Leadership has been described as the “process of social

influence in which one person is able to enlist the aid and

support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”.
A definition more inclusive of followers comes from Alan
Keith of Genentech who said "Leadership is ultimately about
creating a way for people to contribute to making something
extraordinary happen.

FUNCTIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY (Hackman & Walton,

1986; McGrath, 1962) is a particularly useful theory for
addressing specific leader behaviors expected to contribute
to organizational or unit effectiveness. This theory argues
that the leader’s main job is to see that whatever is
necessary to group needs is taken care of; thus, a leader can
be said to have done their job well when they have
contributed to group effectiveness and cohesion (Fleishman
et al., 1991; Hackman & Wageman, 2005; Hackman &
Walton, 1986).

While functional leadership theory has most often been

applied to team leadership it has also been effectively
applied to broader organizational leadership as well In
summarizing literature on functional leadership Hackman
and Walton (1986), Hackman & Wageman (2005Knight, and
Xiao (2006) observed five broad functions a leader performs
when promoting organization’s effectiveness. These
functions include: (1) environmental monitoring, (2)
organizing subordinate activities, (3) teaching and coaching
subordinates, (4) motivating others, and (5) intervening
actively in the group’s work.

A variety of leadership behaviors are expected to facilitate

these functions. In initial work identifying leader behavior,
Fleishman (1953) observed that subordinates perceived their
supervisors’ behavior in terms of two broad categories
referred to as consideration and initiating structure.
Consideration includes behavior involved in fostering
effective relationships. Examples of such behavior would
include showing concern for a subordinate or acting in a
supportive manner towards others. Initiating structure
involves the actions of the leader focused specifically on task
accomplishment. This could include role clarification, setting
performance standards, and holding subordinates
accountable to those standards.

Leadership is one of the most salient aspects of the

organizational context. However, defining leadership has
been challenging. In reviewing the leadership literature
stodgily argued that “there are almost as many definitions of
leadership as there are persons who have attempted to
define the concept. Even though leadership is a term that is
commonly used, defining leadership in specific terms can
prove difficult likely leading to such a large number of
definitions.

Despite the multitude of leadership definitions, Zaccaro and

Klimoski (2001) argued there are several common elements
that transcend the many available definitions. Specifically,
leadership involves a) processes and proximal outcomes that
contribute to the organizational objectives the application of
non-routine influence, and is contextually defined and
caused.

Proximal outcomes that a leader could facilitate in the

pursuit of achieving organizational objectives could include
developing organizational commitment among subordinates.
Non-routine influence implies that leaders must to have
discretion in their actions and that their behavior should
differ from influence provided through organizational
routines. Finally, leadership needs to be considered with
respect to the context in which it is occurring. One example
is examining how leadership changes across levels of the
organization.

Functional leadership theory is model that concentrates on

how leadership occurs, rather than focusing on who does the
leading. It defines the types of behaviors that guide an
organization and then looks at how those behaviors occur.
Under this model, leadership is a distributed function. People
at all levels can participate in guiding the organization. One
of the cornerstones of this leadership model is its focus on
how instead of who.

This approach has some tremendous advantages when

studying leadership. The models that focus on who leads
tends to look at the person with formal authority in an
organization. In many situations, the person with formal
authority is not the real leader. Sometimes there is no single
“real” leader. Even an organization that appears to be
floundering with no leadership is being led. People are still
making decisions and forming opinions.

The functional leadership model looks at how these types of

decisions are being made—even when there is no single
person who is acting as a leader. By focusing on the function
of leadership, it is easier to see the stimuli that are actually
influencing the behavior of the organization—even if the
input is coming from informal and unlikely sources.

Functional leadership is often used to describe job positions

where an individual is expected to take leadership
responsibility without any delegated authority. In this sense,
they are asked to take on functions of leadership by helping
to guide a team or process without being put into a formal
leadership position. The up-side of this type of arrangement
is that it can keep the individual’s focus on how to influence
their team’s behavior instead of how to exert their authority.

