ECC 2013 CAS450W CoursePaper Final

8/12/2019 ECC 2013 CAS450W CoursePaper Final

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IMPLICIT LEADERSHIP THEORIES

Implicit Leadership Theories:

A Leader who Builds Followership

Laura Wake-Ramos

The Pennsylvania State University

CAS 450W

May 20th, 2013


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In my course paper, I explore the attributes and behavior that

followers expect of effective leaders. A leader label does not guarantee

follower acceptance of leader directives or suggestions. According to

Implicit Leadership Theories (ILT), followers may hold a more specific

cognitive category for a leader worthy of influence (LWI). These studies

indicate that followers have certain expectations of leaders.

The leadership categorization theory proposed by Lord and his

associates in 1985 places emphasis on the cognitive and perceptual

processes and underlying leadership and the role of employees prior

expectations and cognitive prototypes in shaping their perceptions of

managerial behavior (Martin & Epitropaki, 2011). ILTs represent pre-existing cognitive structures or prototypes specifying traits and behavior

that followers expect from leaders stored in memory, that are then

activated through communication interactions. Leadership can be

recognized from qualities and behaviors revealed through interactions, or

inferred from the outcomes of salient events. ILTs do not represent

objective reality, but rather perceptual abstractions that followers use to

categorize individuals in leadership positions.These perceived notions about traits and behaviors are typically

associated with categories of leadership. The leader-label does not

necessarily guarantee follower acceptance of leader influence; rather, a

leader earns the right to be influential. This process of influences is

emphasized as a two-way influence process between leaders and

followers. In social exchange terms, the person in the role of leader fulfills

expectations and achieves group goals, by providing psychological and

material rewards for others (Blascovich & Renney, 1996). Therefore,

exploring the exact nature of followers expectations is critical to

developing a more comprehensive understanding of social influence.


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Previous studies of ILTs have sought to identify prototypical

categories that identify an individual as an effective leader. These studies

found that people use behavioral categories (e.g., honest and decisive)

to differentiate between leaders and non-leaders, effective and

ineffective leaders, specific types of leaders (e.g., political and

educational), and appointed versus elected leader expectations

(Blascovich & Renney, 1996). Once a stimulus person is categorized as a

leader, the activated leader prototype causes followers to attend

selectively to, encode, and retrieve situational information and

information that does not exist. Empirical studies support this model of

categorization to simple heuristics that may operate during leadershipperception. In these studies, peoples descriptions of a category (e.g.,

leader worthy of influence) reflects underlying category prototypes

whether the most typical or representative examples of the category.

These prototypes can be identified in communicable terms, which are

memory stored. Categorization systems occur naturally, organized

hierarchically, and include vertical, as well as horizontal dimensions within

the realm of the human mind. Past studies hoped to layout a map of thecategorization in processes of establishing a leader worthy of influence.

A typical study of ILTs aims at gathering prototypical categories

associated to a leader worthy of influence, and hierarchical ranked of

importance. These prototypes are identified for the study by surveying a

large number of individuals to describe the term leader. A few of these

terms are funny, caring, interested, truthful, imaginative,

knowledgeable, responsible, well-spoken, active, determined,

aggressive, honest, popular, enthusiastic, risk-taking,

independent, clean-cut, considerate, and authoritative.

The results of ILTs studies suggest that leaders must meet the

followers expectations of the categories for them to be identified as


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worthy of influence. Leadership and followership processes must be

synchronized to meet these expectations in a specific group. Situational

factors can potentially affect leader categorization; however, the studies

of interest sought to reach a basic-level behavior and traits for a leader to

meet expectations and be influential in group communication processes.

These typical categories of prototypes become ideals or specific

exemplars for effective leadership. Once people form an impression of a

leader as being worthy of influence, they report that they will be more

likely to allow that person greater latitude for influence.

The ILTs perspective has advantages. First, the expectations

of leaders fall into communicable and recognizable categories. Ideassuch as honesty or knoledgeability are identifiable to most individuals.

Because these processes are simplified, they are easily applicable and

practical to apply in everyday concepts. Second, the studies imply that

influential leaders are shaped through cognitive and social processes

rather exist pure form. Every individual has the capacity to grow and

become a more effective leader, and group participant. Third, ILTs

suggests that leaders do not have the ultimate power of influence, butrather leadership and followership are equal processes.

