Leadership– What is it?

It is art of influencing the behavior of an individuals or group to work willingly and enthusiastically to achieve the specific goals

It is the process of directing and influencing the task related activities of group members

It is influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group goals

So We Can Say---

Leadership involves other peoples- employees or followers to work willingly

All the group members have the power but still the leader will have more power.

It is the use the different form of power to influence followers’ behavior in number of ways.

Leadership is about value. The leader who ignores the more components of leadership may go down in the history.

What the Gurus have to say?

“Leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of goals.” – Stephen Robbins

“Leadership is the process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goal”. – Knootz and Weihrich

Characteristics of Leadership

Influence

Common Goal

Leader and Leadership

Leadership is Situational

Continuous Process

Unidirectional Authority

Importance of Leadership

Initiates action

Providing guidance

Motivation

Builds work environment

Creating confidence

Building morale

Co-ordination

Role of a Leader

Required at all Levels1

Representative of the Organization2

S/He Solicits Support3

Integrate Goals4

Friend, Philosopher and Guide5

Qualities of a Leader

Physical Appearance Vision and Foresight Intelligence Communicative Skills Objective Knowledge of Work Sense of Responsibility Self Confidence and Will

Power Humanist Empathy

Qualities

Leader Vs Manager

Essence Change StabilityFocus Leading people Managing workHave Followers SubordinatesHorizon Long-term Short-termSeeks Vision ObjectivesApproach Sets direction Plans detailDecision Facilitates MakesPower Personal charisma Formal authorityAppeal to Heart HeadEnergy Passion ControlCulture Shapes EnactsDynamic Proactive ReactivePersuasion Sell TellStyle Transformational TransactionalExchange Excitement for work Money for work

Subject Leader Manager

Leader Vs Manager

Subject Leader Manager

Likes Striving ActionWants Achievement ResultsRisk Takes MinimizesRules Breaks MakesConflict Uses AvoidsDirection New roads Existing roadsTruth Seeks EstablishesConcern What is right Being rightCredit Gives TakesBlame Takes Blames

Leadership Mistakes

Leadership Styles

Authoritarian / Autocratic

Laissez-Faire/ Free Rein

Democratic / Participative

Autocratic

Also known as dictatorship / authoritarian Here leader believes in the centralization

of power and authority The leader expects the subordinates to

accept decisions without comment The leader offers rewards to obedient and

efficient subordinates and punishment to inefficient and indiscipline subordinates

Suitable where the followers are uneducated & skilled and prefer to be lead by others

Features of Autocratic Leadership

Leaders make all the decisions without the consultation of the subordinates

Leader issues orders and expect total obedience of the orders

One way communication and leader controls all the information

Provision of strict supervision and control Emphasis on negative motivation Leader sets standards and asks the

subordinates to complete the job as per the standard set

Autocratic

Can be classified into two Strict Autocrat

The leader follows autocratic styles in very strict sense.

He influences his subordinates by using negative motivation techniques

Benevolent Autocrat Leader have centralized decision making power

and authority, he uses positive motivation techniques influence their followers .

In some situation, they may also encourage their followers to provide some suggestions as well.

Autocratic

Advantages It provides strong motivation and reward to

leaders as he has centralized power and authority.

It provides quick decisions as the leader independently take all decisions. Hence it is very much effective for emergency situations.

It is easier for leaders to implement the decisions as the subordinates do not have any right to restrict or question on the decision taken by leader.

It also provides scope for less competent subordinates as the planning, organizing and directing activities are done by leader.

Disadvantages

The subordinates dislike this leadership style due to strict rules & regulations and negative motivation techniques.

It decreases organizational efficiency due to low motivation, frustration and insecurity of employee.

Employees’ potential cannot be used for the benefit of the organization.

Due to the lack of feedback mechanism the corrective actions cannot be taken.

