CHAPTER 1

Introduction: The Nature of Leadership

1-1
© 2006 Prentice Hall Leadership in Organizations
 Learning Objectives
 Understand why leadership has been defined in so
many different ways
 Understand the controversy about differences
between leadership and management
 Understand how leadership will be defined in this
book
 Understand why it is so difficult to assess
leadership effectiveness

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 Learning Objectives
 Understand the different indicators used to assess
leadership effectiveness
 Understand what aspects of leadership have been
studied the most during the past 50 years
 Understand how leadership can be described as
an individual, dyadic, group, or organizational
process
 Understand the organization of this book

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 Aristotle once said, “If you would
understand anything, observe its
beginning and its development.”

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 Defining Leadership

“There are almost as many definitions of

Leadership as there are persons who have
attempted to define the concept.” (Stogdill,
1974)

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 Definitions of Leadership

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 Additional Controversy
 Specialized role or shared influence process
 Type of influence process
 Purpose of influence attempts
 Influence based on reason or emotions
 Leadership versus management
 Direct versus Indirect Leadership
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 Specialized Role or Shared Influence
Process
 Specialized Role
 Specific leadership role – some functions cannot be

shared
 Leaders and followers

 Shared Influence Process

 Naturally occurring

 Any member can be a leader at any time

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 Type of Influence Process
 Leadership only occurs when influence
attempts results in enthusiastic commitment
 All types of influence need to be examined
– even when forcing or manipulating
subordinates

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 Purpose of Influence Attempts
 Leadership occurs only when people are
influenced to do what is ethical and
consistent with organizational goals
 Look at outcome of the influence attempts
and not necessarily the leader’s intended
purpose.

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Influence Based on Reason or Emotion
 Traditional definitions of leadership
emphasize rational, cognitive processes
 Recent views of leadership emphasize
emotional aspects of influence

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 Leadership vs. Management

 Leaders and managers are completely different

and mutually exclusive
 Managers are concerned with doing things

right (efficiency)
 Leaders and concerned with doing the right

things (effectiveness)

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 Leadership vs. Management
 Leaders and managers are different roles but
don’t have to be different types of people
 Mintzberg’s 10 leadership roles
 Kotter differentiating between managers and leaders
in terms of core processes and intended outcomes
 Rost view of management as a authority relationship
and leadership as a multidirectional influence
relationship

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 Direct vs. Indirect Leadership
 Direct leadership
 Leader’s direct influence on immediate subordinates.
 Leader’s direct influence on lower-level employees, peers,
bosses, or outsiders
 Indirect leadership
 Cascading effect of leadership influence
 Influence over formal programs, management systems, and
structural forms
 Influence over organizational culture

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 A Working Definition of Leadership

“Leadership is the process of influencing

others to understand and agree about what
needs to be done and how to do it, and the
process of facilitating individual and
collective efforts to accomplish shared
objectives.”
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 What Leaders Can Influence

 The interpretation of external events by members

 The choice of objectives and strategies to pursue
 The motivation of members to achieve the
objectives
 The mutual trust and cooperation of members
 The organization and coordination of work
activities

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 What Leaders Can Influence

 The allocation of resources to activities and objectives

 The development of member skills and confidence
 The learning and sharing of new knowledge by
members
 The enlistment of support and cooperation from
outsiders
 The design of formal structure, programs, and systems
 The shared beliefs and values of members

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 Leadership Effectiveness
 Performance and growth of leaders group or organization
 Preparedness to deal with challenges or crises
 Satisfaction with the leader
 Follower commitment to group objectives
 Psychological well-being and development of followers
 Leader’s retention of high status
 Leader’s advancement to higher positions

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 Immediate and Delayed Outcomes

 Immediate outcomes easy to measure

 Willingness to complete a project
 Delayed outcomes difficult to assess
 Influenced by extraneous events
 Leader can effect both immediate and delayed
outcomes
 May be inconsistent and move in opposite directions

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 Leadership Causal Chain

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Key Variables in Leadership Theories

 Characteristics of the Leader

 Characteristics of the Follower

 Characteristics of the Situation

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 Characteristics of the Leader

 Traits (motives, personality, values)

 Confidence and optimism
 Skills and expertise
 Behavior
 Integrity and ethics
 Influence tactics
 Attributions about followers
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 Characteristics of the Follower
 Traits (needs, values, self concepts)
 Confidence and optimism
 Skills and expertise
 Attributions about the leader
 Trust in the leader
 Task commitment and effort
 Satisfaction with job and leader

