Psychological Perspectives in Leadership and Management

A psychological perspective on leadership, with an emphasis on the capabilities required for

successful leadership in organizations and at the group level. The authors suggest three critical
capabilities for organizational leadership that are distinct from the commonly cited personality
or intelligence dimensions: the leader's diagnostic abilities, behavioral flexibility, and
unambiguous signaling of intentions. At the team level, the authors describe three key leadership
tasks: convening the group and developing identification, coaching group members, and setting
group norms. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 6 of "Handbook of Leadership
Theory and Practice: A Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium."
The Psychology of Management means the effect of the mind that is directing work upon that
work which is directed, and the effect of this undirected and directed work upon the mind of the
worker.
The emphasis in successful management lies on the man, not on the work.
Seyidov (2000) also defines the management and then shows the correlation between
management and psychology. Management – a science about coordination of resources of the
organizations on reaching the planned purposes. There where a person exists, his psychological
features that are reflected in his activity are always with him. Studying the psychology of
management, we study the psychology of the person, his activity and the most important thing
– influence of the mentality of the person on activity and influence of activity on psychology and
behavior of the person. The psychology of management is the branch of psychology studying
mental features of the person and its behavior in the course of planning, organization,
management and the control of joint activity.
The human factor is considered as the central point in the psychology of management, as its
essence and a core. Being engaged in studying the person in the conditions of the concrete
practical activities of psychology, managers constantly face the problems that need development
both of the professional work, and of the person who carries it out.
Among this variety of problems, Seyidov (2000) has given the greatest attention to four basic
problems or fundamental questions of the psychology of management: motivation, leadership,
interpersonal relations, selection of personnel.

Motivation – activity of the person, its formation in the process of its realization and satisfaction
gained from the activity.
Leadership is one of the brightest and interesting phenomena arising in the course of group
activity. The efficiency of any activity depends on its adequate understanding. According to
Nemov (1998) the leader – an authoritative member of a social group, whose power and
privileges are admitted voluntarily by other participants of the group, ready to listen to him and
follow him.
Interpersonal relations are a part of the human nature. It is shown in the form of internal
requirement in communicating and establishing the interpersonal relations.

Major Perspectives in Psychology

Psychology is a discipline that asks and answers the fundamental question, why do we behave
the way we do and think the way we think? The best way to characterize the different approaches
that are taken to answer the question of psychology is to identify them as major perspectives.
The major perspectives represent fundamental assumptions that underlie the research questions
and methods that are used in order to answer the questions of psychology. Most all perspectives
define psychology as the discipline interested in studying human behavior and mental processes,
but that covers a lot of ground and the causes of behavior and mental processes are not always
clear. This outline will attempt to catalogue the major perspectives and give the reader a sense
of the underlying assumptions, the philosophical foundations, the research methods, and the
outcomes or practices that result from the efforts of researchers and practitioners.

Let's just begin with a list of the perspectives and a short description.

1. Psychodynamic Perspective:

Probably the approach that has been most popularly associated with the discipline of
psychology for the past century is the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic perspective. Sigmund
Freud, who was medically trained in neurology, developed a theory of personality that made the
assumption that human motivation was propelled by conflicts between instinctual,
mostly unconscious, psychological forces. He called these intrapsychic elements the id, ego and
superego. (You know the drill)

This psychodynamic theory caught on like wild fire and due to its explanatory power for human
behavior, became very popular over the following century. Freud's therapeutic method, called
psychoanalysis, was developed to identify the underlying conflicts between intrapsychic
structures and resolve them by bringing them to consciousness. Insight therapy was one term
used to describe Freud's treatment approach. Freud also contributed the first developmental
theory of human personality. It suggests that human development progresses through
psychosexual stages. Each stage is characterized by specific behavioral and psychodynamic
developments and challenges. Although Freud thought of himself as a scientist, and he was
indeed very thorough in recording his methods and outcomes, he did not practice scientific
methods. Psychoanalytic theory was developed through case study analysis, a qualitative, not
scientific, method.

Other psychodynamic theories arose, like those of Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, Margaret Mahler,
and famous developmentalists like Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson, but all made the same basic
assumption: There is a dynamic mind, conscious and unconscious, that influences the behavior
of humans. Elements of the unconscious psyche interact to produce motives for behavior and
thought processes.

2. Behavioral Perspective:

In an attempt to bring scientific method to bear on the understanding of human behavior, John
B. Watson, using ideas he had gleaned from the likes of Ivan Pavlov and others, decided to declare
that psychology should only concern itself with observable behavior. A science of behavior was
built on only observable behavior. Assumptions about underlying psychological causes of
behavior were not admitted. The unconscious was declared fictitious and its study, a waste of
time. Serious psychology would focus on observable, controllable, behavior. The behavioral
perspective gained great momentum in the 20th century because it was a powerful tool in
training, education, and industry. Critics claimed that behaviorism was dehumanizing. John B.
Watson and others conducted a thorough explication of Classical Conditioning and B. F. Skinner,
responding somewhat to the critics of behaviorisms dehumanization, explained and expertly
defended the processes of Operant Conditioning.

