Http:// Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed Meaning of Leadership Process of influencing people, understanding their needs and aspirations, setting

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Meaning of Leadership

• Process of influencing people, understanding their needs and aspirations, setting goals for them and facilitating them for goals achievement.

• Leadership is all about values, vision, enabling and coaching.• Leaders create followers by their far sightedness, knowledge and

sensitivity. eg- Jack Welch of GE-pioneered empowerment,

boundaryless organization, Tata pioneered the concept of CSR in India

• As a property leadership is the set of characteristics attributed to individuals who are perceived to be leaders.

• Three major constituents of leadership are People, Influence and goals. Thus ability to influence people to achieve certain goals. People component makes leadership a very important concept in OB.

• Leadership is an intangible and a charismatic component which some have and some don’t.

• A good leader is one who can make himself redundant.



Leadership and Management

Manager• Creating an agenda- Planning

and Budgeting. Establishing schedules of activities and timetables.

• Involving people- Recruitment, selection and staffing the organization structure.

• Executing plans- Setting standards, control and feedback and monitoring

• Outcome- Goal achievement, good performance, satisfied stakeholders.

Leader• Establishing direction-

Developing a vision of the future and strategies needed to achieve the vision.

• Aligning people- Communicating the organization’s goals to employees and identify them with individual goals.

• Motivating and inspiring- Energizing people to overcoming all barriers.

• Producing change- Dramatic changes which change the face of the organization that challenge the status quo. Believing in the impossible



Leadership and Power

• Legitimate power- Power granted through the organizational hierarchy. Formal in nature. All managers have a legitimate power over their subordinates. But merely legitimate power does not make a manager a leader.Other word for legitimate power is authority.

• Reward power- Refers to the power to give or withhold rewards. Rewards like salary hikes, promotions, recognition, praise.Greater the rewards a manager holds and greater the importance of those for the employees more will be the manager’s reward power.

• Coercive power- The power to force compliance by means of psychological, emotional and physical threat. Coercion is limited to disciplinary actions, fines, lay offs, penalties, written reprimands, firing etc. More the coercive power less the leader respect.

• Referent power- Referent power is abstract in nature.It is based on identification, imitation, loyalty and charisma.More the referent power more the status of a leader.

• Expert power- Derived from information and expertise. The more important the information and lesser the access that people have to it the more the expert power.



Approaches to leadership

• Traits approach (1900-1950s) 1. Based on the assumption that leaders are born not made.2. Focus was to identify the traits that distinguished leaders from

followers.3. Differentiate leaders from non leaders4. Identification of the characteristics, traits and attributes possessed

by leaders.5. Traits are distinguishing personal characteristics of a person.6. Motive was that if these set of traits were identified leaders could be

identified.7. But the approach was not successful.8. Ultimately categorization was done on the basis of physical,

personality, ability, task related, social and social backgrounds traits.



Approaches to leadership contd..

• Behavioral approach1. Failure of traits studies led to the study of the behavioral approach2. Objective was to find out that what are the behavioral patterns of

leaders.3. How is the behavior of leaders different from that of non leaders.4. Since behavior can be incorporated through training but traits

cannot.5. How does the behavior of leaders result in the accomplishment of

the organizational goals.6. Two major factors of behavioral variables were identified. They were

TASK ORIENTED BEHAVIOR and EMPLOYEE ORIENTED BEHAVIOR.

7. Three universities were studying these two variables.8. University of Michigan, Ohio State University and University of

Texas.



Approaches to leadership contd..

• Situational or Contingency approach

1. This model assumes that appropriate leader behavior varies from situation to situation.

2. Objective here was to identify the key situational factors which determine appropriate leadership.

3. Avoid situations where you are likely to fail.4. Match your leadership style with the appropriate situation.5. Leaders must develop flexibility to change their style according to

the situation.6. Fred Fiedler’s contingency theory, Hersey and Blanchard’s theory,

Leader member exchange theory and Path goal theory.



University of Michigan• Researchers were led by Rensis Likert.• Basically tried to contrast the behaviors of leaders with non leaders by interviewing managers

on one hand and workers on the other.• Took a one dimensional approach.• Identified two styles ie Job centered behavior and Employee centered behavior.• Classified leaders into effective and not effective.• Job centered leaders pay close attention to the subordinate’s work, explains the work procedures

and are keenly interested in performance so it comes under not effective leader.• Employee centered leaders develop cohesive work group ensuring that employees are satisfied

with their jobs. Primary concern is welfare of subordinates. These leaders tend to be effective.• Studied these two types of behavior on the same continuum and devided the continuum from

system 1 to system 4.• System1- Exploitative-Authoritative (PRODUCTION CENTERED)(NOT PARTICIPATIVE)• System2- Benevolent-Authoritative• System3- Consultative• System4- Participative.(EMPLOYEE CENTERED)(HIGHLY PARTICIPATIVE)• Introduced the concept of participative leadership. Extension in the form of Management by

Objectives.



Ohio State Studies

• Ralph Stogdill.• They identified two basic leadership behavioral variables or styles ie INITIATING

STRUCTURE and CONSIDERATION.

• Leaders using Initiating structure fall under the category of Task oriented leaders. They set clear goals for their subordinates. Clear lines of authority and responsibility. Time to time monitoring and regular measurement of performance. Corrective steps. Explicit schedules of work activities. Formal lines of communication.

