Management Questions, Chapter 11
Describe the situations in which House's path-goal theory would expect (a) a participative leadership style and (b) a directive leadership style to work best.
According to House's path-goal theory, the following combinations are consistent with successful leadership. Participative leadership works well, for example, when performance incentives are low and people need to find other sources of need satisfaction. Through participation the leader gains knowledge that can help identify important needs and possible ways of satisfying them other than through the available performance incentives. Directive leadership works well, for example, when people aren't clear about their jobs or goals. In these cases the leader can step in and provide direction that channels their efforts toward desired activities and outcomes.
When Marcel Henry took over as leader of a new product development team, he was both excited and apprehensive. "I wonder," he said to himself on the rst day in his new assignment, "if I can meet the challenges of leadership." Later that day, Marcel shares this concern with you during a coffee break. Question: How would you describe to Marcel the personal implications of current thinking on transformational and moral leadership and how they might be applied to his handling of this team setting?
In his new position, Marcel must understand that the transactional aspects of leadership are not sufficient enough to guarantee him long-term leadership effectiveness. He must move beyond the effective use of task-oriented and people-oriented behaviors—the "transactional" side of leadership, and demonstrate through his behavior and personal qualities the capacity to inspire others and lead with moral integrity—the "transformational" side. A transformational leader develops a unique relationship with followers in which they become enthusiastic, highly loyal, and high achievers. Marcel needs to work very hard to develop positive relationships with the team members. But he must add to this a moral and ethical dimension. He must emphasize in those relationships high aspirations for performance accomplishments, enthusiasm, ethical behavior, integrity and honesty in all dealings, and a clear vision of the future. By working hard with this agenda and by allowing his personality to positively express itself in the team setting, Marcel should make continuous progress as an effective and moral leader.
Use Fiedler's terms to list the characteristics of situations that would be extremely favorable and extremely unfavorable to a leader.
Leadership situations are described by Fiedler according to: Position power—how much power the leader has in terms of rewards, punishments, and legitimacy; leader-member relations—the quality of relationships between the leader and followers; and task structure—the degree to which the task is clear and well defined, or open ended and more ambiguous. Highly favorable situations are high in position power, have good leader-member relations, and have structured tasks; highly unfavorable situations are low in position power, have poor leader-member relations, and have unstructured tasks.
Why are both position power and personal power essential in management?
Position power is based on reward, coercion or punishment, and legitimacy or formal authority. Managers, however, need to have more power than that made available to them by the position alone. Thus, they have to develop personal power through expertise and reference. This personal power is essential in helping managers get things done beyond the scope of their position power alone.
How do you sum up in two or three sentences the notion of servant leadership?
Servant leadership is basically other-centered and not self-centered. A servant leader is concerned with helping others to perform well so that the organization or group can ultimately do good things for society. The person who accepts the responsibilities of servant leadership is good at empowering others so that they can use their talents while acting independently to do their jobs in the best possible ways.
13. The interactive leadership style is characterized by __________. (a) inclusion and information sharing (b) use of rewards and punishments (c) command-and-control behavior (d) emphasis on position power
a
In Fiedler's contingency model, both highly favorable and highly unfavorable leadership situations are best dealt with by a _____________-motivated leadership style. (a) task (b) vision (c) ethics (d) relationship
a
In terms of leadership behaviors, someone who focuses on doing a very good job of planning work tasks, setting performance standards, and monitoring results would be described as _______________. (a) task oriented (b) servant oriented (c) achievement oriented (d) transformational
a
In the discussion of gender and leadership, it was pointed out that some perceive women as having tendencies toward ______________, a style that seems a good fit with developments in the new workplace. (a) interactive leadership (b) use of position power (c) command-and-control (d) transactional leadership
a
The critical contingency variable in the Hersey-Blanchard situational model of leadership is __________. (a) follower maturity (b) LPC (c) task structure (d) emotional intelligence
a
The personal traits that are now considered important for managerial success include ____________. (a) self-confidence (b) gender (c) age (d) personality
a
In House's path-goal theory, a leader who sets challenging goals for others would be described as using the __________ leadership style. (a) autocratic (b) achievement-oriented (c) transformational (d) directive
b
When a manager says, "Because I am the boss, you must do what I ask," what power base is being put into play? (a) Reward (b) Legitimate (c) Moral (d) Referent
b
When managers use offers of rewards and threats of punishments to try to get others to do what they want them to do, they are using which type of power? (a) Formal authority (b) Position (c) Referent (d) Personal
b
Vision, charisma, integrity, and symbolism are all attributes typically associated with _____________ leaders . (a) people-oriented (b) democratic (c) transformational (d) transactional
c
Which leadership theorist argues that one's leadership style is strongly anchored in personality and therefore very difficult to change? (a) Daniel Goleman (b) Peter Drucker (c) Fred Fiedler (d) Robert House
c
A leader whose actions indicate an attitude of "do as you want and don't bother me" would be described as having a(n) __________ leadership style. (a) autocratic (b) country club (c) democratic (d) laissez-faire
d
In the research on leader behaviors, which style of leadership describes the preferred "high-high" combination? (a) Transformational (b) Transactional (c) Laissez-faire (d) Democratic
d
Managerial Power = __________ Power x __________ Power. (a) Reward; Punishment (b) Reward; Expert (c) Legitimate; Position (d) Position; Personal
d
Someone who communicates a clear sense of the future and the actions needed to get there is considered a ______________ leader. (a) task-oriented (b) people-oriented (c) transactional (d) visionary
d
