CHAPTER – I LEADERSHIP
Technical Leadership – Leader’s goal, conviction, vision – Transformational and Transactional Leadership – Leader’s vision – Professionalism: Importance, Elements – Managing Awareness – performance – Manager’s Role in professionalism.
1. INTRODUCTION
Men are the most important components of an organization. The success of an organization depends upon the successful utilization of manpower resources. It can be done effectively in the following two ways:
By exercising authority vested in it and
By winning the whole –hearted co- operation of the employees.
Out of these the second alternative is more effective in motivating people. It is possible only if a manager becomes their leader to influence. The behavior of the people in the right direction.
2. DEFINITION
Leadership is concerned with influencing the activities of an individual or a group for the achievement of a goal in a given situation. Some of the important definitions of leadership are given below:
“Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce subordinates to work with confidence and Zeal”. – KOONTZ and O’DONNELL.
“Leadership is the lifting of man’s visions to higher sights, the raising of man’s performance to higher standards, the building of man’s personality beyond its normal limitations”.
"Leadership is the ability to step outside the culture... to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive"- E.H. Scheming
"Leadership is the process of making sense of what people are doing together so that people will understand and be committed" - Drat & Pals
"Leadership is about articulating visions, embodying values, and creating the environment within which things can be accomplished" - Richards & Engle
"Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization..." House et al.
"Leadership is the ability of developing and communicating a vision to a group of people that will make that vision true" - Valenzuela
3. Concepts of Leadership
The meaning of a message is the change which it produces in the image. - Kenneth Boulding in The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. This guide will help you through that process.
To inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels.
Before we get started, lets define leadership. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. Although your position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization, this power does not make you a leader, it simply makes you the boss. Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing people around.
Bass' (1989 & 1990) theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders. The first two explain the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are:
• Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory.
• A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory.
• People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted theory today and the premise on which this guide is based.
When a person is deciding if she respects you as a leader, she does not think about your attributes, rather, she observes what you do so that she can know who you really are. She uses this observation to tell if you are an honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their workers.
The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your organization. In your employees' eyes, your leadership is everything you do that effects the organization's objectives and their well-being. Respected leaders concentrate on what they are [be] (such as beliefs and character), what they know (such as job, tasks, and human nature), and what they do (such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction).
What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.
4. Principles of Leadership
To help you be, known, and do; (U.S. Army, 1973) follow these eleven principles of leadership (later chapters in this guide expand on these and provide tools for implementing them):
1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
2. Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.
3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later -- do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
4. Make sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.
5. Set the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi
6. Know your people and look out for their well-being - Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
7. Keep your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.
8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers - Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished - Communication is the key to this responsibility.
10. Train as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams...they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
11. Use the full capabilities of your organization - By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.
5. Factors of leadership
There are four major factors in leadership:
1. Follower
Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee. A person who lacks motivation requires a different approach than one with a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must come to know your employees' be, know, and do attributes.
2. Leader
You must have an honest understanding of who you are, what you know, and what you can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader who determines if a leader is successful. If they do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful you have to convince your followers, not yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.
3. Communication
You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when you "set the example," that communicates to your people that you would not ask them to perform anything that you would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or harms the relationship between you and your employees.
4. Situation
All are different. What you do in one situation will not always work in another. You must use your judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation. For example, you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove ineffective.
Various forces will affect these factors. Examples of forces are your relationship with your seniors, the skill of your people, the informal leaders within your organization, and how your company is organized.
6. Leadership Models
Leadership models help us to understand what makes leaders act the way they do. The ideal is not to lock yourself in to a type of behavior discussed in the model, but to realize that every situation calls for a different approach or behavior to be taken. Two models will be discussed, the Four Framework Approach and the Managerial Grid.
(A) Four Framework Approach
In the Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal (1991) suggest that leaders display leadership behaviors in one of four types of frameworks: Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic. The style can either be effective or ineffective, depending upon the chosen behavior in certain situations.
a. Structural Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a social architect whose leadership style is analysis and design. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a petty tyrant whose leadership style is details. Structural Leaders focus on structure, strategy, environment, implementation, experimentation, and adaptation.
b. Human Resource Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a catalyst and servant whose leadership style is support, ad vocation, and empowerment. while in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a pushover, whose leadership style is abdication and fraud. Human Resource Leaders believe in people and communicate that belief; they are visible and accessible; they empower, increase participation, support, share information, and move decision making down into the organization.
c. Political Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is an advocate, whose leadership style is coalition and building. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a hustler, whose leadership style is manipulation. Political leaders clarify what they want and what they can get; they assess the distribution of power and interests; they build linkages to other stakeholders, use persuasion first, then use negotiation and coercion only if necessary.
d. Symbolic Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a prophet, whose leadership style is inspiration. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a fanatic or fool, whose leadership style is smoke and mirrors. Symbolic leaders view organizations as a stage or theater to play certain roles and give impressions; these leaders use symbols to capture attention; they try to frame experience by providing plausible interpretations of experiences; they discover and communicate a vision.
This model suggests that leaders can be put into one of these four categories and there are times when one approach is appropriate and times when it would not be. Any one of these approaches alone would be inadequate, thus we should strive to be conscious of all four approaches, and not just rely on one or two. For example, during a major organization change, a structural leadership style may be more effective than a visionary leadership style; while during a period when strong growth is needed, the visionary approach may be better. We also need to understand ourselves as each of us tends to have a preferred approach. We need to be conscious of this at all times and be aware of the limitations of our favoring just one approach.
(B) Managerial Grid
The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid (1985) uses two axes:
1. "Concern for people" is plotted using the vertical axis
2. "Concern for task" is along the horizontal axis.
They both have a range of 0 to 9. The notion that just two dimensions can describe a managerial behavior has the attraction of simplicity. These two dimensions can be drawn as a graph or grid:
High 9 Country Club Team Leader
8
7
P 6
E
O 5
P
L 4
E
3
2
1 Impovised Authoritarian
0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Low High
TASK
Most people fall somewhere near the middle of the two axes. But, by going to the extremes, that is, people who score on the far end of the scales, we come up with four types of leaders:
• Authoritarian (9 on task, 1 on people)
• Team Leader (9 on task, 9 on people)
• Country Club (1 on task, 9 on people)
• Impoverished (1 on task, 1 on people).
i. Authoritarian Leader (high task, low relationship)
People who get this rating are very much task oriented and are hard on their workers (autocratic). There is little or no allowance for cooperation or collaboration. Heavily task oriented people display these characteristics: they are very strong on schedules; they expect people to do what they are told without question or debate; when something goes wrong they tend to focus on who is to blame rather than concentrate on exactly what is wrong and how to prevent it; they are intolerant of what they see as dissent (it may just be someone's creativity), so it is difficult for their subordinates to contribute or develop.
ii. Team Leader (high task, high relationship)
This type of person leads by positive example and endeavors to foster a team environment in which all team members can reach their highest potential, both as team members and as people. They encourage the team to reach team goals as effectively as possible, while also working tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among the various members. They normally form and lead some of the most productive teams.
iii. Country Club Leader (low task, high relationship)
This person uses predominantly reward power to maintain discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, they are almost incapable of employing the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This inability results from fear that using such powers could jeopardize relationships with the other team members.
iv. Impoverished Leader (low task, low relationship)
A leader who uses a "delegate and disappear" management style. Since they are not committed to either task accomplishment or maintenance; they essentially allow their team to do whatever it wishes and prefer to detach themselves from the team process by allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles.
The most desirable place for a leader to be along the two axes at most times would be a 9 on task and a 9 on people -- the Team Leader. However, do not entirely dismiss the other three. Certain situations might call for one of the other three to be used at times. For example, by playing the Impoverished Leader, you allow your team to gain self-reliance. Be an Authoritarian Leader to instill a sense of discipline in an unmotivated worker. By carefully studying the situation and the forces affecting it, you will know at what points along the axes you need to be in order to achieve the desired result.
7. Characteristics of Leadership
From the above definitions the following characteristics can be arrived at:
Leadership is a personal quality of behavior and character in a man, which helps in exercising personal influence on individuals.
Leadership helps others in attaining specific goals to the maximum satisfaction of the leader.
Leadership is a continuous process of influencing behavior of the employees.
Leadership establishes relationship between the individual and the group around some common interest.
Leadership is used in particular situation. Variation in the situations affects the effectiveness of leadership.
Leadership is the process of guiding, directing and influencing the employees to do their best to attain specific goals.
8. Leadership Qualities
Leadership is nothing but the quality which makes a person stands out different from other ordinary employees. It is associated with such a person who has aggressiveness in speech and action, love for the employees, and who can handle pressure under different circumstances and a person who is always ready to fight for the rights of employee. A leader is useless without followers. It is the followers who make a person as a leader and if required overthrow him.
Leaders play a critical role during change implementation, the period from the announcement of change through the installation of the change. During this middle period the organization is the most unstable, characterized by confusion, fear, loss of direction, reduced productivity, and lack of clarity about direction and mandate. It can be a period of emotionalism, with employees grieving for what is lost, and initially unable to look to the future.
In addition to forecast and amiability, the characteristics that leader must have are ability to recognize employees' talents, the know-how to make teams work and an open mind.
Leadership does vary to some extent as per the positions i.e. it may be slight different for manager and different for a union leader but the basic qualities of leadership does not change. According to James Scorer.
1. Good communication skill
Communication is the key to be a great leader. The reason for this is simple: if he possesses the other nine leadership qualities but if he fails to communicate well, he will never be great leader.
What he can do is communicate with others in the organization about what IT can do to move the company forward. In other words, good communication is the key for developing good business relationships. If he can’t establish a good business working relationship, he is not going to be that leader, that team player. He will not be able to communicate how IT can add long-term value to the company. The modern leaders must therefore be equipped with good communication skill and use new ways to do effective communication.
2. Honesty
The most valuable asset of a leader is honesty. He must be honest with both his employees and the management committee. Another part of his features is integrity. Once a leader compromises his or her integrity, it is lost. That is perhaps the reason integrity is considered the most admirable trait. The leaders therefore must keep it "above all else."
3. Visionary outlook
Leadership qualities are different for different position. For a CIO he must be thinking for stabilizing the current business and always looking for future scope of expansion. He has to be able to look beyond where we are today, know where the business is going, and be able to use that vision to move the company forward. Being able to do this is a rare skill indeed.
4. Selecting a good team
A good CIO although he possesses sound technical skills he assures that the team he selects is efficient enough to back up any skill he lacks. Choosing the best people for such team is a skill. A CIO after all is a human being and does not have answer for everything. But by working together he creates an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect; the team then always find the best solution.
5. Action speaks louder than words
Managers must be able to put aside their concerns to listen to (and appear to listen to) those around them. As a result, they come know what is going on, and know what is both said, and said between the lines. They have the knack of appearing to know what people need even if those needs are not expressed directly. However, knowing what is going on, and identifying the needs of those around them is not sufficient. The responsive manager also acts upon that knowledge, attempting to help fulfill the needs of employees, superiors, etc. Responsive managers wield influence to solve problems for those around them, often before even being asked.
6. Ability to motivate people around
A good leader must always keep motivating his team mates for good work and should maintain healthy environment. He must give first priority to safety of workers and see that they are not exploited by superiors.
7. Consistency
Leadership effectiveness is impossible without consistency. Every leader has an approach that is unique to them. Don't change your personal style radically after all; it got you in a leadership position. Modify the rough spots but take care not to confound your staff by displaying inconsistency. Your expectations, though subject to modification based on ever-changing business needs, should remain as constant as possible. The business world is confusing enough without you adding unwelcome surprises into the mix. Keep things simple and consistent.
8. Ability to stand against critics
As the success rate increases your critics multiply and become louder. Come to peace with the fact that you will always have a camp of people who critique every decision you make. They are generally the ones who are excellent problem-identifiers rather than problem-solvers. Develop your skills of repelling such critics so that they do not diminish your confidence or enthusiasm. It takes focus and confidence not to be adversely affected by criticism. Strong leaders learn the art of listening to critics, but ultimately making decisions for the good of the department, not to simply please the critics. The following quote sums it up nicely: "Some of the most talented people are terrible leaders because they have a crippling need to be loved by everyone."
According to Brennan, six qualities separate the leaders from the followers:
1. Integrity: This is a deal breaker if you don't have it completely. When it comes to governance, Brennan said, he "never did anything or asked anyone to do anything he couldn't go home and explain to his kids."
2. A deep understanding of the business: "You can't fake it. People will know." While you don't need to know every detail, you do have to have a good grasp of the business.
3. Consistency: While keeping things fresh is important, leaders cannot change direction frequently. They will lose people's confidence.
4. Willingness to admit a mistake: Everyone makes mistakes. If you're not making any, you're not doing your job right. But Brennan emphasized the importance of admitting your missteps -- otherwise people will not respect you.
5. The ability to listen: Good leaders must be willing to handle opinions contrary to their own and absorb as much as they can.
6. Decisiveness: While you should listen to others' opinions, the final decision is yours to make. Brennan said when CEOs fail, very often it's because they are not decisive. Average tenure for a CEO has fallen from more than a decade to three years because people lose confidence in leaders whose indecision results in failure.
9. Leadership theories
Over time, a number of theories of leadership have been proposed. Here are some of the main ideas.
• Great Man Theory
• Trait Theory
• Behavioral Theories
o Role Theory
o The Managerial Grid
• Participative Leadership
o Lewin's leadership styles
o Likert's leadership styles
• Situational Leadership
o Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership
o Vroom and Yetton's Normative Model
o House's Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
• Contingency Theories
o Fiedler's Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) Theory
o Cognitive Resource Theory
o Strategic Contingencies Theory
• Transactional Leadership
o Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
• Transformational Leadership
o Bass' Transformational Leadership Theory
o Burns' Transformational Leadership Theory
o Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Participation Inventory
1. Great Man Theory
Assumptions
Leaders are born and not made.
Great leaders will arise when there is a great need.
Description
Early research on leadership was based on the the study of people who were already great leaders. These people were often from the aristocracy, as few from lower classes had the opportunity to lead. This contributed to the notion that leadership had something to do with breeding.
The idea of the Great Man also strayed into the mythic domain, with notions that in times of need, a Great Man would arise, almost by magic. This was easy to verify, by pointing to people such as Eisenhower and Churchill, let alone those further back along the timeline, even to Jesus, Moses, Mohammed and the Buddha.
Discussion
Gender issues were not on the table when the 'Great Man' theory was proposed. Most leaders were male and the thought of a Great Woman was generally in areas other than leadership. Most researchers were also male, and concerns about and areocentric bias were a long way from being realized.
2. Trait Theory
Assumptions
People are born with inherited traits.
Some traits are particularly suited to leadership.
People who make good leaders have the right (or sufficient) combination of traits.
Description
Early research on leadership was based on the psychological focus of the day, which was of people having inherited characteristics or traits. Attention was thus put on discovering these traits, often by studying successful leaders, but with the underlying assumption that if other people could also be found with these traits, then they, too, could also become great leaders.
Stodgily (1974) identified the following traits and skills as critical to leaders.
Traits Skills
• Adaptable to situations
• Alert to social environment
• Ambitious and achievement-orientated
• Assertive
• Cooperative
• Decisive
• Dependable
• Dominant (desire to influence others)
• Energetic (high activity level)
• Persistent
• Self-confident
• Tolerant of stress
• Willing to assume responsibility • Clever (intelligent)
• Conceptually skilled
• Creative
• Diplomatic and tactful
• Fluent in speaking
• Knowledgeable about group task
• Organized (administrative ability)
• Persuasive
• Socially skilled
McCall and Lombardo (1983) researched both success and failure identified four primary traits by which leaders could succeed or 'derail':
• Emotional stability and composure: Calm, confident and predictable, particularly when under stress.
• Admitting error: Owning up to mistakes, rather than putting energy into covering up.
• Good interpersonal skills: Able to communicate and persuade others without resort to negative or coercive tactics.
• Intellectual breadth: Able to understand a wide range of areas, rather than having a narrow (and narrow-minded) area of expertise.
Discussion
There have been many different studies of leadership traits and they agree only in the general saintly qualities needed to be a leader.
For a long period, inherited traits were sidelined as learned and situational factors were considered to be far more realistic as reasons for people acquiring leadership positions.
Paradoxically, the research into twins who were separated at birth along with new sciences such as Behavioral Genetics have shown that far more is inherited than was previously supposed. Perhaps one day they will find a 'leadership gene'.
3. Behavioral Theory
Assumptions
Leaders can be made, rather than are born.
Successful leadership is based in definable, learnable behavior.
Description
Behavioral theories of leadership do not seek inborn traits or capabilities. Rather, they look at what leaders actually do.
