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Concept in Leadership

Leadership is;

The process of directing the behaviour of others towards accomplishment of objectives

It is the art or process of influencing people so that they strive willingly and
enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goals
A process in which an individual influences a group to achieve common goals. A leader
affects and is affected by followers in an interactive process.
o Leadership occurs in groups such as small task groups, departments, or entire
organizations and involves attention to goals.
o It enables people to work with zeal and confidence
o

Leadership and Management

Leadership is similar to management in various ways as both involve influencing and working
with people and are concerned with effective goal accomplishment.

However, leadership is also different from management. The primary function of management in
an organization is to provide order and consistency whereas leadership is to produce change and
growth.

Management Leadership

Effective and efficient management creates Leadership produces constructive change by

order & stability using rules and procedures providing vision & setting strategies for
change

Accomplishes activities, master routines, Communicating goals, seeking commitment,

structure and placements building teams & coalitions
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Establishes unidirectional authority Multidirectional influence relationship:

relationship: coordinates activities to have developing mutual purpose & working
the job done & works through subordinates together with followers to adapt to change

Managers are reactive and work with Leaders work with followers with emotional
subordinates to solve problems with low involvement, inspiring, and empowering
emotional involvement & limited choices subordinates, meeting their needs

Management and leadership are essential to ensure order and directed change
Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right
things
o The two terms are used interchangeably in modern organizations.

Leadership and Power

Power is the capacity or potential to influence others beliefs, attitudes and courses of
action.
Leaders derive power from their position or the expertise they possess e.g. ministers,
doctors, teachers, lawyers, coaches and university professors are respected for their
special knowledge.

There are three types of power available to the leader:

Referent power- influence that leaders may exercise because people believe in them and
their ideas e.g. movie stars or military heroes
Reward power- ability to grant or withhold incentives
Coercive power- involves use of threats, punishment or negative rewards or manipulating
penalties and rewards in the work environment.
o Effective leaders have the ability to use power effectively and in a responsible
manner.
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Leadership theories

Leadership can be defined as a process by which one individual influences others towards
attainment of group or organizational goals
Leadership is a social influence process. Leadership cannot exist without a leader and one
or more of followers ...
Leadership results in the behaviour of followers that is purposeful and goal directed in an
organized setting

The theories in leader ship include;

Trait Approaches to Leadership

Behavioural Leadership Theory
Situational Theory
Path-Goal Theory
Classical Theories

Trait Approaches to Leadership

According to the great man theory, leaders are born and not made. Stogdill (1948) categorized
leadership traits into five:

i. Capacity
ii. Achievement
iii. Responsibility
iv. Participation

Status

It is generally acknowledged that there are certain traits associated with successful leaders. These
include;

Adaptability to situations
Alertness to social environment
Achievementorientation, assertiveness
Decisiveness
Dependability
Self-confidence
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Persistence...

This theory is based on the assumption that effective leaders possess naturally inherited qualities.

genetic qualities great leader

Stogdill (1948) and Mann (1959) identified such categories of traits as:-

i. Decisiveness in judgment
ii. Speech fluency
iii. Interpersonal skills
iv. Administrative abilities

Stogdill (1974) expanded the list of traits to include;

Adaptability to situations
Alertness to social environment
Ambition and achievement focus
Assertiveness
Cooperativeness
Decisiveness.
Dependability
Dominance
Energy
Persistence
Self confidence
Tolerance of stress
Willingness to assume responsibility

He also mentions the following skills:

Cleverness
Conceptual skilfulness
Creativity
Diplomacy
Tactfulness
Fluency in speaking
Knowledge about group task
Organizational skills
Persuasiveness
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Social skills

Birds (1940) summary of traits of a leader mentions;

Accuracy at work
Knowledge of human nature
Moral habits

On his part, Jago (1982) puts leader traits under the following groupings:

Physical and constitutional factors

Personality characteristics
Social characteristics
Skill and ability

Gardner (1989) suggested leadership attributes that transcend the situational influences; these
are;

Physical volatility and stamina

Intelligence and action-oriented judgment
Eagerness to accept responsibility
Task competence
Understanding of followers and their needs
Skill in dealing with people
Need for achievement
Capacity to motivate people
Courage and resolution
Trustworthiness
Decisiveness
Self-confidence
Assertiveness
Adaptability/flexibility

It should be noted that most traits mentioned in the past research are typical masculine traits.

