C

HAPTER

OUR

Assessing Leadership and Measuring Its Effects

Conventional Wisdom About Leadership

People who are tall and athletic make better leaders. Smarter people make better leaders. Leaders who are stable and predictable are more effective.

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McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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Research Findings About Leadership

People who are tall and athletic do not necessarily make better leaders. In some situations, smarter leaders consistently performed less well than those who were less smart (Fiedler et al.) The most effective leaders use different bases of power to meet situational demands.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Competency Model
The set of skills, knowledge, abilities, or other attributes that are relevant to successful performance in a particular job.

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Multiple Hurdles Approach

Paper-and-pencil measures

Interviews

Assessment centers

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

The Relevance and Legality Of Unstructured Interview Questions

1. If you were any part of a car, what part would you be and why? 2. If you could go out to dinner with anyone, who would it be and why? 3. Do you plan on having any more children? 4. How do you feel about women in leadership positions?
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Measures Of Successful and Unsuccessful Leadership

Superiors effectiveness and performance ratings Subordinates ratings of satisfaction, organizational climate, morale, motivation, and leadership effectiveness Unit performance indices
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Drawbacks Of Using Superiors Ratings

Ratings may not be an accurate reflection of performance because supervisors:
May not take the time. May be unaware or unfamiliar with a leaders performance. May have difficulty dealing with conflict.

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Ratings can also be biased by friendships, perceptual sets, and attribution errors.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Drawbacks Of Using Subordinate Ratings

Subordinates may be relatively unmotivated toward work no matter what the leader does. Motivation and cohesiveness does not guarantee effective performance. Subordinates may rate the leader as effective because he or she does not make them work very hard and vise-versa.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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Variations of Leadership studies

Feature Research method Time frame Locus of leadership Causality Data sources Level of leader Common Surveys Static Heroic individual Unidirectional Single Supervisor Uncommon Experiments Longitudinal Explore new issues Shared/distributed Reciprocal Multiple Executive

Research objective Replication

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Source: G. Yukl, Reflections and Directions in Leadership Research

2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Critical Thinking Questions Practitioners Should Ask

1. Who is the sample? 2. What is the situation? 3. What leadership qualities, characteristics, or behaviors are being assessed? 4. How is leadership success being determined? 5. How do the writers link leadership assessment to success?
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.