Study Guide for Mgmt 655 Midterm
1. Definitions of leadership (Yukl’s, Lipman-Blumen’s, and De Pree’s)
A working definition:
“Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about
what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual
and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.”
Definitions Abound…
TABLE 1-1Definitions of Leadership
•Leadership is “the behavior of an individual . . . directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal.” (Hemphill & Coons, 1957, pg. 7)
•Leadership is “the influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organization.” (Katz & Kahn, 1978, pg. 528)
•“Leadership is exercised when persons . . . mobilize . . . institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so as to arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of followers.” (Burns, 1978, pg. 18)
•“Leadership is realized in the process whereby one or more individuals succeed in attempting to frame and define the reality of others.” (Smircich & Morgan, 1982, pg. 258)
•Leadership is “the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement.” (Rauch & Behling, 1984, pg. 46)
•“Leadership is about articulating visions, embodying values, and creating the environment within which things can be accomplished.” (Richards & Engle, 1986, pg. 206)
•“Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose.” (Jacobs & Jaques, 1990, pg. 281)
•Leadership “is the ability to step outside the culture . . . to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive.” (Schein, 1992, pg. 2)
•“Leadership is the process of making sense of what people are doing together so that people will understand and be committed.” (Drath & Palus, 1994, p. 4)
•Leadership is “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization. . . . ” (House et al., 1999, pg. 184)
Leadership-Defined…Added later:
· Moral development of followers
· Servant
· Authenticity
· Enthusiastic commitment rather than reluctant compliance
De Pree’s Perspective: Leadership as Responsibility
· Define reality
· Service to followers
· Say thank you
Lipman-Blumen’s Perspective: Leadership as Responsibility
· Leadership as a responsibility, not a privilege.
· The valuable “inconvenience” of leadership.
2. Characteristics of Managers in descriptive studies
TABLE 2-1Managerial Position Duties and Responsibilities
Supervising: Improving the performance of subordinates by working with them to analyze their strengths and weaknesses, providing training, developing skills, scheduling their work, and setting performance goals.
Planning and Organizing: Formulating short-term plans, carrying out projects, and developing budgets, determining optimal allocation and utilization of resources; translating long-range plans into short-term operational goals; recommending and developing operational policies and procedures.
Decision Making: Making business decisions without hesitation in an unstructured situation; authorizing minor or major deviations from established procedures to meet new or unusual situations.
Monitoring Indicators: Monitoring internal and external forces that may affect the company, including performance indicators, corporate finances and assets, market conditions, and cultural, social, and political climate.
Controlling: Developing schedules and cost-time estimates for producing or delivering products or services, tracking productivity, assuring the quality of products or effectiveness of services, and analyzing operational effectiveness.
Representing: Answering questions and responding to complaints from outsiders; communicating with outsiders to promote company relations; negotiating with outsiders; conducting promotional activities to establish or maintain company image; and convincing others of your point of view.
Coordinating: Communicating with others in the company over whom one has no direct control in order to share information, meet previously established schedules, solve problems, and achieve objectives; maintaining a smooth working relationship with peers; mediating disagreements and conflicts between key individuals.
Consulting: Keeping current with technical developments in one’s field; introducing new techniques or technologies into the organization; and acting as expert advisor, consultant, or troubleshooter for other managers.
Administering: Performing basic administrative activities such as locating information on company practices and procedures, analyzing routine information, or maintaining detailed and accurate records and documents.
3. Mintzberg’s managerial roles
Largely predetermined by the nature of the managerial position, but each manager has some flexibility in how to interpret and enact each role:
Information-Processing Roles
• Liaison
• Monitor - Managers continually seek information from a variety of sources,
such as reading reports and memos, attending meetings and briefings, and conducting observational tours.
• Disseminator - Managers have special access to sources of information not
available to subordinates. Some of this information is factual, and some of it concerns the stated preferences of individuals desiring to influence the manager, including people at high levels of authority. Some of the information must be passed on to subordinates, either in its original form or after interpretation and editing by the manager.
