WEEK 2:

LEADERSHIP


Dr Natasha Mauthner

Week 2: Leadership

Lecture 1: Traditional Leadership
Lecture 2: Inspirational Leadership

Lecture 1:
Traditional Leadership
Different types of leadership
What is leadership?


The ability to influence a group toward
the achievement of a vision
Different types of leadership
Charismatic or transformational leadership:
Leaders who inspire followers to transcend their
own self-interests and who are capable of having
a profound and extraordinary effect on followers.

Transactional: Leaders who guide or motivate
their followers in the direction of established
goals by clarifying role and task requirements.

Leadership vs Management
What is the difference between leadership and
management?
Management is about coping with complexity: good
management brings about order and consistency by
drawing up formal plans, designing rigid organisation
structures and monitoring results against plans
Leadership is about coping with change: leaders
establish direction by developing a vision of the future;
then they align people by communicating this vision
and inspiring them to overcome hurdles
Leadership vs Management
Managers use the authority inherent in their
designated formal rank to obtain compliance from
organizational members
Leaders influence others to follow them towards the
achievement of a vision. Their ability to influence may
arise out of formal authority, but more often arises
outside of formal structure of the organisation
Management consists of implementing the vision and
strategy provided by leaders, coordinating and staffing
the organisation, and handling day-to-day problems
Leadership and management
Organisations need strong leadership
and strong management
They need leaders to challenge the
status quo, create visions, inspire
others
They need managers to formulate
detailed plans, create efficient
organisational structures, oversee day-
to-day operations
Leadership and power
Is formal authority necessary to
leadership?


The source of this influence may be
formal or informal authority

Mahatma
Ghandi
Aung San
Suu Kyi

Leadership theories
Basic approaches to leadership
Theories that try to explain what makes an
effective leader and what differentiates leaders
from non-leaders

Trait theories
Behavioural theories
Contingency theories
Interactive theories
Attribution theories
Trait theories of leadership
Throughout history strong leaders have all
been described in terms of their traits: their
personal qualities and characteristics
Trait theories search for personality, social,
physical or intellectual attributes that
describe leaders and differentiate them from
non leaders

Elizabeth I
Napolean
Bonaparte

Winston
Churchil
l
Margaret
Thatcher
Mother
Theresa

Key leadership traits
1. Extraversion: individuals who like being around
people and are able to assert themselves
2. Conscientiousness : disciplined and keep
commitments they make
3. Openness to experience: those who are creative
and flexible
4. Emotional intelligence: leaders who are empathic,
can sense others needs, listen to what followers
say and dont say, and are able to read the reactions
of others
Trait theories
Good leaders seem to have these four traits
in common
These traits can predict leadership
Traits do a better job at predicting the
emergence of leaders and the appearance of
leadership than in actually distinguishing
between effective and ineffective leaders
Behavioural theories of leadership
Is there something unique in the way that effective
leaders behave?
This is a question about leadership style vs leadership
traits
Trait theories imply you need to select the right person
Behavioural theories imply you can train people to be
effective leaders
Different assumptions underlying these theories:
Leaders are born rather than made
Leaders are made rather than born
Behavioural theories
What do behavioural theories tell us about
leadership?
Ohio State Studies identified two dimensions
of leadership behaviour:
1.Initiating structure
2.Consideration
Initiating structure
The extent to which a leader defines and
structures his or her role and those of
employees
A leader characterised as high in initiating
structure:
assigns group members to particular tasks
expects workers to maintain definite standards of
performance
emphasises the meeting of deadlines
Consideration
Leaders who develop relationships with
employees characterised by mutual trust,
respect for employees ideas, and regard for
their feelings.
friendly and approachable
treats all employees as equals
expresses appreciation and support
Ohio State Theories
Initiating structure and consideration are
associated with effective leadership
Consideration is related to individuals i.e. the
followers of leaders high in consideration are
more satisfied with their jobs, more
motivated, have more respect for their leader
Initiating structure is associated with higher
levels of group and organisation productivity
and more positive performance evaluations
University of Michigan Studies
They found two behaviour characteristics associated with
effective leadership:
1. Employee oriented
2. Production oriented
Employee-oriented leaders emphasised interpersonal
relations; took personal interest in needs of employees
and accepted individual differences among members
Production-oriented leaders emphasised technical or
task aspects of the job: accomplishing the groups tasks
and the group members were a means to an end
Closely related to dimensions of Ohio State Studies:
1. Employee oriented - consideration
2. Production oriented initiating structure
Summary of trait and behavioural
theories
They add to our understanding of leadership
effectiveness
Leaders who have certain traits, who display
consideration and structuring behaviours seem to
be more effective
Alone they cannot explain leadership
effectiveness
The context matters too: Leadership
effectiveness is dependent on situational
influences
Contingency theories
Leadership effectiveness is dependent on situational
influences and on the context in which traits and
behaviours are expressed and performed
But what are these situational conditions? How do
we isolate situational variables?
Three theories have tried to do this:
1. Fiedler contingency model
2. Hersey and Blanchards Situational Leadership
Theory
3. Path-goal Theory
Fiedler Contingency Model
Suggests that different leadership styles are
appropriate for different organisational
contexts
The model identifies two leadership styles
task-oriented and relationship-oriented and
three dimensions of organisational context
leader-member relations; task structure;
position power
the Fiedler model proposes matching up
leadership style and organisational contexts to
achieve maximum leadership effectiveness

