Leadership

Definition
Leadership is defined as the process of
influencing and motivating others to achieve
organizational goals.
A leader is someone who advances
organizational goals by influencing the
attitudes and actions of others
 Ingredients of leadership
• The ability to use power
• The ability to understand people having
different motivation at different times and in
different situations
• The ability to inspire the followers to do work
more
• The ability to develop an organizational
climate conducive to respond and work.
 Functions of leaders
• Leader develops team work
• Leader is an appropriate counsellor
• Leader is a representative of subordinates
• Leader uses power properly
• Leader uses time well.
 Types/styles of leadership
• Leadership styles based on use of authority
• Leadership styles based on managerial grid
• Leadership styles based on continuum
 Leadership styles based on Authority
• On this category, leadership styles are
classified as
– Autocratic leadership
– Democratic or participative leadership
– Laissez-faire leadership
– Benevolent autocratic leadership
– Supportive leadership
• Autocratic leadership:
– In autocratic leadership, the power of the leader is
derived from the position they hold.
– An autocratic leader accomplishes tasks by
threatening or punishing his subordinates.
– He maintains a highly critical and negative
relations with his subordinates
– An autocratic leader has all the authority and
decision making power. He gives orders and
subordinates are to follow them unquestioningly.
– He does not allow any participation.
– This approach is apparently effective for short run.
But for long run, it is not suitable
• Participative or Democratic leadership
– Participative leaders not only depend on their own
capabilities but also consult their subordinates.
– Subordinates are invited to participate in planning
and decision making.
– Democratic leader decentralizes authority. He
encourages group discussion with the group and
gets ideas and suggestions from employees.
– In democratic leadership, rewards and involvement
are used as primary means of motivation.
 Autocratic vs Democratic leadership
Autocratic Leadership Democratic Leadership
Leader is authoritative, task oriented and Leader is consultative and permissive
restrictive
Communication is one way Communication is two way
Decision making is centralized and quick Decision making is decentralized and slow
decisions can be made process of making decisions
Punishments or threats are used Rewards and involvement are used
Autocratic leadership is efficient under Democratic leadership is efficient in the
short run and emergency conditions long run
Autocratic leadership does not provide Democratic leadership provides job
satisfaction to employees satisfaction and improves morale of the
employees
Work is not carried out without the Work is carried out even without the
presence of boss presence of boss
• Laissez-faire leadership
– Otherwise known as free rein leadership
– Laissez-faire leader gives complete freedom to the
group and he did not provide any leadership. He
assumes the role of just another member of the group
– Laissez-faire leadership can function effectively if the
employees are sincere and devoted to work.
• Benevolent autocratic leadership
– The variation of the autocratic leader is the person who
is benevolent autocrat
– They listen to their subordinates opinion before making
a decision, but the decision is their own
– They may be willing to hear and consider subordinates
ideas and concerns but when a decision is to be made,
they are more autocratic than benevolent.
• Supportive leadership
– The variation of democratic leadership is said to
be supportive leadership.
– In this leadership, leaders may look upon their
task as not only consulting with subordinates but
also supporting subordinates.
 Leadership style based on Blake and
Mouton’s Managerial grid
There are five types in this category.
• Impoverished style
• Country club style
• Produce or perish style
• Middle of the road style
• Team style
• Impoverished leadership style
– At the lower left hand corner of the grid (1,1) is the
impoverished style
– This leader is concerned with neither people not
production
– Managers have minimum involvement in their jobs. They
want to stay out of trouble.
– They simply act as messengers communicating
information from superiors to subordinates.
• Country club leadership style
– At the upper left corner of the grid (1,9) is the country
club style.
– In this style, managers have high concern for people and
low concern for production
– Managers create an environment in which subordinates
feel secure, comfortable and relaxed and no one is
concerned about accomplishing organizational goals.
• Produce or perish style
– At the lower right corner of the grid (9,1) is the produce
or perish style.
– In this style, managers have high concern for production
and low concern for people
– In this leadership, managers do not consider the
employees personal needs. Managers use their
legitimate and coercive power to pressure subordinates
to achieve organizational objectives.
• Middle of the road leadership styles
– At the middle of the grid is the middle of the road style.
– Here managers have medium concern for both people
and production.
– Managers seek balance between employee’s personal
needs and organizational goals
• Team style
– At the upper right corner of the grid (9,9) is the
team style.
– In this leadership style, managers have high
concern for both people and production
– Leadership who use this style try to establish team
work.
 Leadership based on Continuum
– This style ranges from authoritarian behaviour at
one end to democratic behaviour at the other end
– The model developed by Tennebaum and
Schmidt’s as a continuum of leadership style is
illustrated in fig.
