Week 1 Introduction to Leadership

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
Conceptualising Leadership
Some definitions view leadership as
• focus of group processes
○ how to take an individual and move them along

• personality perspective
○ personality type/ style that makes a leader

• act or behaviour
○ cog. skills, strategic thinking, decision-making abilities, outcomes/ achievements
because one’s leadership

• power r/s between leaders and followers

○ leader or followers in agreement, is making the change

• transformational process
○ leaders transform the team to take them from where they are to where they
envision to be

• skills perspective

What is Leadership?
Peter Northouse (2013)
• “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a
common goal”

Gary Yukl (2010)

• “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be
done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to
accomplish shared objectives”

Van Vugt and Ahuja (2011)

• “a process of social influence to attain shared goals”

Leadership Defined
Core Theme: Social Influence
Why/ Assumptions
1. leaders have power to raise performance levels beyond what they would have been
were leaders ⓧ present
○ w/o the leaders there won’t be performance (key outcome)
○ getting outcomes out of people

2. leadership is a skill that is largely learned, and if you can learn this skill, the potential
upside is enormous

Managers vs Leaders
• managers like title and prestige, but might not 'like' managing people

Components of Leadership
Levels of Leadership in an Organisation
• e.g. project team, company/ regional level

Components
• leadership is a process
○ transactional event

HP4281 Page 1
 ○ transactional event
• involves influencing others
• happens within a context of a group
• involves goal attainment
• goals are shared by leaders and followers

Conclusions
Suggests that leadership ⓧ trait or characteristic endowed at birth
• can be developed

Leadership is a transactional event between leaders and their followers

Leadership as a Process

Leadership is a two-way interactive event between leader and follower

• can affect or be affected either +vely or -vely
• available to everyone, ⓧ just those born with it
• ⓧ restricted to 1 person with formal position power
○ e.g. founders ⓧ have complete control of organisation over time as no. of
employees ↑

Trait vs Process

Trait viewpoint
• emphasises attributes
○ e.g. personality, motives, values, skills

HP4281 Page 2
 ○ e.g. personality, motives, values, skills

• certain individuals have special innate characteristics

○ differentiating them from non-leaders

• suggests that leadership is inherent in a few select people

○ restricted to only those with those attributes

Is there a type people gravitate towards for a leader?

• charisma, majority race, tall, mostly males, physically abled → to be taken seriously

Process viewpoint
• implies leadership is a phenomenon that is contextual
○ skills and situations

• leadership is a property or set of properties possessed in varying degrees by diff

people

• suggests that everyone is capable of exercising leadership

○ can be learned through observing behaviours

Assigned vs Emergent Leadership

Assigned leadership

Appointment of people to formal positions of authority

• leading ∵ you are given that position
• e.g. given CEO title

Emergent leadership

HP4281 Page 3
ⓧ occur when person is appointed to a formal position
• but emerges over time through +ve communication behaviours
○ e.g. verbal involvement, keeping other informed, being firm but ⓧ rigid, initiation
of new and compelling ideas
• from individual contributor and slowly emerge as leaders

Exercise of leadership by a group member ∵ how other members react to him/her

• exhibited when others perceive person to be most influential member
○ regardless of individual’s title
• they support, accept, and encourage person’s behaviour

Factors Influencing Emergent Leadership

Personality traits
More dominant, intelligent, and confident about their own performance
• general self-efficacy

Gender-biased perceptions
Women
• urged to lead were equally successful as men in influencing group decisions
• rated significantly lower in leadership than men, despite equal influence
• who were influential rated as significantly less likable than equally influential men

Theoretical Support
Social Identity Theory
• leadership emergence depends on how well a person fits group's identity
• group prototype develops over time as group evolves
• individuals emerge as leaders when they closely match group prototype
○ similar to prototype makes them more attractive and influential within the group

Leadership and Power

Power
Capacity or potential to influence, ability to affect others’ beliefs, attitudes and actions
• a relational concern for leaders AND followers
• can lead to diff styles of leadership

French and Raven’s (1959) Power Bases

HP4281 Page 4
Position power
Power comes from holding a particular office, position or rank
• power bases: legitimate, reward, coercive
• need to know when is most apt time/ situation, be able to and willing to use it
• overuse → ↓ ability of leader to influence people

Personal power
Capacity to influence ∵ being viewed as knowledgeable and likeable by followers
• power bases: referent, expert

