in progress

Emergent theory

Leadership theory that states that leaders are not appointed but emerge from the group, which chooses the leader based on interactions.

Expectancy theory

Motivation theory that states that effort increases in relation to one's confidence that the behavior will result in a positive outcome and reward; includes Vroom's theory

Needs theory

Motivation theory that states that individuals are motivated by a desire to satisfy certain needs and that understanding these needs allows leaders to offer the right incentives and create the most motivational external environments; includes self-determination and theories of Maslow, Herzberg, and McClelland.

Goal-setting theory

Theory that states that motivation can be increased by providing employees with goals against which they can assess their achievement.

Authoritative leadership approach

Leadership approach in which the leader proposes a bold vision or solution and invites the team to join this challenge.

Motivation

Factors that initiate, direct, and sustain human behavior over time.

Coaching leadership approach

Leadership approach in which the leader focuses on developing team members' skills, believing that success comes from aligning the organization's goals with employees' personal and professional goals.

Situational theories

Category of leadership theories that states that leaders can flex their behaviors to meet the needs of unique situations, employing both task or directive behaviors and relationship or supportive behaviors; includes Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership, Fiedler's contingency theory, and path-goal theory.

Transformational leadership

Leadership theory that emphasizes a leader's ability to inspire employees to embrace change; leaders encourage and motivate employees to innovate and seek out changes that can add value and growth to the organization.

Transactional leadership

Leadership theory that emphasizes a leader's preference for order and structure; focuses on control and short-term planning.

Legitimate power

Power that is created formally, through a title or position in the hierarchy that is associated with the rights of leadership.

Leader-member exchange theory

Leadership theory that focuses on a two-way relationship between leaders and chosen employees; the leader mentors selected team members and gives them access to more information and resources in order to strengthen levels of trust and support.

Theory X/Theory Y

Motivation theories dealing with the amount of control in the workplace; motivation is seen as either absolutely irrelevant or absolutely critical.

Referent power

Power that is created by the force of the leader's personality.

Coercive leadership approach

Leadership approach in which the leader imposes a vision or solution on the team and demands that the team follow this directive.

Leadership theory in which the leaders' goal is to serve the needs of their employees; emphasizes the sharing of power.

Servant leadership

Pacesetting leadership approach

Leadership approach in which the leader sets a model for high performance standards and challenges followers to meet these expectations.

Power that is created when the leader can offer followers something they value in exchange for their commitment.

Reward power

Power that is created when a leader is recognized as possessing great intelligence, insight, or experience.

Expert power

Leadership approach in which the leader invites followers to collaborate and commits to acting by consensus.

Democratic leadership approach

Power that is created when the leader can punish those who do not follow.

Coercive power

Motivation theory that states that the way a person interprets the causes for past success or failure is related to the present level of motivation; includes theories of Heider and Weiner.

Attribution theory

Category of leadership theories that states that leaders influence group members through certain behaviors; includes Blake-Mouton theory.

Behavioral theories

Theory that states that motivation is based on an employee's sense of fairness; the individual compares their perceived value with that of others in similar roles and makes a calculation based on their inputs and outputs.

Equity theory

Leadership approach in which the leader creates strong relationships with and inside the team; team members are motivated by loyalty.

Affiliative leadership approach

Leadership theory that states that leaders possess certain innate characteristics that followers do not possess (and probably cannot acquire), such as physical characteristics and personality traits.

Trait theory

How is the Coercive leadership approach most effective and ineffective?

Effective during crises; Ineffective As employees feel less motivated.

How is the Authoritative leadership approach most effective and ineffective?

Effective when leader has expertise; ineffective when leader lacks expertise

How is the Affiliative leadership approach most effective and ineffective?

Most effective when dealing with dysfunctional teams; least effective when used alone.

How is the Democratic leadership approach most effective and ineffective?

Effective when leader lacks vision; ineffective when time is short

How is the Pacesetting leadership approach most effective and ineffective?

Effective for high competent motivated teams; ineffective when expectations become excessive

How is the Coaching leadership approach most effective and ineffective?

Effective with skilled leaders, receptive team members and time management; ineffective when employees resist change

Name Blake-Mouton Theory's 5 types of leaders?

Country club manager (low task, high relationship)

Impoverished managers (low task, low relationship)

Team leaders (high task, high relationship)

Middle-of-the-road managers (midpoint on both task and relationship)

Authoritarian manager (high task, low relationship)

Under the Blake-Mouton Theory (behavioral), what manager creates a secure atmosphere and trust members to accomplish goals?

