Business Management Leadership and Strategy Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering leadership theories, management styles, decision-making processes, and organizational ethics as detailed in the Unit 1 lecture notes.

Leadership

The process of influencing others to act voluntarily beyond their structured, defined, or required routine tasks.

Trait Studies

The earliest research on leadership that attempted to identify physical traits, intelligence, and personality characteristics of effective leaders.

Authoritarian Leadership

A leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions, which research found created the highest levels of productivity but lower satisfaction.

Democratic Leadership

A leadership style that involves members of the group in decision making, which research found created the greatest satisfaction.

Initiating Structure

A leader behavior identified by The Ohio State University researchers that focuses on task-oriented activities and group organization.

Consideration

A leader behavior identified by The Ohio State University researchers that focuses on person-oriented concerns and the needs of group members.

Leadership Grid

A matrix measuring a leader's concern for production and concern for people on a nine-point scale, where a 9,9 leader is high on both dimensions.

Servant Leadership

An approach in which leaders prioritize serving the needs of others, measuring success by the growth and development of organization members.

Situational (Contingency) Leadership Theories

Theories suggesting that the most effective leadership style depends upon situational variables, the group's characteristics, and the nature of the task.

Maturity

In the Hersey and Blanchard model, the level of a follower's ability to perform activities and their willingness to accomplish them.

Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership

A theory suggesting that leader effectiveness depends on three variables: leader-member relations, task structure, and the leader's power position.

LPC (Least-Preferred Co-worker) Scale

A scale used by Fred Fiedler to measure whether a leader's orientation is toward the task (low LPC) or interpersonal relationships (high LPC).

Path-Goal Model

A situational theory derived from expectancy theory suggesting leaders must clarify goal paths and increase goal attractiveness for followers.

Normative Decision-making Model

Vroom and Yetton's theory identifying appropriate decision-making styles, such as autocratic, consultative, or group decision-making.

Transactional Leaders

Leaders who manage the transactions between the organization and its members by relying on contingent rewards and management by exception.

Transformational Leadership

Leadership focused on changing the attitudes and assumptions of employees and building commitment to the organization's mission and strategy.

Empowerment

Providing followers with information, resources, and support to stimulate them to act on their own initiative.

Leadership Continuum

A model by Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt describing seven leadership styles ranging from boss-centered (autocratic) to subordinate-centered (participative).

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory

Also called vertical dyad linkage theory, it argues that leaders develop unique relationships with each subordinate, resulting in 'in-group' and 'out-group' categories.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

An individual's ability to monitor their own emotions and the emotions of others, and to use that information to guide thinking and behavior.

Active Listening

An interpersonal skill involving being attentive while others speak, paraphrasing what is said, and refraining from judgment.

Organizational Engineering

Fiedler's approach of changing the job's degree of task structure or the leader's power position to fit a manager's leadership style.

Bounded Rationality

The concept that individuals do not have perfect information or the mental capacity to comprehend all feasible solutions when making decisions.

Satisficing

The decision-making process of searching for and accepting the first satisfactory solution rather than the maximum benefit.

Suboptimizing

When the best interests of the organization are sacrificed for the interests of a specific person or group.

Escalation of Commitment

A process where decision makers become so ego-invested in a choice that they invest additional resources to avoid failure, despite contrary information.

Brainstorming

A group technique designed to enhance creativity by encouraging members to express every idea that comes to mind without criticism.

Risky-shift Phenomenon

The tendency for group decisions to be more risky than what individuals would decide on their own due to a diffusion of responsibility.

Groupthink

A phenomenon in highly cohesive groups where pressures for conformity lead to reduced mental effort, poor reality testing, and careless moral judgments.

Abilene Paradox

A situation where organization members take an action contrary to what they really want to do because they fail to communicate their true desires.

Devil's Advocate

A person assigned the role of critic to challenge every proposal and decision in a group to reduce the likelihood of groupthink.

Programmed Decisions

Repetitive, routine decisions for which a simple decision-making procedure, formula, or policy can be developed.

Non-programmed Decisions

Novel, unstructured, and complex problems that have no established procedure and require intuition, judgment, and creativity.

Gresham's Law of Planning

The tendency for programmed, routine activities to replace non-programmed planning and strategic activities.

Delphi Technique

A decision-making method using a group of experts who independently and anonymously solve problems through successive iterations without meeting face-to-face.

Nominal Group Technique

A structured group decision-making process where members develop solutions independently before meeting to discuss and rank them.

Ethics

Generally-accepted standards of public and private conduct that prescribe how people ought to behave based on right and wrong.

Deontology

A definition of morality based on the fundamental fairness of an action or the means used to achieve a result.

Teleology

A definition of morality that focuses on the end state or the consequences of an action.

Role Morality

The idea that people are acting morally when their actions and decisions are consistent with the expectations and responsibilities of their assigned roles.

Whistle Blowing

The act of informing people outside a company about corporate misconduct or wrongdoing.

Code of Ethics

A written document identifying the values, goals, and beliefs of an organization that helps members respond to daily moral challenges.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The idea that corporations should involve themselves in programs that contribute to the well-being of stakeholders, the community, and the environment.

Kyosei

A Japanese word meaning 'living and working together for the common good,' used as a standard for organizational stewardship and responsibility.

Ethics Audit

A systematic review of an organization's records, processes, and practices to examine issues like conflicts of interest and discrimination.