LEADERSHIP

Definition: the process of inspiring, influencing and guiding others to participate in a common effort. It is
the ability of management to induce subordinates to work towards common group objectives with
confidence and keenness (willingly).

Leadership implies that a leader accepts responsibility for the group objective and this is essential for
trust and cooperation.

POWER the ability to marshal the human, informational and material resources to get things done. It
must be used in organizations because managers must influence those they depend on and also help to
mangers to develop confidence and willingness to support subordinates.

Power affects organisational members in the following three areas

1. Decisions
2. Behaviour
3. Situations

INFLUENCE is the ability to affect ones behaviour, or the effect one has on the way a person thinks of
behaves, works or develops.

Formal leaders Vs Informal Leaders

Formal leadership is the process of influencing other to pursue official organisational objectives. Formal
leaders measure their legitimate power from the formal authority

Informal leadership on the other hand is the process of influencing others to pursue unofficial objectives
that may not serve the interests of the organisation. Informal leaders typically lack formal authority
from the organisation.

A formal leader is a leader who identifies with the job to be done in the organisation and is a valuable
asset to the organisation.

Despite the lack of formal legitimate authority the informal leader is a significant figure that should be
taken seriously by the organisation. An informal leader is capable of bringing the whole organisation to
its knees in cases of very cohesive work groups.

TYPES OF LEADERS

There are 6 common types of leaders

1. Charismatic Leader: this is a leader who gains influence mainly from the strength of
personality/trait. Eg a football captain, Nelson Mandela, Hitler etc. the problem with this type of
leadership is that very few people can aspire for such leadership as few people posses such

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 exceptional qualities. Personal traits or qualities of leadership cannot be acquired by training
they are inherent and can only be modified.
2. Traditional Leader: t this is a leader who gains his or her influence from customs and traditions.
The position is assured by birth. E.g. Chief Mpezeni, litunga, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth etc.
only a few can aspire for this kind of leadership as one can only become one by being both in
the line of royalty
3. Situational Leader: this is a leader whose influence can only be effective by being in the right
place at the right time. This leadership is of a temporal value to the organisation.
4. Appointed Leader: this is a leader who gains influence directly from his or her position in the
organisational hierarchy. This is a bureaucratic type of leadership where legitimate power
springs from the position within the hierarchy. The problem is that although the powers of the
position may be defined the job –holder may not be able to implement them because of weak
personality, lack of training or other factors.
5. Functional Leader: this is a leader who secures the leadership position by what s/he does rather
than what they are. They have to adopt their behaviour to meet the competing needs of a
particular situation.
6. Principle Centred Leader: this leader is influenced by moral and ethical principles involving
considerations of equity, justice, integrity, honesty, fairness and trust.

LEADERSHIP STYLES (APPROACHES)

a. Autocratic/Authoritarian Leadership
 The leader retains all authority
 He assigns clearly defined roles/tasks to subordinates
 The is primarily a downward flow of communication
The primary advantage is that it stresses prompt orderly and predictable results
It major disadvantage / weakness is that the approach tends to stifle individual initiative.
b. Democratic/participative /supportive Leadership
 Her the leader delegates a great deal of authority but returns all responsibility
 Work is divided and assigned on the basis of participatory decision making.\
 Active two way flow of downward and upward Communication
Primary strength – it enhances the personal commitment
Primary Weakness- it is time consuming and expensive.
c. Laissez-faire/ Free-Rein Leadership
 Here the leader grants responsibility and authority to the group members
 Group members are told to work things out themselves and do the best they can
 Primarily communication is horizontal among peers’

The advantage is that self-starters are to do things as they see fit (at their own pace) without the
leader’s interference

The main drawback is that group members may drift aimlessly away from intended objectives in
the absence of the leader.
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LEADERSHIP

There are many definitions of leadership, one of which is that: Leadership is the process of inspiring,
influencing and guiding others to participate in a common effort. To encourage participation, leaders
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supplement any authority with their personal attribute, vision and social skills. A leader is someone who
able to inspire, influence and guide others to achieve a common goal.

Leadership can be divided into two, formal and informal leadership. Formal leadership is the process of
influencing others to pursue official objectives, while informal leadership is the process of influencing
others to pursue unofficial objectives that may or may not serve the organization’s interests. Formal
leaders have formal authority, unlike informal leaders.

There are theories that have evolved such as the following: Trait, Behavioral styles, situational and
Transformational approaches.

TRAIT THEORY

The assumption in trait theory is that leaders are born and not made. One psychologist observed that
leadership traits are not completely inborn, but can also be acquired through learning and experience.
Research shows that good leaders usually displayed traits such as intelligence, energy, persistence,
ambitious, dependable, cooperative, tolerant to stress, self-confident, adaptable to situation, decisive,
assertive, creative, organized, persuasive willing to assume responsibility.

