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Week 1: Leadership
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💡 Leadership and Management is a combination of Organizational Behavior (OB) and Huma
Management (HRM)
OB: is about understanding how people and groups in organizations behave
HRM: manager activities to attract and keep employees and ensure that they perform at a high
organizational goals
→ main focus: people in organizations
In order to construct high-performing organizations, we need the right people, to lead and be le
that employees stay motivated, cooperate and perform well (collectively).
What is Leadership?
“A process of social influence whereby a leader steers members of a group towards a goal”
“A process of social influence in which one person is able to enlist the aid and support of o
accomplishment of a task” (Chemers, 2000).
1. social process
2. at least two people (leader and one follower)
3. some kind of influence going on (support, role mode)
4. focus on an outcome (a specific goal)
Leadership is a combination of nature and nurture (they are born & made)
Trends in leadership theory and research
Time Focus Question
up to late 40s Traits Who is the leader?
late 40s - 60s Styles and behaviors What does a leader do?
late 60s - 80s Contigency It all depends…
> 1990 Vision, inspiration Where do we want to go?
> 2000 Ethical, servant What about the moral side?
> 2015 Meaning, values How do we our pursue our purpose?
, Also, while traits help us to predict leadership, they do not help us to explain leadership. There
effect between a trait and the outcome of leadership.
Styles and Behaviors
Behavior is directly observable
Behavior can more easily be changed
direct relationship with leadership effectiveness
being able to distinguish (in)effective leadership behavior will help us to design leadership tale
systems: hire, develop, and promote the skills necessary for leadership success
→ key assumption: there are universally effective leadership behaviors
How to study leadership behavior
approach to research: identify differences in behavior between effective vs. ineffective leaders
Methods:
observe leaders
interview / survey leaders about how they lead
diary studies with leaders…
Ohio state university research
Initiating structure: How much a leader emphasizes meeting work goals and accomplishing ta
Leaders high in initiating structure engage in many different task-related behaviors e.g., ass
establishing performance standards and monitoring performance levels.
Consideration: How friendly and supportive a leader is towards followers.
Leaders high in consideration engage in many different behaviors that show supportivenes
speaking up for subordinates’ interests, caring about their personal situations and showing
work.
Ohio state researchers believed that consideration and initiating structure dimensions were inde
Thus, they asked whether leaders that scored high on both dimensions were more effective tha
high on only one .
University of Michigan Research
University of Michigan Research tried to identify leader behaviors that contributed to effective g
They identified four categories of leadership behaviors, namely:
1. Goal emphasis
2. Work facilitation
3. Leader support
, Initiating structure is especially important for group/organizational performance.
In addition, it may be expected that the effectiveness of leader styles may vary depending on th
of organization, national culture, etc.
This suggests that a contingency approach may be needed…
Contingency Approach
Leadership effectiveness depends on situational factors (i.e., under condition ‘a’, style ‘x’ would be a
condition ‘b’, style ‘y’ would be preferable). We next turn to contingency theories.
These approaches suggest that the most effective way for a leader to behave depends on:
Leader: Traits, experience, skills…
Follower: Capabilities, motivation…
Situation: Task, structure, environment…
Contingency Model - Fiedler
Situational Leadership Theory - Hersey and Blanchard
Fiedler (1967, 1971) argued that a key factor in leadership success is the individual’s basic lead
Premise: leaders are not that flexible in terms of their behavior.
Specifically, Fiedler argued that leadership style is fixed(i.e., you are always either task or r
Thus, we can either craft the situation to our tendencies or choose the right leader for a spe
He thus created the LPC (least preferred co-worker scale) which purports to measure whether a
relationship-oriented.
Least Preferred Co-worker scale (LPC): Bipolar adjectives
Unpleasant / Pleasant; Unfriendly / Friendly; Rejecting / Accepting; Tense / Relaxed; Cold /
Fiedler’s least preferred co worker scale (LPC) sought to determine a leader’s motivation h
Low LPC High LPC
task oriented relationship-oriented
very effective at completing tasks focus on personal connections,
managing conflicts
quick to organize groups to get tasks and projects
done task accomplishment is second
, Situational Favorability
The LPC scale could predict leader effectiveness reliably if 3 situational factors were considere
Leader-member relationships: The degree of confidence, trust, and respect that member
Task structure: The degree to which the job assignments are structured (clear and detaile
Position power: The degree of influence a leader has overpower variables, such as hiring,
promotions, salary
The theory suggests that the more ‘control’ a leader has, the more favorable the situation (i.e., t
situational favorability)
Assessment of Fiedler’s contingency model
So, leadership effectiveness is contingent upon:
Motivation hierarchy leader.
Situation favorability (LM-relations, task structure, and position power)
What are the positives?
Considerable evidence supports the model, especially if the original eight situations are gro
favorable, least favorable, and the middle ground)
What are the criticisms?
The logic behind the LPC scale is not well understood.
No flexibility in leaders, is this true? (research suggests LPC scores are not stable).
Contingency variables are complex and hard to determine.
Vision, Inspiration
Charismatic leaders can inspire and motivate followers to perform at high levels and to be comm
