Paper Project on Leadership
January 30, 2008 – 8:37 pmIntroduction
to
Leadership Psychology
Through the years, our view of what leadership is and who can exercise it has changed considerably. Leadership competencies have remained constant, but our understanding of what it is, how it works, and the ways in which people learn to apply it has shifted. Today we a little close to understand how and who people lead. Leadership skills were once thought a matter of birth. Leaders were born, not made, summoned to their calling through some unfathomable process. When this view failed to explain leadership, it was replaced by the notion that great events made leaders of otherwise ordinary people.
In this paper project we want to understand what distinguishes effective leaders from ineffective leaders and effective organizations from ineffective organizations. Through the psychological academic researches we want to present how an ineffective leader may became an effective leader, gaining knowledge and skills about leading effectively an organization. We want to show the importance to understand the nature of individual, groups and organization and how we can inspire them to follow a leader’s vision.
CHAPTER I
The Nature of Leadership
In this chapter we will try to understand what leadership is the nature of leadership and examines leadership effectiveness, theories of leadership and the major research approaches on this topic. Also we want to understand what distinguishes effective leaders from ineffective leaders and effective organizations from ineffective organizations. We will start studying this topic from the assumption that leadership is a complex phenomenon involving the leader, the followers, and the situation.
What is Leadership?
Perhaps the best ways to begin understand the complexity of leadership is to consider some definitions of leadership. Leadership researchers have defined leadership as follows: The creative and direct force of morale (Munson, 1921 from Hugies, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
The process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired manner (Bennis, 1959 from Hugies, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). The presence of a particular influence relationship between two or more persons (Hollander and Julian, 1969).
Leadership is the behaviour of an individual … directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal (Hemphill and Coons, 1957 from Yukl, 1998). The process of influencing an organized group toward accomplishing its goals (Roach and Behling, 1984 from Hugies, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). Leadership is about articulating vision, embodying values, and creating the environment within which things can be accomplished (Richard and Engle, 1986 from Yukl, 1998).
It seems that most definitions of leadership reflect the assumption that leadership is exerted by one person over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization (Yukl, 1998).
We agree with the Roach and Behling’s definition of leadership: “the process of influencing an organized group toward accomplishing its goals” and we believe also that the leadership has both rational and emotional aspects.
Leadership involves both the rational and emotional sides of human experience. It includes actions and influences based on reason and logic as well those based on inspiration and passion.
Leadership versus Management
There is a continuing controversy about the difference between leadership and management. It is obvious that a person can be a leader without being a manager, and a person can be a manager without leading.
Managers traditional have been thought to perform the planning, investing, coordinating, organizing, and controlling functions in an organization (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). Management theorists have paid relatively little attention to the face-to-face interactions managers have with followers in order to accomplished organizational goals. These face-to-face interactions with followers are generally seen as leadership functions; leaders focus more on resolving conflicts in groups, providing emotional support to group members, maintaining group cohesiveness and satisfaction, and working with group members to set group goals ( Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
Some writers contend that the two are qualitatively different even mutually exclusive. They argue that the managers are oriented toward stability and leaders are oriented toward innovation; manager get people to do things more efficiently, whereas leaders get people to agree about what things should be done. Bennis (1985) in Hugies, Ginnett and Curphy (1996) characterized managers as people who do things right and leaders as people who do the right things; and manages administer; leaders innovate; managers maintain, leaders develop; managers control, leaders inspire; managers imitate, leaders originate; managers accept status quo, leaders challenge it ( Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
A contrary view is taken by other writers as Kotter (1998) who find no good purpose served by assuming it is impossible to be both a manager and leader at the same time. He considers that leading and managing are distinct processes, but dose not view leaders and manages as different types of people. We agree more with this opinion about the differences between the leaders and managers. Although some of the functions performed by leaders and managers may be unique, there is also an area of overlap where involve many of the same activities.
Also agree with Yukl view on leadership as the process wherein an individual member or a group or organization influences the interpretation of events, the choice of objectives and strategies, the organization of work activities, the motivation of people to achieve the objectives, the maintenance of cooperative relationships, the development of skills and confidence by members, and the enlistment of support and cooperation from people outside the group or organization (Yukl, 1998).
Leadership Effectiveness
Leadership effectiveness is occasionally measured in terms of the leader’s contribution to the quality of group processes as perceived by followers. Does the leader enhance group cohesiveness, member cooperation, member motivation, problem solving, decision making, and resolution of conflict among members? Dose the leader contribute to the efficiency of role specialization, the organization of activities, the accumulation of resources, and the readiness of the group to deal with change and crises?
Yukl (1998) says that the attitude of the followers toward the leader is another common indicator of leader effectiveness. How well dose the leader satisfy their needs and expectations? Do followers like, respect, and admire the leader?
Like definitions of leadership, conceptions of leader effectiveness differ. It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of a leader when there are so many alternative measures of effectiveness, and it is not clear which measure is most relevant (Yukl, 1998).
