Social Psychology

Social Psychology definition

The branch of psychology that studies how people

think, feel, and behave in social situations
Two Main Areas of Study

• Social Cognition--making sense of the social

environment
• Social influence--how behavior is affected
by situation and other people
Social Cognition

The mental processes that people use to

make sense out of their social environment
– Person perception
– Social categorization
– Implicit personality theory
– Attribution
– Attitudes
– Stereotypes
Person Perception
• Your reactions are determined by your
perceptions of others
• Your goals determine the amount and kind
of information you collect
• You evaluate people partly in terms of how
you expect them to behave (social norms)
• Your self-perception influences how you
perceive others
Social Categorization

Process of categorizing people into groups

based on shared characteristics
Social Categorization

• Take 2 minutes to write a brief personality sketch of

Democrats and Republicans.

Do your descriptions differ? Why?

Implicit Personality Theory

Personal beliefs
about the
relationships
among other’s
physical
characteristics,
personality traits,
and specific
behaviors
Physical Attractiveness

• Implicit cultural message is “beautiful is good”

• Attractive people are perceived as more intelligent,
happier, and better adjusted
• Really no difference between attractive and less
attractive people having these characteristics
• Attractive people are more likely to attribute other
people’s approval of their accomplishments to looks
rather than effort or talent.
Attribution

• Process of inferring the causes of people’s

behavior, including one’s own.

• The explanation given for a particular behavior.

Attribution Bias

• Fundamental attribution error – behavior explained by

personality
• Actor-observer discrepancy – the role we play
determines if the cause is perceived as external or internal
• Blaming the victim – when we can’t help, we blame
• Self-serving bias – success is skill, failure is
circumstance
• Self-effacing bias – success is circumstance, failure is
flaw
Attribution Bias

• basking-in-reflected-glory (BIRG): increasing our self-

esteem by associating with others who are successful
• cut-off-reflected-failure (CORF): maintaining our self-
esteem by cutting off or denying our association with
others who have failed
 Using Attitudes as Ways
to “Justify” Injustice
• Just-world bias
– a tendency to believe that life is fair, e.g., it would
seem horrible to think that you can be a really good person and
bad things could happen to you anyway

• Just-world bias leads to “blaming the victim”

– we explain others’ misfortunes as being their fault:
– e.g., she deserved to be raped, what was she doing
in that neighborhood anyway?
Cross-Cultural Differences

• Western culture
– individualistic 0.70
– people are in charge United States

Attributions to internal
0.60
of own destinies
– more attributions to

disposition
0.50
personality 0.40
• Some Eastern cultures 0.30
– collectivist India
0.20
– fate in charge of destiny
– more attributions to 0
8 11 15 Adult
situation Age (years)
Attitudes
What is an attitude?
– predisposition to evaluate some people, groups, or
issues in a particular way
– can be negative or positive
– has three components
• Cognitive—thoughts about given topic or situation
• Affective—feelings or emotions about topic
• Behavioral—your actions regarding the topic or situation
Cognitive Dissonance

• Unpleasant state of psychological tension or

arousal that occurs when two thoughts or
perceptions are inconsistent
• Attitudes and behaviors are in conflict
– it is uncomfortable for us
– we seek ways to decrease discomfort caused by the
inconsistency
Dissonance-Reducing Mechanisms

• Avoiding dissonant information

– we attend to information in support of our
existing views, rather than information that
doesn’t support them
• Firming up an attitude to be consistent
with an action
– once we’ve made a choice to do something,
lingering doubts about our actions would cause
dissonance, so we are motivated to set them aside
Prejudice
•A negative attitude toward
people who belong to a specific
social group

•Usually built on stereotypes

Stereotypes

What is a stereotype?

