Understanding and Managing Public

Organizations

Chapter 11Leadership, Managerial Roles, and Organizational Culture

Leadership Definition• Leadership has been defined in various ways.

• As the focus of group processes, as a matter of personality• As a matter of inducing compliance, as the exercise of influence• As particular behaviors, as a form of persuasion• As a power relation, as an instrument to achieve goals• As an effect of interaction, as a differentiated role• As an initiation of structure• As many combinations of these definitions (Bass, 1998, 17)

• By leadership, most people mean the capacity of someone to direct and energize people to achieve goals.

• A number of theories have attempted to answer the challenges of leaders.

Trait Models of Leadership• Early investigations considered leaders as

individuals endowed with certain personality leadership traits constituting their leadership capacity. • Examples: intelligence, foresight, personality

characteristics (enthusiasm, persistence)

• Attempts to isolate specific traits led to the conclusion that no single characteristic distinguishes leaders from nonleaders.

Blake and Moulton

5

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

• One of the best frameworks for examining relationship between leader style, organizational setting, and effectiveness. • Two types of leaders

• High LPC: relationship-oriented • Low LPC: task-oriented

• Three contingencies

• Leader-member relations• Task structure• Position power of the leader

Fiedler’s Contingency Model• The least preferred coworker scale (LPC)

distinguishes leadership styles.– High LPC leaders are relationship oriented.

• They are rated more favorably.• High LPC leaders perform best when the

contingencies are mixed in regard to favorability, that is, when conditions are relatively ordered. The emphasis on relationships helps to mitigate the negative effect of unfavorable contingencies.

– Low LPC leaders are task-oriented.• They are rated more unfavorably.• Low LPC leaders perform best when the three

contingencies are unfavorable (disorder) or all three are favorable (order).

Path-Goal Theory• This approach is based on the expectancy theory

of motivation and emphasizes the three motivational variables that leaders may influence through their behaviors or decision-making styles.

• Valences• Instrumentalities• Expectancies

• At the heart of this theory is the notion that the leader’s primary purpose is to motivate followers by clarifying goals and identifying the best paths to achieve those goals. 7

Path-Goal Theory

• The job of the leader, according to this theory, is to manipulate these three motivational variables in desirable ways.

• The theory proposes that four behavioral styles

enable leaders to manipulate the three motivational variables.

– Directive– Supportive– Participative– Achievement-oriented

The Vroom and Yetton Model

• This model describes the different ways leaders can make decisions and guides leaders in determining the extent to which subordinates should participate in decision making.

• Leadership is defined in terms of the degree of

subordinate participation in decision-making processes.

• The decision tree model proposes that the most effective leadership style depends on the characteristics of both the situation and the followers.

• The decision tree emphasizes the fact that leaders achieve success through effective decision making.

10

Hersey and Blanchard: Life-Cycle Model• This model proposes that the effectiveness of a leader’s

decision-making style depends largely on followers’ level of maturity, job experience, and emotional maturity.

• The model proposes two basic dimensions on which decision-making style may vary. • Task orientation • Relationship orientation

• The model suggests these two dimensions combine to form four distinct types of decision styles.• Telling• Selling• Participating• Delegating

Attribution Models

• The main idea is that people actively search for explanations of the behavior that they observe, and form hypotheses as to the causes of that behavior.

• The resulting causal attributions determine cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses toward the actor.

• Leaders take into account• The extent to which behavior is consistent with past

behaviors

• The extent to which others in the same situation behave likewise

Leader-Member Exchange Theory• Leader-member exchange theory maintains that

the leader and each individual member of a work group have a unique “dyadic” relationship.

• Each dyad is seen as a social exchange or negotiated transaction of leader-member.

• The basic assumption is that leaders develop a separate exchange relationship with each individual subordinate.

• Exchange relationships can take two different forms.• High-exchange relationship • Low-exchange relationship

Operant Conditioning and Social Exchange

• This theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.

• Behavioral patterns are learned through a process of operant conditioning and observational learning.

Social Exchange Theory• Later approaches took into account Social Learning Theory

(Bandura, 1978).

• People learn by watching others, through modeling, and through vicarious learning. Thus leadership must also take into account social learning and internal mental states.

• Use “feedforward” techniques to anticipate problems and avoid them

• Enhance employee acceptance of goals by involving them in their development

• Emphasize self-management• Recognize how your environment influences your behavior • Employ personal goal-setting, rehearsal, and self-instruction

Cognitive Resource Utilization Theory• This theory looks at the relationship between the

leader’s cognitive resources (intelligence and experience) and group performance.

• The essence of the theory is that stress diminishes a leader’s ability to think logically and analytically.

• A leader’s experience and intelligence can lessen the influence of stress on his or her actions. • Intelligence is the main factor in low-stress situations.• Experience counts for more during high-stress moments.