• Spokesperson - Managers are also obliged to transmit information and express
value statements to people outside their organizational subunit. Middle managers and lower-level managers must report to their superiors; a chief executive must report to the board of directors or owners. Each of these managers is also expected to serve as a lobbyist and public relations representative for the organizational subunit when dealing with superiors and outsiders. As Mintzberg (1973, p. 76) points out, “To speak effectively for his organization and to gain the respect of outsiders, the manager must demonstrate an up-to-the-minute knowledge of his organization and its environment.”
Decision-Making Roles
• Entrepreneur - The manager of an organization or one of its subunits acts as an
initiator and designer of controlled change to exploit opportunities for improving the
existing situation. Planned change takes place in the form of improvement projects
such as development of a new product, purchase of new equipment, or reorganization of formal structure.
• Disturbance Handler - a manager deals with sudden crises that cannot be ignored, as distinguished from problems that are voluntarily solved by the manager to exploit opportunities (entrepreneur role). The crises are caused by unforeseen events, such as conflict among subordinates, the loss of a key subordinate, a fire or accident, a strike, and so on. A manager typically gives this role priority over all of the others.
• Resource Allocator - Managers exercise their authority to allocate resources
such as money, personnel, material, equipment, facilities, and services. Resource allocation is involved in managerial decisions about what is to be done, in the manager’s authorization of subordinates’ decisions, in the preparation of budgets, and in the scheduling of the manager’s own time. By retaining the power to allocate resources, the manager maintains control over strategy formation and acts to coordinate and integrate subordinate actions in support of strategic objectives.
• Negotiator - Any negotiations requiring a substantial commitment of resources
will be facilitated by the presence of a manager having the authority to make this commitment. Managers may participate in several different types of negotiations, including negotiations with unions involving labor-management contracts or grievances; contract negotiations with important customers, suppliers, or consultants; employment negotiations with key personnel; and other nonroutine negotiations (e.g., acquisition of another firm, application for a large loan).
Interpersonal Roles
• Liaison - includes behavior intended to establish and maintain a web of relationships with individuals and groups outside of a manager’s organizational unit.
• Figurehead - duties include signing documents (e.g., contracts, expense authorizations), presiding at certain meetings and ceremonial events (e.g., retirement dinner for a subordinate), participating in other rituals or ceremonies, and receiving official visitors.
• Leader - A number of managerial activities are expressly concerned with the leader role, including hiring, training, directing, praising, criticizing, promoting, and dismissing. However, the leader role pervades all managerial activities, even those with some other basic purpose.
4. Behaviors identified in Ohio State and University of Michigan Studies and results of this stream of research
Ohio State
Initiating Structure (concern for task)
• letting group members know what is expected of them
• maintaining definite standards of performance
• scheduling the work to be done
• asking that group members follow standard rules and regulations
(concern for people)
• being friendly and approachable
• treating all group members as his/her equal
• looking out for the personal welfare of group members
• making him/herself accessible to group members
Research Findings
n Negative relationship between consideration behaviors and turnover and number of grievances filed.
n Positive relationship between initiating structure behaviors and intentions to turnover and number of grievances filed.
n Curvilinear relationship—there is a point when “C” no longer influences turnover intentions and grievances.
Questionnaire research on effective leadership behavior was strongly influenced
by the early research at Ohio State University during the 1950s. The initial task of the researchers was to identify categories of relevant leadership behavior and develop questionnaires to measure how often a leader used these behaviors. The researchers compiled a list of about 1,800 examples of leadership behavior, then reduced the list to 150 items that appeared to be good examples of important leadership functions. A preliminary questionnaire composed of these items was used by samples of military and civilian personnel to describe the behavior of their supervisors (Fleishman, 1953; Halpin & Winer, 1957; Hemphill & Coons, 1957).
Leadership Behaviors
Factor analysis of the questionnaire responses indicated that subordinates perceived their supervisor’s behavior primarily in terms of two broadly defined categories labeled “consideration” and “initiating structure.” The two types of behavior were relatively independent, which means that a leader’s use of one behavior was not necessarily the same as his or her use of the other behavior.
