McGraw-Hill OnlineMcGraw-Hill Higher EducationLearning Center
Student Center | Instructor Center | Information Center | Home
Glossary
Discussion Board
Additional Case Studies
Guide to Electronic Research
PowerWeb
Learning Objectives
Chapter Outline
Multiple Choice Quiz
True or False
Internet Exercises
Chapter Related Readings
Self Assessment Personality Pr
Video Discussion Questions
Feedback
Help Center


Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management
Paul D. Sweeney, University of Central Florida
Dean B. McFarlin, University of Dayton
Leadership That Works

Chapter Outline

  1. What is Effective Leadership?

    2. The ability to lead has been identified as one of the building blocks for managerial success. The understanding about leadership has greatly improved in the past few years.
    1. Over 30,000 articles and books have been written on the subject of leadership over the last few decades.
    2. A common theme to many of the books, which have been written, indicates that corporate success depends on good leadership.
    3. Despite all the information written about it, leadership continues to be a topic that is plagued by inconsistent research and unanswered questions.
    4. It is suggested that managers should view leadership as a set of interpersonal influence processes.
    5. Influence refers to the behaviors that leaders use to get others to do things.
    6. Typical goals for leaders' influence attempts include:
      • Maintaining or raising subordinate motivation, effort, and performance.
      • Shaping how subordinates interpret the work situation.
      • Defining and selecting specific work-related goals.
      • Determining how work activities will be conducted and organized.
      • Creating a work environment where teamwork and cooperation are embraced.
        1. Are "Managing" and "Leading" Different? Managing and leading are not mutually exclusive terms. Furthermore, the distinction between the two is not all that clear.
          1. A distinction between managing and leading has to do with how you try to influence others:
            • Managing requires leverage from the firm:
            • Resources to use as rewards
            • Leading is based on leverage developed by the individual:
            • Expertise, credibility, and an ability to inspire
          2. Leaders are more likely to focus on creating a vision for the future, developing strategies to achieve the vision, and inspiring employees to embrace change.
          3. Managers are more likely to focus on allocating resources, organizing and controlling, and measuring results against preset expectations.
        2. A Starting Point for Action: Diagnosing Effective Leadership: While the behavior management framework does not provide answers for specific leadership situations, it should serve to remind managers that effective leadership requires having the necessary perception and diagnostic skills to figure out the context.
          1. Assessment of the context involves examination of the how the characteristics of the situation, the leader, and the followers combine to shape the leader's behavioral strategy.
          2. Situational factors include:
            • Internal conditions:
            • Culture
            • Work processes
            • Group dynamics
            • External conditions:
            • Competitive environment
            • Marketplace volatility
            • Technological advances
          3. Examination of the leadership effectiveness of Steven Jobs at Apple Computers
  2. Effective Leadership: From Concepts to Applications--Many conceptual frameworks about leadership that vary in emphasis and perspective have been developed.
    1. Most can be characterized as either:
    2. Follower-centered: Focusing on the followers' needs and how they respond to leaders.
    3. Leader-centered: Focusing on the leader's traits, skills, and behaviors.
    4. Situation-centered: Focusing on how situational variables may impact leader effectiveness.
      1. Follower-Centered Perspectives: The View from Below:
      2. Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory: Focus is on how the relationships between leaders and subordinates develop.
        • Leaders usually end up with two types of exchange relationships with subordinates:
        • A few subordinates end up being viewed as trusted insiders by the leader and are part of the "in-group".
        • A few subordinates end up being in the "out-group" category.
        • To avoid the possible negative results from the "out-group", it is suggested that managers make an effort to build positive exchange relationships with all subordinates.
        • The most interesting implications of the LMX theory are about managing upward.
        • Certain impression management techniques/tactics an prove to be helpful:
        • Proactive ingratiation strategies: expressing agreement and offering praise.
        • Exemplification: involves self-sacrifice.
        • Overall, LMX theory highlights the risks to subordinates when they fail to cultivate a relationship with their boss.
      3. Self-Leadership:
        • This may be the purest follower-centered approach.
        • The idea behind self-leadership: subordinates should look inward for motivation and initiative.
        • Leaders can encourage self-leadership among subordinates by:
        • Describing the purpose of self-leadership.
        • Explaining to subordinates the various ways they can improve self-leadership.
        • Supporting, modeling, and encouraging the use of self-leadership strategies.
        • Giving subordinates enough autonomy to make self-leadership practical.
    5. Leader-Centered Perspectives: The View from Above:
      1. Leader Behavior Categories:
        • Two basic leader behavior categories are:
        • Task-oriented behavior includes:
        • Telling subordinates how to perform certain tasks or jobs.
        • Using personnel and other resources in an efficient, reliable, and stable manner.
        • Monitoring operations and making improvements in productivity and quality.
        • Relationship-oriented behavior includes:
        • Striving to help subordinates and solidify positive relationships with them.
        • Building cooperation, teamwork, satisfaction, and loyalty among subordinates.
        • Developing, recognizing, and otherwise supporting subordinates.
        • A third recently suggested category is change-oriented behavior.
        • Examples include:
        • Acting to improve strategic decisions and help subordinates adapt to change.
        • Gaining subordinates commitment for various operational changes.