Hersey and Blanchards Situational
Leadership Theory (SLT)
This theory focuses on the followers and on
the leader-follower relationship
The most effective leadership behaviour
depends on a followers ability and motivation
Leaders need to change their leadership
behaviour as followers/employees become
more able and competent

Path-Goal Theory
Argues that the leader has responsibility for providing
followers with information, support, and other resources
necessary for them to achieve their goals
Four leadership behaviours are identified:
1. Directive leader lets followers know what is expected of them
and gives specific guidance
2. Supportive leader friendly and shows concern for the needs of
followers
3. Participative leader consults with followers and uses their
suggestions before making a decision
4. Achievement-oriented leader sets challenging goals and
expects followers to perform at their highest level
Leaders are seen as flexible: the same leader can display
any or all of these behaviours depending on the situation
Summary of contingency theories
Overall, contingency theories have been mixed
The main limitation of all the theories so far is
that they ignore the followers
Yet leaders do not exist in a vacuum leadership
is a symbiotic relationship between leaders and
followers
But the leadership theories so far all assume that
leaders treat their employees in the same way
Next theory looks at differences in the
relationships leaders form with different
followers
Interactive theories
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory: Leaders establish
special relationship with small group of followers who make
up the in-group: they are trusted, get a disproportionate
amount of the leaders attention, and are more likely to
receive special privileges
Other followers are in the out-group
Selection of in-group: Demographic, attitude, personality
characteristics similar to leader; higher level of competence
Decision Theory: Argues that the way the leader makes
decisions is as important as what s/he decides e.g. Leader
Participation Model relates leader behaviour and
participation in decision-making


Attribution theory of leadership
A leadership theory that says that leadership
is merely an attribution that people make
about other individuals. Whats important in
being characterised as an effective leader is
projecting the appearance of being a leader
rather than actual accomplishments.
Attribution theory of leadership
Effective leadership is not necessarily about the leader
Certain individual, job, and organisational variables can act as
substitutes for leadership or neutralise the leaders influence
on his or her followers
Individual: experience/training; professionalism;
indifference to rewards;
Job: highly structured task; provides its own feedback;
intrinsically satisfying
Organisation: explicit formalised goals; rigid rules and
procedures; cohesive work groups
Leadership is just one variable - that is of many possible ways
of explaining employee productivity; absence, turnover,
satisfaction, and citizenship behaviour

William Wallace is one of
Scotland's greatest national
heroes, undisputed leader of
the Scottish resistance forces
during the first years of the long
and ultimately successful
struggle to free Scotland from
English rule at the end of the
13
th
Century.
The battle of Stirling Bridge: 1297
Gender and Leadership
Joan of Arc

1412-1431
Anita Roddick
Body Shop founder
Condoleezza Rice

Former US
Secretary of
State
Hillary Clinton

US Senator
Angela
Merkel

Famous
German
politician and
first ever
woman
Chancellor of
Germany
Meg
Whitman

Former
CEO of
ebay
Do men make better leaders than
women?
Little evidence to support this belief
A stereotype predicated on the belief that men are inherently
better skilled for leadership due to having a stronger task
focus, lower emotionality, and a greater propensity to be
directive
There is overlap in men and womens leadership styles
Evidence suggests women have a leadership advantage
Female leaders tend to be more transformational than males
Men continue to dominate leadership positions because men
are perceived to be better leaders because traditionally
leadership qualities have been defined as stereotypically
masculine ones