– A cluster of characteristics associated with all

members of a specific group of people

– a belief held by members of one group about

members of another group
Social Categories

• In-group—the social group to which we

belong an/or model
– In-group bias—tendency to make favorable
attributions for members of our in-group
– Ethnocentrism is one type of in-group bias
• Out-group—the social group to which you
do not belong and/or have competition with
– Out group homogeneity effect—tendency to
see members of the out-group as more similar
to each other
Social Identity and Cooperation
Social identity theory
– states that when you’re assigned to a group, you
automatically think of that group as an in-group for you
– Sherif’s Robbers Cave study
• 11–12 year-old boys at camp
• boys were divided into 2 groups and kept separate
from one another
• each group took on characteristics of distinct social
group, with leaders, rules, norms of behavior, and
names
Robbers Cave (Sherif)

• Leaders proposed series of competitive

interactions which led to 3 changes between
groups and within groups
– within-group solidarity
– negative stereotyping of other group
– hostile between-group interactions
 Robbers Cave

Overcoming the strong we/they effect

establishment of common goals--groups had
to cooperate to solve a common problem
• e.g., breakdown in camp water supply
Social Influence

How behavior is influenced by the social

environment and the presence of other people
• Conformity
• Obedience
• Helping behaviors
Conformity
• Adopting attitudes or behaviors of others
because of pressure to do so; the pressure
can be real or imagined
• 2 general reasons for conformity
– Informational social influence—other people can
provide useful and crucial information
– Normative social influence—desire to be accepted
as part of a group leads to that group having an
influence
Asch’s Experiments
on Conformity

Previous research had shown people will conform

to others’ judgments more often when the
evidence is ambiguous
Asch’s Experiments
on Conformity
• All but 1 in group was
confederate
• Seating was rigged
• Asked to rate which
line matched a
“standard” line
• Confederates were
instructed to pick the
1 2 3
wrong line 12/18
Standard lines Comparison lines
times
Asch’s Experiments
on Conformity
• Results
– Asch found that 75% participants conformed to at least one
wrong choice
– subjects gave wrong answer (conformed) on 37% of the
critical trials
• Why did they conform to clearly wrong
choices?
– informational influence?
– subjects reported having doubted their own perceptual
abilities which led to their conformance – didn’t report seeing
the lines the way the confederates had
Obedience

• Obedience
– compliance of person is
due to perceived authority
of asker
– request is perceived as a
command
• Milgram interested in
unquestioning
obedience to orders
Stanley Milgram’s Studies

Basic study procedure

– teacher and learner
(learner always
confederate)
– watch learner being
strapped into chair
– learner expresses concern
over his “heart condition”
Stanley Milgram’s Studies

• Teacher goes to another room with

experimenter
• Shock generator panel – 15 to 450 volts,
labels “slight shock” to “XXX”
• Asked to give higher shocks for every
mistake learner makes
Stanley Milgram’s Studies

• Learner protests 120 “Ugh! Hey this really hurts.”

more and more as 150 “Ugh! Experimenter! That’s all.
shock increases Get me out of here. I told you
I had heart trouble. My heart’s
• Experimenter starting to bother me now.”

continues to request 300 (agonized scream) “I absolutely

obedience even if refuse to answer any more.
Get me out of here. You can’t hold
teacher balks me here. Get me out.”

330 (intense & prolonged agonized

scream) “Let me out of here.
Let me out of here. My heart’s
bothering me. Let me out,
I tell you…”
Obedience

• How many people would go to the

highest shock level?
• 65% of the subjects went to the
end, even those that protested
Obedience
Explanations for
Milgram’s Results
• Abnormal group of subjects?
– numerous replications with variety of groups
shows no support
• People in general are sadistic?
– videotapes of Milgram’s subjects show
extreme distress
Explanations for
Milgram’s Results
• Obedience framework--subjects volunteered
and accepted payment
• Context--prestige and “advancement of
science”
• Experimenter self-assurance and acceptance
of responsibility
• Separation of learner and experimenter
• New situation and no model of how to behave
Follow-Up Studies to Milgram