Democratic This style is also known as participative

leadership style or liberal style The leader delegates his power and

authority to his subordinates and takes the decisions in consultation

This leadership style is suitable for those organizations where subordinates are trained, experienced and skilled.

The leader uses the positive motivation techniques

Helps to increase employees’ creativity and develop the cooperation

Features of Democratic Leadership

Emphasis in decision making process Two way communication and exchange of

ideas and experience More scope for use of human creativity

and initiative Reorganization of human values and

treatment as subordinates being part of a organization

Provides importance of team spirit and group effort to gain common goal

Democratic

Advantages The leaders and followers both are involved in the

decision making process There is greater satisfaction of the employees as

there is two way communications Employees ideas and suggestions are also

considered in decision making To some extent employees are given rights to do

their job independently Provides opportunity for the development and

growth of the subordinates. Their creativity is encouraged

Results in high employee morale and productivity. People feels more committed towards their goals

Disadvantages There will be delay in decision making as the

decisions are made with consultation with the employees.

Lower level of employees may not understand the complex nature of organization and their participation may not be effective.

Over the period of time, subordinates may develop the habit of expecting to be consulted on every issue and they may feel frustrated when they are not consulted.

As some levels of freedoms are given to the employees to their work, the problem of discipline may arise among the subordinates.

Autocratic–Democratic, The Difference

Laissez-Faire

This leadership style is also known as ‘Hans off’ or ‘Free Rein’ Style

The leader once determines the policies, programs and limitations for the actions and delegates complete authority & freedom to their followers.

Followers should themselves determine their goals, make the decisions and resolve their problems on their own

The leader serves only as a co-ordinator and facilitator

Laissez-Faire

This leadership technique is mostly appropriate while leading a team of highly motivated and skilled people who have produced excellent work in the past

Primarily horizontal communication between peers.

This leadership style is very rarely used in business organization

Advantages

It increases the job satisfaction and the morale of followers.

It provides maximum scope for the development of followers.

It fully utilizes the followers’ capability. It is effective for research oriented and

creative jobs.

Disadvantages

Followers do not get proper guidance and support from the leaders.

It ignores the contribution of leader; hence it may decrease the efficiency and creativity of leader.

This leadership style is not suitable if the subordinates are less qualified and don’t wish to take responsibilities and authorities.

Perfect View of Leadership

Approaches to Leadership

Behavioral Approach

Result of the presumed failures of early trait studies

Outcome of research from the 1940s through the 1960s

Study of behaviors exhibited by leaders as a means to separate leaders from non-leaders.

This approach of leadership is basically concerned about what a leader actually does and how he does in the job

Ohio State Studies These studies, started in the late 1940s Attempted to find what behaviors

substantially accounted for most of the leadership behavior described by employees.

The research was base on questionnaires to leaders and subordinates. These are known as the Leader Behavior Description

Questionnaire (LDBQ) Supervisor Behavior Description

Questionnaire (SDBQ)

Ohio State Studies

List of more than 1,000 behavioral dimensions the researchers eventually narrowed it down to just two Initiating Structure

This Dimension refers to the extent to which a leader is likely to define and structure his or her role and those of employees in the search for goal attainment.

It includes behavior that attempts to organize work, work relationships, and goals.

Ohio State Studies

Consideration This dimension is the extent to which a

person is likely to have job relationships that are characterized by mutual trust, respect for employees’ ideas, and regard for their feelings.

People who are high in consideration show concern for followers’ comfort, well-being, status, and satisfaction.

Major Finding of this study was that consideration for workers and initiating structure exists simultaneously and in different amounts.

Ohio State Studies

Ohio State Studies

Both factors were found to be associated with effective leadership

They stated that; Followers of leaders who are high in

consideration were more satisfied with their jobs; more motivated, and had more respect for their leader

Leaders who were high in initiating structure typically had higher levels of group and organization productivity along with more positive performance evaluations.