If success can be defined in terms of describable actions, then it should be relatively easy for other people to act in the same way. This is easier to teach and learn then to adopt the more ephemeral 'traits' or 'capabilities'.
Discussion
Behavioral is a big leap from Trait Theory, in that it assumes that leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. This opens the floodgates to leadership development, as opposed to simple psychometric assessment that sorts those with leadership potential from those who will never have the chance.
A behavioral theory is relatively easy to develop, as you simply assess both leadership success and the actions of leaders. With a large enough study, you can then correlate statistically significant behaviors with success. You can also identify behaviors which contribute to failure, thus adding a second layer of understanding.
(A)Role Theory
Assumptions
People define roles for themselves and others based on social learning and reading.
People form expectations about the roles that they and others will play.
People subtly encourage others to act within the role expectations they have for them.
People will act within the roles they adopt.
Description
We all have internal schemas about the role of leaders, based on what we read, discuss and so on. We subtly send these expectations to our leaders, acting as role senders, for example through the balance of decisions we take upon ourselves and the decisions we leave to the leader.
Leaders are influenced by these signals, particularly if they are sensitive to the people around them, and will generally conform to these, playing the leadership role that is put upon them by others.
Within organizations, there is much formal and informal information about what the leader's role should be, including 'leadership values', culture, training sessions, modeling by senior managers, and so on. These and more (including contextual factors) act to shape expectations and behaviors around leadership.
Role conflict can also occur when people have differing expectations of their leaders. It also happens when leaders have different ideas about what they should be doing vs. the expectations that are put upon them.
Discussion
Role expectations of a leader can vary from very specific to a broad idea within which the leader can define their own style.
When role expectations are low or mixed, then this may also lead to role conflict.
Function and leadership
One approach to leadership identifies the fact that leaders play many roles within an organization. Hence what the leader does may well depend on the functions that the leader is performing at the time.
Kroch et al (1962) identified fourteen functions that the leader may take:
Leader's function Actions
Executive Coordinating group activities and overseeing the setting of policies and goals.
Planner Deciding how the group will achieve its goals.
Policy maker Establishing policies and goals.
Expert A source of expert information.
External group representative Speaking for the group with others.
Controller of internal relationships Determining the social structure of the group.
Purveyor of rewards and punishment Controlling members by punishing and rewarding.
Arbitrator and mediator Resolving disputes in the group.
Exemplar Behaving in a way that others should behave.
Symbol of the group Acting as symbolic embodiment of the group, its goals and its values.
Substitute for individual responsibility Relieving individuals of the need and responsibility of personal decisions.
Ideologist Being the source of beliefs and values.
Father figure Focus for positive emotional feelings of individuals and the object for identification and transference.
Scapegoat Acting as a target for aggression and hostility. Taking the blame on behalf of the group.
(1)Transactional Leadership
Assumptions
People are motivated by reward and punishment.
Social systems work best with a clear chain of command.
When people have agreed to do a job, a part of the deal is that they cede all authority to their manager.
The prime purpose of a subordinate is to do what their manager tells them to do.
Style
The transactional leader works through creating clear structures whereby it is clear what is required of their subordinates, and the rewards that they get for following orders. Punishments are not always mentioned, but they are also well-understood and formal systems of discipline are usually in place.
The early stage of Transactional Leadership is in negotiating the contract whereby the subordinate is given a salary and other benefits, and the company (and by implication the subordinate's manager) gets authority over the subordinate.
When the Transactional Leader allocates work to a subordinate, they are considered to be fully responsible for it, whether or not they have the resources or capability to carry it out. When things go wrong, then the subordinate is considered to be personally at fault, and is punished for their failure (just as they are rewarded for succeeding).
The transactional leader often uses management by exception, working on the principle that if something is operating to defined (and hence expected) performance then it does not need attention. Exceptions to expectation require praise and reward for exceeding expectation, whilst some kind of corrective action is applied for performance below expectation.
Whereas Transformational Leadership has more of a 'selling' style, Transactional Leadership, once the contract is in place, takes a 'telling' style.
Discussion
Transactional leadership is based in contingency, in that reward or punishment is contingent upon performance.
Despite much research that highlights its limitations, Transactional Leadership is still a popular approach with many managers. Indeed, in the Leadership vs. Management spectrum, it is very much towards the management end of the scale.
The main limitation is the assumption of 'rational man', a person who is largely motivated by money and simple reward, and hence whose behavior is predictable. The underlying psychology is Behaviorism, including the Classical Conditioning of Pavlov and Skinner's Operant Conditioning. These theories are largely based on controlled laboratory experiments (often with animals) and ignore complex emotional factors and social values.
In practice, there is sufficient truth in Behaviorism to sustain Transactional approaches. This is reinforced by the supply-and-demand situation of much employment, coupled with the effects of deeper needs, as in Maslow's Hierarchy. When the demand for a skill outstrips the supply, then Transactional Leadership often is insufficient, and other approaches are more effective.
Exchange principle
Principle
If I do something for you, they you are obliged to do something for me.
How it Works
Have you ever had someone come up to you in the street and give you something, perhaps a flower or even a book? How kind. But then they ask for a donation to their cause, and you feel that as they have given something to you, then you really ought to give something back.
Value exchange
Exchange is a game of balance. I help you then you help me then I help you, and so on.
What we exchange is not so much distinct things as perceived value. If I have something that I do not value very highly but you do, then it is a useful thing for exchange.
Exchanges are not necessarily financial or physical in nature. Emotional exchanges, which we use a great deal of the time, can be of surprising value. When I take my daughter to a pop concert, a smile and a hug is more than adequate payment. A simple thanks is all many want for much of their hard work on behalf of others.
Trust = delayed exchange
A simple definition of trust is 'delayed exchange'. I will do something for you today without asking for something in return. I must thus trust that you will repay the favor some time in the future.
Without trust, exchange is confined either to an immediate exchange or else a trusted third party must be utilized. Third party 'trust brokers' are more common than might be imagined. For example, a major function of banks, lawyers and friends are to act between us and others who we may not trust.
Social pressure
Breaking the exchange principle in a group can be a heinous crime, punishable by ostracizing or even expulsion. The fear of such penalties is more than enough to keep many people on the straight and narrow.
The bank account
Exchange is something like a bank account. Sometimes I put things in, sometimes I take things out. I can thus invest in helping others today so I know I can call on them in my hour of need.
Social capital
The idea of social capital is that when there is a high level of trust within a social group (which can be a large as an entire country), then we will help people we do not know, in the confident knowledge that others who we do not know will also help us. It is like we all have one big joint bank account.
We may need some help with the trust thing in such situations. What if someone takes advantage and asks for too much? This is where laws, trusted brokers and so on start to creep into the picture.
The golden rule
The biblical Golden Rule says 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Oh look: exchange. And social balance. Although others might not like the same as us, it is a simple rule which guides many decisions in an equitable fashion.
Upsetting the balance
Exchange rules are based on long-term relationships, where the balance of exchange evens out over time. However, we are programmed by these rules to the point where we will obey them even in shorter-term and low-trust exchanges.
Give and take
If I give you something, then there is a social rule that says I can ask you for pretty much anything in exchange. Cults use this when they demand absolute obedience (and all the worldly wealth) of their devotees.
One of the tricks of unbalancing exchange is to make what you are offering very desirable, for example by using scarcity or other principles to jack up the value.
Number vs. quantity
If I do three things for you and you do something of equivalent value all in one go, does that make us even? Unfortunately not. The equations of exchange are not that linear. We often confuse quantity of occurrences with quantity of time.
(2) Transformational Leadership
Assumptions
People will follow a person who inspires them.
A person with vision and passion can achieve great things.
The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.
Style
Working for a Transformational Leader can be a wonderful and uplifting experience. They put passion and energy into everything. They care about you and want you to succeed.
i. Developing the vision
Transformational Leadership starts with the development of a vision, a view of the future that will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be developed by the leader, by the senior team or may emerge from a broad series of discussions. The important factor is the leader buys into it, hook, line and sinker.
ii. Selling the vision
The next step, which in fact never stops, is to constantly sell the vision. This takes energy and commitment, as few people will immediately buy into a radical vision, and some will join the show much more slowly than others. The Transformational Leader thus takes every opportunity and will use whatever works to convince others to climb on board the bandwagon.
In order to create followers, the Transformational Leader has to be very careful in creating trust, and their personal integrity is a critical part of the package that they are selling. In effect, they are selling themselves as well as the vision.
iii. Finding the way forwards
In parallel with the selling activity is seeking the way forward. Some Transformational Leaders know the way, and simply want others to follow them. Others do not have a ready strategy, but will happily lead the exploration of possible routes to the promised land.
The route forwards may not be obvious and may not be plotted in details, but with a clear vision, the direction will always be known. Thus finding the way forward can be an ongoing process of course correction, and the Transformational Leader will accept that there will be failures and blind canyons along the way. As long as they feel progress is being made, they will be happy.
iv. Leading the charge
The final stage is to remain up-front and central during the action. Transformational Leaders are always visible and will stand up to be counted rather than hide behind their troops. They show by their attitudes and actions how everyone else should behave. They also make continued efforts to motivate and rally their followers, constantly doing the rounds, listening, soothing and enthusing.
It is their unswerving commitment as much as anything else that keeps people going, particularly through the darker times when some may question whether the vision can ever be achieved. If the people do not believe that they can succeed, then their efforts will flag. The Transformational Leader seeks to infect and reinfect their followers with a high level of commitment to the vision.
One of the methods the Transformational Leader uses to sustain motivation is in the use of ceremonies, rituals and other cultural symbolism. Small changes get big hurrahs, pumping up their significance as indicators of real progress.
Overall, they balance their attention between action that creates progress and the mental state of their followers. Perhaps more than other approaches, they are people-oriented and believe that success comes first and last through deep and sustained commitment.
Discussion
Whilst the Transformational Leader seeks overtly to transform the organization, there is also a tacit promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way, perhaps to be more like this amazing leader. In some respects, then, the followers are the product of the transformation.
Transformational Leaders are often charismatic, but are not as narcissistic as pure Charismatic Leaders, who succeed through a believe in themselves rather than a believe in others.
One of the traps of Transformational Leadership is that passion and confidence can easily be mistaken for truth and reality. Whilst it is true that great things have been achieved through enthusiastic leadership, it is also true that many passionate people have led the charge right over the cliff and into a bottomless chasm. Just because someone believes they are right, it does not mean they are right.
Paradoxically, the energy that gets people going can also cause them to give up. Transformational Leaders often have large amounts of enthusiasm which, if relentlessly applied, can wear out their followers.
Transformational Leaders also tend to see the big picture, but not the details, where the devil often lurks. If they do not have people to take care of this level of information, then they are usually doomed to fail.
Finally, Transformational Leaders, by definition, seek to transform. When the organization does not need transforming and people are happy as they are, then such a leader will be frustrated. Like wartime leaders, however, given the right situation they come into their own and can be personally responsible for saving entire companies.
The Leadership Challenge
James Skouzas and Barry Posner developed a survey (The Leadership Practices Inventory) that asked people which, of a list of common characteristics of leaders, were, in their experiences of being led by others, the seven top things they look for, admire and would willingly follow. And over twenty years, they managed ask this of seventy five thousand people.
The results of the study showed that people preferred the following characteristics, in order:
• Honest
• Forward-looking
• Competent
• Inspiring
• Intelligent
• Fair-minded
• Broad-minded
• Supportive
• Straightforward
• Dependable
• Cooperative
• Determined
• Imaginative
• Ambitious
• Courageous
• Caring
• Mature
• Loyal
• Self-controlled
• Independent
The main part of the book discusses the five actions that Kouzes and Posner identify as being key for successful leadership:
a. Model the way
Modeling means going first, living the behaviors you want others to adopt. This is leading from the front. People will believe not what they hear leaders say but what they see leader consistently do.
b. Inspire a shared vision
People are motivated most not by fear or reward, but by ideas that capture their imagination.
Note that this is not so much about having a vision, but communicating it so effectively that others take it as their own.
c. Challenge the process
Leaders thrive on and learn from adversity and difficult situations. They are early adopters of innovation.
d. Enable others to act
Encouragement and exhortation is not enough. People must feel able to act and then must have the ability to put their ideas into action.
e. Encourage the heart
People act best of all when they are passionate about what they are doing. Leaders unleash the enthusiasm of their followers this with stories and passions of their own.
Overall, it is difficult to ignore the combined views of 75,000 people. The placing of honesty first is notable and highlights the importance of telling the truth to those they would lead. The overall process identified is clearly transformational in style, which again has a strong focus on followers.
(B) The Managerial Grid
Description
Leaders may be concerned for their people and they also must also have some concern for the work to be done. The question is, how much attention to they pay to one or the other? This is a model defined by Blake and Mouton in the early 1960s.
Concern for People High Country Club management Team management
Medium Middle of the road management
Low Impoverished management Authority-compliance
Low Medium High
Concern for Production (Task)
i. Impoverished management
Minimum effort to get the work done. A basically lazy approach that avoids as much work as possible.
ii. Authority-compliance
Strong focus on task, but with little concern for people. Focus on efficiency, including the elimination of people wherever possible.
iii. Country Club management
Care and concern for the people, with a comfortable and friendly environment and collegial style. But a low focus on task may give questionable results.
iv. Middle of the road management
A weak balance of focus on both people and the work. Doing enough to get things done, but not pushing the boundaries of what may be possible.
v. Team management
Firing on all cylinders: people are committed to task and leader is committed to people (as well as task).
Discussion
This is a well-known grid that uses the Task vs. Person preference that appears in many other studies, such as the Michigan Leadership Studies and the Ohio State Leadership Studies. Many other task-people models and variants have appeared since then. They are both clearly important dimensions, but as other models point out, they are not all there is to leadership and management.
The Managerial Grid was the original name. It later changed to the Leadership Grid.
(a) Task vs. Person preference
This is the classic managerial preference question that is enshrined in such icons as the Blake-Mouton Grid and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y.
The standard situation is a manager motivating their people. Do they focus more on what is to be done, or do they spend more time on the softer people stuff, making sure they are happy, etc.? This task-people question also applies to both entire organizational cultures an individual people doing their job.
Although people can swing between task and people, the best place is often a balance between the two. In fact in many models, task- and people-focus are independent scales.
Task
People with a task focus put getting the job done as the highest priority, before any people considerations. People are seen purely as a means to getting the job done and any human considerations are generally viewed as a waste.
Meetings with others are brief and business-like. Detailed work plans are drawn up.
There is a general belief that without close attention people will get distracted, work slowly and otherwise act inefficiently.
Subordinates are thus motivated with clear objectives and regular reviews. This is largely based on a view of 'rational man,' that people are relatively simple and that motivating them correctly is simply a matter of pressing the right buttons. People are seen as generally selfish and lazy. The manager-worker division is quite clear: you think-they do. Motivation is based around Control and the simple exchange of money for compliance.
People
Attention here is paid to the emotional well-being of other people. There is a general belief that if the people are happy then they will be optimally motivated to do the work they are given. In addition, it is assumed that they will also think intelligently about the work and, with a minimum guidance, will plan, monitor and improve much of what they are doing.
The role of the manager is thus seen more as being to motivate and support people. In Transactional Analysis terms this is about being a Nurturing Parent rather than a Controlling Parent.
There is also an underlying belief in such principles as Intrinsic Motivation and empowerment. People are seen as being basically good and caring, and also too complex for simple behavioral techniques to work. The basic manager-worker division (although there is much less of a division here) is 'I guide and support-you think and do.' Motivation is based around Identity and social exchanges that create loyalty and other emotional ties.
(b) Trompenaars' four diversity cultures
Fens Trompenaars is another Dutch ultraist who is into international culture. This is a 2x2 model which is much simpler than the more complex Trompenaars' and Hampden-Turner's cultural factors.
The four diversity cultures
This model assumes major dimensions of person vs. task and centralized (which is also assumed to be hierarchical) vs. decentralized (which is assumed to be more egalitarian). Both of these dimensions are very common measures and can often be easily determined.
.