We believe that to be an efficient the person needs to know to anticipate peoples behaviour to the leaders demands; to be a good organizational strategic to find solutions in order to increase sales and profit; but it is not enough to be a good manager, also need to know how to communicate his solutions, ideas, how to inspire and motivate his employee to increase quality and productivity. Lawson and Shen (1998) says that an efficient leadership requires competence, emotional maturity, authentically knowledge of one’s strengths and weaknesses, the valuing of partnership with followers, and a commitment to learn continuously throughout life. There are some basic management principles in order to became an efficient leader: he need to esteemed the needs and working activities of the employees; to encourage and support the employee’s active participation in decision making in management; to widened his communication with the employees by exchanging information, sharing feelings and interests, engaging in joint recreational activities, and coordinating employees before decision making (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Major Research Approaches
Briefly we will present four research approaches on leadership: trait approach; behaviour approach; power-influential approach and situational approach.
The trait model focuses on what a person brings to leadership activities, the behaviour model examine the actions or behaviours of a leader, situational approach identifies the contextual forces that shapes and determine leadership and power-influential approach examines influences process between leaders and other people.
Traits Approach
The trait or dispositional model of leadership rests on the premise that leaders have some unique attributes as a result of inherited capacities, learning experience, or a combination of the two. A good leader should have the following attributes: high energy level, tolerance of stress, integrity, emotional maturity, and self-confidence; relatively strong motivation to achieve and a relatively modest need for affiliation, and technical, conceptual and interpersonal skills (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Behaviour Approach
The focus of behavioural approach of leadership is on what the leader or manager does with whatever personal traits, skills or motivational capacities he has been endowed with or acquired as a result of organizational experience and education.
Yukl (1998) present here two general subcategories of the behaviour research: one is research on nature of managerial work and second is research on managerial behaviour.
The behaviour models focus on the acquired behaviour and personal attributes that the person brings to the situation, and provide a framework for identifying and cultivating leaders in organizations.
Power-Influence approach
The research seeks to explain leadership effectiveness in terms of the amount and type of power possessed by a leader and how power is exercised. Yukl (1998) says that power is important not only for influencing subordinates, but also for influencing peers, superiors, and people outside the organization, such as clients and supplies. We have also here participative leadership, which is concerned with power sharing and empowerment of followers, which is a good way to encourage and delegate responsibilities to the followers.
Situational Approach
The situational approach emphasizes the importance of contextual factors such as the nature of the work performed by the leader’s unit, the nature of the external environment, and the characteristics of followers. The effectiveness of a leader is explained in terms of influence on the way followers view themselves and interpret events. Effective leaders influence followers to have more optimism, self-confidence, and commitment to the objectives or mission of the organization.
In conclusion to this chapter, leadership involves a mix of three clear features: leader’s traits, leadership behaviours, and situational that moderate leadership. A leader should have high energy, good tolerance to stress, integrity and emotional maturity coupled with a strong social power orientation and sound technical, conceptual and interpersonal skills. We have seen that there are a lot of theory trying to define leadership and several research approach, but we believe that leadership is about giving yourself to others and if it is done well we grow as a leader and as a person and will earn the respect and support of our followers.
CHAPTER II
Specific Behaviours in Leadership and Management
In this chapter we will explore the various behaviour related to effective leadership, work management and the management of relations. Here we will make a brief description of three behaviour taxonomies like task-oriented behaviour, relations-oriented behaviour and change-oriented behaviour.
From the 1950 to the mid-1980s, research on leader behaviour was dominated by a focus on two broadly defined categories of behaviour. Most studies of leadership behaviour during this period used questionnaires measuring task-oriented and relations-oriented behaviour. Hundred of studies were conducted to see how these behaviours were correlated with criteria of leadership effectiveness such as subordinate satisfaction and performance.
A finding that was consistent and moderately strong was that considerate leaders have more satisfied subordinates.
Some recent research suggests hat three-factor taxonomy provides the most useful and parsimonious way to group specific behaviours into general categories.
Task-oriented behavior
Doing things that are primarily concerned with accomplishing the task, utilizing personnel and resources efficiently, maintain stable and reliable operations, and making incremental improvements in quality and productivity. Key component behaviours include clarifying roles, planning and organizing operations, and monitoring operations.
Relations-oriented behaviour
Doing things that are primarily concerned with improving relationships and helping people, increasing cooperation and teamwork, increasing subordinate job satisfaction, and building identification with the organization. Key component behaviours include supporting, developing, recognizing, consulting, and managing conflict. This king of leader is more interested to motivate his employee by having good relationship with them.
Change-oriented behaviour
Doing things that are primarily concerned with improving strategies decisions, adapting to change in the environment, making major changes in objectives, processes, or products/services and gaining commitment to the changes. Key component behaviours include scanning and interpreting external events, articulating an appealing vision, proposing innovative strategies, making persuasive appeals about the need for change, encouraging and facilitating experimentation, and developing a coalition to support and implement change (Yukl, 1998).
All three categories of behaviour are relevant for most leaders and the appropriate way to balance task and relations concerns are depending on the environment conditions.
Effective leaders are aware of the dual importance of task objectives and effective relationship.
We believe that effective leaders will find ways to achieve a balance between these two concerns. Also we are with Yukl (1998) that an effective leader’s behaviour should be guide by a vision of what the leader hopes to do and by an implicit agenda of specific objectives relevant to the vision.