The University of Michigan Studies Roughly contemporary to the Ohio State

studies, A team of researchers lead by Renis Likert

at the University of Michigan undertook the studies in the late 1940s

This set of studies had similar research objectives: To locate behavioral characteristics of leaders

that appeared to be related to measures of performance effectiveness.

They also came up with two dimensions of leadership behavior that were critical

The University of Michigan Studies

Employee-Oriented. Leaders who were employee oriented were

described as emphasizing interpersonal relations. They took a personal interest in the needs of their

employees and accepted individual differences among members.

Production-Oriented. These leaders tended to emphasize the technical

or task aspects of the job. Their main concern was in accomplishing their

group’s

The University of Michigan Studies

The results of these studies were closely related to those from Ohio State.

Employee-oriented leadership is similar to consideration and production-oriented leadership is similar to initiating structure.

The Michigan researchers strongly favored leaders who were employee-oriented in their behavior. These leaders were associated with higher

group productivity and higher job satisfaction.

Blake and Mouton's Leadership Grid

Building from the results of both the Ohio State and Michigan studies,

Blake and Mouton created a leadership assessment instrument that was based on the styles of Concern for people

This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team members, their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding how best to accomplish a task

Blake and Mouton's Leadership Grid

Concern for production This is the degree to which a leader emphasizes

concrete objectives, organizational efficiency and high productivity when deciding how best to accomplish a task

They evaluated a leader’s use of these behaviors, ranking them on a scale of 1 (low) to 9 (high)

This tool is still very popular today and is used in both leadership selection and training programs.

Blake and Mouton's Leadership Grid

Blake and Mouton's Leadership Grid

Using the axis to plot leadership ‘concerns for production’ versus ‘concerns for people’, Blake and Mouton defined the following five leadership styles. Country Club Management (1,9) Team Management (9,9) Middle of the Road Management (5,5) Improvised Management (1,1) Authority Compliance Management (9,1)

Country Club Management (1,9) It refers to the high degree of concern for people in

work settings. Leadership behaviors of this category are more

concerned to satisfy the needs of people and thus to try to maintain relations that lead to a comfortable, friendly organizational atmosphere and work tempo

Team Management (9,9) It refers to the high degree of concern for people and

production of a leader in a work setting. This leadership behavior leads to relationship of trust

and respect through committing people to work for common goals.

Middle of the Road Management (5,5) It refers to the optimum level of concern for

people and production in organizational settings. Leaders of this category believe that adequate

organizational performance is possible through balancing the conditions for work with need satisfaction of people.

Improvised Management (1,1) It refers to the low degree of concern for people and

production. Leaders of this category believe in putting minimum

efforts to get required work done with a view to sustain organization memberships.

Authority Compliance Management (9,1) It refers to the high degree of concern for production

of a leader in the organizational settings. Such a leader concentrates on enhancing work

efficiency and arranging working conditions accordingly.

Behavioral Theory Summary. Leaders who display consideration and structuring behaviors do appear to be more effective.

Situational Approach These models assumes that appropriate

leader behavior varies from one situation to another.

A larger number of studies have shown the leadership is strongly affected by the situation from which the leader has emerged

The goal was to match leadership style with work conditions in order to achieve leadership effectiveness.

Isolating the situational conditions proved to be somewhat difficult.

Situational Approach

Here leader are the products of given situation.

This theory recognizes there is an interaction between leader, follower and situation.

It contends that there is no one best leadership styles that fit to all situations.

To be a successful leader, S/he must be adaptive and flexible.

The Fiedler Contingency Model

One of the first models of this type was developed by Fred Fiedler, gave this approach to leadership in 1967..

It proposes that effective group performance depends on the proper match between the leader’s style and the degree to which the situation gives control to the leader.

This model proposes that effective group performance depends on the proper match between the leaders’ style and the amount of control and influence in the situation.

The Fiedler Contingency Model

The model was based on the premises that certain leadership style would be most effective in different types of situation.

