LEADERSHIP
What do President Robert Mugabe, Ronald Regan, Winston Churchill, Barrack Obama and or Martin Luther King Jr have in common? All these great men were and are some are still great leaders. All had stronger influence on their followers; in this chapter we examine leaders and the process of leadership, because leadership is very important in organisational life.
Leadership
It is the ability to influence people toward the accomplishment of goals. Leadership is associated with the determination of the goals, a vision for the future and the process of change to reach the goals and the future. Leadership is about helping people do things they would not normally do.
Formalvs. Informal leadership
It is associated with the individual who has explicit designation from the organisation as the leader. Whether elected or appointed, the formal leader has the position of leader of the group.
Within a group, informal leadership is associated with the individual who influences group members even without the organisation’s formal designation.
The formally designated leader is wise to partner with the informal leader to help influence organizational members.
This is particularly important and true in Total Quality organisations that have empowered individuals to work on systems improvement to deliver greater value to customers.
Organisational Leadership versus Interpersonal leadership
Leaders are found in organizations and in interpersonal situations. The biggest difference is the establishment and communication of goals.
An organisational leader will spend considerable effort to formulate and articulate the goals to be implemented, thereby establishing the direction for change.
Articulation of the goals enables the organisational members either to buy into the goals or reject them.
An interpersonal leader may try to influence others for the sake of his or her individual needs and personal goals. Gang leaders are examples of interpersonal leaders who influence others to do things that are out of the mainstream of acceptable behaviour.
Power
Central to any consideration of leadership is a discussion of power. It is important to understand how power operates and to be aware of the different bases or sources of power.
What is power?
Power is the potential ability to influence other’s attitudes or behaviour. Whereas powers to potential, leadership refers to the actual use of that power to influence others. In most organizational settings we are interested in the ability to influence behaviour.
Five Bases of Power
The ability to influence others arises from at least five different bases or sources of power: coercive, expert, legitimate, referent and reward.
All five power bases are predicated on the followers’ perception that the power holders can influence or mediate some outcome. The perception may be different form the reality, but what is important is that the power holders maintain the perception or image that they can influence the desired outcomes.
Effective managers maintain as many of the power bases as possible. Then they can match the use of those bases to the specific person or situation.
Coercive Power
Arises from the perception in the followers that the power holder has ability to mediate punishment. Sometimes the power holder may not actually be able to administerthe punishment but fosters the impression that he or she does control the punishment. Punishment in organisations can be in the form of intrinsic and extrinsic. It may take the form of criticism, a letter of reprimand, a demotion, a pay cut, and suspension or termination form employment.
Punishment should be in private, fit the punishment to the infraction and be consistent.
Expert Power
Expert power derives from the perception by the followers that the power holder has needed information or special knowledge for the followers. Information can be a source of power I many organisations. Such expert power may be held for example, by professional employees and secretaries who are not in formal leadership positions.
This power base may be completely independent of formal power. It is important for expert power holders to promote an image of expertise, maintain credibility and avoid threatening the self-esteem of others.
Legitimate power
Legitimate power arises from the followers’ perception that the power holder has the proper to direct activities because of the position occupied. Legitimate power is usually associated wit formal authority in organisations and ahs a base in a position description or a charter.
In organisations it is not unusual to see legitimate power reflected in symbols like size and location of offices, amount and quality of office furniture, perks, signature authority and spending authority.
To maintain legitimate power, power holders are advised to follow proper channels to communicate the legitimacy of their requests, to exercise power regularly to let others know that power is real and to verify that the requests are appropriate. Department heads who remind people that they are the ‘boss’ are relying on legitimate power.
Referent Power
Referent power arises from the followers’ identification and respect for the power holder and from their desire to be like the power holder. Referent power which can be the most powerful of all the power bases, is associated with charisma, trust respect, emotional involvement, imitation and a willingness to follow.
Political leaders like President Robert Mugabe. Referent power can be especially powerful if the power holders select subordinates like themselves individually who cherish similar values, traits, experiences and behaviours.
A leader who reminds followers of some individual or organizational value such as integrity or teamwork is relying on referent power.
Reward Power
Reward power stems from the follower’s perception tat the power holder can mediate valued rewards. The rewards may be both intrinsic, like praise and recognition, and extrinsic\, like a promotion, pay raise, or favorable performance appraisal.