Managing the Work
We will present briefly five types of managerial behaviour that may be used for managing the work: planning, problem solving, clarifying, informing, and monitoring.
Planning
The purpose of the planning is to ensure efficient organization of the work unit, coordination of activities, effective utilization of resources, and adaptation to a changing environment.
Planning is a management process, deductive in nature and designed to produce orderly results, not change (Kotter, 1999). Setting direction is never the same as planning or even long term planning. Setting a direction is more inductive; planning is more deductive.
Planning works best not as a substitute for direction setting but as a complement to it (Kotter, 1999). A competent panning process serves as a useful reality check on direction-setting activities. Likewise, a competent direction-setting process provides a focus in which planning can then be realistically carried out.
The ancient philosophers remarked that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. Planning small wins is all about getting people to change and to remain on the new path. High performance projects are carefully planned. Planning should be driven by values and vision not by technique (Kouznes and Posner, 1988). Yukl (1998) says also, that planning was related to managerial effectiveness in most survey studies with an independent criterion of managerial effectiveness.
Problem Solving
Problem Solving involves identifying work-related problems, analyzing them in a systematic but timely manner, and acting decisively to implement solutions and deal with crises. Yukl (1998) says that as with planning, problem solving involves processing information, analyzing, and deciding.
We believe that it is important to involve people in planning and problem solving. Involving in planning and problem solving dose work, and it is one of the most effective ways of fostering collaboration. If you are not involving people in planning, problem solving, and execution of theirs jobs, you are underutilizing the skills and resources in your organization (Kouzes and Posner, 1988). The primary proposes of problem solving is to maintain orderly, stable operations and make incremental improvements.
We believe that any problem can be solved communicating, involving the employees and making a systematic strategy to follow.
Clarifying Roles and Objectives
Clarifying is the communication of plans, policies and role expectations. Four subcategories of clarifying for subordinates are the following: defining job responsibilities for team members; setting performance goals and authorised action plans for accomplishing them; assigning a task; and providing instructions in how to do a task.
The purpose of clarifying behaviour is to guide and coordinate the work and make sure people know what to do and how to do it (Yukl,1998).
Informing
Informing involves the communication of task-relevant information needed by subordinates, peers, superiors, or outsiders. Employees who are kept informed have greater job satisfaction.
Managers who serve as a central information link with other units and keep subordinates informed tend to be more effective than managers who do not serve this function (Yukl, 1998).
A manager can help prevent unnecessary stress for subordinates by interpreting threatening events and emphasize positive elements rather than leaving people to focus on negatives.
Monitoring Operations
Internal monitoring involves gathering information about the operations of the manager’s organizational unit, including the progress of the work, the performance of individual subordinates, the quality of products or service, and the success of projects or programs.
Monitoring provides much of the information needed for planning and problem solving, which is why it is so important for managerial effectiveness (Yukl, 1998).
We believe that a good manager should be all the time “on line” communicating and monitoring his employee’s activities. When monitoring is insufficient, a manager will be unable to detect problems, to anticipate problems before they become serious.
Systematic monitoring is important to detect and correct problems at work.
In conclusion to this chapter we have understood the importance of a systematic organization of he manager activity and we have find these specific categories of managerial behaviour which suggests that each type of managerial behaviour has the potential to improve managerial effectiveness if used skilfully in appropriate situations.
CHPATER III
The Participant and Follower in Leadership
In this chapter we will try to understand the role of participative leadership and the importance of delegation.
Participative leadership involves efforts by a manager to encourage and facilitate participation by others in making decisions that would otherwise be made by the manager alone. It is a common practice to involve others in making a decision that will affect them in important ways. Delegation is a distinct process that occurs when a manager asks one or more subordinates to take responsibility for making decisions formerly made by the manager (Yukl, 1998).
Followers play a key role in the fate of an organization, but their contributions are often overlooked or erroneously attributed to leaders (Hughies, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
Nature of Participative Leadership
Participative Leadership involves the use of various decision procedures that allow other people some influence over the leader’s decisions. They tend to share work problems with followers; solicit their suggestions, concerns, and recommendations; and weigh these inputs in the decision-making process.
Involving others in making decisions is often necessary for getting decisions approved and implemented in organizations. Participation is unlikely to be effective if potential participants do not share the leader’s objectives, if they do not want to take responsibility for helping to make decision, if they distrust the leader (Yukl, 1998).
But participative leadership offers a variety of potential benefits. It is likely to increase the quality of a decision when participants have information and knowledge the leader lacks and are willing to cooperate in finding a good solution to a decision problem. Moreover, the opportunity to have some influence over a decision usually increases commitment to it.
Vroom and Yetton developed a model of participative leadership to help managers identify the appropriate decision procedures in different situations.
Vroom and Yetto Normative Decision Model
The overall effectiveness of a decision depends on two intervening variables: decision quality and decision acceptance by the people expected to implement the decision. These intervening variables are affected in turns by the decision behaviour used by a leader. And the effect of the decision procedures on decision quality and acceptance depends on various aspects of the situation. The situational variables are characteristics of the decision situation that determine whether a particular decision procedure will increase or decrees decision quality and acceptance (Yukl, 1998).
The findings suggest that manages are likely to be more effective if they use decision procedure that are appropriate for the situation.