3. Biopsychological Perspective:

The biological perspective is a broad scientific perspective that assumes that human behavior
and thought processes have a biological basis. Biology includes investigations into biochemistry
of behavior associated with neurotransmitters and hormones, genetics and heritability, and the
psychophysics of sensation and perception. Physiological psychology, neuroscience, psycho-
neuro-imunology and psychopharmacology are all part of the biological perspective. Because the
biological perspective relies on scientific methods, its scope of investigation is limited to variables
that can be controlled. Research methods are quantitative and seek to produce findings that can
be replicated and that are generalizable across populations. Practical outcomes of biological
psychology include the booming trade in psycho-pharmaceuticals, an understanding of mental
illness that provides viable remedies for certain very serious disorders, and diagnostic brain
scanning tools that are at the leading edge of neuroscience.

4. Cognitive Perspective:

In response to the empty organism theory of behaviorism, the cognitive perspective developed
explanations for human behavior that suggest that human behavior is at times thoughtful and
can be controlled by thought processes. Indeed, the cognitive perspective suggests that much of
human behavior is mediated by thought processes like memory and attention, belief systems,
attitudes and language. Cognitivists believe that humans bring significant conscious processes
into the mix and that much of human behavior is mediated by conscious processes. Belief
systems, value systems, thought processes, reason and intelligence have a significant impact on
why we do the things we do and act the way we act. The cognitive perspective suggests that
much of human behavior is significantly influenced by cognitive processes and is thus amenable
to our thoughtful control.

5. Sociocultural Perspective:

The social/cultural perspective in psychology suggests that human behavior is influenced by

social context, environmental cues, social pressures and cultural influences. Anyone who has
attended a football game will recognize that human behavior is susceptible to influence of the
crowd mentality. We are all shaped by the context of our environment and influenced by the
perception of authority in our social order. Social psychologists suggest that these forces are very
powerful and explain a great deal about the causes of human behavior and thought processes.

6. Evolutionary Perspective:

The evolutionary perspective explains human behavior and thought process as resulting from
evolutionary processes. The underlying assumption of biological evolution is survival of the
species. Human behavior is understood in the light of the question: how does this behavior result
from processes that support the survival of the species?

7. Humanistic/Existential Perspective:

The humanistic perspective arose in reaction to the deterministic and pessimistic psychoanalytic
view and the mechanistic behavioral perspective, to support more optimistic views that humans
are motivated by their potential to be creative and productive in response to their social and
environmental conditions. The existential part of the humanist view recognizes the reality of
being in a world and the opportunity that we have to choose a path for ourselves. Humanism is
hopeful, focuses on subjective, conscious experience, tries to solve human problems and
emphasizes the human potential to grow in a positive manner. The humanist philosophy respects
diversity and confronts reality as it is, both the painful and pleasurable, the good and the bad.
Humanism assumes that people have choices about their behavior and possess free will to act
and also must assume responsibility for choices and consequences. The humanist perspective
differs from the biological perspective in that the assumptions about causes for behavior lie in
human self-efficacy, choice and free will as opposed to the determinism of biological
causes. Humanist and existential philosophies are combined because they both emphasize free
will and responsibility as central to the nature of being.

8. Feminist-poststructural Perspective:

The feminist poststructural perspective arose in response to the observation by postmodern

theorists like Michel Foucault, that the creators/owners of a theory enjoy certain advantages that
come from organizing knowledge along explanatory lines. Science has traditionally been
dominated by men and thus the methods and outcomes of science have benefited men for the
most part. But, the feminist perspective goes beyond a critique of androcentric practices and
suggests that all organized knowledge has a political agenda that should be examined in the light
of all persons' rights and benefits. The poststructural view helps us understand that knowledge
is power and that the holders of the languages that construct knowledge are the ones who will
have the choices about how resources are distributed. This political theory of psychology and
knowledge construction tries to level the playing field and admit the views and voices of all. The
underlying assumption in this view is that diversity is essential for human survival. Incumbent
upon adherents to this perspective is a commitment to take a stand on issues they deem
important, identify their own epistemological position and biases in relation to their views and
then engage in a process of self-interrogation of their position.

The 8 perspectives listed and briefly described above represent at times divergent
underlying assumptions about why we behave and think the way we do. Some of these
approaches rely on quantitative research methods entirely and others rely on qualitative
methods almost exclusively. Many perspectives rely upon data resulting from both qualitative
and quantitative research. Each perspective asks and answers the questions of psychology in a
different way. The unique methods of research and practice that arise from the different
perspectives create a landscape that represents the complexity of human behavior and thinking.
This diversity of views allows the discipline of psychology to more adequately explain human
behavior and mental processes.