NOTES IN MANAGEMENT101 The four main leader behavior studies are summarized:

TOPIC: Leadership Behavioral Theories of Leadership 

Behavioral Dimension Conclusion
University of Iowa
Leader is someone who can influence others and
who has managerial authority. Democratic style: involving subordinates, delegating
authority, and encouraging participation Autocratic
Leadership is a process of leading a group and style: dictating work methods, centralizing decision
influencing that group to achieve its goals. It’s making, and limiting participation Laissez-faire style:
what leaders do. giving group freedom to make decisions and complete
work.
(Because leading is one of the four management
Conclusion
functions, yes, ideally, all managers should be leaders)
Democratic style of leadership was most effective,
LO16.2EARLY leadership theories although later studies showed mixed results.
Leadership Traits Ohio State
Leadership research in the 1920s and 1930s focused Consideration: being considerate of followers’ ideas
on isolating leader traits—that is, characteristics—that and feelings
would differentiate leaders from nonleaders. Some of
Initiating structure: structuring work and work
the traits studied included physical stature, appearance, relationships to meet job goals
social class, emotional stability, fluency of speech, and
sociability. Despite the best efforts of researchers, it Conclusion
proved impossible to identify a set of traits that would
High–high leader (high in consideration and high in
always differentiate a leader (the person) from a
initiating structure) achieved high subordinate
nonleader. performance and satisfaction, but not in all situations.
Leadership Behaviors University of Michigan
1. Drive. Leaders exhibit a high effort level. They have a Employee oriented: emphasized interpersonal
relatively high desire for achievement, they are relationships and taking care of employees’ needs
ambitious, they have a lot of energy, they are tirelessly
persistent in their activities, and they show initiative. Production oriented: emphasized technical or task
aspects of job
2. Desire to lead. Leaders have a strong desire to
influence and lead others. They demonstrate the Conclusion
willingness to take responsibility.
Employee-oriented leaders were associated with high
3. Honesty and integrity. Leaders build trusting group productivity and higher job satisfaction.
relationships with followers by being truthful or
Managerial Grid
nondeceitful and by showing high consistency between
word and deed. Concern for people: measured leader’s concern for
subordinates on a scale of 1 to 9 (low to high)
4. Self-confidence. Followers look to leaders for an
absence of self-doubt. Leaders, therefore, need to Concern for production: measured leader’s concern for
show self-confidence in order to convince followers of getting job done on a scale of 1 to 9 (low to high)
the rightness of their goals and decisions.
Conclusion
5. Intelligence. Leaders need to be intelligent enough
to gather, synthesize, and interpret large amounts of Leaders performed best with a 9,9 style (high concern
information, and they need to be able to create for production and high concern for people).
visions, solve problems, and make correct decisions.
Consideration. The extent to which a leader has work
6. Job-relevant knowledge. Effective leaders have a relationships characterized by mutual trust and respect for
high degree of knowledge about the company, group members’ ideas and feelings.
industry, and technical matters. In-depth knowledge High–high leader. A leader high in both initiating structure and
allows leaders to make well-informed decisions and to consideration behaviors.
understand the implications of those decisions. 7.
Extraversion. Leaders are energetic, lively people. They LO16.3 CONTINGENCY theories of leadership
are sociable, assertive, and rarely silent or withdrawn.
Fiedler contingency model (Fred Fiedler)- proposed
8. Proneness to guilt. Guilt proneness is positively that effective group performance depended on properly
related to leadership effectiveness because it matching the leader’s style and the amount of control
produces a strong sense of responsibility for others. and influence in the situation. The model was based on
the premise that a certain leadership style would be
most effective in different types of situations.
Fiedler proposed that a key factor in leadership success have a clearer path to help them get from where they
was an individual’s basic leadership style, either task are to the achievement of their work goals.
oriented or relationship oriented. To measure a leader’s
style, Fiedler developed the least-preferred coworker House identified four leadership behaviors:
(LPC) questionnaire. • Directive leader: Lets subordinates know what’s
After an individual’s leadership style had been expected of them, schedules work to be done, and
assessed through the LPC, it was time to evaluate the gives specific guidance on how to accomplish tasks.
situation in order to match the leader with the situation. • Supportive leader: Shows concern for the needs of
Fiedler’s research uncovered three contingency followers and is friendly.
dimensions that defined the key situational factors in
leader effectiveness. • Participative leader: Consults with group members
and uses their suggestions before making a decision.
• Leader–member relations: the degree of
confidence, trust, and respect employees have for their • Achievement-oriented leader: Sets challenging goals
leader; rated as either good or poor. and expects followers to perform at their highest level.