Egalitarian/decentralized
Person/Informal Style
Incubator
(fulfillment- oriented)
Guided Missile
(project- oriented) Task/Formal Style
Family
(power- oriented)
Eiffel Tower
(role- oriented)
Hierarchical/centralized
Factors in each model
a. Relationship between employees
Family: diffuse relationship to organic whole to which one is bonded
Eiffel Tower: specific role in mechanical system of required interactions
Guided Missile: specific tasks in cybernetic system targeted upon shared objectives
Incubator: diffuse spontaneous relationships growing out of shared creative processes
b. Attitude to authority
Family: status is ascribed to parent figures who are close and all powerful
Eiffel Tower: status is ascribed to superior roles who are distant yet powerful
Guided Missile: status is achieved by project group members who contribute to the targeted goal
Incubator: status is achieved by individuals exemplifying creativity & growth
c. Ways of thinking and learning
Family: intuitive, holistic, lateral and error correcting
Eiffel Tower: logical, analytical, vertical and rationally efficient
Guided Missile: problem centered, professional, practical, cross disciplinary
Incubator: process oriented, creative, ad-hoc, inspirational
d. Attitudes to people
Family: as family members
Eiffel Tower: human resources
Guided Missile: specialists and experts
Incubators: co-creators
e. Managing change
Family: “Father” changes course
Eiffel Tower: change rules and procedures
Guided Missile: shift aim as target moves
Incubator: improvise and attune
(C) Michigan Studies
Research
A famous series of studies on leadership were done in Michigan University, starting in the 1950s. They found three critical characteristics of effective leaders.
Actions
i. Task-oriented behavior
Effective managers studied did not do the same kind work as their subordinates. Their tasks were different, and included planning and scheduling work, coordinating activities and providing necessary resources.
They also spent time guiding subordinates in setting task goals that were both challenging and achievable.
ii. Relationship-oriented behavior
Effective managers not only concentrated on the task, but also on their relationship with their subordinates. They were more considerate, helpful and supportive of subordinates, including helping them with their career and personal problems. They recognized effort with intrinsic as well as extrinsic reward, thanking people for effort.
Overall, the effective preferred a general and hands-off form of supervision rather than close control. They set goals and provided guidelines, but then gave their subordinates plenty of leeway as to how the goals would be achieved.
iii. Participative leadership
Effective leaders use a participative style, managing at the group level as well as individually, for example using team meetings to share ideas and involve the team in group decisions and problem-solving. By their actions, such leaders model good team-oriented behavior.
The role of the manager is more facilitative than directive, guiding the conversation and helping to resolve differences. The manager, however, is responsible for results and is not absolved of responsibility. As such, they may make final decisions that take recommendations from the team into account.
The effect of participative leadership is to build a cohesive team which works together rather than a set of individuals.
Discussion
Although an early study, this is still often referenced. It is notable that the two factors correlate with the people-task division that appears in other studies and also as preferences (although the preference scale generally assumes an either-or structure rather than two independent scales).
The Michigan studies were conducted around the same time as the Ohio State Leadership Studies, which also identified the focus on task ('Initiating Structure') and people ('Consideration'). The Michigan studies added 'Participative leadership' to the Ohio findings, moving the debate further into the question of leading teams rather than just individuals.
(D) Ohio State Studies
Research
A famous series of studies on leadership were done in Ohio State University, starting in the 1950s. They found two critical characteristics either of which could be high or low and were independent of one another.
The research was base on questionnaires to leaders and subordinates. These are known as the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LDBQ) and the Supervisor Behavior Description Questionnaire (SDBQ). By 1962, the LDBQ was on version XII.
Actions
a. Consideration
Consideration is the degree to which a leader acts in a friendly and supportive manner towards his or her subordinates.
b. Initiating Structure
This is the degree to which a leader defines and structures his or her role and the roles of the subordinates towards achieving the goals of the group.
Discussion
Although an early study, this is still often referenced. It is notable that the two factors correlate with the people-task division that appears in other studies and also as preferences (although the preference scale generally assumes an either-or structure rather than two independent scales).
Consideration is the people-orientation and Initiating Structure is the task orientation.
The Ohio State studies were conducted around the same time as the Michigan Leadership Studies, which also identified as critical the focus on task and people.
4. Participative Leadership
Assumptions
Involvement in decision-making improves the understanding of the issues involved by those who must carry out the decisions.
People are more committed to actions where they have involved in the relevant decision-making.
People are less competitive and more collaborative when they are working on joint goals.
When people make decisions together, the social commitment to one another is greater and thus increases their commitment to the decision.
Several people deciding together make better decisions than one person alone.
Style
A Participative Leader, rather than taking autocratic decisions, seeks to involve other people in the process, possibly including subordinates, peers, superiors and other stakeholders. Often, however, as it is within the managers' whim to give or deny control to his or her subordinates, most participative activity is within the immediate team. The question of how much influence others are given thus may vary on the manager's preferences and beliefs, and a whole spectrum of participation is possible, as in the table below.
< Not participative Highly participative >
Autocratic decision by leader Leader proposes decision, listens to feedback, then decides Team proposes decision, leader has final decision Joint decision with team as equals Full delegation of decision to team
There are many varieties on this spectrum, including stages where the leader sells the idea to the team. Another variant is for the leader to describe the 'what' of objectives or goals and let the team or individuals decide the 'how' of the process by which the 'how' will be achieved (this is often called 'Management by Objectives').
The level of participation may also depend on the type of decision being made. Decisions on how to implement goals may be highly participative, whilst decisions during subordinate performance evaluations are more likely to be taken by the manager.
Discussion
There are many potential benefits of participative leadership, as indicated in the assumptions, above.
This approach is also known as consultation, empowerment, joint decision-making, democratic leadership, Management by Objective (MBO) and power-sharing.
Participative Leadership can be a sham when managers ask for opinions and then ignore them. This is likely to lead to cynicism and feelings of betrayal.
(1) Lewis’s leadership styles
Description
Kurt Lewis and colleagues did leadership decision experiments in 1939 and identified three different styles of leadership, in particular around decision-making.
a. Autocratic
In the autocratic style, the leader takes decisions without consulting with others. The decision is made without any form of consultation. In Lewin's experiments, he found that this caused the most level of discontent.
An autocratic style works when there is no need for input on the decision, where the decision would not change as a result of input, and where the motivation of people to carry out subsequent actions would not be affected whether they were or were not involved in the decision-making.
b. Democratic
In the democratic style, the leader involves the people in the decision-making, although the process for the final decision may vary from the leader having the final say to them facilitating consensus in the group.
Democratic decision-making is usually appreciated by the people, especially if they have been used to autocratic decisions with which they disagreed. It can be problematic when there are a wide range of opinions and there is no clear way of reaching an equitable final decision.
c. Laissez-Faire
The laissez-faire style is to minimize the leader's involvement in decision-making, and hence allowing people to make their own decisions, although they may still be responsible for the outcome.
Laissez-faire works best when people are capable and motivated in making their own decisions, and where there is no requirement for a central coordination, for example in sharing resources across a range of different people and groups.
Discussion
In Lewis et al's experiments, he discovered that the most effective style was Democratic. Excessive autocratic styles led to revolution, whilst under a Laissez-faire approach, people were not coherent in their work and did not put in the energy that they did when being actively led.
These experiments were actually done with groups of children, but were early in the modern era and were consequently highly influential.
(2) Likert's leadership styles
Description
Rensis Likert identified four main styles of leadership, in particular around decision-making and the degree to which people are involved in the decision.
1. Exploitive authoritative
In this style, the leader has a low concern for people and uses such methods as threats and other fear-based methods to achieve conformance. Communication is almost entirely downwards and the psychologically distant concerns of people are ignored.
2. Benevolent authoritative
When the leader adds concern for people to an authoritative position, a 'benevolent dictatorship' is formed. The leader now uses rewards to encourage appropriate performance and listens more to concerns lower down the organization, although what they hear is often rose-tinted, being limited to what their subordinates think that the boss wants to hear. Although there may be some delegation of decisions, almost all major decisions are still made centrally.
3. Consultative
The upward flow of information here is still cautious and rose-tinted to some degree, although the leader is making genuine efforts to listen carefully to ideas. Nevertheless, major decisions are still largely centrally made.
4. Participative
At this level, the leader makes maximum use of participative methods, engaging people lower down the organization in decision-making. People across the organization are psychologically closer together and work well together at all levels.
Discussion
This is a classic 1960s view in that it is still very largely top-down in nature, with the cautious addition collaborative elements towards the Utopian final state.
(3) Vroom and Yet ton’s Normative Model
Assumptions
Decision acceptance increases commitment and effectiveness of action.
Participation increases decision acceptance.
Description
Decision quality is the selection of the best alternative, and is particularly important when there are many alternatives. It is also important when there are serious implications for selecting (or failing to select) the best alternative.
Decision acceptance is the degree to which a follower accepts a decision made by a leader. Leaders focus more on decision acceptance when decision quality is more important.
Vroom and Yet ton defined five different decision procedures. Two are autocratic (A1 and A2), two are consultative (C1 and C2) and one is Group based (G2).
A1: Leader takes known information and then decides alone.
A2: Leader gets information from followers, and then decides alone.
C1: Leader shares problem with followers individually, listens to ideas and then decides alone.
C2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group, listens to ideas and then decides alone.
G2: Leader shares problems with followers as a group and then seeks and accepts consensus agreement.
Situational factors that influence the method are relatively logical:
• When decision quality is important and followers possess useful information, then A1 and A2 are not the best method.
• When the leader sees decision quality as important but followers do not, then G2 is inappropriate.
• When decision quality is important, when the problem is unstructured and the leader lacks information / skill to make the decision alone, then G2 is best.
• When decision acceptance is important and followers are unlikely to accept an autocratic decision, then A1 and A2 are inappropriate.
• when decision acceptance is important but followers are likely to disagree with one another, then A1, A2 and C1 are not appropriate, because they do not give opportunity for differences to be resolved.
• When decision quality is not important but decision acceptance is critical, then G2 is the best method.
• When decision quality is important, all agree with this, and the decision is not likely to result from an autocratic decision then G2 is best.
Discussion
Vroom and Yet ton (1973) took the earlier generalized situational theories that noted how situational factors cause almost unpredictable leader behavior and reduced this to a more limited set of behaviors.
The 'normative' aspect of the model is that it was defined more by rational logic than by long observation.
The model is most likely to work when there is clear and accessible opinions about the decision quality importance and decision acceptance factors. However these are not always known with any significant confidence.
5. Situational Leadership
Assumptions
The best action of the leader depends on a range of situational factors.
Style
When a decision is needed, an effective leader does not just fall into a single preferred style, such as using transactional or transformational methods. In practice, as they say, things are not that simple.
Factors that affect situational decisions include motivation and capability of followers. This, in turn, is affected by factors within the particular situation. The relationship between followers and the leader may be another factor that affects leader behavior as much as it does follower behavior.
The leaders' perception of the follower and the situation will affect what they do rather than the truth of the situation. The leader's perception of themselves and other factors such as stress and mood will also modify the leaders' behavior.
Yukl (1989) seeks to combine other approaches and identifies six variables:
• Subordinate effort: the motivation and actual effort expended.
• Subordinate ability and role clarity: followers knowing what to do and how to do it.
• Organization of the work: the structure of the work and utilization of resources.
• Cooperation and cohesiveness: of the group in working together.
• Resources and support: the availability of tools, materials, people, etc.
• External coordination: the need to collaborate with other groups.
Leaders here work on such factors as external relationships, acquisition of resources, managing demands on the group and managing the structures and culture of the group.
Discussion
Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) identified three forces that led to the leader's action: the forces in the situation, the forces in then follower and also forces in the leader. This recognizes that the leader's style is highly variable, and even such distant events as a family argument can lead to the displacement activity of a more aggressive stance in an argument than usual.
Maier (1963) noted that leaders not only consider the likelihood of a follower accepting a suggestion, but also the overall importance of getting things done. Thus in critical situations, a leader is more likely to be directive in style simply because of the implications of failure.
(i) Heresy and Blanchard's Situational Leadership
Assumptions
Leaders should adapt their style to follower development style (or 'maturity'), based on how ready and willing the follower is to perform required tasks (that is, their competence and motivation).
There are four leadership styles (S1 to S4) that match the development levels (D1 to D4) of the followers.
The four styles suggest that leaders should put greater or less focus on the task in question and/or the relationship between the leader and the follower, depending on the development level of the follower.
Style
Leadership style in response to follower development level Follower development level
Low High
R4 R3 R2 R1
Task / directive behavior
Low High
Relationship / supportive
behavior High
Low
S3
Partici-
pating S2
Selling
S4
Dele-
gating
S1
Telling
1.S1: Telling / Directing
Follower: R1: Low competence, low commitment / Unable and unwilling or insecure
Leader: High task focus, low relationship focus
When the follower cannot do the job and is unwilling or afraid to try, then the leader takes a highly directive role, telling them what to do but without a great deal of concern for the relationship. The leader may also provide a working structure, both for the job and in terms of how the person is controlled.
The leader may first find out why the person is not motivated and if there are any limitations in ability. These two factors may be linked, for example where a person believes they are less capable than they should be may be in some form of denial or other coping. They follower may also lack self-confidence as a result.
If the leader focused more on the relationship, the follower may become confused about what must be done and what is optional. The leader thus maintains a clear 'do this' position to ensure all required actions are clear.
2.S2: Selling / Coaching
Follower: R2: Some competence, variable commitment / Unable but willing or motivated
Leader: High task focus, high relationship focus
When the follower can do the job, at least to some extent, and perhaps is over-confident about their ability in this, then 'telling' them what to do may demotivate them or lead to resistance. The leader thus needs to 'sell' another way of working, explaining and clarifying decisions.
The leader thus spends time listening and advising and, where appropriate, helping the follower to gain necessary skills through coaching methods.
Note: S1 and S2 are leader-driven.
3.S3: Participating / Supporting
Follower: R3: High competence, variable commitment / Able but unwilling or insecure
Leader: Low task focus, high relationship focus
When the follower can do the job, but is refusing to do it or otherwise showing insufficient commitment, the leader need not worry about showing them what to do, and instead is concerned with finding out why the person is refusing and thence persuading them to cooperate.
There is less excuse here for followers to be reticent about their ability, and the key is very much around motivation. If the causes are found then they can be addressed by the leader. The leader thus spends time listening, praising and otherwise making the follower feel good when they show the necessary commitment.
4.S4: Delegating / Observing
Follower: R4: High competence, high commitment / Able and willing or motivated
Leader: Low task focus, low relationship focus
When the follower can do the job and is motivated to do it, then the leader can basically leave them to it, largely trusting them to get on with the job although they also may need to keep a relatively distant eye on things to ensure everything is going to plan.
Followers at this level have less need for support or frequent praise, although as with anyone, occasional recognition is always welcome.
Note: S3 and S4 are follower-led.
Discussion
Heresy and Blanchard (of 'One Minute Manager' fame) have written a short and very readable book on the approach. It is simple and easy to understand, which makes it particularly attractive for practicing managers who do not want to get into heavier material. It also is accepted in wider spheres and often appear in college courses.
It is limited, however, and is based on assumptions that can be challenged, for example the assumption that at the 'telling' level, the relationship is of lower importance.
(2) Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
Description
The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership was developed to describe the way that leaders encourage and support their followers in achieving the goals they have been set by making the path that they should take clear and easy.
In particular, leaders:
• Clarify the path so subordinates know which way to go.
• Remove roadblocks that are stopping them going there.
• Increasing the rewards along the route.
Leaders can take a strong or limited approach in these. In clarifying the path, they may be directive or give vague hints. In removing roadblocks, they may scour the path or help the follower move the bigger blocks. In increasing rewards, they may give occasional encouragement or pave the way with gold.
This variation in approach will depend on the situation, including the follower's capability and motivation, as well as the difficulty of the job and other contextual factors.
House and Mitchell (1974) describe four styles of leadership:
1.Supportive leadership
Considering the needs of the follower, showing concern for their welfare and creating a friendly working environment. This includes increasing the follower's self-esteem and making the job more interesting. This approach is best when the work is stressful, boring or hazardous.
2.Directive leadership
Telling followers what needs to be done and giving appropriate guidance along the way. This includes giving them schedules of specific work to be done at specific times. Rewards may also be increased as needed and role ambiguity decreased (by telling them what they should be doing).
This may be used when the task is unstructured and complex and the follower is inexperienced. This increases the follower's sense of security and control and hence is appropriate to the situation.
3.Participative leadership
Consulting with followers and taking their ideas into account when making decisions and taking particular actions. This approach is best when the followers are expert and their advice is both needed and they expect to be able to give it.
4.Achievement-oriented leadership
Setting challenging goals, both in work and in self-improvement (and often together). High standards are demonstrated and expected. The leader shows faith in the capabilities of the follower to succeed. This approach is best when the task is complex.
Discussion
Leaders who show the way and help followers along a path are effectively 'leading'.
This approach assumes that there is one right way of achieving a goal and that the leader can see it and the follower cannot. This casts the leader as the knowing person and the follower as dependent.
It also assumes that the follower is completely rational and that the appropriate methods can be deterministically selected depending on the situation.
6. Contingency Theory
Assumptions
The leader's ability to lead is contingent upon various situational factors, including the leader's preferred style, the capabilities and behaviors of followers and also various other situational factors.
Description
Contingency theories are a class of behavioral theory that contends that there is no one best way of leading and that a leadership style that is effective in some situations may not be successful in others.