We believe also that before taking a decision we need to make a systematic evaluation of the situation in order to have the best decision for the situation.
Delegation
Although delegation is a relatively simple way for leaders to free themselves of time-consuming chores, provide followers with development opportunities, and increase the number of tasks accomplished by the team work group, team, or committee, it is often an overlooked and underused management option (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
Delegation implies that one has been empowered by one’s leader, boss, and coach to take responsibility for completing certain tasks or engaging in certain activities.
Although delegation is sometimes regarded as a variety of participative leadership, there is ample justification for treating delegation as a separate category of managerial behaviour (Yukl, 1998).
The essence of leadership is achieving goals through others, not trying to accomplish them by oneself (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
Potential benefits of delegation include better decisions; increased subordinates and desire to consolidate power prevent some managers from delegating as much as they should.
Finally, leadership parishioners can become more effective if they learn how to set goals and delegate tasks correctly.
In conclusion to this chapter we have understood that the followers have an important role in organization and by letting them participate in leadership the organization will be enriched.
CHAPTER IV
Power and Influence in Leadership
In this chapter we will try to understand the concepts of power and influence and their importance in quality leadership. Successful managers use the power they develop in their relationship, along with persuasion, to influence people on whom they are dependent to behave in ways that make it possible for the managers to get the jobs done effectively (Kotter, 1999).
Leaders influence followers, but followers also have some influence over leaders.
Influence
Influence can be defined as the change in a target agent’s attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviours as the result of influence tactics. The influence can be over people, things or event. Influence tactics refer to one person’s actual behaviours designed to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, values, or behaviour. Whereas power is the capacity to cause change, influence is the degree of actual change in a target person’s attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviours. Influence can be measured by the behaviours or attitudes manifested by followers as the result of a leader’s influence tactics (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). In a few words, influence is merely the effect of one party on another.
Power
As Yukl (1998) says, power generally refers to an agent’s capacity to influence a target person. Power has been defined as the capacity to produce effects on others (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). Leaders have the potential to influence their followers’ behaviour and attitudes. However, followers also can affect the leader’s behaviour and attitudes. Even the situation itself can affect a leader’s capacity to influence his followers (and vice versa).
Yukl (1998) define power as an agent’s potential influence over the attitudes and behaviour of one or more designated target persons. One cannot lead unless one has power, which makes power a necessary but not sufficient condition for leadership (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Sources of power
Power arises from a number of sources, some of which are based in the organizational position the members hold and some of which the individual brings to the organization.
French and Raven (1959) developed taxonomy to classify different types of power according to their source. Reward power and coercive power usually involves positive and negative consequences associated with the organizational position that an agent can use to influence the behaviours, thoughts, and feeling of a target person or group in the organization (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Then we have legitimate power, which represents the institutionalized or contractual power between the agent and target. The target person complies because he believes that the agent has the right to make the request and the target person has the obligation to comply.
Expert power means that the target person complies because he believes that the agent has special knowledge about the best way to do something.
Referent power means that the target person complies because he admires or identifies with the agent and wants to gain the agent’s approval (Yukl, 1998).
Research on the use of different forms of power by leaders suggests that effective leaders rely more on personal power than on position power. The potential to use position power for influence attempts with peers or superiors is much more limited, and this relationship personal power is clearly the predominant source of influence (Yukl, 1998).
Influence Tactics
Whereas power is the capacity or potential to influence others, influence tactics are the actual methods used by an agent to change the attitudes, opinions, or behaviours of the target person.
In general, effective leaders use a mix of political and influence tactics, and they select such tactics according to their judgment of what would be most appropriate for a given situation (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Rational persuasion occurs when an agent uses logical arguments or factual evidence to influence others. An inspirational appeal is when the agent makes a request or proposal designed to arouse enthusiasm or emotions in targets. Consultation occurs when agents ask targets to participate in planning an activity. Ingratiation occurs when the agent attempts to get you in a good mood before making a request. Agents use personal appeals when they ask another to do a favour out of friendship. Exchange, is when the agent offers an exchange of favours, indicates willingness to reciprocate at a later time, or promise a share of the benefits if the target helps accomplish a task. Coalition tactics are different from consultation in that they are used when agents seek the aid or support of others to influence the target. Legitimating tactics, when the agent seeks to establish the legitimacy of a request by claiming the authority or right to make it, or by verifying that it is consistent with organizational policies, rules, practices, or traditions. And finally, when threats or persistent reminders used to influence targets are known as pressure tactics ((Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996; Yukl, 1998; Lawson and Shen, 1999).
In conclusion we have define power as the capacity or potential to exert influence; the influence tactics as the behaviours used by one person to modify the attitudes and behaviours of another; the influence as the degree of change in a person’s attitudes, values, or behaviours as the result of another’s influence tactics. Because power, influence, and influence tactics play such an
Important role in the leadership process we had understood and get ideas to help leaders improve their effectiveness.
CHAPTER V
Traits, Skills, and Contingency Theories in Leadership
In this chapter we will try to understand the traits and skills related to effective leadership and the relevance of situational influences. Also we will present some leadership theories related to effectiveness. Our emphasis on leadership skills is based on our belief that certain skills do contribute to leadership effectiveness and they can be learned.
