Chapter 1
Introduction to Leadership
Summary
This section is divided into several parts: Introduction to leadership, and readings 2-5. The Introduction to Leadership suggests that leadership is multi-faceted, with many views and definitions. Reading 2 addresses the question, “What does the concept of leadership mean?”. Reading 3 discusses the leadership process from a sociological standpoint. Reading 4 discusses leadership as a social influence process, rather than a fixed state of being.
I. Introduction to Leadership
A. The study of leadership started with the assumption that it was a phenomenon embedded in the leader, as opposed to within the follower.
B. Although there is no clear-cut and universal definition of leadership, definitions have referred to leadership as:
1. A focus on group processes
2. A personality attribute
3. The art of introducing compliance
4. An exercise of influence
5. A particular kind of act
6. A form of persuasion
7. A power relation
8. An instrument in the attainment of goals
9. An effect of interaction
10. A differentiated role
11. The initiation of structure
C. According to Albert Murphy (1941), leadership is sociological in nature, rather than a psychological phenomenon. Viewed from a sociological perspective, leadership is an interplay and relationship between two or more actors within a particular context.
D. According to Linda Smircich and Gareth Morgan (1982), leaders assign meaning to events for others. The importance of a leader is what he or she can do for the group.
E. The difference between management and headship
1. The formal role of leadership: a designated leader in a group
2. The informal role of leadership: an emergent leader arising from a set of dynamics that are transpiring between members of a group
F. Differences between the concept leader and manager:
1. Their respective definitions
2. The process/path by which one comes to the position
3. The source and type of power frequently employed
4. The base of respective legitimacy
5. How the position or role is maintained and lost
6. The fact that the substance or the connection between leader and follower differ from that of a manager and subordinate.
G. Concept overlap
1. To be an outstanding manager often necessitates being a good leader
2. To be an outstanding leader requires one to be good at decision making, planning, organizing, directing, and controlling – the essence of managing
H. Five Components of Leadership and the Leadership Process
1. The leader takes charge and guides the performance or activity
2. The follower performs under the guidance and instructions of the leader
3. The context is the situation surrounding a leader-follower relationship
4. The process reflects that which is embedded in the act of leadership
5. The outcome includes anything arising from interplay between the leader-follower and leader-situation
I. The leadership process is both interactive and dynamic.
J. Defining leadership:
Leadership is a dynamic and working relationship, built over time, involving an exchange between leader and follower in which leadership is a resource embedded in the situation, providing direction for goal attainment.
II. Reading 2: On the Meaning of Leadership
A. Historical impact of leadership
1. Homer’s Odyssey – emphasizes the importance of self-confidence in successful leadership
2. Confuciun writings – emphasize the importance of setting a moral example and using rewards and punishment
3. Taoism – emphasizes that effective leaders maintain a low profile and work through others
4. Old and New Testament – leadership challenges confronting Moses
5. 20th Century – Publications such as Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Leadership Studies and leadership books such as Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
B. Great Person Theory of Leadership
1. Leaders are “born” with a set of personal qualities that make them great leaders
2. Focus on identifying the personal traits that characterize those individuals who emerge as leaders
C. The Meaning of Leadership – several approaches to defining leadership
1. Leadership as a focus of group processes – leadership is a point of polarization for group cooperation
2. Leadership as personality and its effects – leadership is determined by personal attributes and strength of character
3. Leadership as an act or behavior – leadership results in others acting or responding in a shared direction
4. Leadership as an instrument of goal achievement – a leader has a program and is moving toward an objective with his group in a definite manner
5. Leadership as an emerging effect of interaction – leadership is an effect or outgrowth of group interaction
6. Leadership as a differentiated role – leadership is a role that integrates the other roles to advance the cause of the social system
7. Leadership as the initiation of structure – leadership is the initiation and maintenance of structure in expectation and interaction
8. Leadership as the art of inducing compliance – molding the group around the will, intentions, and/or wishes of the leader
9. Leadership as the exercise of influence – the activity of influencing people to cooperate toward some goal, which they come to find desirable
10. Leadership as a form of persuasion – the final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on
11. Leadership as a power relationship – group members perceive a leader as someone who has the right to prescribe behavior patterns for the group
D. Alternative Conceptualizations
1. Self-leadership
a. “The self leading the self”
b. Self-leading individuals provide themselves with self-direction and motivation, and feedback. They reward personal accomplishment and chastise personal failure.
