Leadership Theories: A Comprehensive Overview, Slides of Organization Behaviour

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Organizational

Behavior

Leadership

Basic Approaches to Leadership

• (^) Leadership: The ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. - (^) Leadership plays a central part in understanding group behavior. - (^) There are many definitions of leadership and various theories have been proposed - (^) Is "Management" the same as "Leadership"? What does a manager do? What does a leader do? Why is “coping” important according to Kotter?
• (^) Management :Use of authority inherent in designated formal rank to obtain compliance from organizational members

Study Question 1: What is leadership and how does it differ from management?  Leadership is a special case of interpersonal influence that gets an individual or group to do what the leader or manager wants done.  Forms of leadership.

• (^) Formal leadership.
• (^) Informal leadership.

Study Question 1: What is leadership and how does it differ from management?  Approaches to leadership.

• (^) Trait and behavioral perspectives.
• (^) Situational contingency perspectives.
• (^) Attribution perspectives.
• (^) New leadership perspectives.

“Great Man” theory

• (^) Great man theories assume that the capacity for leadership is inherent – that great leaders are born, not made.
• (^) These theories often portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and destined to rise to leadership when needed.
• (^) The term "Great Man" was used because, at the time, leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military leadership.

“Great Man” theory

• (^) The great man theory of leadership became popular during the 19th- century.
• (^) The mythology behind some of the world's most famous leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi, and Alexander the Great helped contribute to the notion that great leaders are born and not made.
• (^) In many examples, it seems as if the right man for the job seems to emerge almost magically to take control of a situation and lead a group of people into safety or success.

“Trait” theory

• (^) Similar in some ways to "Great Man" theories, trait theories assume that people inherit certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership.
• (^) Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders.
• (^) If particular traits are key features of leadership, then how do we explain people who possess those qualities but are not leaders? This question is one of the difficulties in using trait theories to explain leadership.

“Trait” theory

• (^) The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are composed broad dispositions.
• (^) Consider how you would describe the personality of a close friend. Chances are that you would list a number of traits, such as outgoing , kind and even-tempered.
• (^) A trait can be thought of as a relatively stable characteristic that causes individuals to behave in certain ways.

“Trait” theory

• (^) Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory
• (^) In 1936, psychologist Gordon Allport found that one English- language dictionary alone contained more than 4,000 words describing different personality traits.
• (^) He categorized these traits into three levels:

Cardinal Traits

• (^) Traits that dominate an individual’s whole life, often to the point that the person becomes known specifically for these traits.
• (^) People with such personalities often become so known for these traits that their names are often synonymous with these qualities.
• (^) Consider the origin and meaning of the following descriptive terms: Freudian, Machiavellian, narcissism, Don Juan, Christ-like, etc.
• (^) Allport suggested that cardinal traits are rare and tend to develop later in life.

Secondary Traits

• (^) These are the traits that are sometimes related to attitudes or preferences and often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances.
• (^) Some examples would be getting anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while waiting in line.

“Trait” theory

• (^) While most agree that people can be described based upon their personality traits, theorists continue to debate the number of basic traits that make up human personality.
• (^) While trait theory has objectivity that some personality theories lack, it also has weaknesses.
• (^) Some of the most common criticisms of trait theory center on the fact that traits are often poor predictors of behavior.
• (^) While an individual may score high on assessments of a specific trait, he or she may not always behave that way in every situation. Another problem is that trait theories do not address how or why individual differences in personality develop or emerge.

“Behavioral” theory

• (^) Behavioral psychology is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning.
• (^) Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment.
• (^) According to behaviorism, behavior can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental states.
• (^) There are two major types of conditioning:

“Situational” theory

• (^) Situational theories propose that leaders choose the

best course of action based upon situational variables.

• (^) Different styles of leadership may be more

appropriate for certain types of decision-making.