Strengths and Criticisms of Leadership Theories

Strengths of Trait Approach

-intuitively appealing

-credible

- highlights the leadership component and leadership process

- Provides a benchmark for what to look for in a leader

- Deeper understanding of how a leader/personality is related to the leadership process

Criticisms of Trait Approach

- Fails to delimit a definitive list of leadership traits

- Doesn't take situational factors into account

- List of most important traits are highly subjective

- research fault to look at traits in relationships

- not useful for training and development

Application of Trait Approach

- provides direction on which traits are good for person who wants to be a leader

- through questionnaires, you can determine whether or not you have the select leadership traits / can pinpoint strengths and weaknesses

-can be used by managers to assess where they stand within their organization and what is needed to strengthen their position

Strengths of Behavioral Approach

- marked major shift in leadership research from exclusively trait-focused to include behaviors and actions of leaders

- broad range of studies gives credibility

- at the conceptual level, a leader's style is composed of two major types of behaviors: task and relationship

- approach is heuristic- leaders can learn a lot about themselves and how they come across to others by trying to see their behaviors in light of the task and relationship dimensions

Criticisms of Behavioral Approach

- Research hasn't demonstrated how leaders' styles are associated with performance outcomes

- no universal style of leadership that could be effective in almost every situation

- implies that most effective leadership style is High-high style ( high task / high relationship); research findings support is limited

- most of the reaserch comes from the united states - centric perspective

Application of Behavioral Approach

- Leadership training and development programs are designed along the lines of this

- By assessing own style, managers can determine how they are perceived by others and how they could change their behaviors to become more effective

Strengths of Situational Approach

- Marketplace approval: credible model for training employees to become effective leaders

- Practicality: straightforward/ easily applied and understood in various settings

- Prescripted value: clearly outlines what you should and should not do in various settings

- leader flexibility: stresses that effective leaders are those who can change their styles based on task

- Differential treatment: leaders need to treat each subordinate according to his/ her unique needs

Criticisms of Situational Approach

- lack of empirical foundation

- further research needed to determine how commitment and competence are thought of for each developmental level

- idea of commitment itself and why it varies is unclear

- doesn't account for how some demographics influence the leader-subordinate prescriptions of the model

Application of Situational Approach

- used in consulting bc easy to conceptualize and apply

- easy for managers to apply

applicable in all types of organizations and levels

Strengths of LMX

- validates our experience of how people relate to each other and their leader

- only approach that makes dyadic relationship the centerpiece

- directs our attention to the importance of communication in leadership

- solid research that it's related to positive organization

Criticisms of LMX

- can encourage exclusivity / develop privileged groups

- basic ideas aren't fully developed

-measurement is being questioned/ hard to measure

Application of LMX

- applicable to all levels of management

- directs managers to look at their leadership from a relationship perspective

- explains how people create leadership networks

Strengths of Servant Leadership

- altruism is a central component

- counterintuitive approach: leaders share control

- Research has resulted in a sound measure: SLQ

Criticisms of Servant Leadership

- can be seen as soft/whimsical

- research unable to reach a common definition

- "putting others first" conflicts with other principles of leadership, like directing/concern for production

Application of Servant Leadership

- can be applied at all levels of management and in all types of organizations

- extensively studied for over 30 years in many organizations

- select employees who are interested in building long-term relationships AND have strong ethics

Strengths of Transformational Leadership

- broadly researched, intuitive

- strong focus on followers

- links to positive outcomes

Criticisms of Transformational Leadership

- overlaps with other theories

- risk of hero-leader bias

- can be misused by unethical leaders

- not suitable for corporations

Application of Transformational leadership

- used in corporate leadership training

- particularly effective in change-oriented environments

Strengths of Leadership Ethics

- expands leadership to include morality

- provides guidelines and virtues for ethical leadership

Criticisms of Leadership Ethics

- limited empirical research; many ideas are opinion-based

- most western focused

- hard to measure ethics in practice

Application of Leadership Ethics

- useful at all organizational levels

- helps leaders reflect on their values and decisions

- Ethical principles can be benchmarks for leadership behavior

- reinforces leader-follower relationship as central

Strengths of Gender and Leadership

- helps dispel myths

- identify hidden barriers

- encourage androgynous leadership

Criticisms of Gender and Leadership

- too western-focused

- not enough on ethnicity / sexual orientation

- needs to include family context

Application of Gender and Leadership

- eradicating prejudice

- improving negotiation

- mentoring

- changing organizational cultures