• Questions/Quiz

• News

• Great Person Theory

• Trait Theory

• Behavior Theory

• Next week: Lewin’s Autocratic-Democratic Model, Argyris’ Maturity Model, Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s Leadership Continuum

Week 3

Leadership Preferences Orientation

Delegation & power sharing

Crisis Management

Style & situation fit

Mentoring

Worker satisfaction & productivity

Leader replacement

Identify qualities for selection, coaching, performance eval.

Vroom-Jago Normative Model

Cognitive Resources Theory

McGregor’s X-Y, MBTITannenbaum-Wechsler

Leader-Member ExchangeVertical Dyad Linkage

Fiedler’s Leadership ContingencyHersey-Blanchard situational

Blake-Mouton Managerial GridArgyris Maturity Model

Path-Goal Theory

Succession theorySubstitutes/neutralizers

Org. culture

Trait TheoryLeadership Practices

The Leadership Tool Kit: Different theories for different purposes

“A rose by any other name”-- Similarities among leadership theories

Great Person, Trait & Behavior Theories of Leadership

The Great Person Approach to leadership

• Where does the Great Person approach come from and what are its assumptions?

• What are some limitations of the “Great Person” approach?• What are “traits”?• What traits are most related to leadership?

• Intelligence (but not too much), scholarship initiative, independence, inventiveness (correlated with age, drops after age 40)

• Self assurance, confidence, aspiration, perceived occupational level • Reflection-- the “helicopter factor" (being able to hover above and reflect on self

and team), objectivity • Demographic characteristics: good health, above or below average height,

upper SES • Enthusiasm, sociability, integrity, courage, imagination, decisiveness,

determination, energy

40 years of leadership research finds some traits are necessary but not sufficient:

• Sociability: dependable, responsible, active, socially participate, cooperative, popular

• Motivation: show initiative and persistence

• Cognitive ability: intelligent, scholarly, insightful, verbal, adaptable

• originality • popularity • sociability • judgment • aggressiveness

(assertiveness) • humor • desire to excel • cooperativeness • liveliness • athletic ability

• age • height • weight • physique • energy • appearance • dominance • mood control

Correlate High with Leadership

Correlate Low with Leadership

Leadership BehaviorsWhat behaviors and personal characteristics (traits) do you think would be most and least correlated with leadership?

The Behavioral Approach to Leadership

• The Behavioral Approach suggests that leaders behave in ways that differentiate themselves from those who are not chosen for leadership.

• What are some of the behaviors in a team or committee setting that would increase chances of being viewed as a leader?

• What are behaviors in that setting that would mitigate against being seen as a leader?

• high participation and talking • comfort and fluency in delivering information • forceful and energetic in presentation • does not express strong opinions early in

group (can later) • initiates conversation • introduces new themes and topics • seeks comments from others (Gatekeeper

role) • sits at head of table • in a position of receiving, dispensing, or

coordinating information • avoids obviously persuading other to a point

of view • interacts flexibly with others; changes style as

needed but not seen as chameleon • promotes identity of group ("we, us, our",

etc.) • listens accurately to other's contributions • demonstrates achievement, goal orientation

and task structure

• low level of participation, involvement or contribution

• uninformed contribution • overly directive comments • offensive language (including sexist

and profanity) • stilted, overly formal language • dominates conversation • absent from meetings • volunteers as secretary or recorder

of meetings • takes role of joker • shows contempt for leadership • willing to do as told • presents self too strongly early in

group discussion

Behaviors working for and against leadership selection

For--

Against–

How would you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the

trait/behavior approach?

• many of these traits are relatively abstract-- how they are defined may refer to different behaviors, and may be too abstract to be adequately measured

• they may overlap in meaning making them difficult to distinguish or apply • hundreds (if not thousands) of traits have been identified-- it's not possible for a leader

to have them all • there are too many exceptions to the rule-- some people don't have these traits but are

successful leaders • some traits are actually opposites of each other • the trait approach does not view personality asn an integrated whole, but as a collection

of features or behaviors. • what may be a useful trait in one setting or culture may not be useful in another • referring to traits implies relatively fixed or stable qualities, and does not consider how

well they are developed, adapted and used • reduced to a minimum, traits may be necessary but not sufficient conditions for

leadership • the trait approach does not consider the role of followers or situational conditions; too

much weight is placed on the leader

A few problems with the trait approach

Team case discussion

• Identify a case or leader in which you can apply the leadership behavior approach (e.g., coaching a person to “behave” like a leader).

• How would you go about coaching or training a person?

• What are some ethical or practical issues in this approach?