Week1

• Leader


  Someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority
• Ideally, all managers should be leaders
• Early Leadership Theories


  • Trait Theories
  • Behavioral Theories
  • Contingency Theories
  • Contemporary Views of Leadership

  
• Trait Theories (1920s -1930s) focused on identifying personal characteristics that differentiated leaders from non-leaders was unsuccessful
• Seven traits associated with successful leadership

  • Drive
  • Desire to lead
  • Honesty and integrity
  • Self-confidence
  • Intelligence
  • Job-relevant knowledge
  • Extraversion
• Behavioral Theories


  • Identified three leadership styles: Autocratic style, Democratic style, Laissez faire style

  
• Autocratic style


  • Centralized authority, low participation
• Democratic style


  • Involvement, high participation, feedback
• Laissez faire style


  • Hands-off management
• No specific style was consistently better for producing better performance
• Employees were more satisfied under a democratic leader than under an autocratic leader
• High consideration/high structure leaders generally, but not always, achieved high scores on group task performance and satisfaction
• Situational factors appeared to strongly influence leadership effectiveness
• Ohio State Studies identified two dimensions of leader behavior

  • Initiating structure
  • Consideration

  
• Initiating structure


  The role of the leader in defining his or her role and the roles of group members
• Consideration


  The leader’s mutual trust and respect for group members’ ideas and feelings
• The Managerial Grid places managerial styles in five categories

  • Impoverished management
  • Task management
  • Middle-of-the-road management
  • Country club management
  • Team management
• University of Michigan Studies identified two dimensions of leader behavior


  • Employee oriented
  • Production oriented

  
• Leaders who are employee oriented are strongly associated with high group productivity and high job satisfaction
• A certain leadership style should be most effective in different types of situations according to the Fiedler Model

  
• Leaders do not readily change leadership styles according to the Fiedler Model

  
• Matching the leader to the situation or changing the situation to make it favorable to the leader is required according to the Fiedler Model
• Least-preferred co-worker (LPC) questionnaire


  Determines leadership style by measuring responses to 18 pairs of contrasting adjectives

  
• High score in LPC questionnaire

  • Relationship-oriented leadership style
• Low score in LPC questionnaire

  • Task-oriented leadership style
• Situational factors in matching leader to the situation

  • Leader-member relations
  • Task structure
  • Position power
• Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) creates four specific leadership styles

  • Telling
  • Selling
  • Participating
  • Delegating

  
• Telling


  • High task-low relationship leadership
• Selling


  • High task-high relationship leadership
• Participating


  • Low task-high relationship leadership
• Delegating


  • Low task-low relationship leadership
• Successful leadership is achieved by selecting the right leadership style which is contingent on the level of the followers’ readiness according to Hersey and Blanchard’s SLT

  
• Acceptance


  Leadership effectiveness depends on whether followers accept or reject a leader
• Readiness


  The extent to which followers have the ability and willingness to accomplish a specific task
• Leaders must relinquish control over and contact with followers as they become more competent
• Path-Goal Model


  The leader’s job is to assist his or her followers in attaining their goals and to provide direction or support to ensure that their goals are compatible with those of the organization
• Different leadership styles in Path-Goal Model

  • Directive leader
  • Supportive leader
  • Participative leader
  • Achievement oriented leader

  
• Four stages of follower readiness

  • R1: followers are unable and unwilling
  • R2: followers are unable but willing
  • R3: followers are able but unwilling
  • R4: followers are able and willing
• Transactional Leadership


  Leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements
• Transformational Leadership


  Leaders who inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization by clarifying role and task requirements