2. Coleadership
a. Several individuals who, as a team, share in the leadership function
3. Strategic leadership
a. Focus on people who have overall responsibility for the organization
4. Symbolic leadership
a. Symbols, slogans, rituals, stories, and myths are among the “tools of leadership”
5. Servant leadership
a. Developed by Robert Greenleaf
b. Role of leader is to serve others and build trust
6. Organizational (Nation) leadership
a. A dominant leadership role played by organizations or nations
E. Emerging Roles
1. Smircich and Morgan (1982) – leaders provide meaning by framing reality for others
2. Stogdill (1948) – leaders orchestrate group activity
3. Manz and Sims (1991) – Superleadership
4. Senge (1990) – accompanying the emergence of the learning organization, a new leadership role emerges, and the role of leader is that of designer, teacher, and steward
5. “Over-managed and under led” concept
III. Reading 3: A Study of the Leadership Process
A. A fault of some leadership studies is emphasis upon the “individual” rather than the individual as a factor in a social situation
B. Leadership study calls for a situational approach, which is fundamentally sociological rather than psychological
C. Leaders in Work Camps – Case study of leadership traits
1. Efficiency – “he gets the work done”
2. Reasonableness – “he explains things to you and doesn’t yell”
3. Justice – “he plays no favorites and treats all men alike”
4. Strictness – “he isn’t so easy that you can step all over him”
5. Carefulness – “he watches out for the safety of the men in his crew”
D. The Leadership Process
1. The group has certain needs, practical and emotional
2. The leader responds to the situation as a whole with appropriate activities
3. Those responses are classified and labeled with trait names
4. These names, which are abstractions and summational fictions, are imputed to the leader as causal psychological entities
E. Summary
IV. Reading 4: Contemporary Trends in the Analysis of Leadership Processes
A. The psychological study of leadership started with a primary focus on the personality characteristics that distinguished leadership
B. Kurt Lewin (1939)
1. Turned attention to the “social climates” created by several styles of leadership (authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire)
2. Lewin’s approach left two residues:
a. A concern with leader style
b. Evolution of the situational approach
C. Main focus of the situational approach was to study leaders in different settings
D. An Overview – The problems with studying leadership
1. An early element of confusion in the study of leadership was the failure to distinguish the role of leader as central in the process
2. The relationship between leader and follower is built over time, and involves an exchange of transaction, in which a leader gets something and gives something
3. There are differential tasks or functions attached to being a leader, and personality characteristics which may fit a person to be a leader are determined by the perceptions held by followers
4. Despite the persisting view that leadership traits do not generalize across situations, leader effectiveness can and should be studied as it bears on the group’s achievement of desired outputs