Country Club Manager

Under the Blake-Mouton Theory (behavioral), what manager uses a "delegate and disappear" management style; they create power struggles?

Impoverished Manager

Under the Blake-Mouton Theory (behavioral), what manager expects people to do what they are told without question and do not foster collaboration?

Authoritarian Manager

Under the Blake-Mouton Theory (behavioral), what manager gets the work done but are not considered leaders?

Middle-of-the-Road managers

Under the Blake-Mouton Theory (behavioral), what manager leads by positive example and fosters a team environment?

Team leader

Name the 3 Situational Theories?

Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership

Fiedler's Contingency Theory

Path-Goal Theory

What leadership style in Hersey-Blanchard's Situational Leadership is used when employees are not yet motivated or competent?

Telling

What leadership style in Hersey-Blanchard's Situational Leadership is used when the employee still needs focus and motivation?

Selling

What leadership style in Hersey-Blanchard's Situational Leadership is used when competent employees can be included in problem solving and coached on higher skills?

Participating

What leadership style in Hersey-Blanchard's Situational Leadership is used when very competent employees can benefit from greater levels of autonomy and self-direction?

Delegating

Leadership theory that adapts the leaders behaviors to meet the evolving needs of team members.

Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership

Situational favorableness is based on what key factors?

Leader-member relationships

Task structure and requirements

Leader Power

What leadership theory involves managing tasks and employees?

Blake-Mouton Theory

Path-Goal Theory addresses four different types of employee needs. What are they?

Directive - help employee understand task and the goal

Supportive - fulfill employee's relationship needs

Achievement - Motivate by setting challenging goals

Participative - Provide more control over work; leverage group expertise by participative decision making

A group has formed to organize the annual company picnic. Because one member has experience planning similar events, the member volunteers to take the lead, and the other employees choose to follow. Which kind of leadership does this exemplify?

Emergent

Behavioral

Contingency

Emergent

Emergent

theory proposes that leaders can emerge from a group, deriving their power from the group's agreement with this role. The other leadership theories refer to the ways team leaders use their roles to produce results and engage, develop, and motivate team members.

What type of bias may be more prevalent in an organization that embodies the leader-member exchange theory?

Extroversion/introversion bias
Social comparison bias
Ingroup/outgroup bias
Affinity bias

Ingroup/outgroup bias

The leader-member exchange theory focuses on a two-way relationship between leaders and chosen employees. The leader mentors a selected team member or members and gives them access to more resources to strengthen levels of trust and support. This type of relationship can contribute to growth and productivity but can also create ingroups and outgroups within the team. An ingroup/outgroup bias involves assumptions based on group-level similarities or differences. With a stronger prevalence of ingroups and outgroups, this bias may be more likely.

An HR team member was recently promoted to a team leader position. The employee is anxious about making the transition. What should the employee focus on in this new role?

Promoting office social gatherings
Clarifying the employee's authority with all team members
Developing and coaching team members
Encouraging lack of conflict within the team

Developing and Coaching team members

An effective leader accomplishes strategic goals and objectives through the work of the leader's team. The leader and the team benefit most when the leader focuses on coaching and developing team members: The leader benefits from a team that is more productive and competent, and team members improve their job skills. Effective leaders do not rely on personal likeability or power, and they strive to understand and resolve conflict, not avoid it.

An organization provides HR research services under government contracts. Their internal HR department needs to be continually innovating in areas such as inclusion and diversity in order to be not only compliant but also a role model. The HR department needs a highly collaborative staff who can innovate while carefully considering the impact of any changes. For this reason, the department is allowed to be more resource-intensive and can take more time to produce results if needed. What leadership style would work well for the leader of HR at this organization?

Country club leadership
Transactional leadership
Servant leadership
Emergent theory

Servant Leadership

In servant leadership, the leader's goal is to serve the needs of their employees. Servant leaders tend to be more empathetic and more trusted by employees. This can lead to greater innovation, collaboration, performance, and participation. This approach to leadership can be resource-intensive and can take longer to produce results.

Which statement demonstrates effective leadership?

Fulfilling promises and commitments
Terminating poor performers and promoting high performers
Providing detailed directions to subordinates
Allowing employees to manage themselves

Fulfilling promises and commitments

Leaders must model the values the organization aspires to, which means being trustworthy and reliable. Effective leaders may not allow all employees to direct themselves. They provide coaching rather than terminating poor performers. They provide detailed directions to those who need it.

