Leadership Chapter 3 - Skills Approach Northouse, 5th Edition Overview Quiz

Focus of Skills Approach

• The skills approach focuses on describing leadership from a skills perspective, providing a structure for understanding the nature of effective leadership.
• This approach emphasizes the importance of particular leadership skills, which vary depending on the leader's position in the management hierarchy.

Principal Research Perspectives

• Katz (1955) suggests that the importance of particular leadership skills changes depending on the leader's position in the management hierarchy.
• Mumford et al. (2000) propose that leadership outcomes are a direct result of a leader's skilled competency in problem-solving, social judgment, and knowledge.

Strengths

• The skills approach is the first to conceptualize and create a structure of the process of leadership around skills.
• It describes leadership in terms of skills, making it accessible to everyone.
• The approach provides an expansive view of leadership that incorporates a wide variety of components.
• It provides a structure consistent with leadership education programs.

Criticisms

• The skills approach is too broad and lacks precision.
• It is weak in predictive value, failing to explain how skills lead to effective leadership performance.
• The skills model includes individual attributes that are trait-like.

Application

• The skills approach provides a way to delineate the skills of a leader.
• It is applicable to leaders at all levels within an organization.
• The skills inventory can provide insights into an individual's leadership competencies.
• Test scores allow leaders to learn about areas in which they may wish to seek further training.

Three-Skill Approach (Katz, 1955)

• Technical skill: having knowledge about and being proficient in a specific type of work or activity.
• Human skill: having knowledge about and being able to work with people.
• Conceptual skill: the ability to do the mental work of shaping meaning of organizational policy or issues.

Basic Administrative Skills

• Technical skills are most important at lower levels of management.
• Human skills are important at all levels of management.
• Conceptual skills are most important at top management levels.

Skills-Based Model (Mumford, et al., 2000)

• The skills model perspective emphasizes the capabilities that make effective leadership possible.
• The model examines the relationship between a leader's knowledge and skills and the leader's performance.

Skills Model Components

• Competencies: problem-solving, social judgment, and knowledge.
• Individual attributes: general cognitive ability, crystallized cognitive ability, motivation, and personality.
• Leadership outcomes: problem-solving criteria, performance, and social performance.
• Career experiences: challenging assignments, mentoring, appropriate training, and hands-on experience with novelty.
• Environmental influences: factors outside of the leader's control, such as outdated technology and subordinates' skill levels.