An effect of this is that leaders who are very effective at one place and time may become unsuccessful either when transplanted to another situation or when the factors around them change.
This helps to explain how some leaders who seem for a while to have the 'Midas touch' suddenly appear to go off the boil and make very unsuccessful decisions.
Discussion
Contingency theory is similar to situational theory in that there is an assumption of no simple one right way. The main difference is that situational theory tends to focus more on the behaviors that the leader should adopt, given situational factors (often about follower behavior), whereas contingency theory takes a broader view that includes contingent factors about leader capability and other variables within the situation.
(1) Fiedler's Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) Theory
Assumptions
Leaders prioritize between task-focus and people-focus.
Relationships, power and task structure are the three key factors that drive effective styles.
Description
Fiedler identified the a Least Preferred Co-Worker scoring for leaders by asking them first to think of a person with which they worked that they would like least to work with again, and then to score the person on a range of scales between positive factors (friendly, helpful, cheerful, etc.) and negative factors (unfriendly, unhelpful, gloomy, etc.). A high LPC leader generally scores the other person as positive and a low LPC leader scores them as negative.
High LPC leaders tend to have close and positive relationships and act in a supportive way, even prioritizing the relationship before the task. Low LPC leaders put the task first and will turn to relationships only when they are satisfied with how the work is going.
Three factors are then identified about the leader, member and the task, as follows:
• Leader-Member Relations: The extent to which the leader has the support and loyalties of followers and relations with them are friendly and cooperative.
• Task structure: The extent to which tasks are standardized, documented and controlled.
• Leader's Position-power: The extent to which the leader has authority to assess follower performance and give reward or punishment.
The best LPC approach depends on a combination of there three. Generally, a high LPC approach is best when leader-member relations are poor, except when the task is unstructured and the leader is weak, in which a low LPC style is better.
# Leader-Member Relations Task structure Leader's Position- power Most Effective leader
1 Good Structured Strong Low LPC
2 Good Structured Weak Low LPC
3 Good Unstructured Strong Low LPC
4 Good Unstructured Weak High LPC
5 Poor Structured Strong High LPC
6 Poor Structured Weak High LPC
7 Poor Unstructured Strong High LPC
8 Poor Unstructured Weak Low LPC
Discussion
This approach seeks to identify the underlying beliefs about people, in particular whether the leader sees others as positive (high LPC) or negative (low LPC). The neat trick of the model is to take someone where it would be very easy to be negative about them.
This is another approach that uses task- vs. people-focus as a major categorization of the leader's style.
(2) Cognitive Resource Theory
Assumptions
Intelligence and experience and other cognitive resources are factors in leadership success.
Cognitive capabilities, although significant are not enough to predict leadership success.
Stress impacts the ability to make decisions.
Description
Cognitive Resource Theory predicts that:
1. A leader's cognitive ability contributes to the performance of the team only when the leader's approach is directive.
When leaders are better at planning and decision-making, in order for their plans and decisions to be implemented, they need to tell people what to do, rather than hope they agree with them.
When they are not better than people in the team, then a non-directive approach is more appropriate, for example where they facilitate an open discussion where the ideas of team can be aired and the best approach identified and implemented.
2. Stress affects the relationship between intelligence and decision quality.
When there is low stress, then intelligence is fully functional and makes an optimal contribution. However, during high stress, a natural intelligence not only makes no difference, but it may also have a negative effect. One reason for this may be that an intelligent person seeks rational solutions, which may not be available (and may be one of the causes of stress). In such situations, a leader who is inexperienced in 'gut feel' decisions is forced to rely on this unfamiliar approach. Another possibility is that the leader retreats within him/herself, to think hard about the problem, leaving the group to their own devices.
3. Experience is positively related to decision quality under high stress.
When there is a high stress situation and intelligence is impaired, experience of the same or similar situations enables the leader to react in appropriate ways without having to think carefully about the situation. Experience of decision-making under stress also will contribute to a better decision than trying to muddle through with brain-power alone.
4. For simple tasks, leader intelligence and experience is irrelevant.
When subordinates are given tasks which do not need direction or support, then it does not matter how good the leader is at making decisions, because they are easy to make, even for subordinates, and hence do not need any further support.
Discussion
CRT arose out of dissatisfaction with Trait Theory.
Fiedler also linked CRT with his Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) Theory, suggesting that high LPC scores are the main drivers of directive behavior.
A particularly significant aspect of CRT is the principle that intelligence is the main factor in low-stress situations, whilst experience counts for more during high-stress moments
7. Transactional Leadership
Assumptions
People are motivated by reward and punishment.
Social systems work best with a clear chain of command.
When people have agreed to do a job, a part of the deal is that they cede all authority to their manager.
The prime purpose of a subordinate is to do what their manager tells them to do.
Style
The transactional leader works through creating clear structures whereby it is clear what is required of their subordinates, and the rewards that they get for following orders. Punishments are not always mentioned, but they are also well-understood and formal systems of discipline are usually in place.
The early stage of Transactional Leadership is in negotiating the contract whereby the subordinate is given a salary and other benefits, and the company (and by implication the subordinate's manager) gets authority over the subordinate.
When the Transactional Leader allocates work to a subordinate, they are considered to be fully responsible for it, whether or not they have the resources or capability to carry it out. When things go wrong, then the subordinate is considered to be personally at fault, and is punished for their failure (just as they are rewarded for succeeding).
The transactional leader often uses management by exception, working on the principle that if something is operating to defined (and hence expected) performance then it does not need attention. Exceptions to expectation require praise and reward for exceeding expectation, whilst some kind of corrective action is applied for performance below expectation.
Whereas Transformational Leadership has more of a 'selling' style, Transactional Leadership, once the contract is in place, takes a 'telling' style.
Discussion
Transactional leadership is based in contingency, in that reward or punishment is contingent upon performance.
Despite much research that highlights its limitations, Transactional Leadership is still a popular approach with many managers. Indeed, in the Leadership vs. Management spectrum, it is very much towards the management end of the scale.
The main limitation is the assumption of 'rational man', a person who is largely motivated by money and simple reward, and hence whose behavior is predictable. The underlying psychology is Behaviorism, including the Classical Conditioning of Pavlov and Skinner's Operant Conditioning. These theories are largely based on controlled laboratory experiments (often with animals) and ignore complex emotional factors and social values.
In practice, there is sufficient truth in Behaviorism to sustain Transactional approaches. This is reinforced by the supply-and-demand situation of much employment, coupled with the effects of deeper needs, as in Maslow's Hierarchy. When the demand for a skill outstrips the supply, then Transactional Leadership often is insufficient, and other approaches are more effective
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
Description
Leader-Member Exchange Theory, also called LMX or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory, describes how leaders in groups maintain their position through a series of tacit exchange agreements with their members.
In-group and out-group
In particular, leaders often have a special relationship with an inner circle of trusted lieutenants, assistants and advisors, to whom they give high levels of responsibility, decision influence, and access to resources. This in-group pay for their position. They work harder, are more committed to task objectives, and share more administrative duties. They are also expected to be fully committed and loyal to their leader. The out-group, on the other hand, are given low levels of choice or influence.
This also puts constraints upon the leader. They have to nurture the relationship with their inner circle whilst balancing giving them power with ensuring they do not have enough to strike out on their own.
The LMX process
These relationships, if they are going to happen, start very soon after a person joins the group and follow three stages.
1. Role taking
The member joins the team and the leader assesses their abilities and talents. Based on this, the leader may offer them opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities.
Another key factor in this stage is the discovery by both parties of how the other likes to be respected.
2. Role making
In the second phase, the leader and member take part in an unstructured and informal negotiation whereby a role is created for the member and the often-tacit promise of benefit and power in return for dedication and loyalty takes place.
Trust-building is very important in this stage, and any felt betrayal, especially by the leader, can result in the member being relegated to the out-group.
This negotiation includes relationship factors as well as pure work-related ones, and a member who is similar to the leader in various ways is more likely to succeed. This perhaps explains why mixed gender relationships regularly are less successful than same-gender ones (it also affects the seeking of respect in the first stage). The same effect also applies to cultural and racial differences.
3. Reutilization
In this phase, a pattern of ongoing social exchange between the leader and the member becomes established.
Success factors
Successful members are thus similar in many ways to the leader (which perhaps explains why many senior teams are all white, male, middle-class and middle-aged). They work hard at building and sustaining trust and respect.
To help this, they are empathetic, patient, reasonable, sensitive, and are good at seeing the viewpoint of other people (especially the leader). Aggression, sarcasm and an egocentric view are keys to the out-group wash-room.
The overall quality of the LMX relationship varies with several factors. Curiously, it is better when the challenge of the job is extremely high or extremely low. The size of the group, financial resource availability and the overall workload are also important.
Onwards and upwards
The principle works upwards as well. The leader also gains power by being a member of their manager's inner circle, which then can then share on downwards. People at the bottom of an organization with unusual power may get it from an unbroken chain of circles up to the hierarchy.
8. Transformational Leadership
Assumptions
People will follow a person who inspires them.
A person with vision and passion can achieve great things.
The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.
Style
Working for a Transformational Leader can be a wonderful and uplifting experience. They put passion and energy into everything. They care about you and want you to succeed.
Developing the vision
Transformational Leadership starts with the development of a vision, a view of the future that will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be developed by the leader, by the senior team or may emerge from a broad series of discussions. The important factor is the leader buys into it, hook, line and sinker.
Selling the vision
The next step, which in fact never stops, is to constantly sell the vision. This takes energy and commitment, as few people will immediately buy into a radical vision, and some will join the show much more slowly than others. The Transformational Leader thus takes every opportunity and will use whatever works to convince others to climb on board the bandwagon.
In order to create followers, the Transformational Leader has to be very careful in creating trust, and their personal integrity is a critical part of the package that they are selling. In effect, they are selling themselves as well as the vision.
Finding the way forwards
In parallel with the selling activity is seeking the way forward. Some Transformational Leaders know the way, and simply want others to follow them. Others do not have a ready strategy, but will happily lead the exploration of possible routes to the promised land.
The route forwards may not be obvious and may not be plotted in details, but with a clear vision, the direction will always be known. Thus finding the way forward can be an ongoing process of course correction, and the Transformational Leader will accept that there will be failures and blind canyons along the way. As long as they feel progress is being made, they will be happy.
Leading the charge
The final stage is to remain up-front and central during the action. Transformational Leaders are always visible and will stand up to be counted rather than hide behind their troops. They show by their attitudes and actions how everyone else should behave. They also make continued efforts to motivate and rally their followers, constantly doing the rounds, listening, soothing and enthusing.
It is their unswerving commitment as much as anything else that keeps people going, particularly through the darker times when some may question whether the vision can ever be achieved. If the people do not believe that they can succeed, then their efforts will flag. The Transformational Leader seeks to infect and reinforce their followers with a high level of commitment to the vision.
One of the methods the Transformational Leader uses to sustain motivation is in the use of ceremonies, rituals and other cultural symbolism. Small changes get big hurrahs, pumping up their significance as indicators of real progress.
Overall, they balance their attention between action that creates progress and the mental state of their followers. Perhaps more than other approaches, they are people-oriented and believe that success comes first and last through deep and sustained commitment.
Discussion
Whilst the Transformational Leader seeks overtly to transform the organization, there is also a tacit promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way, perhaps to be more like this amazing leader. In some respects, then, the followers are the product of the transformation.
Transformational Leaders are often charismatic, but are not as narcissistic as pure Charismatic Leaders, who succeed through a believe in themselves rather than a believe in others.
One of the traps of Transformational Leadership is that passion and confidence can easily be mistaken for truth and reality. Whilst it is true that great things have been achieved through enthusiastic leadership, it is also true that many passionate people have led the charge right over the cliff and into a bottomless chasm. Just because someone believes they are right, it does not mean they are right.
Paradoxically, the energy that gets people going can also cause them to give up. Transformational Leaders often have large amounts of enthusiasm which, if relentlessly applied, can wear out their followers.
Transformational Leaders also tend to see the big picture, but not the details, where the devil often lurks. If they do not have people to take care of this level of information, then they are usually doomed to fail.
Finally, Transformational Leaders, by definition, seek to transform. When the organization does not need transforming and people are happy as they are, then such a leader will be frustrated. Like wartime leaders, however, given the right situation they come into their own and can be personally responsible for saving entire companies.
(1) Bass' Transformational Leadership Theory
Assumptions
Awareness of task importance motivates people.
A focus on the team or organization produces better work.
Description
Bass defined transformational leadership in terms of how the leader affects followers, who are intended to trust, admire and respect the transformational leader.
He identified three ways in which leaders transform followers:
• Increasing their awareness of task importance and value.
• Getting them to focus first on team or organizational goals, rather than their own interests.
• Activating their higher-order needs.
Charisma is seen as necessary, but not sufficient, for example in the way that charismatic movie stars may not make good leaders. Two key charismatic effects that transformational leaders achieve is to evoke strong emotions and to cause identification of the followers with the leader. This may be through stirring appeals. It may also may occur through quieter methods such as coaching and mentoring.
Bass has recently noted that authentic transformational leadership is grounded in moral foundations that are based on four components:
• Idealized influence
• Inspirational motivation
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualized consideration
...and three moral aspects:
• The moral character of the leader.
• The ethical values embedded in the leader’s vision, articulation, and program (which followers either embrace or reject).
• The morality of the processes of social ethical choice and action that leaders and followers engage in and collectively pursue.
This is in contrast with pseudo-transformational leadership, where, for example, in-group/out-group 'us and them' games are used to bond followers to the leader.
Discussion
In contrast to Burns, who sees transformational leadership as being inextricably linked with higher order values, Bass sees it as amoral, and attributed transformational skills to people such as Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones.
(2) Burns' Transformational Leadership Theory
Assumptions
Association with a higher moral position is motivating and will result in people following a leader who promotes this.
Working collaboratively is better than working individually.
Description
Burns defined transformational leadership as a process where leaders and followers engage in a mutual process of 'raising one another to higher levels of morality and motivation.'
Transformational leaders raise the bar by appealing to higher ideals and values of followers. In doing so, they may model the values themselves and use charismatic methods to attract people to the values and to the leader.
Burns' view is that transformational leadership is more effective than transactional leadership, where the appeal is to more selfish concerns. An appeal to social values thus encourages people to collaborate, rather than working as individuals (and potentially competitively with one another). He also views transformational leadership as an ongoing process rather than the discrete exchanges of the transactional approach.
Discussion
Using social and spiritual values as a motivational lever is very powerful as they are both hard to deny and also give people an uplifting sense of being connected to a higher purpose, thus playing to the need for a sense of meaning and identity.
Ideals are higher in Maslow's Hierarchy, which does imply that lower concerns such as health and security must be reasonably safe before people will pay serious attention to the higher possibilities.
(3) The Leadership Challenge
James Skouzas and Barry Posner developed a survey (The Leadership Practices Inventory) that asked people which, of a list of common characteristics of leaders, were, in their experiences of being led by others, the seven top things they look for, admire and would willingly follow. And over twenty years, they managed ask this of seventy five thousand people.
The results of the study showed that people preferred the following characteristics, in order:
• Honest
• Forward-looking
• Competent
• Inspiring
• Intelligent
• Fair-minded
• Broad-minded
• Supportive
• Straightforward
• Dependable
• Cooperative
• Determined
• Imaginative
• Ambitious
• Courageous
• Caring
• Mature
• Loyal
• Self-controlled
• Independent
The main part of the book discusses the five actions that Kouzes and Posner identify as being key for successful leadership:
Model the way
Modeling means going first, living the behaviors you want others to adopt. This is leading from the front. People will believe not what they hear leaders say but what they see leader consistently do.
Inspire a shared vision
People are motivated most not by fear or reward, but by ideas that capture their imagination.
Note that this is not so much about having a vision, but communicating it so effectively that others take it as their own.
Challenge the process
Leaders thrive on and learn from adversity and difficult situations. They are early adopters of innovation.
Enable others to act
Encouragement and exhortation is not enough. People must feel able to act and then must have the ability to put their ideas into action.
Encourage the heart
People act best of all when they are passionate about what they are doing. Leaders unleash the enthusiasm of their followers this with stories and passions of their own.
Overall, it is difficult to ignore the combined views of 75,000 people. The placing of honesty first is notable and highlights the importance of telling the truth to those they would lead. The overall process identified is clearly transformational in style, which again has a strong focus on followers.
(4) Zaleznik's follower typology
Harvard professor Abraham Zaleznik described an early model of follower ship, base on the two dimensions of submission vs. control and activity vs. passivity. These were based in Zaleznik's Freudian perspective.
Controlling followers want to control their superiors, whilst submissive followers want to be told what to do. Active followers initiate and intrude, whilst passive ones sit back and let things happen.
