Group Behavior: Leadership

Group Behavior: Leadership

Leadership: The process of guiding and directing the behavior of people in the work environment is known as leadership.

I.           Early trait theories: These theories attempted to identify what physical attributes, personality characteristics, and abilities distinguished leaders from other members of a group. The trait theories have had very limited success in being able to identify the universal, distinguishing attributes of leaders.

II.             Behavioral theories:

1.     The Lewin, Lippit and White Studies: Styles of leadership

Autocratic style	Democratic style	Laissez-faire style
A style of leadership in which the leader uses strong, directive, controlling actions to enforce the rules, regulations, activities and relationships in the work environment.	A style of leadership in   which the leader takes collaborative, responsive, interactive actions with followers concerning the work and work environment.	A style of leadership in which the leader fails to accept the responsibilities of the position.

 

2.    The Ohio State Studies: Dimensions of Leader behavior

Initiating structure	Consideration
A leader behavior aimed at  defining and organizing work relationships and roles, as well as establishing clear patterns of organization, communication, and ways of getting things done	A leader behavior aimed at nurturing friendly, warm working relationships as well as encouraging mutual trust and interpersonal respect within the work unit

3.    The Michigan Studies: Leadership styles

Employee oriented	Production oriented
·  A work environment that focuses on relationships ·  The leader exhibits less direct or less close supervision and establishes fewer written or unwritten rules and regulations for behavior ·  Concern for people and their needs	·     A work environment which focus on getting things done ·     The leader exhibits direct, close supervision and many written and unwritten rules and regulations to control behavior ·     Concern for profit and production

 

III. Contingency theories: These theories involve the belief that leadership style must be appropriate for the particular situation.

1.     Fiedler’s Contingency theory: proposes that the fit between the leader’s need structure and the favorableness of the leader’s situation determine the team’s effectiveness in work accomplishment. The theory classifies the favorableness of the leader’s situation according to the leader’s position power, the structure of the team’s task, and the quality of the leader-follower relationships. Fiedler classifies leaders using the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale, which is a projective technique through which a leader is asked to think about the person with whom he or she can work least well.

              High LPC- Relationship oriented; Low LPC- Task oriented

2.   Path-Goal Theory- Robert House: based on an expectancy theory of motivation. The path-goal theory assumes that leaders adapt their behavior and style to fit the characteristics of the followers and the environment in which they work. The basic goal of the leader is to clear the follower’s path to the goal. A leader selects from the four leader behavior styles –

• Directive style- When the leader must give specific guidance about work tasks, schedule work
• Supportive style- When the leader needs to express concern for followers’ well-being and social status
•  Participative style- When the leader must engage in joint decision-making activities with followers
• Achievement-oriented style- When the leader must set challenging goals for followers

3. The Situational Leadership Model – Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard: suggests that the leader’s behavior should be adjusted to the maturity level of the followers

4.   Vroom-Yetton-Jago Normative decision model: This model helps managers and leaders determine the appropriate level of employee participation in decision making. Five forms of decision making are described in the model:

• Decide: Manager makes the decision alone
• Consult individually: with each group member and then makes the decision
• Consult group: in a meeting and then makes the decision
• Facilitate: the group in a meeting to make decision by the members
• Delegate: the authority to the group members to make decision within the prescribed limits

5.    Leadership Grid – Robert Blake and Jane Mouton: developed with a focus on attitudes. The two underlying dimensions are concern for people and concern for results.

•  Organization-man manager (5, 5) is a middle of the road leader who attempts to balance a concern for both people and production without commitment to either
•  Authority-compliance manager (9, 1) has great concern for production and little concern for people who desires to keep people in tight control in order to get tasks done efficiently
•  Country club manager (1, 9) who has a great concern for people and little concern for production attempts to avoid conflict, and seeks to keep people happy through good interpersonal relations.
• Team manager (9, 9) is considered ideal and has great concern for both people and production
•  Impoverished manager (1, 1) has little concern for people or production, avoids taking sides, and stays out of conflicts –laissez faire leader
•  The paternalistic” father know best” manager (9+9) promises reward for compliance and threatens punishment for non compliance
• The opportunistic “what’s in it for me’ manager uses the style that he or she feels will return him or her greatest self -benefits  

 IV.          Recent Leadership theories:

1.     Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX): recognizes that leaders may form different relationships with followers. The leaders form two groups of followers: in-groups and out-groups.

• In-group members tend to be similar to the leader and given greater responsibilities, more rewards, and more attention.
• Out-group members are outside the circle and receive less attention and fewer rewards and are managed by formal rules and policies. 

2.    Inspirational Leadership Theories:

• Transformational leadership: Transformational leaders inspire and excite followers to high levels of performance as they rely on their personal attitudes consisting of four dimensions as follows:
•  Charisma
•  Individualized Consideration
• Inspirational Motivation and
•  Intellectual Stimulation
• Charismatic Leadership: Charismatic leaders use the force of personal abilities and talents in order to have profound and extraordinary effects on followers.
• Authentic Leadership: Authentic leaders arouse and motivate followers to higher levels of performance by building a workforce characterized by high levels of hope, optimism, resiliency and self-efficacy.

            Along with the recent developments in theory, some exciting issues such as emotional intelligence, trust, women leaders, and servant leadership have emerged of which leaders must be aware to be competent and efficient as these traits can affect leaders’ decisions- making skills, strategy implementation, and ability to build organizational citizenship behaviors.