These functions include:

(1) Environmental monitoring,

(2) Organizing subordinate activities,

(3) Teaching and coaching subordinates,

(4) Motivating others, and

(5) Intervening actively in the group’s work.

A variety of leadership behaviors are expected to facilitate
these functions. In initial work identifying leader behavior,
Fleishman (1953) observed that subordinates perceived their
supervisors’ behavior in terms of two broad categories
referred to as consideration and initiating structure.
Consideration includes behavior involved in fostering
effective relationships. Examples of such behavior would
include showing concern for a subordinate or acting in a
supportive manner towards others. Initiating structure
involves the actions of the leader focused specifically on task
accomplishment. This could include role clarification, setting
performance standards, and holding subordinates
accountable to those standards.

Organizations are relying increasingly on teams to improve

quality, efficiency, and adaptive change. Cross-functional
teams are used to improve coordination among the different
parties involved in carrying out a joint project. Self-managed
teams are delegated most of the responsibility and authority
traditionally vested in fir line supervisors. Self-defining teams
represent an extreme form empowerment, because the
team can determine its mission given the ability of the
leader.

Regulate its internal processes, and negotiate relationships

with other parts of the organization and outsiders. The
potential advantages of teams include greater employee
satisfaction and commitment, better quality of products and
services, and greater efficiency and productivity.
However, the benefits do not occur automatically, and
successful implementation depends on a variety of
facilitating conditions, including the quality of leadership.
Some essential leadership processes in teams include
building consensus around shared objectives, identifying
effective performance strategies, organizing team activities,
enhancing member skills and role clarity, building mutual
trust and cooperation, procuring needed resources, and
facilitating external coordination.

In the Functional Leadership model, leadership does not rest

with one person but rests on a set of behaviors by the group
that gets things done. Any member of the group can perform
these behaviors, so any member can participate in
leadership.

The Functional theory of leadership, places greater

emphasis on how an organisation or task is being led rather
than who has been formally assigned a leadership role. To
be effective the group must clearly establish and understand
the task, delegate responsibilities, identify resources and
establish accountabilities and evaluate progress. The
maintenance of the group requires all participants to work
together in a co-ordinate approach and in the same direction
with opportunities and recognition of all participant efforts.
Functional Leadership is effective if the

For clear understanding of functional theory of leadership

there is need to define group, leadership and effectiveness
as these three concepts move hand in hand to give
leadership a more wider meaning not only that but also
clear demarcation of this discussion.

Group these are set of individuals who are similar, who are
in proximity , and who share common fate on task relevant
events .the intent was to include those groups in which
members perceive themselves as interdependent in
achieving common goal .

A Leader is a group member who directs and coordinates

tasks relevant to group activities ,to be considered a leader,
the individual mast either be appointed by an agent or
organisation of which the group is part ,be elected by a
group or be identified as most influential member of the
group.

Effectiveness, the leader’s effectiveness is defined in terms

of his or her group’s performance in achieving goals. This
means the more the group achieves its goals, the more
effective is the leader .This means the leader will do
everything possible to see that his group or organisation
achieve its objectives . This will increase his being loyal to
the group because people join into groups with different
objectives so if the leader is results oriented then the
groups’ success will be clear and group members will be
willing to accomplish their tasks on time and being identified
with successful leader.

The functional theory of leadership puts the leader into

position to assign tasks to his followers with clear
instructions not only that but also participate in the daily
activities of the organisation or group to achieve the desired
goals so as to register success as a leader .

Furthermore, he can also use his power as a leader to

control rewards and suctions to group members who are an
comparative and the degree to which he will be supported
by the organisation or group .The powerful leader may be
able to influence the group even if the leader-follower
relationship are poor .The more powerful the leadership
position, the more favourable the situation for the leader.

It should be noted that the most favorable situation is one in

which the effective leader –member relationship are good,
the task is highly structured the leader power position is
strong .The most unfavorable situation is one in which the
leader-member relationship, the task is un structured and
leader power position is week.

In light of the above, the leader mast make sure that

followers have task orientation if the organisation and group
in general is to achieve goals and he or she as a leader is to
achieve success. The is possible in situations where the
leader has powers .However, members mast be free to offer
new ideas and suggestion, and the leader can force his
followers to comply with his wishes.

