OB10F03

Chapter 10
Leadership
Chapter 10, Stephen P. Robbins and Nancy Langton, Organizational Behaviour, Third Canadian Edition.
Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Leadership
Questions for Consideration
Questions for Consideration
• Why is leadership associated with both
supervision and vision?
• Can anyone be a leader?
• How important are followers in understanding
leadership?
Leadership
• The ability to influence a group toward
the achievement of goals.
Leadership as Supervision
• Three general questions
– Are there a particular set of traits that all
leaders have, making them different from
nonleaders?
– Are there particular behaviours that make
for better leaders?
– How much impact does the situation have on
leaders?
Trait Theories
• Trait: characteristics of the person
– Physical Characteristics
– Abilities
– Personality Traits
• Traits consistently associated with leadership
– Ambition and energy
– The desire to lead
– Honesty and integrity
– Self-confidence
– Intelligence
– Job-relevant knowledge
Emotional Intelligence and
Leadership
• EI is the best predictor of who will emerge as a
leader.
• IQ and technical skills are “threshold
capabilities.”
– They’re necessary but not sufficient requirements
for leadership.
• Leaders need: self-awareness, self-management,
self-motivation, empathy, and social skills to
become a star performer.
– These are the components of EI.
Behavioural Theories of
Leadership
• Propose that specific behaviours differentiate
leaders from nonleaders
– Initiating Structure
• (e.g., task-orientation, work-orientation,
production-orientation)
– Consideration
• (employee needs and concerns)
– Examples
• Ohio Studies, Michigan Studies, Managerial Grid
The Managerial Grid
High 9
1,9 9,9
Country club management Team management
8 Thoughtful attention to needs Work accomplishment is from
of people for satisfying relation- committed people who have a
ships leads to a comfortable, "common stake" in organization's
friendly organization atmos- purpose.This leads to relationships
7 phere and work tempo. of trust and respect.
6
Concern for people
5,5
4 Middle-of-the-road management
Adequate organization performance is
possible through balancing the necessity
to get out work with maintaining morale
3 of people at a satisfactory level.
1,1 9,1
Impoverished management Authority-obedience
Exertion of minimum effort Efficiency in operations results
2 to get required work done is from arranging conditions of
appropriate to sustain work in such a way that human
organization membership. elements interfere to a minimum
degree.
Low 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Low High
Concern for production
Contingency or Situational
Leadership Theories
• Stress the importance of considering the
context when examining leadership
– Fiedler Contingency Model
– Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory
– Path-Goal Theory
– Substitutes for Leadership
Fiedler Contingency Model
• Effective group performance depends upon the
proper match between the leader’s style and the
degree to which the situation gives control to
the leader
• Least preferred co-worker (LPC) questionnaire
determined whether individuals were primarily
interested in
– good personal relations with co-workers, and thus
relationship oriented
– productivity, and thus task oriented
Fiedler Contingency Model
• Fiedler’s contingency situations
– Leader member relations
• Degree of confidence, trust and respect
members have for leader
– Task structure
• Degree to which jobs are structured
– Position power
• Degree to which leader has control over
“power”: hiring, firing, discipline, promotions,
salary
• Fiedler assumed that an individual’s leadership
style is fixed.
Hersey and Blanchard’s
Situational Theory
• Follower: unable and unwilling
– Leader needs to give clear and specific directions (in
other words, be highly directive)
• Follower: unable but willing
– Leader needs to display high task orientation to
compensate for the follower’s lack of ability, and
high relationship orientation to get the follower to
“buy into” the leader's desires (in other words, “sell”
the task)
Hersey and Blanchard’s
Situational Theory
• Follower: able but unwilling
– Leader needs to use a supportive and
participative style
• Follower: both able and willing
– Leader doesn't need to do much (in other
words, a laissez-faire approach will work)
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
Path-Goal Theory
CONTINGENCY FACTORS
Environmental
• Task Structure
• Formal Authority System
• Work Group
Leader Behaviour Outcomes
• Directive • Performance
• Achievement-oriented • Satisfaction
• Participative
• Supportive
Subordinate
• Locus of control
• Experience
• Perceived ability
Can You Be a Better
Follower?
