CHAPTER 8
LEADING
Lecturer: Dr. Ong Quoc Cuong
Learning Outline
Who Are Leaders and What Is Leadership
• Define leaders and leadership.
• Explain why managers should be leaders.
Early Leadership Theories
• Discuss what research has shown about leadership
traits.
• Contrast the findings of the four behavioral
leadership theories.
Learning Outline
Contingency Theories of Leadership
• Explain how Fiedler’s theory of leadership is a contingency
model.
• Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory
• Discuss how path-goal theory explains leadership.
Contemporary Views on Leadership
• Differentiate between transactional and transformational
leaders.
• Describe charismatic and visionary leadership.
• Discuss what team leadership involves.
Leaders and Leadership
• Leader – Someone who can influence others and who has
managerial authority
• Leadership – What leaders do; the process of influencing a group to
achieve goals
• Ideally, all managers should be leaders
• Although groups may have informal leaders who emerge, those are
not the leaders we’re studying
Leadership research has tried to answer: What is an effective leader?
Early Leadership Theories
• Trait Theories (1920s-30s)
– Research focused on identifying personal characteristics
that differentiated leaders from nonleaders was
unsuccessful.
– Later research on the leadership process identified seven
traits associated with successful leadership:
• Drive, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-
confidence, intelligence, job-relevant knowledge, and
extraversion.
Exhibit 8–1 Seven Traits Associated with Leadership
Early Leadership Theories (cont’d)
• Behavioral Theories: Leadership theories that identify
behaviors that differentiated effective leaders from
ineffective leaders.
– University of Iowa Studies (Kurt Lewin)
– Ohio State Studies
– University of Michigan Studies
– Managerial Grid
Early Leadership Theories (cont’d)
• Behavioral Theories
– University of Iowa Studies (Kurt Lewin)
• Identified three leadership styles:
– Autocratic style: centralizing authority, dictating work methods,
making unilateral decisions, and limiting employee participation
– Democratic style: involving employees in decision making,
delegating authority, encouraging participation in deciding work
methods and goals, and using feedback as an opportunity for
coaching employees.
– Laissez-faire style: giving the group complete freedom to make
decisions and complete the work in whatever way it saw fit.
Early Leadership Theories (cont’d)
• Behavioral Theories
– University of Iowa Studies (Kurt Lewin)
• Research findings: mixed results
– No specific style was consistently better for
producing better performance
– Employees were more satisfied under a
democratic leader than an autocratic leader.
Early Leadership Theories (cont’d)
• Behavioral Theories (cont’d)
– Ohio State Studies
• Identified two dimensions of leader behavior
– Initiating structure: the role of the leader in defining his or her
role and the roles of group members
– Consideration: the leader’s mutual trust and respect for group
members’ ideas and feelings.
• Research findings: mixed results
– High-high leaders generally, but not always, achieved high group
task performance and satisfaction.
– Evidence indicated that situational factors appeared to strongly
influence leadership effectiveness.
Early Leadership Theories (cont’d)
• Behavioral Theories (cont’d)
– University of Michigan Studies
• Identified two dimensions of leader behavior
– Employee oriented: emphasizing interpersonal
relationships and taking care of employees’ needs.
– Production oriented: emphasizing task aspects of job.
• Research findings:
– Leaders who are employee oriented are strongly
associated with high group productivity and high job
satisfaction.
Behavioral Theories (cont’d)
• Managerial Grid
– Appraises leadership styles using two dimensions:
• Concern for people
• Concern for production
– Places managerial styles in five categories:
• Impoverished management (1,1)
• Task management (9,1)
• Middle-of-the-road management (5,5)
• Country club management (1,9)
• Team management (9,9)
Exhibit 8–2 The Managerial Grid
Exhibit 8–3 Behavioral Theories of Leadership
Exhibit 8–3 Behavioral Theories of Leadership
Contingency Theories of Leadership
• The Fiedler Model
• Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational
Leadership Theory (SLT)
• Path-Goal Model
Contingency Theories of Leadership
• The Fiedler Model
– Proposes that effective group performance depends upon the
proper match between the leader’s style of interacting with
followers and the degree to which the situation allows the
leader to control and influence.
– Assumptions:
• A certain leadership style should be most effective in
different types of situations.
• Leaders do not readily change leadership styles.
– Matching the leader to the situation or changing the
situation to make it favorable to the leader is required.
Contingency Theories (cont’d)
• The Fiedler Model (cont’d)
– Least-preferred co-worker (LPC) questionnaire
• Determines leadership style by measuring responses to 18
pairs of contrasting adjectives.
– High score: a relationship-oriented leadership style
– Low score: a task-oriented leadership style
– Situational factors in matching leader to the situation:
• Leader-member relations
• Task structure
• Position power
Contingency Theories (cont’d)
• Leader-member relations: the degree of confidence, trust,
and respect employees had for their leader, rated as either
good or poor.
• Task structure: the degree to which job assignments were
formalized and procedurized; rated as either high or low.
• Position power: the degree of influence as a leader had over
power-based activities such as hiring, firing, discipline,
promotions, and salary increase; rated as either strong oor
weak.
