Nature of Leadership (9/9/26)

Leadership effectiveness and emergence

Leadership research keeps increasing dramatically and so does what?

Attempts to conceptualize it

Classic definitions of leadership focus on

Leaders’ outcomes

Why is it dangerous for classic definitions of leadership to focus on leaders’ outcomes

This ignores the processes that drive results; “a quarter of Wall Street execs see wrongdoing as a key to success” - Labaton Sucharow, 2012

1920-1929 definitions of leadership focus on

Control/centralization

1930s definitions of leadership focus on

Trait approach

1940s definitions of leadership focus on

Group approach

1950s definitions of leadership focus on

Group theory, shared goals, and effectiveness

1960s definitions of leadership focus on

Leadership as behavior

1970s definitions of leadership focus on

Organizational behavior

1980s definitions of leadership focus on

Leader’s will influence, transformation, traits

1990s to present definitions of leadership focus on

Process of leadership; emerging approaches (e.g., authentic leadership)

Defining leadership can be categorized based on several aspects of a classification system, such as:

Focus of group processes, personality perspective, an act or behavior, the power relationship btwn leaders and followers, a transformational process, and a skills perspective

Definition of leadership we will use in this course

A process whereby an individual influences others to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2019)

Yukl, 2020 definition of leadership

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 objectives

Key components of leadership

Process, involves influence, occurs within a group context, and involves common goals

The sine qua non of leadership

Involves influence

Process definition of leadership

What leadership is not

Power, coercion, management

Leadership vs power

This used to be the domain of leaders but now followers are more empowered and demand more from leaders. Leaders wield less of this these days

Leadership vs coercion

These types of people people are not used as models of ideal leadership. This type of leader pursues own goals

Leadership vs management

People don’t want to be managed, they want to be led. But, few succeed in both? “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.” Both are essential for org. success.

Shared leadership

A dynamic, interactive influence process with the objective of leading one another to the achievement of goals. Focus is on participative decision making, developing social relations and support, and empowerment. Leadership becomes an ongoing process of mutual influence that can be performed by any member of the team

Why share leadership?

Fully tap into the various member capacities, reduces overreliance on 1 individual, builds strength across the entire org. system, reduces the degree of vulnerability due to the loss of any one leader, build in checks and balances to protect against corruption and unethical behavior, member rotate through different roles to develop skills

Antecedents of shared leadership

Hierarchical/vertical leader (transformational leader, leader gender), support structures, group cultural values of empowerment, relationship longevity, team learning orientation

Outcomes of shared leadership

More trust, cohesion, consensus, individual satisfaction, less conflict, org. financial performance, etc.

Individual practices to implement shared leadership

Keep egos in check, task proficiency comes first, be respectful and listen, actively engage in influence

Group practices to implement shared leadership

Interpersonal trust is the bedrock, open communication is essential, build transactive memory, and actively debate ideas

Human resources practices to implement shared leadership

Selection is the key, educate all stakeholders, evaluation is a tool for development, use group-based compensation systems

Organizational practices to implement shared leadership

Create a common vision, focus on core values, empower everyone, ensure that knowledge trumps status

When should shared leadership be applied?

High task complexity, high interdependence in the work system, high amount of creativity required, high extent of employee commitment, and low degree of urgency faced

Why is leadership needed in orgs?

Incompleteness of org design bc leadership complements organizational systems, to direct and guide human and organizational resources toward strategic objectives, and boundary functioning (leader interacts with internal dynamics of org and changing environmental conditions)

Two broad criteria for leadership

Emergence and effectiveness

Leadership emergence

Within-group. Refers to whether (or to what degree) an individual is perceived as leaderlike by others. Informal leadership status. Emerges over a period through communication

Leadership effectiveness (outcomes)

Between group. Captures the extent to which an individual fulfills the requirements of a leadership role. Looks at objective and subjective measures of performance as well as follower attitudes and perceptions of the leader. Consider the successful career as a leader or leader’s contribution to the quality of group processes

Babble effect

Individuals who are active in the group are more likely to become its leaders. High talking rate = leader emergence. However, ONE research indicates the quality of comments is more influential than sheer quantity

Antecedents of emergence

Personality, dominance, intelligence, generalized self-efficacy

Social-cognitive perspective of leadership emergence

Leadership prototypes, implicit leadership theories

Social identity theory of leadership emergence

Formation of group prototypes overtime, members’ perceptions of in-group attributes, gender-biased and racial/ethnic-biased perceptions and leader emergence

Leader derailment

Phenomenon in which a leader with an impressive track record goes off track and can’t advance

Percentage of leaders that fail according to CEB Talent Report, 2014

46%

Where does leader derailment most frequently result from?

Deficiency with soft/human skills

What strongly influences a leader’s activities and behavior?

Aspects of the leadership situation

Effective leaders:

Develop a mental agenda of objectives and strategies, identify problems that are both important and solvable, use task-oriented, relations-oriented, change-oriented, and external behaviors that are appropriate for the situation, and seek to understand their situation and adopt their behavior accordingly

Major finding of leadership effectiveness when it comes to power and influence

Effective leaders develop referent and expert power to supplement their position power.