• Task structure: the degree to which job assignments House assumed that leaders are flexible and can
are formalized and structured; rated as either high or display any or all of these leadership styles depending
low. on the situation.
• Position power: the degree of influence a leader has Path-Goal Mode
over activities such as hiring, firing, discipline,
promotions, and salary increases; rated as either strong
or weak.
The major criticism is that it’s probably unrealistic to assume
that a person can’t change his or her leadership style to fit the
situation. Effective leaders can, and do, change their styles.
Another is that the LPC wasn’t very practical. Finally, the
situation variables were difficult to assess.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership

Theory (Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard)
Situational Leadership Theory (SLT), is a contingency
theory that focuses on followers’ readiness.
The emphasis on the followers in leadership effectiveness
reflects the reality that it is the followers who accept or reject
the leader. Regardless of what the leader does, the group’s Employee’s performance satisfaction are likely to be
effectiveness depends on the actions of the followers. And positively influenced when the leader chooses a
readiness, as defined by Hersey and Blanchard, refers to the leadership style that compensates for shortcomings in
extent to which people have the ability and willingness to either the employee or the work setting.
accomplish a specific task.
LO16.4 CONTEMPORARY views of leadership
Four specific leadership styles described as follows:
Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
• Telling (high task–low relationship): The leader
defines roles and tells people what, how, when, and leaders create in-groups and out-groups, and those in
where to do various tasks. the in-group will have higher performance ratings, less
turnover, and greater job satisfaction.
• Selling (high task–high relationship): The leader
provides both directive and supportive behavior. For the LMX relationship to remain intact, however,
both the leader and the follower must “invest” in the
• Participating (low task–high relationship): The leader relationship. It’s not exactly clear how a leader chooses
and followers share in decision making; the main role of who falls into each category, but evidence shows that
the leader is facilitating and communicating. in-group members have demographic, attitude,
personality, and even gender similarities with the leader
• Delegating (low task–low relationship): The leader
or they have a higher level of competence than
provides little direction or support.
outgroup members.28 The leader does the choosing,
As followers reach higher levels of readiness, the leader but the follower’s characteristics drive the decision.
responds not only by decreasing control over their
Transformational-Transactional Leadership
activities but also by decreasing relationship behaviors.
transactional leaders; that is, leaders who lead
Path-Goal Model (Robert House) primarily by using social exchanges (or transactions).
-states that the leader’s job is to assist followers in Transactional leaders guide or motivate followers to
attaining their goals and to provide direction or support work toward established goals by exchanging rewards
needed to ensure that their goals are compatible with for their productivity. But another type of leader—a
the goals of the group or organization. The term path- transformational leader—stimulates and inspires
goal is derived from the belief that effective leaders (transforms) followers to achieve extraordinary
remove the roadblocks and pitfalls so that followers outcomes.
The evidence supporting the superiority of transformational
leadership over transactional leadership is overwhelmingly
impressive. For instance, studies that looked at managers in
different settings, including the military and business, found
that transformational leaders were evaluated as more
effective, higher performers, more promotable than their
transactional counterparts, and more interpersonally
sensitive.35 In addition, evidence indicates that
transformational leadership is strongly correlated with lower
turnover rates and higher levels of productivity, employee
satisfaction, creativity, goal attainment, follower well-being,
and corporate entrepreneurship, especially in start-up firms.

Charismatic-Visionary Leadership
We call a charismatic leader—that is, an enthusiastic,
self-confident leader whose personality and actions
influence people to behave in certain ways.
Five characteristics: they have a vision, the ability to Responsibilities included coaching, facilitating, handling
articulate that vision, a willingness to take risks to disciplinary problems, reviewing team and individual
achieve that vision, a sensitivity to both environmental performance, training, and communication. However, a
constraints and follower needs, and behaviors that are more meaningful way to describe the team leader’s job
out of the ordinary. is to focus on two priorities: (1) managing the team’s
external boundary and (2) facilitating the team process.
visionary leadership is different; it’s the ability to These priorities entail four specific leadership roles.
create and articulate a realistic, credible, and attractive
vision of the future that improves on the present LO16.5 LEADERSHIP issues in the twenty-first
situation.46 This vision, if properly selected and century
implemented, is so energizing that it “in effect jump-
starts the future by calling forth the skills, talents, and Managing Power-five sources of leader power:
resources to make it happen.
Legitimate power and authority are the same.
