Describe each of the four leadership styles and under what circumstances the style is most effective.

Describe each of the four leadership styles and under what circumstances the style is most effective.

Directive leaders are those who provide specific directions to employees. They lead by clarifying role expectations, setting schedules, and making sure employees how what to do. This style works best when there is high role ambiguity for employees, where employees have low abilities and external loci of control.

Supportive leaders provide emotional support to employees. They treat employees well, treat people on a personal level and are encouraging. This style is most effective when the tasks are boring and repetitive and stressful.

The participative leadership style makes certain employees are involved in making important decisions. The style is most effective when employees have high-level abilities, when the decision is relevant to them and when they have a high locus of control.

The achievement-oriented leader sets goals for employees and encourages them to reach those goals. The circumstances under which this style works most effectively are when employees have high abilities and a high achievement motivation.

141. Define transformational leadership.

Transformational leadership is when leaders align employee goals with their own.  To do so, the leader uses his charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration to influence subordinates.  

142. Describe transactional leadership.

Transactional leadership ensures that employees demonstrate the right behaviors because the leader provides resources in exchange. The leaders provide contingent rewards and management by exception.

143. Why would some employees not want to have a high quality relationship with their leader?

All employees may not want to have a high quality relationship with their manager. Some employees do not like their managers, at times because they see them as unethical or unkind and do not want to be labeled as such simply because they associate with him. Some employees do not have any interest in advancing their career in a particular company or industry so they are simply in the firm to get their paycheck and there is no need for additional time spent in a relationship. Finally, some leaders simply cannot influence some people.

144. What is servant leadership?

Servant leadership is where the leader serves the needs of others including employees, customers, and the external community. Servant leaders feel a need to understand their employees’ personal needs, to empower them and to help them develop their careers.

145. What is authentic leadership?

The key to authentic leadership is to be true to yourself. Authentic leaders are self-aware, they are introspective and understand where they are coming from and have a thorough understanding of their own values and priorities. They are not afraid to act the way they are and they have high personal integrity.

146. What implications do the Milgram experiments have for the concept of leadership?

The Milgram experiments, where subjects were directed by an individual in a lab coat to administer electric shocks to other people when those individuals gave a wrong answer to questions, demonstrates that people in positions of authority are influential in driving others to ethical or unethical behaviors. In the Milgram situation, the individuals giving the INCORRECT answers were actually actors, and the electric shocks subjects thought they were delivering were not real. Yet, the actors pretended the shocks were occurring. About two-thirds of the subjects continued to administer the shocks to INCORRECT answers even when those shocks reached “dangerous” levels.

ESSAY

147. Choose any two of the leadership theories presented in this chapter, define them and then compare and contrast the theories.

There are four sets of theories in this chapter: Trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency and contemporary theories. Students can choose in the trait theory category to discuss specific traits like the Big 5 personality traits, mental and emotional intelligence, self-esteem and integrity. Their discussions should center on the relationship between the individual trait and either leadership emergence or leadership effectiveness. The intent behind the trait theories was to define a limited number of attributes that could define a leader or the success of a leader.  The major limitation of the trait theories is that they do not take into account the situation in which the leadership takes place.

A second group of theories that can serve as a comparison point are the behavioral theories. These theories look at what leaders actually do. The Ohio State and University of Michigan studies pointed out that leaders tend to demonstrate task- or people-oriented behaviors, and students can discuss the relationship between those behaviors and leadership effectiveness. Further, students can discuss the style of leader decision making and its relationship to leader effectiveness. The value of the behavioral theories is that they indicate the need to understand the context of leadership, and so the third category, contingency theory, might be a point of comparison for the writer.

Contingency theories presented include Fiedler’s and House’s theories. Fiedler’s work assumed the leader style to be fixed and only the environment can be changed. House took a different track underscoring the importance of varying one’s style depending on the situation.

The final group of theories are contemporary theories including those of transformational, transactional, leader-member exchange, servant and authentic leadership. Each of these new theories focuses on a different aspect of leadership, but all suggest that effective leaders need to change their style based upon the demands of the situation as well as using their own values and needs.

