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Leadership

 

Definition:

Ø     Leadership is the power of one individual to guide the actions of another.

Ø     Leaders are individuals who advocate for change and who try new approaches to problems. 

Ø     Leadership is often conceptualized as a set of behaviour or a product of the interaction of the leader’s personality and the demands of the leadership situation.

Ø     A manager is responsible for the performance and productivity of one or more subordinates.

Ø     Leaders resist the status quo and purpose changes

Ø     Leaders influence others to pursue their goals.

 

Manager

                                                       

Job in term of roles

 

E            Interpersonal

§        Figurehead

§        Leader

§        Liaison

 

E            Informational

§        Monitor

§        Spokesperson

 

E            Decisional

§        Entrepreneur

§        Disturbance handler

§        Resource allocater

§        Negotiator

 

Leadership

Three fronts

 

»    Trait Theory  - quality of a leader

§         The thought that personality tests could predict leadership.

§        The expected traits weren’t very relevant.

§        A broader set was: logical thinking, persistence, empowerment, and self-control

»    Behavioral Style Theory – a leader’s actual behaviour

§        Identifies behaviour that influence subordinate’s performance and satisfaction.

§        Two leader behaviors:

1.     Initiating Structure – focus on group goals by stressing procedures, planning, clarifying roles, supervising and asking for results.

2.     Consideration – focus on approachability, supportiveness, high morale, collaborative atmosphere.

Leaders could be low, average, or high or both dimensions at the same time.  Successful leaders must exhibit both.

Both behaviors are related to group performance and member satisfaction depending on

1.     External pressure

2.     Leader’s position power

3.     Task structure.

»    Contingency theory - leaders behaviour with the situation. 

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

Proposes leader behaviour interact with the favorableness of a situation to determine the level of group effectiveness.

§        Theory requires the assessment of the leader’s step by measuring his LPC – least preferred co-worker.

»    High LPC leaders are relationships oriented

o        Most effective when the situation is moderately favorable or moderately unfavorable.

»    Low LPC leaders are task oriented

o       Most effective when situation is either highly favorable or highly unfavorable

§        Fiedler argues that the LPC score taps a personality trait called the leader’s motivational pattern.

House’s Path-Goal Theory

                                Leaders main job is the clarification of pathways between subordinates’ performance and the rewards they value.

§        The leaders job is clearing pathways between employee effort and performance and between employee performance and rewards.

 

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