According to the Hersey-Blanchard theory, which is generally the most suitable situational leadership approach for entry-level employees?

Delegating
Telling
Participating
Selling

Telling

The telling leadership style prioritizes the task (providing direction) over the relationship (creating motivation). Entry-level employees require leadership that provides structure to project scheduling, methodologies, procedures, etc. When the new employee gains proficiency, the leader can begin to focus on "selling" or motivating. Because the new employee does not possess sufficient experience or insight into best practices, they cannot adequately participate in joint problem solving or decision making, which would characterize the participating and delegating approaches.

Which statement exemplifies Hersey-Blanchard's situational leadership theory?

Over time individuals require a different type of direction and leadership.
Leaders need to be charismatic because employees dislike rigid controls and inherently want to accomplish something.
A team leader is one equally concerned with people and production (task) to the maximum degree.
Leaders don't need personal relationships with mentors to learn from them.

Over time individuals require different type of direction and leadership

The Hersey-Blanchard theory states that effective leaders change their leadership style to provide the level of direction and interaction that individual employees need at that point in their development. Since one employee's needs will differ from another's and since an employee's needs six months from now will be different from the employee's present needs, leaders must be able to identify an individual's current needs and provide the most effective levels of direction (from managing closely to delegating) and motivation (from selling the employee on the task at hand to empowering the employee through participative decision making).

What is the difference between formal and informal characteristics of an organization?

Formal: documented and change less frequently. The formal characteristics of an organization are expressed in some documented form, such as a handbook or organizational chart.

Informal characteristics describe the nature of relationships in the organization, how people interact and communicate. Perhaps because they are not documented, informal characteristics may change more frequently than formal characteristics.

Formal characteristics can be felt and informal characteristics can be seen.

A new HR staff member wants to win support for their idea for a new employee benefit. The HR director has agreed to meet with them to discuss the idea briefly. How should the HR staff member prepare?

Complete a detailed business case in support of the idea.
Research the director's professional resume.
Gather testimonial feedback from employees who want the new benefit added.
Think about what might be motivating the HR director in their job.

Think about what might be motivating the HR director in their job.

The staff member is in an early stage of winning support. It may help to understand the director's goals (perhaps by observing decisions and statements) so that the staff member can show how the benefit idea could advance those goals. It is too soon for a business case or testimonials. The resume will probably not provide an accurate sense of what motivates the director.

A leader tries to influence the staff's satisfaction and productivity by being friendly and asking questions about their non-work lives. What type of power is the leader using?

Legitimate
Referent
Reward
Expert

Referent

Referent power derives from the strength of a leader's personality, which can create feelings of admiration and loyalty in others. Legitimate power derives from official position or title. Reward power exists when the leader has the ability to motivate with rewards, and coercive power exists when the leader has the power to punish. Expert power derives from the leader's superior knowledge, skills, or experience in an area.

An operations manager wants to hire additional full-time employees. The HR business partner knows that the need for additional resources will probably be temporary, based on historical data. What would be the best way to persuade the operations manager that using temporary workers would be a better strategy?

Let the operations manager own this decision and its outcomes.
Escalate the issue to the head of HR, who is responsible for these strategic decisions.
Use data. Show the manager the resource trend charts for the past several years.
Point out the difficulty of having to lay off these workers when demand decreases.

Use data. Show the manager the resource trend charts for the past several years.

The HR business partner should use historical data, because a rational approach to persuasion is the most useful tactic. Without data, appealing to the manager's empathy with workers might help. Escalating the issue is not showing leadership and may damage the relationship. Avoiding the issue also does not show leadership.

In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, how are the needs of self-actualization exemplified?

Opportunities for development, problem solving, and creativity
Training, recognition, high status, increased responsibilities
Interactions with work groups, clients, coworkers, supervisors
Working conditions, employment, security, pay and benefits

Opportunities for development, problem solving, and creativity

According to Maslow, self-actualization is the need to fulfill one's potential, which would lead one to seek challenges and apply cognitive and creative abilities. The other answers refer to needs related to physical security, esteem, and belonging.

An HR manager conducts a market salary survey to make sure that team members are being adequately compensated and do not seek other employment. Which level of needs in Maslow's hierarchy is the HR manager attempting to address?