The ILTs perspective has its disadvantages. First, terms such as

honesty and knowledgeability while identifiable are not as easily

definable. The definitions of these abstract perceptions vary by

individuals past experiences. It is difficult for authors of empirical studies

to create hard and fast criteria for such categories, and monitor how

participants identify each prototype. Second, these categories are

created to suggest effective leadership; however, the studies do not

reveal how far the degree of effectiveness or ineffectiveness can be

applied. Once again, the idea of effectiveness or ineffectiveness can

vary from individual to individual. Third, certain attributes usually regarded


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as favorable (e.g., sensitivity, intelligence, dedication, and charisma)

could receive higher prototypical ratings than the commonly regarded

unfavorable ones (e.g., tyranny and masculinity) (Schyns & Schilling, 2011).

The studies suggest that leaders in general are seen as effective with

prototypical attributes that are all favorable and, therefore, linked to

effectiveness. However, there are unfavorable attributes linked to

ineffectiveness.

The categorization of leaders in prototypical and

communicable terms are widely spread into an entire industry. Countless

books and self-improvement programs focus on recognizing and

developing the qualities these categories embodied in leaders. Thedanger of recognizing these categories is that producers can organize

these categories into formulae, such as 20 simple steps to become a

better leader, which becomes a popular trend. As a result, the value of

leaders; traits and behavior diminish, because everyone else is trying to

develop these qualities, which was before an invaluable and respectable

trait.

The knowledge of ILTs can be useful for leaders and helpthem overcome the problem of influencing followers who hold ineffective

ILTs prototypes. Followers view certain characterisitics as effective, certain

characteristics as ineffective, and each of these characteristics may vary

by situation. In group contests, the role of the leader is to be able to

recognize, understand, and satisfy these needs and expectations.

Leaders then can inspire hard work and dedication (Harrel, 2003).

In simplified terms, the leader is one that fulfills a need to a situation.

ILTs suggest that a leader satisfies a certain need of the group, which did

not exist before. This could be variety of traits or behaviors identified

through research, such as charisma, knowledgeable, organized, team


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player, authoritarian, or sensitivity. This trait of an individual is then

recognized and accepted by followers.

There is little research that studies the leadership in informal group

settings, which leadership emerges rather than is appointed, according to

Blascovich and Kenney (1996). Blascovich and Kenney propose that

followers hold certain expectations, and search for these qualities within

each of these individuals as according to ILTs. Then, the follower

recognizes, and is able to identify a leader of the group based on the

hierarchical and varied categories identified as leadership qualities. The

one perceived as a leader then becomes worthy of influence, and based

on the assumption that these traits are universal through communicationinteractions and situations, all individuals of the group perceive the leader

worthy of influence similarly.

This kind of research is difficult to study, because groups vary by

setting, task, and individuals. Gregory Aarons and David Sommerfeld

(2012) conducted a research study that analyzed transformational

leadership of innovation teams within a mental health and social services

organization. The results revealed that transformational leadership wasmore predictive of innovation during implementation, whereas leader-

member exchange was more predictive of innovation during usual

services. However, such findings could vary by organizational contexts of

similar services, or even vary by profession, such as an architecture task

group, for example.

In conclusion, the ILTs suggests that one cannot build leadership,

but rather followership. An effective leader meets the expectations and

needs of the followers, and cannot establish oneself as a leader worthy of

influence unless one is accepted in the group as a leader with particular

characteristics.


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References:

Aarons, G., & Sommerfeld, D. (2012). Leadership, innovation climate, and

attitudes toward evidence-based practice during a statewide

implementation. Journal of the American Academy of Child &

Adolescent Psychiatry, 51, 423-431.

Blascovich, J., Kenney R., et al. (1996). Implicit leadership theories:

Defining leaders described as worthy of influence. Society for

Personality and Social Psychology, 22, 1128-1143.

Harrel, K. (2003). The Attitude of Leadership. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &

Sons, Inc.

Martin, R., & Epitropaki, O. (2011). Role of organizational identification onimplicit leadership theories (ILTs), transformational leadership and

work attitudes. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 4, 247-262.

Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2011). Implicit leadership theories: Think Leader,

think effective? Journal of Management Inquiry,20, 141-150.

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ECC 2013 CAS450W CoursePaper Final