MAN Ch. 11
substitutes for leadership
- A concept that identifies situations in which leader behaviors are neutralized or replaced by characteristics of subordinates, the task, and the organization - Characteristics of the subordinate that may serve to neutralize leader behavior include ability, experience, need for independence, professional orientation, and indifference toward organizational rewards.
Impression management
- A direct and intentional effort by someone to enhance his or her image in the eyes of others - People engage in impression management for a variety of reasons. For one thing, they may do so to further their own careers. - They may also engage in impression management to boost their self-esteem. - Still another reason people use impression management is in an effort to acquire more power and hence more control.
path-goal theory
- A theory of leadership suggesting that the primary functions of a leader are to make valued or desired rewards available in the workplace and to clarify for the subordinate the kinds of behavior that will lead to those rewards - assumes that leaders can change their style or behavior to meet the demands of a particular situation.
LPC (least preferred coworker)
- A theory of leadership that suggests that the appropriate style of leadership varies with situational favorableness - arguing that the style of behavior used by a leader is a reflection of that individual's personality and that most leader personalities fall into one of two categories: task oriented or relationship oriented
Political behavior
- Activities carried out for the specific purpose of acquiring, developing, and using power and other resources to obtain one's preferred outcomes - it may be directed upward, downward, or laterally.
People try to manage how others perceive them through a variety of mechanisms.
- Appearance is one of the first things people think of. - People interested in impression management are also likely to try to associate themselves only with successful projects. - Impression management, of course, is common and not inherently inappropriate. - Sometimes, however, people too strongly motivated by impression management become obsessed with it and may resort to dishonest or unethical means.
The various decision styles reflected at the ends of the tree branches represent different levels of subordinate participation that the manager should try to adopt in a given situation.
- Decide. The manager makes the decision alone and then announces or "sells" it to the group. - Consult (individually). The manager presents the situation to group members individually, obtains their suggestions, and then makes the decision. - Consult (group). The manager presents the situation to group members at a meeting, gets their suggestions, and then makes the decision. - Facilitate. The manager presents the situation to the group at a meeting, defines the problem and its boundaries, and then facilitates group member discussion as they make the decision. - Delegate. The manager allows the group to define for itself the exact nature and parameters of the situation and then to develop a solution.
The most fully developed version of path-goal theory identifies four kinds of leader behavior.
- Directive leader behavior lets subordinates know what is expected of them, gives guidance and direction, and schedules work. - Supportive leader behavior is being friendly and approachable, showing concern for subordinates' welfare, and treating team members as partners. - Participative leader behavior includes consulting with subordinates, soliciting suggestions, and allowing participation in decision making. - Achievement-oriented leader behavior means setting challenging goals, expecting subordinates to perform at high levels, encouraging subordinates, and showing confidence in subordinates' abilities.
political behavior is tricky to approach in a rational and systematic way. But managers can handle political behavior so that it does not do excessive damage.
- First, managers should be aware that, even if their actions are not politically motivated, others may assume that they are. - Second, by providing subordinates with autonomy, responsibility, challenge, and feedback, managers reduce the likelihood of political behavior by subordinates. - Third, managers should avoid using power if they want to avoid charges of political motivation. - Fourth, managers should get disagreements out in the open so that subordinates will have less opportunity for political behavior by using conflict for their own purposes. Finally, managers should avoid covert activities.
three elements of charismatic leadership in organizations that most experts acknowledge.
- First, the leader needs to be able to envision the future, set high expectations, and model behaviors consistent with meeting those expectations. - Next, the charismatic leader must be able to energize others through a demonstration of personal excitement, personal confidence, and patterns of success. And, - finally, the charismatic leader enables others by supporting them, empathizing with them, and expressing confidence in them
Path-goal theory focuses on the situational factors of the personal characteristics of subordinates and environmental characteristics of the workplace.
- Important personal characteristics include the subordinates' perception of their own abilities and their locus of control. - Environmental characteristics include factors outside the subordinates' control.
Research has identified four basic forms of political behavior widely practiced in organizations.
- One form is inducement, which occurs when a manager offers to give something to someone else in return for that person's support. - A second tactic is persuasion, which relies on both emotion and logic. - A third political behavior involves the creation of an obligation. - Coercion is the use of force to get one's way.
How does a manager or leader use power?
