TOPIC;MANAGERS AS LEADERS

Who Are Leaders and What Is Leadership?

leader is someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority.
Leadership is a process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve its
goals.
SEVEN TRAITS ASSOCIATED WITH LEADERSHIP
1. Drive. Leaders exhibit a high effort level. They have a relatively high desire for
achievement, they are ambitious, they have a lot of energy, they are tirelessly persistent
in their activities, and they show initiative.
2. Desire to lead. Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others. They
demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility.
3. Honesty and integrity. Leaders build trusting relationships with followers by being
truthful or nondeceitful and by showing high consistency between word and deed.
4. Self-confidence. Followers look to leaders for an absence of self-doubt. Leaders,
therefore, need to show self-confidence in order to convince followers of the rightness of
their goals and decisions.
5. Intelligence. Leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather, synthesize, and
interpret large amounts of information, and they need to be able to create visions, solve
problems, and make correct decisions.
6. Job-relevant knowledge. Effective leaders have a high degree of knowledge
about the company, industry, and technical matters. In-depth knowledge allows leaders
to make well-informed decisions and to understand the implications of those decisions.
7. Extraversion. Leaders are energetic, lively people. They are sociable, assertive,
and rarely silent or withdrawn.
THREE LEADER- SHIP STYLES
1. The autocratic style described a leader who dictated work methods, made unilateral
decisions, and limited employee participation.
2. The democratic style described a leader who involved employees in decision making,
delegated authority, and used feedback as an opportunity for coaching employees.
3. The laissez-faire style leader let the group make decisions and complete the work in
whatever way it saw fit.
TWO IMPORTANT DIMENSIONS OF LEADER BEHAVIOR
THE OHIO STATE STUDIES:
1. Initiating Structure, which referred to the extent to which a leader defined his or her
role and the roles of group members in attaining goals. It included behaviors that
involved attempts to organize work, work relationships, and goals.
2. Consideration, which was defined as the extent to which a leader had work
relationships characterized by mutual trust and respect for group members’ ideas and
feelings.
high–high leader
A leader high in both initiating structure and consideration behaviors
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN STUDIES
1. Leaders who were employee oriented were described as emphasizing interpersonal
relationships.
2. The production-oriented leaders, in contrast, tended to emphasize the task aspects
of the job. Unlike the other studies, the Michigan researchers concluded that leaders
who were employee oriented were able to get high group productivity and high group
member satisfaction.
managerial grid
A two-dimensional grid for appraising leadership styles
THREE MAJOR CONTINGENCY THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP.
1. The Fiedler contingency model proposed that effective group performance
depended upon properly matching the leader’s style and the amount of control
and influence in the situation. The model was based on the premise that a certain
leadership style would be most effective in different types of situations. The keys
were to (1) define those leadership styles and the different types of situations,
and then (2) identify the appropriate combinations of style and situation.
least-preferred coworker (LPC) questionnaire - A questionnaire that measures
whether a leader is task or relationship oriented
leader–member relations - One of Fiedler’s situational contingencies that describes
the degree of confidence, trust, and respect employees had for their leader
task structure - One of Fiedler’s situational contingencies that describes the degree to
which job assignments are formalized and structured
position power - One of Fiedler’s situational contingencies that describes the degree of
influence a leader has over activities such as hiring, firing, discipline, promotions, and
salary increases
2. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory - situational leadership
theory (SLT), is a contingency theory that focuses on followers’ readiness. The
emphasis on the followers in leadership effectiveness reflects the reality that it is
the followers who accept or reject the leader. Regardless of what the leader does,
the group’s effectiveness depends on the actions of the followers.
readiness, as defined by Hersey and Blanchard, refers to the extent to which
people have the ability and willingness to accomplish a specific task.
four specific leadership styles described as follows:
1. Telling (high task–low relationship): The leader defines roles and tells people
what, how, when, and where to do various tasks.
2. Selling (high task–high relationship): The leader provides both directive and
supportive behavior.
3. Participating (low task–high relationship): The leader and followers share in
decision making; the main role of the leader is facilitating and communicating.
4. Delegating (low task–low relationship): The leader provides little direction or
support.
The final component in the model is the four stages of follower readiness:
1: People are both unable and unwilling to take responsibility for doing
something. Followers aren’t competent or confident.
2: People are unable but willing to do the necessary job tasks. Followers are moti
vated but lack the appropriate skills.
3: People are able but unwilling to do what the leader wants. Followers are
competent, but don’t want to do something.
4: People are both able and willing to do what is asked of them.
3. PATH-GOAL MODEL -Another approach to understanding leadership.
path-goal theory - states that the leader’s job is to assist followers in attaining their
goals and to provide direction or support needed to ensure that their goals are
compatible with the goals of the group or organization.
