Leadership

Mr. Dipjoy Das

Centre for Management Studies Dibrugarh University

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 DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP
 A leader may be defined as a person who
establishes vision, sets goals, motivates people
and obtains their commitment to achieve the goals
and realize the vision.
 Leadership and management are quite different.
 leaders take a personal and active interest in
achieving goals whereas managers tend to play a
relatively passive role in accomplishing goals.
 Managers need power to be entrusted to them by
the organization to deal with people. Leaders have
power within themselves and the required drive to
lead people and motivate them to work
enthusiastically toward achieving objectives.
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(Contd.)
 If managers are required to work alone without
assistance from people they become anxious and
tense. However, leaders can act confidently even
if they need to work independently.

 Managers limit their interaction with people to the

minimum extent required to carry out their
managerial responsibilities. Leaders interact with
people frequently and in a more natural way. In
the process, they inspire people, motivate them
and lead them.
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TRAITS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS
 That cognitive and psychological factors like
intelligence, ambition and aggressiveness are the
traits commonly found in leaders. However,
others believed that physical characteristics like
height (more then average), large body structure
and personal attractiveness are important traits of
leaders.
 Certain factors that differentiate leaders from
non-leaders. Some of these include initiative,
desire to lead, integrity, self- confidence,
analytical ability, and knowledge of the specific
company, industry or technology. 4
 LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR VS
TRAITS
 Successful leadership depends more on
appropriate behavior and actions and less on
personality traits.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS
 Technical Skills
 Human Skills
 Conceptual Skills

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 Leadership Skills Required at Different
Organizational Levels

Organizational Levels

Conceptual
Top

Middle Human

Supervisor Technical

Knowledge & Skills required

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 LEADERSHIP THEORIES
Trait Theories
 One trait theory is the “great person” theory of
leadership. According to this theory leadership
traits can be acquired with training and
experience. They may not be inborn.
 Application of trait theory to organizational
leadership yielded even more confusing results.
Researchers could not support the theory with the
traits observed in successful leaders.
 Some general characteristics found in leaders are
ambition, high levels of energy, desire to lead,
honesty, integrity, self-confidence, intelligence,
and job-relevant knowledge. 7
Behavioral Theories
 There are four import behavioral theories – the
Ohio State Studies, the University of Michigan
Studies, the Management Grid and the
Scandinavian Studies – that have sought to identify
the behavior of leaders.

Initiating Structure

 It refers to an individual’s ability to define his

own as well as the subordinates’ tasks and get
these tasks accomplished on time. The people
who score high on this dimension will put
pressure on their subordinates to meet deadlines
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and maintain certain standards of performance.
The Ohio state studies

 In 1945, researchers from different streams such

as psychology, sociology and economics carried
out the studies of leadership at Ohio State
University. They used a specially developed
questionnaire to find out the behavior of leaders
across various groups and situations.

 They defined two dimensions – initiating

structure and consideration.

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Consideration

 This refers to the extent to which a leader cares

for the subordinates, respects their ideas and
feelings and establishes work relations which are
characteristics by mutual trust and respect.

 The studies revealed that the people who scores

high on both the dimensions initiating structure
and consideration – were able to achieve higher
levels of performance as well as job satisfaction
compared to these who scored low on either one
of the dimensions or both the dimensions.

 A “high-high” type of leadership yielded the best

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results.
University of Michigan studies

 Twelve high-low productivity pairs of section were

selected and kept under observation at the
Prudential Insurance Company.
 Leadership behaviors could be categorized along
two dimensions: employee-oriented and
production-oriented.
 Employee-oriented dimension emphasizes the
importance of inter –personal relations. Leaders
who score high on this dimension take a personal
interest in their subordinates’ needs and accept
individual differences among members. It was
observed that the productive groups had employee
oriented supervisors. 11
(Contd.)
 Leaders who are high on the production-
oriented dimension are more concerned with
tasks and goals. They consider employees to
be means to achieve goals and pay little or
no attention to any problems the employees
may face. For them, employees are no
different from machines.

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(High) The Leadership Grid

1 1.9 Country Club 9,9 Team M.anagement

Management
Thoughtful attention to needs of
2 people for satisfying
relationships leads to a
comfortable, friendly
CONCERN FOR PEOPLE
Work accomplishment is from
committed people; interdependence
through a “common stake” in
organization purpose leads to
relationships of trust and respect.

3 organization atmosphere and

work tempo.

4 5,5 Middle of the Road Management

Adequate organization performance is possible through balancing
5 the necessity to get out work with maintaining morale of people
at a satisfactory level.