• Original study
• Different building
• Teacher with learner
• Put hand on shock
• Orders by phone
• Ordinary man orders
• 2 teachers rebel
• Teacher chooses
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
shock level
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Critiques of Milgram

• Although 84% later said they were glad to

have participated and fewer than 2% said
they were sorry, there
are still ethical issues
• Do these experiments really help us
understand real-world atrocities?
Why Don’t People Always
Help Others in Need?
• Latané studies
– several scenarios designed to measure the
help response found that
• if you think you’re the only one that can hear
or help, you are more likely to do so
• if there are others around, you will diffuse the
responsibility onto others
Kitty Genovese incident

• 3:20 → [marker 2] “Oh, my God, he stabbed

me! Please help me!” Windows opened in the
apartment building and a man’s voice
shouted, “Let that girl alone.” Assailant left.
• A few minutes later →Assailant returns and
stabs again. “I’m dying! I’m dying!” And again
the lights came on and windows opened. The
assailant again left and got into his car and
drove away.
• 3:35 a.m. →The attacker returned once
again. He found her in a doorway at the foot
of the stairs [marker (1) in illustration] and he
stabbed her a third time--this time with a fatal
consequence.
• 3:50 → police received the first call.

• Caller → “I didn’t want to get involved.”

• 37 other witnesses to the stalking and

stabbing
 Why Don’t People Always
Help Others in Need?
• Diffusion of responsibility
– presence of others leads to decreased
help response
– we all think someone else will help,
so we don’t
• Bystander effect--the greater the number of people
present, the less likely each person is to help
Factors that Increase Likelihood of
Helping

• Feel good do good effect

• Feeling guilty
• Seeing others willing to help
• Perceiving person as deserving of help
• Knowing how to help
• Personalized relationship with person
Factors that Decrease Likelihood of
Helping

• Presence of other people

• Being in a big city or small town
• Vague or ambiguous situation
• When personal costs or helping outweigh
the benefits
• Prosocial behavior--any behavior that helps
another person regardless of underlying
motive
• Altruistic behavior--helping another person
without expectation of personal reward or
benefit
Persuasion

Foot-in-the-door technique
– ask for something small at first, then hit customer
with larger request later
– small request has paved the way to compliance
with the larger request
– cognitive dissonance results if person has already
granted a request for one thing, then refuses to
give the larger item
The Reciprocity Norm
and Compliance
We feel obliged to return favors, even
those we did not want in the first place
– opposite of foot-in-the-door
– salesperson gives something to customer with idea
that customer will feel compelled to give something
back (buying the product)
– even if person did not wish for favor in the first
place
Defense against Persuasion
Techniques

• Sleep on it—don’t act on something right away

• Play devil’s advocate—think of all the reasons you
shouldn’t buy the product or comply with the
request
• Pay attention to your gut feelings—if you feel
pressured, you probably are being pressured
Social Cognition
social cognition

• The manner in which we interpret, analyze, remember, and use

information about the social world.
Eg:
• Think of a house.

• You probably get an immediate mental image of something out of a

kid's storybook: four windows, front door, suburban setting, chimney.
heuristics

Simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing inferences

in a rapid manner and seemingly effortless manner.
• The more an individual seems to resemble or match a given group,
the more likely she or he is to belong to that group.
• EG: thinking that because someone is wearing a suit and tie and
carrying a briefcase, that they must be a lawyer, because they look
like the stereotype of a lawyer
Anchoring
• individuals or entities make judgments based on the very first set of
information they get called “anchor”. Since the decision is usually
made in a hurry, it may be inaccurate. The impulsive decision-makers
forget or ignore other factors, making not-so-good choices.