- One method is the legitimate request, which is based on legitimate power. The manager requests that the subordinate comply because the subordinate recognizes that the organization has given the manager the right to make the request. - Another use of power is instrumental compliance, which is based on the reinforcement theory of motivation. In this form of exchange, a subordinate complies to get a reward the manager controls. - A manager is using coercion when she suggests or implies that the subordinate will be punished, fired, or reprimanded if he does not do something. - Rational persuasion occurs when the manager can convince the subordinate that compliance is in the subordinate's best interests. - Still another way a manager can use power is through personal identification. A manager who recognizes that she has referent power over a subordinate can shape the behavior of that subordinate by engaging in desired behaviors: The manager consciously becomes a model for the subordinate and exploits personal identification. - Sometimes a manager can induce a subordinate to do something consistent with a set of higher ideals or values through inspirational appeal. - An ill-advised method of using power is through information distortion. In this case a manager may withhold or distort information to influence subordinates' behavior.
Vroom's decision tree approach
- Predicts what kinds of situations call for different degrees of group participation - assumes that the degree to which subordinates should be encouraged to participate in decision making depends on the characteristics of the situation. - Vroom suggests that managers use one of two different decision trees. To do so, the manager first assesses the situation in terms of several factors. This assessment involves determining whether the given factor is high or low for the decision that is to be made. - One decision tree is to be used when the manager is interested primarily in making the decision as quickly as possible; the other is to be used when time is less critical and the manager is interested in helping subordinates to improve and develop their own decision-making skills.
leader-member exchange (LMX) model
- Stresses that leaders have different kinds of relationships with different subordinates - Each superior-subordinate pair is referred to as a "vertical dyad." - The model further suggests that supervisors establish a special relationship with a small number of trusted subordinates, referred to as the "in-group." The in-group usually receives special duties requiring responsibility and autonomy; they may also receive special privileges. Subordinates who are not a part of this group are called the "out-group," and they receive less of the supervisor's time and attention
least-preferred coworker (LPC) measure
- The measuring scale that asks leaders to describe the person with whom he or she is able to work least well - A high total score is assumed to reflect a relationship orientation - low score a task orientation on the part of the leader.
The first organized approach to studying leadership analyzed the personal, psychological, and physical traits of strong leaders (the trait approach)
- The trait approach assumed that some basic trait or set of traits existed that differentiated leaders from nonleaders. If those traits could be defined, they reasoned, potential leaders could be identified based on those traits. - For the most part, the results of the studies were disappointing. - For every set of leaders who possessed a common trait, a long list of exceptions was also found, and the list of suggested traits soon grew so long that it had little practical value.
Legitimate power
- is power granted through the organizational hierarchy; it is the power defined by the organization to be accorded to people occupying a particular position - The mere possession of legitimate power, however, does not by itself make someone a leader.
Another new perspective on leadership is based
- on cross-cultural issues. In this context, culture is used as a broad concept to encompass both international differences and diversity-based differences within one culture. - cross-cultural factors play a growing role in organizations as their workforces become more and more diverse.
LPC - two styles of leadership:
- task oriented (analogous to job-centered and initiating-structure behavior) - relationship oriented (similar to employee-centered and consideration behavior).
Charisma
A form of interpersonal attraction that inspires support and acceptance
The underlying assumption of situational models of leadership is that appropriate leader behavior varies from one situation to another.
According to Fiedler, the key situational factor is the favorableness of the situation from the leader's point of view. Favorableness, in turn, is determined by leader-member relations, task structure, and position power.
charismatic leadership
Assumes that charisma is an individual characteristic of the leader
Leader-member relations refer to the nature of the relationship between the leader and the work group.
If the leader and the group have a high degree of mutual trust, respect, and confidence, and if they like one another, relations are assumed to be good. If there is little trust, respect, or confidence, and if they do not like one another, relations are poor.
transformational leadership
Leadership that goes beyond ordinary expectations by transmitting a sense of mission, stimulating learning experiences, and inspiring new ways of thinking
The two styles of leader behavior were presumed to be at the ends of a single continuum. (Michigan Studies)
Likert studied only the two end styles for contrast. He argued that employee-centered leader behavior generally tends to be more effective.
strategic leadership
The ability to understand the complexities of both the organization and its environment and to lead change in the organization in order to achieve and maintain a superior alignment between the organization and its environment
initiating-structure behavior
The behavior of leaders who define the leader-subordinate role so that everyone knows what is expected, establish formal lines of communication, and determine how tasks will be performed
employee-centered leader behavior
The behavior of leaders who develop cohesive work groups and ensure employee satisfaction
job-centered leader behavior
The behavior of leaders who pay close attention to the job and work procedures involved with that job
consideration behavior
The behavior of leaders who show concern for subordinates and attempt to establish a warm, friendly, and supportive climate
Situational models assume that appropriate leader behavior varies from one situation to another.
The goal of a situational theory, then, is to identify key situational factors and to specify how they interact to determine appropriate leader behavior.
The Leadership Grid provides a means for evaluating leadership styles and then training managers to move toward an ideal style of behavior.
