Leadership Concepts in MGMT 3070

Leadership Overview

  • Leadership: The act of influencing others toward a goal.
    • Formal leaders: Hold a position of authority; utilize positional and personal power to influence.
    • Informal leaders: No formal authority; influence others through personal power.

Leader Behaviors

  • Two broad categories:
    1. Task-oriented behaviors (initiating structure):
    • Directives to achieve goals and ensure productivity.
    • Leads to higher productivity.
    1. People-oriented behaviors (consideration):
    • Concern for employee feelings and respect.
    • Results in higher employee satisfaction.
  • Both behaviors are beneficial but serve different purposes in organization effectiveness.

Leader Decision Making Styles

  • Autocratic decision making: Leaders make decisions alone, with minimal employee involvement.
  • Democratic decision making: Employees participate in the decision-making process.
  • Laissez-faire decision making: Employees independently make decisions.

Situational Leadership

  • Based on Blanchard and Hersey’s model, leaders select one of four styles based on:
    • Competence: Skill level of followers.
    • Commitment: Motivation and confidence level.
  • Leadership styles:
    1. Directing:
    • Low competence, low commitment.
    1. Coaching:
    • Low competence, high commitment.
    1. Supporting:
    • Moderate competence, variable commitment.
    1. Delegating:
    • High competence, high commitment.

Transformational Leadership

  • Characteristics include:
    • Charisma: Builds confidence and admiration.
    • Inspirational motivation: Develops an inspiring vision for followers.
    • Intellectual stimulation: Challenges norms and encourages creativity.
    • Individualized consideration: Shows personal care for followers’ well-being.

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)

  • High-quality LMX relationships: Trust-based connections enhancing collaboration and morale.
  • Low-quality LMX relationships: Reduced trust and respect; may hinder team performance.

Servant Leadership

  • Focus on serving others' needs and helping employees reach their goals.
  • Characteristics of servant leaders:
    • Prioritize employees’ needs.
    • Empower and support personal and professional development.

Authentic Leadership

  • Emphasizes being true to personal values rather than conforming to expectations.
  • Traits of authentic leaders:
    • Self-awareness: Understanding personal values and experiences.
    • Introspection: Reflective thinking about one’s behavior and values.

Abusive Leadership

  • Defined by sustained hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors towards employees.
  • Examples of abusive behaviors:
    • Silent treatment, reminding of past mistakes, or breaking promises.
  • Can create a toxic workplace culture.

Women and Leadership

  • Statistics:
    • Women: Over 50% of the US population, earn ~60% of college degrees, represent 47% of the workforce, but hold only 5% of Fortune 1,000 CEO positions.
  • Leadership styles:
    • Tend towards democratic rather than autocratic.
    • Exhibit higher transformational leadership styles.
    • Less effective in traditionally masculine roles due to stereotypes.

Leadership Around the Globe

  • Leadership characteristics vary by culture.
  • Universal traits for effective leaders include:
    • Honesty, decisiveness, trustworthiness, fairness.
  • Undesirable traits: Irritability, egocentrism, isolationism.
  • Competencies for global effectiveness:
    • Extraversion, low neuroticism, high openness, tolerance for ambiguity, low ethnocentrism.