Leadership Chapter 14 Quiz

Study Notes

Learning Objectives include: explaining leadership effectiveness, power sources, leadership traits, limitations of trait and behavioral models, contingency models, transformational leadership, gender and leadership, and emotional intelligence.

Leadership is the process where a person influences others to achieve group or organizational goals, inspiring, motivating and directing their activities.
Leaders are individuals capable of influencing others to achieve group or organizational goals.
Effective leadership enables organizations to meet challenges like competitive advantage, ethical behavior, and workforce diversity management.

Managers establish and implement procedures to maintain smooth organizational functioning.
Leaders envision the future and set the course for the organization.
Leaders may delegate and support employees, while some may be authoritarian.
The challenge is for all managers to develop effective personal management styles.

Legitimate power: Authority derived from a manager's position within the organizational hierarchy; allows hiring and firing.
Reward power: Ability to grant or withhold tangible/intangible rewards (e.g., pay raises, bonuses, verbal praise). Effective managers use this to show appreciation; ineffective managers use it to control.
Coercive power: Ability to punish others (e.g., verbal reprimands, pay cuts, dismissal). Overuse can create negative working conditions; ineffective managers commonly rely on this.
Expert power: Power based on special knowledge, skills and expertise. Varies based on the leader's position; first-level and middle managers often have technical expertise relevant to employee tasks.
Referent power: Power stemming from employees' respect, admiration, and loyalty towards the manager. Managers can increase this by getting to know their employees and showing interest.

Trait model: Focused on identifying personal characteristics that produce effective leadership (e.g., skills, abilities, knowledge, expertise).
Behavioral model: Identifies two basic behaviors - consideration and initiating structure.
Consideration: indicating trust, respect, and care for employees, focused on employee well-being.
Initiating structure: Ensuring work gets done efficiently. Examples include assigning tasks, setting expectations, decision-making and motivating employees.

Situational approaches advocate that leaders' behavior should consider their own style, employee behavior, and situation. Leadership effectiveness depends on different leadership contexts like those of the University of Michigan, Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid, and Hersey and Blanchard leadership styles.
Situational Leadership Model: Leader must assess followers' maturity level and adopt leadership styles (telling, selling, participating, and delegating) that suit their readiness. Readiness is determined by a person's job/psychological readiness.

Contingency models posit that leadership effectiveness depends on the interaction between the manager's qualities, actions, and the situation.

Empowerment involves giving authority to all levels of employees to make decisions, take responsibility for their outcomes, improve quality and cut costs.
Empowerment increases a manager's ability to get things done, improves worker engagement and motivation

Although there are more women in management today than 10 years prior, there are still relatively few in top management positions.
Stereotypes often portray women as supportive and men as task-focused; research suggests that there's no significant gender difference in leadership effectiveness, although women do sometimes have to work harder to be seen as effective leaders..
Males and females may have different leadership styles, but are equally effective in organizational settings. Women tend to be more participative, involving subordinates more, while men tend to be less participative/make more independent decisions and be potentially harsh when punishing.
Research provides additional reasons for women may be more participative, including overcoming resistance and possessing stronger interpersonal skills.