148. What contribution to building effective leaders does the trait theory offer?

The trait theories attempt to create a limited set of attributes that can define a leader or the success of the leader. While the number of traits is large and the theory does not account for the situation a leader faces, the notion of understanding leader attributes is a good way to begin building such strengths in your organization or your personal repertoire of skills. The more likely individuals are to demonstrate these attributes, the more likely they are to be successful and to make their organizations successful. So while the topics that could be discussed in a leadership development seminar from a trait perspective are large, the value of those traits to individual development is unquestionable.

149. Under what conditions would a task-oriented manager be most successful?

Task-oriented managers work best in scenarios where structured roles for subordinates, clear instructions and behaviors to enhance performance are warranted. Research suggests small businesses are appropriate places for such attributes.  

150. Compare and contrast transformational and transactional leadership.

Transformational leadership is where managers lead by aligning employee goals with the leader’s own. To do so, the leader uses charisma, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation. In contrast, transactional leaders ensure that employees demonstrate the right behaviors because the leader provides resources in exchange. These resources include contingent rewards. Transactional managers often use active management by exception as a tool to success. Both of these leadership approaches are part of the contemporary body of work on leadership. Both have shown to lead to effectiveness, but the circumstances where that occurs obviously differs.  Transformational leadership is viewed as more effective because of the trust established in the relationship.

151. How would you train an individual so as to increase his charisma?

There is some argument as to whether charisma is an inherent characteristic and untrainable. If you do believe you can train charisma, you might want to consider:

Teaching individuals how to create a vision that you understand and are immersed in and then demonstrate how to share that with others so they too pursue it with you.

This vision must be tied to history in the department or organization, so the notion of teaching the history or culture of the firm needs to be addressed in training.

Body language recognition is very important, so a session of training could be devoted to the study of body language and its implications.

Charisma involves confidence. Do self-esteem assessments during a training session and develop techniques to enhance self-esteem.

Charisma also involves having novel approaches to problems, so training could focus on developing out-of-the-box thinking by using different brainstorming techniques including wildstorming.

152. Critique the leader-member exchange theory (LMX) with regard to the implications it has for effective leadership in the organization.

There are many different relationships in a work organization between the leader and subordinates. Clearly there will be in-group and out-group situations. There are advantages to high LMX relationships particularly from the perspective of the subordinate and the manager often gets a committed, productive worker because of the resources available from that relationship. That said, not everyone can have a high LMX relationship, so, some of the best advice for a leader is that he be fair in all his dealings with employees and that he treat all his employees with respect. The key issue to remember as a leader is relationships have an important influence over employee attitudes and behaviors, so be aware how you build relationships and how you could build relationships—put conscious effort into it.

153. Denise wants to improve her relationship with her manager. Right now, she feels like she really does not know him well. She recognizes that part of the issue is that she works in her office with the door closed and opens it to meet with people only on an “as needed” basis. What are some recommendations for Denise?

Create interaction opportunities with your manager. Denise should not stay in her office. Get out, ask questions.  

Recognize that people are more attracted to others like them. Denise needs to establish and convey the similarities she and her manager share so they have a common starting point.

Tactfully utilize impression management techniques. For example, compliment your manager on work-related issues.

Be a reliable employee. Trust is key to building and sustaining relationships.

Be aware that relationships develop early. Denise created some issues for herself by staying in her office. She is working from behind but using the right techniques, can catch up.

154. In what context might a servant leader be successful?

Servant leadership can actually work in any firm.  In today’s business climate where daily news bulletins present yet another leader who has created a Ponzi scheme or otherwise defrauded firms and individuals, the move to putting employees, customers and the larger external community first is radical but needed.  Those who practice servant leadership will get attention and will be successful just for the simple reason of trust.  People will begin to pull out of the economic environment when that trust is gone, but will enter full scale when they see integrity demonstrated.

155. What leadership theory or characteristics are most applicable to other countries?

The answer for all situations is, it depends.  Students can cite specific examples provided in this chapter with regard to the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness project, but it comes down to understanding that there is variation and similarity across cultures.  Being aware, being open and constantly monitoring other cultures are the best pieces of advice for understanding what the key characteristics are.  

In this situation, the characteristics of vision, team orientation and participative leadership seem to be preferred styles around the world.  Traits like how confident leaders should be and whether they should sacrifice themselves for the good of their employees differ.  Universally charismatic and support leadership is common but how those traits are achieved varied.