Very comprehensive & structured summary (based on slides, lesson notes and additional explanations) for the Leadership and Behavioral Decision Making course, taught in the Master's in Business Sciences at KULeuven.
The summary was written in English and includes all chapters. All concepts are v...
SUMMARY LEADERSHIP & BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING
INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP
Importance of a class on leadership
(1) There is no universal, one best way to lead or one enduring and integrative theory of leadership.
(2) There is a lack of an accepted formula (model/approach)
+ Many approaches are one-dimensional or driven by a single idea.
=> There’s a need to prescribe multiple answers.
(3) Organisations look for competence (not a list of attributes) => leaders have different unique styles
+ EQUIFINALITY RULES
= there are equally effective but different ways to achieve the same outcome.
Problems associated with the field of leadership development
1. Field is dominated by practitioners with
- uncertain motives with a one best way solution
- assessment instruments with suspect validity.
=> money business populated by ‘’ consultants ‘’ with distorted incentives
2. FAD-DRIVEN THINKING
= popular thinking, a trend that becomes popular for a short period of time and then fades away.
= often with ill-use or non-use of scientific research findings and rush)to action training packages
that are not good.
LEADERSHIP
= Leadership is the process of influencing other(s) towards the realization of a shared goal.
Two components
(1) A shared goal
(2) Influence
Facts on leadership
1. Leadership is a dynamic social influential process, not a position or a static label
2. Everyone exercises some form of leadership
3. Leadership can be developed
4. The effective leader behaviours / styles are context-specific
5. Women and men are equally effective as leaders
6. Many leadership practices are universal, and some are culturally specific
7. Being a leader contains certain pitfalls (e.g., power, ethics)
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,SUMMARY LEADERSHIP & BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING
INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP
Facts on leadership
1. Leadership is a dynamic social influential process, not a position or a static label
you don’t need to have a position of authority (or formal power) to be a leader
(!) Difference Leadership and Relationships based on power (formal leader)
= Leadership requires a shared goal
≠ Formal leader
=> someone can be forced to do something because of rewards/sanctioning
A person at the top of an organisation is not necessarily a leader
A Low level employee is not necessarily a follower.
=> Leadership that emerged bottom-up can lead to better performance in the long run in
comparison with organisations that only allow vertical leadership.
VERTICAL LEADERSHIP HORIZONTAL LEADERSHIP
= top-down approach of leadership = more collaborative approach of leadership
But: if you are a manager, you have a better chance to speak up in a group to become a
leader, but there has to be a shared goal!
2. Everyone exercises some form of leadership
= Unless one has no social relationship at all, everyone will to some extent be a leader.
context specific: we switch roles (leader/follower) all the time!
3. Leadership can be developed
= Different leadership styles and behaviours can be developed.
TFL (transformational leadership), TSCTL (transactional leadership) and traditional styles of
leadership can all be developed.
Leaders are both born and made
Born: characteristics that we are born with can help us emerge & be effective as leaders
= Trait theory.
= GREAT MAN THEORIES
= These theories suggest that certain individuals are born with specific
characteristics or attributes that inherently qualify them to lead others.
E.g. extraversion, general intelligence
Made: develop as individuals to become more effective as a leader and to be influential to
reach a shared goal.
4. The effective leader behaviours / styles are context-specific
leadership is found in many places and it varies across contexts.
leading an army ≠ start-up ≠ public organization ≠ private organization ≠ marketing team within that
same private organization ≠ the accounting team within that organization
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,SUMMARY LEADERSHIP & BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING
INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP
5. Women and men are equally effective as leaders
= Fewer women in leadership roles, because it’s socially and culturally learned
=> this means that it can change.
6. Many leadership practices are universal, and some are culturally-specific
3 main characteristics that are universally desirable
1. Integrity
2. Charisma
3. Team-oriented
(!) what these characteristics mean can vary across cultures.
being charismatic in the US ≠ being charismatic in Belgium ≠ being charismatic in Cuba
=> certain behaviours are culture specific
7. Being a leader contains certain pitfalls (e.g., power, ethics)
=> A change in a group will make people behave differently = can be problematic
e.g. Those who lead tend to feel powerful and don’t pay as much attention to feelings of others
State of leadership research
There are many different theories on leadership (66 different theories since 2000).
=> there is no right or wrong leadership theory, you have to look at them like a puzzle.
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, SUMMARY LEADERSHIP & BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING
LEADERSHIP TRAINING VS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
= Set of systematic learning initiatives designed to enhance specific
1. job-relevant Knowledge = what you know
2. Skills = what you can do
3. Attitudes = what you think or feel about it
KSAs.
= Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
e.g. leaders should know how to recognize when employees need their emotional support,
have the communication skills to convey their understanding and discuss solutions,
hold empathic attitudes, and be motivated to act accordingly
= A training that focuses on knowledge, skills & attitudes, very short term, trying to teach or change
people around a certain topic. It’s highly structured.
(!) Not sufficient to develop as a leader
Leadership training is often used for
1. Education in response to new policies or technologies
2. To remediate performance of leaders and/or their teams
3. When indices of business performance are declining
4. Whenever change is involved
The goal of leadership training
= To add new skills to an established or emerging leader’s skill repertoire
= To provide the knowledge to use the skills appropriately,
= To adopt the attitudes necessary to adapt and apply them on the job.
5 recommendations for leadership training
(1) Conduct a systematic analysis of the KSAs for leader success (needs analysis).
Because there are so many different leadership KSAs, researchers have grouped them into
four main types of required skills (KSAs) that should be targeted in training interventions:
1. Intrapersonal
2. Interpersonal
3. Business
4. leadership.
(2) Choose scientifically validated training initiatives and evaluate their effectiveness.
(3) Make it easy for learners to apply training back to the job by removing barriers to motivation
and transfer.
(4) Base the design of training on multiple formats with opportunities for practice and feedback
to enhance learning.
(5) Help the training stick by providing resources, opportunities for on-the-job practice, and
incentives that make it easy to use newly acquired KSAs.
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