Many of the designations that manufacturers and sellers use to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Major Perspectives in Leadership Theories and Research 10 Level of Conceptualization for Leadership Theories 14 Other Bases for Comparing Leadership Theories 18 Organization of the Book 20. Requirements, Limitations, and Choices 31 Other Determinants of Managerial Work 34 Limitations of Descriptive Research 39 Guidelines for Managers 40.
Skills and Effective Leadership 148 Managerial Competencies 151 Situational Importance of Skills 153 Evaluating the Trait Approach 156 Guidelines for Managers 157.
CONTINGENCY THEORIES AND ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP IN TEAMS AND DECISION GROUPS
CHARISMATIC AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
ETHICAL, SERVANT, SPIRITUAL, AND AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP
The book presents an extensive survey of theory and research on leadership in formal organizations. Readers who wish to improve their leadership effectiveness will find this edition of the book even more useful than previous editions. The book is suitable for use as a primary text in an undergraduate or graduate course in leadership.
The book is on the list of required or recommended reading for students in many doctoral programs in management, leadership, and industrial-organizational psychology.
Learning Objectives
Leadership is "the influential rise beyond mechanical compliance with the organization's routine directives" (Katz & Kahn, 1978, p. 528). Leadership is "the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal accomplishment" (Rauch & Behling, 1984, p. 46). Leadership is “an individual's ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organization.
The other subcategory of situational research attempts to identify aspects of the situation that "moderate" the relationship of leader attributes (eg, traits, skills, behaviors) with leadership effectiveness.
Key Terms
Mintzberg's (1973, p. 33) observations of executives found that “half of the activities were completed in less than nine minutes, and only a tenth took more than an hour.” Managers' activities are often fragmented and varied. Some of the information is passed on to subordinates (the role of disseminator) or to outsiders (the role of spokesperson). But even within the same job, the requirements and limitations will vary depending on the perception of the job holder.
There are differences in the pattern of requirements, constraints and choices for different types of management functions, depending on aspects of the situation, such as the type of organization and the nature of the work.
CASE
Chapter 3
The optimal level of abstraction for the behavioral categories in a taxonomy depends on the purpose of the taxonomy. Most of the behavioral studies have other limitations that make the results difficult to interpret. There is no simple way to determine priorities, but they should reflect the importance of the task to the manager's unit and the organization.
The appropriate type of monitoring depends on the nature of the task and other aspects of the situation. The appropriate degree of monitoring will depend on the competence of the subordinate and the nature of the work. Accurate, timely information about the operations and performance of the work unit is essential for effective leadership by the work unit manager.
Responsibility for developing subordinates can be shared with other members of the work unit who are competent and experienced. When discussing ways to improve performance, it is usually better to start by inviting the person to do a self-assessment than by making your own diagnosis of the person's performance. For example, tell the person how you experienced the same frustrations in mastering a particularly difficult aspect of the task.
Before giving recognition for contributions and achievements, it is necessary to determine what things are important to the success of the work unit and in accordance with the values and ideals of the organization. He reminded them that each man had a vital function in the operation of the squadron.
Learning Objectives
Chapter 4
Yet another important type of change involves the competitive strategy for achieving the team or organization's key objectives. An important role of the leader is to convince other key figures in the organization of the need for major changes. It is especially important to get the involvement of the people directly responsible for implementing the change: the people in key positions who will make this change happen.
A major change is less likely to be successful if top management tries to dictate in detail how it will be implemented in every part of the organization. However, it is essential to be enthusiastic and optimistic about the likely success of the change, despite serious obstacles. The core of the vision is the organization's mission, but different aspects of it can be emphasized.
If the vision embodies values and ideals shared by most members of the organization, it is more likely to foster their commitment. The first step is to ask people to identify specific performance objectives that are challenging and relevant to the organization's mission. How knowledge is acquired, disseminated and applied will be described in more detail in the rest of the chapter.
In these organizations, the values of learning, innovation, experimentation, flexibility and initiative are firmly rooted in the organization's culture (Baer & Frese, 2003; James, 2002; Kotter & Heskett, 1992; Miron, Erez, & Naveh, 2004; Popper & Lipshitz, 1998 ). One of the most important and difficult leadership responsibilities is to guide and facilitate the process of making a major change in an organization.
Chapter 5
- Where these two decisions appropriate ones for introducing participation into the department?
Upward consultation allows a manager to draw on the boss's expertise, which may be greater than the manager's expertise. These two mediating variables together determine how the decision will affect the performance of the manager's team or work unit. The quality of the decision is likely to be important if the decision has significant consequences for the manager's work unit or the overall organization and if some of the alternatives are much better than others.
It is unwise to hold a meeting with a hostile group of people who want to make decisions that are against the manager's interests. An autocratic decision is more likely to be accepted if the manager has significant position and personal power over group members, or has the persuasive power to successfully "sell" the decision. In the latter case, people will be more reluctant to express concerns that appear to be critical of the plan.
Sometimes distrust of subordinates is determined more by the manager's personality problems than by the actual characteristics of the subordinates (Johnston, 2000). The potential for delegation also depends on the nature of the work and the amount of authority the leader possesses. The selection of tasks to delegate depends in part on the purpose of the delegation.
The frequency and timing of progress reviews will depend on the nature of the task and the competence of the subordinate. Each type of construct and the main types of research in the trait approach are briefly explained in this section of the chapter.
Chapter 6
Then, major findings about characteristics and skills related to effective leadership are reviewed, and some situations that influence the relevance of the skills are described. Most of the empirical research on traits shows that key components of emotional maturity are associated with managerial effectiveness and advancement (Bass, 1990). Strategic planning is unlikely to be effective unless a manager can make an accurate evaluation of the organization's products (or services) compared to those of competitors (Peters & Austin, 1985).
In the CCL study described earlier, weak conceptual skills were one reason why managers went off the rails (McCall & Lombardo, 1983b, p. 26): “The charming but not brilliant discovery that the job becomes too big and the problems too complex to deal with. develop interpersonal skills.” These competencies include some of the same skills and attributes described earlier in this chapter, but they are defined and measured in unique ways. It's about 'learning how to learn', which is the ability to introspectively analyze your own cognitive processes (for example, the way you define and solve problems) and find ways to improve them.
Relevant situational moderator variables include management level, organizational type, and the nature of the external environment. Managers must have a long-term perspective and the ability to understand complex relationships between variables relevant to organizational performance. Another limitation of the trait approach is the lack of attention in many studies to the management context.
As with the behavioral research, the relevance of different traits and skills will depend in part on the nature of the leadership position, the types of challenges the leader faces, and the criteria used to assess effectiveness. On Saturdays, Charley likes to play golf with friends, including some other managers in the company.
Chapter 7
Contingency theories describe how situational aspects of leadership can change a leader's influence and effectiveness. The relative importance of mediating variables depends on the type of work unit and other aspects of the situation. Situational variables also determine the relative importance of mediating variables as a determinant of group performance.
A basic proposition of the theory is that leader actions to correct any deficiencies in mediating variables will improve group performance. Certain aspects of the situation limit a leader's discretion to make changes and react to problems. Modify the formal structure of the work unit to solve chronic problems and reduce the demands on the manager to solve short-term problems.
Most contingency theories do not adequately explain the underlying reasons for the proposed relationships. It is essential that the leader makes a quick but systematic analysis of the situation. The leader must provide clear, confident directions to direct the team or unit's response.
Leadership substitution theory identifies aspects of the situation that make leadership behavior redundant or irrelevant. The multiple-linkage model describes how leadership behavior and aspects of the situation jointly influence individual or group performance.
Part 2