To maintain reward power, leaders should control as many rewards as possible. To influence behaviour with rewards, leaders need to offer coveted rewards, offer credible rewards and link the rewards to desired behaviour. For example, offering a trip o Hawaii to the top sales performer may have no reward power for person who hates to travel.
Power and Networking
Power flows in many directions in organisations that use cross-functional teams and leaderless groups. It is common, therefore for leaders to maintain contacts or networks of individuals and groups in organisations. Such networks can be sources of information for expert power and channels to distribute power.
Using Power Responsibly
Organisational leaders who have several power bases at their disposal must be careful to use the power responsibility. Several power bases in one leader can result in very powerful, all encompassing control over others. For example Sekesai Makwavara the former Harare City Mayor used power to personal gains when she bought curtains worth Billions of Zimbabwean Dollars at the expense of the rate payers.
The Traits Approach
The traits approach to leadership studies the characteristics or traits that leaders have in common.
List of Leadership Traits
Many studies of leadership traits have been made a variety of traits have been discussed. One of the more popular lists includes the following leadership traits:
- intelligence at least equal to the average of the group
- verbal ability
- past achievement in scholarship and athletics
- emotional mutuality and stability
- persistence and a drive for continuing achievement
- a need for status and economic success
Limits of the traits approach
On surface, the traits approach makes sense. However, many follow up studies reveal disagreement about which traits predict effective leader behaviour. The traits may include only the minimally sufficient conditions. Many of the traits are also found in non-leaders.
A new, diverse workforce may place new demands on leaders and negate some of old traits. For all of these reasons, the Traits Approach has been discredited and is not widely use in organisations today.
Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory
Major situational approach to leadership is Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard’sSituationalleadership Theory. The theory starts with two dimensions, comparable to the Leadership Grid Models and the Consideration and Initiating Structure as Leadership Styles.
The Situational LeadershipTheory is a contingency approach to leadership that links the leaders’ relationship behaviour and task behaviour to the readiness of followers. Readiness of followers is their ability to perform their job independently, their ability to assume additional responsibility and their desire to achieve success. Follower readiness has little to do with chronological age.
The bell shaped curve in the figure below prescribes when a specific leadership style should be used as a function of the readiness of followers. The theory holds that leader behaviour should shift from (1) high task and low relationship to (2) high task and high relationship to (3) high relationship and low to (4) low task and low relationship as followers move from low readiness to high readiness.
A follower is at low readiness at the point of joining an organisation and prior to training.
High task behavior is an appropriate leadership style to use with a follower who needs direction at that time. As the individual receives more training and accumulates more job experiences, the leader may evolve to less tasks behaviour.
As the follower becomes fully trained and well experienced, low task behaviour and low relationship behaviour are needed fromthe leader. This is the situation in many Total quality organisations that spend previously unthinkable amounts on training.
Once the individual has received extensive training and is working a cross functional self managed team, little interaction is needed with the formal leader. Indeed, many TQM organisations are investing in continual, extensive employee training and are evolving to leaderless, self managed groups.
In terms of organizational structure, layers of leadership are being eliminated as the training is being done by the group and or a large training office.
Source: Adapted from Paul heresy and Kenneth H Blanchard Management ofOrganisational Behaviour: Utilizing Human Resources, 6th Ed, p. 306.
Managerial Grid
Fielder’s Leadership Contingency Model
One of the most comprehensive and complex contingency models of leadership is Fielder’smodel. A central feature of Fielder’s theory is the extent o which the leader’s style is relationship oriented and task oriented.
Relationship orientation is conceptually related to the consideration and the concern for people expressed in the other theories, and task orientation is comparable to the initiating structure and the concern for production.
The leader’s style is measured by the Least – Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale, which is a questionnaire that measures relationship orientation versus task orientation according to the leader’s description of his or her least-preferred co-worker.
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership states that leadership success is determined by the degree of task structure, the degree of leader-position power, and the relationship between the leader and the followers.
Leader-member relationship is the extent to which the leader feels accepted by the followers.
Tasks structure is the degree to which the task and the goals are clearly outlined.
Leader-position power is the extent to which the leader has formal authority over subordinates.
The leadership Paradigm - Rethinking leadership
During times of change it is critical to engage the commitment of employees n the context of shared values and a shared vision.
For managing change the notion of transformational leadership is regarded as particularly relevant (Sadler, 1997).