 Theories of leadership
• Trait theory of leadership
• Behavioural theory of leadership
• Situational or contingency theory of
leadership
• Trait theory of leadership
– Traits refer to personal characteristics of a leader
such as intelligence, values and appearance
– The researchers hold the view that many traits are
in born which are inherited and some traits are
result of skills and knowledge
– This theory focused on successful and great
leaders. The success of the theory was
undoubtedly due to their personal traits
– Trait theory also suggested that the presence or
absence of certain personal traits distinguish
leaders from non leaders.
• Researchers on trait theory have identified some specific traits.
They are
– Physical traits: activity, energy, appearance and height
– Intelligence and ability traits: judgement, knowledge, intelligence
and ability
– Personality traits: self confidence, self control, enthusiasm, self
monitoring, creativity, innovative, genuineness and originality
– Work related characteristics: achievement drive, task orientation,
drive for responsibilities and initiative
– Social characteristics: supervisory ability, cooperativeness, tactics,
popularity, prestige.
• Weakness of trait theory
– It does not classify the most important traits and least important
traits
– It does not mention the particular traits that separate leaders from
non leaders
– There is no direct relationship between personal traits and success
of leader
– The same traits cannot be applied to every situation.
Behavioral theories of leadership/style
theories of leadership
Researches in behavioural theories showed
interest in the behaviour of leaders at work
rather than their personal traits.
• Leadership based on the use of authority
• Managerial grid
• Michigan studies
• Ohio state university studies
• Harvard university studies
• Michigan studies
– Studies at Michigan university analysed the
behaviour of effective and ineffective managers.
– The difference is that the managers in charge of
high producing groups are employee centered
while managers in charge of low producing groups
are job centered.
– The employee centered leaders give more
attention to the welfare of the employees and the
job centered managers are less concerned with
the goal achievement and give more importance
to task needs than employee’s needs.
• Ohio state university studies
– Research on Ohio state university conducted
studies on leadership behaviour and identified
two major behaviors consideration and initiating
structure
– Consideration
• Leaders show care towards workers
• Leader is employee centered
• Leader considers employee’s feelings
• Leaders are friendly ad establish mutual trust.
– Initiating structure
• Leaders take steps to make sure whether work is done
or not
• Leader is job oriented
• Leader assigns work and set goals.
• A leader may have any of the following four
styles
– Low consideration-low initiating structure
– Low consideration-high initiating structure
– High consideration-low initiating structure
– High consideration-high initiating structure
• The ohio research found that the high
consideration-high initiating structure style
achieved better performance and greater
satisfaction than the other styles.
• Harvard university studies
– Harvard university identified two kinds of leaders
• Task leaders
• Socio economic leaders
– Task leader shows concern for structuring of work
and socio economic leader shows concern for
employees.
– The two types of leaders mentioned in harvard
studies are similar to the types defined by Ohio
studies i.e., initiating structure and consideration.
But unlike Ohio studies, the harvard researchers
suggested that the two leaders are mutually
exclusive.
• Situational or contingency theory of
leadership
– The theories on specific situations are called
contingency or situational theories. Its types are
• Fiedler’s contingency model
• Path-goal theory
• Hercy ad Blanchard’s situational theory
• Fiedler’s contingency model
– Fiedlers model shows that effective leadership is
contingent on both the characteristics of the
leader and the situation.
• Relationship oriented leader-He is concerned
with developing good relationships with
workers
• Task oriented leader- he is concerned about
workers performance to get the job done.
• Leader-member relations
– Determines how much workers like and trust their leader
– It is the member’s attitude towards acceptance of the
leader
• Task structure
– It is the extent to which worker’s task is clear cut
– Clear issues make a situation favourable for leadership
– Creative and ill defined tasks such as research and
development have a low degree of task structure whereas
routine and well defined tasks have high degree of task
structure
• Position power
– It represents the amount of legitimate, reward and
coercive power, a leader has due to his position
– When position power is strong, leadership becomes more
favourable and position power is low, leadership becomes
unfavourable.
• Path-goal theory
– This theory stresses that the leader establishes clear path
through which the subordinates can achieve both
personal and work related goals.
– The path goal approach provides four types of leadership
behaviour. They are
• Directive leader
– When task is very clear a high level of directive leadership is not
required. When the task is complex, directive leadership is necessary.
• Achievement oriented leader
– Leader sets challenging goals and believes in worker’s abilities
– This leadership is suitable when subordinates have non repetitive
assignments
• Supportive leader
– Leader looks out for subordinate’s best interest
– Leader is friendly and approachable
• Participative leader
– Leader encourages subordinates participation in decision making
 • Hersey and Blanchard’s theory
– Hersey and blanchard’s theory focuses an
attention on the characteristics of employees in
determining the leadership behaviour.
•Telling style (S1)
✓Low readiness of subordinates
✓People are unable and unwilling to take
responsibility
•Selling style (S2)
✓Moderate readiness of subordinates
✓Delegating is appropriate for employees
•Participative style (S3)
✓Moderate readiness of employees
✓Leader shares ideas with subordinates
✓Subordinates take part in decision making
•Delegating style (S4)
✓High readiness of employees
✓Delegation of employee is more