Perceptions of leadership appear to be changing. Research

has shown a shift in emphasis in regard to the factors
influencing leadership effectiveness in a group. Whereas
early scholars focused on leaders’ personality characteristics
as key to leadership effectiveness in group situations, today,
there has been a turning toward a concern for group
members' characteristics and a parallel concern for the
ensuing influence on leadership behavior.

Leadership is no longer regarded a one-person affair. In any

group, the influence of the personality characteristics of
group members on leadership effectiveness cannot be
overemphasized. It would be difficult to imagine a world of
leadership without followership. Leadership obviously implies
followership. Leaders cannot do it alone. As claimed in the
literature, it takes both the leader and the group members to
get things done (Kouzes & Posner, 1987; Rost, 1991; Clark &
Clark, 1994). Leaders have been unsuccessful because of
their failure to harness the strengths of their group.

A variety of leadership behaviors are expected to facilitate

these functions. In initial work identifying leader behavior,
Fleishman (1953) observed that subordinates perceived their
supervisors’ behavior in terms of two broad categories
referred to as consideration and initiating structure.
Consideration includes behavior involved in fostering
effective relationships. Examples of such behavior would
include showing concern for a subordinate or acting in a
supportive manner towards others. Initiating structure
involves the actions of the leader focused specifically on task
accomplishment. This could include role clarification, setting
performance standards, and holding subordinates
accountable to those standards.

Leadership and emotions

Leadership can be perceived as a particularly emotion-laden

process, with emotions entwined with the social influence
process. In an organization, the leaders’ mood has some
effects on his/her group. These effects can be described in
levels.

1. The mood of individual group members. Group

members with leaders in a positive mood experience
more positive mood than do group members with
leaders in a negative mood. The leaders transmit their
moods to other group members through the
mechanism of contagion. Mood contagion may be one
of the psychological mechanisms by which charismatic
leaders influence followers.

2. The affective tone of the group. Group affective tone

represents the consistent or homogeneous affective
reactions within a group. Group affective tone is an
aggregate of the moods of the individual members of
 the group and refers to mood at the group level of
analysis. Groups with leaders in a positive mood have a
more positive affective tone than do groups with
leaders in a negative mood.

3. Group processes like coordination, effort expenditure,

and task strategy. Public expressions of mood impact
how group members think and act. When people
experience and express mood, they send signals to
others. Leaders signal their goals, intentions, and
attitudes through their expressions of moods. For
example, expressions of positive moods by leaders
signal that leaders deem progress toward goals to be
good. The group members respond to those signals
cognitively and behaviorally in ways that are reflected
in the group processes.

Effective leadership requires followers who are more than

Pavlovian reactors to their leaders' influences," notes
Woodward. "When followers actively contribute, are aware of
their function and take personal pride in the art of
followership, then the joint purpose of leadership and
followership -- higher levels of mission accomplishment -- is
achieved effectively. Professionalism in followership is as
important in the military service as professionalism in
leadership.
In summary, leadership performance has been
conceptualized very broadly, often incorporating outcomes
such as effectiveness, emergence, and advancement. As
with more general considerations of job performance
(Campbell, 1990), it is important to distinguish between
leader performance and effectiveness. While it is important
to evaluate the influence of leadership on organizational
outcomes (Kasier et al., 2008), specifically assessing leader
performance, or behaviors that have expected value to
organizational outcomes, allows practitioners and
researchers to avoid conceptual confusion.
 NAME: MUWAGA MUSA
NOR: 190220093001
INSTRUCTOR: DR.SRI RAHAYU ASTUTI, M.Si
SUBJECT: THEORIES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
TASK: ANALYSING LEADERSHIP THEORY IN A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE.
FUNCTIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY (HACKMAN

DEPARTEMEN PENDIDIKAN NASIONAL

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN PROGRAM PASCA SARJAN
FAKULTAS PSIKOLOG PROGRAM MAGISTER PSI
MARCH 06/O3/2010

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