Leadership

• Leader: someone who can influence others and

who has managerial authority.
• Leadership: the process of leading a group and
influencing that group to achieve its goals
Significance:
 Determination of Goals
 Organization of Activities
 Achieving Coordination
 Representation of Group
 Providing Guidance
 Inspiration to Employees
 Building Employee’s Morale
 Facilitating Change
 Styles of Leadership

• Behavioural pattern which the leader reflects in

his role as a leader is often described as the
style of leadership.
(i) Autocratic Leadership
(ii) Participative Leadership
(iii) Free-Rein Leadership
Types of Leadership Styles (‘A’ is the leader)
 Trait Theories of Leadership
• Trait theories of leadership isolate characteristics
(traits) that differentiate leaders from non-leaders.
• Attempts to identify traits consistently associated
with leadership have been successful. (Refer
exhibit-1).
What Traits Do Leaders Have? (Exhibit-1)
 Behavioral Theories of Leadership

• Behavioral theories of leadership isolate behaviors that

differentiate effective leaders from ineffective leaders.
 Continuum of Leadership Behaviour
• Tannenbaum and Schmidt have described the range of possible
leadership behaviour available to a manager as shown in
Exhibit-2.
• At the left end of the continuum there is ‘boss centered’
leadership style while at the right end is the ‘subordinate
centered’ style.
• As one moves from the left extreme to the right extreme, the
degree of control goes down and the freedom of subordinates
goes up.
• The approach suggests that the leadership style should be
adapted to the requirements of the particular situation. While
choosing the appropriate style, a manager should consider the
following factors:
(i) Forces in the Manager
(ii) Forces in the subordinates
(iii) Forces in the situation
Range of Leadership Behavior (Exhibit-2)
 Managerial Grid
• The two dimensions of leadership i.e. concern for people and
concern for production have been demonstrated by Robert R.
Blake and Janes S. Mouton in the form of a grid.

• Blake and Mouton have identified five basic leadership styles of

practicing managers representing various combinations of the
aforesaid two dimensions which are as follows (Refer exhibit-3):
 The 9,1 Managerial Style (Task)
 The 1,9 Managerial Style (Country Club)
 The 1,1 Managerial Style (Impoverished)
 The 5,5 Managerial Style (Middle Road)
 The 9,9 Managerial Style (Team)
Managerial Grid (Exhibit-3)
 University of Iowa
and Ohio State Studies
University of Michigan Study and
Managerial Grid
 Situational Theories of Leadership
 Which leadership styles might be suitable in different
situations, and what are those different situations?
 According to situational approach, the effectiveness
of a leader depends upon the situation in which
leadership is exercised. The theory emphasizes that
there is no one best style of leadership universally
applicable to all situations.
 Fiedler’s Contingency Model
• Fiedler identified two basic styles of leadership i.e.
(i) Task-oriented, structuring leadership under which the leader gains
satisfaction from seeing tasks performed and
(ii) Relationship-oriented under which the leader tries to achieve good
inter-personal relations with the subordinates.
And further, on the basis of studies tried to analyze their effectiveness
under different situations. He analyzed three major situational
variables which exert powerful influence on the leader’s behaviour
and his effectiveness. The three variables are:
(i) Leader-follower relations - It refers to the degree to which followers have
confidence, trust and respect in the leader.
(ii) Task structure – It refers to the degree to which the task requirements are
clearly defined.
(iii) Position power – It refers to the degree to which a leader derives power from
the position held by him in the organisation which enables him to influence the
behaviour of others.

Contd…
• These three variables determine whether a given situation is
favourable or unfavourable to the leader. The favourableness of a
situation is the degree to which the situation enables the leader to
exert his influence over his group.
• He came to the conclusion (Refer exhibit-4):
(i) Task-oriented leaders tend to be most effective in situations that
are either very favourable or are very unfavourable to them.
(ii) Relations-oriented leaders tend to be most effective in situations
that are intermediate in favourableness.

Thus, it is not feasible to suggest an ideal style of leadership that

will suit all situations. A leader can be effective only if he is able to
adapt his style according to the dynamics of the situation variables.
 The model further emphasizes that leader’s effectiveness is
neither purely a matter of leadership qualities nor that of the type
of situation. It is the result of an interaction between the two.
The Fiedler Model (Exhibit-4)
 Situational Leadership Theory
• Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard developed the situational
leadership model.
– Called situational leadership (SL), it shows how a leader should adjust
leadership style to reflect what followers need.
• A contingency theory that focuses on the followers.
– Successful leadership is contingent on the follower’s level of readiness.
• Why focus on the followers? And what do they mean by the term
readiness?
– This emphasis reflects the reality that it is the followers who accept or
reject the leader.
– Regardless of what the leader does, effectiveness depends on the actions
of his or her followers.
– The term readiness refers to the extent that people have the ability and
the willingness to accomplish a specific task.