An organization’s vision should offer clear and Legitimate power represents the power a leader has as
compelling imagery that taps into people’s emotions a result of his or her position in the organization.
and inspires enthusiasm to pursue the organization’s Although people in positions of authority are also likely
goals. It should be able to generate possibilities that are to have reward and coercive power, legitimate power is
inspirational and unique and offer new ways of doing broader than the power to coerce and reward.
things that are clearly better for the organization and its
members. Coercive power is the power a leader has to punish or
control. Followers react to this power out of fear of the
Authentic Leadership negative results that might occur if they don’t comply.
Managers typically have some coercive power, such as
Authentic leadership focuses on the moral aspects of being able to suspend or demote employees or to
being a leader. Authentic leaders know who they are, assign them work they find unpleasant or undesirable.
know what they believe in, and act on those values and
beliefs openly and candidly. Reward power is the power to give positive rewards. A
reward can be anything a person values, such as
Ethical Leadership money, favorable performance appraisals, promotions,
interesting work assignments, friendly colleagues, and
Ethical leader is placing public safety ahead of profits. preferred work shifts or sales territories.
She is holding culpable employees accountable, and
she stands behind her employees by creating a culture Expert power is power based on expertise, special
in which they feel that they could and should do a better skills, or knowledge. If an employee has skills,
job. knowledge, or expertise that’s critical to a work group,
that person’s expert power is enhanced.
Team Leadership
Finally, referent power is the power that arises
And effective team leaders have mastered the difficult because of a person’s desirable resources or personal
balancing act of knowing when to leave their teams traits. If I admire you and want to be associated with
alone and when to get involved. you, you can exercise power over me because I want to
please you. Referent power develops out of admiration
Team Leadership Roles
of another and a desire to be like that person.
Developing Trust
The main component of credibility is honesty. Honesty
is consistently singled out as the number one
characteristic of admired leaders. Credible leaders are
competent and inspiring. They are personally able to
effectively communicate their confidence and
enthusiasm. Thus, followers judge a leader’s credibility
in terms of his or her honesty, competence, and ability
to inspire. Trust is defined as the belief in the integrity, Such individuals have the flexibility to change their
character, and ability of a leader. Followers who trust a behavior as different situations may require. In addition,
leader are willing to be vulnerable to the leader’s organizations may find that individuals with higher
actions because they are confident that their rights and levels of a trait called motivation to lead are more
interests will not be abused. receptive to leadership development opportunities.
five dimensions that make up the concept of trust: SUBSTITUTES FOR LEADERSHIP
• Integrity: honesty and truthfulness Despite the belief that some leadership style will always
be effective regardless of the situation, leadership may
• Competence: technical and interpersonal knowledge not always be important!
and skills
For instance, follower characteristics such as
• Consistency: reliability, predictability, and good experience, training, professional orientation, or need
judgment in handling situations for independence can neutralize the effect of
• Loyalty: willingness to protect a person, physically leadership. These characteristics can replace the
and emotionally employee’s need for a leader’s support or ability to
create structure and reduce task ambiguity. Similarly,
• Openness: willingness to share ideas and information jobs that are inherently unambiguous and routine or
freely intrinsically satisfying may place fewer demands on
leaders. Finally, such organizational characteristics as
Employees have to trust managers to treat them fairly, explicit formalized goals, rigid rules and procedures, or
and managers have to trust employees to cohesive work groups can substitute for formal
conscientiously fulfill their responsibilities. Also, leaders leadership.
have to increasingly lead others who may not be in their
immediate work group or may even be physically
separated—members of cross-functional or virtual
teams, individuals who work for suppliers or customers,
and perhaps even people who represent other
organizations through strategic alliances.
Empowering Employees
Managers are increasingly leading by empowering their
employees. As we’ve said before, empowerment
involves increasing the decision-making discretion of
workers.
One reason more companies are empowering
employees is the need for quick decisions by those
people who are most knowledgeable about the issues—
often those at lower organizational levels. In order to
cope with the increased work demands, managers had
to empower their people. Although empowerment is not
a universal answer, it can be beneficial when
employees have the knowledge, skills, and experience
to do their jobs competently.
Leading Across Cultures
Effective leaders do not use a single style. They adjust
their style to the situation.
The GLOBE study found that leadership has some
universal aspects. Specifically, a number of elements of
transformational leadership appear to be associated
with effective leadership regardless of what country the
leader is in.78 These elements include vision, foresight,
providing encouragement, trustworthiness, dynamism,
positiveness, and proactiveness.
Becoming an Effective Leader
Although much of the money spent on leader training
may provide doubtful benefits, our review suggests that
managers can do some things to get the maximum
effect from such training. Still, there is some consensus
about characteristics of effective leadership training.
One is contextualization (ensuring that learning is set in
the strategy and culture of the organization), and
another is personalization (enabling participants to seek
out learning related to their aspirations).