        • Developing and communicating an inspiring vision for the future.
      2. Leader Traits and Skills:
        • Traits include:
        • Relatively stable personality characteristics.
        • Attributes
        • Motives
        • Temperament
        • Skills include:
        • Person's ability to do certain things well.
    6. Situation-Centered Perspectives: The Situation Makes the Leader: It is suggested that leaders need to match their behavior to the demands of the situation at hand.
      • Factors of the situation include:
      • Nature of the work
      • Work group cohesiveness
      • Follower skills and abilities 1. Situational Leadership:
      • The situational leadership model: takes a "how to" approach in that it argues that effective leadership requires the right combination of task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors with subordinates.
      • Four basic combinations or leadership styles exist:
      • Telling: High task orientation, low relationship orientation.
      • Selling: High task orientation, high relationship orientation.
      • Participating: Low task orientation, high relationship orientation.
      • Delegating: Low task orientation, low relationship orientation.
      • The real trick is to match the appropriate behavioral style to the maturity level of the subordinate.
      • Maturity consists of:
      • Job readiness--level of skills and experience.
      • Psychological willingness-level of self-respect, confidence, and motivation.
      • Four levels of subordinate maturity matched with their most appropriate leadership style:
      • Very immature subordinates (M1)-Telling
      • Low to moderate maturity subordinates (M2)-Selling
      • Moderate to high maturity subordinates (M3)-Participating
      • High maturity subordinates (M4)-Delegating
      • Effective use of the situational leadership model indicates that leaders should:
      • Have good self-insight
      • Be able to accurately assess subordinate maturity levels relative to their jobs.
      • Be flexible enough to change styles when necessary. 2. Path-Goal Theory:
      • Takes a broader view of environmental factors.
      • Involves a two-step process:
      • First step involves:
      • Careful assessment of subordinate skills and characteristics and the existing work system.
      • Second step involves:
      • Leader selects the leadership style that will best support subordinates in the work environment.
      • Four basic styles for leaders to choose from:
      • Achievement-oriented leadership
      • Directive leadership
      • Participative leadership
      • Supportive leadership 3. LPC Contingency Theory:
      • Least preferred co-worker (LPC) contingency theory: heavily researched as well as criticized.
      • When leaders see their LPC in favorable terms, it indicates a relationship-oriented leadership style.
      • When leaders see their LPC in negative terms, it indicates a task-oriented leadership style.
      • Theory's predictions as to when task or relationship oriented leaders will be effective as determined by the following situational variables:
      • Leader-member relations
      • Leader position power
      • Task structure
      • Overall, LPC contingency theory is useful for matching leaders to situations.4. Leader Substitutes Theory:
      • This theory does the best job of identifying situational factors and their impact on leadership.
      • Indicates when various situational factors can:
      • Substitute for leadership
      • Neutralize the impact of leader behavior
      • Theory explains how three types of situational factors (group/organization characteristics, subordinates characteristics, and task characteristics) impact supportive (relationship-oriented) and directive (task-oriented) leadership.5. Integrating Situation-Centered Approaches to Leadership:
      • It is recommended for managers to use all of the situational approaches.
      • Integrate situational approaches: cobble together the advice they offer:
      • More guidance, direction, monitoring, and instruction will be needed when:
      • Subordinates have interdependent jobs.
      • The task at hand is extremely important and subordinates are unreliable.
      • Subordinates have limited skills and experience.
      • More supportive behaviors like listening and removing obstacles will be needed when:
      • Work demands are extremely high
      • Uncontrollable obstacles exist
      • Interpersonal conflicts exist
      • The work itself is dangerous
      • Mistakes on the job can be devastating
  3. Leading Change -- Charismatic and transformational leadership approaches focus on creating and leading change.
    1. Charismatic Leaders: Up on a Pedestal:
      • Charismatic leadership: springs from the intersection of leader abilities, subordinate perceptions, and situational pressures.
      1. Charisma as an Attribution Process:
        • Leaders seen as charismatic tend to use impression management tactics to frame their vision.
      2. Subordinate Self-Worth and Leader Charisma:
        • Charismatic leaders can influence subordinate self-worth in three different ways:
        • Personal identification
        • Social identification
        • Self-efficacy
      3. Narcissistic Leaders: In the House of Mirrors:
        • Fundamentally insecure and self-absorbed individuals are narcissistic leaders.
    2. Transformational Leaders: Making Extraordinary Change Happen:
        • Transformational leadership focuses specifically on the creation and maintenance of large-scale change.
      1. Transformational Leadership Theory argues that transformational leaders create loyalty and committed subordinates who are willing to push themselves like never before in the pursuit of radical changes.
        • Transformational leaders accomplish their goals by:
        • Charisma and inspirational motivation
        • Individualized consideration
        • Intellectual stimulation
      2. The Process of Leading Transformational Change:
        • Transformational leadership may also be viewed as a process.
        • Steps in the transformational leadership process:
        • Recognize the need for change
        • Manage the transition to a new vision
        • Create a new vision for the future
        • Institutionalize change
    3. Charismatic and Transformational Leadership: Limitations and Applications:
      • Currently there is not full understanding on the influence processes or context factors that make or break charismatic and transformational leaders.




McGraw-Hill/Irwin




Copyright2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of The McGraw-Hill Companies.