10.4 Key Takeaways, Knowledge Check and Key Terms
Key Takeaways
- Leadership is a bit different than management in that management includes a “title” while leadership and the leadership development process can occur without a title.
- Leaders can be appointed into a role, elected into the role, or emerge into the role of leader.
- Characteristics of the situation, task, and/or organization may make a leader less effective or unnecessary.
- We reviewed several influential leadership theories:
- Theory X and Theory Y leaders hold different fundamental assumptions about the nature of employees and their motivations at work.
- Trait approaches identify the characteristics required to be perceived as a leader and to be successful in the role.
- Intelligence, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and integrity seem to be leadership traits.
- Behavioural approaches identify the types of behaviours leaders demonstrate.
- Both trait and behavioural approaches suffered from a failure to pay attention to the context in which leadership occurs, which led to the development of contingency approaches such as situational leadership and path-goal theories.
- Recently, ethics became an explicit focus of leadership theories such as servant leadership and authentic leadership.
- It seems that being conscious of one’s style and making sure that leaders demonstrate the behaviours that address employee, organizational, and stakeholder needs are important and require flexibility on the part of leaders.
- Leadership skills are not simply born, they’re made. We don’t need to wait until we have the title of manager to begin developing our skill set – can grow and develop our leadership skills now. This chapter provided several suggestions for developing your own leadership and communication skills.
Knowledge Check
Review your understanding of this chapter’s key concepts by taking the interactive quiz below.
Key Terms
Key terms in this chapter include:
- Management
- Leadership
- Appointed leaders
- Democratic leaders
- Emergent leaders
- Theory X leaders
- Theory Y leaders
- Trait approach
- Behavioural approach
- Contingency approach
- Situational leadership
- Path-goal theory
- Directive leaders
- Supportive leaders
- Participatory leaders
- Achievement-oriented leaders
- Transformational leaders
- Trasnactional leaders
- Charisma
- Contingency rewards
- Active management by exception
- Passive management by exception
- Servant leadership
- Authentic leadership
The term management implies someone has been given a position, and through that position or title they have power to guide others. See 10.1 Leadership vs. Management
Leadership does not require specific titles. Consider the last group project you worked on for school. It was likely that someone took on the leadership role for this project, such as coordinating schedules, e-mailing the team, and so forth. This person did not have a formal title but lead the group anyway. This is an example of leadership. See 10.1 Leadership vs. Management
An appointed leader is designated by an authority to serve in that capacity, irrespective of the thoughts or wishes of the group. They may serve as the leader and accomplish all the designated tasks, but if the group does not accept their role as leader, it can prove to be a challenge. See 10.1 Leadership vs. Management
A democratic leader is elected or chosen by the group but may also face serious challenges. If individual group members or constituent groups feel neglected or ignored, they may assert that the democratic leader does not represent their interests. See 10.1 Leadership vs. Management
An emergent leader contrasts the first two paths to the role ( see Democratic leaders and Emergent leaders) by growing into the role, often out of necessity. The appointed leader may know little about the topic or content, and group members will naturally look to the senior member with the most experience for leadership. See 10.1 Leadership vs. Management
The Theory X leader assumes that the average individual dislikes work and is incapable of exercising adequate self-direction and self-control. As a consequence, they exert a highly controlling leadership style. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Theory Y leaders believe that people have creative capacities, as well as both the ability and desire to exercise self-direction and self-control. They typically allow organizational members significant amounts of discretion in their jobs and encourage them to participate in departmental and organizational decision-making. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
The earliest approach to the study of leadership sought to identify a set of traits that distinguished leaders from non-leaders. In recent years, after the advances in personality literature such as the development of the Big Five personality framework, researchers have had more success in identifying traits that predict leadership. Most importantly, charismatic leadership, which is among the contemporary approaches to leadership, may be viewed as an example of a trait approach. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
When trait researchers became disillusioned in the 1940s, their attention turned to studying leader behaviours. Research led to the discovery of two broad categories of behaviours - task vs people-oriented behaviours. That is to say the extent to which a leader is focussed on the task at hand compared to the relationships. At the time, researchers thought that these two categories of behaviours were the keys to the puzzle of leadership. When we look at the overall findings regarding these leadership behaviours, it seems that both types of behaviours, in the aggregate, are beneficial to organizations, but for different purposes. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
After the disappointing results of trait and behavioural approaches, several scholars developed leadership theories that specifically incorporated the role of the environment. Specifically, researchers started following a contingency approach to leadership—rather than trying to identify traits or behaviours that would be effective under all conditions, the attention moved toward specifying the situations under which different styles would be effective. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) argues that leaders must use different leadership styles depending on their followers’ development level. According to this model, employee readiness (defined as a combination of their competence and commitment levels) is the key factor determining the proper leadership style. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Robert House’s path-goal theory of leadership is based on the expectancy theory of motivation. The expectancy theory of motivation suggests that employees are motivated when they believe—or expect—that (a) their effort will lead to high performance, (b) their high performance will be rewarded, and (c) the rewards they will receive are valuable to them. According to the path-goal theory of leadership, the leader’s main job is to make sure that all three of these conditions exist. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Directive leaders provide specific directions to their employees. They lead employees by clarifying role expectations, setting schedules, and making sure that employees know what to do on a given work day. The theory predicts that the directive style will work well when employees are experiencing role ambiguity on the job. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Supportive leaders provide emotional support to employees. They treat employees well, care about them on a personal level, and they are encouraging. Supportive leadership is predicted to be effective when employees are under a lot of stress or performing boring, repetitive jobs. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Participative leaders make sure that employees are involved in the making of important decisions. Participative leadership may be more effective when employees have high levels of ability, and when the decisions to be made are personally relevant to them. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Achievement-oriented leaders set goals for employees and encourage them to reach their goals. Their style challenges employees and focuses their attention on work-related goals. This style is likely to be effective when employees have both high levels of ability and high levels of achievement motivation. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Transformational leaders lead employees by aligning employee goals with the leader’s goals. Thus, employees working for transformational leaders start focusing on the company’s well-being rather than on what is best for them as individual employees. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Transactional leaders ensure that employees demonstrate the right behaviours and provide resources in exchange. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Charisma refers to behaviours leaders demonstrate that create confidence in, commitment to, and admiration for the leader. Charismatic individuals have a “magnetic” personality that is appealing to followers. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Contingent rewards mean rewarding employees for their accomplishments. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Active management by exception involves leaving employees to do their jobs without interference, but at the same time proactively predicting potential problems and preventing them from occurring. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Passive management by exception is similar in that it involves leaving employees alone, but in this method the manager waits until something goes wrong before coming to the rescue. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
Servant leadership is a leadership approach that defines the leader’s role as serving the needs of others. According to this approach, the primary mission of the leader is to develop employees and help them reach their goals. Servant leaders put their employees first, understand their personal needs and desires, empower them, and help them develop in their careers. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
The authentic leadership approach embraces this value: Its key advice is “be yourself.” Think about it: we all have different backgrounds, different life experiences, and different role models. These trigger events over the course of our lifetime that shape our values, preferences, and priorities. Instead of trying to fit into societal expectations about what a leader should be, act like, or look like, authentic leaders derive their strength from their own past experiences. See 10.2 Theories of Leadership
