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LEADING TRAIT AND BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF LEADERSHIP

INCREASING THE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

Questions about leadership have long been a subject of speculation, but scientific research on leadership did not begin until the twentieth century. The focus of much of the research has been on the determinants of leadership effectiveness.
Social researchers have attempted to discover what traits, abilities, behaviors, sources of power, or aspects of a situation determine how well a leader is able to influence followers and accomplish group objectives.
Individual traits and behaviors are important items which can be improved in order to use them in increasing the leadership effectiveness.
Effective leaders are a renewable resource, and the conditions that yield good leaders have been of interest to a wide variety of organizations.
Studies of leadership have focused on three fundamental features that are critical to leadership: traits or personal characteristics, behaviors and situations.
In this paper project we will examine a leading trait and a behavioral theory of leadership and will see their utility in increasing the leadership effectiveness.
Effective leadership requires competence, emotional maturity, and a commitment to learn continuously throughout life.

Chapter I
The trait approach to leadership

The earliest approaches to leadership, often referred to as “the great man theories of leadership”, held that leaders were born, not made. Sir Francis Galton with his studies of individual differences argued in 1869 that the qualities found in great leaders were inherited (Wagner III and Hollenbeck, 1992). Later, researchers influenced by behavioral schools of thought discarded this idea, suggesting instead that the characteristics associated with successful leadership could be learned.
The view that leaders are born, not made, is still popular among laypersons, thought not among professional researchers (Stoner and Freeman, 1992).
There is considerable evidence that traits are jointly determined by learning and by an inherited capacity to gain satisfaction from particular types of stimuli or experiences (Bouchard et al., 1990 from Yukl, 1998).
Some traits (e.g., values, social needs) are probably more influenced by learning than others (temperament, physiological needs).
The next question is if a person has these traits will this make him an effective leader?
Robbins (1994) sustain that traits alone are not sufficient for explaining leadership because the explanations based solely on traits ignore situational forces. Possessing the appropriate traits only makes it more likely that an individual will be an effective leader. The leader still has to take the right actions. And what is right in one situation is not necessarily right for a different situation.
So, it is important to indicate that what make an effective leader different from an uneffective leader is not only the personal traits but also we need to consider the behaviors characteristics and the situational forces.
The trait model focuses on what a person brings to leadership activities, the behavioral model examine the actions or behaviors of a leader, and the situational model identifies the contextual forces that shape and determine leadership (Lawson and Shen, 1998).

Nature of traits

Yukl (1990), says that the term of trait refers to a variety of individual attributes, including aspects of personality, temperament, needs, motives and values.
Personality traits are relatively stable dispositions to behave in a particular way. Examples include self-confidence, emotional maturity, emotional stability, energy level, and stress tolerance (Yukl, 1998).
Psychologists usually differentiate between physiological needs (hunger, thirst) and social motives such as achievement, esteem, affiliation, power, and independence.
Values are internalized attitudes about what is right and wrong, ethical and unethical, moral and immoral. Examples include fairness, justice, honesty freedom, equality, hummanitarism, loyalty, patriotism, progress, self-fulfillment, excellence, pragmatism, courtesy, politeness, and cooperation. Values are important because they influence a person’s preferences, perception of problems, and choice of behavior.
Basically, the search for personal attributes that are essential for leadership has focused on individual traits, motives, and skills. Although studies of leadership traits have been dismissed as too simplistic (Mann, 1959; Stogdill, 1948; from Lawson and Shen, 1998), and with little scientific merit (Fleet, 1988), but recently they have found that a certain pattern or profile of traits, motives, and skills increase the likelihood that leadership will be effective, especially when these attributes are balanced or deployed in moderation (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Yukl (1998) reviewed some major research programs which showed that researchers have examined a variety of different personality traits related to managerial effectiveness and advancement and present the traits which can predict leadership effectiveness, and which are: high energy level and stress tolerance; self-confidence; internal locus of control orientation; emotional maturity; personal integrity socialized power motivation; moderately high achievement orientation and low need for affiliation. We will examine one leading trait – emotional maturity – and will indicate its utility in increasing the leadership effectiveness.

