Leadership I:Theories of leadership

(coffee hour today after class)

Road Map for Course

• Personality

I I

I

I I

I

• Relationships

• Group

• Context

Leadership• Mastering relational dynamics

– Influence– Communicate– Motivate– Exercise power

• Levesque and Iacocca• 3 questions

– What do they do?– What are they like as people?– What makes them good leaders?

5 Approaches

• Descriptive

• Trait

• Contingency

• Normative

• Functional

Descriptive Models:

What do

leaders do all day?

• Mintzberg followed CEO’s– Decisions rely on heuristics and

intuition– Unplanned firefighting– Variety of very short tasks

• >50% tasks are less than 9 min

• <10% tasks is more than 1 hr

• Debunks myth of “rational” leader

Trait Models:What are leader’s personal

characteristics?

• Leaders vs. non-leaders– “Right” mix of demographics

• Effective vs. ineffective leaders– “Right” mix of skills, personality

• Correlation between traits and leadership effectiveness: r=.11

Contingency Theories• Different skills are needed at different

times

• Trait x Situation

• Fiedler’s Least Preferred Coworker

(LPC) Scale

• Leadership effectiveness= “Fit”

between Leader Trait and Situation

Fiedler’s LPC Model

Situational Control

LeaderEffectiveness

Relational leaders(High LPC)

Task leaders(Low LPC)

Low Medium High

Normative Models• Camp Counselors

– Authoritarian– Democratic– Laissez-faire

• Vroom’s Decision Tree– 3 styles:

• Autocratic• Consultative• Consensus

– 8 situational contingents

Problems with Contingency/Normative Models

1. Over-attribute outcomes to leadership– Leaders-followers: causality?– Manipulate follower’s behavior

• “Good” followers = democratic leaders

• “Bad” followers = autocratic leaders

• Followers’ behavior > leader’s style

– Improve leaders by changing followers?

Problems (con’t)2. Complexity

– LPC Situational Control

– Vroom decision tree– But real leaders never

consult decision tree!

Problems (con’t)

3. Assumes we change styles– Ability to change limited– When the going gets tough,

default to “natural” styles– Military: do not train

leaders to change styles, manipulate situations

Midterm• WHEN AND WHERE

– 10/26, EH1324, 9am-10am

• WHAT– 30-40 multiple choice, 4-5 short

answers – Samples– Lectures, text, coursepack, section

exercises

• BRING– #2 pencil, pen

Review sessions• Free-form Q & A

M 9-11 271 Denn

M 5-7 B247 EH• Structured reviews in sections this week (Section 8, 9

go to anyone below)

Th 10-12 224 Denn

Th 12-2 B239 EH

Th 4-6 B261 EH

F 9-11 222 WH

F 11-1 B261 EH

F 1-3 271 Denn