BEHAVIOURAL STYLES THEORY

This theory concentrated on the behavior of the leader rather than the characteristics of successful
leaders. There are three classic leadership styles that were identified in one laboratory study. The three
are democratic/participative, authoritarian/autocratic and laissez-faire/free reign styles.

Behavioural theories attempt to identify behaviours that differentiate effective from ineffective leaders.
One key question is; do leaders tend to be more democratic than autocratic? Under this theory, once
behaviour for good leaders is found, people can be trained to be leaders.

Ohio State Studies and the Michigan University, which led to the development of what is called
the managerial grid, have carried out a number of studies.

The Ohio State Studies focused on two dimensions namely initiating structure and
consideration. The initiating structure is the extent to which a leader defines and structures his
or her role and those of subordinates to attain goals. The dimension of consideration is the
extent to which a person has job relationships characterised by mutual trust, respect for
subordinate's ideas and regard for their feelings.

A leader who is high on initiating structure and consideration (thus the high-high leader
achieved high subordinates performance and satisfaction more frequently than one who rated
low on either considerations or initiating structure or both.

The University of Michigan Studies main objective was to locate behavioural characteristics of
leaders that were related to performance effectiveness. Two dimensions of leadership
behaviour were labelled employee oriented and production oriented. Employee oriented

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 leaders were described as emphasising interpersonal relationship; they took a personal interest
in the needs of their subordinates and accepted individual differences among members.

Managerial Grid

Blake and Mouton based the managerial grid on a two-dimensional view of leadership style as
developed. It is based on "concern for people" and "concern for production"

(1, 9)People oriented team leader (9, 9)

Concern for
people

Middle of the road (5, 5)

(1, 1) Impoverished task oriented (9,1)

Concern for production

Using this matrix, Blake and Mouton identified five key positions on the managerial grid are as
follows:

Grid 1,1Impoverished: this is where the leader exerts a minimum effort to accomplish the work;

Grid 9,1Task. The leader concentrates on task efficiency but shows little concern for the
development and morale of subordinates;

Grid 1,9Country Club. The leader focuses on being supportive and considerate of subordinates
to the exclusion of concern for task efficiency;

Grid 5,5Middle of the road. The leader maintains adequate task efficiency and satisfactory
morale;

Grid 9,9Team. The leader facilitates task efficiency and high morale for coordinating and
integrating work-related activities.

Following the studies, Blake and Mouton concluded that managers perform best when using
Grid 9, 9 style. The approach did not answer the question of what makes a good leader but
merely a framework concept for leadership style.

iii) Contingency theories

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In the study of leadership, it became very clear that predicting leadership success involved
something more complex than isolating a few traits or preferable behaviours. The failure to
obtain consistent results led to a new focus on situational influences. The relationship between
leadership style and effectiveness suggested that under condition a, style x would be
appropriate, whereas style y, would be more suitable for condition b, and style z for condition c.

Various studies in contingency theory were undertaken. The foremost proponent of the theory
was Fred Fiedler.

a) Fiedler’s Contingency Model

The Fiedler Contingency model assumed that effective groups depend on a proper match
between a leader's style of interacting with subordinates and the degree to which the situation
gives control and influence to the leader. Fiedler developed the least-preferred co-worker (LPC)
questionnaire, which purports to measure whether a person is task or relationship oriented. He
isolated three situational criteria namely leader-member relations, task structure and position
power. He believed that these criteria could be manipulated to create the proper match with
the behavioural orientation of the leader.

Leader-member relations: The degree of confidence, trust and respect subordinates have in
their leader.

Task Structure: The degree to which the job assignments are proceedurised or structured or
unstructured.

Position Power: The degree of influence a leader has over power variables such as hiring, .firing,
discipline, promotions and salary increases.

b) House’s Path-Goal Theory

House focused on what leaders can do to motivate their subordinates to achieve group and
organizational goals. The premise of path goal theory is that effective leaders motivate
subordinates to achieve goals by (1) clearly identifying the outcomes that subordinates are
trying to obtain from the workplace, (2) rewarding subordinates with these outcomes for
high performance and attainment of work goals and (3) clarifying for subordinates the paths
leading to attainment of work goals. The theory is a contingency model because it proposes
that steps managers should take to motivate subordinates depend on both the nature of
subordinates and the type of work they do. Based on the expectancy theory of motivation
the path goal theory provides mangers with three guidelines to follow to be effective
leaders.

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a. Find out what outcomes your subordinates are trying to obtain from their job and the
organisation

b. Reward subordinates for high performance and goal attainment with the outcomes they
deserve.

c. Clarify the paths to goal attainment for subordinate, remove any obstacles to high
performance and express confidence in subordinate’s capabilities

The Path-Goal identifies four kinds of leadership behaviours that can motivate subordinate;

 Directive behaviour

 Supportive behaviour

 Participative behaviour

 Achievement- oriented behaviour