Belonging and love
Physical needs
Self-esteem and respect for others
Safety and security

Safety and Security

The safety and security level includes personal, emotional, and financial security along with health and well being.

A manager delegates work to team members by clearly explaining the desired result and any necessary processes to follow. The manager explains the consequences of failure, but then allows team members to self-manage. What motivational theory does this manager likely follow?
Theory Y
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory
Theory X

Theory Y

Under Theory Y, work is as natural as rest or play, and normal people can learn to seek responsibility and become problem solvers. Managers who believe this empower employees and use leadership and influence to get them committed to project goals without resorting to coercion.

If an organization has a culture that fits best with the transactional leadership model, which personal leadership quality will be the hardest to develop?

Being both self-motivated and self-disciplined
Being committed to continuous learning.
Embodying a growth mindset
Comfort with risk taking

Comfort with risk taking

A transactional leadership model is one in which managers are authoritarian and expect their directives to be followed. Managers tend to closely monitor work to ensure that it is done properly and on time. This culture will have difficulty with risk-taking because failure is likely to be punished, even when it is a manager who is failing, because that person will also report to someone who expects their directives to be followed.

The transformational leadership approach encourages what 3 things?

Communication

Collaboration

Cooperation

Servant leaders tend to be _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ by employees, which leads to greater _ _ _ _ _ _ _, _ _ _ _ _ , _ _ _ _ _ _, and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

empathetic
more trusted
innovation
collaboration
performance
participation

A new HR professional wants to understand how to gain credibility in the organization. Which activity would help the most?

Interviewing people in HR management positions
Studying the organization's published statement of values
Talking to HR peers at professional meetings about what works in organizations
Watching how people react to other team members in team discussions

Watching how people react to other team members in team discussions

A person's social status in an organization may be observed in how others listen and respond to what the person says. Seeing the types of people who earn respect in the organization, the new HR professional can work to imitate their actions. Ideally, the formal aspects of the organization, such as values statements, would be good indicators, but the formal and informal aspects of organizations are not always aligned. Informal discussions are a good idea, but a formal interview with HR managers may not provide perspective from all parts of the function. The informal aspects of an organization, such as the characteristics that make someone respected and trusted, may vary from one organization to the next.

Legitimate power is effective when?

When it saves time in decision making and focuses team on the organization's goals.

Reward power is effective when?

When it appeals to team member's individual motivators

Expert power is effective when?

When it can improve a team's efforts by offering advice and guidance.

Referent power is effective when?

When it appeals to social needs of individuals.

Coercive power is effective when?

When its likely to get immediate results.

An HR business partner (HRBP) knows that HR is struggling to improve its relationship with the operations function. The HRBP receives an e-mail from an operations supervisor who refuses to implement a disciplinary action that the HRBP has recommended. What should the HRBP do?

Go to the head of HR and escalate the issue to the senior management team.
Let the supervisor take the lead on this in the interest of improving the relationship.
Implement the corrective action on the HRBP's own authority.
Meet with the supervisor and explain the rationale for taking disciplinary action.

Meet with the supervisor and explain the rationale for taking disciplinary action.

The HRBP needs to ensure that policies are followed. The best way to do that here is to use their expertise in HR to show the rationale for the policy and consistency in enforcing it. This may help enhance HR's professionalism in the eyes of operations. Escalating the issue shows a lack of leadership, as does avoiding the issue. Implementing the discipline against operation's wishes may further damage the relationship between the functions.

Leaders micromanage and coerce team members because they believe people do not like to work and must be strictly controlled and forced to work.

Theory X (absolutely irrelevant)

Leaders believe that employees dislike rigid controls and want to accomplish something; leaders apply a participative style that empowers employees.

Theory Y (absolutely critical)

Name the four needs theories?

Maslow

Herzberg

McClelland

Self-Determination

Name the 5 basic needs mentioned in Maslow's needs theory?

Physiological - basic needs related to survival)
Safety and security
Belonging and Love (need to belong; to be accepted)
Esteem ( both self-esteem and admiration of others)
Self-actualization (need to fill one's potential)

What are the two-factors in Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene theory?

Intrinsic Factors (innate desires)

Extrinsic Factors (workplace Hygiene)

Under McClelland's motivation theory, what 3 desires are individuals motivated by?

Achievement (accomplishment)
Affiliation (feeling part of a group)
Power (influence or control over others)

Self-determination motivation theory states that individuals are motivated by innate needs such as competence and relatedness, but also by needs for what?

