Theories of Leadership and
Management
Week 1. Mechanisms in Leadership
Lecture 1. 01-09-2020
Introduction
Course goals:
- understand and explain important theories related to leadership and management
- use these theories to analyze problems and challenges organizations face in terms of
managing individuals, teams, and organizations
- critically reflect on those theories
- apply these theories to practical issues and problems
Group assignment:
Identify a management or leadership problem within an organization. This problem should
be related to at least two topics covered in this course.
Part 1: the proposal
- a clear description of the problem that your group selected
- an indication of the topics and theories you are planning to use to analyze this problem,
including a short explanation of why you selected these theories
- deadline, September 14
> give individual feedback on the proposals of three other teams before September 21
What’s in the Box? 1b.
Leader-focused research often directly links leader behaviors to organizational outcomes
(often related to followers), implicitly assuming a relationship of some sort between leader’s
and followers’ behaviors. However, such an approach often fails to answer how, and why
certain behaviors work.
Social learning theory: we learn by observing and imitating other people’s behavior.
Albert Bandura: people can learn new information and behaviors by watching other people.
This is known as observational learning or learning from observing a role model.
Two types:
- Inhibition: response that you would normally in act, but you learn to inhibit that particular
response. Perhaps because you have seen someone doing that and getting a negative
response. Inhibiting behavior.
- Disinhibition: behavior that you would normally withhold, but you observe somebody else
engaging in that behavior, and that goes well for them, then behavior that you would
normally inhibit gets disinhibited.
Necessary conditions for social learning to occur:
,- Attention: need to be able to notice the behavior of others to use as a model for our own
behavior.
- Retention: how well the behavior is remembered.
- Reproduction: the ability to perform the behavior, that the model has demonstrated.
- Motivation: the will to perform the behavior.
Social learning is a powerful mechanism for cultural transmission.
Employees whose supervisor is perceived to be an ethical leader are more willing to engage
in proactive helpful behavior such as reporting problems to management.
Social Identity theory. 1c.
Social identity theory: How people relate to one another in groups or teams
Social identity: a person’s sense of who they are, based on their group membership(s)
Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.
When social identity is salient (clear/important), people act as representatives of a group
rather than just as individuals. So when people know who they are, based on how their
group is, these people act as representatives of that group rather than just being
individuals.
- Social categorization: The act of putting oneself and others into categories. In-group = yours
Out-group = others
- Social identification: When you absorb the culture, norms, values of your in-group. You
then notice the differences between people in your in-group versus out-group. The group
becomes an important part of your social identity.
- Social comparison: To boost self-esteem, one starts to think of their in-group as better than
and superior to their out-group. Tajfel and Turner used the term “positive distinctiveness”.
Shared goals that are important for both groups is a way to reduce the barriers between the
groups.
> Therefore, it is important that everyone within a company is fighting for the same goal and
no one feels better than others.
,Leadership effectiveness rests on the extent to which the leader is prototypical of the group
(i.e. representative of the group’s identity) and engages in group-oriented behavior (i.e.
behavior perceived to benefit the group).
Social identity salience is the moderator for the effect of leaders’ prototypicality on
followers’ endorsement (goedkeuring) of leaders.
When both social identity salience and leader prototypicality are high, support for the
leader will also be high.
Social identity salience: when social identity is clear. A group/person has sense of who they
are, based on their group membership.
The reciprocity (wederkerigheid) Principle. 1d.
There is no duty more indispensable than that of returning a kindness, all men distrust one
forgetful of a benefit.
If someone does you a good turn, and you don’t give it back, you will be remembered
(negatively).
> the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, especially privileges
granted by one country or organization to another.
People are better off with reciprocity than they would be without reciprocity, if they both
use it the right way. It stimulates collaboration between people.
, Reciprocity: desire to give back ‘in kind’ when you receive an unexpected gift > number one
principle of persuasion.
Example: regularly send out appeals for donations for Disabled American Veterans, success
rate was 18%.
But when they included a small gift of personalized address labels with the mailed-out
requests, success rate increased to 35%.
How does this reciprocity principle relate to leader/follower dynamics?
Perceived organizational support (PoS):
- the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions,
cares about their well-being, and fulfills socio-emotional needs.
Social Exchange Theory. 1e.
Blau argued that social interaction is shaped by a reciprocal exchange of rewards, both
tangible and non-tangible.
Every interaction can be understood as a form of exchange in which each participant gives
the other “more than he had himself possessed”.
He intended the social exchange theory as a sort of bridging theory between studies of
interactions between individuals, and studies that examined the collectivist or structural
dimensions of society – economic systems, political institutions, belief systems
He argued that the same underlying principle influences individuals, cultures, governments
and organizations.
Core assumptions:
1. Social actors engage in activities as a means of obtaining desired goals.
2. All social activities involve some cost to the actor – time, energy, other resources.
3. Social actors seek to economize their activities by keeping costs below rewards.
Blau suggests six types of social rewards:
- Personal attraction
- Social acceptance
- Social approval
- Instrumental services
- Respect/prestige
- Compliance/power
And three types of social costs:
- Investment in time and effort to develop skills that will be used to reward others