The emotional maturity leading trait

The term emotional maturity may be defined broadly to encompass several interrelated motives, traits, and values. A person who is emotionally mature is well adjusted and dose not suffers from severe psychological disorders. Emotionally mature people have a more accurate awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and fantasizing success (Yukl, 1998).
Covey (1990) give us one of the finest, simplest, profound definition of emotional maturity, he says that the emotional maturity is “the ability to express one’s own feelings and convictions balanced with consideration for the thoughts and feelings of other” (Covey, 1990, p.217). Maturity is the balance between courage and consideration. While courage may focus on getting the golden egg, consideration deals with the long-term welfare of the other stakeholders. The basic task of leadership is to increase the standard of living and the quality of life for all stakeholders (Covey, 1990).
People with high emotional maturity are less self – centered (they care about other people), the have more self – control (are less impulsive, more able to resist hedonistic temptations), they have more stable emotions (are not prone to extreme mood swings or outbursts of anger), and they are less defensive (are more receptive to criticism, more willing to learn from mistakes). As a result, leaders with high emotional maturity maintain more cooperative relationships with subordinates, peers, and superiors.
Yukl (1998) sustain that most of the empirical research on traits shows that key components of emotional maturity are associated with managerial effectiveness and advancement.
For example, a study of McCauley and Lombardo (1990, from Wagner III & Hollenbeck, 1992), with a measure called Benchmarks, found that managers with good self – awareness and a desire to improve had higher advancement. Self – objectivity and general adjustment predicted advancement 20 years later in the AT&T study by Howard and Bray (1988). An important discovery in the longitudinal research at AT&T was the effect of the job situation on the relevance of individual traits for managerial success.
Other researcher has found that effective executives have a good understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, and they are oriented toward self – improvement rather than being defensive (Bennis & Nanus, 1985; Tichy & Devanna, 1986 from Yukl, 1998).
Research on narcissism provides additional insights into the difficulties encountered by leaders who lack emotional maturity.
Narcissism refers to a personality syndrome that involves an extreme need for esteem (prestige, status, attention, administration, adulation), a strong need for power, weak self – control, and indifference about the needs and welfare of others. Selfishness is the most obvious form reflected by this people, which violate the values of most people (Covey, 1990).
People whose parents have been emotionally unresponsive and rejecting may come to believe that they cannot depend on anyone’s love or loyalty. In a effort to cope with their deprivation and inner loneliness, these extreme narcissists become preoccupied with establishing their power, status and prestige. They have fantasies of success and power. They have a grandiose, exaggerated sense of their own self – importance and unique talents.
Because they are so preoccupied with their own ego needs, narcissists have little empathy or concern for the feelings and needs of others. They tend to over simplify human relationships and motives and see everything in extreme good and bad terms. They are very defensive, and any criticism by others is interpreted as a sign of rejection and disloyalty. When a project is not going well and when the failure is evident, the narcissistic leader refuses to admit any responsibility, but instead finds scapegoats to blame (Yukl, 1998).
Finally, because they exploit the organization to compensate for their own sense of inadequacy, extreme narcissist is unable to plan for an orderly succession of leadership. They see themselves as indispensable and cling to power, in contrast to emotionally mature executives who are able to retire gracefully when their job is done and it is time for new leadership.
In conclusion to this chapter we have understand that traits are jointly determined by learning and refers to a variety of individual attributes, including aspects of personality, temperament, needs, motives and values which were found to be especially relevant for effectiveness in organizational leadership. The trait approach has important implications for improving managerial effectiveness.
We have examined the emotional maturity trait and found out that the empirical researches shows that key components of emotional maturity are associated with managerial effectiveness and advancement.