• For example, an instant message about winning the latest automobile

in exchange for a particular sum of money seems intriguing
anchoring and adjustment heuristic

A heuristic that involves the tendency to use a number of value as a

starting point to which we then make adjustments.
Sources of error in cognition
Negativity bias:

The tendency of Human beings to pay more attention to negative

information than positive information is called as negativity bias.
• example: Niranjan is bright, helpful, social, jealous, and friendly
person. Here even though Niranjan has so many positive qualities we
focus on jealous that is the negative quality. Such a tendency has a
strong evolutionary relevance.
Negative information reflects potentially dangerous aspects of the
situation which may cause threat to the survival of the individual.
Optimistic bias:
• It refers to the tendency to expect the overall outcomes as positive.
Generally, most people believe that they are more likely to experience
positive events than others.
• Two examples of this are overconfidence barrier and planning fallacy.
• a) Overconfidence barrier refers to tendency to be more confident
about the accuracy of our judgments than sensible. We believe that
we are more likely to be successful in studies, relations, marriage,
jobs, and live longer life than what seems reasonable.

• b) Planning fallacy is a tendency to make optimistic bias regarding the

time estimations for a given task. We tend to believe that we will
finish a task much earlier than what it would actually take.
Counterfactual thinking:
• It is tendency to imagine other outcomes in the situation than the
ones that have occurred, like thinking the past never happened.
• Counterfactual thinking is a very strong bias in thinking and can be
beneficial or costly for the user depending on how it is used.
• Suppose you have missed a top position in your class by one point.
You think that ‘you could have done better’ or ‘least you retained
second position in class’
Thought suppression
• Human beings can manage to keep some thought out of their
consciousness. This is called as thought suppression.
• If certain thoughts are disturbing, we can stay mentally healthy by
keeping them out of mind. Thought suppression can be achieved in
two stages:
a) Monitoring Process: This is an automatic monitoring process, which
identifies an unwanted interrupting thought.

b) b) Operating Process: This is an effortful, controlled process to find

other important thoughts to distract from the disturbing thought.
Magical thinking:
• Magical thinking involves assumptions that do not hold under rational
scrutiny, but still individuals believe in them. One of the examples of it
is, if two things resemble in external appearance, then they share
similar fundamental properties.
• The plastic or rubber model of snakes or lizard can create panic
among the people. Or, suppose your friend offers you chocolates that
have shape of insect, or cockroach. Will you eat that chocolate? Most
probably no. if you think rationally, the shape of the chocolate does
not decide the contents. But still you will not, this is because of
magical thinking.
Impression formations and Impression
management
• An impression is an idea about a person’s emotions, motivations
(drives) and personality gained from the situation they are in and
their behavior.

• You gain impressions of others from their non-verbal & verbal

communication
• Impression Formation: The process through which we form
impressions of others.

