Organizational Behavior

Dr. Karim KobeissiIslamic University of Lebanon - 2014

Chapter 12: Leadership in Organizational Settings

L e a d e r s h i p D e fi n e d•Leadership is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates, and directs their activities to help achieve organizational goals.

•The person who carries out leadership is a leader.

• Because leading is one of the four management functions, ideally all managers should be leaders.

Emerging View of Leadership: Shared Leadership

The view that leadership is broadly distributed rather than assigned to one person.

Employees are leaders when they support change in the company or team.

Shared leadership calls for: Formal leaders willing to delegate power Collaborative culture – employees support each other Employee ability to influence through persuasion

Emerging View of Leadership: Shared Leadership (con)

The emerging view of leadership is that effective leaders subordinate their own egos and nurture leadership in others.

Sir Richard Branson is often cited as a role model for the new leadership. “I've got people all over the world and it's up to me to let them test and prove themselves,” says Branson.

LeadershipPerspectives

Competency Perspective

Contingency Perspective

Implicit Leadership Perspective

Transformational Perspective

Perspectives of Leadership

Behavioral Perspective

Competency Perspective• Competencies – personal characteristics that lead

to superior performance in a leadership role (e.g. skills, knowledge, values).

• Early research – very few “traits” predicted effective leadership.

• Emerging view – several competencies now identified as key influences on leadership potential and of effective leaders.

Self-concept

Drive

• Positive self-evaluation• High self-esteem and self-efficacy• Internal locus of control

• Inner motivation to pursue goals• Inquisitiveness, action-oriented

Integrity• Truthfulness• Consistency in words and actions

Personality• Sociability, preciseness

(and other traits)

Eight Leadership Competencies

Cognitive/practical

Intelligence

• Above average cognitive ability• Able to solve real-world problems

Knowledge ofthe Business

• Understands external environment• Aids intuitive decision making

Eight Leadership Competencies (con’t)

Leadership Motivation

• High need for socialized power to achieve organizational goals

Emotional Intelligence

• Perceiving, assimilating, understanding, and regulating emotions

Competency Perspective Limitations

1. Researchers weren’t able to identify a set of

competencies that would always differentiate a leader

from a non leader—that is, a set of consistent and

unique traits that would apply universally to all

effective leaders, no matter what organization they led.

2. Competencies refer to leadership potential, not

performance.

Leader Behavior PerspectiveThe leader behavior perspective assumes that a key factor in leadership success is an

individual’s basic leadership style, which could be categorized as either people

oriented behavior or task oriented behavior.

• People-oriented behaviors

–Showing mutual trust and respect

–Concern for employee needs

–Looks out for employee well-being

Leader Behavior Perspective (con)

• Task-oriented behaviors

– Assign specific tasks

– Ensure employees follow rules

– Set stretch goals (a stretch goal is an objective that

cannot be achieved by incremental or small

improvements but require extending oneself to the

limit to be actualized) to achieve performance

capacity.

Roman Suchta is a task-oriented manager

Leader Behavior Perspective Limitations

• Like the competency perspective of leadership, the

behavior theories alone cannot explain leader

effectiveness: Some leaders are effective even

when they do not perform people oriented or

tasks oriented behavior, and some leaders are

ineffective even when they do perform both kinds

of behaviors.

– But best style seems to depend on the situation

Contingency Perspective

According to the contingency perspective, whether or not a

manger is an effective leader is the result of the interplay

between:

1. What the manager is like (Manager’s Competencies),

2. What he or she does (Manager’s Behavior), and

3. The situation in which leadership takes place.

Fiedler’s Contingency ModelFiedler assumed a person’s leadership style was fixed

regardless of the situation. With this in mind, Fiedler

identified three situational characteristics that are

important determinants of how favorable a situation is for

leading:

1) Leader-Member Relations

2) Task Structure

3) Position Power

Fiedler’s Contingency Model (con)1) Leader-Member RelationsThe first situational characteristic that Fiedler described as the degree of

confidence, trust, and respect employees had for their leader; rated as either good or poor.

2) Task StructureThe second situational characteristic that Fiedler described as the degree to

which job assignments were formalized and structured; rated as either high or low.

3) Position Power

The third situational characteristic that Fiedler described as the degree of

influence a leader had over activities such as hiring, firing, discipline,

promotions, and salary increases; rated as either strong or weak.

Fiedler’s Contingency Model (con)

By taking all possible combinations of good and poor leader-

member relations, high and low task structure, and strong

and weak position power, Fiedler identified eight leadership

situations, which vary in their favorability for leading.

Fiedler’s Contingency Model (con)Once Fiedler had described the leader variables and the

situational variables, he could define the specific contingencies for leadership effectiveness. He concluded that task-oriented leaders performed better in very favorable and in very unfavorable situations (IV, V, VI,VII). On the other hand, relationship-oriented leaders performed better in moderately favorable situations (I, II,III, VIII).

Fiedler’s Contingency Model (con)According to Fiedler, leader style (behavior) is an enduring

characteristic that managers cannot change !!! This suggest

that, in order to be effective, managers need to be placed

in leadership situations that fit their style or situations need

to be changed to suit the manager. Situations can be

changed, for example, by giving a manager more position

power or taking steps to increase task structure such as by

clarifying goals.

