Leadership: A Detailed Overview PDF

# Chapter 11: Leadership - **Leadership:** - As a process, the use of non-coercive influence to shape the groups' or organization's goals, motivate behavior toward the achievement of those goals, and help define group or organizational culture. - As a property, the set of characteristics attri...

# Chapter 11: Leadership - **Leadership:** - As a process, the use of non-coercive influence to shape the groups' or organization's goals, motivate behavior toward the achievement of those goals, and help define group or organizational culture. - As a property, the set of characteristics attributed to individuals who are perceived to be leaders. - **Leaders:** People who can influence the behaviors of others without having to rely on force; those accepted by others as leaders. - **Management and Leadership:** Are not necessarily the same thing. The manager on the left is reviewing financial documents in order to make a decision. These activities are a part of management but not leadership. However, the manager on the right is engaging in leadership as she is working to motivate her team to meet their new performance expectations. # Power: - The ability to affect the behavior of others. - **Legitimate power:** Power granted through the organizational hierarchy; the power defined by the organization to be accorded to people occupying a particular position. - **Reward power:** The power to give or withhold rewards such as salary increases, bonuses, promotions, praise, recognition, and interesting job assignments. - **Coercive power:** The power to force compliance by means of psychological, emotional, or physical threat. - **Referent power:** The personal power that accrues to someone based on identification, imitation, loyalty, or charisma. - **Expert power:** The personal power that accrues to someone based on the information or expertise that he or she possesses. # Path-Goal Theory: - A theory of leadership suggesting that the primary functions of a leader are to make valued or desired rewards available in the workplace. - Clarify for the subordinate the kinds of behavior that will lead to those rewards. - Identifies four kinds of leader behavior: - **Directive:** Letting subordinates know what is expected of them, giving guidance and direction, and scheduling work. - **Supportive:** Being friendly and approachable, having concern for subordinate welfare, and treating subordinates as equals. - **Participative:** Consulting with subordinates, soliciting suggestions, and allowing participation in decision making. - **Achievement-oriented:** Setting challenging goals, expecting subordinates to perform at high levels, encouraging and showing confidence in subordinates. ## Favorableness of Situation/Leadership Style: - **Fielder's situational model suggests that a leader's effectiveness depends on the favorableness of the situation, determined by leader-member relations, task structure, and position power.** - **Good leader-member relations (mutual trust and respect), high task structure (clear and routine tasks), and strong position power (control over rewards and assignments) create the most favorable conditions for leadership.** - **Conversely, poor relations, unstructured tasks, and weak power make situations least favorable.** - **Different combinations of these factors result in varying levels of situational favorableness, affecting the leader's ability to achieve group effectiveness.** ## Flexibility of Leader Style: - **Fiedler's contingency theory posits that leadership style is fixed and linked to personality traits, suggesting that situations should be adapted to fit the leader's style.** - **For instance, a relationship-oriented leader is effective in contexts with good leader-member relations, low task structure, and weak position power.** - **While criticized for its rigidity, validity concerns, and alternative interpretations, the theory was pivotal in introducing a situational approach to leadership.** - **Later revisions incorporated elements like cognitive resources to address critiques and expand its applicability.** # Substitutes for Leadership: - A concept that identifies situations in which leader behaviors are neutralized or replaced by characteristics of the subordinate, the task, and the organization. - **Subordinate:** Ability, experience, need for independence, professional orientation, indifference toward organizational goals. - **Task:** Routineness, availability of feedback, intrinsic satisfaction. - **Organization:** Formalization, group cohesion, inflexibility, rigid reward structure # Charismatic Leadership: - Assumes that charisma is an individual characteristic of the leader. - **Examples:** Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln. - **Charisma:** A form of interpersonal attraction that inspires support and acceptance. - **Charismatic leaders must be able to:** - Envision the future. - Set high expectations. - Model behaviors consistent with those expectations. - Energize others through a demonstration of excitement, personal confidence, and patterns of success. - Enable others by supporting them, by empathizing with them, and by expressing confidence in them. # Transformational Leadership: - Leadership that goes beyond ordinary expectations by transmitting a sense of mission, stimulating learning experiences, and inspiring new ways of thinking. - **Examples:** Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Gandhi. - **Considered vital to the success of business.** # Strategic Leadership: - The capability to understand the complexities of both the organization and its environment, and to lead change in the organization to achieve and maintain a superior alignment between the organization and its environment. # Cross-Cultural Leadership: - The capability to provide purpose and direction that encompasses both international and diversity-based cultural differences in the organization. # Ethical Leadership: - Involves providing a strong corporate governance model to the organization that reflects the high ethical standards of its leaders. - Requires holding those who lead the organization accountable for their actions and the consequences of their actions. # Political Behavior: - The activities carried out for the specific purpose of acquiring, developing, and using power and other resources to obtain one's preferred outcomes. - **Inducement:** Managers offer to give something to someone in return for support. - **Persuasion:** Relies on both emotion and logic. - **Political:** Relies on the creation of an obligation. - **Coercion:** Use of force to get one's way; may threaten to withhold support, rewards, or other resources # Impression Management: - A direct and intentional effort by someone to enhance his or her image in the eyes of others. # Managing Political Behavior: - **Know that even if actions are not politically motivated, others may assume that they are.