Lecture on Leadership

Nature of leadership:

Reciprocal, transactional relationship

Legitimate (leadership is different from domination)

Goal-oriented--leaders lead people toward some goal

(Sometimes)

Transformational--unites and transforms people (leadership different from management)

Theories

(numerous--noconsensus yet)

Overall themes:

Two leadership styles or sets of behaviors:

Relationship / Task

Two dimensions to consider:

The person / the situation

Theorist differ in considering how flexible these are.

Contingency theory: Effective leadership depends on a flexible match between leader and something else:

*structure of situation, *developmental stage of group, *member characteristics

Fiedler's Contingency Model:

Leaders are either relationship-motivated or task-motivated

Views people as relatively fixed.

Situation varies according to three dimensions:

Leader-member relations (good/bad)

Task structure

(high structure/unstructured

Leader's power position

(strong/weak)

Effective leadership depends on the match between favorability of the situation and leadership style. Favorability = good relations, high structure, strong power position.

Leader Match training teaches leaders how to modify the situation (not themselves)

Leadership Grid

(Blake & Mouton, 1980)

(formerly call Managerial Grid)

Based on distinction between relationship and task

Focuses on the person, not the situation

Proposes a single "best" style (9,9), high on both concern for

people and concern for results

Training focuses on changing the leader

Vroom's normative model

Balances a focus on decision quality (task) and involvement of members(task/relationship)

AI, AII, CI are leader-focused and task-focused

CII and GII are group-focused and involves more attention to relationship issues

Contingencies involve a match between the style and the several aspects of the situation:

Importance of decision quality

Importance of decision acceptance

Need for information or expertise

Training focuses on instructing leader about contingencies (cognitive model); leaders are presumed to be able to switch among styles