Contemporary leadership roles
Mentoring
Self-leadership
Online leadership
Mentor
A senior employee who sponsors and
supports a less-experienced employee called a
protg
Mentors have two broad categories of
functions
1.Career functions
2.Psychosocial functions
Mentoring
Career Functions
Lobbying for protg
Coaching the protg
Assisting the protg
Protecting the protg
Sponsoring protg
Acting as a sounding board
for the protg
Psychosocial functions
Counselling the protg
about anxieties and
uncertainty to help bolster
her self-confidence
Sharing personal
experiences with the
protg
Providing friendship and
acceptance
Acting as a role model
Mentoring
Most organisations rely on informal mentoring these tend to be
more effective than formal mentoring relationships
Minorities and women are less likely to be chosen as protgs
than white males and are less likely to accrue the benefits of
mentorship
Mentors tend to select protgs who are similar to themselves in
terms of education, gender, race, ethnicity and religion
Senior management positions tend to be staffed by white men so
it is hard for minorities and women to be selected as protgs
Senior male managers may be reluctant to take on female
protgs
Formal mentoring schemes have been introduced to support
women and minorities
Self-leadership
Is it possible for people to lead themselves?
Some argue that it is superleaders help
their followers to lead themselves by
developing leadership capacity in others and
nurturing followers so they no longer need to
depend on formal leaders for direction and
motivation
Self-leadership: A set of processes through
which individuals control their behaviour
Online leadership
How do you lead people in a virtual world?
Increasingly important question as the ways in which
business is carried out relies increasingly less on face to
face situations
E.g. Using email to communicate with staff; overseeing
virtual projects or teams; telecommuting
How does leadership change when relationships are
defined by network interactions?
The key difference is the loss of non-verbal information
e.g. Body language; tone of voice; eye contact;
emotional communication; etc
Online leadership
Online leadership requires other skills and attention to details
like choice of words; structure of messages; reading between
the lines; deciphering the emotional components of messages
How do you develop and maintain trust? Identification based
trust is difficult to achieve when there is a lack of intimacy and
face-to-face interaction; online negotiations have been found
to be hindered when parties express lower levels of trust; its
not clear whether its possible for employees to identify with
or trust leaders with whom they only communicate
electronically
For an increasing number of managers good interpersonal
skills may include the abilities to communicate support and
leadership through written words on a computer screen and to
read emotions in others messages
Finding and creating effective leaders
How can organisations find and create
effective leaders?
Selecting leaders
Training leaders

Selecting leaders
Knowledge, skills, abilities that are needed to do
the job effectively- trying to fit candidate with the
job
Personality tests e.g. For extraversion,
conscientiousness, openness to experience,
emotional intelligence
Interviews: to see whether they have
extraversion, self confidence, a vision, verbal
skills, charismatic physical presence
Plan for leadership succession

Training leaders
Organisations spend a lot of money on
leadership training and development
Not everyone is equally trainable
What can be learnt? Maybe not vision but
implementation of the vision; trust building;
mentoring; situational-analysis skills;
interpersonal skills
Global implications
Most of the research on leadership theories
has been conducted in English-speaking
countries
We know very little about how culture might
influence their validity particularly in Eastern
cultures
How does culture affect leadership style and
effectiveness?
GLOBE study
Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness
project
How would culture influence a US manager leading a project in
Brazil, France, Egypt and China?
Brazil: employees value team oriented, participative, humane
style
France: employees expect a more bureaucratic, task oriented,
good at initiating structure, autocratic style
Egypt: employees value team oriented and participative
leadership but also expect status differences between leaders
and followers
China: emphasis on politeness, consideration, altruism, high
performance status differences are also expected
Leaders need to take culture into consideration when they are
managing employees from different cultures
Reading for Week 2: Leadership
The three lectures on Leadership are intended
to supplement reading of the course textbook
(Robbins and Judge (2009) Organizational
Behaviour). The following three chapters are
essential to understanding leadership and you
are strongly advised to read them:
Chapter 12: Basic Approaches to Leadership.
Chapter 13: Contemporary Issues in Leadership.
Chapter 14: Power and Politics.