• Impression Management (self-presentation):Efforts by individuals to

produce favorable first impressions on others
Non-Verbal Communication
• 1. Physical characteristics – age, height, weight etc. that relate to
stereotypes.
• 2. Eye Contact – staring is regarded as a hostile act while not making
eye contact can be considered untrustworthy or submissive.
• 3. Facial expression – the facial expression for surprise, fear, sadness,
happiness, anger and disgust are the same across all cultures.
• 4. Posture- the way someone walks, movement. Posture can be open
vs. closed posture.
• 5. Gestures – friendly or unfriendly
• 6. Closeness (proximity
Verbal Communication
• Affects impressions when you can speak to someone
1. Semantics = meaning of words = what is said
2. Expressive level = how it is said
3. Paralanguage = emphasis in speech, tone, pitch
Principles of Impression Formation
• Your opinions of others are drawn from limited information.
• Impressions are partly based on stereotypes held by the person
forming the impression.
• First impressions are formed in the first 15 seconds of an interaction
and are based on appearance. First impressions form a base line for
later impressions & judgements.
• Impressions are made of judgements made on at least 3
different levels: physical, socio-cultural, psychological.
• First impressions are very important – Primacy Effect: When it
comes to forming impressions, the first traits we perceive in others
influence how we view information that we learn about them
later. Information presented first usually has the most
influence.
Application
• A new player in the team does extremely well at the training
camp and greatly impresses the coach with his skill and his work
ethic. Then his performance drops off.
• To maintain this initial impression the coach attributes this poor
performance to fatigue, bad luck etc.
• How might the coach have explained the drop in performance if his
initial impression had not been good?
• We tend to see what we expect to see.
Scenario:
• Imagine that you are going to meet a new group of people at a party and
you are going with a friend. Your friend tells you that Sana is a distant, cold
and detached person. You try to make conversation, but Sana avoids your
eye contact and doesn’t say much, let alone show an interest in you.
• What is your impression of Sana?
• What if Sana had been described as a nice person, but extremely shy?
• When you try to make conversation Sana avoids your eye contact and
doesn’t say much.
• What is your impression of Sana in this situation?
• Your impressions of Sana confirm your expectations
• You see what you expect to see
Impression Management
• ‘A process by which people manage the setting (stage), their
dress(costumes), and their words and/or their gestures (script) to
correspond to the impression they are trying to make’.
• The behaviors that you perform to control the impression that others
form of you.
• The behaviors may be conscious or unconscious.
• Impression management continues over course of a relationship
Managing Appearances
• People often try to plan and control their appearance. The
term‘ appearance’ refers to everything about a person that others can
observe.
• This includes clothes, grooming, overt habits such as smoking or
chewing gum, choice and arrangement of personal possessions,
verbal communication (accents, vocabulary), and nonverbal
communication.
Self-Presentation
• The processes by which individuals attempt to control the impressions that
others form of them in social interaction. It refers to our wanting to present
a desired image both to an external audience (other people) and to an
internal audience (ourselves).
• We differentiate between authentic, ideal, and tactical self-presentations.
• Authentic (real) is creating an image consistent with our self-view. For
example, what actually you are, your honesty, humbleness, kindness etc.
• Ideal is our most appropriate public image our ideal self. For example,
what you wish you were really like, to be a motivational speaker, an artist
etc.
• Tactical is a public image consistent with what others expect of us. For
example, to create a positive image in front of teacher, boss etc
Tactical Impression Management:
• The use of conscious, goal-directed activity of controlling information
to influence impressions.
• The expression of emotions may be appropriate or
inappropriate.
• For example:Imagine a surgeon expressing fear before operating on
your child
Techniques of Impression Management:
1. Ingratiation: is a psychological technique in which an individual
attempts to influence, manipulate or control another by becoming
more attractive or likeable to their target.

• The goal of ingratiation is to get the other person to like you. Since we
tend to like people who agree with us, say nice things about us, do
favors for us, and possess positive interpersonal qualities (e.g.,
warmth and kindness
• It can be accomplished through imitation, flattery, doing favors for
someone, and displaying positive personal characteristics.

• Ingratiation may backfire if it is too blatant. If your audience knows

you are trying to manipulate them, they may come to distrust or
dislike you. People want to believe they are likable and are liked by
others.
2. Self-promotion:
is another common self-presentational strategy. Here we seek to
convince people of our competence.

This is not the same as ingratiation. With ingratiation, we are trying to

get people to like us. With self-promotion, we are trying to get people
to think we are capable, intelligent, or talented.

In academia, for example, job offers are extended to applicants who are
perceived as highly competent and pleasant to be around
3. Intimidation:

Sometimes people want to be feared. Intimidation occurs when

individuals project their power or ability to punish to be viewed as
dangerous and powerful.

For example: An employer, might want to be viewed as tough,

powerful, or ruthless. These views might serve to increase her workers’
productivity and soften their demands for salary increases and other
benefits.
4. Exemplification: With exemplification, people attempt to create the
impression that they are morally superior, virtuous, or righteous.
• Exemplification is often portrayed by exaggerating the degree to
which one has suffered poor treatment at the hands of others or has
endured excessive hardships.
• It refers to people who manage the impressions of self-sacrifice and
going beyond the call of duty in order to gain the attributes of moral
worthiness and dedication.
• For example: Parents, can use exemplification to influence their
children by praising their own virtuous behavior
• Celebrities
5. Supplication: which refers to tactics aimed at creating a needy or
pitiful image by means of demonstrating weakness and incompetence.

