Organizational Behaviour, emerging knowledge and practice for the real world, by S. McShane, M. Von Glinow (fifth edition) – Summary chapter 12

Leadership refers to influencing, motivating and enabling others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members. Leadership refers to a role and not a position. Shared leadership is the view that leadership is a role, not a position assigned to one person and people within the team and organization lead each other. In order for shared leadership to be effective, formal leaders need to be willing to give up some power.

Transformational leadership refers to a leadership perspective that explains how leaders change teams or organizations by creating, communicating and modelling a vision for the organization and inspiring employees to strive for that vision. There are four elements of transformational leadership:

1. Develop and communicate a strategic vision
   A vision is a positive image or model of the future that energizes and unifies employees. An effective strategic vision refers to an idealized future with a higher purpose, is challenging and makes use of symbols. The effectiveness of this vision depends on how leaders convey it to followers.
2. Model the vision
   This is personifying the vision, act like the vision. This creates a shared mental image. This requires consistency between words and actions.
3. Encourage experimentation
   This includes not punishing people for making mistakes as transformational leadership is associated with change and change is accompanied by mistakes.
4. Build commitment toward the vision
   This can be done by being consistent with actions and reinforce the vision.

Charisma is a personal trait or relational quality that provides referent power over followers. It can be useful for transformational leadership but is not required for it. Charismatic leadership tends to produce dependent followers. A crisis leads to a greater attribution of charisma.

Managerial leadership is a perspective that states that effective leaders help employees improve their performance and well-being toward current objectives and practices. Managerial leadership assumes stable goals and external environment. Managerial leadership is more related to specific performance and transformational leadership is more abstract.

There is a difference between task-oriented behaviour and people-oriented behaviour:

1. Task-oriented behaviour
   This includes behaviour that is oriented at the task and helps people perform a task.
2. People-oriented behaviour
   This is behaviour that is oriented at people and makes the workplace more pleasant.

Servant leadership is the view that leaders serve followers. Servant leaders have a desire to help others and remain humble. The path-goal leadership theory states that the most effective leadership style depends on the employees and situations. This theory highlights four leadership styles:

1. Directive leadership style
   This is task-oriented leadership.
2. Supportive leadership style
   This is people-oriented leadership.
3. Participative leadership style
   This is giving voice to the followers. This only works if the leader is willing to give up some power.
4. Achievement-oriented leadership style
   This is encouraging peak performance and setting challenging objectives.

Employee characteristics and characteristics of the employee’s work environment moderate the relationship between a leader’s style and its effectiveness. There are four contingencies that influence the effectiveness of different leadership styles:

1. Skill and experience
    A combination of directive and supportive leadership is useful for employees who perceive themselves as unskilled.
2. Locus of control
   Employees with an internal locus of control prefer participative and achievement-oriented leadership styles.
3. Task structure
   The leadership style should depend on whether a task is routine or not routine. A non-routine task requires a directive leadership style. The participative leadership style is also effective for non-routine tasks.
4. Team dynamics
   What style is best depends on the norm that is adhered and the degree of team cohesion.

The situational leadership theory (SLT) states that effective leaders vary their style with the motivation and ability of their followers. There is no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of this style. Fiedler’s contingency model states that leadership effectiveness depends on whether the person’s natural leadership style is appropriately matched to the situation. According to this model, the best leadership style depends on the level of situational control. Leadership substitutes is a theory that identifies conditions that either limit the leader’s ability to influence subordinates or make a particular leadership style unnecessary.

The implicit leadership theory states that people evaluate a leader’s effectiveness in terms of how well that person fits a leadership prototype and that people tend to inflate the influence of leaders on organizational events. People tend to attribute successes and failures to leaders.

There are several attributes that are associated with effective leadership:

1. Personality
   High extraversion and high conscientiousness are good predictors of good leadership.
2. Self-concept
   This is confidence in oneself and confidence in the ability to achieve goals. Besides that, it also holds that someone has a clear and complex self.0020
3. Drive
   This is the inner motivation and should be action-oriented.
4. Integrity
   This is truthfulness and consistency in words and actions.
5. Leadership motivation
   This is a high need for socialized power compared to personalized power.
6. Knowledge of the business
   This is knowledge of the business environment in which they operate.
7. Cognitive and practical intelligence
   This is an above-average cognitive intelligence and superior problem-solving abilities.
8. Emotional intelligence
   This is recognising and regulating emotions in the self and others.

Authentic leadership is the view that effective leaders need to be aware of, feel comfortable with, and act consistently with their values, personality and self-concept. Leaders need to know themselves and be themselves. Being consistent with actions and words (values) leads to a higher degree of trust and is thus more effective.

Limitations of the attributes perspective is that it assumes that all leaders have these characteristics and that all characteristics are equally effective in every situation. It also assumes that leadership is within a person, although leadership is relational, as leadership cannot exist in isolation. The attributes only indicate leadership potential.

Cultural values shape the expectations that followers have of their leaders. Male and female leaders do not differ in their levels of task-oriented or people-oriented leadership. Women adopt a participative leadership style more readily than men. Women are still hindered by stereotypes about leadership.