Comprehensive Exam Study Guide

Comprehensive Exam Study Guide

Leadership (2010) by Peter G. Northouse

Ch. 1: Introduction

Leadership: process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (3).

· Involves influence

· Occurs in groups

· Includes attention to common goals

Trait vs. Process (qualities vs. interactions; Assigned vs. Emergent (formal position within an organization vs. group members responding to someone)

Leadership and Power (7):

· Referent Power – based on followers’ affection for leader (personal power)

· Expert Power – based on perception of leader’s competence (personal power)

· Legitimate Power – associated with job authority (position power)

· Reward Power – derived from capacity to reward (position power)

· Coercive Power – derived from capacity to punish (position power)

Leadership (establishing direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring);

and Management (planning/budgeting, organizing/staffing, controlling/problem solving):

· Similarities: influence; working with people; concerned with goals

· Differences: leadership was studied since Aristotle; management at turn of 20th c, to reduce chaos in organizations

Ch. 2: Trait Approach

Origin – “Great Man” theories of early 20th c.

· Stogdill (1948, 1974): surveyed and identified leadership traits: drive for responsibility, persistence in pursuing goals, risk-taking, drive in social situations, self-confidence, ability to influence others and absorb stress and other (17)

· Mann (1959) adds intelligence, masculinity, extroversion, conservatism, dominance

· 1990s – Focus centers on “social intelligence”

Definition – organizations will work better if managers have designated leadership profiles, singled out by personality assessments. The “right people” with the “right traits” will lead better.

“Big 5” Personality Factors: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness have been correlated to leadership ability (especially extraversion)

Strengths and Criticisms of Theory

· Strengths : intuitive appeal; a century of research; highlights the leader; provides benchmarks

· Criticisms: no definitive definition of traits; fails to consider situations; subjective; not useful for training and developing leaders

Ch. 3: Skills Approach

Origin: Perspective existed for years, but received impetus from:

· Robert Katz’s “Skills of an Effective Leader” (1955) in Harvard Business Review placed emphasis on developable skills and abilities, advocated “Three-Skill Approach”

· 1990s studies emphasized leader’s ability to solve complex organizational problems

Katz’s “Three-Skill Approach” proposes that leaders should have all 3 skills: top management needs less technical skill; middle management needs all 3 equally; supervisory management needs less conceptual skill

· Technical Skill – competence in a specialized area (e.g. software programming)

· Human Skill – working with people

· Conceptual Skill – working with ideas and concepts

Mumford, et.al. (2000): Capability Model examines relationship between leader’s knowledge/skills and performance

· Leadership capabilities can be developed over time through education and experience

· Many people have leadership potential

· 5 components: competencies (problem solving skills, social judgment skills knowledge), individual attributes (general cognitive ability, which is innate, crystallized cognitive ability, which is acquired, motivation, and personality) leadership outcomes (problem-solving and performance), career experience, environmental influences

Model works by providing a map for how to achieve effective leadership in an organization

Strengths and Criticisms:

· Strengths: leadership-centered and focuses on ability to develop skills; intuitive appeal; expansively inclusive of many components; provides a structure consistent with curricula of leadership programs

· Criticisms: breadth extends beyond boundary of leadership; weak in predictive value; inclusive of traits while claiming not to be a trait model

Ch. 4: Style Approach

Emphasizes behavior of leader: task-behaviors (initiating structure) and relationship behaviors (consideration) are the focus

Origin:

· Ohio State Studies (late 1940s): based on Stogdill (1948) developed Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) found that the two behaviors (task and relationship) were distinct, on two different continua: the degree to which a leader exhibits one behavior is not the degree to which s/he exhibits the other

· University of Michigan Studies focused on impact of leader’s behavior on performance of small groups: identified as key employee orientation (strong human relation emphasis) and production orientation (focus on production; sees workers as means to end)

Blake and Mouton (1964) Managerial Grid (Leadership Grid): focuses on concern for production and concern for people and portrays 5 leadership styles:

· Authority-compliance – stresses task and job requirements; sees people as means of getting job done; results driven; leader is controlling, demanding, hard driving, overpowering

· Country-club Management – stresses personal relationships, not tasks; leader creates positive working environment by being helpful, comforting, uncontroversial

· Impoverished Management – leader is unconcerned with task or persons, uninvolved, apathetic, withdrawn

· Middle of the Road Management – leader is a compromiser between concern for worker and task

· Team Management – leaders emphasizes both task and relationships and promotes participation

· Paternalism/Maternalism – leader is “benevolent dictator” acts graciously but for the sake of goal accomplishment

