Leadership

Leadership is a process/ability whereby

one individual influences other group
members towards the attainment of defined
group or organizational goals.
How is a manager different from a
leader?
The Trait Approach to Leadership
This perspective focuses on personal qualities and characteristics.

• Extraversion (Big-Five Model) is related with leadership

emergence.

• Achievement striving and dutifulness are related with leadership

emergence.

• Empathy, a core component of emotional intelligence is related

with effective leadership.

Traits predict the emergence of leadership but do not explain the

effectiveness of leadership.
 The Behavioral Approach to Leadership

• Behavioral theories of leadership say that people can be

trained as leaders.

• Ohio State studies identified independent dimensions of

leader’s behavior:
• Initiating structure
• Consideration
 Ohio State Studies: Leader’s Behavior

Initiating Structure: Leader with the ‘initiating structure’

approach:

• defines and structures roles to facilitate goal attainment.

• assigns tasks to followers
• sets definite standards of performance
• emphasizes the deadlines
 Ohio State Studies: Leader’s Behavior (cont’d)
Consideration: A leader with a
‘consideration’ approach develops a
job relationship with employees that
is characterized by:
• mutual trust
• respect for employees’ ideas
• regard for the feelings of
employees.

• Leaders with this approach help employees in their personal

problems.
• Such leaders are friendly and approachable.
• They treat all employees equally.
Employees working with leaders who are high on consideration,
tend to be more satisfied with their jobs.
 The Fiedler Model: Contingency Theory

The theory proposes that performance of a group depends upon the

match
• between the leader’s style, and
• the degree to which situation gives the control to the
leader

Least preferred coworker (LPC) questionnaire identifies whether an

individual is relationship-oriented or task-oriented.
• a high LPC score
• a low LPC score
 The Fiedler Model: Contingency Theory (cont’d)

Contingency dimensions for the assessment of a situation:

1. Leader-member relationship: This is identified in terms of trust,

respect and confidence expressed by followers in their leader.

2. Task structure: It is about how much a job is structured or

unstructured.

3. Position power: It indicates the degree of influence a leader has

over various power variables.
 An effective
leader is one
who is able to Readiness/Maturity of
change Employee/Follower
his/her
leadership
approach
according to
the readiness
of followers
 When followers have
WILLINGNESS
(Commitment, Motivations, Confidence)

to do the task,
then through
due process of proper training
they also acquire
ability
to perform the task
Situational Leadership
Theory
 Path-Goal Theory

According to this theory the leader should provide necessary

guidance, information, support and other necessary resources to the
followers to achieve their assigned goals.

Directive leadership is found to be effective in case of ambiguous

and stressful tasks.

In case of structured tasks, supportive leadership results in high

employee performance.
 LMX Theory (cont’d)

• LMX acknowledges the fact that

leaders differentiate between their
followers.

• Ingroup members are found to

receive higher performance
ratings than outgroup members.

• LMX improves employee trust,

motivation, empowerment and job
satisfaction among ingroup
members which lead to desirable
work outcomes.
 Transactional
Transformational
leaders guide their
leaders inspire
followers toward
followers to transcend
pre-decided goals
their self-interests for
by clarifying roles
the good of the
and task organization.
requirements.
 Transformational Leadership

Characteristics of transformational leadership:

Idealized Influence

Inspirational Motivation

Intellectual Stimulation

Individualized Consideration
 Transformational Leadership ( cont’d)
Some studies suggest that transformational leadership:

• Increases employee creativity.

• Increases employee affective organizational commitment

• Facilitates greater agreement among top managers about organizational

goals

• Individual-focused transformational leadership empowers the

individuals to develop ideas, increase their self-efficacy and enhance
their abilities.

• Team-focused transformational leadership emphasizes group goals,

shared values and beliefs.
 Trust: A Positive Attribute of Leadership

Trust between leader and employees encourages

• employees to tryout new ways of doing things

• sharing of information and new ideas

• development of trusting tone in a group that leads to improved

performance of group members.
The Nature of Trust

Leadership
Trustworthiness • Risk Taking

Integrity • Information
Sharing
TRUST
Benevolence • Group
effectiveness

Ability • Productivity

Propensity to
Trust
 Mentoring

• Psychological Functions

• Career Functions
Emotional Intelligence
 Dimensions of EI: Modified Framework

Intrapersonal Intelligence
– Self-Awareness,
– Self-Management,

Interpersonal Intelligence

- Social Awareness,
- Relationship Management (Social Skills)
Level-5 Leadership
 Level Five Leadership:
Making a company Good To Great

Level 5 = Humility + Unwavering Will

 Level-5 Leadership (cont’d)
What else is required to take companies toward greatness:

1. Right people in the team : Level-5 leaders attend to people first

and then focus on strategy.

2. Facts and Faith: Address the brutal facts about your current
reality and maintain the faith that you will prevail in the end.

3. Invest consistent efforts to build breakthrough momentum during

the transformation process of making a company great.
 Level-5 Leadership (cont’d)

4. The breakthrough can be gained through simple understanding of :

i. Company can be best at what?
ii. How its economics works best
iii. What best ignites the passion of its people.

5. A culture of discipline:
i. disciplined people
ii. disciplined thought
iii. disciplined action

6. Technology accelerators
 Charismatic Leadership

Characteristics of a Charismatic Leader

1. Having a vision and articulating it

effectively

2. Willing to take high personal risk

3. Sensitive to the followers’ needs

4. Engaging in unconventional behavior

 Resistance to Change

Individual Sources Organizational Sources

• Structural inertia
• Habit
• Limited focus of change
• Security
• Group inertia
• Selective
information • Threat to expertise
processing • Threat to established power
relationships
 Overcoming Resistance to Change

• Overcoming Resistance to Change

– Communication
– Participation
– Building support and commitment
– Develop positive relationships
– Implementing changes fairly
– Selecting people who accept change
– Coercion
 Managing Organizational Change
• Approaches to managing change:

– Lewin’s Three-Step Model

– Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for Implementing Change

– Action Research

– Organizational Development
Lewin’s Three-Step Change Model
Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for Implementing Change

1. Establish a sense of urgency by creating a compelling reason for why change is needed.

2. Form a coalition with enough power to lead the change.

3. Create a new vision to direct the change and strategies for achieving the vision.

4. Communicate the vision throughout the organization.

5. Empower others to act on the vision by removing barriers to change and encouraging risk taking and
creative problem solving.

6. Plan for, create, and reward short-term “wins” that move the organization toward the new vision.

7. Consolidate improvements, reassess changes, and make necessary adjustments in the new programs.

8. Reinforce the changes by demonstrating the relationship between new behaviors and organizational
success.

Source: Based on J. Kotter, Leading Change (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1996).
 Resilience Development Strategies
Following resilience development strategies can be adapted to the
workplace:

1. Asset-focused strategies: These strategies focus on enhancing

employees’ human capital, social capital and psychological capital
components.

Human capital in the form of education, experience, knowledge,

skills, abilities.
Social capital in the form of relationships, networking.
Positive psychological capital components such as self-efficacy,
hope, optimism.

• Training and development programs can be used to enhance human

capital especially the explicit knowledge, skills and abilities.
 Resilience Development Strategies

2. Risk-focused strategies follow the developmental approach

which emphasize risk-management rather than risk-avoidance.

3. Process-focused strategies: Process of self-awareness and self-

regulation are found to be facilitative in resilience development
process.