Leadership & Management Ch2.txt

Leadership: A balanced relationship of power between leader and group members.
Factors for partnership:
Exchange of purpose
A right way to say no
Joint accountability
Absolute honesty

•Leadership is a long-term relationship with group members; inspires confidence and support which can help achieve organizational goals

•Concepts of substitutes, leader irrelevance, and complexity theory suggest leadership is not as important.

•Leadership is a function of leader characteristics and traits, leader behavior and style, group member
characteristics, and the internal and external environments

Transactional leadership: Not significantly related to performance

Charismatic leadership: Slightly, positively related to performance

(In an uncertain environment, charismatic leadership was more strongly related to performance)

Attribution Theory:
Changes in leadership are followed by changes in company performance.

Cause is attributed to leadership.

Most organizational successes are attributed to heroic leaders.

3 Major arguments against leadership:

1. Substitutes exist for leadership

2. Leaders can be irrelevant; people lead themselves and outside influences can overwhelm

3. Organizational systems are far too complex to attribute success to leadership

Leader Irrelevance:

Situational factors: Outside the leader’s control, have the largest impact on outcomes

Unilateral control: High-level leaders have control over only a few resources, and the control over these resources is limited by obligations to stakeholders

Uniformity and unwilling to take risks: Firms choose new leaders whose values and behaviors are similar to previous leaders

Complexity Theory:

Organizations are complex systems that cannot be explained by the usual rules of nature

Leaders and managers can do little to alter the course of the complex organizational system

A company’s fate is determined by factors outside the leader/manager’s control

Leadership Roles:

•Figurehead

•Spokesperson

•Negotiator

•Team player

•Technical problem solver

•Entrepreneur

•Strategic planner

•Coach and motivator

•Team builder

Why do leaders want to be leaders?

•A feeling of power and prestige

•A chance to help others grow and develop

•High income

•Respect and status

•Good opportunities for advancement

•A feeling of “being in on” things

•An opportunity to control resources

Leadership frustrations:

•Too much uncompensated overtime

•Too many “headaches”

•Facing a perform-or-perish mentality

•Not enough authority to carry out plans

•Loneliness

•Too many problems involving people

•Too much organizational politics

•The pursuit of conflicting goals

•Being perceived as unethical, especially if you are a corporate executive

Framework for understanding leadership: