Dynamics of Leadership Exam 2

7. In the SLII Model, why does commitment go down for D3 subordinates?

***D3 followers possess the necessary skills to achieve the given goals. Their commitment however, suffers from a lack of confidence in their own ability to successfully complete set tasks by themselves.***

8. Explain why it might be difficult for some leaders to exhibit Style 4 leadership.

**Low supportive-low directive leadership style also known as a Delegating approach requires several components unique from the other styles. S4 leaders limit both goal input and social support, focusing instead on facilitating followers' confidence and motivation in reference to the goal. In essence, the leader loosens their hold on the entirety of the process, including planning, control of details, and goal clarification and allows their followers to take greater control in how they reach their goals. This form of leadership may be difficult if the leader is partial to more controlling and or structured techniques, or if they are less inclined to trust their followers.

1. Explain the difference between a skill and a trait.

-A trait is something you are born with, personality characteristics. A skill is something you learn or obtain or work for. Outcomes which leaders can accomplish.

1. What are the characteristics of each of the seven leadership styles shown on the Leadership Grid?

-Country-Club Management- thoughtful attention to the needs of the people for satisfying relationships leads to a comfortable, friendly organization atmosphere and work tempo. Represents a low concern for task accomplishment coupled with a high concern for interpersonal relationships. -Team Management- work accomplishment is from committed people. Interdependence through a common stake in organization purpose leads to relationships of trust and respect. Places a strong emphasis on both tasks and interpersonal relationships. -Middle-of-the-Road Management- adequate organization performance is possible through balancing the necessity to get work out while maintaining morale of people at a satisfactory level. Describes leaders who are compromisers, who have an intermediate concern for the task and an intermediate concern for the people who do the task. -Impoverished Management- exertion of minimum effort to get required work done as appropriate to sustain organization membership. Representative of a leader who is unconcerned with both the task and interpersonal relationships. -Authority-Compliance Management- efficiency in operations result from arranging conditions of work in such a way that human elements interfere to a minimum degree. Places heavy emphasis on task and job requirements, and less emphasis on people, except to the extent that people are tools for getting the job done. -Paternalism/maternalism- refers to a leader who uses both country-club management and authority compliance styles but does not integrate the two -Opportunism- refers to a leader who uses any combination of the basic five styles for the purpose of personal advancement.

10. What are the criticisms of the situational approach?

-Few research studies have been done to justify assumptions and propositions set forth by the approach -Concerns the ambiguous conceptualization in model of followers' development levels -Doesn't explain theoretical basis for changes in compositions of each development level -Fails to account for demographic characteristics influence leaders -leadership questioners that accompany the model (biased in favor of situational leadership) -doesn't address one-on-one vs group leadership (fails to describe the differences between one-to-one and group leadership situations within an organization) -how the model matches leader style with follower development levels-the prescriptions of the model

9. What are the strengths of the situational approach?

-Long history of usefulness in marketplace -Practical -Perspective value -Emphasizes leader flexibility -Reminds us to treat each follower differently based on the goal at hand and to seek opportunities to help followers learn new skills and become more confident in their work

1. What is situational leadership?

-depicts that leadership is made up of a directive and supportive side, as well as each must be applied correctly to a given situation -it demands leaders match their styles to the competence and commitment of their followers

What are the characteristics of the four categories of directive and supportive behaviors?

-directing- -focuses on communication/goal achievement, and dedicates less time to using supportive behaviors -high directive-low supportive -coaching- -stresses communication on achieving goals and meeting the needs of followers socioemotionally -high directive-high supportive -supporting- -doesn't focus solely on goals but uses supportive behaviors that bring out followers' skills -low directive-high supportive -delegating- -low directive-low supportive -offer less goal input and social support, push followers' and direct them towards the overall goal

5. What are strengths of the skills approach?

-leader-centered model that stresses importance of developing particular skills -intuitively appealing, makes it seem as if its available to everyone -provides expansive view of leadership that incorporates wide variety of components -provides a structure that is very consistent with most leadership programs

3. Explain each of the 9 key problem-solving skills of leaders.

-problem definition-ability to define noteworthy issues or significant problems affecting the organization -cause/goal analysis-ability to analyzes the cause and goals relevant to addressing problems -constraint analysis-identify the constraints or limiting factors influencing any problem solution -planning-the ability to formulate plans mental simulations and actions arising from cause goal and constraint analysis -forecasting-the ability to anticipate the implications of executing the plans -creative thinking-the ability to develop alternative approaches and new ideas for addressing potential pitfalls of a plan identified in forecasting -idea evaluation-the ability to evaluate these alternative approaches viability in executing the plan -wisdom-the ability to evaluate the appropriateness of these alternative approaches within the context or setting in which the leader acts -sensemaking/visioning-the ability to articulate a vision that will help followers understand, make sense of, and act on the problem

2. Explain each element of the three skill approach.

-technical skills-these skills are needed to perform your specific job example degree in education to able to teach, some jobs require you to know how to program -human skills-or people skills you must know how to work with people and be able to get on their level and communicate and compromise when needed -conceptual skills-the ability to work with ideas and concepts. This skill is important when a company is not turning a profit for instance, a leader needs to come up with an idea to push the company in the right direction

4. How might the skills approach be used for personal awareness and development?

-the skills approach works like a map you can navigate and follow through your journey to becoming a better leader. It almost sets in place steps for you to follow. It tells you what you need in order to better yourself you just have to take the time to do it. Will develop skills through training and experiences

6. What are criticisms of the skills approach?

-this approach seems to extend beyond the boundaries of leadership, very broad making skills general and less precise -weak in predictive value -claims not to be a trait model but major components in the model are used in many other trait theories -may not be suitably or appropriately applied to other contexts of leadership because this whole model was based off of military personnel

Impoverished Management

1,1

Country-Club Management

1,9

Middle-of-the-Road Management

5,5

Authority-Compliance

9,1

Team Management

9,9

5. How is an individual's personal interest in tasks and relationships related to how she or he shows task and relationship leadership?

An individuals personal interests in task and relationships are directly related to how they show task and relationship leadership. If they are concerned with productions or the task at hand they will devote attention to policy decisions, new product development, process issues, workload, and sales volume. If they are more relationship oriented then they will have greater concern for how they attend to the people in the organization or group. They will try to build organizational trust and commitment, promoting the personal worth of followers, providing good working conditions, maintaining a fair salary structure, and promoting good social relations.

3. What are the characteristics of the four levels by which employee development can be classified?

D4-high competence=high commitment D3-moderate to high competence=variable commitment D2-low to some competence=low commitment D1-low competence=high commitment

7. What makes it difficult to identify a universal "best" leadership style?

It's hard to identify one specific style and label it as best because each style has its own positives and negatives and they all achieve results in their own way so its hard to pinpoint which is best, because not everything works for everyone. not every style is effect in every situation. Emotional intelligence will help a leader make these decisions

2. What were the purposes for which the LBDQ and the Leadership Grid were designed?

LBDQ Leader-Behavior Description-Questioner: designed to analyze how individuals acted when leading a group or organization- questions about their behaviors-showed certain clusters of behavior were typical of leaders Grid-designed to explain how leaders help organizatons to reach their purpose through 1. concern for production 2. concern for people

3. How should leaders attempt to balance their task and relationship behaviors?

Leaders should use the team management style to balance their task and relationship behaviors. this style is a balance of taking people into account while still emphasizing work requirements. Leaders need to be able to adapt to followers.

7. How does the skills approach fit with the four components of leadership?

Leadership is a process-can use this process to stop and check and evaluate your leadership style and how it affects you're followers, used like a map Leadership involves influence-using the 9 key problem solving skills you can better come up with ways influence followers and implement solutions Leadership occurs in groups-must be able to work with others, this approach stresses importance of social performance. A leader needs to be able to identify others perspectives as well as their own Leadership involves common goals-skills approach gives you tactics such as the 9 problem solving steps to better achieve your overall goals

6. How does the developmental continuum work?

Shows whether a person has mastered the skills needed to complete a goal and if a person has a positive attitude about it as well, followers move forward and backward which represents the relative competence and commitment of followers. Leaders need to determine where followers are on the development level, and then adapt their style to that determination.

6. How might the behavioral approach be used for personal awareness and development?

The behavioral approach provides a framework for assessing leadership in a broad way as behavior with a task and relationship, it works by describing the major components of their behavior. Seeks feedback, uses the framework to line up their attitudes and goals with the way leaders should or shouldn't behave.

4. What is the relationship between a leader's dominant style and backup style?

The dominant style is what is used in most situations while the backup style is what the leader reverts to when under pressure, when the usual way of accomplishing things does not work. The two styles go hand in hand, they almost work as a team. The leader has an original plan but if that fails than the backup plan is ready to go. You don't have one or the other, you have both. Even if only one is used the other one is always ready to go.

5. Why should developmental levels not be used to label followers?

They are meant to be goal specific and they describe commitment and competence levels and combinations which there is also too much room for fluctuation **developmental levels should not be used to label followers' because it is a continuum and will shift along it based on the task and their level of experience**

Paternalism/Maternalism

Uses both 1,9 and 9,1 but doesn't integrate the two

4. How can a leader best determine the developmental level of followers?

a. Leaders reflect themselves on situation: Ask questions like: -What goal are followers being asked to achieve -how complex is the goal -are the followers sufficiently skilled to accomplish the goal -do they have the desire to complete the job once they start it **answers to these help leaders pick the right development level that their followers are using

Opportunism

leaders who use any combination of the five styles for own personal advancement

8. What are strengths of the behavioral approach?

o Marked a major shift in the general focus of leadership research o Wide range of studies on leadership behavior validates and gives credibility to the basic tenets of the approach o On a conceptual level, researchers of the behavioral approach have ascertained that a leader's style consists primarily of two major types of behaviors: task and relationship o Approach is heuristic-provides broad conceptual map

9. What are criticisms of the behavioral approach?

o The research on the behavioral approach has not adequately shown how leaders' behaviors are associated with performance outcomes o Has failed to find a universal style of leadership that could be effective in almost every situation o Implies that the most effective leadership style is the high-high style o Most of the research undertaken on the behavioral approach has come from a U.S. - centric perspective, reflecting the norms and values of the U.S. culture