• Leaders using Consideration fall under the category of people oriented leaders. Believe in fostering informal relations. Personal touch in their dealings. Show concern for the subordinate’s needs and aspirations. Establish warm, friendly and supportive climate conducive to performance.

• Difference between Ohio and Michigan- unlike Michigan, Ohio analysed leader behavior on a two dimensional basis.

• A leader could exhibit varying levels of Initiating structure and Consideration at the same time.

• Initially it was presumed that a combination of (HI,HC) yields best results but later on evidence proved that performance depends on the interaction between behavior and situation.



University of Texas

• Given by Blake and Moutan through the explanation of Managerial Grid.

• Places every manager according to his behavior at some point on the grid.

• Two behavioral variables identified were Concern for Production and Concern for People.

• Concern for Production relates to Initiating structure and Job centered and Concern for people relates to Consideration and Employee centered respectively.



Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

• Draws on both studies to assess leadership style– “Concern for People” is

Consideration and Employee-Orientation

– “Concern for Production” is Initiating Structure and Production-Orientation

• Style is determined by position on the graph

• (1,1)- Impoverished management. (9,1)- Authority compliance.(1,9)-Country club. (9,9)- Team management.

© 2009 Prentice-Hall Inc. All rights reserved. 12-10

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Managerial Grid

• (1,1)- IMPOVERISHED MANAGEMENT- Absence of management philosophy. Delegate and dissappear.Manager exerts little effort towards interpersonal relations or achievement of organizational objectives.

• (9,9)-TEAM MANAGEMENT- Considered the most effective style

where manager and organization members work together to accomplish the goals.

• (1,9)- COUNTRY CLUB- Where major focus is on building building relationships and primary concern is people.But a low focus on tasks may give questionable results.

• (9,1)- AUTHORITY COMPLIANCE- Where efficiency of operations is the dominating factor.Not much importance is attached to people.Focus on efficiency including elimination of people wherever necessary.



Approaches to leadership contd...

• Situational Approach1. This theory believed that leaders are the product of a given

situation.

2. Approach was to identify these situational factors which interact to determine leader behavior.

3. Appropriate leader behavior varies from situation to situation.

4. Fred Fiedler’s LPC Theory.

5. Hersey and Blanchard Theory.

6. Robert House’s Path Goal Theory.

7. Leader member exchange theory.



LPC Theory

• Assumes that leader’s effectiveness is based on situational contingency which is further the result of interaction between Favorableness of the situation and leadership style.

• The model suggests that leader effectiveness depends on whether the leader’s natural leadership style is appropriately matched to the situation.

• Identified two leadership styles- Task oriented and Relationship oriented with the help of a questionnaire ie the Least Preferred Co worker (LPC).

• Favorableness of the situation is determined by Leader-Member relation, Task structure and Position Power.

• Leader-Member relations- Refers to the relation between the leader and his work group. If they have a high degree mutual trust, respect and confidence situation is favorable.

• Task structure- Extent to which the group’s task is well defined. Refers to the clarity and ambiguity of operational procedures.

• Position Power- Extent to which the leader has reward power.• Fiedler assumes that an individual’s leadership style is fixed, so if situation and

leader style don’t match either change the leader or change the situation.



Graphic Representation of Fiedler’s Model


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Used to determine which type of leader

to use in a given

situation





Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory

• Given by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard.• Introduced a new dimension of measuring leader effectiveness ie

follower’s readiness.• Readiness= Ability+Willingness• Essence was that leadership style gets influenced by the

characteristics of the group to be led.• Variables identified were Task behavior and Relationship

behavior.• Regardless of what leader does effectiveness depends on action of the

followers.• Follower readiness refers to the behavior of followers, their attitude

towards work and willingness to take responsibility.• Identified highly directive to a Laissez- faire approach.• Most effective leader behavior depends on the ability and willingness

level of the followers to assume responsibility.• R1 fits into S1, R2 into S2, R3 into S3 and R4 into S4.



Path goal theory

• Given by Robert House.• Leaders need to provide information, support and resources to help followers

achieve the goals.• Help clarify the path and to make valued and desired rewards available at the

workplace.• Identified two variables- Leader Behavior and Situational factors.• Leader Behavior- Directive, Supportive, Participative and Achievement

Oriented. • Situational factors involve: Characteristics of subordinates and

Environmental characteristics.• Role of leader is to ensure that path to goals is clearly understood.• Rewards play a very important role.• Unlike Fiedler, House assumes that leaders are flexible and that the same

leader can display any or all these behaviors depending on the situation.



Path-Goal Model

• Two classes of contingency variables:

– Environmental are outside of employee control

– Subordinate factors are internal to employees


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Leader Member Exchange Theory

• LMX Premise:

– Because of time pressures, leaders form a special relationship with a small group of followers: the “in-group”

– This in-group is trusted and gets more time and attention from the leader (more “exchanges”)

– All other followers are in the “out-group” and get less of the leader’s attention and tend to have formal relationships with the leader (fewer “exchanges”)

– Leaders pick group members early in the relationship– In group members have higher level of satisfaction and performance.– Each leader follower relationship is referred to as the “vertical dyad”.



LMX Model


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Http:// Copyright 2007 – Biz/ed Meaning of Leadership Process of influencing people, understanding their needs and aspirations, setting