• Housekeeping

• Quiz

• News: Obama’s speech

• Topics

• Rcap last week

• Leaders vs. managers

• What is a theory & how can it be evaluated?

Leaders and Managers:What’s the difference and is it meaningful?

Good & Poor Leaders:What’s the difference?

• Make two columns: one of “good” leaders, the other “poor” leaders• List several examples of each• Identify the principles of what makes a leader good or poor

Leader Constraint Theory (McClelland et al, 1972)

McClelland used the TAT to identify power needs, then examined projective stories from leaders containing the word “not.” Low scorers on activity inhibition were often occupied with personal dominance and winning at others’ expense’ high scorers more often expressed good for others, humanity, or some moral cause.

Leaders with high need for power and have high activity inhibition, are more effective leaders because they manifest their need for power in socially appropriate (“prosocial”) ways while also meeting their role demands for influence

What’s your personal leadership theory?

• What is “leadership”?

• How does one become a leader?

• What difference does it make in an organization?

• Can it be developed/trained? How?

What exactly is a “theory” anyway? What should it do?

“I have a theory about that…

How do you know if a theory is any good?

How to evaluate a theory

• Parsimony– simplest, reasonable answer

• Operationality– terms defined by operations & measurements

• Generativity/Heuristic– generates hypotheses, stimulates questions

• Power– accounts for events with increasing accuracy & utility (nominal, descriptive, predictive, control)

• Falsifiability– can be tested and rejected

• Importance– relevant events

• Internal consistency– concepts logically related and consistent with one another

• Scope– definable focus for application

• Organization– explains relationship among concepts

• Empirical support– data/studies that support it

• Measurement– level of measurement & instrumentation