Chapter 12 Leadership is hard, and most managers find it especially difficult when going to a new organisation, as there current leadership doesn't work. The nature of Leadership Leading is the process of arousing enthusiasm and directing efforts towards organisational goals. managers must be able to think long term, even when completing short term efforts, they must deal with all aspects of communication, interpersonal relations, motivation, job design, teamwork and change all topics of management Leadership and vision great leaders are now set on their vision: a future that you hope to create or achieve in order to improve on the present state of affairs - a Visionary leader brings the situation a clear sense of the future and an understanding of how to get there. good leaders turn these visions into concrete results. Power and influence power is the ability to get some else to do something you want done. - a need for power is essential to executive success. There are power sources that are based on the positions you hold and a second set that is based on your personal qualities. Sources of position power one important power is simply the power of managerial status, and a natural sense of hierarchy. How it s used is a different story, but the three bases are : Reward power is the ability to influence through rewards. ( offer someone a positive outcome, as a way of influencing good work or behaviour. Coercive power the ability to influence through punishment. If you don t do what i want, ill punish you. Legitimate power is the capacity to influence others by virtue of formal authority, or the rights of the office. Sources of personal power another source is the power that comes directly from the managers unique personal qualities. The two bases are: Expert Power is the ability to influence through special expertise or specialized knowledge. They maintain power by protecting their creditability and not overstepping the boundaries of their own understanding.
referent power is the capacity to influence other people because of their desire to identify personally with you. They admire you as a leader." you should do what i want in order to maintain a positive selfdefined relationship with me." Turning power into influence Reward and coercive power is only short term, employees begin to only do work if they are rewarded constantly, and people will only do work through the threat of punishment, however it also creates resistance. - Linking to expert and referent power creates more enduring influence; they create commitment. - However a great manager needs all the bases of power to be successful, and use them in the right instances Four points to keep in mind: 1. there is no substitute for expertise; 2. likeable personal qualities are very important; 3. effort and hard work breed respect; 4. personal behaviour must support expressed values. Ethics and the limits to power Chester Barnard acceptance theory of authority determines 4 characteristics that determine whether a leaders directives will be followed and true influence is achieved. The other person must truly understand the directive. the other person must feel capable of carrying out the directive The other person must believe that the directive is in the organisations best interests. The other person must believe that the directive is consistent with the personal values. Ethics can come into play here, as one day a manager will ask you to do something, that goes against your personal ethics, when will you say no? after all,as Barnard said, it is acceptance that establishes the limits of managerial power. Leadership and empowerment It is a good manager which allows a employee to feel empowered to act, so that they follow through with the task effectively. - Empowerment doesn't always come about when someone loses power, high-performance organisations are masters of mobilizing power and commitment to the vision throughout all ranks of employees. - trust is essential part of effective empowerment - the very act of empowering others may create a positive relationship and build referent power.
Leadership traits and behaviours Search for leadership traits It was thought that all great leaders have common traits, and to be a successful leader all one needs to do is strive to excel at those traits. However this was not true, though it has been studies that some common traits are effective, they are not necessary. Here aer some characteristics: drive, self-confidence, creativity, cognitive ability, business knowledge, motivation, flexibility, honest and integrity focus on leadership behaviours Leadership style is the pattern of behaviours exhibited by a leader. organisations sought to find which leadership style worked best - there are two dimensions for leadership style: concern for the task (initiating structure, job-centeredness and task orientation) Concern for the people (consideration, employee-centeredness and relationship orientation) Truly great leaders were high in both dimensions The following graph shows the different managerial styles in black and moutons leadership grid: Contingency approaches to leadership Fiedler's contingency model Good leadership depends on a match between leadership style and situational demands - Fiedler call the least preferred co-worker scale (lpc). A persons LPC score describes tendencies to behave as a task motivated or relationship motivated leader.
- instead of training a task-motivated leader to behave in a relationshipmotivated manner, you instead put existing styles to work in situations in which they are best fitted. Understanding Leadership situations Three contingency variables are used to diagnose situational control. these are: quality of leader-member relations: measures the degree to which the group supports the leader degree of task structure: Measures the extent to which task goals, procedures and guidelines are clearly spelt out. amount of position power: measures the degree to which the position gives the leader power to reward and punish subordinates. Matching leadership style and situation Fiedler has also researched contingency relationships between situational control, leadership style and leadership effectiveness - it appears each style works best when used in the right situation - A task oriented leader will be most successful in wither very favourable(high control) or very unfavourable (low control) situations - A relationship orientated leader will be most successful in situations of moderate control. Hersley-Blanchard situational leadership - suggests that successful leaders adjust their styles depending on the maturity of follower, indicated by their readiness to perform a given situation. The picture below explains this and shows that managers need to be able to implement the alternative leadership styles as needed.:
House's path-goal leadership theory - This suggests that you need to clarify paths through which followers can achieve both task-orientated and personal goals. Four leadership styles that may be used in this path-goal sense: Directive leadership: letting subordinates know what is expected supportive leadership: Doing things to make work more pleasant; treating group members as equals achievement-orientated leadership: setting challenging goals, expecting the highest level of performance participatory leadership: involving subordinates in decision-making; consulting with subordinates Path-goal predictions and managerial implications the figure advises a manager to always use leadership styles that complement situational needs. so leaders add value by contributing things that are missing from the situation, or that need strengthening.
Substitutes for leadership are factors in the work setting that direct work efforts without the involvement of a leader. these include, subordinate characteristics(ability experience), task characteristics(routines) organizational characteristics (clarity of plans, formalization of rules). Vroom- jago leader-participation model design to help a leader choose the method of decision making that best fits the nature of the problem Authority decision: made by the leader and then communicated to the group Consultive decision: is a decision made by a leader after receiving information, advice or opinions from group members. Group decision: Made with the full participation of all group members. The figure represents the situations in which to use what decision making methods:
- by allowing for more participation members gain understanding and become committed to the situation, more information can be compiled, - but there is also a cost, there is more time wasted, Issues in leadership development Transformational leadership Transformational leadership is inspirational leadership that gets people to do more in achieving high performance Transactional leadership is leadership that directs the efforts of others through tasks, rewards and structures. They support transformational, foundation of leadership. However they seem to be more insufficient to meet the leadership challenges. - in events where large scale changes are apparent, transformational leadership is vital in sustaining high performance - the transformation leader provides a strong aura of vision and contagious enthusiasm. the basic characteristics of a transformational leader is: vision, charisma, symbolism, empowerment, intellectual stimulation, integrity. Emotional intelligence the ability to manage one-selves and our relationships effectively. there are 5 critical components of emotional intelligence in building relationships with others effectively: self awareness self-regulation motivation empathy social skill:
someone with good emotional intelligence is able to see when workers are being stressed out by changes, or heavy workload. They are able to see the stress, and take quick action to reduce it. Gender and leadership Women managers tend to be more participatory than males. Employees tend to value participation by female leaders more highly than by their male leaders. Drucker s old fashioned leadership Drucker believes that the foundation of effective leadership is defining and establishing a sense of mission: sets goals, priorities and standards, makes them clear and understandable. accepting leadership as a responsibility rather than a rank : good leaders surround themselves with talented people, not afraid to develop strong capable subordinates, and don not blame others when things go wrong. earning and keeping trust of others: the followers of good leaders trust them, believes that the leaders actions will be consistent to what they said. Moral leadership making sure your leadership practices high ethical standards, to build and maintain an ethical organisational culture, and both help and require others to do the same. moral leadership begins with personal integrity, people trust this person.