Nature of traits and skills
The term traits refer to a variety of individual attributes, including aspects of personality, temperament, needs, motives, and values. Examples include self-confidence, emotional maturity, emotional stability, energy level and stress tolerance (Yukl, 1998).
We have then the values which are internalized attitudes about what is right and wrong, ethical and unethical, loyalty, patriotism, progress, self-fulfilment, excellence, pragmatism, politeness and cooperation. Values are important because they influence a person’s preferences, perception of problems and choice of behaviour.
The term skill refers to the ability to do something in an effective manner. We have here three categories of leadership skills: technical skills; interpersonal skills; and conceptual skills.
Technical Skills
Technical Skills include knowledge about methods, processes, procedures, and techniques for conducting the specialized activities of the manager’s organizational unit (Yukl, 1998).
These skills are learned during formal education in specialized subjects and through on-the-job training and experience. Managers who supervise the work of others need extensive knowledge of the techniques and equipment used by subordinates to perform the work.
Technical expertise is needed to deal with disruption in the work due to equipment breakdowns, quality defects, accidents, insufficient materials, and coordination problems.
Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal Skills include knowledge about human behaviour and interpersonal processes; ability to understand the feeling, attitudes and motives of others from what they say and do; ability to communicate clearly and effectively; and ability to establish effective and cooperative relationships (Yukl, 1998).
We believe that anyone who develops these basic personal and interpersonal skills almost inherently increase her potential impact as a leader (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
Developing them will help anyone function more effectively in the leadership process, whether fulfilling a leader role or a follower role at any particular time. In general this basic leadership skills help establish and maintain constructive relationship with others.
Conceptual Skills
General analytical ability; logical thinking, proficiency in concept formation and conceptualization of complex and ambiguous relationships; creativity in idea generation and problem solving; ability to analyze events, perceive trends, anticipate changes, and recognize opportunities and potential problems (Yukl, 1998).
Conceptual skills are essential for effective planning, organizing, and problem solving. A major administrative responsibility is coordination of the separate, specialized parts of the organization. To accomplish effective coordination, a manager needs to understand how the various parts of the organization relate to each other and how changes in one part of the system affect the other parts.
A manager must also be able to comprehend how changes in the external environment will affect the organization. The quality of strategic decisions ultimately depends on conceptual skills, even though some technical knowledge is necessary to make these decisions, and interpersonal skills are necessary for developing relationships, obtaining information, and influencing subordinates to implement decisions (Yukl, 1998).
We have learned that information about a person’s traits and skills are essential for selecting people to fill managerial positions. Some skills such as persuasiveness, analytical ability, speaking ability, and memory for details will help a manager be successful in any situation.
Contingency Theories of Effective Leadership
Yuks has presented six contingency theories that prescribe different patterns of leader behaviour for different situations. All these models are fairly similar in that they specify that leaders should make their behaviours contingent on certain aspects of the followers or situation in order to improve leadership effectiveness (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). We will briefly present two of these theories.
The situational leadership theory prescribes a different style of leadership behaviour depending on the confidence and skill of a subordinate in relation to the task. A leader is encouraged to be flexible in behaviour and responsive to changes in subordinate maturity (Yukl, 1998).
The multiple linkage models describe how a leader can influence intervening variables to improve group effectiveness. The performance of a group or organization is highest when members have high task skill and motivation, they are efficiently organized, there is a high level of member cooperation, and adequate resources are available.
In conclusion to this chapter we have learn that information about a person’s traits and skills is essential for selecting people to fill managerial positions. Some skills such as persuasiveness, analytical ability, speaking ability, and memory for details will help a manager be successful in any situation.
CHAPTER VI
Transformational, Cultural and Charismatic Leadership
In this chapter we will explore the influence of leadership on organizations and cultures and how charisma can influence followers.
Charismatic Leadership
The word charismatic frequently comes up in discussion of leadership. When we want to explain why a particular leader has a magnetic effect on people, we often describe him or her as very charismatic. But charisma has become such an overused and misused term that it is almost useless as a descriptor of leaders (Kouzes and Posner, 1988).
Charismatic leaders are thought to possess superhuman qualities or powers of divine origin, which set them apart from ordinary mortals. The locus of authority in this system rests with the individual possessing these unusual qualities; it is not derived from a society’s traditions or laws
(Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy, 1996). Charisma is a Greek word that means, “divinely inspired gift”, such as the ability to perform miracles or predict future events (Yukl, 1998).
Charisma is a process by which leaders influence followers by arousing strong emotions in them and causing them to identify with the leaders (Lawson and Shen, 1999).
According to Weber, charismatic individuals come from the margins of society and emerge as leaders during times of great social crisis. Other authors have argued that charismatic leadership is primarily a function of the leader’s extraordinary qualities, not the situation. According to Tucker (1968), these qualities include having extraordinary powers of vision, the rhetorical skills to communicate this vision, a sense of mission, high self-confidence and intelligence, and high expectation for followers (Huges, Ginnett, and Curphy, 1996).
Charismatic leadership is likely to be most effective when there is a profound sense of organizational discouragement or retreat from proactive organizational actions and when the tasks of the group are very complex and nonroutine (Lawson and Shen, 1999).