Dominance
(controlling)
Active
mode of behavior
Impulsive
Compulsive
Masochistic
Withdrawn
Passive
mode of behavior
Submission
(being controlled)
1. Impulsive
Impulsive followers are often rebellious, trying to lead whilst being led. They are sometimes spontaneous and
courageous.
2. Compulsive
Compulsive followers want to dominate their leaders, but hold themselves back. They typically feel guilty about their compulsive tendencies.
3. Masochistic
Masochistic want to submit to the control of the authority figure, even though they feel discomfort in doing so. In this way they gain pleasure from being dominated.
4. Withdrawn
Withdrawn followers care very little or not at all about what happen at work and consequently take little part in work activities other than doing the minimum necessary to keep their jobs.
(5) Kelley's follower typology
Carnegie Mellon professor Robert Kelley identified five different follower styles.
1. Alienated followers
Alienated followers are deep and independent thinkers who do not willingly commit to any leader.
2. Passive followers
Passive followers do as they are told but do not think critically and are not particularly active participants.
3. Conformist followers
Conformists are more participative than passive followers, but do not provide particular challenge.
4. Pragmatic followers
Pragmatic followers are middling in their independence, engagement and general contribution.
5. Exemplary followers
Exemplary followers are ideal in almost all ways, excelling at all tasks, engaging strongly with the group and providing intelligent yet sensitive support and challenge to the leader
(6) Keller man’s follower typology
Barbara Keller man, has described a typology of follower ship based on the level of engagement. She sees good followers as actively supporting effective and ethical leaders and responding appropriately to bad leaders. Bad followers are seen as making no contribution and supporting the wrong types of leader.
1. Isolates
Isolates care little for their leaders and do not particularly respond to them. These are often found in large companies, where they are do their jobs and keep their heads below the parapet.
2. Bystanders
Bystanders disengage from the organization, watching from the sidelines almost as an observer. They go along passively but they offer little active support.
3. Participants
Participants care about the organization and try to make an impact. If they agree with the leader they will support them. If they disagree, they will oppose them.
4. Activists
Activists feel more strongly about their organizations and leaders and act accordingly. When supportive, they are eager, energetic, and engaged.
5. Diehards
Diehards are passionate about an idea a person or both and will give all for them. When they consider something worthy, they becomes dedicated.
(7) Chaleff's follower typology
Ira Chaleff classified followers based on the extent to which they support leaders as opposed to how much they challenged them. Good follower ship is seen as a skill that requires courage and that blind obedience is not good follower ship.
Good leaders are also good followers and vice versa. The roles are seen to be not simply separated.
i. Implementers
Implementers are the majority workhorses of organizations, taking orders and completing them with any real questions.
ii. Partners
Partners like to be treated as equals to the leader, although they respect the leader's position. They are thus strong supporters but will provide intelligent challenge where they deem necessary.
iii. Individualists
Individualists are not easy followers and will tend to think for themselves and prefer to do as they want.
iv. Resources
Resources do what is requested of them, but little more. They are blindly obedient but lack the intelligence or courage to provide challenge.
10. LEADERSHIP Vs. MANAGEMENT
What is the difference between management and leadership? It is a question that has been asked more than once and also answered in different ways. The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do.
Many people, by the way, are both. They have management jobs, but they realize that you cannot buy hearts, especially to follow them down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too.
1. Managers have subordinates
By definition, managers have subordinates - unless their title is honorary and given as a mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is other than formal authority.
2. Authoritarian, transactional style
Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Management style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so.
3. Work focus
Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight constraints of time and money. They thus naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates.
4. Seek comfort
An interesting research finding about managers is that they tend to come from stable home backgrounds and led relatively normal and comfortable lives. This leads them to be relatively risk-averse and they will seek to avoid conflict where possible. In terms of people, they generally like to run a 'happy ship'.
5. Leaders have followers
Leaders do not have subordinates - at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity.
6. Charismatic, transformational style
Telling people what to do does not inspire them to follow you. You have to appeal to them, showing how following them will lead to their hearts' desire. They must want to follow you enough to stop what they are doing and perhaps walk into danger and situations that they would not normally consider risking.
Leaders with a stronger charisma find it easier to attract people to their cause. As a part of their persuasion they typically promise transformational benefits, such that their followers will not just receive extrinsic rewards but will somehow become better people.
7. People focus
Although many leaders have a charismatic style to some extent, this does not require a loud personality. They are always good with people, and quiet styles that give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are very effective at creating the loyalty that great leaders engender.
Although leaders are good with people, this does not mean they are friendly with them. In order to keep the mystique of leadership, they often retain a degree of separation and aloofness.
This does not mean that leaders do not pay attention to tasks - in fact they are often very achievement-focused. What they do realize, however, is the importance of enthusing others to work towards their vision.
8. Seek risk
In the same study that showed managers as risk-averse, leaders appeared as risk-seeking, although they are not blind thrill-seekers. When pursuing their vision, they consider it natural to encounter problems and hurdles that must be overcome along the way. They are thus comfortable with risk and will see routes that others avoid as potential opportunities for advantage and will happily break rules in order to get things done.
A surprising number of these leaders had some form of handicap in their lives which they had to overcome. Some had traumatic childhoods, some had problems such as dyslexia, others were shorter than average. This perhaps taught them the independence of mind that is needed to go out on a limb and not worry about what others are thinking about you.
In summary
This table summarizes the above (and more) and gives a sense of the differences between being a leader and being a manager. This is, of course, an illustrative characterization, and there is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales along which each role can range. And many people lead and manage at the same time, and so may display a combination of behaviors.
Subject Leader Manager
Essence Change Stability
Focus Leading people Managing work
Have Followers Subordinates
Horizon Long-term Short-term
Seeks Vision Objectives
Approach Sets direction Plans detail
Decision Facilitates Makes
Power Personal charisma Formal authority
Appeal to Heart Head
Energy Passion Control
Dynamic Proactive Reactive
Persuasion Sell Tell
Style Transformational
Transactional
Exchange Excitement for work Money for work
Likes Striving Action
Wants Achievement Results
Risk Takes Minimizes
Rules Breaks Makes
Conflict Uses Avoids
Direction New roads Existing roads
Truth Seeks Establishes
Concern What is right Being right
Credit Gives Takes
Blame Takes Blames
TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP
Technical Leadership consulting services provide organizations with the expertise of a Senior Consultant to ensure optimum technology project outcomes.
Our Technical Leadership service enables an ongoing relationship with Senior Consultants who provide skills ranging from no-nonsense technical advice and close personal technology mentoring, to project management, as well as risk assessment and mitigation.
Technical leadership Jerry states: "Leadership is the process of creating an environment in which people become empowered."
Technical leadership is something that may appear natural, but actually takes a great deal of practice and research. In order to be a leader, you need to have enough contexts about what is going on to have a vision and then convey it to others. You have to develop enough influence so that others (individual performers and formal leaders) care what you have to say. Technical leadership is more about leading a process than leading people directly. I easily spend 10-14 hours a week researching technical topics, and still feel that is grossly inadequate.
In order to be a technical leader, you need to develop a network of people who will listen to what you have to say and follow. After all a leader without followers is not a leader. Blogging may be one way to do this, but there are many others. The most effective one that works for me is just answering other folk's questions. If enough people feel they owe you, you have some influence; I guess that would be "The Godfather" school of technical leadership. A leader needs to be productive through others and part of that is connecting others together. Leadership and change are two issues written and talked about extensively. Whatever the length and depth of these writings and talkings, the issues remain complex and inconclusive. This is precisely due to the reason that change is changing fast. Leadership that can transform in organizations n tandem with this speed of change is scarce. It is not that managers are not putting sustainable efforts, but it is only not in right direction using right skills. They make efforts to change merely the systems, policies, and infrastructure and leave people themselves to defend against changes. This is found to be largely due to lack of skills in leading the people’s transition. Therefore, in the first place, they must acquire these technical leadership skills. Thought leader Professor Rosa Beth Moss Kantar based on her decades of experience of working with leaders prescribed a set of seven enduring technical skills that are equally useful to CEOs, senior executives and middle managers who want to manage the transition in people. These are:
1. Turning in to the environment:
Create network of listening posts to know what is happening inside and outside the organization. Look not just at how the pieces of your business model fit together but for what doesn’t fit.
2. Challenging the prevailing organizational wisdom:
In kantar’s language leaders need to develop kaleidoscope thinking- a way of constructing patterns from the fragments of data available, and manipulating them to form different patterns.
3. Communicating a compelling aspiration:
Leaders talk about communicating a vision as an instrument of change, but the ideal is the notion of communicating an aspiration. Because it is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.
4. Building coalitions:
Build the coalitions that support the change movement because the involvement of people who have the resources, the knowledge and political clout are crucial for implementing the change process.
5. Transferring ownership to a working team:
Encourage the teams to forge their own identity, build a sense of membership and extend the protection they need in order to implement changes.
6. Learning to preserve:
Many times, leaders launch something and leave it to the people undefined. It is the hard work and persistence that are essential to achieve the goal because every change is like a long march.
7. Making everyone a hero:
In a change programme, a leader needs skills, talents and energies on a continuous basis for a long time. Therefore, they must remember to recognize, reward and celebrate accomplishments of individuals and groups.
LEADER’S GOAL
Your thinking skills can be considered directional skills because they set the direction for your organization. They provide vision, purpose, and goal definition. These are your eyes and ears to the future, allowing you to recognize the need for change, when to make it, how to implement it, and how to manage it. You find vision by reaching for any available reason to change, grow, and improve. Just as you perform preventive maintenance on your car, you must perform preventive maintenance on your organization. Do NOT believe in the old adage, "If it aim’s broke, don't fix it," for the people who do, go broke! Treat every project as a change effort. Treat every job as a new learning experience.
Good organizations convey a strong vision of where they will be in the future. As a leader, you have to get your people to trust you and be sold on your vision. Using the leadership tools described in this guide and being honest and fair in all you do will provide you with the ammo you need to gain their trust. To sell them on your vision, you need to possess energy and display a positive attitude that is contagious. People want a strong vision of where they are going. No one wants to be stuck in a dead-end company going nowhere...or a company headed in the wrong direction. They want to be involved with a winner! And your people are the ones who will get you to that goal. You cannot do it alone!
When setting goals, keep these points in mind:
• They should be realistic and attainable.
• They should improve the organization (morale, monetary, etc.).
• All the people should be involved in the goal-setting process.
• A program should be developed to achieve each goal.
In addition, there are four characteristics (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973) of goal setting:
• Goal Difficulty: Increasing your employees' goal difficulty increases their challenges and enhances the amount of effort expended to achieve them. The more difficult goals lead to increased performance if they seem feasible. If they seem too high, employees will give up when they fail to achieve them.
• Goal Specificity: When given specific goals, employees tend to perform higher. Telling them to do their best or giving no guidance increases ambiguity about what is expected. Employees need a set goal or model in order to display the correct behavior.
• Feedback: Providing feedback enhances the effects of goal setting. Performance feedback keeps their behavior directed on the right target and encourages them to work harder to achieve the goal.
• Participation in Goal Setting: Employees who participate in the process, generally set higher goals than if the goals were set for them. It also affects their belief that the goals are obtainable and increases their motivation to achieve them.
The Six Steps of Goal Setting
Although finding a vision can be quite a creative challenge, the process of getting that vision implemented can be fairly easy if you follow the six steps of:
________________________________________
Vision - Goals - Objectives - Tasks - Timelines - Follow-up:
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Step 1 - Vision
The first step in setting goals and priorities is to personally develop what the organization should look like at some point in the future. A junior leader, such as a supervisor or line manager, will mainly be concerned with a department, section, or small group of people. While senior leaders set the vision for the entire organization. However, both types of visions need to support the organization's goals.
The mission of the organization is crucial in determining your vision. Your vision needs to coincide with the big picture. The term "vision" suggests a mental picture of what the future organization will look like. The concept also implies a later time horizon. This time horizon tends to be mid to long term in nature, focusing on as much as 2, 5, or even 10 years in the future for visions affecting the entire organization. However, leaders such as supervisors or line managers tend to have shorter time horizon visions, normally 6 months to a year.
The concept of a vision has become a popular term within academic, government, defense, and corporate circles. This has spawned many different definitions of vision. But, the vision you want, should be a picture of where you want your department to be at a future date. For example, try to picture what your department would look like if it was perfect, or what the most efficient way to produce your product would look like, or perhaps if your budget was reduced by 10 percent, how you could still achieve the same quality product.
Wilfred Pareto, a 19th century economist, theorized that most effects come from relatively few causes; that is, 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the possible causes. For example, 20 percent of the inventory items in the supply chain of an organization accounts for 80 percent of the inventory value.
Some leaders fall into the time wasting trap of going after the 80 percent of items that only have a value of 20 percent of the total net worth. Your visions need to picture the 20 percent that will have the greatest impact on your organization. Although it is nice to have small victories every now and then by going after that easy 80 percent, spend the majority of your time focusing on the few things that will have the greatest impact. That is what a good leader does.
Once you have your vision, it needs to be framed in general, unmeasurable terms and communicated to your team. Your team then develops the ends (objectives), ways (concepts), and means (resources) to achieve the vision.
Step 2 - Goals
The second step involves establishing goals, with the active participation of the team. Goals are also stated in un measurable terms, but they are more focused. For example, "The organization must reduce transportation costs." This establishes the framework of the your vision.
Step 3 - Objectives
Definable objectives provide a way of measuring the movement towards vision achievement. This is the real strategy of turning visions into reality. It is the crossover mechanism between your forecast of the future and the envisioned, desired future. Objectives are stated in precise, measurable terms such as "By the end of the next quarter, the shipping department will use one parcel service for shipping items under 100 pounds and one motor carrier for shipping items over a hundred pounds." The aim is to get general ownership by the entire team.
Step 4 - Tasks
The fourth step is to determine tasks. Tasks are the means for accomplishing objectives. Tasks are concrete, measurable events that must occur. An example might be, "The transportation coordinator will obtain detailed shipping rates from at least 10 motor carriers."
Step 5 - Timelines
This step establishes a priority for the tasks. Since time is precious and many tasks must be accomplished before another can begin, establishing priorities helps your team to determine the order in which the tasks must be accomplished and by what date. For example, "The shipping rates will be obtained by May 9."
Step 6 - Follow-up
The final step is to follow-up, measure, and check to see if the team is doing what is required. This kind of leader involvement validates that the stated priorities are worthy of action. For the leader it demonstrates her commitment to see the matter through to a successful conclusion. Also, note that validating does not mean to micro-manage. Micro-management places no trust in others, where as following up determines if the things that need to get done are in fact getting done.
LEADER’S CONVICTION
Conviction is "a firmly held belief" and "firmness of belief": It is my conviction. An individual who is appointed to a managerial position has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority of his position. However, he must possess adequate personal attributes to match his authority, because authority is only potentially available to him. In the absence of sufficient personal competence, a manager may be confronted by an emergent leader who can challenge his role in the organization and reduce it to that of a figurehead. However, only authority of position has the backing of formal sanctions. It follows that whoever wields personal influence and power can legitimize this only by gaining a formal position in the hierarchy, with commensurate authority.[9] Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Every organization needs leaders at every level.
Leadership has a formal aspect (as in most political or business leadership) or an informal one (as in most friendships). Speaking of "leadership" (the abstract term) rather than of "leading" (the action) usually it implies that the entities doing the leading have some "leadership skills" or competencies.
Types of leadership styles
The bureaucratic leader (Weber, 1905)[1] is very structured and follows the procedures as they have been established. This type of leadership has no space to explore new ways to solve problems and is usually slow paced to ensure adherence to the ladders stated by the company. Leaders ensure that all the steps have been followed prior to sending it to the next level of authority. Universities, hospitals, banks and government usually require this type of leader in their organizations to ensure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. Leaders that try to speed up the process will experience frustration and anxiety.
The charismatic leader (Weber, 1905)[1] leads by infusing energy and eagerness into their team members. This type of leader has to be committed to the organization for the long run. If the success of the division or project is attributed to the leader and not the team, charismatic leaders may become a risk for the company by deciding to resign for advanced opportunities. It takes the company time and hard work to gain the employees' confidence back with other type of leadership after they have committed themselves to the magnetism of a charismatic leader.
The autocratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939)[2] is given the power to make decisions alone, having total authority. This leadership style is good for employees that need close supervision to perform certain tasks. Creative employees and team players resent this type of leadership, since they are unable to enhance processes or decision making, resulting in job dissatisfaction.