Chapter II
Behavioral models of leadership

The focus of behavioral models of leadership is on what the leader or manager does with whatever personal traits, skills, or motivational capacities he or she has been endowed with or acquired as a result of organizational experience and education.
The primary concern of behavioral models is actions and the impact of those actions on effectiveness (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Leaders operate in dynamic and turbulent environments in which conflicts, people, productivity issues, outcome reports, events, and anticipated developments converge on them daily. Accordingly, they are continuously involved in work that is hectic, varied, fragmented, reactive, and disorderly. Leaders must make decisions on the basis of incomplete and ambiguous information and must rely heavily on others to implement their decisions.
Questionnaire research on effective leadership behavior has been dominated by the influence of the early research (1950) at Ohio State University. The initial task of the researchers was to develop questionnaires for subordinates to use in describing the behavior of their leader. The researchers complied a list of about 1,800 examples of leadership behavior, then reduced the list to 150 items that appeared to be good examples of important leadership functions (Yukl, 1998). This questionnaire was used by military and civilian personnel to describe the behavior of their supervisors (Fleishman, 1953; Halpin & Winer, 1957 from Lawson and Shen, 1998).
From a factor analysis of the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) responses, reflecting how subordinates perceived their manager’s behaviors, came two behavioral categories: consideration and initiating – structure behaviors.
In general, consideration (or people – oriented) behaviors reflect the extent to which a leader behaves in a warm and supportive manner, exhibits concern for subordinates, and looks out for the well – being of the members of her or his group or unit. Initiating – structure (or task oriented) behaviors reflect the degree to which a leader defines a task and the roles of a task, assigns subordinates to different task roles, monitors subordinates’ performance, and provide feedback on task – related performances (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
The two factor taxonomy of the LBDQ represents a solid point of departure for identifying effective leadership behaviors.
Another major research project to identify leadership behaviors was conducted at the University of Michigan. Likert (1961, 1967 from Yukl, 1998) summarized the results of this project, which found three categories of effective leadership behaviors: task – oriented behaviors; relationship – oriented behaviors; and participate – leadership behaviors. The categories are sufficiently generic to encompass the behaviors of a wide variety of managers yet specific enough to relate to specific situations and the demands of managerial tasks (Fleet, 1988).
The conclusion of the Michigan researchers strongly favored leaders who were employee oriented. Employee – oriented leaders were associated with higher group productivity and higher job satisfaction. Production – oriented leaders were associated with low group productivity and lower worker satisfaction (Robbins, 1994).
But researchers like Stoner and Freeman (1992) sustain that to operate effectively, a group needed someone to perform two major functions: task – oriented or production - oriented functions; and group –maintenance or relations – oriented functions, such as mediating disputes and ensuring that individuals felt valued by the leader. An individual who is able to perform both roles successfully would obviously be an especially effective leader (Stoner and Freeman, 1992).
We will examine only the relations – oriented behavior theory and will see its utility in increasing the leadership effectiveness.

The relations – oriented behavior theory

For the effective managers, task – oriented behavior did not occur at the expense of concern for human relations. The effective managers were more considerate, supportive, and helpful with subordinates.
The type of relations – oriented behavior found to be correlated with effective leadership included showing trust and confidence, acting friendly and considerate, trying to understand subordinates problems, helping to develop subordinates and further their careers, keeping subordinates informed, showing appreciation for subordinates’ ides and providing recognition for subordinates’ contributions and accomplishments (Yukl, 1998).
Moreover, effective managers tended to use general supervision rather than close supervision. That is, the managers established goals and general guidelines for subordinates, but allowed them some autonomy in deciding how to do the work and how to pace themselves. Likert (from Yukl, 1998) proposed that a manager treats each subordinate in a way that will allow the person to view the experience as supportive and that will build and maintain the person’s sense of personal worth and importance.
Covey (1990) sustain that “it is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses”(p. 201). He indicate also that many of the problems in organizations stem from relationship difficulties among leaders and subordinates.
Creating the unity necessary to run an effective business requires great personal strength and courage. No amount of technical administrative skill in laboring for the masses can make up for lack of nobility of personal character in developing relationships (Covey, 1990).
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 indicate that a leader who has a relations – oriented behavior is efficient in what he is doing.
In conclusion, we have indicated that the behavioral models of leadership focus on two broad domains of consideration that were identified by studies at OSU and the University of Michigan: people – oriented behaviors and task – oriented behaviors. We have understood that people – oriented behavior was found to be correlated with effective leadership because it build and maintain the person’s sense of personal worth and importance.
The behavioral models, like the trait models, focus on the acquired behaviors and personal attributes that the person brings to the situation, and provide a framework for identifying and cultivating leaders in organizations.

Conclusion

Leadership is not the result of some kind of secret talent, personal quality, or knowledge that you either have or do not have; rather, it appears to arise from a mix of dispositional features (traits), behaviors, and contextual settings.
The leader traits and behaviors are important factors in increasing the leadership effectiveness in an organization. Leadership is a relational mix, and can be learned by almost anyone anywhere.
Effective leadership requires competence, emotional maturity, to know how to appreciate the efforts and accomplishments of the subordinates, and a commitment to learn continuously through life.
Effective leadership is about giving yourself to others. If you do it well, you grow as a person and as a leader and earn the respect and support of your followers.

REFERENCES

_____Covey, R. Stephen. (1990). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: A Fireside Book, Published by Simon & Schuster
_____Fleet, Van. (1988). Contemporary Management. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
_____Lawson, R.B. & Shen, Z. (1998). Organizational Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press
_____ Robbins, P. Stephen, (1994). Management - fourth edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall
_____Stoner, A. James & Freeman, R. Edward, (1992). Management. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
______Wagner III, A. John & Hollenbeck, R. John. (1992). Management of Organizational Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
_____Yukl, G. (1998). Leadership in Organizations. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
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