• All organizations have far more followers than
leaders, so ineffective followers may be more of
a handicap to an organization than ineffective
leaders.
• What qualities do effective followers have?
– They manage themselves well
– They are committed to a purpose outside themselves
– They build their competence and focus their efforts for
maximum impact
– They are courageous, honest, and credible
Characteristics of
Transactional Leaders
• Contingent Reward
– Contracts exchange of rewards for effort, promises
rewards for good performance, recognizes
accomplishments.
• Management by Exception (active)
– Watches and searches for deviations from rules and
standards, takes corrective action.
• Management by Exception (passive):
– Intervenes only if standards are not met.
• Laissez-Faire Leader:
– Abdicates responsibilities, avoids making decisions.
Characteristics of
Transformational Leaders
• Charisma
– Provides vision and sense of mission, instills pride, gains
respect and trust.
• Inspiration
– Communicates high expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts,
expresses important purposes in simple ways.
• Intellectual Stimulation
– Promotes intelligence, rationality, and careful problem-solving.
• Individualized Consideration
– Gives personal attention, treats each employee individually,
coaches, advises.
Personal Characteristics of
Charismatic Leaders
• Vision and articulation.
– Has a vision, expressed as an idealized goal, that
proposes a future better than the status quo; is able
to clarify the importance of the vision in terms that
are understandable to others.
• Personal risk.
– Willing to take on high personal risk, incur high
costs, and engage in self-sacrifice to achieve the
vision.
Personal Characteristics of
Charismatic Leaders
• Environmental sensitivity.
– Able to make realistic assessments of the
environmental constraints and resources needed to
bring about change.
• Sensitivity to follower needs.
– Perceptive of others’ abilities and responsive to their
needs and feelings.
• Unconventional behaviour.
– Engages in behaviours that are perceived as novel
and counter to norms.
Dispersed Leadership
• SuperLeadership
• Team leadership
• Leading through empowerment
– Putting employees in charge of what they do
SuperLeadership
• Leading others to lead themselves
– Develop leadership capacity in others
– Nurture employees so they feel less
dependent on formal leadership
• Emphasize delegation
• Empower employees
– Empowerment: giving employees
responsibility for what they do
Providing Team Leadership
• Leading teams requires new skills
– E.g., patience to share information, trust
others, give up authority, and knowing when
to intervene
• Leading teams requires new roles
• Liaisons with external constituencies
• Troubleshooters
• Conflict managers
• Coaches
Team Leaders
• Team leaders need to focus on two
priorities
– Managing the team’s external boundary
– Facilitating the team process.
• Four specific roles
• Liaisons with external constituencies.
• Troubleshooters
• Conflict managers
• Coaches
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
Contemporary Issues in
Leadership
• Is there a Moral Dimension to
Leadership?
• Gender: Do Males and Females Lead
Differently?
• Cross-Cultural Leadership
How Many Women
Make it to the Top?
• In 2000, only 2 women in National Post’s Top 150 CEOs
• 7.4 percent of all directors in top corporations are women
• Women start businesses at three to four times the rate of
men
• Women in general comprise:
– 46.2 percent of the labour force
– 12 percent of senior managers
– 32 percent of managers and administrators
– 57 percent of graduate degree holders
– 51 percent of Canadian population
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
Summary and Implications
• Leadership plays a central part in
understanding group behaviour
• The study of leadership has expanded to include
more heroic and visionary approaches to
leadership
• Male and female leadership styles tend to be
more alike than different, although there are
differences
• Leadership is not value free
Summary and Implications
• Effective team leaders perform four roles:
– They act as liaisons
– They are troubleshooters
– They manage conflict
– They coach team members
• Empowered leadership is not the preferred
leadership style of all occasions
• National culture is an important variable in
choosing a leadership style

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