CHAPTER 12 Leadership

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CHAPTER 12 Leadership

• Introduction to Industrial/Organizational
  Psychology by Ronald E. Riggio

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What is Leadership?

• Leadership is the ability to guide a group toward
  the achievement of goals.
• Leaders can be formally recognized by the
  organization, or individuals can emerge as
  informal leaders within work groups because they
  have some characteristic that the group members
  value.

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Universalist Theories of Leadership

• Universalist theories look for the major
  characteristics common to all effective leaders.
• Great man/woman theory maintains that great
  leaders are born, not made.
• Trait theory attempts to discover the traits
  shared by all effective leaders.
• Traits are enduring attributes associated with an
  individuals personality or makeup.

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Universalist Theories of Leadership

• Research indicates that extraversion,
  conscientiousness, openness to experience,
  agreeableness, and emotional stability, in
  combination, are associated with effective
  leadership (Bono and Judge, 2004).
• Possession of flexibility, charisma, and social
  intelligence are also important for leadership
  (Riggio, 1986).
• The major problem with the original trait
  approach is that it was too general.

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Behavioral Theories of Leadership

• Behavioral leadership theories (derived from Ohio
  State and University of Michigan studies) focus
  on the behaviors common to effective leaders.
• The Ohio State Leadership Studies identified two
  important leader behaviors
• Initiating structure (defining, organizing,
  structuring the work situation).
• Consideration (showing concern for feelings and
  needs of followers).

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Behavioral Theories of Leadership

• The University of Michigan Leadership Studies
  also identified two important leader behaviors.
• In task-orientated behaviors, leader behaviors
  focused on the work task.
• In relationship-oriented behaviors, leader
  behaviors focused on maintaining interpersonal
  relationships on the job.
• Both types of behaviors have been linked to
  effective leadership.

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Contingency Theories of Leadership

• Fiedlers contingency model maintains that
  effective leadership depends on a match between
  the leaders style and the degree to which the
  work situation gives control and influence to the
  leader.
• According to Fiedler, leaders may be primarily
  task-oriented, or primarily relationship-oriented.

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Contingency Theories of Leadership

• To assess leaders task or relationship
  orientation, leaders use the Least Preferred
  Coworker (LPC) scale to rate their most difficult
  follower.
• Persons who give their least preferred coworkers
  very harsh ratings (low LPC scores) are
  task-oriented leaders.
• Persons who rate their least preferred coworker
  somewhat leniently (higher LPC scores) are
  considered to be relationship-oriented.

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Contingency Theories of Leadership

• In Fiedlers model, to assess the work situation,
  three variables are examined.
• Leader-member relations refers to the quality of
  the relationship between leader and followers.
• Task structure is an assessment of how well
  elements of the work task are structured.
• Position power is a leaders authority to punish
  or reward.

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Contingency Theories of Leadership

• According to Fiedler, task-oriented leaders are
  successful in very unfavorable situations (where
  leader-member relations are poor, the task is
  unstructured, and the leader has weak position
  power) because of their take-charge style.
• Task-oriented leaders are also effective in very
  favorable situations because they encourage high
  productivity.
• Relationship-oriented leaders are most effective
  when their situational control and influence are
  neither very high nor low.

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Contingency Theories of Leadership

• The path-goal theory states that a leaders job
  is to help the work group achieve their desired
  goals, using one of four categories of behavior.
• Directive behavior provides instructions and
  suggestions for job performance.
• Achievement-oriented behavior concentrates on
  particular work outcomes.
• Supportive behavior shows concern for workers
  well-being.
• Participative behavior encourages members to
  assume active roles in planning and decision
  making.

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Contingency Theories of Leadership

• The Decision-making model is a theory that
  matches characteristics of the situation with
  leader decision-making strategies.
• The theory provides different decision-making
  strategies.
• The theory predicts proper leader behavior in
  making decisions and gives prescriptions for
  the decision maker to follow.

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Contingency Theories of Leadership

• The leader-member exchange model asserts that
  effective leadership is determined by the quality
  of the interaction between leaders and particular
  group members.
• Leader-member exchange can range from low quality
  to high quality.
• With high quality leader-member exchange, there
  is frequent, positive communication between
  leaders and members.

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Charismatic and Transformational Leadership
Theories

• Charismatic leadership theory states that leaders
  possess some exceptional characteristics that
  cause followers to be loyal and inspired.
• Charismatic leaders communicate shared group
  goals and convey confidence in their own
  abilities and those of followers.
• Charismatic leaders are most effective when goals
  are unclear and situational conditions are
  unstable.
• Some researchers suggest that charismatic leaders
  possess exceptionally high-quality social skills
  and an ability to inspire followers at a deep
  emotional level (Riggio, 1987).

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Charismatic and Transformational Leadership
Theories

• Transformational leadership focuses on the
  leaders ability to provide shared values and a
  vision for the future of the work group.
• There are four components of transformational
  leadership.
• Idealized influence the transformational leader
  is a positive role model.
• Inspirational motivation the leader inspires
  followers by providing a compelling vision of a
  positive future.
• Intellectual stimulation followers curiosity
  and creativity are stimulated and challenged.
• Individualized consideration the leader pays
  personal attention to each members needs and
  concerns.

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Applications of Leadership Theories

• Leadership training can follow two general
  approaches.
• Teaching leaders diagnostic skills for assessing
  situations to determine types of leader behaviors
  that work best.
• Teaching leaders specific skills or behaviors
  that they lack.
• A combination of both approaches is likely to be
  most effective.

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Applications of Leadership Theories

• Research in redesigning jobs indicates that
  leaders may be unnecessary in certain instances,
  leading to a search for substitutes for
  leadership. This applies to
• Job enrichment groups.
• Groups where all members have equal status and
  high skills/abilties.
• Work tasks that are well-structured and
  intrinsically satisfying to workers.
• Shared leadership, where leadership is shared
  among the group members rather than being
  centralized in one person.