Welcome to BUSI1323

Leadership in Organisations
Lecture 1: Let’s get started Dr Neela S.
Mühlemann
Lecturer in
Human Resource
Management and
Organisational Behaviour
Business School
Welcome from the Teaching Team
What will we
learn today?
Learning Objectives  We will learn how leadership research
evolved
 We will understand how we will learn and
build up our knowledge in this module and
how we will be assessed
 We will understand the idea of the person-
centred leadership approach
 We get some insight into our own motivation
to lead

3
Introduction
What is leadership? Share your view

Go to Menti.com
It’s not that simple, but let’s try to
define leadership
 Rost (1993) has found 221 definitions of leadership in 587 publications he
examined

For example:
 A leader can be defined as an “individual in the group (or organisation)
given the task of directing or coordinating activities (Fiedler, 1967, p.8)

 Leadership is a social process, an interaction between two or more

individuals that often involves structuring and restructuring of the situation”
(Bass, 2008, pp. 25-26)
Think,
pair,
share
Key Question:
What does it take to
be endorsed and
effective as a leader?
Key approaches to understand leadership and
when and why leaders are effective
 Overview leadership theories
Perceptual and Leader-
Person-centred Group
contingency Follower
approach approach
approach approach

Traits / Charisma Implicit theories Power Identity Leadership

Behaviours Contingent Transactional Inter-group leadership

Genes Evolution Transformational

Approach developed LMX

in the 1900-1970s;
Present 1970-Present 1970-Present 2000-Present
Module
Information
How will you be
assessed? First sit
assessments
Deadline or
exam period
Weighting Maximum
out of 100%* length

Formative Presentation: 0% A1
 Leader Portrait & assignment: In class Tutorial 8 ppt-slide
Group Poster
 Leadership Report presentation
Summative Submission: 100 % 3000 words
assignment: 6th April 2023,
Individual 11.30pm
about a female business Leadership
Report
leader or business
leader with an ethnic
minority background.
 Support on Moodle

KEEP
CALM
&
GET
SUPPORT
 Support in Tutorials
Tutorial 7:
Bring your group’s poster draft (in PowerPoint) and get peers and tutor feedback

KEEP Tutorial 8: FORMATIVE

Present and receive a tutor evaluation on your group’s poster presentation
CALM
Tutorial 9:
& Learn how to transform your group’s leader portrait into your own leadership report

GET Tutorial 10:

SUPPORT Receive guidance on how to develop strong arguments

Tutorial 11:
Get tips how to polish your leadership report and improve your writing

Tutorial 12: SUMMATIVE

Ask last-minute questions/ Submit before 11:30pm
How it all started
  Person-centred approach
This week’s  Personality and charisma
leadership  Motivation to lead
 Perceptual approach
approach &  Context and contingency approach
concepts  Leader-Follower approach
 Group approach
 Inter-group approach

14
Person- Assumption
centred Leaders are somehow superior to
followers.
approach
The Great Man and Whenever we think in terms of
‘his’ Charisma ‘leadership’, we create dichotomy:
(1) leaders, a select and privileged
few, and
(2) followers the vast majority.

Nielsen (2004)
Person-  View that leaders possess
personality characteristics that
centred set them apart from ordinary people:
approach  E.g., “charisma”, “genius”

The Great Man and  Stogdill (1948) compared the

‘his’ Charisma characteristics of leaders to non-
leaders
 E.g., intelligence, dominance,
sociability, and achievement
orientation.
Person-  “Height” is an important
characteristic in evaluating
centred political (male) leaders
approach
The Great Man and Why?
‘his’ Charisma Association
between
height and
dominance and
authority
(Stulp et al., 2013; Giessner &
Schubert, 2007)
Criticism on the person-centred approach
 Week empirical correlation between personality variables and
leadership (data from Mann, 1959)
Personality No. of tests Median absolute Variance Strength of
Dimension correlation explained (r2) association
Intelligence 196 .25 5% weak
Adjustment 164 .15 2.3% weak
Extroversion 119 .15 2.3% weak
Sensitivity 101 <.10 <1% weak
Masculinity 70 <.10 <1% weak
Dominance 39 .20 4% weak

Note. Table has been retrieved from Haslam, Reicher, & Platow (2011, p. 9).
Person-
centred
approach
Motivation to Lead

Chan et al., (2001)

See optional reading
Person-  Do you think of yourself as a
leader?
centred
approach
 Test yourself in the tutorial and
Motivation to Lead find out more about your own
motivation to lead.
Want to know
more why this
matters,
particularly for
women?
Have a look at the
optional reading on
Moodle under Week 1

Hint: This could be useful for your assignment

What should I read for more inspiration
(and knowledge)?
Essential Readings Optional Readings
Kiefer, T. (2021). What Chan, K. Y., & Drasgow, F. (2001). Toward a theory of individual differences and leaders
motivates people to be hip: understanding the motivation to lead.
come a leader? Journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 481.
WBS News.
Schyns, B., Kiefer, T., & Foti, R. J. (2020). Does thinking of myself as leader make me wa
nt to lead? The role of congruence in self-theories and implicit leadership theories in
motivation to lead.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 122, 103477.
Book Leadership in Organisations
by Gary Yukl
Click here for online
access to book.
THANK YOU
Dr Neela S.
Mühlemann
Lecturer in
Human Resource
Management and
Organisational Behaviour
Business School

Follow me on Twitter Follow me on LinkedIn

@NeelaMuhlemann www.linkedin.com/in/drnsmuhlemann