The horizontal axis represents concern for production (similar to job-centered and initiating-structure behaviors), and the vertical axis represents concern for people (similar to employee-centered and consideration behaviors). Note the five extremes of managerial behavior: the 1,1 manager (impoverished management), who exhibits minimal concern for both production and people; the 9,1 manager (authority-compliance), who is highly concerned about production but exhibits little concern for people; the 1,9 manager (country club management), who has exactly opposite concerns from the 9,1 manager; the 5,5 manager (middle-of-the-road management), who maintains adequate concern for both people and production; and the 9,9 manager (team management), who exhibits maximum concern for both people and production. According to this approach, the ideal style of leadership behavior is 9,9.
concern for people
The part of the Leadership Grid that deals with the human aspects of leader behavior
concern for production
The part of the Leadership Grid that deals with the job and task aspects of leader behavior
referent power
The personal power that accrues to someone based on identification, imitation, loyalty, or charisma
Expert power
The personal power that accrues to someone based on the information or expertise they possess
Their model is much like the original Michigan framework. Besides purely job-centered behavior (or "boss-centered" behavior, as they termed it) and employee-centered ("subordinate-centered") behavior, however, they identified several intermediate behaviors that a manager might consider.
This continuum of behavior moves from one extreme, of having the manager make the decision alone, to the other extreme, of having the employees make the decision with minimal guidance. Each point on the continuum is influenced by characteristics of the manager, the subordinates, and the situation. Managerial characteristics include the manager's value system, confidence in subordinates, personal inclinations, and feelings of security. Subordinate characteristics include the subordinates' need for independence, readiness to assume responsibility, tolerance for ambiguity, interest in the problem, understanding of goals, knowledge, experience, and expectations. Situational characteristics that affect decision making include the type of organization, group effectiveness, the problem itself, and time pressures.
Fiedler argued that, for any given person, leader style is essentially fixed and cannot be changed—leaders generally cannot change their behavior to fit a particular situation because it is linked to their personality traits.
Thus, when a leader's style and the situation do not match, Fiedler argued that the situation should be changed to fit the leader's style. When leader-member relations are good, task structure low, and position power weak, the leader style that is most likely to be effective is relationship oriented. If the leader is task oriented, though, a mismatch exists. According to Fiedler, the leader can make the elements of the situation more congruent by structuring the task (by developing guidelines and procedures, for instance) and increasing her or his position power (by requesting additional authority or by other means).
To be effective as a strategic leader,
a manager needs to have a thorough and complete understanding of the organization—its history, its culture, its strengths, and its weaknesses. In addition, the leader needs a firm grasp of the organization's environment. This understanding must encompass current conditions and circumstances as well as significant trends and issues on the horizon. The strategic leader also needs to recognize how the firm is currently aligned with its environment—where it relates effectively and where it relates less effectively with that environment. Finally, looking at environmental trends and issues, the strategic leader works to improve both the current alignment and the future alignment
Robert House's theory suggests that
charismatic leaders are likely to have a lot of self-confidence, a firm conviction in their beliefs and ideals, and a strong need to influence people. They also tend to communicate high expectations about follower performance and express confidence in followers.
motivation and leadership are ___ activities in organizations.
complementary
The new assumption was that
effective leaders somehow behaved differently than less effective leaders.
(Ohio State Studies) suggested that there are two basic leader behaviors or styles:
initiating-structure behavior and consideration behavior.
Power
is the ability to affect the behavior of others.
Coercive power
is the power to force compliance by means of psychological, emotional, or physical threat.
Reward power
is the power to give or withhold rewards.
Position power
is the power vested in the leader's position. If the leader has the power to assign work and to reward and punish employees, position power is assumed to be strong. But if the leader must get job assignments approved by someone else and does not administer rewards and punishment, position power is weak, and it is more difficult to accomplish goals. From the leader's point of view, strong position power is clearly preferable to weak position power. However, position power is not as important as task structure and leader-member relations.
Based on extensive interviews with both leaders (managers) and followers (subordinates), this research identified two basic forms of leader behavior:
job centered and employee centered.
In organizational settings, there are usually five kinds of power:
legitimate, reward, coercive, referent, and expert power
Task structure is
the degree to which the group's task is well defined. The task is structured when it is routine, easily understood, and unambiguous and when the group has standard procedures and precedents to rely on. An unstructured task is nonroutine, ambiguous, and complex, with no standard procedures or precedents. According to the model, high structure is more favorable for the leader, whereas low structure is less favorable.
seven keys to successful leadership:
trusting one's subordinates, developing a vision, keeping cool, encouraging risk, being an expert, inviting dissent, and simplifying things.