CHAPTER 1

What do we mean by leadership?

3 words that comes to your mind when you hear the word leadership
-Influence, Responsible, Guidance
Leadership
-Complex phenomenon involving a leader, his or her followers, and a situation
-Because of the complexity of leadership, leadership researchers have defined the concept in many
different ways:
+ Process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired manner
+ Directing and coordinating the work of group members
+ Interpersonal relation in which others comply because they want to, not because they have to
-Process of influencing an organized group toward accomplishing its goals
-Actions that focus resources to create desirable opportunities
-Creating conditions for a team to be effective
-The ability to engage employees, the ability to build teams and the ability to achieve results
+The first two represent the how and the latter the what of leadership
-A complex form of social problem solving
Difference between Successful Managers and Effective Managers
Effective managers
+Make real contributions to their organization’s performance
Successful managers
+Promoted quickly through ranks
+Spend more time in organizational socializing
+Spend less time on management responsibilities such as planning

Leadership is both a Science and an Art

Bass & Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications cites
approximately 8,000 studies on leadership
-Reflects scope of the science of leadership

Leadership remains partly an art as well as a science

 -Some managers may be effective leaders without ever having taken a course or training program in
leadership
-Some scholars in the field of leadership may be poor leaders themselves

Leadership is both Rational and Emotional

Leadership includes actions and influences based on:

-Reason and Logic
-Inspiration and Passion
Since people are both rational and emotional, leaders use rational techniques and emotional appeals to
influence followers
-Leaders should weigh the rational and emotional consequences of their actions
Aroused feelings can be used either positively or negatively, constructively or destructively
-Some leaders have been able to inspire others to deeds of great purpose and courage

+The mere presence of a group can cause people to act differently than when they are alone
+Some scholars suggest that the very idea of leadership maybe rooted in people’s emotional needs
+Romance of leadership may be a cultural myth that has utility only until it affects how people create
meaning about causal events in complex social systems

Distinctions between Leaders and Managers

-Leaders do the right things, while Managers do things right

Managers Leaders
Administer Innovate
Maintain Develop
Control Inspire
Short term view Have a long-term view
Ask how and when Ask what and why
Imitate Originate

Myths in Leadership
Good leadership is all common sense
-The term common sense is ambiguous
-If leadership were simply common sense, then there would be fewer work problems
 -One challenge of understanding leadership may be to know when common sense applies and when
does it not

Leaders are born, not made

Innate factors and formative experiences influence behavior and leadership

-There is genetic component to intelligence, but a leader might require advanced education in
specialized fields as well.
The only school where leadership is learnt from is the school of hard knocks
-Formal study and experiential learning complement each other
-Formal study of leadership provides students with a variety of ways of examining a particular
leadership situation.
+Studying the different ways researchers have defined and examined leadership helps students use
these definitions and theories to better understand what is going on in any leadership situation.

States that leadership is a function of three elements- the leader, the followers, and the situation
+Example: In-groups and out-groups
-In groups: High degree of mutual influence and attraction between the leader and a few
subordinates
-The subordinates feel a high degree of loyalty, commitment, and trust towards the leader
-Other subordinates belong to the out-group
Leader as an Individual
Characteristics include:
-Unique personal history
-Interests
-Character traits
-Motivation
Effective leaders differ from their followers and from ineffective leaders on elements such as personality
traits, cognitive abilities, skills and values
Leaders are generally calm and are not prone to emotional outburst

Followers
Both practitioners and scholars stress the relatedness of leadership and followership

Following aspects of followers affect the leadership process

-Expectations
-Personality Traits
-Maturity levels
-Levels of competence
-Motivation
Workers who share a leader’s goals and values, and who feel intrinsically rewarded for performing a job
well done may be more motivated
Following factors have significant implications:
-Number of followers reporting to a leader
-Follower’s trust and confidence in their leader
Importance of the leader and follower relationship has undergone dynamic change for the following
reasons
-Increased pressure to function with reduced resources
-Trend toward greatwer power sharing and decentralized authority in organizations
-Increase in complex problems and rapid changes in an organization creating the demand for more
people to solve them
Ways in which followers can take on new leadership roles and responsibilities in the future
-Being proactive in their stance toward organizational problems by playing an active and constructive
role collaborating with leaders in solving problems
 -Contributing to the leadership process by becoming skilled at “influencing upward”
-Staying flexible and open to opportunities
Alternative approach to understanding followership
-Constructionist approach: Views leadership as combined acts of leading and following by different
individuals, whatever titles or positions in an organization may be

The Situation
-Leadership makes sense in the context of how the leader and followers interact in a given situation
-Most ambiguous aspect of the leadership framework
-Heroic Theory

Illustrating the Interactional Framework: Womein in Leadership Roles

-Women are taking on new leadrership roles in greater numbers than ever before.
-Problems that constrain the opportunity for capable women to rise to the highest leadership roles in
organization still exist.