Cognitive Resource Theory• Interpersonal stress moderates the influence of leader

intelligence on performance when the leader is directive. • Low stress allows intelligent leaders to be effective, but

high stress diminishes the impact of intelligence.

• Interpersonal stress also moderates the influence of leader experience on performance when the leader is directive.

• Experience contributes to performance when stress is high, but has little impact when stress is low.

• Directive leadership does not contribute to performance (and may even diminish it) when subordinates are intelligent and skilled and share the same objectives as the leader.

From POSDCORB to Mintzberg

• Gulick’s classic theories on the role of managers still has life.

• Mintzberg’s focus is not on what managers must do, but what they actually do.• He concluded roles after lengthy observation of five

managers.

• This is a widely accepted typology.

Managerial Roles and SkillsAllison (1983): Functions of General ManagementStrategy Managing Internal ComponentsEstablishing objectives and priorities Organizing and staffingDevising operational plans Directing personnel and the personnel management system

Controlling performanceManaging External Constituencies Dealing with external units subject to some common authorityDealing with independent organizationsDealing with press and the public

Mintzberg (1972): Executive RolesInterpersonal Informational Decisional Figurehead Monitor Entrepreneur Leader Disseminator Disturbance handler Liaison Spokesperson Resource allocator

Negotiator

Whetten and Cameron (2002): Management Skill TopicsSelf-awareness Managing conflict

Effective delegation and joint decision makingManaging personal stress Improving employee performance, Gaining power and influenceCreative problem solving motivating othersEstablishing supportive communicationImproving group decision making

The Benchmarks Scales (McCauley, Lombardo, and Usher, 1989)1a. Resourcefulness 5. Confronting problem subordinates1b. Doing whatever it takes 6. Team orientation1c. Being a quick study 7. Balance between personal life and work2a. Building and mending relationships 8. Decisiveness 2b. Leading subordinates 9. Self-awareness2c. Compassion and sensitivity 10. Hiring talented staff3. Straightforwardness and composure 11. Putting people at ease4. Setting a developmental climate 12. Acting with flexibility

Managerial Roles and Skills

• Allison (1983) Functions of General Management

• Mintzberg (1972) Executive Roles

• Whetten and Cameron (2002)

• The Benchmark Scales (McCauley, Lombardo, and Usher, 1989)

Leadership Styles

• Transformational leadership

• Charismatic leadership

Types of Leadership

• Burns (1978) distinguished between two opposing types of leaders.

• Transactional Leaders• Motivate followers by recognizing their needs and

providing rewards in exchange for their performance and support.

• Transformational Leaders• Rely on power but not in a controlling centralized way. • Raise followers’ goals to a higher plane (self-

actualization)• Have talent for coupling visions of success to

empowerment and motivation

Types of Leadership• Bennis and Nanus (1985) distinguished between “leading”

(guiding directions, actions or opinions to “do the right thing”) and “managing” (accomplishing things efficiently or “doing things right.” Excellent leaders lead others by carefully “managing themselves.”• Creating a vision of successful futures

• Effectively communicating this vision to others by giving meaning to their work

• Choosing the best course and sticking to it

• Having a high regard for their own skills and utilizing then effectively

• Concentrating on success and not become preoccupied with failure—Wallenda factor

• Empowering others

Types of Leadership

• Bass (1985, 1998) and Bass and Avolio (2002)

• Effective leaders combine transactional with transformational elements of leadership.

• They provide a systematic analysis of transformational leaders .

Types of Leadership• Bass identified seven areas of leadership

behavior that would identify transformational and transactional leadership. • Transformational

• Idealized influence• Intellectual stimulation• Individual consideration• Inspirational motivation

• Transactional leaders

• Contingent rewards • Management by expectation • Active management by exception

Charismatic Leadership

• This is an extension of work on transformational leadership.

• Charisma is treated as a matter of the characteristics that followers attribute to their leaders.

• There are two strains.• The attribution theory of charismatic leadership

• The self-concept theory of charismatic leadership

Charismatic Leadership• Attribution theory of charismatic leadership

• Followers are more likely to identify with leaders who

• Advocate a vision that is highly discrepant from status quo• Act in unconventional ways• Demonstrate self-sacrifices• Have confidence• Use persuasive appeals rather than authority or participative

decision process• Use capacity to access context and locate opportunities

• Self-concept theory of charismatic leadership• Emphasizes observable characteristics of leaders and followers

• Personal identification• Social identification and self-esteem• Internalization of leader’s beliefs

Leadership and Organizational Culture

• Transformational leaders exert their influence through “social architecture,” by working with the basic symbols and core values, or culture, of their organization.

• Leaders play key roles in forming, maintaining, and changing those cultures.

• Organization theorists have been interested in similar themes for a long time, as suggested by the work of Chester Barnard and Phillip Selznick.

• Recently, the subject came alive when management experts began to find that leaders in excellent corporations placed heavy emphasis on managing the cultural dimensions of their firms (Peters and Waterman, 1982; Ouchi, 1981).

