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In most studies, it is assumed that leadership is something that is learned. Leaders' behaviors can be divided into two broad categories: initiating structure and consideration. A takeaway of this chapter is that leaders need to be flexible and adapt to both followers and the situation they are in. In order to addapt to the situation, leaders should follow the next steps:
Leadership refers to the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared goals. Leadership is an influence process. It involves directing others (individuals and groups) toward organizational goals.
Leadership is different from management. A manager administers, a leader innovates. A manager maintains, a leader develops. A manager is a copy, a leader is an original. A manager does things right, a leader does the right thing. A manager has his or her eyes on the bottom line, a leader's eye is on the horizon. In other words, leadership involves inspiring a vision. Management involves controlling the operations. There is, however, some overlap between leadership and management: managerial leadership refers to adapting to situational demands.
In the trait approach, it is assumed that leaders are born with the talent and ambitions for leadership. In contrast, many other leadership theories propose that leadership can be learned. When the trait approach was largely dismissed in the 1940s and 1950s, researchers turned their attention to what leaders do using behavioral approaches. Following a research program in the 1950s, it was found that the things leaders do, can be divided into two categories. First, initiating structure refers to defining tasks for employees and focusing on goals. Second, consideration refers to the degree to which the leader shows trust, respect, and sensitivity to employees' feelings.
A leader should be flexible and adapt their leadership behavior to followers and the situation. Leaders motivate their followers to accomplish objectives by establishing the paths to the goals. The path-goal theory (PGT) describes four different motivating leadership behaviors:
These four different types of leadership behavior influence follower's path perceptions, depending on the characteristics of the follower (ability level, personality, preference for structure, need for control) and of the situation (job design, formal authority system, workgroup norms). First, the E --> P expectancy is the follower's effort path to performance. In other words, if people try, they will achieve their goal. Second, the P --> O (performance-to outcome expectancy) is the belief that the leader will provide a reward that is wanted, and these rewards are of value to the follower or valences (Vs). In other words, the leader's behavior affects follower motivations to assure the leader will provide the rewards that are valued. The removal of barriers and strengthening of expectancies and instrumentalities results in follower satisfaction, effort, and performance.
Leaders treat their followers differently based upon their unique abilities and contributions to the work group and organization. The leader-member exchange (LMX) model is defined as the quality of the working relationship developed with each follower and is characterized by more delegation of authority to those with high quality. Leader decide, briefly, on their in-group members and their out-group members. Out-group members perform to the specifications in their job description, but they do not go above and beyond and do not take extra work. In-group members do.
Inclusive leadership underscores the LMX approach that each follower is unique. Inclusive leadership suggests that leaders help all team members feel part of the group (belongingness) while retaining their sense of individuality (uniqueness).
LMX relationships develop through three steps: role taking, role making, and role routinization.
Followership is also important for leadership. Followership is a voluntary deference process. However, it is different from submissiveness to authority. It is about the behavior of a person that engages in while interacting with leaders to meet organizational objectives.
Attributions represent a person's attempt to assign a cause to a behavior or event they observe. In line with this, attribution theory proposes that the attribution people make about events and behavior can be either internal or external. In the event of internal attribution, people infer that an event of a person's behavior is due to his or her own traits and abilities. In the event of external attribution, people believe that a person's behavior is due to situational factors.
Attributions can bias how we process information and make decisions. One way in which this occurs is called the fundamental attribution error, referring to the tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal factors such as character traits of abilities, but when explaining one's own behavior, people tend to attribute the cause to the situation. A second way of bias is called self-serving bias, that occurs when a person attributes successes to internal factors and failures to situational factors. The further an event is in the past, the more likely the cause of a failure will be attributed to the situation.
How can a leader avoid attribution bias? One should gather additional information when ascribing a cause to certain behavior. By paying attention to overall patterns of behavior, one can make more accurate conclusions by considering the following:
Following these patterns we can conclude the following. If a leader wants to improve judgments and avoid the attribution error, he or she should consider how well other people would do in the same situation. For example, do all employees make the same mistake when filling out forms for customers? If so, maybe the form needs to be revised. When the right attributions are made, the working relationship between a leader and a follower will develop into a high-quality one.
One of the best things that can happen is when the leader becomes a mentor. Mentoring refers to an intense developmental relationship whereby advice, counseling, and developmental opportunities are provided to a protégé by a mentor, which, in turn, shapes the protégé's career experiences. Mentors provide both career support and social support.
Trust refers to the willingness to be vulnerable. Trust is related to many importance outcomes, including risk taking, job satisfaction and job performance. Trust is therefore very important for an effective and efficient organization. A three-part helpful framework to organize your thinking about how trust operates in organizations is discussed:
The development of trust is considered as tactical climbing, in which there are increasing levels of risk and vulnerability over time.
What to do when trust is broken? There are three important questions to ask in that situation:
The full-range leader development model is based on research on transformational leadership. In this model, leadership is considered a continuum. People start at the lower end of the ladder, which is called transactional leadership (behaviors that motivate followers through rewards and corrective actions). At the highest end of the model, people are more engaged with their leaders when their leaders behave in certain ways. This is called transformational leadership.
Transactional leadership is characterized by (from worst to best):
Transformational leadership is characterized by the four I's behaviors:
Leadership and ethics are intertwined; ethical decision making is important to the practice of leadership and contemporary theories of leadership address morality. Four components have been found on ethical leadership:
Two other theories on leadership have emerges: servant leadership and authentic leadership.
To sum up:
One important aspect of this book is to apply critical thinking. Despite many proponents of leadership, some researchers have criticized the emphasis on the leader and their behavior. An alternative view is to consider leadership in the eyes of the follower. Leadership, according to this view, is an attribution that a follower makes about another person.
The implicit leadership theory (ILT) studies how attributions about leadership affect follower perceptions of who you are in the role of the leader. People have implicit leadership schemas (models) in their minds of what constitutes an effective leader. In addition, people make significant attributions about the power of leaders. This is also called the romance of leadership. Leaders are not powerful because of their expertise or behaviors, instead their power is derived from follower attributions of their influence over events.
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