Class notes
Lecture notes
- Course
- Institution
Lecture notes of 7 pages for the course Behaviour in organisations at QUB (Chapter 12)
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
lucydeb86
Content preview
Chapter 12 – leadershipDefining leadership
The ability and capacity to influence others
The ability of an individual to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute toward
the effectiveness and success of the organisation
Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing
The idea of leadership
It’s not the same as power – leaders are expected to persuade and inspire, not to coerce or
manipulate
Distinct from authority – authority produced obedience because legitimated to make certain
decisions
Leaders think long-term, look outside as well as in, influence beyond their formal
jurisdiction, have political skills, emphasize vision and renewal
Leadership and management – is there a difference?
Management – status quo, consistency, order and efficiency
Leadership – vision, strategy, communication, change
Leadership is seen as an interpersonal process between leaders and followers
Leaders can transform firms or bring change
The context of leadership
Leaders can make thing happen, but things also make leaders happen – what they can do is
always influenced by the stage on which they play their role
Leadership is a relationship, a subtle process of mutual influence- they are not independent
actors, they both shape and are shaped by circumstances and their constituents
Leadership is different to position – you can lead from anywhere
Trait theories of leadership
Mullins (2016) assumed that leaders are born, not made
Takes the view that leadership consists of inherited characteristics, or personality traits,
which distinguish leaders from their followers
Suggests that attention is given to the selection of leaders, rather than to training for
leadership
Attempts at identifying common personality, or physical and mental, characteristics or good
and successful leaders have had little success
Possible to identify general characteristics such as self-confidence, initiative, intelligence
Research identified lists of traits that tend to be overlapping, contradictory, or with little
correlation for most features
Limitations:
o Bound to be some subjective judgement in determining who is regarded as a ‘good’
or ‘successful’ leader
o The list of possible traits tend to be very long and there is not always agreement on
the most important
o It ignores situational factors
, Behavioural theories of leadership
Take the view that all behaviour is a result of conditioning
How we behave is therefore the result of learned reacting to positive (rewards) and negative
(punishment) stimulus
Actions of followers emerge from how the leader responds to their behaviour and the
signals they exhibit
Michigan and Ohio state studies differentiated between task-orientated (the extent to which
the leader emphasizes productivity targets or the accomplishment of goals) and people-
orientates/relationship
behaviours (the extent to
which the leader is
concerned about their
followers as people (their
needs, development and
problems)
Studies conclude that
most effective leaders
combine task and
employee-focused
approaches
o Blake and Mouton (1964) developed a
leadership grid based on this
o Concern for people – consideration and
employee-orientation
o Concern for production – initiating
structure and production-orientation
o Leadership style is determined by position
on the graph
Contingency theories of leadership
Fielder’s model
Fielder proposed that effective group performance depends on the proper match between
leadership style and situation
Assumes that leadership style is fixed, and is, therefore about helping the individual
understand their style and where best to apply it
Considers three situation factors:
o Leader-member relations – degree of confidence and trust in the leader
o Task structure –degree of structure in jobs
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller lucydeb86. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $9.80. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
64438 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now