E. Whither the “Situational Approach”?
1. The situational approach made it seem that the leader and the situation were separate
2. It is now possible to see that the trait and situational approaches merely emphasize parts of a process, which are by no means separable
3. A leader sets the basis for relationships within a group, and thereby can affect outcomes and initiate structure
F. Legitimacy and Social Exchange Leadership
1. Perceived legitimacy – how a leader attains and sustains legitimacy
2. An exchange of rewards
3. Hollander (1958) developed the idiosyncrasy credit concept, which suggests that a person’s potential to be influential arises out of the positive dispositions others hold toward him
G. Effectiveness of the Leader
1. The leader is not effective merely by being influential, without regard to processes and ends achieved
2. According to Selznick (1957), the leader’s function is to define the ends of group existence, to design an enterprise distinctively adapted to these ends, and to see that the design becomes a living reality
3. Katz and Kahn (1966) observed that any group operates with a set of resources to produce certain outputs
4. According to Stogdill (1959), resources are dispersed based on a group’s performance, integration, and member satisfaction as group outputs of the leadership process
H. Identification with the Leader
1. The factors of favorability and effectiveness depend upon the perceptions of followers
2. Kelman (1961) distinguished identification, internalization, and compliance as important in identifying leaders
3. Sears (1960) and Bandura and Walters (1963) studied leadership identification by observing children with adult models
I. Conclusions and Implications
1. The influence process is key to understanding leadership
2. In studying the effectiveness of the leader, more emphasis should be placed on the outcomes for the total system
3. Research on task-oriented groups must attend more to the organizational frameworks within which these groups are imbedded
- Goal-setting, legitimacy of authority, and leader succession are critical
Chapter 2
The Leader-Follower Relationship: Fairness, Trust, and Ethical Behavior
Summary
Chapter Two includes a chapter discussion on the leader-follower relationship. It introduces the concepts of fairness, trust, and ethical behavior. Chapter two discusses leadership as a relationship between leader and follower. Reading 5 extends the leader-member exchange theory to consider issues of organizational justice. Reading 6 attempts to determine whether trust affects team performance, and whether trust in leadership mediates the relationship between past and future team performance. Reading 7 discusses the role that leaders play in inspiring or motivating the behavior of followers.
I. The Leader-Follower Relationship: Fairness, Trust, and Ethical Behavior
A. Ralph Stogdill (1948) offered the observation that leadership is a working relationship among members of a group
B. An examination of leadership from a relational perspective necessitates an exploration of each of the following areas:
1. Perception
2. Cognition
3. Affect
4. Behavioral tendencies
5. Actual behavior
C. Three aspects of leadership explored in the readings following the chapter discussion:
1. Fairness
2. Trust
3. Ethical behavior
D. A psychological commitment between a leader and follower can take on three forms:
1. Affective commitment – an attachment that stems from wanting to be in the relationship because it produces positive emotion
2. Normative commitment – a relationship that exists because one perceives that he or she ought to maintain the relationship
3. Continuance commitment – a relationship that is based on need
E. O’Reilly and Chatman (1986) argued there are different levels of psychological connection between a leader and follower. From weakest to strongest, they are:
1. Compliance in nature – each party in a relationship is connected because the costs that they incur are offset by the benefits that are received
2. Relationship based on identification – pride in affiliation
3. Internalization – the goals and values of the group are the goals and values of the leader and follower
4. Psychological ownership – the relationship between the leader and follower is highly integrated and possessive in nature
- i.e. “my follower”, or “my leader”
F. Leader-Member Exchange Theory
1. Developed in the mid-1970s, LMX describes how leaders, over time, develop different exchange relationships with their various followers
2. Leaders develop separate exchange relationships with each of their followers
a. A small group of followers constitutes an “in-group”
b. The majority of the followers constitute an “out-group”
3. Significant differences emerge in the exchanges that take place between in-groups and out-groups:
a. Individuals in an in-group are more likely to be given interesting and desirable task assignments, are likely to be communicated with more frequently, and are likely to participate more often.