· Opportunism – leader uses any combination of styles for personal advancement

Strengths and Criticisms:

· Strengths – marks the change in research from a focus on personal traits; validated by many studies; first to conceptualize leadership as a give-and-take between relationships and tasks; heuristic (gives broad conceptual map from which leaders can learn about themselves)

· Criticisms – research has not shown how leadership style correlates to outcomes; fails to find universally effective leadership style; it advocates a high-task/high-relationship style as ideal, which is not supported by research

Ch. 5: Situational Approach

Origin: Hershey and Blanchard (1969), based on Reddin’s Management Style Theory (1967)

Focus – leadership in situations; different situations require different types of leadership

· Leadership requires directive and supportive dimension, to varying degrees at different times depending on capacity of employees, who must be assessed by leader: leaders must match style to fit capacity of employees

· Situational Leadership Model of Blanchard (1985): four leadership styles include high supportive/low directive; high directive/high supportive/ low supportive/low directive; high directive/low supportive, founded on leader’s ability to delegate, support coach, direct.

· Leaders must continually assess employees, who move forward and backward on developmental/competence continuum

Strengths and Criticisms:

· Strengths – has stood test of time; straightforward and easily understood and applied; prescriptive (tells one what to do and not do in particular circumstances); emphasizes leader flexibility

· Criticisms – few research studies to justify it; ambiguous depiction of employee developmental levels; evidence does not support the prescriptive relationship that the model puts forth between leader and subordinates

Ch. 6: Contingency Theory

Origin: Fiedler (1964; 1967) studied leadership styles particularly in military and concluded that leadership styles are contingent on situations.

Leadership styles are task-motivated or relationship-motivated and situations are characterized by leader-member relations, task-structure, and position-power (of leader). The leadership style will be effective dependent on the type of situation, to varying degrees (see complicated chart on p. 112).

Least-preferred Co-worker Measure used to determine leader effectiveness in various situations: LPC is obtained when leader describes his least preferred co-worker according to 18 characteristics, such as “boring…interesting, quarrelsome…harmonious” (see measure on p. 122). The LPC score, then, gauges the leader’s effectiveness in particular situations.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

· Strengths – supported by research; forces us to consider influence of situations; predictive of efficacy of leaders in particular contexts; does not require a leader to be effective in all situations; useful in developing leadership profiles

· Criticisms – fails to explain why certain styles are more effective in certain situations; LPC scale does not seem valid; fails to explain what organizations should do when a mismatch occurs between leader and situation

Ch. 7: Path-Goal Theory

About how leaders motivate subordinates to accomplish goals: emphasizes relationship between leader’s style and characteristics of subordinates/work setting. Leader challenged to use a style that fits subordinates motivational needs.

Leadership Types: directive, supportive, participative (subordinate share in decision-making), achievement-oriented (subordinates encouraged to achieve at highest level possible)

Subordinate Characteristics: determine how a leader’s behavior is interpreted in a given work context.

· Needs affiliation prefer supportive leadership

· Desires control requires directive leadership

Task Characteristics: include design of subordinates tasks, the formal authority system of the organization, and the primary work group of subordinates

A focus is on helping subordinates overcome obstacles: the leader chooses a style that works best with the needs of subordinates and the work they are doing (see chart on p. 131): leader is to coach, guide, direct, clarify goals, and help workers avoid obstacles

Strengths and Criticism:

· Strengths – provides framework to understand how leader’s style affects subordinates’ satisfaction and work; the only theory to deal directly with motivation; the model is very practical by highlighting ways a leader can help subordinates

· Criticisms – overly complex and difficult to interpret; receives only partial support from research; fails to explain adequately relationship between leader behavior and worker motivation; puts the onus on the leader, as if leadership is a one-way event

Ch. 8: Leader-Member Exchange Theory

Leadership as a process of interaction between leader and followers: LMX describes and prescribes leadership and advocates that the leader from a dyadic relationship with all subordinates

Origin: First termed Vertical Dyad Linkage (VDL) put worker into “in-group” who were involved and willing to negotiate with leader and “out-group” who adhered to a formal employment contract and do only prescribed roles

Leadership-Making: leaders encouraged to develop high-quality exchanges with all workers, making all subordinates feel part of “in-group”; this often progresses in the three stages of stranger phase, acquaintance phase, mature partnership phase

Strengths and Criticism:

· Strengths – strong descriptive theory, clarifying workings of in- and out-groups; the only leadership theory to use concept of dyadic relationship of leader/followers; stresses importance of communication; warns leaders against allowing biases to determine in- and out-group; supported by research

