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Leadership in Organisations all lectures (Lecture 1 t/m 9)
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Leadership in organizations (LIO)All lectures
Lecture 1
Introduction
Leadership in academic research
- Bennis (1959): Probably more has been written and less known about leadership, than about
any other topic in behavioral sciences
- Burns (1978): Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on
earth
- Yukl (1989/2010): The field of leadership is presently in a stage of confusion. Most widely
known theories are beset of conceptual weakness and lack of strong empirical support.
Hence, more empirical research is needed
- Alvesson and Sveninsson (2003): We need to think about the possibility of the non-existence
of leadership as a distinct phenomenon with great relevance for understanding organizations
and relations in workplaces
Definition of leadership
- Stogdill (1950): Leadership may be considered as the process (or act) of influencing the
activities of an organized group in its efforts towards goal setting and goal achievement
- Yukl (2010): Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about
what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and
collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. Leadership is important for the
effectiveness of organizations.
But, in the years, more focus is put on a shared and more group effort, including many different
factors, and not the effort of only 1 leader.
Often, yet particularly in mainstream literature and before, it concerns a boss (usually a man,
allegedly) and his followers
Transactional leaders focus more on the outcome, they use punishment and those kind of
measurement
Transformational leaders focus more on the relationships with people, try to inspire
Approaches that are discussed today:
- Trait approach = A leader is a born leader. He or she is born with certain traits, characteristics
- Behavioral/style approach
- Situational contingency approach
- New leadership approaches
Trait approach = theories that consider personality, social, physical, or intellectual traits to
differentiate leaders from non-leaders. It is in the personality, you are a born leader. Socially and also
sometimes physically.
- Born with certain attributes to lead, not made: natural propensity
- ‘correct’ traits, which are stable
- The personal is more important than the kind of organization
, - Mental image of a particular person
- Personality will predict ability to take up such a role (and success)
- But which traits
Leadership traits (trait approach)
- Extraversion
- Self-confidence
- Energy level
- Internal locus of control
Criticism of the trait approach
- What about circumstance and situation as a factor?
- In one situation one can be a (good) leader, in the other not
- Depends a lot on the organizational as well as national culture
- ‘maleness’ of this approach: ‘Great man’ (name of the theory!): attributes associates to traits
often viewed as male
- ‘Disabling’ traits for leadership also important: emotional instability, defensiveness, lack of
integrity, too little interpersonal skills, merely technical skills
Behavioral (style) approach = Theories that consider leadership behavior to differentiate leaders from
non-leaders. Contextual and situational.
- Leaders can be made: ability to resolve org. challenges, by developing set of skills, showing
behaviors, act according set of competences
- Can be learned and trained, coached, role is taken
- Technical, human and conceptual skills; various levels
- Interpersonal, information processing and decision making role: example of the entrepreneur
or negotiator
There are different leadership styles based on the extent to how concerned you are for people and
production (outcome/output)
,This is the same, but a little more specific.
Criticism on the behavioral approach:
- Life experiences and environmental constraints not taken enough into account
- How to develop these behaviors well in an organization?
- Largely descriptive, and less analytical nor prescriptive (so use?)
- Behaviors and skills required in 1 context may vary from other contexts
- Not clear how an improvement in skill will lead to a corresponding improvement in
performance
- According Munford et al. (2000), much has to do with context and particularly motivation
o The willingness of the leader to tackle difficult, challenging organizational problems
o Willing to exercise influence
o Should be motivated to demonstrate social commitment
Style approach (University of Michigan Studies) = leadership style is the combination of traits, skills,
and behaviors leaders use as they interact with followers. Alignment with followers is important!
- Employee-oriented Leader
o Emphasizing interpersonal relations; taking a personal interest in the needs of
employees and accepting induvial differences among members
- Production-oriented leader
o One who emphasized technical or task aspects of the job
Ohio State Studies
- Initiating Structure
o The extent to which a leader is likely to define and structure his or her role and those
of sub-ordinated in the search for task accomplishment (the outcome)
- Consideration
o The extent to which a leader is likely to have job relationships characterized by
mutual trust, respect for subordinate’s ideas, and regard for their feelings. Also
relates to the general labels of transformational leaders.
, The larger the amount of authority by the leader, the more it is about telling at the leader and giving
orders etc.
Factors affecting the style
- A leader has a choice to apply a certain style!
- This depends on forces in the manager, subordinate, and situation
o Forces in the manager
What is the background, values, confidence in subordinates, risk behavior?
o Forces in the subordinate:
Need for independence, responsibility, boundaries, motivation
o Forces in the situation:
Organizational type and culture (job titles, stories, myths), team coherence,
task complexity, time pressure
Strengths of the style approach
- Skills can be learned
- Style can be chosen
- Can help organizations to identify an approach suiting their culture
- Easy approach
o Possibility to develop one style according to the people and task upon they are
working
Weaknesses of the style approach
- But not clear yet how leader’s style influences the outcome of a given task
- Often leader will stick to a known style and hardly reflect on style nor easily change this style
- No mention of the role of technology
- Little empirical evidence to back up this approach
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