Autonomy and Purpose

Vroom's Expectancy Theory identifies that levels of effort are dependent upon what three things?

Expectancy (with effort, employee can succeed)

Instrumentality ( success results in reward)

Valence (reward is meaningful to employee)

Heider/Weiner's Attribution Theory determines that successes and failures can be attributed to what two factors?

Internal Factors - Under employee's control
External Factors - Beyond employees control

Which motivation theory appeals to an employee's need for achievement?

Attribution
Vroom
Theory X/Theory Y
McClelland

McClelland

McClelland's theory proposes that individuals are motivated by achievement, affiliation, and the desire for power.

An HR team member is working on a critical activity that must be done in a very precise sequence with no room for innovation. Because the task is important, the HR manager monitors the team member's performance very closely. The performance is routinely satisfactory and often exemplary. The manager notes that the team member seems to have low morale and a bad attitude. According to Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, what should the manager do to reduce job dissatisfaction?

Stop supervising the team member so closely.
Help the team member follow the process but allow the team member to be creative in other ways.
Give the team member the chance to take paid training related to the work.
Recognize the team member's efforts in the next team meeting.

Stop supervising the team member so closely.

According to Herzberg, job dissatisfaction is influenced by hygiene factors, which include pay, job security, work conditions, work relationships, and supervisor style. If the supervisor's hands-on style is affecting the team member's job dissatisfaction, backing off might reduce it. Providing recognition, training, and creativity would increase motivation and thus increase job satisfaction but would not reduce dissatisfaction.

If an organization has a culture that fits best with the transactional leadership model, which personal leadership quality will be the hardest to develop?

Embodying a growth mindset
Being committed to continuous learning.
Comfort with risk taking
Being both self-motivated and self-disciplined

Comfort with risk taking

A transactional leadership model is one in which managers are authoritarian and expect their directives to be followed. Managers tend to closely monitor work to ensure that it is done properly and on time. This culture will have difficulty with risk-taking because failure is likely to be punished, even when it is a manager who is failing, because that person will also report to someone who expects their directives to be followed.

What leadership theory states that different leadership styles should be used based on the situation in which managers find themselves.

Situational leadership theory

What theory states that leaders possess different traits than average people do.

Trait theory

What leadership theory looks at the factors causing job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Motivational theory

Which statement exemplifies Hersey-Blanchard's situational leadership theory?

Over time individuals require a different type of direction and leadership.

What theory states that effective leaders change their leadership style to provide the level of direction and interaction that individual employees need at that point in their development. Since one employee's needs will differ from another's and since an employee's needs six months from now will be different from the employee's present needs, leaders must be able to identify an individual's current needs and provide the most effective levels of direction (from managing closely to delegating) and motivation (from selling the employee on the task at hand to empowering the employee through participative decision making).

The Hersey-Blanchard theory

An HR professional has just joined an organization and wants to better understand its informal characteristics. What should this HR professional pay attention to?

Who people interact with and the nature of their interactions

What aspects of an organization are learned best by observing how people behave, communicate, and interact?

The informal aspects

A new HR staff member wants to win support for their idea for a new employee benefit. The HR director has agreed to meet with them to discuss the idea briefly. How should the HR staff member prepare?

Think about what might be motivating the HR director in their job.

An HR manager derives his authority from his extensive background in HRM. What type of power is he using?

Expert

An operations manager wants to hire additional full-time employees. The HR business partner knows that the need for additional resources will probably be temporary, based on historical data. What would be the best way to persuade the operations manager that using temporary workers would be a better strategy?

Use data. Show the manager the resource trend charts for the past several years.

An HR manager conducts a market salary survey to make sure that team members are being adequately compensated and do not seek other employment. Which level of needs in Maslow's hierarchy is the HR manager attempting to address?

Safety and security

Which level of needs in Maslow's hierarchy includes personal, emotional, and financial security along with health and well being.

Safety and security

What leadership model is one in which managers are authoritarian and expect their directives to be followed. Managers tend to closely monitor work to ensure that it is done properly and on time.

Transactional leadership

According to Herzberg, what is influenced by hygiene factors, which include pay, job security, work conditions, work relationships, and supervisor style.

job dissatisfaction

What are the critical skills of effective HR leadership?

The ability to see opportunities and problems, envision a different future, design a path toward it, rally support, and manage initiatives for measurable benefits.

Who defined the functions of management relevant to HR professionals?

Henri Fayol, a 20th-century French management theorist.