Contd…
• Hersey and Blanchard identify four specific leadership styles (Refer
Exhibit-5)
– 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 followers share
in decision making; the main role of the leader is facilitating and
communicating.
– Delegating (low task–low relationship): The leader provides little direction
or support.
• The most effective behavior depends on a follower’s ability and
motivations shown as four stages of readiness.
– R1: If a follower is unable and unwilling, the leader needs to display high
task orientation.
– R4: At the other end of the readiness spectrum, if followers are able and
willing, the leader doesn’t need to do much.
• SLT has an intuitive appeal—it acknowledges the importance of
followers and builds on the idea that leaders can compensate for the
lack of ability and motivation of their followers. However, research
efforts to test and support the theory have generally been mixed.
Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Model (Exhibit-5)
 Path-Goal Theory
• Another approach to understanding leadership, developed by Robert
House, is path-goal theory.
• House identified four leadership behaviors:
– The directive leader tells employees what is expected of them, schedules
work, and gives specific guidance as to how to accomplish tasks. It
parallels initiating structure.
– The supportive leader is friendly and shows concern for the needs of
employees. It is essentially synonymous with the dimension of
consideration.
– The participative leader consults with employees and uses their
suggestions before making a decision.
– The achievement-oriented leader sets challenging goals and expects
employees to perform at their highest levels.
• In contrast to Fiedler, House assumes that leaders are flexible.
– Path-goal theory implies that the same leader can display any or all
leadership styles, depending on the situation.
Contd…
• Path-goal theory proposes two classes of contingency variables (Refer
Exhibit-6):
(a) Those in the environment that are outside the control of the employee (task
structure, the formal authority system, and the work group).
» Environmental factors determine leader behavior required if employee outcomes are
to be maximized.
(b) Those that are part of the personal characteristics of the follower (locus of
control, experience, and perceived ability).
» Personal characteristics determine how the environment and leader behavior are
interpreted.
(c) The theory proposes that leader behavior will be ineffective when it is
redundant to sources of environmental structure or incongruent with
subordinate characteristics.
• Research to validate path-goal predictions is encouraging, although not
all support is positive.
– The majority of the evidence supports the logic underlying the theory.
Path-Goal Model (Exhibit-6)
 Leader-Participation Model
• How Participative Should a Leader Be?
• Back in 1973, Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton developed a
leader-participation model.
–It related leadership behavior and participation to decision-making.
• Recognizing that task structures have varying demands for
routine and non-routine activities, these researchers argued that
leader behavior must adjust to reflect the task structure.
–The model provided a sequential set of rules to be followed in
determining the form and amount of participation in decision making in
different types of situations. More recent work by Vroom and Arthur Jago
revised that model (See Exhibit -7)
• Research testing the original leader-participation model was very
encouraging.
–But the model is far too complex for the typical manager to use regularly.
–The model has provided us with some solid, empirically supported
insights into key contingency variables related to leadership effectiveness.
.
Leader-Participation Model (Exhibit -7)
 Leader-Member Exchange Theory
• A leadership theory that says leaders create ‘in-
groups’ and ‘out-groups’ and those in the ‘in-group’
will have higher performance ratings, less turnover,
and greater job satisfaction.
• Leader also encourage ‘Leader-member exchange
(LMX)’ by rewarding those employees with whom
they want a closer linkage and punishing those with
whom they don’t.
• For the ‘LMX’ relationship to remain intact, however,
both the leader and the follower must “invest” in the
relationship.
 Transactional vs. Transformational Leaders
 Transactional Leaders: Leaders who primarily use social exchanges (or
transactions) are called transactional leaders. They guide or motivate
followers to work toward established goals by exchanging rewards for
their productivity.
 Transformational Leaders: Transformational leaders inspire followers
to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization and
are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on his or her
followers.
– Transformational leaders pay attention to the concerns and developmental needs of
individual followers; they change followers’ awareness of issues by helping those
followers to look at old problems in new ways; and they are able to excite, arouse,
and inspire followers to put out extra effort to achieve group goals.
– The evidence supporting the superiority of transformational leadership over the
transactional variety is overwhelmingly impressive.
– In summary, the overall evidence indicates that transformational leadership is more
strongly correlated with lower turnover rates, higher productivity, and higher
employee satisfaction.
 Charismatic vs. Visionary Leaders
• A Charismatic leader is an
enthusiastic, self-confident leader
whose personality and actions
influence people to behave in certain
ways.
• A Visionary leader is the one who is
able to create and articulate a
realistic, credible, and attractive
vision of the future that improves
upon the present situation. This
vision effectively “jump-starts” the
future by calling forth the skills,
talents, and resources to make it
happen.