a brief history of leadership research (6)

A Brief History of Leadership Research

Leadership research is divided into eight major schools

Trait School of Leadership Behavioral School of Leadership Contingency School of Leadership Relational School of Leadership Skeptics of Leadership School Information-Processing School of Leadership The New leadership

(Neocharismatic/Transformational/Visionar) School

Emerging Issues

Trait School of Leadership

It began at the turn of the 20th century with the GREAT MAN perspective.

The GREAT MAN school of thought suggested that certain dispositional characteristics (traits) were different between leaders and non-leaders.

But this research was shut down by pessimistic interpretations.

Behavioral School of Leadership

1950´s It was focused on the behaviors that

leaders had and how they treated followers.

Democratic leader: Participative Autocratic: make choices based on

their own ideas.

Contingency School of Leadership

It is credited to Fieldler (1967,1970) Stated that leader-member relations, the

task structure, and the position of the leader would determine the effectiveness of the type of leadership exercised.

It was extended by the theory “substitutes-for-leadership” by focusing on the conditions under which leadership is unnecessary as a result of followers capabilities.

Relational School of Leadership

It was focused on High-quality relations between a leader and his or her followers that are based on trust and mutual respect.

High-quality relations generate more positive leader outcomes that do lower-quality relations.

Skeptics of Leadership School

It would suggest that what leaders do is largely irrelevant and that leader ratings may reflect simply the implicit leadership theories that individuals carry “in thier heads”.

It questioned whether leadership existed or was needed, and whether it actually made any difference to organizational performance.

Information-Processing School of Leadership

It focus on understanding why a leader is legitimized by virtue of the fact that his or her characteristics match the expectation that followers have of a leader.

To better understand how congnition is related to develop various behaviors.

The New leadership (Neocharismatic/Transformational/Visionary) School

It focused on the mutual satisfaction of transactional obligations.

A different form of leadership was required to account for follower outcomes centered on a sense of purpose and idealized mission.

Trasformational leadership

Emerging Issues

Areas that require further research Contextual factors are seen to give rise to

or inhibit certain leadership behaviors (national culture, gender, among others)

Ethics (authentic-ethical, inauthentic-unethical).

Leader traits (practical problem-solving abilities to leader effectiveness.

Future: Intelligence = Leadership effectiveness.

Types of Leadership

Autocratic Leadership

A leader exerts high levels of power over his or her employees or team members. People within the team are given few opportunities for making suggestions, even if these would be in the team's or organizations interest.

Most people tend to resent being treated like this. Because of this, autocratic leadership usually leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover. Also, the team's output does not benefit from the creativity and experience of all team members, so many of the benefits of teamwork are lost.

Autocratic leadership style is effective when:

--New, untrained employees who do not know which tasks to perform or which procedures to follow

--Employees do not respond to any other leadership style

--There are high-volume production needs on a daily basis

--There is limited time in which to make a decision

--A manager´s power is challenged by an employee

Bureaucratic Leadership Style

Bureaucratic leadership is where the manager manages by the book. Everything must be done according to procedure or policy. If it isn´t covered by the book, the manager refers to the next level above him or her. This manager is really more of a police officerthan a leader. He or she enforces the rules.

Bureaucratic leadership style can be effective when:

--Employees are performing routine tasks over and over.

--Employees need to understand certain standards or procedures.

--Employees are working with dangerous or delicate equipment that requires a definite set of procedures to operate.

--Safety or security training is being conducted.

--Employees are performing tasks that require handling cash.

Bureaucratic leadership style is ineffective when:

--Work habits form that are hard to break, especially if they are no longer useful.

--Employees lose their interest in their jobsand in their fellow workers.

--Employees do only what is expected of them and no more.

Charismatic Leadership

Leader injects huge doses of enthusiasm into his or her team, and is very energetic in driving others forward.

Can tend to believe more in him or herself than in their team. This can create a risk that a project, or even an entire organization, might collapse if the leader were to leave: In the eyes of their followers, success is tied up with the presence of the charismatic leader. As such, charismatic leadership carries great responsibility, and needs long-term commitment from the leader.

Democratic Leader:

A Democratic leader gives the followers a vote in nearly every decision.

 Develops plans to help employees evaluate their own performance

--Allows employees to establish goals --Encourages employees to grow on the job and be

promoted --Recognizes and encourages achievement. It is most successful when used with highly skilled or

experienced employees or when implementing operational changes or resolving individual or group problems.

The democratic leadership style is most effective when:

--The leader wants to keep employees informed about matters that affect them.

--The leader wants employees to share in decision-making and problem-solving duties.

--The leader wants to provide opportunities for employees to develop a high sense of personal growth and job satisfaction.

--There is a large or complex problem that requires lots of input to solve.

--Changes must be made or problems solved that affect employees or groups of employees.

--You want to encourage team building and participation.

Democratic leadership should not be used when:

--There is not enough time to get everyone´s input.

--It´s easier and more cost-effective for the manager to make the decision.

--The business can´t afford mistakes. --The manager feels threatened by this

type of leadership. --Employee safety is a critical concern.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

Leave it be A leader who leaves his or her colleagues

to get on with their work. It can be effective if the leader monitors what is being achieved and communicates this back to his or her team regularly. Works for teams in which the individuals are very experienced and skilled self-starters. Unfortunately, it can also refer to situations where managers are not exerting sufficient control.

This is an effective style to use when:

--Employees are highly skilled, experienced, and educated.

--Employees have pride in their work and the drive to do it successfully on their own.

--Outside experts, such as staff specialists or consultants are being used

--Employees are trustworthy and experienced.

People-Oriented Leadership or Relations-Oriented Leadership

Is the opposite of task-oriented leadership: the leader is totally focused on organizing, supporting and developing the people in the leader´s team. A participative style, it tends to lead to good teamwork and creative collaboration.

In practice, most leaders use both task-oriented and people-oriented styles of leadership.

Servant Leadership

A leader who is often not formally recognized as such. When someone, at any level within an organization, leads simply by virtue of meeting the needs of his or her team, he or she is described as a “servant leader”.

In many ways, is a form of democratic leadership, as the whole team tends to be involved in decision-making.

Transformational Leadership

A person with this leadership style is a true leader who inspires his or her team with a shared vision of the future. Transformational leaders are highly visible, and spend a lot of time communicating. They don´t necessarily lead from the front, as they tend to delegate responsibility amongst their teams. They can need to be supported by detail people.

Visionary Leadership

Visionary Leadership, The leadership style focuses on how the leader defines the future for followers and moves them toward it.

From the short review above, one can see that there are many different aspects to being a great leader; a role requiring one to play many different leadership styles to be successful.

Strategic Leadership

Strategic Leadership is practiced by the military services such as the US Army, US Air Force, and many large corporations. It stresses the competitive nature of running an organization and being able to out fox and out wit the competition.

Team Leadership

Team Leadership. A few years ago, a large corporation decided that supervisors were no longer needed and those in charge were suddenly made "team leaders." Today, companies have gotten smarter about teams, but it still takes leadership to transition a group into a team.