Leadership Comm Exam 2 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Contingency Theory Strength

• Broadened understanding of leadership by causing us to think of impact of situation

Contingency Theory Strength

• Establishes importance of match between leader style and situational variables

Contingency Theory Strength

• Shifted focus to the context

Contingency Theory Strength

• Great deal of empirical research supports it: tested and found to be valid and reliable

Contingency Theory Strength

• Predictive value: what type of leadership is more/most effective in certain contexts, determine probability of success for a leader in a given situation

Contingency Theory Strength

• Doesn’t require a leader to be effective in all situations

Contingency Theory Strength

• Provides data on leader styles that can help organizations develop leadership profiles/descriptions and help best place individuals/leaders

Contingency Theory Weaknesses

• Fails to explain “black box mystery” on why task-motivated is better in extremes and relationship-motivated is better in moderately favorable situations

Contingency Theory Weaknesses

• Issues with LPC scale: lack of face validity, not easy to comprehend or complete correctly, lack of clear instructions on picking LPC, involves projection 

Contingency Theory Weaknesses

• Cumbersome to use in real world setting: too many complex variables, too much time and effort to implement, breaks up normal operations

Contingency Theory Weaknesses

• Fails to explain how to solve a mismatch between leader and situation

Path Goal Theory Strengths

• One of the first theories to specify four distinct varieties/tactics of leadership

Path Goal Theory Strengths

• Has useful framework for how leader behaviors impact followers satisfaction and performance

Path Goal Theory Strengths

• Integrates Expectancy Theory: no other theory deals as directly with motivation

Path Goal Theory Strengths

• Provides very practical model which highlights how Leader helps Followers

Path Goal Theory Strengths

• Reminds leaders their role is to help followers on path toward goal

Path Goal Theory Weaknesses

• Complex: includes much, can be confusing

Path Goal Theory Weaknesses

• Fails to explain fully the link between leader behavior and follower motivation 

Leader Member Exchange Theory Strengths

• Only approach to make dyadic relationship the centerpiece of the leadership process 

Leader Member Exchange Theory Strengths

• Strong descriptive theory 

Leader Member Exchange Theory Strengths

• Makes intuitive sense (in-groups and out-groups do exist and we’ve experienced them)

Leader Member Exchange Theory Strengths

• Directs our attention to the importance and impact of communication: high quality exchanges require good communication

Leader Member Exchange Theory Strengths

• Reminds a leader to be fair, treat people equally, to overcome biases

Leader Member Exchange Theory Strengths

• Large body of research substantiating how strong LMX relates to positive organizational outcomes like climate, commitment, empowerment, performance

  • Linked to real-world outcomes and has validation and practical value

Leader Member Exchange Theory Weaknesses

• Vertical Dyad linkage seems to run counter to concepts of fairness: having out-group appears unfair/not just

Leader Member Exchange Theory Weaknesses

• Basic ideas of theory are not fully developed: HOW does leader create high quality LMX’s?

Leader Member Exchange Theory Weaknesses

• Improved theorization on LMX is needed: need further understanding of how low-quality and high-quality exchanges develop; studies have not yet resulted in clear refined definitions, concepts, and propositions for the theory

Leader Member Exchange Theory Weaknesses

• Researchers have not fully explained how the context and its components impact the leader-member exchanges: workplace customs, organizational culture, social networks

Leader Member Exchange Theory Weaknesses

• Questions and issues on the measurement of leader-member exchanges: no empirical studies on using dyadic measures to analyse LMX, results of studies using different exchange scales are not directly comparable

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Widely researched from many perspectives

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• 34% of the articles from a decade in Leadership Quarterly were about it

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Intuitive appeal: consistent with general public’s view of leadership

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Treats leadership as process between leader and follower

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Focuses on needs and growth of followers

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Positively related to follower satisfaction, motivation, and performance

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Morally uplifting: raises followers to a higher plane of standard

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Strong moral dimension sets it apart from other approaches

Transformational Leadership Strengths

• Substantial evidence of its effectiveness in a variety of situations: studies using TL measurement instrument MLQ (Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire) found TL works

Transformational Leadership Weaknesses

• KEY CRITIQUE: “Higher Standard” has potential to be abused: who determines higher standard of morals, who decides what vision is better, what if leader's standard truly isn’t higher

Transformational Leadership Weaknesses

• Lacks conceptual clarity: difficult to define its parameters exactly, substantial overlap between the 4 I’s, dimensions not clearly delineated

Transformational Leadership Weaknesses

• Overlap with other leadership conceptualizations: especially unclear how Transformational and Charismatic Leadership differ

Transformational Leadership Weaknesses

• Validity of measurement instrument (MLQ) has been challenged by some studies: 4 I’s correlated too highly and not clearly distinct

Transformational Leadership Weaknesses

• Too leader-centric: what about role of followers? Suffers from “heroic leadership” bias, overlooks the shared process/reciprocal influence

Transformational Leadership Weaknesses

• Researchers have not been able to show causal link that transformational leaders transform organizations and individuals

Authentic Leadership Strengths 

• Fills expressed need for trustworthy leadership 

Authentic Leadership Strengths 

• Gives guidelines on what leader should do to become/be authentic (offers a map)

Authentic Leadership Strengths 

• Clear moral dimension (like transformational, servant)

Authentic Leadership Strengths 

• Calls on leader to do what’s right and good AND to pursue the common good

Authentic Leadership Strengths 

• Shows authentic values and behaviors can be developed over time

Authentic Leadership Strengths 

• Leaders can progress in areas like self-awareness, transparency, other-orientation

Authentic Leadership Strengths 

• Can be measured with ALQ (Authentic Leadership Questionnaire): a theory based tool that is established and validated; uses 16 items to measure 4 factors of self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing, relational transparency

Authentic Leadership Weaknesses

• Still in formative stages of development: concepts and ideas not fully substantiated, not built on broad empirical/research base, has not been tested for validity

Authentic Leadership Weaknesses

• Moral component is not fully explained: how do morals impact other components, how a leader’s values function to influence the whole process is not fully developed

Authentic Leadership Weaknesses

• Should positive psychological capacities (PPC) be included? Inclusion is not fully/well explained; some say PPC broaden the approach too much and make it hard to measure

Authentic Leadership Weaknesses

• Not clear how authentic approach leads to positive productive organizational outcomes: so new there is little data on outcomes, data is needed for corroboration

Authentic Leadership Weaknesses

• Have some leaders been authentic and true to themselves and yet lead to negative outcomes for others? Some leaders “keep it real” but their reality leads to an unreal reality for others