Charismatic leaders are likely to set an example in their own behaviour for followers to imitate. Followers who admire and identify with a leader are likely to emulate the leader’s beliefs and values (Yukl, 1998).
Charismatic leaders can have tremendous influence on an organization, but the consequences are not always beneficial. Many entrepreneurs who establish a prosperous company are tyrants and egomaniacs whose actions sow the seeds for the eventual downfall of their company. Finally, charisma can be defined as a leader’s ability to form particularly strong relationship with followers and get them to identify with his or her vision.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership refers to the process of building commitment to the organization’s objectives and empowering followers to accomplish these objectives (Yukl, 1998).
Transformational leadership serves to change the status quo by appealing to followers’ values and theirs sense of higher purpose (Huges, Ginnett, and Curphy, 1996).
Transformational leaders articulate the problems in the current system and have a compelling vision of what a new society or organization could be. Ultimately, transformational leadership is a moral exercise in that it serves to raise the standard of human conduct. Transformational leaders are not only good at appealing to followers’ values, but they are also adept at teaching followers how to become leaders in their own right and inciting them to play actives role in the change movement.
It is also important to note that all transformational leaders are charismatic, but not all-charismatic leaders are transformational. Charisma is a necessary but not sufficient condition for transformational leadership. In addition, the transformational leader focuses on long-term goals; inspires follower to pursue an articulated vision; changes or reconfigures organizational systems to advance the vision, rather than working within existing systems; coaches followers to assume greater responsibility for their own development; at the appropriate time, develops a leader-succession plan, so the transformational activities continue within the organizational systems, rather than within particular individuals (Lawson and Shen, 1999).
Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their self-interest and focus their efforts on the advancement of the organization.
Leadership and Organization Culture
Leaders directly influence subordinates by inspiring them to be more committed, building their self-confidence, and empowering them to take more initiative in carrying out the work.
Another aspect of transformational leadership is influence on organization culture (Yukl, 1998).
Organizational culture has been defined as a system of shared backgrounds, norms, values, or beliefs among members of a group (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). Organization culture is an important situational variable that influence all members of an organization to various degrees, so I consider that it is important to have a good understanding of this construct to manage and work effectively in an organization (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Individual and Organizational Culture
First, the culture of an organization is the shared and unifying thoughts, feelings, values, and actions of the organizational members. Organizational culture is the way all members think, feel, and act in an organization, rather than just one or a few members. It is a collective, not an individual organizational construct and forces (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Therefore is essential that the managers have knowledge of the culture’s core components, origins, functions and processes for change and the effects of culture on individual and organizational level performance.
Here we have also the organizational climate, which concerns member’s subjective reaction to the organization. These two concepts are distinct, in the organizational climate is partly a function of reaction to organizational culture; one’s feelings or emotional reactions about an organization are probably affected by the degree to which a person shares the prevailing values, beliefs, and backgrounds of organizational members (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996).
Thus, organizational climate is related to how well organizational members get along with each other.
Just as there are many cultures across the world, there are a great number of different cultures across organizations. Members of many military organizations have different norms, background experiences, values, and beliefs, for example, from those of the faculty at many colleges.
One of the most fascinating aspects of organizational culture is that it often takes an outsider to recognize it; organizational culture becomes so second nature to many organizational members that they are unaware of how it affects their behaviours and perceptions.
Organizational Change
It is important for leaders to realize that they can play an active role in changing an organization’s culture, not just to be influenced by it. They can modify culture through their reaction to crises, by rewarding new or different kinds of behaviour or by eliminating previous punishments.
Changing an organization’s culture takes time and effort, and sometimes it may be extremely difficult ( Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). Sometimes people resist change when they do not understand its implications and perceive that it might cost them much more than they will gain. Such situation occurs when trust is lacking between the person initiating the change and the employees (Kotter, 1999).
Organizational learning and organizational culture are intimately linked to each other, and this linkage provides the bases for instituting organizational cultural change.
Organizational learning is based on individual learning, which is then shared with other members of the organization. Organizational learning serves as the mechanism for spreading and connecting members shared patterns of thoughts, feelings, values, and actions (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
So, it is clear that in order to do an organizational change we need to start with organizational learning. To change something the members of the organization need to be ready to learn because cultural change is made in partnership with people (Kouzes and Posner, 1988).
Also, Kouzes and Posner present the four principles, which should assist a cultural change: “To change, take risks, accept responsibility, and be accountable for our actions.
To respect all people, promoting unity, trust, pride, and dedication to our mission.
To achieve a high quality of work life through involvement of all our people in an environment of openness and fairness in which everyone is treated with dignity, honesty and respect.
To promote good communications among all employees by operating in an open atmosphere with freedom to share ideas and speak one’s mind without fear of reprisal”(Kouzes and Posner, 1988).
Cultural Change Strategies
Using different strategies can bring organizational cultural change. Lawson and Shen
tell us that the most fully articulated change strategy is leader-centred (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
The leader-centred strategy involves outside consultants working with cooperative organizational leaders to change the basic assumptions of the organization’s culture. Therefore, challenging and ultimately changing the leader’s basic assumptions is one way an I/O psychologist can work with an organization to change its culture.
