Leadership

Review for final exam

Chapters to Cover

Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Summary
This chapter explored some of the individual differences that affect leaders and the
leadership process. Individuals differ in many ways, including personality, values and
attitudes, and styles of thinking and decision making. One model of personality, the Big Five
personality dimensions, examines whether individuals score high or low on the dimensions
of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to
experience. Although there is some indication that a high degree of each of the personality
dimensions is associated with successful leadership, individuals who score low on various
dimensions may also be effective leaders. Two specific personality traits that have a
significant impact on leader behavior are locus of control and authoritarianism.
Values are fundamental beliefs that cause a person to prefer that things be done one
way rather than another. One way to think about values is in terms of instrumental and end
values. End values are beliefs about the kinds of goals that are worth pursuing, whereas
instrumental values are beliefs about the types of behavior that are appropriate for reaching
goals. Values also affect an individuals attitudes. A leaders attitudes about self and others
influence how the leader behaves toward and interacts with followers. Two sets of
assumptions called Theory X and Theory Y represent two very different sets of attitudes
leaders may hold about people in general. Differences in personality, values, and attitudes
influence perception, which is the process people use to select, organize, and interpret
information. Perceptual distortions include stereotyping, the halo effect, projection, and
perceptual defense.
Attribution theory refers to how people explain the causes of events or behaviors.
Based on their perception, people may make either internal or external attributions. Another
area of individual differences is cognitive style. The whole brain concept explores a persons
preferences for right-brained versus left-brained thinking and for conceptual versus
experiential thinking. The model provides a powerful metaphor for understanding differences
in thinking styles. Individuals can learn to use their whole brain rather than relying on one
thinking style. Another way of looking at cognitive differences is the MyersBriggs Type
Indicator, which measures an individuals preferences for introversion versus extraversion,
sensing versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving.
Finally, we talked about three types of leadership roles: operational roles,
collaborative roles, and advisory roles. Recent studies suggest that different types of
personalities and thinking styles are better suited to different types of leadership roles, and
leaders can be more effective when they are in positions that best match their natural
tendencies.

Keywords:
Personality
the set of unseen characteristics and processes that underlie a relatively stable pattern of
behavior in response to ideas, objects, and people in the environment.
Big Five personality
dimensions
five general dimensions that describe personality: extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.
Extraversion
the degree to which a person is outgoing, sociable, talkative, and comfortable meeting and
talking to new people.
Agreeableness
the degree to which a person is able to get along with others by being good-natured,
cooperative, forgiving, compassionate, understanding, and trusting.
Conscientiousness
the degree to which a person is responsible, dependable, persistent, and achievement
oriented.
Emotional stability
the degree to which a person is well-adjusted, calm, and secure.
Openness to experience
the degree to which a person has a broad range of interests and is imaginative, creative,
and willing to consider new ideas.
Locus of control
defines whether a person places the primary responsibility for what happens to him or her
within him/herself or on outside forces.
Authoritarianism
the belief that power and status differences should exist in an organization.
Values
fundamental beliefs that an individual considers to be important, that are relatively stable
over time, and that have an impact on attitudes and behavior.
End values
sometimes called terminal values, these are beliefs about the kind of goals or outcomes that
are worth trying to pursue
Instrumental values
beliefs about the types of behavior that are appropriate for reaching goals.

Attitude
an evaluation (either positive or negative) about people, events, or things.

Self-concept
the collection of attitudes we have about ourselves; includes self-esteem and whether a
person generally has a positive or negative feeling about him/herself.
Theory X
the assumption that people are basically lazy and not motivated to work and that they have
a natural tendency to avoid responsibility.
Theory Y
the assumption that people do not inherently dislike work and will commit themselves
willingly to work that they care about
Perception
the process people use to make sense out of the environment by selecting, organizing, and
interpreting information.
Perceptual distortions
errors in judgment that arise from inaccuracies in the perceptual process.
Stereotyping
the tendency to assign an individual to a broad category and then attribute generalizations
about the group to the individual.
Halo effect
an overall impression of a person or situation based on one characteristic, either favorable
or unfavorable
Cognitive style
how a person perceives, processes, interprets, and uses information.
Whole brain concept
an approach that considers not only a persons preference for right-brained versus left-brained thinking, but also
conceptual versus experiential thinking; identifies four quadrants of the brain related to different thinking styles.

Quadrant A
the part of the brain associated in the whole brain model with logical thinking, analysis of
facts, and processing numbers.
Quadrant B
the part of the brain associated in the whole brain model with planning, organizing facts,
and careful detailed review
Quadrant C
the part of the brain associated in the whole brain model with interpersonal relationships
and intuitive and emotional thought processes.
Quadrant D
the part of the brain associated in the whole brain model with conceptualizing, synthesizing,
and integrating facts and patterns.

MyersBriggs Type Indicator

(MBTI)
personality test that measures how individuals differ in gathering and evaluating information
for solving problems and making decisions.

Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 12
Chapter 15