Claims and Grants of Leadership Status

We claim leadership roles through how we think, feel and behave
• others grant/ deny legitimacy to your leadership claims by choosing (or not) to follow

Leadership development
• ↑ chances of having your leadership claims validated and legitimised

Leadership and Coercion

Coercion involves
• use of force to effect △
• influencing others to do something by manipulating rewards and penalties in work env.
• use of threats, punishments, negative rewards

Leadership vs Management

HP4281 Page 5
Functions of Management and Leadership

HP4281 Page 6
Note
• Kotter said both are important
• Simonet & Tett (2012) said that mgt is distinct from leadership by extrinsic motivation
○ mgt: about rewards
○ leadership: about values, purposes

Managers
People who do things right
• reactive problem-solving
• less emotional
• keeping people on track

Leaders
People who do the right thing
• conceptual ideas
• more emotional
• create great visions but not thinking about how to execute it
○ need to know how to execute or else will fall

Leadership: Psychology vs Business Management

Psychology
• poor corr. between leadership and traits
• complex – need to consider environment and context
• individual-based

Business Mgt
• for selection process, business outcomes

History of Leadership
Pre 1930s: Leaders as Heroes

Remarkable individuals capable of radically altering streams of history

• hereditary genius

Great men
• heroes and hero worship
• mostly males

Related to IQ then traits

• spurred on by IQ research/ individual differences tradition
• besides IQ, few personality traits reliably distinguish leaders and non-leaders

1940s & 50s: What Leaders Do

Creation of Questionnaires
• Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)

HP4281 Page 7
Variability in leader behaviour could be explained by 2 major clusters

1. Consideration is showing concern for subordinates' feelings

○ making sure minority viewpoints considered in decision-making
○ reducing conflict

2. Initiation of structure
○ use of standard operating procedures (SOPs)
○ criticism of poor work
○ emphasis on high levels of performance

Statistical results
• inconsistent predictors of follower satisfaction and group performance

1960s & Early 70s: Contingency Theories

Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leader-Situation Matches

Least preferred co-worker method

• inconsistent predictions until coded for situational favourability

Groups led by task-oriented leaders

Performed best in situations
• high control and predictability OR
• very low control and predictability

Groups led by relationship-oriented leaders

Performed best in the situations
• moderate control or predictability

Evaluations of Model
• heavily criticised for inductive development and complexity
○ inductive: small idea → grand theory
• well supported empirically

Vroom & Yetton's Normative Decision Model

HP4281 Page 8
Evaluations of Model
• addressed criticism deductively
○ deductive: sign method; theory → finding specific evidence to support it

House et al.'s Path-Goal Theory

HP4281 Page 9
Leader's Purpose
Motivate subordinates by
• showing how task-related performance achieves personal goals

Structure
Motivates when environment lacks structure
• ∵ insufficient training or exp.
○ otherwise, it's micromanaging

Psychology Support
• best when it is needed
○ to deal with a boring work environment
• unnecessary if work is engaging

Evaluation
• considerable research supports tenets of this model

Note: What a leader does

• e.g. charismatic leadership, cross-cultural leadership
• understanding human psychology
• e.g. what motivates people/ why people push back being told what to do/ how to get
people to change/ how to make someone do something they don’t want to do

Late 70s Onward: New Wave Theories

Burns' Transactional vs Transformational Leaders

Transactional
• mutually beneficial transactions
• associated with moderate to poor leadership effects

Transformational
• followers transcend personal interests
• associated with high levels of subordinate motivation and group/ organisational
success
• described as "universally" effective leadership behaviour
○ contrary to contingency theory

HP4281 Page 10
Measured through Bass's Multi-Factor Leader Questionnaire (MLQ)
Alternative: 180 degrees or 360 degrees
• e.g. followers [fearful, consequences to reviewer (e.g. renumeration) affecting
accuracy]

House's Charismatic Leadership

HP4281 Page 11
Scholarly research and popular work on nature of leadership exploded in 1980

Since the Millenium

Graen & Uhl-Bien's Leader-Member Exchange Theory

Leaders develop different exchange r/s with followers

Leadership occurs when leaders and followers are able to develop effective r/s
• involving mutual and incremental influence

Higher quality LMX

• higher performance and performance of organisational citizenship behaviours
• occur when there is higher goal congruence

In-groups vs Out-groups
• e.g. experienced vs newbie workers

Problematic LMX measurement

• scales developed ad-hoc
• ⓧ agreement what constitutes a standard

Bass & Steidlmeier's Authentic Leadership

HP4281 Page 12
Tenets
• objectively analysing data before making a decision
• being guided by internal moral standards
• openly sharing information and feelings as appropriate
• understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses.