Behavioural Leadership Theory

Behavioural theory/approach attempts to identify what behaviour leaders exhibit e.g. should they
focus on having the job done or on keeping their followers happy. There are three categories of
leadership behaviour;-
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Task Performance- It involves taking actions to ensure the work group or organization
reaches its goals. It focuses on work speed, quality and accuracy, quantity of output and
following rules.

Group Maintenance- Leaders take actions to ensure the satisfaction of group members,
develop and maintain harmonious relationships and preserve the social stability of the
group. It focuses on peoples feelings, comfort, appreciation and stress reduction i.e.
supportive leadership.

Participative Decision Making - leaders involve their employees in decision making.

They consult and do all they can to support subordinates.

At a later stage these were reduced to the following leadership styles: autocracy, democracy and
laissez faire.

Leadership Styles Approaches

This refers to how leaders use their authority. There are three basic styles;-

Autocratic Leadership Style -The leader commands and expects compliance. S/he leads
by the ability to withhold or give rewards and punishment. S/he makes decisions and
announces them to the group.
Democratic Leadership Style- The leadership solicits input from subordinates i.e.
participative. However it is too slow, especially when speed is the essence.
Laissez faire - The leader makes no decisions; thereby giving subordinates a high degree
of independence in their operations. They set their own goals and means of achieving
them.

The leaders aid the operations by furnishing them with information and acting as a contact with
the external environment.

NB: The style of leadership depends on the characteristics of the leader, the followers and the
situation.

Situational Theory

It is based on the premise that behaviour varies from one situation to another i.e.
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The leader should analyse the situation and then decide on what to do

This pure situational movement has often been viewed as the antithesis of the great-man theory
of leadership (Vroom and Jago, 2007). Consequently, Great men, from the standpoint of
situational theory, are merely puppets of social forces that cast selected individuals into positions
of leadership and shape their behaviour to coincide with social interests.

Leaders have very limited power, significantly less than what is usually attributed to them;
Differences amongst leaders will be influenced by situational demands in the leadership role.

Effective leadership is contingent on matching a particular leadership style to the right

setting. In terms of categorisation, the contingency model classifies leaders as either
relationship-motivated or task-motivated.
Task-motivated leaders are firmly focused on achieving established goals
Relationship-motivated leaders are more concerned with fostering close
interpersonal relationships.

In practice, classification is done by requiring the leaders themselves to describe their least
preferred co-worker in relatively favourable or unfavourable terms based on a set of adjectives.

Path-Goal Theory

Path-goal theory proposes that;

A leaders responsibility is to enhance the motivation of his followers in attaining both

personal and organizational goals (Daft, 1999).

In essence, it aims to explain how the behaviour of a leader influences the satisfaction
and performance of followers (Yukl, 1998).

The means by which this is accomplished is by creating and managing paths for subordinates
toward pre-specified goals (Vroom and Jago, 2007).

More specifically, the leader would endeavour to achieve this by either clarifying the followers
path to the kinds of rewards that are on offer or increasing the rewards that the follower values or
desires.
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Organisational rewards fall under two broad categories, namely:

Intrinsic (e.g. work satisfaction)

Extrinsic (e.g. promotions and salary increase) rewards

Classical Theories

The classical leadership model says that;

The leader has some physical characteristics like personality, abilities and aptitudes to get
success as leader.

Classical leadership is suitable for stable situations and does not give importance to the
interaction with the followers.
This leadership develops clear goals for the followers and focuses on a structure appropriate
to the problem and the circumstances.
It manages the external environment, task, facts, logic and clarification of authority.
This approach is useful when goals and information are clear; when there is little conflict,
low ambiguity, low uncertainty, and a stable legitimate authority.
Classical leadership is exercised by organizations to confirm that this was the intended
meaning.

Transactional and Transformational Leadership

a. Transactional Leadership

This type of leadership is sometimes referred to as managerial leadership.

Transactional leadership is premised on compliance by the followers.
The leader uses rewards and punishments to ensure compliance. For example, the leader
can use incentives to get work done or to seek loyalty.

b. Transformational Leadership

This is a type of leadership focuses in bringing about organizational change by

implementing a strategic vision.
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Conclusion

The theories and models reviewed in this lecture were influenced, to a large extent, by the
transactional perspective of leadership which dominated the leadership theory up until the late
1980s and early 1990s. However, emphasis has now largely shifted to the investigations of
transformational leadership which is generally regarded as superior on the scale of effectiveness.
It is argued that transformational leadership and leaders offer followers a purpose that transcends
short-term goals and focuses on higher order intrinsic needs.