6 1.1 Impoverished Management 9.1 Authority-Compliance

Exertion of minimum effort to get Effidiency in operations results
required work done is appropriate to from arranging conditions of
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sustain organization membership. work in such a way that human
elements interfere to a minimum
8 degree.

(LOW)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 913
(LOW) CONCERN FOR PRODUCTION (High)
The Managerial grid

 Blake and Mouton developed a two – dimensional

matrix of leadership styles.

 The model consists of nine rows and columns.

 The rows represent the leader’s concern for

production, while the columns represent the
concern for people.

 With nine possible positions on each side, leaders

can be located at one of a total of 81 position on
this grid.

(Contd.) 14
 Blake and Mouton found five intersection points
in this model – 1,9; 1,1; 9,1; 5,5 and 9,9.
People whose behavior falls into the 1,1 cell on
the grid, called the impoverished style of
leadership, exhibit no concern for people or for
work. Hence, they often fail as leaders. People
who follow the 1,9 style of leadership have high
concern for people but low concern for
production. This is referred to as the country
club style of leadership. People who exhibit the
9,1 style of leadership have high concern for
production and low concern for people.
(Contd.) 15
 This is referred to as authoritarian style of
leadership. People whose leadership style fall into
the 9,9 cell show high concern for both people and
production. This position on the grid is referred to
as team management style of leadership.

 Blake and Mouton suggested that managers who

practice a 9.9 style (team management) of
leadership are more effective compared to the 9.1
style (authoritarian), or the 1,9 style (country club
type). Leaders whose behavior falls into the 5,5
style are also considered to be fairly effective.
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Scandinavian studies

 Development oriented behavior.

 Development oriented leaders experiment with

new ideas and practices and embrace change.

 Development –orientation is a significant aspect

of effective leadership.

 The study also found subordinates consider

development-oriented leaders to be more
competent that non-development oriented
leaders. The subordinates of development
oriented leaders also showed higher levels of job
satisfaction.
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Contingency Approaches to Leadership

 Contingency theories of leadership postulate

that leaders have to change their style
depending on the situation they face.

 A leader should carefully analyze the nature of

the situation before deciding on the appropriate
leadership to be adopted. Five contingency
modes are discussed below.

(Contd.) 18
Fiedler’s contingency model

 Leadership requirements depend on the situation

the leader; and the choice of the most appropriate
style of leadership depends on whether the overall
situation is favorable or unfavorable to the leader.
The favorability or unfavorability of a particular
situation to a leader is analyzed based on the
following parameters:

a) Leader – Member relationships

• This indicates the extent to which a leader is
accepted by the subordinates. If a leader has
friction with majority of his subordinates, then he
scores low on his this dimension.
(Contd.) 19
b) Degree of task structure

• This refers to the degree to which the task on

hand can be performed efficiently by following
a particular method.

c) The leader’s position

• A leader has more power if he is in a position

to decide the rewards and incentives for his
followers.

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Hersey and Blanchard’s situational theory

 The maturity level of the subordinate plays a

major role in influencing the leadership style of
the superior.

 Leadership styles can be categorized into four

types – telling selling participating and
delegating.

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Leader- Member Exchange theory

 Leaders establish a special relationship with a small

group of subordinates, usually, early in their
interaction. This usually happens due to the time
constraints the leaders faces in interacting with all
the subordinates. This small group of subordinates
is referred to as the in-group while the rest are
referred to as the out- group. The leaders thrust the
subordinates, who belong to in group, give them
more attention, interact with them frequently and
offer them special privileges. The out-group people
less of the leader’s time attention. Also, the
interactions, between the leader and the out-group
are less frequent and purely formal. 22
Leadership-participation model
 The Leadership-participation model proposed by
Vroom and Yetton is normative in that it provides a
sequential set of rule that can be followed for
ascertaining the type and amount of participation
required in decision making in different situation.
Problem Attributes
 The leader should assess a situation in terms of its
problem attributes.
 Decision-quality dimensions include cost
considerations, information a availability, and nature
of problem structure.
 Employee-acceptance can have dimension like need
for commitment, their prior approval, congruence of
their goals with that of the organization, and conflict
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among the employees.
Leadership Styles:
Once the leader identifies the nature of the problem,
he can adopt one of the following five styles of
leadership:

• Autocratic I (A-I)- Using the information

available, the leader takes a decision on his own.

• Autocratic II (A-II) – The leader obtains relevant

information from subordinates and then attempts
to find the solution to the problem.

(Contd.) 24
• Consultive I (C-I) - The leader explains the
problem to concerned subordinates individually
and invites their ideas and suggestions to solve
the problem. However, he takes the final decision.