Lawson and Shen also present us a cultural change strategy that combines features of different approaches involve changing norms, or unspoken rules of behaviour, reward systems and organizational rites. Basically there are three phases to our cultural change strategy.
Assessment that involves three steps: identifying the client, increasing cultural awareness, and establishing baselines. Phase two is construction and implementation of cultural and learning change projects which means to have two or three projects, to have specific goals, deadlines and systematic feedback for each project and to have a rite of enhancement. And the third phase is that organizational outcomes measures and project modifications, which mean the synthesis and interpretation of changes in performance or identification of barriers to change and here we have also the sustained participation by the leadership (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Culture is influenced by several aspects of a leader’s behaviour, including examples set by the leader, what the leader attends to, how the leader react to crisis, how the leader allocates rewards, and how the leader makes personnel decisions (Yukl, 1998).
In conclusion to this chapter we have learn that charismatic leaders are often able to get more accomplished than no charismatic leaders because of the followers’ singular sense of purpose, their heightened emotional level, and their confidence in their own abilities to get things done.
We have also realized how important is the organizational culture to help the leader create plans, strategy and how to implement them to create an efficient organization.
CHAPTER VII
Leadership in Teams
In this chapter we will focus on the specific leadership skills necessary in team leadership, self-managed groups, and the leading meetings. Issues on how to facilitate team building self-managed groups and meetings. We will analyze the structure of teams, and determine how and why they are effective or ineffective.
The Nature of Groups
Perhaps we should begin by defining a group. A group can be thought of as “two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by other person” ( Hughes, Ginnett and Cuphy,1996). Also we have definition found in Lawson and Shen: “two or more interdependent and interacting persons, sharing a common purpose or purposes who perceive themselves as having an unique relationship link between members as distinguished from interactions with non-members”(Lawson and Shen, 1998). In one word, group members interact with and influence each other. Thus, people waiting at a bus stop would not constitute a group, as there generally is neither interaction nor influence between the various individuals. On the other hand, eight people meeting to plan a school bond election would constitute a group, as there probably would be a high level of mutual interaction among the attendees. Another aspect is that an individual can belong to a number of groups and could not be constrained to only one group; an individual could be a member of various service, production, sports, religion, parent, and volunteer groups simultaneously.
People often tend to identify more with the groups they belong to than with the organizations they belong to; they are more psychologically invested in theirs groups. Also, groups than better satisfy certain important psychological needs (e.g., social contact) by organizations ( Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy, 1996).
The nature of Teams
Teams are a valuable organizational resource that is used increasingly in almost all organizations around the world. Teams are generally successful and have been an excellent response to downsizing.
Teams have been defined as “interdependent collections of individuals who share responsibility for specific outcomes for their organization” (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Team members have cross-functional training and hence a variety of skills, so instead of doing the same thing over and over, they do many different things and can stand in for each other, which allows individuals to be more flexible but still to get the team’s work done
There are many types of teams. Work teams perform a regular operational task, project teams are formed to carry out a defined activity such as developing a new product or service and executive teams make strategic decisions for an organization (Yukl, 1998).
Factors Influencing Groups and Teams
The factors that influence the performance of groups or teams is: cohesiveness and familiarity, composition and context. The term cohesiveness refers to positive affect among group members and their desire to remain in the group (Yukl, 1998).
Group cohesion is the “glue” that keeps a group together. It is the sum of forces that attract members to a group, provide resistance to leaving it and motivate them to be active in it.
Cohesiveness is usually stronger when the group is small, membership is stable, members interact regularly, members have shared goals, members have similar values and background, membership is exclusive and limited and the group has high status in the organization (Yukl,1998). Cohesiveness facilitates high performance if the group values task achievement and sets high norms for member performance. Also it appears that teams that are composed of members who are familiar with each other are more effective than are teams composed of strangers (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Composition
Composition is another factor, which influence the performance of groups.
Lawson and Shen (1998) sustain that the diversity is a fundamental feature of organizations, and the effect of diversity of membership on the performance of teams has been studied in the workforce diversity chapter. As long as the team is diversified it is assumed that the factor of diversity will yield enhanced performance of decision-making and problem-solving team.
The leader should encourage the members to increase mutual acceptance and respect among diverse team members (Yukl, 1998).
Context
It is very clear that the effectiveness of the team is influenced substantially by the context, which includes such elements as organizational culture, mission, issues related to team autonomy, rewards and recognition and physical environment.
I agree with Lawson and Shen (1998) who says that an organizational culture that promotes innovations and shared expectations of success fosters effective teams. And also issues involving autonomy are important for the effectiveness of the team (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Leadership
In the context of a task group, leadership can be viewed as influencing internal group processes and external relations to ensure the group is efficient, cohesive, and adaptive to its environment.
Cross-functional teams usually have a formal leader, but some sharing of leadership functions is likely to occur as well. Self-managed teams and self-defining teams usually have informal leaders and an extensive amount of shared leadership (Yukl, 1998).
The success of a team depends also, on its capacity to learn from experience. Two types of group processes that can facilitate team learning are after-activity reviews and dialogue sessions. An after-activity review is a meeting held to determine what worked well and what did not. A dialogue session is a problem-solving meeting in which team members examine their implicit assumptions, emphasize inquiry rather than advocacy, and try to agree on appropriate mental models.