Effective Leadership and Management Skills

A leader as someone who has followers while management, on the other hand, is a
process that is used to accomplish/achieve organizational goals through various
functions;

o Planning
o Organizing
o Staffing
o Controlling

To gain followers, one requires;

o influence and integrity o Creative ability

o Vision o Toughness
o Integrity o Communication ability
o Trust o Risk taking
o Selflessness o Visibility
o Commitment

o Action competence
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o Differences between Managers and Leaders

o Are managers and leaders the same?

o Organizations, including large corporations, academia, leadership theorists,

researchers and authors are concerned about the difference and believe it is
important. Leadership and management are used interchangeably and often are
overlapping concepts. Bass &Stogdill (1990) conclude that leaders manage while
managers lead though the two activities are not synonymous. Kotter (2001), in his
article What leaders really do, suggests that one is not better than the other and
are indeed complementary systems of action, the difference being that;

Management is about coping with complexity

Leadership is about coping with change

o The most important differences between leaders and managers concern the
workplace and are analysed in the table below (Kotterman, 2006).

o o P o Management o Leadership
r
o
c
e
s
s

o V Plans and budgets Sets direction and develops the

Develops process steps and
i vision
sets timelines Develops strategic plans and
s
Displays impersonal
i achieves the vision
attitude about the vision Displays a very passionate attitude
o
and goals about the vision and goals
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o E
s
t
a
b
l
i
s
h
m
e
n
t
o H Organizes and staffs Aligns organization
Maintains structure Communicates the vision, mission
u
Delegates responsibility
m and direction
Delegates authority Influences creation of coalitions,
a Implements the vision
Establishes policy and teams and partnerships that
n
procedures to implement understand and accept the vision
Displays drive
vision Higher emotion
D
Displays low emotion Increases choices
e Limits employee choices
v
e
l
o
p
m
e
n
 t

o a
n
d

N
e
t
w
o
r
k
i
n
g
o V Controls processes Motivates and inspires
Identifies problems Energizes employees to overcome
i
Solves problems
s barriers to change
Monitor results Satisfies basic human needs
i Takes a low risk approach Takes a high risk approach to
o to problem solving problem solving
n

E
x
e
c
u
t
i
o
n
 o V Manages vision order and Promotes useful and dramatic
i predictability changes such as new products or
Provides expected results
s approaches to improving labour
i consistently to the relations
o leadership and other

n stakeholders

O
u
t
c
o
m
e
o

o Organized Sets of Behaviour by Managers

o Mintzberg (2000) concluded from his observations and research that managers
play three types of roles or display organized sets of behaviour:

o Interpersonal Roles: - They interact with people inside and outside their work
units. These notes include being a figurehead, leader and liaison officer

o Informational Roles: - This is the most important part of a managers job since
accurate information is vital for making intelligent decisions. Managers receive
and communicate information with people inside and outside the organization.
These roles include being a monitor, disseminator and a spokesperson

o Decisional Roles: - Managers use information to make decisions to solve

problems or take advantage of opportunities. These roles include being an
entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator

o Principal Skills that Managers Need to Develop

 o Good managers need to work on developing the following principal skills:

o Technical skills: The ability to perform well in a specialized field (specific job)
within the organization. Having requisite technical skills seems important at lower
levels of management (first-line managers) who spend much of their working
time with operating employees. This is important since they need to supervise
them effectively.

o Conceptual skills: This is the ability to think analytically, visualize an

organization as a whole and understand how the parts work together. They are
particularly important for top managers, who must deal with problems that are
ambiguous and with far-reaching consequences.

o Human skills: The ability to interact well in cooperation with other people to get
things done through others. They are equally important at all levels and are
thought of as s oft skills. They include the ability to motivate, inspire trust and to
communicate with others.

o Diagnostic Skills: These are skills used to define and understand situations. They
are most important to top managers and moderately important to the middle level
and first line managers.

o Summary

o In this session we have examined the differences between leaders and managers.
There are differences in relation to vision establishment, human development and
networking, vision excretion and vision outcome.

o The main skills that are required of effective managers include;

Technical skills
Conceptual skills
Human relations skills
Diagnostic skills

o Transformational Leadership
 o Transformational leadership is undoubtedly the most popular leadership
perspective today.