Supplication occurs when people publicly exaggerate their weaknesses

and deficiencies.
The more general point is that people often exaggerate their
weaknesses to get them what they want.

The purpose of appearing helpless is to advertise their dependence on

others to get help or sympathy.
LEADERSHIP
What Are the Qualities of a Good Leader?

• 1. Honesty and Integrity: Leaders value virtuousness and honesty. They have
people who believe in them and their vision.
• 2. Inspiration: Leaders are self-motivating, and this makes them great
influencers. They are a good inspiration to their followers. They help others to
understand their roles in a bigger context.
• 3. Communication skills: Leaders possess great communication skills. They are
transparent with their team and share failures and successes with them.
• 4. Vision: Leaders are visionaries. They have a clear idea of what they want and
how to achieve it. Being good communicators, leaders can share their vision with
the team successfully.
• 5. Never give-up spirit: Leaders challenge the status quo. Hence, they never give
up easily. They also have unique ways to solve a problem.
• 6. Intuitive: intuition heavily relies on a person’s existing knowledge and life
learnings, which proves to be more useful in complex situations.
• 7. Empathy: A leader should be an emotional and empathetic fellow because it will help them in
developing a strong bond with their team. Furthermore, these qualities will help a leader in
addressing the problems, complaints, and aspirations of his team members.
• 8. Objective: Although empathy is an important quality a leader must imbibe, getting clouded by
emotions while making an important business decision is not advisable. Hence, a good leader
should be objective.
• 9. Intelligence: A good leader must be intelligent enough to arrive at business solutions to
difficult problems. Furthermore, a leader should be analytical and should weigh the pros and cons
before making a decision. This quality can be polished with an all-inclusive leadership training
program.
• 10. Open-mindedness and creativity: A good leader is someone who is open to new ideas,
possibilities, and perspectives. Being a good leader means understanding that there is no right
way to do things. Therefore, a good leader is always ready to listen, observe, and be willing to
change. They are also out-of-the-box thinkers and encourage their teams to do so. If you enrol for
a leadership course, all these things will be a part of the curriculum.
• 11. Patient: A good leader understands that a business strategy takes time to develop and bear
results. Additionally, they also believe that ‘continuous improvement and patient’ leads to
success.
• 12. Flexible: Since leaders understand the concept of ‘continuous improvement, they also know
that being adaptable will lead them to success. Nothing goes as per plan. Hence, being flexible
and intuitive helps a manager to hold his ground during complex situations.
Gender and Leadership Approach Description
• Current research primary questions ?
• Do men and women lead differently?
• Are men more effective leaders than women?
• Why are women underrepresented in elite leadership roles?
• Women -Currently outnumber men in higher education - 57% of
bachelor’s degrees, 60% of master’s degrees, more than 50% of
doctorates, nearly half of professional degrees
• Make up nearly half of the US labor force - 46.8%
• Still are underrepresented in upper echelons of America’s
corporations & political system
• Historically, men have held most leadership
positions
• In a business setting, men usually are depicted
as
➢Higher participation
➢More responsibility
➢Higher confidence in verbal and non verbal
communication
➢Creates stereotypes and gender roles
➢Men hold mechanical roles
➢Women hold domestic roles
➢Women in leadership
➢Expected to run household
Male Leadership
• Men follow the Traditional Leadership Model, also known as the
Masculine Leadership Model
• Position Power Spender
• Command-and-Control
• Task-Oriented
• Autocratic
• Punishment-Oriented
Advantages of Male Leadership Styles

