates’ needs. - The participative leader consults with subordinates and uses their suggestions before making a decision. - The achievement-oriented leader sets challenging goals and expects subordinates to perform at their highest level. The path-goal theory proposes two classes of situational or contingency variables that moderate the leadership behavior-outcome relationship: - Variables in the environment that are outside of the control of the follower - Variables that are part of the personal characteristics of the follower
The following hypotheses have evolved from path-goal theory:
- Directive leadership leads to greater satisfaction when tasks are ambiguous or stressful than when they are highly structured and well laid out.
- Supportive leadership results in high employee performance and satisfaction when subordinates are performing structured tasks.
- Directive leadership leads to higher employee satisfaction when there is substantive conflict within a work group.
- Achievement-oriented leadership increases subordinates' expectancies that effort will lead to high performance when tasks are ambiguously structured.
- Subordinates with an external locus of control will be more satisfied with a directive style.
- Achievement-oriented leadership will increase subordinates’ expectations that effort will lead to high performance when tasks are ambiguously structured.
C. CONTEMPORARY VIEWS ON LEADERSHIP 1. Transformational-Transactional Leadership What is the difference between transactional and transformational leaders? - Transactional leaders are leaders who lead primarily by using social exchanges (or transactions). - Transformational leaders are leaders who stimulate and inspire (transform) followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes. Evidence supporting the superiority of transformational leadership over transactional leadership is overwhelmingly impressive. 2. Charismatic-Visionary Leadership - A charismatic leader is an enthusiastic, self-confident leader whose personality and actions influence people to behave in certain ways. - Five personal characteristics of charismatic leaders have been identified. Charismatic leaders have a vision, are able to articulate that vision, are willing to take risks to achieve that vision, are sensitive to both environmental constraints and follower needs, and exhibit behaviors that are out of the ordinary - An increasing amount of research shows impressive correlations between charismatic leadership and high performance and satisfaction among followers. Most experts think that individuals can be trained to exhibit charismatic behaviors. - Charismatic leadership may not always be needed to achieve high levels of employee performance. This type of leadership may be most appropriate when an employee’s job has a significant amount of ideological content. - Visionary leadership is the ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible, and attractive vision of the future that improves upon the present situation. - If the vision is properly selected and implemented, it can energize individuals to use their skills, talents, and resources to fulfill the vision. - An organization’s vision should tap into people’s emotions and inspire enthusiasm. Visions that are clearly communicated are generally more accepted. 3. Team Leadership. As work teams become more prevalent in the workplace, the role of team leader becomes increasingly important. - The existence of work teams necessitates that managers learn how to become effective team leaders. Skillful team leaders master the difficult balancing act of knowing when to leave their teams alone and when to become involved. A team leader has two priorities: - Managing the team’s external boundaries - Facilitating the team process These two priorities can be broken down into four specific leadership roles (see Exhibit 17-5): - Liaisons with external constituencies - Troubleshooters - Conflict managers - Coaches