Developed by Robert House, path-goal theory takes key elements from the expectancy
theory of motivation.19 The term path-goal is derived from the belief that effective
leaders remove the roadblocks and pitfalls so that followers have a clearer path to help
them get from where they are to the achievement of their work goals.
House identified four leadership behaviors:
1. Directive leader: Lets subordinates know what’s expected of them, schedules work to
be done, and gives specific guidance on how to accomplish tasks.
2. Supportive leader: Shows concern for the needs of followers and is friendly.
3. Participative leader: Consults with group members and uses their suggestions before
making a decision.
4. Achievement oriented leader: Sets challenging goals and expects followers to
perform at their highest level.
Some predictions from path-goal theory are:
 Directive leadership leads to greater satisfaction when tasks are ambiguous or
stressful than when they are highly structured and well laid out. The followers
aren’t sure what to do, so the leader needs to give them some direction.
 Supportive leadership results in high employee performance and satisfaction
when subordinates are performing structured tasks. In this situation, the leader
only needs to support followers, not tell them what to do.
 Directive leadership is likely to be perceived as redundant among subordinates
with high perceived ability or with considerable experience. These followers are
quite capable so they don’t need a leader to tell them what to do.
 The clearer and more bureaucratic the formal authority relationships, the more
leaders should exhibit supportive behavior and deemphasize directive behavior.
The organizational situation has provided the structure as far as what is expected
of followers, so the leader’s role is simply to support.
 Directive leadership will lead to higher employee satisfaction when there is
substantive conflict within a work group. In this situation, the followers need a
leader who will take charge.
 Subordinates with an internal locus of control will be more satisfied with a
participative style. Because these followers believe that they control what
happens to them, they prefer to participate in decisions.
 Subordinates with an external locus of control will be more satisfied with a
directive style. These followers believe that what happens to them is a result of
the external environment so they would prefer a leader that tells them what to do.
 Achievement-oriented leadership will increase subordinates’ expectancies that
effort will lead to high performance when tasks are ambiguously structured. By
setting challenging goals, followers know what the expectations are.
DESCRIBE CONTEMPORARY VIEWS OF LEADERSHIP .
Leader–member exchange theory (LMX) says that leaders create in-groups and
out- groups and those in the in-group will have higher performance ratings, less
turnover, and greater job satisfaction.
1. A transactional leader exchanges rewards for productivity where a transformational
leader stimulates and inspires followers to achieve goals.
2. A charismatic leader is an enthusiastic and self-confident leader whose personality
and actions influence people to behave in certain ways. People can learn to be charis-
matic.
3. A visionary leader is able to create and articulate a realistic, credible, and attractive
vision of the future.
A team leader has two priorities
1. manage the team’s external boundary and
2. facilitate the team process.
Four leader roles are involved
1.: liaison with external constituencies,
2. troubleshooter,
3. conflict manager, and
4. coach.
Five sources of leader power
1. Legitimate power and authority are the same. Legitimate power represents the
power a leader has as a result of his or her position in the organization. Although
people in positions of authority are also likely to have reward and coercive power,
legitimate power is broader than the power to coerce and reward.
2. Coercive power is the power a leader has to punish or control. Followers react
to this power out of fear of the negative results that might occur if they don’t
comply. Managers typically have some coercive power, such as being able to
suspend or demote employees or to assign them work they find unpleasant or
undesirable.
3. Reward power is the power to give positive rewards. A reward can be anything
that a person values such as money, favorable performance appraisals,
promotions, interesting work assignments, friendly colleagues, and preferred
work shifts or sales territories.
4. Expert power is power that’s based on expertise, special skills, or knowledge.
If an employee has skills, knowledge, or expertise that’s critical to a work group,
that person’s expert power is enhanced.
5. Finally, referent power is the power that arises because of a person’s desirable
resources or personal traits. If I admire you and want to be associated with you,
you can exercise power over me because I want to please you. Referent power
develops out of admiration of another and a desire to be like that person.
Credibility - The degree to which followers perceive someone as honest,
competent, and able to inspire
Trust is defined as the belief in the integrity, character, and ability of a leader.
Followers who trust a leader are willing to be vulnerable to the leader’s actions
because they are confident that their rights and interests will not be abused.
FIVE DIMENSIONS THAT MAKE UP THE CONCEPT OF TRUST
1. Integrity: honesty and truthfulness
2. Competence: technical and interpersonal knowledge and skills
3. Consistency: reliability, predictability, and good judgment in handling
situations
4. Loyalty: willingness to protect a person, physically and emotionally
5. Openness: willingness to share ideas and information freely