Leadership

Class 9

Individual Activity

• Think back to the best OR worst leader (e.g., manager, supervisor, etc.) that you have ever had.

• Why were they so great OR so terrible?

• Write a paragraph about their behavior. Be as specific as possible.

Laissez-Faire• Do little if anything to encourage or motivate their

employees. • Avoid making decisions and may be chronically

absent or occupied with non-managerial tasks. • Do not care what happens, avoid taking

responsibility, cannot make up their minds, and are satisfied to sit and wait for others to act.

• Rationalize their behavior by saying they are providing leadership opportunities for others or they are giving their employees creative freedom.

• Advantages? Disadvantages?

Management By Exception• Active

– the leader continuously monitors followers’ performance to anticipate mistakes before they become a problem and immediately takes corrective action when required.

• Passive– The leader waits until the task is completed before

determining that a problem exists and then brings the problem to the awareness of followers.

• Advantages? Disadvantages?

Contingent Reward

• Manager sets up a system of rewards for good performance

• Sets clear goals for employees and explains that they will be promoted or receive bonuses if they achieve them

• Can be used in conjunction with other leadership styles

• Advantages? Disadvantages?

Situational Leadership (Hersey & Blanchard, 1977)

• Leaders need to adjust their behavior to suit the “maturity” (ability and confidence) of their subordinates– Low maturity: take a directive approach– Medium maturity: be less task-oriented but

provide more support, praise, and attention– High maturity: hands-off approach is best

• As followers’ maturity increases, the leader should adapt accordingly

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) (Graen & Cashman, 1975; Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1991)

• a.k.a “vertical dyad linkage theory”• Leaders form individual relationships with some

subordinates on the basis of compatibility, competence, dependability, etc.

• To maintain special status, subordinates have to work harder

• Leaders need to continue to treat favored workers differently

• Relationships can progress through different stages (testing, mutual trust, “mature”)

Transformational Leadership (Bass, 1996)

• A leadership perspective that explains how leaders change teams or organizations by creating, communicating, and modeling a vision for the organization or work unit, and inspiring employees to strive for that vision – Inspirational motivation

– Individualized consideration

– Intellectual stimulation

– Idealized influence

Inspirational Motivation

• Paints an optimistic future

• Thinks ahead to the future

• Provides meaning and challenge

• Creates expectations that in turn become self-fulfilling prophecies

• Charismatic leadership behavior

Individualized Consideration

• Treat each follower as a unique individual• Answer followers’ questions with minimal delay• Show they are concerned for followers’ well-

being• Assign tasks on the basis of individual needs and

abilities• Encourage two-way exchanges of ideas• Are available when needed• Constantly encourage self-development in

followers

Intellectual Stimulation

• Encourages subordinates to think for themselves • Answers questions with more questions, or

encourages their employees to contradict their boss in order to fully explore all relevant issues

• Question assumptions, see things in new ways• Encourages followers to use their intuition,

entertain ideas that may seem silly at first, create imaginative visions, ask followers to rework solutions they thought they had solved, and see unusual patterns

• Uses humor to stimulate new thinking.

Idealized Influence• Good role models whose values and behavior

allow followers to learn by example• Sets an example for showing determination,

displays extraordinary talents, takes risks, shows dedication to ‘the cause’, creates a sense of a joint mission, deals with crises, uses radical solutions

Group Activity

• Form groups of 4-5 people. Discuss each of the leaders that you wrote about earlier.

• What types of leadership behaviors did they demonstrate? What is their leadership style?

• Choose your best example to report back to the class

Leadership in action• I will draw names to see who the team leaders will

be (ok to say no)– You have to be willing to be evaluated by your peers– You have to be willing to do an honest self-evaluation– You have to be willing to meet with me individually

for your feedback on how you did

• If I don’t draw your name, your role will be to work with the leader, and evaluate his or her performance at the end of the exercise.

Pseudo-transformational Leadership

• What was the main contribution of the article?

• What are some of the problems with the article?

• What parts were really excellent?

• What else could the authors have included?

• What is your overall assessment?