chapter one the nature and importance of leadership

CHAPTER ONE

The Nature and Importance

of Leadership

Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Company, Inc. All rights reserved 1 - 2

Learning Objectives

• Explain the meaning of leadership and how it differs from management.

• Describe how leadership influences organizational performance.

• Pinpoint several important leadership roles.


Learning Objectives

• Identify the major satisfactions and frustrations associated with the leadership role.

• Describe a framework for understanding leadership.

• Recognize how leadership skills are developed.


Leadership

• The ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals

• May be considered a long-term relationship, or partnership, between leaders and group members


Partnership

• The power between leader and group members is approximately balanced

• Four things necessary in a partnership:– Exchange of purpose– A right to say no– Joint accountability– Absolute honesty


Leadership versus Management

• Leadership deals with:– Change

– Inspiration

– Motivation

– Influence

• Management deals with:– Planning

– Organizing

– Directing

– Controlling


Leadership Matters

• The results of one study showed– transactional leadership was not significantly

related to performance– charismatic leadership was slightly, positively

related to performance– in an uncertain environment, charismatic

leadership was more strongly related to performance


Attribution Theory

• The process of attributing causality to events

• To simplify and understand complex social systems of human interaction, people interpret events in human terms

• Most organizational successes are attributed to heroic leaders


Leadership Does Not Matter

• Three major arguments against the importance of leadership include:– Substitutes for leadership– Leader irrelevance– Complexity theory


Substitutes for Leadership


Leader Irrelevance

• Situational factors, outside the leader’s control, have the largest impact on outcomes

• High-level leaders have unilateral control over only a few resources, and the control over these resources is limited by obligations to stakeholders

• Firms choose new leaders whose values and behaviors are similar to previous leaders


Complexity Theory

• Organizations are complex systems that cannot be explained by the usual rules of nature

• Leaders and managers can do little to alter the course of the complex organizational system

• A company’s fate is determined by factors outside the leader/manager’s control


Leadership Roles

• Figurehead• Spokesperson• Negotiator• Coach and motivator• Team builder

• Team player• Technical problem

solver• Entrepreneur• Strategic planner


Sources of Leader Satisfaction

• A feeling of power and prestige

• A chance to help others grow and develop

• High income

• Respect and status

• Good opportunities for advancement

• A feeling of “being in on” things

• An opportunity to control resources


Leader Frustrations

• Too much uncompensated overtime

• Too many “headaches”

• Not enough authority to carry out responsibility

• Loneliness

• Too many problems involving people

• Too much organizational politics


A Framework forUnderstanding Leadership

• Leader characteristics and traits

• Leader behavior and style

• Group member characteristics

• Internal and external environment


Summary

• Leading is a major part of a manager’s job

• Although some research supports the view that the leader affects organizational performance, the concepts of substitutes for leadership, leader irrelevance, and complexity theory suggest that leadership matters little


Summary

• Leadership involves carrying out at least nine different roles

• There are many sources of both satisfaction and frustration to leaders

• Leadership is a function of leader characteristics and traits, leader behavior and style, group member characteristics, and the internal and external environments

chapter one the nature and importance of leadership

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