• Higher work efficiency

• Faster problem resolution
• Favorable in a team sport or military environment
Disadvantages of Male Leadership
• Tends to be less motivational
• Higher absenteeism and turnover
• Unethical practices can occur which can be
detrimental to an organization
Female Leadership

Females follow the Modern Leadership Model, also known as the Feminine
Leadership Model
• Personal power spender
• Democratic
• Team Player
• Transformational
• Reward-Oriented
Advantages of Female Leadership

• Higher group cohesiveness

• Creation of a cooperative atmosphere
• More ideas through encouraged participation
• High empowerment for employees
• Motivation leads to lower turnover and absenteeism

Disadvantages of Female Leadership

• Tends to be less efficient
• Valuable time can be lost during group discussions and feedback
• Not all people are receptive to the female style
• Stereotyping and generalizations
Organizational Practices to Address Gender
Differences
• In order to have an effective work environment, differences between
male and female leaders must be understood and addressed
• Hire managers that are open minded and willing to reverse
stereotypes
• Create a mentor system
• Pair men and woman together as co-leaders to get the benefits of
both styles
• Use male leaders in situations that will benefit from their style, and
use female leaders in situations that are better suited for their
leadership approach
• 1. Communication Styles
• Women tend to have a more cooperative, participatory style of
leading. Men tend to have a more “command and control style,”
according to the American Psychological Association.
• They’re more task-oriented and directive, while women are more
democratic. That’s often the starkest leadership difference between
male and female bosses: Men provide direction for their employees,
while women encourage employees to find their own direction.
• The cooperative style involves more conversation and listening, which
often takes more time but leads employees to feel more valued. Both
styles are valuable in different contexts. Being highly task-oriented
can be highly beneficial where safety is concerned, for example.
Reward Systems

• Women often motivate their employees by helping them find self-

worth and satisfaction in their work, which serves as its own reward.
Barriers to Women’s Leadership

Old Stereotypes
Because men have been leaders for so long, the traits associated with leadership are often thought
of as masculine and not viewed as favorably when exhibited by women.
Fewer “connections”
Men still surpass women in having the networks to learn about opportunities and find mentors and
sponsors to champion their advancement.
Bias and Discrimination
Sexual harassment, hostile work environments and subtle biases are still obstacles. Women of color
face even further obstacles to their advancement and, as a result, are even less likely to move into
leadership roles.
Lack of Flexibility
Balancing work and family can be a challenge that limits women from seeking leadership roles.
Workplaces are still designed a decades-old notion of male and female domestic roles.
Transformational leadership
• is defined as a leadership approach that causes change in individuals
and social systems. In its ideal form, it creates valuable and positive
change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into
leaders.
• Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire
positive changes in those who follow. Transformational leaders are
generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these
leaders concerned and involved in the process, but they are also
focused on helping every member of the group succeed.
• Transformational leaders focus on helping members of the group
support one another and provide them with the support, guidance,
and inspiration they need to work hard, perform well, and stay loyal
to the group. The primary goals of transformational leadership are to
inspire growth, promote loyalty, and instill confidence in group
members.
Components of Transformational Leadership

• Intellectual stimulation: Transformational leaders not only challenge

the status quo; they also encourage creativity among followers. The
leader encourages followers to explore new ways of doing things and
new opportunities to learn.
• Individualized consideration: Transformational leadership also
involves supporting and encouraging individual followers. To foster
supportive relationships, transformational leaders keep lines of
communication open so that followers feel free to share ideas and so
that leaders can offer immediate recognition of the unique
contributions of each follower.
• Inspirational motivation: Transformational leaders have a clear vision
that they can articulate to followers. These leaders can also help
followers experience the same passion and motivation to fulfill these
goals.
• Idealized influence: The transformational leader serves as a role
model for followers. Because followers trust and respect the leader,
they emulate this individual and internalize their ideals.
Transformational Leadership Traits