• Consultive II (C-II) - The leader meets a group of

subordinates, discusses the problem with them
and listens to their ideas and suggestions. Later,
he may take a decision that may or may not in
accordance with his subordinates’ suggestions.

• Group II (G-II) – After sharing the problem with

the subordinates, the leader initiates a group
discussion on alternative solution and moderates
the discussion till the group reaches a consensus
on the solution to be adopted. 25
Path – goal theory

 The path-goals theory is a contingency model of

leadership developed develop by Robert House.

 According to the path-goal theory, the leader

should provide required support and guidance to
his to his followers and help them achieve
organizational goals. He should also establish
individual (or group) goals for employees that
are compatible with the broad organizational
goals.
(Contd.) 26
Four types of leadership with the help of the path
goal theory. They are:

• Participative leadership: The leader discusses

problems with subordinates and seeks their
suggestions before making a decision.
• Achievement-oriented leadership: The leader
attempts to develop his subordinates by giving
them challenging tasks and higher
responsibilities, and encouraging them to perform
at their best
• Directive leadership : the leader clearly tells his
subordinates what is expected from them.
• Supportive leadership : The leader attempts to
address the needs and problems of his
subordinates. 27
 LEADERSHIP STYLES
Autocratic Leadership
 Leaders who adopt this style retain all the authority
and decision making power. They do not consider
employees’ suggestions options or views. They
believe that they are more competent and intelligent
then their subordinates.

Consultative leadership
 Consultative (or participative) leaders encourage to
participate in decision making. The leader listens to
subordinates’ ideas and opinions, but takes the final
decision himself. The leader delegates some of his
responsibilities to his subordinates and believe that
they are capable of carrying out those
responsibilities. 28
Laissez Faire or – Subordinate – centered
 In this style, the leader completely delegates the
responsibilities, and decision making power to the
subordinates. The leader simply presents the task
to the subordinates.

Bureaucratic Leadership
 Leaders set certain rigid rules and regulations and
procedures. Both leaders and their subordinates
obey these rules. The subordinates are thus
obliged to carry out their tasks in a particular way
along.
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Manipulative Leadership

 In this style of leadership, leaders believe that

employees should be manipulated to get them to
behave in the way the leader wants them to
behave. The leaders identify the needs and desires
of employees and use this information against
them to achieve their goals.

Expert Leadership

 In this leadership style, a person with a high level

of knowledge and abilities lends the groups.

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 Likert’s Four Systems of Management
System 1 Management : All the decision are made by
the managers, and there is little employee participation.

System 2 Management : The managers behave in a

patronizing manner, they have confidence and trust in
their subordinates.
System 3 Management : Managers in this system do
not have complete confidence and trust in their
subordinates. Though they seek advice from
subordinates, they retain the right to take the final
decision.
System 4 Management : Manager trust their
subordinates completely and have confidence in their
abilities. They always ask the opinions of their
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subordinates and make use of their ideas.
 ROLES AND ACTIVITIES OF
MANAGERS
Interpersonal role
 In this role, the manager acts as a figurehead
for the organization. He conducts talks with
important clients and suppliers and makes
formal announcements to the public on
behalf of the organization.

Information role
 The monitor, the disseminator and the
spokesperson. The managers constantly examines
the environment (internal and external) to keep
himself updated on the latest information. 32
Decisional role
 The managers initiates a change program or a
project in the organization and acquires the
resources needed for their implementation in his
entrepreneur role.
 Managers/leaders also play. The activities
performed by managers can be placed under the
following categories:

Communication :
Traditional Management :
Human Resource Management :
Net working :
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 DETERMINANTS OF
LEADERSHIP

The effectiveness of an individual as a leader can be

determined by two variables:

• The quality of subordinates/ followers

• The nature of the situation

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Quality of Subordinates
 The quality of subordinates is a primary indicator
of effective leadership. An effective leader always
builds a strong term consisting of people who are
independent and self-motivated.

The Nature of the Situation

 Different individuals are effective in different
situations. The situationist theory proposes that
an individual who has the background and
knowledge relevant to a given situation will come
forward by himself to lead the group when that
situation arises.
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 TASK OF A SUPERVISOR

 Supervisors are lower managers who manage

workers on the shop floor. In large
organizations, there may be different levels of
supervisors, i.e,first line supervisors second line
supervisors and third line supervisors.

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 EFFECTIVE SUPERVISORY
PRACTICES

 Devote more time to planning and supportive

functions
 Avoid close supervision
 Concern for employees
 Promote Group Cohesiveness.

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