The democratic leader (Levin, Lippitt, & White, 1939)[2] listens to the team's ideas and studies them, but will make the final decision. Team players contribute to the final decision thus increasing employee satisfaction and ownership, feeling their input was considered when the final decision was taken. When changes arises, this type of leadership helps the team assimilate the changes better and more rapidly than other styles, knowing they were consulted and contributed to the decision making process, minimizing resistance and intolerance. A shortcoming of this leadership style is that it has difficulty when decisions are needed in a short period of time or at the moment.
The laissez-faire ("let do") leader (Levin, Lippitt, & White, 1939)[2] gives no continuous feedback or supervision because the employees are highly experienced and need little supervision to obtain the expected outcome. On the other hand, this type of style is also associated with leaders that don’t lead at all, failing in supervising team members, resulting in lack of control and higher costs, bad service or failure to meet deadlines.
The people-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967)[3] is the one that, in order to comply with effectiveness and efficiency, supports, trains and develops his personnel, increasing job satisfaction and genuine interest to do a good job.
The task-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967)[3] focus on the job, and concentrate on the specific tasks assigned to each employee to reach goal accomplishment. This leadership style suffers the same motivation issues as autocratic leadership, showing no involvement in the teams needs. It requires close supervision and control to achieve expected results.
The servant leader (Greenleaf, 1977)[4] facilitates goal accomplishment by giving its team members what they need in order to be productive. This leader is an instrument employees use to reach the goal rather than an commanding voice that moves to change. This leadership style, in a manner similar to democratic leadership, tends to achieve the results in a slower time frame than other styles, although employee engagement is higher.
The transaction leader (Burns, 1978)[5] is given power to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the team’s performance. It gives the opportunity to the manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predetermined goal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correct and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached.
The transformation leader (Burns, 1978)[5] motivates its team to be effective and efficient. Communication is the base for goal achievement focusing the group in the final desired outcome or goal attainment. This leader is highly visible and uses chain of command to get the job done. Transformational leaders focus on the big picture, needing to be surrounded by people who take care of the details. The leader is always looking for ideas that move the organization to reach the company’s vision.
The environment leader ( Carmazzi, 2005)[6] is the one who nurtures group or organizational environment to affect the emotional and psychological perception of an individual’s place in that group or organization. An understanding and application of group psychology and dynamics is essential for this style to be effective. The leader uses organizational culture to inspire individuals and develop leaders at all levels. This leadership style relies on creating an education matrix where groups interactively learn the fundamental psychology of group dynamics and culture from each other. The leader uses this psychology, and complementary language, to influence direction through the members of the inspired group to do what is required for the benefit of all.
The functional leadership one conceives of leadership not as a person but rather as a set of behaviors that help a group perform their task or reach their goal. The model says that the leadership function meets needs in areas:
• Task
• Team
• Individuals
These three areas are derived from John Adair's "three circles" model of leadership that has been used with some success in the British military. Although it is considered to be too much of an over simplification by many.
Leadership behaviors can be divided roughly into three types that meet needs in the above three areas:
• Substantive, or behaviors directly relevant to performing the group's task, such as proposing possible solutions or providing important information;
• Procedural, or behaviors that help direct the group's discussion, such as developing group procedure or testing the degree of agreement among members; and
• Maintenance or behaviors that improve the relationships among the members, such as encouraging silent members or facilitating open discussion.
Any member can perform these behaviors, and so any member can participate in leadership. It was once thought that members always specialized in one type or another, but while that can happen it is not necessarily the case.
The functional leadership model places more emphasis on how an organization is being led rather than who has been formally assigned a leadership role. This allows the analysis to spend less time looking at the person who has formally assigned authority and instead focus on how the leadership function is actually taking place.[1]
In 1994 House and Podsakoff attempted to summarize the behaviors and approaches of "outstanding leaders" that they obtained from some more modern theories and research findings. These leadership behaviors and approaches do not constitute specific styles, but cumulatively they probably[citation needed] characterize the most effective style of today's leaders/managers. The listed leadership "styles" cover:
1. Vision. Outstanding leaders articulate an ideological vision congruent with the deeply-held values of followers, a vision that describes a better future to which the followers have an alleged moral right.
2. Passion and self-sacrifice. Leaders display a passion for, and have a strong conviction of, what they regard as the moral correctness of their vision. They engage in outstanding or extraordinary behavior and make extraordinary self-sacrifices in the interest of their vision and mission.
3. Confidence, determination, and persistence. Outstanding leaders display a high degree of faith in themselves and in the attainment of the vision they articulate. Theoretically, such leaders need to have a very high degree of self-confidence and moral conviction because their mission usually challenges the status quo and, therefore, may offend those who have a stake in preserving the established order.
4. Image-building. House and Podsakoff regard outstanding leaders as self-conscious about their own image. They recognize the desirability of followers perceiving them as competent, credible, and trustworthy.
5. Role-modeling. Leader-image-building sets the stage for effective role-modeling because followers identify with the values of role models whom they perceived in positive terms.
6. External representation. Outstanding leaders act as spokespersons for their respective organizations and symbolically represent those organizations to external constituencies.
7. Expectations of and confidence in followers. Outstanding leaders communicate expectations of high performance from their followers and strong confidence in their followers’ ability to meet such expectations.
8. Selective motive-arousal. Outstanding leaders selectively arouse those motives of followers that the outstanding leaders see as of special relevance to the successful accomplishment of the vision and mission.
9. Frame alignment. To persuade followers to accept and implement change, outstanding leaders engage in "frame alignment". This refers to the linkage of individual and leader interpretive orientations such that some set of followers’ interests, values, and beliefs, as well as the leader’s activities, goals, and ideology, becomes congruent and complementary.
10. Inspirational communication. Outstanding leaders often, but not always, communicate their message in an inspirational manner using vivid stories, slogans, symbols, and ceremonies.
Even though these ten leadership behaviors and approaches do not really equate to specific styles, evidence has started to accumulate[citation needed] that a leader’s style can make a difference. Style becomes the key to the formulation and implementation of strategy[citation needed] and plays an important role in work-group members’ activity and in team citizenship. Little doubt exists that the way (style) in which leaders influence work-group members can make a difference in their own and their people’s performance[citation needed].
In 2008 Bur man and Evans [11] published a 'charter' for leaders:
1. Leading by example in accordance with the company’s core values.
2. Building the trust and confidence of the people with which they work.
3. Continually seeking improvement in their methods and effectiveness.
4. Keeping people informed.
5. Being accountable for their actions and holding others accountable for theirs.
6. Involving people, seeking their views, listening actively to what they have to say and representing these views honestly.
7. Being clear on what is expected, and providing feedback on progress.
8. Showing tolerance of people’s differences and dealing with their issues fairly.
9. Acknowledging and recognizing people for their contributions and performance.
10. Weighing alternatives, considering both short and long-term effects and then being resolute in the decisions they make.
The approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. Although trait theory has an intuitive appeal, difficulties may arise in proving its tenets, and opponents frequently challenge this approach. The "strongest" version of trait theory see these “leadership characteristics” as innate, and accordingly labels some people as "born leaders" due to their psychological makeup. On this reading of the theory, leadership development involves identifying and measuring leadership qualities, screening potential leaders from non-leaders, then training those with potential.
David McClelland saw leadership skills, not so much as a set of traits, but as a pattern of motives. He claimed that successful leaders will tend to have a high need for power, a low need for affiliation, and a high level of what he called activity inhibition (one might call it self-control).
Situational leadership theory offers an alternative approach. It proceeds from the assumption that different situations call for different characteristics. According to this group of theories, no single optimal psychographic profile of a leader exists. The situational leadership model of Heresy and Blanchard, for example, suggest four leadership-styles and four levels of follower-development. For effectiveness, the model posits that the leadership-style must match the appropriate level of follower ship-development. In this model, leadership behavior becomes a function not only of the characteristics of the leader, but of the characteristics of followers as well. Other situational leadership models introduce a variety of situational variables. These determinants include:
• the nature of the task (structured or routine)
• organizational policies, climate, and culture
• the preferences of the leader's superiors
• the expectations of peers
• the reciprocal responses of followers
The contingency model of Vroom and Yetton uses other situational variables, including:
• the nature of the problem
• the requirements for accuracy
• the acceptance of an initiative
• time-constraints
• cost constraints
However one determines leadership behavior, one can categorize it into various leadership styles. Many ways of doing this exist. For example, the Managerial Grid Model, a behavioral leadership-model, suggests five different leadership styles, based on leaders' strength of concern for people and their concern for goal achievement.
Kurt Lewin, Ronald Lipitt, and R. K. White identified three leadership styles: authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire, based on the amount of influence and power exercised by the leader.
The Fiedler contingency model bases the leader’s effectiveness on what Fred Fiedler called situational contingency. This results from the interaction of leadership style and situational favorableness (later called "situational control")
LEADER’S VISION
In most organizations, when executives create a vision for the entire company, they believe it provides clarity, focus and direction. And it is true that it does, at least for those at the top of the organization. Unfortunately, it gradually loses strength as it works its way to the front lines. In fact, research by The Gallup Organization indicates that senior executives are more than twice as likely to feel that an organization’s mission and purpose inspire them to higher levels of performance as frontline workers… Why the disconnect? Why might senior leaders resonate with an organizational vision while the rest of the company does not relate to it? There are many possible answers, but according to Dr. Jesse Stoner and Dr. Dare Gisarme, a good place to start is by looking at one or more of the following factors: how the vision is created, how it is communicated, and how it is lived or modeled in the organization.”
The three factors mentioned are critical in getting an organization’s vision to stick:
• How the vision is created: No matter how you try to get around the issue, the fact is that people only support what they help create. A vision created by top management, will be supported primarily by top management. Unless people feel they have an influence over the creation of the organization’s vision, commitment to the vision will be difficult to achieve. One way to involve people, as mentioned in the article, is for leaders to engage employees in discussing the vision “senior leaders encourage dialogue about the vision by asking people these questions: ‘Would you like to work for an organization that has this vision? Can you see where you fit in the vision? Does it help you set priorities? Does it provide guidelines for making decisions? Is it exciting and motivating? Have we left anything out? Should we delete anything?’”
• How it is communicated: The communication of vision is critical. Two common mistakes I see in the communication of vision is, firstly, vision is not communicated frequently enough, and secondly, the vision is not weaved into all the organizations communication initiatives. Leaders are the custodians of an organization’s vision, they are responsible to ensure that the vision is talked about and kept alive. You can never over-communicate your vision.
• How it is lived or modeled in the organization: This is an important finding, vision is a process and not an event. The author of the article makes the following point… “Creating a vision—for your organization or department, for your work, and for your life—is a journey, not a one-time activity…. ‘It is important that all leaders in the company hold themselves and each other accountable for behaving consistently with the stated vision and values. As others see leadership living the vision, they will trust that leaders are serious and will be motivated to join.’” Leaders watched closely by others, their language and behavior is closely scrutinized by their teams and employees. Unless leaders’ actions align with what they say, people will question the importance of the vision.
If you review your actions and how you have spent your time over the past month how closely aligned are your actions and the way you spend your time with your vision? How often do you talk about your vision?
TRANSFORMATIONAL AND TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP
Transformational and transactional leadership refer to different approaches to leading others with very different assumptions about how people work in organizations. Defined by James McGregor Burns in the 70's and later by Bass the differences are important in helping you look at and develop your own leadership abilities.
Transformational and transactional leadership dimensions were derived from
Bass’s (1985) theory and research. Transformational leaders are those who
“Inspire followers to transcend their self-interests and who are capable of having a
profound and extraordinary effect on followers” (Robbins, 2003: 343). On the other hand, transactional leaders are those who “guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements (Robbins, 2003: 343). Bass
(1985) developed the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ-Form 5),
This measures five leadership factors.
Transactional Leadership
Assumptions
People are motivated by reward and punishment.
Social systems work best with a clear chain of command.
When people have agreed to do a job, a part of the deal is that they cede all authority to their manager.
The prime purpose of a subordinate is to do what their manager tells them to do.
Style
The transactional leader works through creating clear structures whereby it is clear what is required of their subordinates, and the rewards that they get for following orders. Punishments are not always mentioned, but they are also well-understood and formal systems of discipline are usually in place.
The early stage of Transactional Leadership is in negotiating the contract whereby the subordinate is given a salary and other benefits, and the company (and by implication the subordinate's manager) gets authority over the subordinate.
When the Transactional Leader allocates work to a subordinate, they are considered to be fully responsible for it, whether or not they have the resources or capability to carry it out. When things go wrong, then the subordinate is considered to be personally at fault, and is punished for their failure (just as they are rewarded for succeeding).
The transactional leader often uses management by exception, working on the principle that if something is operating to defined (and hence expected) performance then it does not need attention. Exceptions to expectation require praise and reward for exceeding expectation, whilst some kind of corrective action is applied for performance below expectation.
Whereas Transformational Leadership has more of a 'selling' style, Transactional Leadership, once the contract is in place, takes a 'telling' style.
Discussion
Transactional leadership is based in contingency, in that reward or punishment is contingent upon performance.
Despite much research that highlights its limitations, Transactional Leadership is still a popular approach with many managers. Indeed, in the Leadership vs. Management spectrum, it is very much towards the management end of the scale.
The main limitation is the assumption of 'rational man', a person who is largely motivated by money and simple reward, and hence whose behavior is predictable. The underlying psychology is Behaviorism, including the Classical Conditioning of Pavlov and Skinner's Operant Conditioning. These theories are largely based on controlled laboratory experiments (often with animals) and ignore complex emotional factors and social values.
In practice, there is sufficient truth in Behaviorism to sustain Transactional approaches. This is reinforced by the supply-and-demand situation of much employment, coupled with the effects of deeper needs, as in Maslow's Hierarchy. When the demand for a skill outstrips the supply, then Transactional Leadership often is insufficient, and other approaches are more effective
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
Description
Leader-Member Exchange Theory, also called LMX or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory, describes how leaders in groups maintain their position through a series of tacit exchange agreements with their members.
In-group and out-group
In particular, leaders often have a special relationship with an inner circle of trusted lieutenants, assistants and advisors, to whom they give high levels of responsibility, decision influence, and access to resources. This in-group pay for their position. They work harder, are more committed to task objectives, and share more administrative duties. They are also expected to be fully committed and loyal to their leader. The out-group, on the other hand, are given low levels of choice or influence.
This also puts constraints upon the leader. They have to nurture the relationship with their inner circle whilst balancing giving them power with ensuring they do not have enough to strike out on their own.
The LMX process
These relationships, if they are going to happen, start very soon after a person joins the group and follow three stages.
1. Role taking
The member joins the team and the leader assesses their abilities and talents. Based on this, the leader may offer them opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities.
Another key factor in this stage is the discovery by both parties of how the other likes to be respected.
2. Role making
In the second phase, the leader and member take part in an unstructured and informal negotiation whereby a role is created for the member and the often-tacit promise of benefit and power in return for dedication and loyalty takes place.
Trust-building is very important in this stage, and any felt betrayal, especially by the leader, can result in the member being relegated to the out-group.
This negotiation includes relationship factors as well as pure work-related ones, and a member who is similar to the leader in various ways is more likely to succeed. This perhaps explains why mixed gender relationships regularly are less successful than same-gender ones (it also affects the seeking of respect in the first stage). The same effect also applies to cultural and racial differences.
3. Reutilization
In this phase, a pattern of ongoing social exchange between the leader and the member becomes established.
Success factors
Successful members are thus similar in many ways to the leader (which perhaps explains why many senior teams are all white, male, middle-class and middle-aged). They work hard at building and sustaining trust and respect.
To help this, they are empathetic, patient, reasonable, sensitive, and are good at seeing the viewpoint of other people (especially the leader). Aggression, sarcasm and an egocentric view are keys to the out-group wash-room.
The overall quality of the LMX relationship varies with several factors. Curiously, it is better when the challenge of the job is extremely high or extremely low. The size of the group, financial resource availability and the overall workload are also important.
Onwards and upwards
The principle works upwards as well. The leader also gains power by being a member of their manager's inner circle, which then can then share on downwards. People at the bottom of an organization with unusual power may get it from an unbroken chain of circles up to the hierarchy.
Transformational Leadership
Assumptions
People will follow a person who inspires them.
A person with vision and passion can achieve great things.
The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.
Style
Working for a Transformational Leader can be a wonderful and uplifting experience. They put passion and energy into everything. They care about you and want you to succeed.
Developing the vision
Transformational Leadership starts with the development of a vision, a view of the future that will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be developed by the leader, by the senior team or may emerge from a broad series of discussions. The important factor is the leader buys into it, hook, line and sinker.
Selling the vision
The next step, which in fact never stops, is to constantly sell the vision. This takes energy and commitment, as few people will immediately buy into a radical vision, and some will join the show much more slowly than others. The Transformational Leader thus takes every opportunity and will use whatever works to convince others to climb on board the bandwagon.