· Consideration. This category of behavior involves leader concern for people and interpersonal relationships. The leader acts in a friendly and supportive manner and shows concern for the needs and feelings of subordinates. Examples include doing personal favors for subordinates, finding time to listen to a subordinate with a problem, backing up or defending a subordinate, consulting with subordinates on important matters, being willing to accept suggestions from subordinates, and treating a subordinate as an equal.
· Initiating Structure. This category of behavior involves leader concern for accomplishing the task. The leader defines and structures his or her own role and the roles of subordinates toward attainment of task goals. Examples include assigning tasks to subordinates, maintaining definite standards of performance, asking subordinates to follow standard procedures, emphasizing the importance of meeting deadlines, criticizing poor work, and coordinating the activities of different subordinates.
Based on the results of the initial studies, two revised and shortened questionnaires were constructed to measure consideration and initiating structure: the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ), and the Supervisory Behavior
Description (SBD or SBDQ). Although these two questionnaires are often treated as
equivalent, they differ somewhat with regard to the content of the behavior scales
(Schriesheim & Stogdill, 1975). A third questionnaire, called the Leader Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ), has been treated by some researchers as a measure of behavior, but it is viewed more appropriately as a measure of leader attitudes.
Eventually, researchers at Ohio State University developed a fourth questionnaire,
called the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, Form XII. In the LBDQ XII, the scope of consideration and initiating structure was narrowed, and 10 additional scales were added (Stogdill, Goode, & Day, 1962). Some of the new scales measured aspects of leadership behavior (e.g., representation, integration), but other scales measured traits (e.g., uncertainty tolerance) or skills (i.e., predictive accuracy, persuasiveness). It is interesting to note that, even after the new scales were added, most researchers continued to use only the consideration and initiating structure scales.
Results in Survey Research
The Ohio State leadership questionnaires and modified versions of them have been
used in hundreds of survey studies to determine how the two types of leader behavior are related to subordinate satisfaction or performance (Bass, 1990). Scholars have used metaanalyses to examine the overall results (e.g., Fisher & Edwards, 1988; Judge, Piccolo, & Illies, 2004), but the results are difficult to interpret when several different behavior measures and several different types of criteria are included in the same analysis. The studies with all measures from the same source have inflated correlations and should not be analyzed with studies that have an independent measure of effectiveness.
The only strong and consistent finding in the survey research was a positive relationship between consideration and subordinate satisfaction. As suggested by the Fleishman and Harris study, subordinates are usually more satisfied with a leader who is at least moderately considerate. Initiating structure was not consistently related to subordinate satisfaction; in some studies subordinates were more satisfied with a structuring leader, but other studies found the opposite relationship or no significant relationship. Consideration and initiating structure both had a weak positive correlation with indicators of leadership effectiveness, but here again the correlation was not significant in many of the studies. The weakest results were found in studies that had an independent measure of leadership effectiveness. Unlike Fleishman and Harris, most researchers neglected to test for the possibility of curvilinear relationships or an interaction between the two types of behavior.
Michigan Leadership Studies
n Leadership Behaviors
n Task-oriented behaviors
n Relations-oriented behaviors
n Participative leadership
A second major program of research on leadership behavior was carried out by researchers at the University of Michigan at approximately the same time as the Ohio State leadership studies. The focus of the Michigan research was the identification of relationships among leader behavior, group processes, and measures of group performance. The initial research was a series of field studies with a variety of leaders, including section managers in an insurance company (Katz, Maccoby, & Morse, 1950), supervisors in a large manufacturing company (Katz & Kahn, 1952), and supervisors of railroad section gangs (Katz, Maccoby, Gurin, & Floor, 1951). Information about managerial behavior was collected with interviews and questionnaires. Objective measures of group productivity were used to classify managers as relatively effective or ineffective. A comparison of effective and ineffective managers revealed some interesting differences in managerial behavior, which were summarized by Likert (1961, 1967).