Leadership

MAN201: Organizational Behaviour Class 2

 What is Leadership?

❖ “The ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set

of goals.” (Textbook, p. 368)
❖ Leadership is essentially the transformation of a strong overall knowledge
of organizational behaviour into a vision and subsequent action.
 Trait Theories of Leadership

❖ Differentiate leaders from non-leaders in terms of observable personal

characteristics and inherent qualities.
❖ The Big-5 Personality Traits (introversion-extroversion;
conscientiousness; neuroticism-emotional stability; agreeableness;
and openness to experience) remains the strongest trait-based
framework for predicting leadership.
❖ The Myers-Briggs (MBTI) approach is now completely discredited.
❖ Emotional Intelligence (EI) is incredibly important (next class).
❖ Traits are a far bigger predictor of leadership emergence than
leadership effectiveness.
 Behavioural Theories of Leadership

❖ Differentiate leaders from non-leaders in terms of trainable

qualities that can be developed over time.
❖ Initiating structure: the task- and performance-oriented
aspects of leadership behaviours (“task-oriented” leadership).
❖ Consideration: the human- and interpersonal-oriented aspects
of leadership behaviours (“human-oriented leadership”).
❖ Different business cultures often place a greater emphasis on
either initiating structure or consideration behaviours, but
modern leadership requires a balance of task- and
human-oriented leadership.
 Contingency Theories of Leadership

❖ The Fiedler Model: Aligning leadership style with the degree of control a
leader has in a particular situation in order to maximize performance.
❖ Situational Leadership Theory: Aligning leadership style with the
degree of readiness and willingness among their particular followers.
❖ Path-Goal Theory: Aligning the information, support, and other resources
required for followers to achieve their goals, based on aspects of both
initiating structure and consideration of the followers’ psychologies.
❖ Leader-Participation Model: The way a leader makes a decision must
be aligned with what they actually decide.
❖ All contingency theories of leadership tacitly assume a consistency and
constancy among followers, but humans are more complex than that.
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
▪ Leaders establish a special relationship with a small group of their
followers (the “in-group”)
▪ Disparities between the in-group and out-group are not random, and
are based on distinct personal characteristics.
▪ Followers with in-group status have:
▪ Higher performance ratings
▪ Greater commitment to the organisation
▪ Lower turnover intentions
▪ Greater satisfaction with their superiors
▪ Higher overall satisfaction than those in the out-group

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 Charismatic Leadership
▪ Leaders who followers see heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities
in when they observe certain behaviours.
▪ Have a vision, are willing to take personal risks, are sensitive to the
needs of followers, and show unconventional behaviours.
▪ Charismatic leadership is usually a combination of traits (“leaders are
born”) and behaviours (“leaders are made”).
▪ Depends on the situation: charismatic leadership is effective in a
crisis, in politics, or in a new company.
▪ Charismatic leadership has a dark side:
▪ Gullible people or people with low self-esteem can be led astray.
▪ Charismatic leaders may not always act in the best interests of the organisation.

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 Transformational Leadership
▪ Inspire followers to transcend their own interests for the sake of the
organisation and achieving collective goals.
▪ Change followers’ awareness of issues by helping them look at old
problems in new ways (“transformation”).
▪ Are creative, and encourage followers to be creative.
▪ Vision even more important than charismatic leadership:
▪ Promotes agreement in the organisation about ambitious goals.
▪ Not effective in all situations (e.g. complex bureaucracies)
▪ Compare with transactional leaders - establishes goals by clarifying
role and task requirements.

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 Authentic Leadership
▪ Being ethical
▪ Treating employees with fairness
▪ Encouraging and rewarding integrity in others
▪ Sets a good moral example for others to follow
▪ Practicing servant leadership
▪ Not self-interested; selfless and altruistic, and wants to serve others
▪ Focuses on opportunities to help employees grow and develop
▪ Based on listening, empathizing, and persuading (interpersonal skills)
▪ Creating trust
▪ Integrity: consistency between what you say and what you do.
▪ Benevolence: focused on other’s interests, even when not aligned with own interests
▪ Ability: Does the person know what he or she is talking about?

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 The Leadership Style Repertoire
Leadership Style How it Builds Impact on Climate When is it appropriate?
Resonance

Visionary Moves people toward Mostly strongly positive When changes require a
shared dreams new vision, or when clear
direction is needed.
Coaching Connects what a person Highly positive To help an employee
wants with the improve performance by
organization’s goals building long-term
capabilities.
Affiliative Creates harmony by Positive To heal rifts in a team;
connecting people to each motivate during stressful
other times or strengthen
connections.
Democratic Values people’s input and Positive To build buy-in or
gets commitment through consensus, or to get
participation valuable input from
employees.
 Prosocial: The Core Design Principles
Core Design Principle
#1 Shared identity and purpose
#2 Equitable distribution of contributions
and benefits
#3 Fair and inclusive decision making
#4 Monitoring agreed behaviours
#5 Graduated responding to helpful and
unhelpful behaviours
#6 Fast and fair conflict resolution
#7 Authority to self-govern
#8 Collaborative relations with other
groups
Summary
Shared purpose allows the group to
collaborate and perform.
Group efforts and benefits need to be
distributed fairly.
Group members need to be involved in
decisions that affect them.
Groups must have a way of ensuring
certain behaviours are performed.
Groups need appropriate responses
when behaviours are not performed.
Conflicts are inevitable, and effective
resolutions must be anticipated.
Groups must have the autonomy to do
things their own way.
Groups must cooperate effectively with
other groups.
Implication For Leadership
Leaders are responsible for steering the
group toward shared purpose.
Leaders are responsible for ensuring this
fair distribution.
Leaders are responsible for ensuring fair
participation in decision making.
Leaders can’t spend all their time
monitoring; groups must self-monitor.
Leaders can’t unilaterally determine
rewards and punishments.
Leaders must help create the conditions
for “healthy” conflicts.
Leaders must represent the interests of
their group among other groups.
Leaders must follow Principles 1-7 when
establishing inter-group relations.