In order to create followers, the Transformational Leader has to be very careful in creating trust, and their personal integrity is a critical part of the package that they are selling. In effect, they are selling themselves as well as the vision.
Finding the way forwards
In parallel with the selling activity is seeking the way forward. Some Transformational Leaders know the way, and simply want others to follow them. Others do not have a ready strategy, but will happily lead the exploration of possible routes to the promised land.
The route forwards may not be obvious and may not be plotted in details, but with a clear vision, the direction will always be known. Thus finding the way forward can be an ongoing process of course correction, and the Transformational Leader will accept that there will be failures and blind canyons along the way. As long as they feel progress is being made, they will be happy.
Leading the charge
The final stage is to remain up-front and central during the action. Transformational Leaders are always visible and will stand up to be counted rather than hide behind their troops. They show by their attitudes and actions how everyone else should behave. They also make continued efforts to motivate and rally their followers, constantly doing the rounds, listening, soothing and enthusing.
It is their unswerving commitment as much as anything else that keeps people going, particularly through the darker times when some may question whether the vision can ever be achieved. If the people do not believe that they can succeed, then their efforts will flag. The Transformational Leader seeks to infect and reinforce their followers with a high level of commitment to the vision.
One of the methods the Transformational Leader uses to sustain motivation is in the use of ceremonies, rituals and other cultural symbolism. Small changes get big hurrahs, pumping up their significance as indicators of real progress.
Overall, they balance their attention between action that creates progress and the mental state of their followers. Perhaps more than other approaches, they are people-oriented and believe that success comes first and last through deep and sustained commitment.
Discussion
Whilst the Transformational Leader seeks overtly to transform the organization, there is also a tacit promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way, perhaps to be more like this amazing leader. In some respects, then, the followers are the product of the transformation.
Transformational Leaders are often charismatic, but are not as narcissistic as pure Charismatic Leaders, who succeed through a believe in themselves rather than a believe in others.
One of the traps of Transformational Leadership is that passion and confidence can easily be mistaken for truth and reality. Whilst it is true that great things have been achieved through enthusiastic leadership, it is also true that many passionate people have led the charge right over the cliff and into a bottomless chasm. Just because someone believes they are right, it does not mean they are right.
Paradoxically, the energy that gets people going can also cause them to give up. Transformational Leaders often have large amounts of enthusiasm which, if relentlessly applied, can wear out their followers.
Transformational Leaders also tend to see the big picture, but not the details, where the devil often lurks. If they do not have people to take care of this level of information, then they are usually doomed to fail.
Finally, Transformational Leaders, by definition, seek to transform. When the organization does not need transforming and people are happy as they are, then such a leader will be frustrated. Like wartime leaders, however, given the right situation they come into their own and can be personally responsible for saving entire companies.
(1) Bass' Transformational Leadership Theory
Assumptions
Awareness of task importance motivates people.
A focus on the team or organization produces better work.
Description
Bass defined transformational leadership in terms of how the leader affects followers, who are intended to trust, admire and respect the transformational leader.
He identified three ways in which leaders transform followers:
• Increasing their awareness of task importance and value.
• Getting them to focus first on team or organizational goals, rather than their own interests.
• Activating their higher-order needs.
Charisma is seen as necessary, but not sufficient, for example in the way that charismatic movie stars may not make good leaders. Two key charismatic effects that transformational leaders achieve is to evoke strong emotions and to cause identification of the followers with the leader. This may be through stirring appeals. It may also may occur through quieter methods such as coaching and mentoring.
Bass has recently noted that authentic transformational leadership is grounded in moral foundations that are based on four components:
• Idealized influence
• Inspirational motivation
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualized consideration
...and three moral aspects:
• The moral character of the leader.
• The ethical values embedded in the leader’s vision, articulation, and program (which followers either embrace or reject).
• The morality of the processes of social ethical choice and action that leaders and followers engage in and collectively pursue.
This is in contrast with pseudo-transformational leadership, where, for example, in-group/out-group 'us and them' games are used to bond followers to the leader.
Discussion
In contrast to Burns, who sees transformational leadership as being inextricably linked with higher order values, Bass sees it as amoral, and attributed transformational skills to people such as Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones.
(2) Burns' Transformational Leadership Theory
Assumptions
Association with a higher moral position is motivating and will result in people following a leader who promotes this.
Working collaboratively is better than working individually.
Description
Burns defined transformational leadership as a process where leaders and followers engage in a mutual process of 'raising one another to higher levels of morality and motivation.'
Transformational leaders raise the bar by appealing to higher ideals and values of followers. In doing so, they may model the values themselves and use charismatic methods to attract people to the values and to the leader.
Burns' view is that transformational leadership is more effective than transactional leadership, where the appeal is to more selfish concerns. An appeal to social values thus encourages people to collaborate, rather than working as individuals (and potentially competitively with one another). He also views transformational leadership as an ongoing process rather than the discrete exchanges of the transactional approach.
Discussion
Using social and spiritual values as a motivational lever is very powerful as they are both hard to deny and also give people an uplifting sense of being connected to a higher purpose, thus playing to the need for a sense of meaning and identity.
Ideals are higher in Maslow's Hierarchy, which does imply that lower concerns such as health and security must be reasonably safe before people will pay serious attention to the higher possibilities.
Five factors of Transformational and transactional leadership:
The five factors tapped by the MLQ-5 include: charismatic behavior,
Individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation, forming the
Transformational leadership dimension. Contingent reward and management-by exception (MBE) passive, forming the Transactional leadership dimension. The
Following definitions are taken from Hater and Bass (1988: 696).
Transformational leadership
1. Charismatic behavior:
‘The leader instills pride, faith, and respect, has a gift for seeing what is really important, and transmits a sense of mission’.
2. Individualized consideration:
‘The leader delegates projects to stimulate learning experiences, provides coaching and
Teaching, and treats each follower as individual’.
3. Intellectual stimulation:
‘The leader arouses followers to think in new ways and emphasizes problem solving and the use of reasoning before taking action’.
Transactional leadership
4. Contingent reward:
The leader provides rewards if followers perform in accordance with
contracts or expend the necessary effort’.
5. Management-by-exception (Passive)
The leader avoids giving directions if the old ways are
working and allows followers to continue doing their jobs as always if performance goals are met’.
LEADERSHIP VISION
Many definitions of leadership involve an element of Goal management vision — except in cases of involuntary leadership and often in cases of traditional leadership. A vision provides direction to the influence process. A leader or group of leaders can have one or more visions of the future to aid them to move a group successfully towards this goal. A vision, for effectiveness, should allegedly:
• appear as a simple, yet vibrant, image in the mind of the leader
• describe a future state, credible and preferable to the present state
• act as a bridge between the current state and a future optimum state
• appear desirable enough to energize followers
• succeed in speaking to followers at an emotional or spiritual level (logical appeals by themselves seldom muster a following)
For leadership to occur, according to this theory, some people "leaders" must communicate the vision to others "followers" in such a way that the followers adopt the vision as their own. Leaders must not just see the vision themselves, they must have the ability to get others to see it also. Numerous techniques aid in this process, including: narratives, metaphors, symbolic actions, leading by example, incentives, and penalty penalties.
Stacey (1992) has suggested that the emphasis on vision puts an unrealistic burden on the leader. Such emphasis appears to perpetuate the myth that an organization must depend on a single, uncommonly talented individual to decide what to do. Stacey claims that this fosters a culture of dependency and conformity in which followers take no pro-active incentives and do not think independently.
Kanungo's charismatic leadership model describes the role of the vision in three stages that are continuously ongoing, overlapping one another. Assessing the status quo, formulation and articulation of the vision, and implementation of the vision.
PROFESSIONALISM
The term profession refers to an occupation, vocation or high-status career, usually involving prolonged academic training, formal qualifications and membership of a professional or regulatory body. Professions involve the application of specialized knowledge of a subject, field, or science to fee-paying clientele.[1] It is axiomatic that "professional activity involves systematic knowledge and proficiency."[2] Professions are usually regulated by professional bodies that may set examinations of competence, act as a licensing authority for practitioners, and enforce adherence to an ethical code of practice.
Characteristics of a profession
The list of characteristics that follows is extensive, but does not claim to include every characteristic that has ever been attributed to professions, nor do all of these features apply to every profession:
1. Skill based on theoretical knowledge: Professionals are assumed to have extensive theoretical knowledge (e.g. medicine, law, scripture or engineering) and to possess skills based on that knowledge that they are able to apply in practice.
2. Professional association: Professions usually have professional bodies organized by their members, which are intended to enhance the status of their members and have carefully controlled entrance requirements.
3. Extensive period of education: The most prestigious professions usually require at least three years[update needed] at university.
4. Testing of competence: Before being admitted to membership of a professional body, there is a requirement to pass prescribed examinations that are based on mainly theoretical knowledge.
5. Institutional training: In addition to examinations, there is usually a requirement for a long period of institutionalized training where aspiring professionals acquire specified practical experience in some sort of trainee role before being recognized as a full member of a professional body. Continuous upgrading of skills through professional development is also mandatory these days.
6. Licensed practitioners: Professions seek to establish a register or membership so that only those individuals so licensed are recognized as bona fide.
7. Work autonomy: Professionals tend to retain control over their work, even when they are employed outside the profession in commercial or public organizations. They have also gained control over their own theoretical knowledge.
8. Code of professional conduct or ethics: Professional bodies usually have codes of conduct or ethics for their members and disciplinary procedures for those who infringe the rules.
9. Self-regulation: Professional bodies tend to insist that they should be self-regulating and independent from government. Professions tend to be policed and regulated by senior, respected practitioners and the most highly qualified members of the profession.
10. Public service and altruism: The earning of fees for services rendered can be defended because they are provided in the public interest, e.g. the work of doctors contributes to public health.
11. Exclusion, monopoly and legal recognition: Professions tend to exclude those who have not met their requirements and joined the appropriate professional body. This is often termed professional closure, and seeks to bar entry for the unqualified and to sanction or expel incompetent members.
12. Control of remuneration and advertising: Where levels of remuneration are determined by government, professional bodies are active in negotiating (usually advantageous) remuneration packages for their members. Some professions set standard scale fees, but government advocacy of competition means that these are no longer generally enforced.[citation needed]
13. High status and rewards: The most successful professions achieve high status, public prestige and rewards for their members.[citation needed] Some of the factors included in this list contribute to such success.
14. Individual clients: Many professions have individual fee-paying clients.[dubious – discuss] For example, in accountancy, "the profession" usually refers to accountants who have individual and corporate clients, rather than accountants who are employees of organizations.
15. Middle-class occupations: Traditionally, many professions have been viewed as 'respectable' occupations for middle and upper classes.[24]
16. Male-dominated: The highest status professions tend to be male dominated.[update needed] For example, the proportion of women in school-teaching has increased as its status has declined, and women are now being admitted to the priesthood while its status has declined relative to other professions.[citation needed] Similar arguments apply to race and class: ethnic groups and working-class people are no less disadvantaged in most professions than they are in society generally.[25][update needed]
17. Offer reassurance: Professionals are able to offer reassurance to their clients that although there appear to be problems, everything is normal or being dealt with properly, and this reassurance may be offered rather than solutions to particular problems. For example, sick people may be reassured that they will probably get better in a few days.
18. Ritual: Church ritual and the Court procedure are obviously ritualistic.[who?][citation needed]
19. Legitimacy: Professions have clear legal authority over some activities (e.g. certifying the insane) but are also seen as adding legitimacy to a wide range of related activities.[citation needed]
20. Inaccessible body of knowledge: In some professions, the body of knowledge is relatively inaccessible to the uninitiated. Medicine and law are typically not school subjects and have separate faculties and even separate libraries at universities.[dated info]
21. Indeterminacy of knowledge: Professional knowledge contains elements that escape being mastered and communicated in the form of rules and can only be acquired through experience.[citation needed]
22. Mobility: The skill knowledge and authority of professionals belongs to the professionals as individuals, not the organizations for which they work. Professionals are therefore relatively mobile in employment opportunities as they can move to other employers and take their talents with them. Standardization of professional training and procedures enhances this mobility.[26].
Importance of Professionalism
The importance of professionalism in the workplace cannot be overlooked in 21st Century society. Most of us spend more time at work than at home, and friendships with our managers and co-workers have become commonplace. But, when the boundaries between professional and personal cross, there can be serious problems. Too much openness about personal issues, lack of respect for authority, gossiping and not returning telephone calls promptly are a few examples of unprofessional (but increasingly common) behaviors at all levels that kill corporate productivity and image. Our society has become faster-paced and more casual, but professionalism remains key in the business world – despite the trend toward casual dress and operating style.
With unemployment at record lows, the importance of professionalism in the workplace cannot be overlooked as a key to success and advancement. How you dress, speak, act, write and work determines whether you are a professional or an amateur. Since our culture has become more relaxed and casual, many believe that amateur work is acceptable and thus many businesses accept mediocre results. However, those organizations that stress the importance of professionalism in the workplace are usually growing, vibrant entities
Twelve simple techniques that make you more successful in your career. This dynamic motivator is available exclusively from EDSI and is guaranteed to move you forward. If you understand the importance of professionalism in the workplace, and want to improve yourself, peers, associates or your entire organization,. , Suzanne Updegraff
1. Take a course.
We all need improvement in one area or another and the first month of the year is
a great time to sign up for spring classes. Knowledge is power and the more you know, the stronger your chances of being promoted.
2. Listen more, talk less.
Listening effectively is an art and one that can be learned and developed
over time. We confuse listening with being passive, but the most persuasive individuals hear what is being said by focusing on the conversation and staying alert and attentive.
3. Dress one notch up.
While casual dress is the trend and is here to stay, why not choose to dress one
notch up? You don’t have to wear a three-piece suit or bring out your grandmother’s pearls to heighten your wardrobe. Simply, choose to put some polish into your
wardrobe by changing your shirt style, for example. Select a button-down shirt instead of an oversized, baggy style for a change.
4. Ask more questions in meetings.
Most of us don’t ask appropriate questions in meetings out of fear
of appearing ignorant or uninformed. When you choose to question an issue, you appear interested, aware and concerned about your job, the organization and the conversation.
And, chances are, others in the meeting have the same questions as you, but aren’t asking either.
5. Meet your deadlines. In the business world, we’ve become very adept at moving deadlines or simply ignoring them altogether. Change your operating style by
resolving to meet your deadlines consistently this year and you’ll gain the reputation of someone who can be counted upon.
6. Resolve a conflict with a co-worker.
We all work with at least one person whom we don’t particularly
like or with whom we seem to have consistent disagreements.
The, plan to learn more about the individual that you have problems with to increase effective communication. One way to become part of the solution
instead of being part of the problem is to focus on the strengths of others.
7. Add value by generating new ideas. Tap into
the corporate culture by reviewing your organization’s mission, vision and values and decide to make a difference by generating thinking that creates new products, saves
your company money or by helping a customer. It’s so easy to fall into a routine of day-to-day “doing your job.” Look above and beyond for solutions.
8. Use time wisely by creating a “power
hour” for yourself.
Time management is one of the biggest obstacles in business. Needing ideas and suggestions on how to add more time to each day is a common
theme. Carve out one hour daily where interruptions are kept to a minimum so that you can focus, think and become more productive. Learn to schedule a meeting
with yourself on your calendar to help you develop the “power hour” habit.
9. Increase your vocabulary.
This sounds so simple, but even top executives resort to the
same language over and over. Start by going through the dictionary or thesaurus and finding ten words that you commonly use. Next, replace those words with stronger
words that build your basic vernacular.
10.Build sincerity.
We all wear an invisible sign that says, “make me feel important.” By practicing the simple technique of using someone’s name in conversation, we acquire the reputation of a strong, caring professional. Another valuable tool for gaining recognition as a
sincere colleague is making eye contact.
11. Polish your etiquette.
Your professional image speaks more loudly in the use of table manners than any other venue. It’s so easy to resort to “less than perfect” etiquette in today’s casual world.
Paying attention to etiquette rules will help you gain future promotions.
12. Practice random acts of kindness.
In today’s fast, furious world we often forget about others’ feelings and emotions. Make this year-end special by being kind, by using the proper tone of voice, showing concern for someone’s health, or by simply being a friend
Elements of professionalism
True professionals:
• are competent;
• know their limitations, and are willing to push these back continuously;
• are discreet and respect confidentiality;
• stick to promises and agreements;
• are loyal and honest towards clients and colleagues;
• practice what they preach;
• are strongly motivated by ethical values;
• are rational and objective, but respect their partners’ emotions;
• are creative;
• are independent, but communicate well;
• are willing to be held accountable and to explain their actions, and report unasked;
• are willing to share knowledge and skills;
• foster professionalism in others, wherever they find it.