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 Characteristics of the Situation
 Type of organizational unit
 Size of unit
 Position power and authority of leader
 Task structure and complexity
 Task interdependence
 Environmental uncertainty
 External dependencies
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Causal Relationship Between Key Variables

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 Overview of Major
Research Approaches
 Trait approach
 Behavior approach
 Power-influence approach
 Situational approach
 Integrative approach

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Level of Conceptualization for Leadership

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 Level of Conceptualization
for Leadership
 Intra-individual process – focus on processes within a single
individual
 Dyadic process – focuses on the relationship between a leader
and another individual
 Group process – focuses on the leadership role in a task group
and how a leader contributes to group effectiveness
 Organizational process – focuses on leadership as a process that
occurs in a larger open system in which groups are a subsystem

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 Other Bases for Comparing
Leadership Theories

 Leader vs. Follower-centered Theory

 Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Theory
 Universal vs. Contingency Theory

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 Organization of the Book

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  Stakeholder: In a general sense, a stakeholder is
anyone who can be affected by decisions made
within a business. More specifically, stakeholders
are considered to be those people who are neces-
sary for the functioning of a business.

 ethics refers not only to an academic discipline,

but also to that arena of human life studied by this
academic discipline, namely, how human beings
should properly live their lives.

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  Ethical decision making.
 We believe that decisions that follow from a
process of thoughtful and conscientious reasoning
will be more responsible and ethical.
 In other words, responsible decision making and
deliberation will result in more responsible
behavior.

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  Normative ethics
 As a normative discipline, ethics deals with norms
and standards of appropriate and proper (normal)
behavior. Norms establish the guidelines or
standards for determining what we should do, how
we should act, what type of person we should be.
Contrast with descriptive ethics.
 descriptive ethics
 As practiced by many social scientists, pro- vides a
descriptive and empirical account of those
standards that actually guide behavior, as opposed
to those standards that should guide behavior.
Contrast with normative ethics.
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  Morality. This text uses morality to refer to those
aspects of ethics involving personal, individual
decision making. “How should I live my life?” or
“What type of person ought I be?” are taken to be
the basic questions of morality. Morality can be
distin- guished from questions of social justice,
which address issues of how communities and
social organizations ought to be structured.
 Personal integrity. The term integrity con- notes

completeness of a being or thing. Personal

integrity, therefore, refers to individuals’
completeness within themselves, often derived
from the con- sistency or alignment of actions with
deeplyHallheld beliefs.
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  Social ethics. The area of ethics that is concerned
with how we should live together with others and
how social organizations ought to be structured.
Social ethics involves questions of political,
economic, civic, and cultural norms aimed at
promoting human well-being.
 Norms. Those standards or guidelines that
establish appropriate and proper behavior. Norms
can be established by such diverse perspectives
as economics, etiquette, or ethics.

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  Values. Those beliefs that incline us to act or
to choose in one way rather than another.
We can recognize many different types of values:
financial, religious, legal, historical, nutritional,
political, scientific, and aesthetic. Ethical values
serve the ends of human well-being in impartial,
rather than personal or selfish, ways.
 Ethical values. Those properties of life that
contribute to human well-being and a life well lived.
Ethical values would include such things as
happiness, respect, dignity, integrity, freedom,
companionship, and health.
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 Ethics and the Law
 Risk assessment. A process to identify potential
events that may affect the entity, and manage risk
to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable
assurance regarding the achievement of entity
objectives.

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 Using this model, decision makers might include in their
assessment before taking action:
 The likelihood of being challenged in court.
∙ The likelihood of losing the case.
∙ The likelihood of settling for financial damages.
 ∙ A comparison of those costs.
∙ The financial benefits of taking the action.
∙ The ethical implication of the options available.
 the ethical implications— because it could involve:
 Independent monitoring of whistle-blowing or help-line information
systems.
 Issuing risk assessment reports.
 Benchmarking for future activities.
 Modifying programs based on experience
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 Ethics as Practical Reason
 Practical reasoning. Involves reasoning about
what one ought to do, contrasted with theoretical
reasoning, which is concerned with what one
ought to believe. Ethics is a part of practical
reason.
 Theoretical reasoning. Involves reasoning that is
aimed at establishing truth and therefore at what
we ought to believe. Contrast with practical
reasoning, which aims at determining what is
reasonable for us to do.
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