b. A leader commonly expects more from an in-group member
4. Domains of leadership
a. Leader
b. Follower
c. Relationship
d. Context
I. Reading 5: Rethinking Leader-Member Exchanges: An Organizational Justice Perspective
A. Introduction
1. Vertical Dyad Linkage (VDL) concept – In-group members have better relationships with leaders and receive more work-related benefits in comparison to out-group members
- This concept was later measured differently and relabeled Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
2. LMX has recently been defined as the unique relationship-based social exchange between leaders and members
3. LMX discrepancy
a. LMX has been related in some studies to outcome variables including job satisfaction and performance ratings
b. Other studies do not find conclusive evidence for the relationship between LMX and productivity
c. One possible explanation for the discrepant findings across studies is the relationship between LMX and organizational justice
B. Review: Work Group Differentiation Process
1. Dansereau et al. (1975) studied how work groups become differentiated into in-groups and out-groups based upon the quality of leader-member relationships
a. In-group members receive more attention and support from the leader than out-group members
b. Out-group members are more likely to file grievances
2. Dansereau, Alutto, and Yammarino (1984) presented the “investment” and “return” concept of relationships
a. Investments – what one party gives to another party
b. Returns – what one party gets back from another
c. Over time, stable patterns of exchange emerge between leaders and members
3. Current theoretical approaches may limit the potential of LMX theory because they place too much emphasis on social exchange and do not develop aspects of economic exchange
a. Without concerns for organizational justice, LMX may have limited contributions in terms of normative theory
b. Perceptions of organizational justice are necessary for the leadership process
4. Longitudinal research studies have illuminated the development of LMX relationships over time
- These studies support the premise that in-group members receive more benefits compared to out-group members
C. Organizational Justice: A Brief Review of Relevant Concepts
1. Distributive justice – the individual’s perception that the outcomes that they receive are fair
- Examples include pay increases, promotions, and challenging work assignments
2. Procedural justice – an employee’s perception that the procedures followed by the organization in determining who receives benefits are fair
- Examples include degree of voice the person has in decision making, and whether or not consistent rules are followed in making decisions
3. Interactional justice – the manner in which organizational justice is communicated by supervisors to followers
4. Distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are correlated, but distinct aspects of organizational justice
5. Leaders who are perceived as
procedurally fair are rated favorably by subordinates even when resource
allocation is unequal
D. LMX and Organizational Justice
1. Hollander (1978) noted that “a psychological contract emerges between leaders and followers that depends upon expectations and actions of both parties to the dyad
2. Meindl (1989) contrasted equity with parity, noting that equity refers to “entitlement based on relative contributions”
a. The most frequently used alternative to equity is parity (also referred to as equality)
b. Equal reward distribution may harm those who are the hardest workers in the group
3. Crux of argument: Can work group differentiation and organizational justice exist at the same time?
a. Procedural justice suggests that as long as a leader is perceived as fair by all work unit members, then a fair exchange of inputs to rewards might be maintained for all members
b. Interactional justice seems to play a role in member’s perceptions of the reasons for reward distribution in the work group as these are communicated to them by the leader
4. LMX through a broad justice perspective:
a. Distributive justice enables us to understand how leaders distribute both economic and social benefits
b. Procedural justice and interactional justice provide an understanding as to how employees in the in-group and the out-group react to the distribution of benefits
E. Organizational justice and the LMX Process
1. Role Specification
a. Early in the LMX development process, leaders send roles to members and members respond to these sets of expectations
b. Specifically, the leader assigns tasks to be performed by the member
c. Issues of organizational justice may emerge
2. Initial Exchange and Feedback
a. The leader makes requests and the member responds
b. The leader begins to perceive the member based upon his or her responses to requests
c. The member can provide different forms of feedback
3. LMX and Interactional Justice
a. It is critical in the process of LMX development for the leader to be consistent, and not hide things from members
b. The first test of the leader by the member will often be his/her honesty in dealing with the member
c. While interactional justice is a distinct concept from LMX, it is expected that they will be positively and significantly correlated
4. In-group/Out-group Decisions
a. From a distributive justice perspective, LMX is equity-based.