• Able to encourage others to communicate and participate

• Active listening skills
• Adaptability
• Authenticity and genuineness
• Creativity
• Emotionally intelligent
• Inspirational
• Open-mindedness
• Proactive problem-solvers
• Self-awareness
• Supportive
• Willingness to take responsibility
• Willingness to take well-informed risks
Examples of Transformational Leadership

• Barack Obama: The former U.S. President was known for his
transformational approach to running his administration, as well as
his unifying, motivating, and hopeful communication style.
• Nelson Mandela: The former President of South Africa was famous
for serving as a source of authentic inspiration.
• Oprah Winfrey: The media mogul is famous for her charismatic,
visionary, and inspirational leadership style.
• Steve Jobs: Jobs was famous for his visionary leadership that
transformed Apple into a leader in the technology industry.
Leadership Effectiveness

• 1. Personality
• Successful leaders have a pleasing personality. Personality is the sum
of physical, mental, and social qualities. Personality is the only
characteristic of a good leader to influence the subordinates.
• 2. Human Skills
• The human skills refer to interpersonal skills. The leader must
understand the feelings, emotions, and expectations of the
subordinates. Such knowledge would enable the leader to develop
interpersonal relationships with the subordinates, which are vital in
any organization.
• 3. Communication Skills
• Effective leaders are good communicators. Effective communication in
three critical areas is the key to win trust and confidence of the
subordinates:
• Enabling employees to understand the company’s overall business
strategy.
• Informing the employees and sharing information with them.
• 4. Administrative Skills
• Leadership should be administered as required to undertake
management functions such as planning, organizing, directing and
controlling.
• 5. Decision Making
• Leadership Effectiveness helps leaders in effective decision making.
There is a need to identify the problems. Accordingly, alternation
solutions must be listed. After analyzing the cost-benefit of every
alternative solution, the leaders need to select the best solution to
solve the problem.
• 6. Conceptual
• Leadership should be conceptual as it helps to visualize and analyze
problems or situations. A top-level leader considers a long term
perspective. They need to handle difficult or complex situations.
• 7. Innovations
• Leadership should bring in innovation in an organization. Innovation
should be creative. Therefore the leader should have the imagination
to develop new ideas or new was to handle the activities or
situations. A good subordinate expects the leader to be innovative.
• 8. Initiative
• The quality of leadership should be initiated, as the leader should be
initiated. Effective leadership can take place only when the leader is
at the position to do the right things at the right time without being
reminded.
• The decision should be taken without causing delay and
inconvenience to others. Therefore, the leader should initiate the
subordinates as well.
• 9. Intelligence
• An intelligent leader is efficient enough to make decisions and to deal
with people. There is a need to have intellectual intelligence and
emotional intelligence. This would enable ineffective leadership of
taking the right decisions not only in the interest of the organization
but also in the interest of employees.
• 10. Ethics and Values
• Leadership effectiveness also involves ethics and values. There
shouldn’t be any kind of cheating or manipulation. It is important to
have honesty, integrity, compassion, and courage among the leaders.
• 11. Respect and Trust
• People are naturally drawn to leaders whom they trust and respect.
Fear and control based leadership could get some followers in the
short-term, but such coercive leaders will not earn the loyalty of
subordinates. To build a loyal team, a leader must be trustworthy.
• 12. Delegation
• One cannot do everything. The leader needs to delegate tasks
effectively. The leader needs to know each member’s strengths and
weaknesses and delegate responsibilities accordingly. This would
make the team members feel appreciated and recognized.
• 13. Appreciation
• A leader should value each team member and makes each member
feel valued. Each member of the team feels their role is important
and appreciated. Praise in public and criticize in private.
• 14. Handling Success and Failures
• It is very important that a great leader should know how to handle
each success and failure. Celebrate the successes. At the same time,
the leader should learn from the failures. Remember- whenever there
is a success; attribute it to the entire team. When the team faces a
failure, accept responsibility for the failure.