Identifying Leadership Style. Fiedler created the Least Preferred Coworker

(LPC) questionnaire, which purports to measure whether a person is task- or relationship-oriented.

High LPC scores indicate a relationship-oriented leader; low LPC scores indicate a task-oriented leader.

Fiedler assumed that an individual’s leadership style is fixed.

If the situation and style are not optimal, then the situation needs to be modified or the leader needs to be replaced.

Defining the Situation Three contingency dimensions that defined the

key situational factors that will determine the appropriate leadership style. Leader-member relations: the degree of

confidence, trust, and respect members have in their leader. Measured as good or poor.

Task structure: the degree to which the job assignments are structured or unstructured. Measured as high or low.

Position power: the degree of influence a leader has over hiring, firing, discipline, promotions, and salary increases. Measured as strong or weak.

Eight Potential Situations The combination of the measurements

of these three dimensions creates eight potential situations (“octets”) that a leader might face.

Matching Leaders and Situations Task-oriented leaders tend to perform better in

situations that are either very favorable to them or which are very unfavorable (category I, II, III, VII, or VIII).

Relationship-oriented leaders perform better in moderately favorable situations (categories IV through VI).

Recently Fiedler has condensed these eight situations down to three based on the degree of control: task-oriented leaders perform best in situations of high and low control while relationship-oriented leaders perform best in moderate control situations.

Using the Model to Improve Leadership Effectiveness. Because Fiedler believes an individual’s

leadership style is fixed, there are really only two ways to improve leader effectiveness Change the leader to fit the situation. Change the situation to fit the leader. This

can be done by restructuring tasks or increasing/decreasing the power the leader has to control factors such as salary increases, promotions, and disciplinary actions.

Path Goal Theory

A contingency model of leadership proposing that effective leaders can motivate subordinates to achieve goals by:1. Clearly identifying the outcomes that

subordinates are trying to obtain from their jobs.

2. Rewarding subordinates with these outcomes for high-performance and attainment of work goals

3. Clarifying the paths leading to the attainment of work goals

Developed by Robert House, this theory extracts elements from the Ohio State leadership research as well as the expectancy theory of motivation

House’s theory advocates servant leadership. Leadership is not viewed as a position of

power. Rather, leaders act as coaches and facilitators to their subordinates.

According to House’s path-goal theory, a leader’s effectiveness depends on several employee and environmental contingent factors and certain leadership styles

Leader Behaviors. Unlike Fiedler, House assumes leaders

are flexible and that the same leader can display any or all of the necessary behaviors for effectiveness in a given situation.

There are four identified leadership behaviors in this theory: Directive: these leadership behaviors include

letting followers know what is expected of them, scheduling work to be done, and giving specific guidance as to how to accomplish tasks.

Supportive: these behaviors include being friendly and showing concern for the needs of followers.

Participative: the leader consults with followers and uses their suggestions before making a decision.

Achievement-Oriented: the behaviors for this type of leader include setting challenging goals and expecting followers to perform at their highest level.

Major Components

Contingency Variables. Environmental Variables: factors that are

outside the control of the employee These variables determine the type of

leader behavior required for outcomes to be maximized.

Employee Characteristics: variables which are the interpersonal characteristics of the employee.

These variables determine how the environment and leader behavior are interpreted.

Path-Goal Theory Predictions. The theory proposes the leader behavior

will be ineffective when it is redundant with the sources of environmental structure or contrasting with employee characteristics.

Specific predictions (i.e., effective matches between leadership behaviors and contingency variables) include:

1. Directive leadership behaviors are more appropriate when tasks are ambiguous or stressful.

2. Supportive leadership is more effective when employees are performing structured tasks.

3. Directive leadership is inappropriate when employees have high perceived ability or considerable experience.

4. Participative leadership behaviors are more appropriate for employees with internal locus of control.

5. Achievement-oriented behaviors are appropriate when tasks are ambiguously structured.