Organizational Culture

• Affects many aspects of organizations– Effectiveness– Motivation – Change – Communication– Coordination costs

Increasing Importance of Culture

• Schein (1992) suggests that organizational culture is even more important today than it was in the past.

• Increased competition, globalization, mergers, acquisitions, alliances, and various workforce developments have created a greater need for– Coordination and integration across organizational units in

order to improve efficiency; quality; and speed of designing, manufacturing, and delivering products and services.

– Product innovation

30

Schein’s Levels of Culture Model

ShallowVisible

Deep InvisibleBasicunderlyingassumptions

Artifacts

Espoused values

Mission statementEthical code

Shallow

Visible

Adapted from Schein 1980, 1985

The Communication of Culture

• Various forms that transmit an organization’s culture serve as “sense-making mechanisms” for people in the organization as they interpret what goes on around them. – Symbols

– Language

– Narratives

– Practices and events

The Communication of Culture

• Symbols: Physical objects, settings, and certain roles within an organization convey information about its values and basic assumptions.

• Language: Slang, songs, slogans, and jargons can all carry the messages of a culture.

• Narratives: The people in an organization often repeat stories, legends, sagas, and myths that convey information about the organization’s history and practices.

• Practices and Events: Repeated practices and special events can transmit important assumptions and values. They may include rites and ceremonies.

Leading Cultural Development: Strategies

1. Make clear what leaders will monitor, ignore, measure, control.

2. React to critical incidents and organizational crises in ways that send appropriate cultural messages.

3. Practice deliberate role modeling, teaching, coaching.

4. Establish effective criteria for advancement, punishment.

5. Coordinate organizational designs and structures with cultural messages.

Leading Cultural Development: Strategies

6. Coordinate organizational systems and procedures with cultural messages

7. Design physical spaces to communicate culture.

8. Employ stories about events and people.

9. Develop formal statements of organizational philosophy.

10. Approach cultural leadership as comprehensive organizational change.

Leadership and Management in Public Organizations

• Evidence is mounting on the distinct nature of public and private sector contexts for managers.

• This theme is carried throughout the book and applies to culture as well.

The Distinctiveness

• Mintzberg (1972) found that public managers spent more time in contacts and formal meetings with external interest groups and governing boards and received more external status requests than did the private managers.

• Kaufman (1979) found that federal bureau chiefs operate within a web of institutional constraints on organizational structure, personnel administration, and other matters.

• Chase and Reveal (1983) emphasize the key challenges in managing a public agency with respect to the external political and institutional environment.

Does Context Affect Performance and Behavior?

• We know that the public sector context creates unique challenges for public managers, but are there implications for performance?• Challenges leave less time spent to deal with the

organization itself (Warwick, 1975).

• Lynn (1981) and Allison (1983) refer to a performance deficit due to arrays of rules, controls.

• National Academy of Public Administration (1986) refers to adverse effects on federal manager’s capacity to motivate.

• Volcker Commission (1989) refers to damaged morale of federal service.

Survey of Leadership Practices

• Surveys of government employees’ ratings of their supervisors provide mixed evidence about the quality of leadership.

• Some studies show that public employees express favorable impressions of their supervisors.

• Other studies show that ratings are 10 to 15 percent higher in surveys comparing sector responses.– In light of the public manager’s challenges, we would

expect differences and question whether such a comparison should even be made.

Contingencies and Variations• Many variations in context and in the individual

officials surveyed account for the different views about managerial roles of public managers. – The level of the manager and the institutional context

varies.

– Public managers must balance managerial tasks with policymaking and with handling the political and institutional environment (oversight agencies, legislative and other executive authorities, clients and constituents, and the media).

Effective Leadership in Government: Entrepreneurs

• Clearly, the generalizations are inaccurate. Government executives, like private manager executives, vary widely in their skill, motivations, orientations, and so on.

• A typology on managerial skills and commitment to goals is one approach to addressing this (Marmor and Fellman, 1986).

Generalist Managers

Program Loyalists- most likely to have

an entrepreneurial

impact

Administrative Survivors

Program Zealots

Commitment to Program Goals

Skills

Low

High

High

Entrepreneur Typology of Public Executives

Adapted from Rainey 2003, explanation of classification by Marmor and Fellman (1986) and Marmor (1987)

Modeling and Measuring Public Management

• Literature can be contrasted on the basis of the question, Does management matter? • Early literature implies management is not a main factor

in performance (for example, population ecology).

• More recent studies suggest that the degree that management matters can be measured.

• O’Toole and Meier (1999) treat management as one input to the system.

Measuring Current Performance

• O’Toole and Meier (1999) posit that current performance is a result of past performance plus shocks that come from inside or outside the system. The model in its simplest form is

O = 0 Ot-1 + 2Xt + t

• The model can be extended to incorporate managerial strategies, for example a conscious decision to manipulate the environment or a strategy to buffer.