Other Contingency Leadership Theories: : Path-Goal Leadership

The principle of path-goal theory is that effective leaders

motivates subordinates to achieve organizational goals

by: (1) clearly identifying the outcomes that

subordinates are trying to obtain from their jobs and

the organization, (2) rewarding subordinates with these

outcomes for high performance and the attainment of

work goals, and (3) clarifying for subordinates the paths

leading to the attainment of work goals.

Other Contingency Leadership Theories: : Path-Goal Leadership

Path - goal theory identified four kinds of behaviors that leaders can

engage in to motivate subordinates:

1.A directive behavior lets subordinates know what’s expected of them,

schedules work to be done, and gives specific guidance on how to

accomplish tasks.

2.A participative behavior consults with group members and uses their

suggestions before making a decision.

3.A supportive behavior shows concern for the needs of followers and is

friendly.

4.An achievement-oriented behavior sets challenging goals and expects

followers to perform at their highest level.

Other Contingency Leadership Theories: : Path-Goal Leadership

In contrast to Fiedler’s view that a leader couldn’t change his or her

behavior, the path- goal theory assumed that leaders are flexible and

can display any or of these four leadership styles depending on the

nature of the subordinates and the type of work they do:

• When tasks are ambiguous and followers aren’t sure what to do, directive behavior leads to greater satisfaction.

• When subordinates are performing stressful tasks, supportive behavior results in high employee performance and satisfaction.

Other Contingency Leadership Theories: : Path-Goal Leadership

• When subordinates support of a decision is required,

participative behavior can be particularly effective.

• When highly capable subordinates are bored from having

too few challenges, achievement-oriented behavior can

be particularly effective, but it might backfire if used with

subordinates who are already pushed to their limits.

Path-Goal Leadership Model

EmployeeContingencies

EnvironmentalContingencies

LeaderBehaviors

• Directive• Supportive• Participative• Achievement-

oriented

Leader Effectiveness

• Employee motivation

• Employee satisfaction

• Acceptance of leader

Other Contingency Leader Theories: Situational Leadership Model

– Effective leaders vary style with follower

“readiness”

– Leader styles – telling, selling, participating, and

delegating

Other Contingency Leader Theories: Leadership Substitutes

• The leader substitutes model is a contingency model because it suggests that in some situations leadership is unnecessary.

• The leader substitutes model suggest that under certain conditions managers do not have to play a leadership role- that members of an organization sometimes can perform highly without a manager exerting influence over them.

- e.g.: Training and experience replace task-oriented leadership.

• Research evidence: substitutes help, but don’t completely substitute for real leadership.

Transformational Leadership Perspective

An exciting new kind of

leadership is sweeping the

globe. Transformational

leadership occurs when

managers change (or

transform) their subordinates

in three important ways:

Transformational Leadership Perspective (con)1. Transformational managers make subordinates aware of how important their jobs

are for the organization and how necessary it is for them to perform those jobs as

best they can so that the organization can attain its goals.

2. Transformational managers make their subordinates aware of the subordinates’

own needs for personal growth, development and accomplishment.

3. Transformational managers motivate their subordinates to work for the good of the

organization as a whole, not just for their personal gain or benefit.

When managers transform their subordinates in these three ways, subordinates trust

the manager, are highly motivated, and help the organization achieve its goals.

Transformational vs. Transactional Leaders

Transformational leadership is often contrasted with transactional

leadership. Transactional leadership involves managers using their

reward and intimidating power to encourage high performance. When

managers reward high performers, punish low performers, and

motivates subordinates by reinforcing desired behaviors and

punishing undesired ones, they are engage in transactional

leadership. Managers who effectively influence their subordinates to

achieve goals yet do not seem to be making the kind of dramatic

changes that are part of transformational leadership are engaging in

transactional leadership.

Evaluating Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is important• Higher employee satisfaction, performance, org

citizenship, creativity

Transformational leadership limitations• Some models have circular logic

- Transformational leaders defined by their success rather than behavior (Result: those models have no predictive value)

• Universal theory- Need a contingency-oriented theory- Recognize differences across cultures

Implicit Leadership Perspective

Follower perceptions of characteristics of effective leaders1. Leadership prototypes

• Preconceived image of effective leader, used to evaluate leader effectiveness

2. Romance of leadership effect• Amplify effect of leaders on organizational results• Fundamental attribution error• Need for situational control

Cultural Issues in Leadership

• Societal cultural values and practices affect leaders:– Shape leader’s values/norms– Influence decisions and actions– Shape follower prototype of effective leaders

• Some leadership styles are universal, others differ across cultures– “Charismatic visionary” seems to be universal– Participative leadership works better in some cultures

than others

Gender Issues in Leadership

• Male and female leaders have similar task- and people-oriented leadership.

• Participative leadership style is used more often by female leaders.

• Evaluating female leaders– Still receive negative evaluations as leader due to

prototypes and gender stereotypes– But evidence that they are good at emerging

leadership styles (coaching, teamwork)