Transformational leadership is seen as a contrast to the Western paradigm of transactional leadership in which the leader and followers are regarded as very separate entities, with separate needs.
Transactional leadership occurs when managers take the initiative in offering some form of need satisfaction in return for something valued by employees, such as pay, promotion, improved job satisfaction or recognition. (Sadler, 1997)
In transformational leadership, the needs of leaders’ and followers are regarded as more interdependent, involving relationships of mutual trust between leaders and those being led.
In 199, Bass and Avolio (in Sadler, 1997) suggested that transformational leadership has four components.
Idealized influence. Having a clear vision and sense of purpose. Such leaders are able to win the trust and respect of followers, by showing them they can accomplish more than they believed possible. These leaders build a base for future missions which enables them to obtain extra efforts from followers.
Individual consideration. Paying attention to the needs and potential for development of their individual followers. Delegating, coaching, mentoring and giving constructive feedback.
Intellectual stimulation. Actively soliciting new ideas and new ways of doing things.
Inspiration. Motivating people, generating enthusiasm, setting an example, being seen to share the load.
Differentiating transactional and Transformational Leadership
Tichy and Devanna (1986) observed a number of transformational leaders in action and drew the conclusion that they shared a number o common characteristics that differentiated them form transformational leaders.
They clearly see themselves as change agents. They set out to make a difference and to transform the organisation for which they are responsible.
They are courageous. They can deal with resistance, they take a stand, take risks, confront reality,. They are like pieces of bamboo that can be bent wildly during a storm or stampede but are able to right themselves when clam is restored.
They believe in people. They have a belief in unlimited human potential and an optimism that goes beyond already well-developed beliefs in the importance of motivation, trust and empowerment.
They are driven by a strong set of values.
They are life-long learners. They view mistakes, both theirs and others, as learning opportunities
They are able to handle complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
They are visionaries.
Change and quantum leadership
Michael Quigley (1997), director of the Center for Collaborative Leadership at Rivier College (Nashua, New Hampshire, USA), claims that future organisations wanting to be successful in an environment of change and uncertainty (quantum organisations) will require quantum leaders at all levels of the organization - both organisational and personal/individual leadership.
According to Quigley effective leaders of the new quantum organization will be recognised by the following distinct characteristics:
Quantum leaders are forever looking for new ways in which the core competencies can interact more effectively to make more creatively possible. The living, creative organisation is not the same as the one on the organisational chart, which only tells us how the functions are arranged. An innovation can not be planed in a logical or linear manner. Leaders do not expect results on demand, but rather they cerate the interactive process by which improved performance can be realized.
Quantum leaders ensure that the system has a sense of direction, an aim and a purpose, as well as a plan of action. Devoid of this direction the components of the system will fall apart. Leaders must ensure that the available energy within the systems is channeled in a purposeful and positive manner to achieve the aim of the organisation.
Quantum leadership is about creation of energy not controlling inertia. Leaders should allow employees to think beyond boundaries of specialisation and understanding of the connectedness of all disciplines for developmental purposes.
The leader of the quantum system is a person of spiritual and moral integrity, who develops a clear vision and sense of purpose. The leader insures others to follow through their free commitment and ownership of the vision.
Quantum leaders must be servant leaders who understand both intuitively and formally, the available talent of associates. Such leaders operate as respected mentors and coaches in leading everyone to achieve the purpose of the system.
NB Effective leadership is focused on finding the solutions for the future that reside collectively in the organisation and enabling them to be implemented.
Transition in Leadership Theory
Conflict management
As noted earlier in the earlier chapters, an organisation consists of groups of stakeholders, each of which contributes to the organisation in return for rewards.
These stakeholders have to work with one another in order for the organisation to realize its objectives.
Any problems that may arise between these members may lead to conflict.
Conflict defined
It is the clash that occurs when the goal-directed behaviour of one group blocks or thwarts the goals of another.
Because goals, preferences and interests of stakeholder groups differ, conflict is inevitable in organisations.
Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict
Why is some conflict good for an organisation?
Conflict can be beneficial because it can overcome organizational inertia and lead to organizational learning and change.
Conflict between different mangers or between different stakeholders can improve decision making and organizational learning by revealing new ways of looking a a problem or the false or erroneous assumptions that distort decision making.
Relationship between conflict and organizational effectiveness