** - **Stop subordinates from engaging in political behavior by providing them with autonomy, responsibility, challenges, and feedback.** - **Avoid using power to avoid charges of political motivation.** - **Get disagreements and conflicts out in the open so that subordinates have less opportunity to engage in political behavior.** - **Avoid covert behaviors that give the impression of political intent even if none exists.** # Chapter 12: Communication in Organizations - **Communication:** The process of transmitting information from one person to another. - **Effective communication:** The process of sending a message in such a way that the message received is as close in meaning as possible to the message intended. - **Based on the ideas of meaning and consistency of meaning.** ## Steps in the Communication Process: - **Deciding to transmit a fact, idea, opinion, or other information to the receiver.** - **Encoding the meaning into a form appropriate to the situation.** - **Transmitting through the appropriate channel or medium.** - **Decoding the message back into a form that has meaning to the receiver.** - **Noise is anything disrupting the communication process.** # Oral Communication: - **Face-to-face conversation, group discussions, telephone calls, and other circumstances in which the spoken word is used to transmit meaning.** # Nonverbal Communication: - **Any communication exchange that does not use words or uses words to carry more meaning than the strict definition of the words themselves.** ## Advantages of Oral Communication: - **Promotes prompt feedback and interchange in the form of verbal questions and responses.** - **Is easy to use and can be done with little preparation.** ## Disadvantages of Oral Communication: - **Suffers from problems with inaccuracy in meaning and details.** - **Leaves no time for thought and consideration, and no permanent record of what was said.** # Nonverbal Communication: - Three types practiced by managers: - **Image:** Words or phrases people elect to use. - **Settings:** Boundaries, familiarity, the home turf. - **Body language:** Distance, eye contact, body and hand movement, pauses in speech, mode of dress. # Written Communication: - **Memos, letters, reports, notes, email, and other circumstances in which the written word is used to transmit meaning.** ## Advantages of Written Communication: - **Is accurate and creates a permanent record of the exchange.** - **Leaves time for thought and consideration; can be referenced.** - **Is easy to use and can be done with little preparation.** ## Disadvantages of Written Communication: - **Inhibits feedback and interchange due to the burden of the process of preparing a physical document.** - **Referred to as message "leanness."** - **Considerable delay can occur in clarifying message meanings.** - **Lag time between sending and response.** - **Can result in inaccurate interpretation of original meaning.** - **Difficult and time-consuming.** ## Choosing the Right Form: - The situation determines the most appropriate medium: - **Oral communication, email or text may be preferred for personal, brief, nonroutine, or high-priority communications.** - **Formal written communications (e.g., memos, letters, reports, and notes) are used for messages that are impersonal, routine, and of lower priority.** - **Managers should capitalize on the advantages of each.** - **Phone call or text for immediate response.** - **Follow up in writing.** # Communication Network: - The pattern through which the members of a group communicate. - **Research suggests:** - **For simple and routine tasks, centralized networks perform with the greatest efficiency and accuracy.** - **For complex and nonroutine tasks, decentralized networks with open communication are most effective.** # Vertical Communication: - **Communication that flows up and down the organization; usually along formal reporting lines; takes place between managers and their superiors and subordinates and may involve several different levels of the organization.** - **Upward communication:** Consists of messages from subordinates to superiors; is more subject to distortion. - **Downward communication:** Occurs when information flows down the hierarchy from superiors to subordinates. # Horizontal Communication: - **Communication that flows laterally within the organization; involves colleagues and peers at the same level of the organization and may involve individuals from several different organizational units.** - **Facilitates coordination among independent units.** - **Useful in joint problem solving.** - **Plays a major role in communication among members of work teams drawn from different departments.** # Personal Electronic Technology: - Has created opportunities for quickly disseminating information and contacting others in the organization (email, texting, teleconferences from personal computers and smartphones). - **Has also created opportunities for dysfunctional employee behaviors.** ## Advantages of Personal Electronic Technology: - **Allows people to work at home and transmit their work electronically to the company.** ## Disadvantages of Personal Electronic Technology: - **The lack of face-to-face contact.** - **Loss of strong personal relationships.** - **Falling behind professionally.** - **Losing out in organizational politics.** # Managing Organizational Communication: ## Barriers to Communication: - **Individual barriers:** - Conflicting or inconsistent signals. - Credibility about the subject. - Reluctance to communicate. - Poor listening skills. - Predisposition about the subject. - **Organizational barriers:** - Semantics. - Status or power differences. - Different perceptions. - Noise. - Overload. - Language differences. ## Individual Skills: - **Develop good listening skills:** Considered to be the single most important individual skill for improving communication effectiveness. - **Encourage two-way communication:** Ask questions, allow for feedback. - **Be aware of language and meaning:** Meaning varies based on context and sender. - **Maintain credibility:** Avoid pretending to be an expert; be as accurate and honest as possible. - **Be sensitive to the receiver's perspective:** News might be unwelcome, a surprise, or upsetting. - **Be sensitive to sender's perspective:** Information might be difficult for sender to share; avoid taking out anger and frustration on the sender. ## Organizational Skills: - **Follow up:** Check in later to ensure the message was received and understood. - **Regulate information flows:** Take steps to ensure overload does not occur. Avoid passing too much information through the system at one time. - **Understand the richness of media:** Face-to-face allows for questions and responses. - **Objective and precise messages should be in writing.**