Todays organizations seek leaders who will position them as cogent competitors in the
global environment.
It is transformational leaders who transform organizations through their vision,
communication skills and ability to build commitment.
They are generally energetic, synergistic, enthusiastic and passionate in shepherding the
vision of the organization by inspiring positive changes among organizational members
and, more importantly, helping every member succeeds.

o The concept of Transformation Leadership

o Transformational leadership;

Is a process that changes and transforms individualsit has the potency to transform and
sustain the transformation
It is the ability to get people to want to change, improve and to be led
It involves assessing associates motives, satisfying their needs and valuing them
Transformational leaders are those who, stimulate and inspire followers to both achieve
extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity

o Transformational leaders help followers grow and develop into leaders by

responding to individual followers needs by empowering them and by designing
the objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leader, the group and the
larger organizations.

o Transformational leadership

Is a style of leaderships in which the leader identifies the needed change

Creates a vision to guides the change through inspiration
Executes the change with the commitment of the members of the group

o Components of Transformational Leadership

 o The transformational leadership style was developed by James Mac Gregor Burns
in the late 1970s and later refined and extended by Bernard Bass. Bass stated that
transformational leadership was premised on four key pillars:

Intellectual stimulation transformational leaders encourage and inspire creativity and

innovation among organizational members. Such leaders therefore strongly believe in
encouraging higher achievement among organization members through exploring new ways
of doing things.
Individualized consideration transformational leaders have faith in organizational
members because, it is through them that the organization can change for the better. The
transformational leader therefore offers support and encouragement to organizational
members or the employees and strives to create an environment in which there is open
communication that fosters sharing of constructive ideas.
Inspirational motivation transformational leaders aspire to change organizations, creating
and carving a vision that is inspiring and appealing to organizational members. To facilitate
the achievement of the organizational vision, the leader motivates the members to commit
themselves to the vision of the organization, with a passion. They encourage team spirit and a
sense of purpose in achieving organizational goals.
Idealized influence transformational leaders serve as exemplary models to organizational
members or employees. They are an embodiment of values such as trust, respect, integrity,
etc. which organizational members are expected to emulate.

o Elements of Transformational Leadership

o According to McShane and Von Glinow (2000), the transformational leadership

style comprises four elements as shown in the figure below:

o
Creating vision Communicating the
vision
o

o Transformational leadership
 o
Building commitment to Modelling the vision
o
the vision

Creating a strategic vision

o A vision is a mental picture of a desired future state
o Transformational leaders create and shape a strategic vision for the organization
o It is this strategic vision that helps bond organizational members and motivates
them to work towards achieving organizational objectives derived from the vision
and mission of the organisation
o
Communicating the vision
o Once the strategic vision of the organization has been created, the
transformational leader effectively articulates and communicates the vision of the
organisation.
o It is through such communication that the transformational leader is able to
facilitate interest, buy-in and commitment from the organisational members.
o Through the use of symbols, metaphors, stories etc., the transformational leader
will be able to explain the strategic vision.
o
Modelling the vision
o The transformational leader shows commitment to the vision by effectively
shepherding it
o This entails walking the talk
o The transformational leader demonstrates, through action, the process of
translating the vision into reality
o They exhibit reliability
o Trust and persistence in their actions

o Building commitment to the vision

The transformational leader ensures the commitment of organizational members to the

vision by building ownership of the vision.
 o Building ownership entails;

Involving employees in shaping the vision

Developing the mission and goals to attain the vision
Keeping the employees focused and talking about the vision

o Summary

o Transformational leadership is the most popular leadership respective. This kind

of leadership is focused on bringing about change in organizations through
intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation and
idealized influence. The main strategies used by transformational leaders include
creating a strategic vision, communicating the vision, modelling the vision and
building commitment to the vision

o Leadership and Team Performance

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you
are a leader. -- President John Quincy Adams

o In a team context;

A leaders effectiveness is judged by his/her impact upon members

Impact is demonstrated through change...
Providing leadership that enhances team performance not only entails the ability
Communicate a vision and to adapt to different situations
Listening
Being responsive to feedback
Delegating responsibility where necessary

o Characteristics of a good leader

o An often asked question is: what defines a good leader? Well, there are several
characteristics that could be used to define a good leader, including the following:

Self-Awareness (knowledge of ones strengths and weaknesses)

Self-Direction(ability to direct oneself effectively)
Dedication to a vision
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