Exhibit 8–4 Findings of the Fiedler Model
Contingency Theories… (cont’d)
• Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT)
– Argues that successful leadership is achieved by selecting the
right leadership style which is contingent on the level of the
followers’ readiness.
• Acceptance: leadership effectiveness depends on whether
followers accept or reject a leader.
• Readiness: the extent to which followers have the ability
and willingness to accomplish a specific task.
– Leaders must relinquish control over and contact with
followers as they become more competent.
Exhibit 8–5 Hersey and Blanchard’s
Situational Leadership Model
Contingency Theories… (cont’d)
• Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT)
▪ Creates four specific leadership styles incorporating Fiedler’s two
leadership dimensions (task and relationship behaviors):
➢ Telling (high task-low relationship): The leader defines roles and
tells people what, how, when, and where to do various tasks.
➢ Selling (high task-high relationship): The leader provides both
directive and supportive behavior.
➢ Participating (low task-high relationship): The leader and follower
share in decision making; the main role of the leader is facilitating
and communicating.
➢ Delegating (low task-low relationship): The leader provides little
direction and support.
Contingency Theories… (cont’d)
• Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT)
Posits four stages follower readiness:
✓ R1: followers are unable and unwilling to take responsibility for
doing something. Followers aren’t competent or confident.
✓ R2: followers are unable but willing to do the necessary job
tasks. Followers are motivated but lack the appropriate skills.
✓ R3: followers are able but unwilling to do what the leader wants.
Followers are competent, but don’t want to do something.
✓ R4: followers are able and willing to do what is asked of them.
Contingency Theories… (cont’d)
• Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT)
▪ If followers are at R1 (unable and unwilling to do a task), the leader
needs to use the telling style and give clear and specific directions.
▪ If followers are at R2 (unable and willing), the leader needs to use
the selling style and display high task orientation to compensate for
the followers’ lack of ability and high relationship orientaion to get
followers to “buy into” the leader’s desires;
▪ If followers are at R3 (able and unwilling), the leader needs to use
the participating style to gain their support;
▪ If employees are at R4 (both able and willing), the leader doesn’t
need to do much and should use the delegating style.
Contingency Theories… (cont’d)
• Path-Goal Model
– States that the leader’s job is to assist his or her followers in
attaining their goals and to provide direction or support to
ensure their goals are compatible with organizational goals.
– Leaders assume different leadership styles at different times
depending on the situation:
• Directive leader
• Supportive leader
• Participative leader
• Achievement oriented leader
Contingency Theories… (cont’d)
• Path-Goal Model
– Directive leader: Lets subordinates know what’s expected of
them, schedules work to be done, and gives specific guidance
on how to accomplish task.
– Supportive leader: Shows concern for the needs of followers
and is friendly.
– Participative leader: Consults with group members and uses
their suggestions before making a decision.
– Achievement oriented leader: Sets challenging goals and
expects followers to perform at their highest level.
Exhibit 8–6 Path-Goal Theory
Contemporary Views on Leadership
• Transformational-Transactional Leadership
• Charismatic-Visionary Leadership
• Team Leadership
Contemporary Views…(cont’d)
• Transactional Leadership
– Leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the
direction of established goals by clarifying role and task
requirements.
– Leaders who lead primarily by using social exchanges
(or transactions). Transactional leaders guide or motivate
followers to work toward established goals by
exchanging rewards for their productivity
Contemporary Views…(cont’d)
• Transformational Leadership
– Leader who provide individualized consideration and
intellectual stimulation and who possess charisma.
– Leaders who stimulate and inspire (transform) followers to
achieve extraordinary outcomes.
– They pay attention to the concerns and developmental needs
of individual followers; they change followers’ awareness of
issues by helping those followers look at old problems in
new ways; and they are able to excite, arouse, and inspire
followers to exert extra effort to achieve group goals.
Contemporary Views…(cont’d)
• Charismatic Leadership
– An enthusiastic, self-confident leader whose personality
and actions influence people to behave in certain ways.
– Characteristics of charismatic leaders:
• Have a vision.
• Are able to articulate the vision.
• Are willing to take risks to achieve the vision.
• Are sensitive to both the environmental constraints
and follower needs.
• Exhibit behaviors that are out of the ordinary.
Contemporary Views…(cont’d)
• Visionary Leadership
– A leader who creates and articulates a realistic, credible,
and attractive vision of the future that improves upon the
present situation.
• Visionary leaders have the ability to:
– Explain the vision to others.
– Express the vision not just verbally but through behavior.
– Extend or apply the vision to different leadership
contexts.
Contemporary Views…(cont’d)
• Team Leadership Characteristics
– Having patience to share information
– Being able to trust others and to give up authority
– Understanding when to intervene
• Team Leader’s Job
– Managing the team’s external boundary
– Facilitating the team process
• Coaching, facilitating, handling disciplinary problems,
reviewing team and individual performance, training, and
communication
Exhibit 8–7 Specific Team Leadership Roles
Managing Power
• Legitimate power: The power a leader has as a result of his
or her position
• Coercive power: The power a leader has to punish or control
• Reward power: The power to give positive benefits or
rewards.
• Expert power: The influence a leader can exert as a result of
his or her expertise, skills, or knowledge.
• Referent power: The power of a leader that arise because of
a person’s desirable resources or admired personal traits.
The end
