Leadership

Defining Leadership
• leadership as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a
vision or set of goals.
Stephen Robbins

• “Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives

enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and
motivates it towards goals.”
Keith Davis
Differences between Management and Leadership
• While managers lay down the structure and delegates authority and responsibility,
leaders provides direction by developing the organizational vision and communicating
it to the employees and inspiring them to achieve it.

• Management focus on planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling;

leadership is mainly a part of directing function of management. Leaders focus on
listening, building relationships, teamwork, inspiring, motivating and persuading the
followers.

• A leader gets his authority from his followers while a manager gets his authority by
virtue of his position in the organization.

• Managers follow the organization’s policies and procedure; the leaders follow their
own instinct.
Authority vs. Leadership
• The authority exercised is a kind of legitimate power and people
follow figures exercising it, because their positions demand so
irrespective of the person holding the position.
• Leaders in organizations and elsewhere may have formal authorities
but they mostly rely on the informal authority that they exercise on
people to influence them.
Leadership Styles
• Autocratic leadership style
• The Laissez Faire Leadership Style
• Democratic/Participative leadership style

• Autocratic leadership style: In this style of leadership, a leader has complete command
and hold over their employees/team. The team cannot put forward their views even if
they are best for the team’s or organizational interests. They cannot criticize or question
the leader’s way of getting things done. The leader himself gets the things done.
• The Laissez Faire Leadership Style: Here, the leader totally trusts their
employees/team to perform the job themselves. He just concentrates on
the intellectual/rational aspect of his work and does not focus on the
management aspect of his work. The team/employees are welcomed to
share their views and provide suggestions which are best for
organizational interests. This leadership style works only when the
employees are skilled, loyal, experienced and intellectual.
• Democratic/Participative leadership style: The leaders invite and
encourage the team members to play an important role in decision-
making process, though the ultimate decision-making power rests with
the leader. The leader guides the employees on what to perform and
how to perform, while the employees communicate to the leader their
experience and the suggestions if any.
A perfect leadership style is one which assists a leader in getting
the best out of the people who follow him.
 Great Man Theory

Trait Theory

Managerial Grid
Behavioral Theories

Theories of Ohio State Leadership Studies

Leadership Fiedler’s Contingency Least

Preferred Co worker Theory
Contingency Theories
Hersey and Blanchard’s Situation
Theory
 Great man Theory of Leadership
• Great Man Theory of leadership asserts that leaders are born and not made.
• The theory states that some people are born with the necessary attributes that set them apart from
others and that these traits are responsible for their assuming positions of power and authority.
• According to the theory, leadership calls for certain qualities like charm, persuasiveness, commanding
personality, high degree of intuition, judgment, courage, intelligence, aggressiveness and action
orientation which are of such a nature that they cannot be taught or learnt in a formal sense.
• One either has them or does not have them. Leadership qualities are carried in the genes. In other
words, they are inborn, or something inherited in family from generation-to-generation.
• Examples: Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln.
• Earlier leadership was considered as a quality associated mostly with the males, and therefore the
theory was named as the great man theory. But later with the emergence of many great women
leaders as well, the theory was recognized as the great person theory.
Trait Theory of Leadership
• This theory consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate
leaders from nonleaders.
• The search for personality, social, physical, or intellectual attributes that
differentiate leaders from non-leaders goes back to the earliest stages of
leadership research.
Criticism
• The list of Traits is not uniform and different authors have given different list of
traits
• It fails to take into account influence of other factors on leadership.
The personal qualities and traits of Indra Nooyi
make her a great leader. Nooyi is Former CEO and
board chairman of PepsiCo, the second largest food
and beverage firm in the world. She is described as
fun- loving, sociable, agreeable, conscientious,
emotionally stable, and open to experiences.
Behavioral Theories of Leadership
• Behavioral Theories of Leadership propose that specific behaviors differentiate
leaders from non-leaders.
• Focus on Leader behavior rather than trait.
• Assumes that leader behaviours are crucial for explaining performance and other
organizational outcomes.
• Major Behavioural Theories are
• Managerial Grid
• Ohio state university Leadership Studies
Managerial Grid

• Given By Robert R. Blake and Janes S. Mouton.

• They Identified five basic leadership styles of

practicing managers.

• Managerial Grid is a graphical presentation of

alternative combinations of management styles
or behavior on a two-dimensional space.

• According to this theory leaders are most

effective when they achieve high and balanced
concern for people and for tasks.
Ohio State leadership Studies
Following two dimensions substantially accounted for most of
the leadership behavior described by employees:
1. Initiating Structure and
2. Consideration
Initiating Structure
• The extent to which a leader is likely to define and structure
his or her role and those of employees in the search for goal
attainment.
• Establishing formal lines of communication and determine
how tasks will be performed.
• Specifying the task to be performed by each member of his
group, sets down deadlines, gives directions and puts
pressure on them for its fulfillment.
Consideration
• Extent to which a person’s job relationships are characterized by mutual trust, respect for
employees’ ideas, and regard for their feelings.
• A leader high in consideration helps employees with personal problems, is friendly and
approachable, treats all employees as equals, and expresses appreciation and support.

The study reports that leaders high in initiating structure as well as in consideration
generally results in positive outcomes but there are exceptions which indicate that
situational factors should be integrated into the theory.
Contingency Theories of Leadership
• Contingency theory is a class of Behavioural theory that claims that there
is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company or to make
decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent
upon the internal or external situation.

• There are several contingency theories like

• Fiedler’s Contingency Least Preferred Co worker Theory
• Hersey and Blanchard’s Situation Theory
Fiedler’s Contingency Model

• Fiedler argued that effectiveness of leadership depends on

the combination of leader’s personality and the situation in
which he functions.
• Leader-member relations - The degree to which the leaders
is trusted and liked by the group members, and the
willingness of the group members to follow the leader’s
guidance.
• Task structure - The degree to which the group’s task has
been described as structured or unstructured, has been
clearly defined and the extent to which it can be carried out
by detailed instructions.
• Position power - The power of the leader by virtue of the
organizational position and the degree to which the leader
can exercise authority on group members in order to comply
with and accept his direction and leadership.
Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory
• Hersey and Blanchard developed four types of leadership styles based on the
task and relationships that leaders experience in the workplace. According to
the model, the following are styles of leadership managers can use:
• Delegating style: A low-task, low-relationship style wherein the leader allows
the group to take responsibility for task decisions. This is best used with high
maturity followers.
• Participating style: A low-task, high-relationship style that emphasizes shared
ideas and decisions. Managers can use this style with moderate followers who
are experienced but may lack the confidence to do the tasks assigned.
• Selling style: A high-task, high-relationship style in which the leader attempts
to sell their ideas to the group by explaining task directions in a persuasive
manner. This, too, is used with moderate followers. Unlike the previous style,
these followers have the ability but are unwilling to do the job.
• Telling style: A high-task, low-relationship style wherein the leader gives
explicit directions and supervises work closely. This style is geared toward low
maturity followers.