In conclusion, a great influence on the effectiveness of a team is the organizational context that provides appropriate support for the team’s design and process, and also the cohesiveness and familiarity, and membership diversity of the groups and teams have a great influence on the performance of organizations and members.
CHAPTER VIII
Leading Change in Organizations
In this chapter we will discuss how a leader promotes change in organization. We will try to understand the change process and the psychological impact change has on organization.
Leading change is one of the most important and difficult leadership responsibilities. Effective leadership is needed to revitalize an organization and facilitate adaptation to a changing environment.
Change Processes
Planned organizational change involves a relatively fluid set of processes, rather than rigid step-by-step procedures to enhance organizations. It is important that the leader to understand the reasons for resistance to change, sequential phases in the change process and different strategies of change.
People tend to resist major change for many reasons, including distrust, doubts about the need for change, doubts about the feasibility of change, doubts that the benefits justify the costs, fear of economic loss, fear of losing status and power, fear of personal failure, perception the change is inconsistent with values, and resentment about interference from above (Yukl, 1998).
The change process can be described as having different stages, such as unfreezing, changing, and refreezing.
In the unfreezing phase, people come to realize that the old ways of doing things are no longer adequate. In the changing phase, people look for new ways of doing things and select a promising approach. In the refreezing phase, the new approach is implemented and it becomes established. All three phase are important for successful change.
People typically transit through a series of emotional stages as they adjust to the need for a drastic change in their lives therefore the leaders should be very careful and anticipate employee’s reaction to change (Yukl, 1998).
Before people will support radical change, they need to have a vision of a better future that is attractive enough to justify the sacrifices and hardships the change will require. To be inspiring the vision must include strong ideological content that appeals to organization member’s shared values and ideal concerning customers, employees, or the mission of the organization.
Implementing Change
The essential role of top management is to formulate an integrating vision and general strategy, build a coalition of supporters who endorse the strategy, then guide the process by which the strategy is implemented. Successful implementation of change requires a wide range of leadership behaviours. These behaviours can be grouped into two distinct categories, organizational actions and people-oriented actions.
Political actions include creating a coalition to approve change, forming teams to guide it, selecting the right people to fill key positions, making symbolic changes that affect the work, making structural changes to institutionalize change, and monitoring the progress of change to detect problems that require attention.
People-oriented actions include creating a sense of urgency, preparing people for change, helping them cope with change, keeping them informed, demonstrating continued commitment to the change program and empowering people to implement change (Yukl, 1998).
Changing an organization’s culture takes time and effort, and sometimes it may be extremely difficult ( Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, 1996). Sometimes people resist change when they do not understand its implications and perceive that it might cost them much more than they will gain. Such situation occurs when trust is lacking between the person initiating the change and the employees (Kotter, 1999).
Organizational learning and organizational culture are intimately linked to each other, and this linkage provides the bases for instituting organizational cultural change.
The term learning organization has been used to describe organizations that learn rapidly and use the knowledge to become more effective. In fact changing is a learning process where the employees try to cope with the new situation.
Organizational learning is based on individual learning, which is then shared with other members of the organization. Organizational learning serves as the mechanism for spreading and connecting members shared patterns of thoughts, feelings, values, and actions (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
So, it is clear that in order to do an organizational change we need to start with organizational learning. To change something the members of the organization need to be ready to learn because cultural change is made in partnership with people (Kouzes and Posner, 1988).
A leader can increase learning and innovation in the organization by encouraging experimentation, reflection, knowledge importation, information sharing, diffusion of knowledge, sustain thinking, and improvement of mental models (Yukl, 1998).
In conclusion to this chapter we have learn that the most important and difficult leadership responsibility is to guide and facilitate the process of making a major change in an organization, but this is not impossible. A leader can do many things to facilitate the successful implementation of change. If the leader knows how to prepare his people, anticipate theirs reaction and encourage them he will succeed to revitalize an organization and facilitate adaptation to the changing process.
Conclusions
In conclusion to this paper project we have understood the importance of leadership and the fact that effective leadership can be achieved exploring the nature of leadership; managerial work; leadership behaviour; the nature of power and influence; the nature of the followers and the nature of groups, teams and organizations. We have seen that a leader can develop his skills and traits in order to become an effective leader. Technical, conceptual, and interpersonal skills are needed for most leadership roles and functions. Also we have understood that the performance of an organization depends on the favourability of the situation and not only as by what a leader dose. We believe that effective performance of a collective task requires cooperation and mutual trust among members. We believe that leadership is about helping people understand and appreciate each other, and helping them learn how to confront and resolve differences in a constructive way with the goal of creating a better professional and personal environment.
REFERENCES
_____Bennis, W., Nanus, T. (1997). Leaders.
_____Hughes, R.L., Ginnett, R. C., Curphy, G. .J. (1996). Leadership.
_____Kotter, P.J. (1999). What Leaders Really Do.
______ Kouzes, J.M. (1988). The Leadership Challenge.
_____Lawson, R.B., Shen, Z. (1998). Organizational Psychology.
_____Yukl, G. (1998). Leadership in Organizations. (4th ed.).
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