· Criticisms – runs counter to idea of fairness, since in-group receives special attention and becomes “privileged group”; ideas of theory not fully developed; no empirical studies substantiate how to measure leader-member exchanges and their quality

Ch. 9: Transformational Leadership

Part of “New Leadership Paradigm” popular since 1980s: TL is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals, and in transforming people

Origin: First coined by Downton (1973) and emerged as important after MacGregor Burns’ Leadership ((1978), which distinguished between transactional models that focus on exchanges between leaders and followers, and transformational leadership that creates a connection with others that raises level of motivation and morality in both leader and followers. Closely connected to notion of “charisma” and charismatic leadership of House (1976) which posits that effective leaders demonstrate certain traits and behaviors; they also have high expectations and inspire task-relevant motives in followers.

Research:

Bass (1975) expands theory, arguing that TL motivates followers to do more than expected, moving them to transcend self-interest and address higher-level needs

Leadership Factors in TL: 1. Idealized Influence (charisma); 2. Inspirational Motivation; 3. Intellectual Stimulation; 4. Individualized Consideration (leaders provided supportive context);

Transactional leaders, as opposed to Transformational, do not individualize needs of followers or focus on their personal self-development

Bennis and Nannus (1985) surveyed leaders and identified 4 common strategies of Transformational leaders: 1.Had clear vision of future of organization; 2. Were social architects for their organization; 3. Created trust; 4. Used creative deployment of self through positive self-regard.

Kouzes and Posner (1987; 2002) interviewed leaders for “personal best experiences” to construct a model of leadership with 5 fundamental practices: 1. Model the way; 2. Inspire a shared Vision; 3. Challenge the process; 4. Enable others to act; and 5. Encourage the heart

Process: TR leaders empower followers and nurture them to change, by being strong role models with a highly developed sense of moral values; they create a vision of the collective interests of all and become social architects, establishing clear organizational values and norms and involving themselves in organizational culture.

Strengths and Criticisms:

· Strengths – widely researched; intuitive appeal; treats leadership as process; incorporates other leadership models; stresses followers’ needs and values; proven effective

· Criticisms – lacks conceptual clarity; the MLQ measure is challenged; treats leadership as a personality trait, rather than a behavior; elitist and undemocratic; has potential to be abused

Ch. 10: Authentic Leadership

New leadership approach that focuses on “genuine,” “real” leadership.

Definitions:

· Intrapersonal Definition: focuses on what goes on within leader (his self-concept, self-regulation, self-knowledge). Shamir and Eilam (2005) suggest that the authentic leader leads from conviction and is original, not a copy.

· Developmental Definition: Avolio and Gardner (2005) argue that the authentic leader can be nurtured, not contingent on a fixed trait

· Interpersonal Definition: Eagly (2005) holds leadership to be relational; leader needs to obtain “buy-in” from followers

Approaches:

· Practical:

1. Robert Terry’s Authentic Leadership Approach addresses questions of “What is really, really going on?” and “What are we going to do about it?” Uses “authentic action wheel (p. 209) to diagnose and address problems.

2. Bill George’s Authentic Leadership Approach (George, 2003; George and Sims, 2007) focuses on characteristics of authentic leaders (sense of purpose, passionate, understand values and behaviors toward others, form strong relationships, self-discipline, compassionate)

· Theoretical: from leadership summit at University of Nebraska in 2003

o Walumba and Associates (2008) identified 4 components of authentic leadership: self-awareness; internalized moral perspective; balanced processing, relational transparency

o Other factors influences authentic leadership include: positive psychological capacities, moral reasoning, critical life events, confidence, hope, optimism, resilience

How it Works: The practical approach prescribes how to be authentic leader; the theoretical approach describes what authentic leadership is and what accounts for it.

Strengths and Criticisms:

· Strengths – fulfills need for trustworthy leaders; provides broad guidelines for how to be authentic leader; has explicit moral dimension; argues that authentic leadership values and behaviors can be developed over time; can be measured using the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ)

· Criticism – practical approaches not fully substantiated; moral component not fully explained; whether “psychological components” should be included in factors is questioned; its connection to positive organizational outcomes is not clear

Ch. 11: Team Leadership

Based on notion that leader’s job is to monitor team and ensure team effectiveness: process begins with leader’s mental model of the situation.

Model: (see p. 244): Begins with leadership decisions about whether to take action, based on whether a situation is task- or relational-based, and whether action taken will be internal-task action, internal-relational action, or external-environmental action