b. From procedural and interactional justice perspectives, in-groups and out-groups may peacefully coexist, if the leader maintains fairness in procedures and interactions
c. In-group members are more likely to understand procedural justice issues due to the higher quality LMX and communication with supervisors
d. Out-group members may be more likely to focus on distributive justice and perform at the level that is appropriate to the rewards they receive
5. Performance and Other Outcomes
a. Since LMX has been linked to a number of outcome variables in organizational research, it can be expected that job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and extra-role behavior would have similar relationships to organizational justice
b. Absenteeism and turnover might be negatively related to LMX and organizational justice variables, since those who perceive their leader as being fair may be less likely to psychologically and/or physically withdraw from work
F. Implications for Practice
1. Perceptions of organizational justice within work groups must be maintained throughout the LMX development process
2. Leaders should offer in-group relationships to all work group members initially
a. Out-group members should be retested periodically by the leader making offers of in-group roles
b. Work group differentiation should not be based on factors other than performance
3. Failure to recognize the important role that organizational justice plays in LMX can help explain why some high quality LMXs disintegrate over time
- Key issues for future empirical study are attribution processes and interactional justice variables
G. Summary – Issues of organizational justice appear central to further refinement of the LMX model
II. Reading 6: Trust in Leadership and Team Performance: Evidence from NCAA Basketball
A. Research implies that a higher level of trust in a leader results in
higher team performance
B. Theory and Hypothesis: Trust
1. Most empirical studies seem to conceptualize and measure trust as an expectation or belief that one can rely on another person’s actions and words and/or that the person has good intentions toward oneself
2. Trust in leadership is a meaningful concept in many teams, because the leader typically has the most formal power on the team, causing others to be vulnerable to him or her
C. The Effect of Trust in Leadership on Team Performance
1. Current researchers studying trust suggest that trust is an important element of effective work groups
2. Other researchers have begun to examine empirically the effects of trust in leadership on workplace outcomes, including:
a. Organizational citizenship behavior
b. Information sharing
c. Goal acceptance
d. Task performance
3. Leadership Trust theories:
a. Charismatic leaders build trust in their followers
b. Integrity or trustworthiness is an important trait of leaders
c. Trust if a core basis of effective leadership
d. Trust is central in subordinates’ perceptions of effective leadership
e. The importance of trust to varying degrees
4. Trust in leadership is important in that it allows the team to be willing to accept the leader’s activities, goals, and decisions and work hard to achieve them
- When the team feels that it cannot rely on the leader, members are unlikely to carry out the roles specified by the leader or to work toward the performance-related objectives and strategies set by the leader
5. Trust in leadership is cited as one means by which transformational leadership operates
6. Hypothesis 1: Trust in leadership has a positive effect on team performance
- Trust increases the ability of group members to work together, which in turn increases team performance
D. Trust as Mediating the Effects of Past Performance on Future Performance
1. Trust has multidirectional relationships with other variables
- Observations of past outcomes are likely to shape expectations, particularly in an uncertain environment
2. Positive qualities tend to be inferred from high team performance, and negative qualities tend to be inferred from poor team performance
- The team would perceive a teams past performance and would be likely to attribute that performance to the team’s leader
3. Hypothesis 2: Trust in leadership mediates the relationship between past team performance and future team performance
E. Method: Sample
1. Examination of 30 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball teams, divisions I and III
2. Of the 30 teams, 355 individuals completed surveys
3. College basketball teams are an attractive setting, empirically and theoretically, for studying team performance:
a. Empirically, the setting provides a reliable and valid measure of team performance that is independent of team members’ perceptions
b. The setting provides access to reliable and objective measures of control variables
c. Each team operates under the same guidelines (NCAA rules)
d. Theoretically, basketball teams provide a setting in which trust in the leader and in teammates are likely to be meaningful
e. Teams are highly vulnerable to the coach and to each other
f. There is significant uncertainty for players on important issues
4. Perceived vulnerability, interdependence, and uncertainty are likely to be important factors for trust in leadership
F. Results
1. The data provide support for hypothesis 1
- Trust in a coach had significant effect on winning percentage
2. Past performance does have a significant effect on trust and on winning percentage
3. Other variables that may affect team performance include:
a. Team talent
b. Past team performance
c. Preconference performance
d. Coach record (but not coach experience)
e. Trust in teammates
G. Discussion – Several Findings
1. The finding that trust in the leader has an effect on team performance has significance for theory and practice
2. Trust in teammates is not significant after controlling for other variables
3. Results of the study provide initial evidence that trust in leadership is critical to team effectiveness in some situations