Where in is it in the construct life cycle?

Servant Leadership
Leader as a shepherd
• leadership as a calling

Tenets
• proposes followers of servant leaders ↑ likely to become leaders themselves
• altruistic over dominance motives
• Spears (2004) extended the work of Greenleaf (1991) and identified 10 attributes
1. listening
2. empathy
3. healing
4. awareness
5. persuasion
6. conceptualisation
7. foresight
8. stewardship
9. commitment
10. building community

Evaluation
• limited empirical research shows +vely related to follower satisfaction and

HP4281 Page 13
 • limited empirical research shows +vely related to follower satisfaction and
organisational commitment
• measurement of servant leadership problematic

Studying Leadership
Research Methodologies
Quantitative Approach

Testing theoretical propositions + generating explanations/predictions from data

Assumption
• leadership is capable of being measured as a phenomenon that is
○ static, well-delineated and with universal dimensions

Methods
• lab experiments
• field experiments
• field studies
• survey research

Criticisms
• Imposes limitations on:
○ variation in organisational level
○ dynamic and changeable character
○ affect of the symbolic nature of leadership’s social construction.

• unable to explain subjective and ever-shifting realities of leadership process

○ e.g. before world financial crisis, we want leaders as risk takers to bring in
outcomes like profit. after WFC, we want them to be considerate.

Qualitative Approach

Purposes
• better understand complex, embedded phenomena

HP4281 Page 14
 • better understand complex, embedded phenomena
○ focus on building a complex, holistic picture conducted in a natural setting

• enables emergence of nuanced & contextualised richness

○ within organisational str., r/s and practices
○ e.g. what was the world/ context back then like? key events that occurred during
his leadership? what other leaders were there? cultural influences

• addresses potential weaknesses of quantitative approach

Usage
• no. of qualitative studies on leadership is significantly lower than quantitative methods
• should be methodology of choice for topics as contextually rich as leadership

Methods
• interviewing (semi-structured, in-depth, unstructured, biographical)
• ethnographies
• document analysis
• case studies
• observation
• grounded theory

Benefits
• greater opportunities to examine process in depth and allow for richer descriptions
• flexibility to discern other contextual factors and sensitivity of ideas and meanings of
individuals concerned
• more effective means to investigate symbolic dimensions
• ↑ likelihood of developing empirically supported new ideas with practical relevance
rather than verifying old and existing theories

Weaknesses
• intensive, complex, expensive, time-consuming
• harder to validate
○ ∵ next researcher needs to look back at all the resources that were used

Grounded theory

Useful for research on human behaviour in organisations, groups, other social configurations

Aim
• generating theory which is grounded in the data rather than testing existing theories
• seeks to produce a social theory of a particular phenomenon drawn from relational
exp. of participants within a discrete context

Process
• moves systematically
○ categorising data related to a phenomenon → linking those categories to develop

HP4281 Page 15
 ○ categorising data related to a phenomenon → linking those categories to develop
an integrative picture
○ empirical data → codes and themes → hierarchy of levels of abstraction

• uses qualitative research methods

• interpretation might utilise metaphors, related concepts, and unrelated theories

Steps involved (Parry, 1998):

1. Focus on the relational and processual elements of leadership in a particular context.
2. Apply qualitative analysis to qualitative data using the grounded theory technique to
ensure rigour and to consider all variables or causal mechanisms.
3. Generate an integrative theory with a hierarchy of abstraction.
4. Compare the theory to the extant literature and repeat the research in new contexts
with the aim of building a formal theory.

Data gathering and analysis

Open coding and axial coding
• identify variables of importance

Theoretical coding
• elaborate dimensions of the properties of those variables

6 Cs of grounded theory analysis

HP4281 Page 16
6 Cs of grounded theory analysis
• cause, consequence, contingency, context, condition, covariance
• identify r/s between these variables, and determine model that reflects emerging
theoretical explanation of the phenomenon

Theoretical sampling
• engage in several iterations of data gathering and analysis
○ till emerging explanation is as valid and reliable as possible
○ constant comparison of these iterations of data gathering contributes to the
validity of research

HP4281 Page 17