MANAGINGAWARENESS OF PROFESSIONALISM
Determining what team members are working on and keeping tabs on their involvement, expertise, and inter-issue dependencies is a constant challenge in software engineering. Team awareness and coordination is further tested as complexity and geographic distribution increase.
Team awareness, which involves knowing what activities your team members are working on, and how they relate to your own work, is important in a software development environment because it allows team members to communicate and coordinate their work. Traditionally, tracking systems and analysis tools have taken a task-centric approach to notifying a software developer in a project.
We are developing theories and tools to address team awareness and coordination problems in the context of complex and distributed software engineering. Our tools are based on theories of coordination and feature management. We aim to develop theories from research and actual experiences of industrial software teams. Based on these theories, visualization and other awareness notification tools are being developed to expose accurate and critical awareness and coordination information to teams who are actively managing work and social dependencies in their workspace.
We are currently exploring two concepts in prototype form to overcome the task-centric approach of managing awareness and coordination.
Task – Centric Approach:
Task analysis is the analysis of how a task is accomplished, including a detailed description of both manual and mental activities, task and element durations, task frequency, task allocation, task complexity, environmental conditions, necessary clothing and equipment, and any other unique factors involved in or required for one or more people to perform a given task. Task analysis emerged from research in applied behavior analysis and still has considerable research in that area.
Information from a task analysis can then be used for many purposes, such as personnel selection and training, tool or equipment design, procedure design (e.g., design of checklists or decision support systems) and automation.
The term "task" is often used interchangeably with activity or process. Task analysis often results in a hierarchical representation of what steps it takes to perform a task for which there is a goal and for which there is some lowest-level "action" that is performed. Task analysis is often performed by human factors professionals.
Task analysis may be of manual tasks, such as bricklaying, and be analyzed as time and motion studies using concepts from industrial engineering. Cognitive task analysis is applied to modern work environments such as supervisory control where little physical works occurs, but the tasks are more related to situation assessment, decision making, and response planning and execution.
Task analysis is also used in education. It is a model that is applied to classroom tasks to discover which curriculum components are well matched to the capabilities of students with learning disabilities and which task modification might be necessary. It discovers which tasks a person hasn't mastered, and the information processing demands of tasks that are easy or problematic. In behavior modification, it is a breakdown of a complex behavioral sequence into steps. This often serves as the basis for Chaining.
Coordination
1. Communication:
Communication is the process of transferring information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood by both sender and receiver. It is a process that allows organisms to exchange information by several methods. Communication requires that all parties understand a common language that is exchanged, There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, or the use of writing. Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. Use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life: home, school, community, work, and beyond. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.[1] Communication is the articulation of sending a message, through different media [2] whether it be verbal or nonverbal, so long as a being transmits a thought provoking idea, gesture, action, etc.
Communication happens at many levels (even for one single action), in many different ways, and for most beings, as well as certain machines. Several, if not all, fields of study dedicate a portion of attention to communication, so when speaking about communication it is very important to be sure about what aspects of communication one is speaking about. Definitions of communication range widely, some recognizing that animals can communicate with each other as well as human beings, and some are more narrow, only including human beings within the parameters of human symbolic interaction.
Nonetheless, communication is usually described along a few major dimensions: Content (what type of things are communicated), source, emisor, sender or encoder (by whom), form (in which form), channel (through which medium), destination, receiver, target or decoder (to whom), and the purpose or pragmatic aspect. Between parties, communication includes acts that confer knowledge and experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts may take many forms, in one of the various manners of communication. The form depends on the abilities of the group communicating. Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be oneself, another person or being, another entity (such as a corporation or group of beings).
Communication can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three levels of semiotic rules:
1. Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols),
2. pragmatic (concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users) and
3. semantic (study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent).
Therefore, communication is social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set of signs and a common set of semiotic rules. This commonly held rule in some sense ignores autocommunication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries or self-talk.
In a simple model, information or content (e.g. a message in natural language) is sent in some form (as spoken language) from an emission/ sender/ encoder to a destination/ receiver/ decoder. In a slightly more complex form a sender and a receiver are linked reciprocally. A particular instance of communication is called a speech act. In the presence of "communication noise" on the transmission channel (air, in this case), reception and decoding of content may be faulty, and thus the speech act may not achieve the desired effect. One problem with this encode-transmit-receive-decode model is that the processes of encoding and decoding imply that the sender and receiver each possess something that functions as a code book, and that these two code books are, at the very least, similar if not identical. Although something like code books is implied by the model, they are nowhere represented in the model, which creates many conceptual difficulties.
Theories of co regulation describe communication as a creative and dynamic continuous process, rather than a discrete exchange of information.
2. Recruiting:
Recruitment refers to the process of sourcing, screening, and selecting people for a job or vacancy within an organization. Though individuals can undertake individual components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations generally retain professional recruiters
The recruitment industry has four main types of agencies. Their recruiters aim to channel candidates into the hiring organization’s application process. As a general rule, the agencies are paid by the companies, not the candidates. The industries practice of information asymmetry and recruiters' varying capabilities in assessing candidate quality produces the negative economic impacts described by The Market for Lemons
Traditional recruitment agency
Also known as a employment agencies, recruitment agencies have historically had a physical location. A candidate visits a local branch for a short interview and an assessment before being taken onto the agency’s books. Recruitment Consultants then endeavor to match their pool of candidates to their clients' open positions. Suitable candidates are with potential employers.
Remuneration for the agency's services usually takes one of two forms:
• A contingency fee paid by the company when a recommended candidate accepts a job with the client company (typically 20%-30% of the candidate’s starting salary), which usually has some form of guarantee, should the candidate fail to perform and is terminated within a set period of time.
• An advance payment that serves as a retainer, also paid by the company.
• It may still be legal for an employment agency to charge the candidate instead of the company, but in most places that practice is now illegal, due to past unfair and deceptive practices.
Online recruitment websites
Such sites have two main features: job boards and a résumé/Curriculum Vitae (CV) database. Job boards allow member companies to post job vacancies. Alternatively, candidates can upload a résumé to be included in searches by member companies. Fees are charged for job postings and access to search resumes.
In recent times the recruitment website has evolved to encompass end to end recruitment. Websites capture candidate details and then pool then in client accessed candidate management interfaces (also online). Key players in this sector provide e-recruitment software and services to organizations of all sizes and within numerous industry sectors, who want to e-enable entirely or partly their recruitment process in order to improve business performance.
The online software provided by those who specialize in online recruitment helps organizations attract, test, recruit, employ and retain quality staff with a minimal amount of administration.
Online recruitment websites can be very helpful to find candidates that are very actively looking for work and post their resumes online, but they will not attract the "passive" candidates who might respond favorably to an opportunity that is presented to them through other means. Also, some candidates who are actively looking to change jobs are hesitant to put their resumes on the job boards, for fear that their current companies, co-workers, customers or others might see their resumes.
Headhunters
Headhunters are third-party recruiters often retained when normal recruitment efforts have failed.
Headhunters are generally more aggressive than in-house recruiters. They may use advanced sales techniques, such as initially posing as clients to gather employee contacts, as well as visiting candidate offices. They may also purchase expensive lists of names and job titles, but more often will generate their own lists. They may prepare a candidate for the interview, help negotiate the salary, and conduct closure to the search. They are frequently members in good standing of industry trade groups and associations. Headhunters will often attend trade shows and other meetings nationally or even internationally that may be attended by potential candidates and hiring managers.
Headhunters are typically small operations that make high margins on candidate placements (sometimes more than 30% of the candidate’s annual compensation). Due to their higher costs, headhunters are usually employed to fill senior management and executive level roles, or to find very specialized individuals.
While in-house recruiters tend to attract candidates for specific jobs, headhunters will both attract candidates and actively seek them out as well. To do so, they may network, cultivate relationships with various companies, maintain large databases, purchase company directories or candidate lists, and cold call.
In-house recruitment
Larger employers tend to undertake their own in-house recruitment, using their Human Resources department. In addition to coordinating with the agencies mentioned above, in-house recruiters may advertise job vacancies on their own websites, coordinate employee referral schemes, and/or focus on campus graduate recruitment. Alternatively a large employer may choose to outsource all or some of their recruitment process (Recruitment process outsourcing).
3. Time Management:
Time management is commonly defined as the management of time in order to make the most out of it.[1]
But in a 2001 interview[2], David Allen observed:
You can't manage time, it just is. So "time management" is a mislabeled problem, which has little chance of being an effective approach. What you really manage is your activity during time, and defining outcomes and physical actions required is the core process required to manage what you do.
Time management can refer to all of the practices that individuals follow to make better use of their time, but such a definition could range over such diverse areas as the selection and use of personal electronic devices, time and motion study,[3] self-awareness, and indeed a great deal of self-help. As narrowly defined, it refers to principles and systems that individuals use to make conscious decisions about the activities that occupy their time.
4. Managing Stress:
Stress management encompasses techniques intended to equip a person with effective coping mechanisms for dealing with psychological stress, with stress defined as a person's physiological response to an internal or external stimulus that triggers the fight-or-flight response. Stress management is effective when a person utilizes strategies to cope with or alter stressful situations.
5. Negotiation:
Negotiation is a dialogue intended to resolve disputes, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, or to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. It is the primary method of alternative dispute resolution.
Negotiation occurs in business, non-profit organizations, government branches, legal proceedings, among nations and in personal situations such as marriage, divorce, parenting, and everyday life. The study of the subject is called negotiation theory. Those who work in negotiation professionally are called negotiators. Professional negotiators are often specialized, such as union negotiators, leverage buyout negotiators, peace negotiators, hostage negotiators, or may work under other titles, such as diplomats, legislators or brokers.
PERFORMANCE OF PROFESSIONALISM
Performance management is the systematic process by which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and goals.
Employee performance management includes:
• planning work and setting expectations,
• continually monitoring performance,
• developing the capacity to perform,
• periodically rating performance in asummary fashion, and
• rewarding good performance.
The revisions made in 1995 to the Government wide performance appraisal and awards regulations support sound management principles. Great care was taken to ensure that the requirements those regulations establish would complement and not conflict with the kinds of activities and actions practiced in effective organizations as a matter of course.
Additional background information on performance management can be found in the following articles:
1. PLANNING
In an effective organization, work is planned out in advance. Planning means setting performance expectations and goals for groups and individuals to channel their efforts toward achieving organizational objectives. Getting employees involved in the planning process will help them understand the goals of the organization, what needs to be done, why it needs to be done, and how well it should be done.
The regulatory requirements for planning employees' performance include establishing the elements and standards of their performance appraisal plans. Performance elements and standards should be measurable, understandable, verifiable, equitable, and achievable. Through critical elements, employees are held accountable as individuals for work assignments or responsibilities. Employee performance plans should be flexible so that they can be adjusted for changing program objectives and work requirements. When used effectively, these plans can be beneficial working documents that are discussed
2. MONITORING:
In an effective organization, assignments and projects are monitored continually. Monitoring well means consistently measuring performance and providing ongoing feedback to employees and work groups on their progress toward reaching their goals.
Regulatory requirements for monitoring performance include conducting progress reviews with employees where their performance is compared against their elements and standards. Ongoing monitoring provides the opportunity to check how well employees are meeting predetermined standards and to make changes to unrealistic or problematic standards. And by monitoring continually, unacceptable performance can be identified at any time during the appraisal period and assistance provided to address such performance rather than wait until the end of the period when summary rating levels are assigned
3. DEVELOPING:
In an effective organization, employee developmental needs are evaluated and addressed. Developing in this instance means increasing the capacity to perform through training, giving assignments that introduce new skills or higher levels of responsibility, improving work processes, or other methods. Providing employees with training and developmental opportunities encourages good performance, strengthens job-related skills and competencies, and helps employees keep up with changes in the workplace, such as the introduction of new technology.
Carrying out the processes of performance management provides an excellent opportunity to identify developmental needs. During planning and monitoring of work, deficiencies in performance become evident and can be addressed. Areas for improving good performance also stand out, and action can be taken to help successful employees improve even further.
4. RATING:
From time to time, organizations find it useful to summarize employee performance. This can be helpful for looking at and comparing performance over time or among various employees. Organizations need to know who their best performers are.
Within the context of formal performance appraisal requirements, rating means evaluating employee or group performance against the elements and standards in an employee's performance plan and assigning a summary rating of record. The rating of record is assigned according to procedures included in the organization's appraisal program. It is based on work performed during an entire appraisal period. The rating of record has a bearing on various other personnel actions, such as granting within-grade pay increases and determining additional retention service credit in a reduction in force.
Note: Although group performance may have an impact on an employee's summary rating, a rating of record is assigned only to an individual, not to a group
5. REWARDING:
In an effective organization, rewards are used well. Rewarding means recognizing employees, individually and as members of groups, for their performance and acknowledging their contributions to the agency's mission. A basic principle of effective management is that all behavior is controlled by its consequences. Those consequences can and should be both formal and informal and both positive and negative.
Good performance is recognized without waiting for nominations for formal awards to be solicited. Recognition is an ongoing, natural part of day-to-day experience. A lot of the actions that reward good performance — like saying "Thank you" — don't require a specific regulatory authority. Nonetheless, awards regulations provide a broad range of forms that more formal rewards can take, such as cash, time off, and many nonmonetary items. The regulations also cover a variety of contributions that can be rewarded, from suggestions to group accomplishments.
Managing Performance Effectively.
In effective organizations, managers and employees have been practicing good performance management naturally all their lives, executing each key component process well. Goals are set and work is planned routinely. Progress toward those goals is measured and employees get feedback. High standards are set, but care is also taken to develop the skills needed to reach them. Formal and informal rewards are used to recognize the behavior and results that accomplish the mission. All five component processes working together and supporting each other achieve natural, effective performance management.
MANAGERS ROLE IN PROFESSIONALISM
It is interesting to note that the kind of assignments HR managers perform differ organization to organization and situation to situation. Sometimes, we find it extremely difficult to profile the job of HR manager in definite terms. This precisely the reason why HR manager is required to handle variety of functions and in the process, performing different roles. This is more a necessity than an option for those HR managers who want to complete HRM professionals. If it is so, what kind of roles HRM professionals may have to perform? American society for Training and Development provides answer to this question based on surveying the job descriptions and job profiles of a large number of HRM managers. The survey identified 15 key roles indicated in the following that HRM practitioners need to play.
1. Evaluator:
The role assessing the impact and utility of a programme and service to the employee and organization
2. Group facilitator:
The role of managing group discussions and group process, so that individuals learn and group members feel the positive experience.
3. Individual development counselor:
The role of helping an individual to assess personal competencies, values, goals and identify and plan development and career actions.
4. Instructional Writer:
The role of preparing written learning and instructional material.
5. Instructor:
The role of presenting information and directing structured learning experiences so that individuals learn.
6. Manager of training and development:
The role of planning, organizing, staffing, controlling, training and development operations, or training and development projects, and of linking training and development operations with other organization units.
7. Marketer:
The role of selling, training and development view points, learning packages, programmes and services to target audiences outside one’s own work unit.
8. Media specialist:
The role of producing software and using audio, visual, computer and other hardware based technologies for training and development.
9. Need analyst:
The role of defining gaps between ideal and actual performance and specify the cause gaps.
10. Programme administrator:
The role of ensuring that the facilities, equipment, materials, participants, and other components of a learning event are present and the programme logistics run smoothly.
11. Programme designer:
The role of preparing objectives, defining content, and selecting and sequencing activities for a specific programme.
12. Strategist:
The role of developing long range plans for what the training and development structure, organization, direction, policies, programmes, services and practices will be in order to accomplish the training and development vision.
13. Task analyst:
The role of identifying activities, tasks, sub-tasks, human resource, and support requirements necessary to accomplish specific results in a job or organization.
14. Theoretician:
The role of developing and testing theories of learning, training and development.
15. Transfer agent:
The role of helping individuals to apply learning after their learning experience.
REFERENCE BOOKS:
LEADERSHIP – ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR – UDAI PAREEK.
TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP – BACK BONE MAGAZINE& SRINIVAS R. KANDULA
LEADER’S GOAL, CONVICTION, VISION – WIKIPEDIA.ORG
TRANSFORMATIONAL AND TRANASDATIONAL LEADERSHIP – CHANGEMINDS.ORG
LEADERS VISION – WIKIPEDIA.ORG
LEADERSHIP THEORIES – CHANGEMINDS .ORG
PROFESSIONALISM – WIKIPEDIA.ORG
MANAGING AWARENESS – WIKIPEDIA.ORG
PERFORMANCE – OPM.GOV/PERFORM/ OVERVIEW.
MANAGERS ROLE IN PROFESSIONALISM – SRINIVAS R. KANDULA.
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