4. Trust in leadership allows the team members to suspend their questions, doubts, and personal motives and instead throw themselves into working toward team goals
5. The study provides theory and evidence that trust mediates the relationship between past performance and future performance. Several implications of this include:
a. Trust in the leader is not only a determinant of team performance but also a product of it
b. Researchers should consider trust as having the potential to be both an outcome and a determinant of organizational outcomes
H. Implications for Practice
1. The increasing use of work teams makes the findings of this study important for practice
2. Research suggests that leaders can build trust by:
a. Engaging in transformational leadership behaviors
b. Creating fair processes
c. Allowing followers to participate in decision making
3. There are many determinants of team
performance, of which trust is only one
I Limitations and Directions for Future Research
1. The correlational design of the study does not completely rule out all plausible relationships between trust and team performance
2. The study provides data from a single setting – men’s college basketball teams
3. Higher levels of perceived vulnerability or perceived uncertainty may increase the impact of trust in leadership on team performance
- These factors are likely to vary between teams
III. Reading 7: Leadership, Moral Development, and Citizenship Behavior
A. The role that leaders play in inspiring or motivating the behavior of followers has received special attention - Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is critical in studying the moral development of leadership
B. Theoretical Background: Varieties of Participant Contribution
1. Three types of contribution:
a. Dependable task accomplishment – concerns individual task performance
- Includes the basics of regular on-time attendance, reliable effort, efficient use of resources, common-sense handling of contingencies
b. Work group collaboration – focuses on interpersonal cooperation in the workplace
- Includes sharing information, tools, and other resources with others; helping newcomers and those with heavy workloads, representing the group favorably to outsiders, and responding flexibly to inconveniences occasioned by others’ mistakes
c. Civic virtue – constructive participation in organizational governance
- Includes keeping informed about issues of organizational importance, attending nonrequired meetings, giving decision-makers timely information and input, providing reasoned arguments, and listening to others’ points of view
2. In general, each type of contribution builds on the previous one
- ; Conflicts are conceivable between civic virtue and the other forms of contribution
C. Varieties of Normative Motivation
1. The motivation to contribute to organizational success varies across persons, situations, and types of contribution
- Has long been analyzed in terms of rewards associated with specific forms of contribution
2. Three levels of moral reasoning
a. Level 1 – Preconventional morality – morality is defined solely in terms of what an unquestioned authority figure declares to be right and wrong
b. Level 2 – Conventional morality – focus of moral concern broadens from protection of personal interests to performance of social duties. Involves group loyalty, although such loyalty can give rise to groupthink, the uncritical acceptance of majority opinion
c. Level 3 – Post-conventional morality – moves from external definitions of morality to independently arrived at principled beliefs that are used creatively in the analysis and resolution of moral dilemmas
D. Clusters of Leadership, Normative Motivation, and OCB
1. Cluster One: Performance can be induced by incentives and the instrumental moral imperative of pre-conventional moral reasoning
a. Leadership type: Initiating structures and transactional leadership
b. Command and control leadership is likely to be most effective for subordinate behaviors that are concrete and specifiable in advance
2. Cluster Two: Work group collaboration – helpfulness, generosity, and cooperation – is less amenable to command and control methods
a. Important for work group collaboration are monitoring and rewarding, and leadership that establishes and nurtures relationships
b. Leadership type: Institutional leadership or “organizational statesmanship” may help to create and sustain an organizational culture
3. Cluster Three: Constructive participation in organizational governance – avoids the extremes of both chronic complainers and docile acquiescence.
a. Selfishness and naďve gullibility are both lessened when people are empowered to engage in high level moral reasoning
b. Leadership type: Tranforming leaders or servant leadership
4. Three things leaders can do to elevate moral dialogue:
a. Legitimate moral dialogue by engaging in it themselves
b. Demonstrate concern for a wide range of stakeholders of the organization
c. Encourage diversity and dissent to “prevent complacency and encourage continued learning by all parties”
5. Charismatic leadership
a. As traditionally understood, charismatic leadership encourages pre-conventional moral reasoning with blind faith in the authority of the charismatic leader
b. Several recent articles on charismatic leadership distinguish between “ethical charismatics” and “unethical charismatics”
E. Conclusion: The Significance of Encouraging High Level Moral Reasoning
1. Impartial application of universal principles to resolve moral conflicts and dilemmas balances self-interest, with equal concern for others’ interests
2. Who determines what the common good is? Should leaders presume to have infallible insight into what best serves the common good of all?
3. The role of post-conventional moral reasoning and the civic virtue associated with it are critical
4. Follows are encouraged to do their own thinking, not to accept the moral definitions espoused by authority figures