DEFINE leader and leadership.
A leader is someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. Leadership is a process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve its goals. Managers should be leaders because leading is one of the four management functions.
COMPARE and contrast early theories of leadership
Early attempts to define leader traits were unsuccessful, although later attempts found eight traits associated with leadership.
The University of Iowa studies explored three leadership styles. The only conclusion was that group members were more satisfied under a democratic leader than under an autocratic one. The Ohio State studies identifed two dimensions of leader behavior—initiating structure and consideration. A leader high in both those dimensions at times achieved high group task performance and high group member satisfaction, but not always. The University of Michigan studies looked at employee-oriented leaders and production-oriented leaders. They concluded that leaders who were employee oriented could get high group productivity and high group member satisfaction. The managerial grid looked at leaders’ concern for production and concern for people and identifed five leader styles. Although it suggested that a leader who was high in concern for production and high in concern for people was the best, there was no substantive evidence for that conclusion. As the behavioral studies showed, a leader’s behavior has a dual nature: a focus on the task and a focus on the people.
DESCRIBE the three major contingency theories of leadership.
Fiedler’s model attempted to define the best style to use in particular situations. He measured leader style—relationship oriented or task oriented—using the leastpreferred coworker questionnaire. Fiedler also assumed a leader’s style was fixed. He measured three contingency dimensions: leader–member relations, task structure, and position power. The model suggests that task-oriented leaders performed best in very favorable and very unfavorable situations, and relationship-oriented leaders performed best in moderately favorable situations.
Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory focused on followers’ readiness. They identified four leadership styles: telling (high task–low relationship), selling (high task–high relationship), participating (low task–high relationship), and delegating (low task–low relationship). They also identified four stages of readiness: unable and unwilling (use telling style), unable but willing (use selling style), able but unwilling (use participative style), and able and willing (use delegating style).
The path-goal model developed by Robert House identified four leadership behaviors: directive, supportive, participative, and achievement oriented. He assumed that a leader can and should be able to use any of these styles. The two situational contingency variables were found in the environment and in the follower. Essentially, the path-goal model says that a leader should provide direction and support as needed; that is, structure the path so the followers can achieve goals.
contemporary views of leadership.
Leader–member exchange theory (LMX) says that leaders create in-groups and outgroups and those in the in-group will have higher performance ratings, less turnover, and greater job satisfaction.
A transactional leader exchanges rewards for productivity where a transformational leader stimulates and inspires followers to achieve goals. A charismatic leader is an enthusiastic and self-confident leader whose personality and actions in…uence people to behave in certain ways. People can learn to be charismatic. A visionary leader is able to create and articulate a realistic, credible, and attractive vision of the future. Authentic leadership focuses on the moral aspects of being a leader. Ethical leaders create a culture in which employees feel that they could and should do a better job. A team leader has two priorities: manage the team’s external boundary and facilitate the team process. Four leader roles are involved: liaison with external constituencies, troubleshooter, con…ict manager, and coach.
twenty-first century issues affecting leadership
The „ve sources of a leader’s power are legitimate (authority or position), coercive (punish or control), reward (give positive rewards), expert (special expertise, skills, or knowledge), and referent (desirable resources or traits). Today’s leaders face the issues of managing power, developing trust, empowering employees, leading across cultures, and becoming an efective leader
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