Chapter 6: Leadership in Organizations

Introduction

Managing and leading are the main factors that enable organizations success and gain competitive advantage in a new business age.

Leadership is a process of influence and leader behavior is not limited to the executive vice president, member of board, chief executive manager, director of marketing, the regional manufacturing manager.

Definition of Leadership

Leadership is a process about what the leader does. And the leader is the person who directs others to act in accordance with a specific purpose, inspires and influences them, and enables them to follow themselves willingly.

The main theories, can be named as trait, behavior, contingency, leader–member exchange, charismatic, transactional, transformational, authentic and paternalistic leadership.

Trait Perspective of Leadership

In the early 1900s, leadership traits were studied to determine what made certain people leaders. The theories that developed were called “great man” theories focused on identifying the innate qualities and characteristics possessed by great social, political and military leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Indira Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Many researchers have worked to identify effective leadership traits and endless lists of traits emerged. Traits such as desire to lead, honesty, high energy level and stress tolerance, self-confidence, internal locus of control, emotional maturity, personal integrity, socialized power motivation, a moderately high achievement orientation, low need for affiliation, the need for power, flexibility, openness, intelligence, sensitivity to others emotional intelligence, and narcissism have been viewed as being important to leadership, according to scholars.

Trait perceptive in leadership is very different from the other perspectives in leadership because it focuses only on the leader, not on the followers or the situation. Correspondingly it causes some limitations and criticisms on this approach. Firstly, the list of possible significant traits for effective leader is unlimited. Secondly, trait approach assumes that all successful leaders have the same personal traits that are equally important in all situations. Lastly, derived from previous criticisms, trait approach on leadership is about the leader, but scholars emphasize that leadership is relational.

Behavioral Perspective of Leadership

The behavioral approach tries to explain the leadership in process rather than the traits and characteristics of a leader. This approach focuses exclusively on the behaviors the leader shows in leadership and the relations with the people who form the leadership group. The way of communication, authority delegation, decision making, planning and controlling, determining the goals, resolving disputes with all subordinates are all considered as important factors that determine the effectiveness of the leader.

Through interviewing leaders and followers, researchers defined two types of leaders, task/goal oriented leader and people oriented leader. Task/goal-oriented Leader: According to both studies, the leader shows a behavior that closely controls whether the group members are working in accordance with the predetermined company principles, methods and rules and push them to reach their performance capacity. People- oriented Leader: People oriented leader tries to improve the working conditions that will improve the satisfaction of the group members and is closely interested in the personal development and progress of the subordinates.

According to managerial grid, leaders are grouped into five leadership styles.

• Country club management ; this leader has low concern for production, but much more concern for people.
• Task management; this leader has a high concern for production, on the other hand minimum concern for people.
• Middle of the road management ; this leader has a moderate concern for production and people.
• Impoverished management; this leader has neither a concern for people nor concern for production.
• Team management; in this leadership style, both job satisfaction and productivity are high, because the leader has a high concern for both people and production.

Contingency Perspective of Leadership

According to this theory, the factors determining the effectiveness of the leader are:

• The quality of the intended purpose
• Abilities and expectations of the followers (group members)
• Characteristics of an organization that leadership composed
• Past experiences of the leader and the followers

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership

Fiedler proposed that there is an interaction between leadership style and the particular organizational situations. He suggested that the key factor in leadership success was based on either task-oriented or relationship (people) oriented leadership style. Task-oriented leaders focus on success, so they make sure that the work within the group is completed successfully. On the other hand relationship (people)- oriented leaders emphasize the feelings of the subordinates and tend to share decisionmaking responsibility with their subordinates.

Situational Characteristics

The second major element in the Fiedler Contingency Model is the degree to which the situation provides the leader with control and influence. Fiedler classified favorability situations for effective leadership into three dimensions as leader–member relations, task structure and position power.

• Leader–member relations: This dimension points out the degree of loyalty, confidence, trust and respect of coworkers for their leaders.
• Task structure: This dimension relates to the existence of specific methods, models and operating procedures that are predetermined in relation to the work that coworkers are trying to accomplish.
• The third dimension which defines position power apart from the personal authority of the leader. Position power refers to the degree of competence that the leader has in rewarding, punishing, hiring, promoting and terminating.

Path-Goal Theory: How Leaders Motivate Followers?

Path–goal theory is about how formally appointed superiors affect the motivation and satisfaction of subordinates by clarifying the path to attain personal and organizational goals.

In path-goal theory, Evan and House classified leadership behaviors as directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented. Directive leadership means that the leader lets subordinates know what’s expected of them. Supportive leadership contains leader behaviors that concerns subordinates’ satisfaction of needs and preferences, as well as well-being of them. Participative leadership involves leader behavior that encourage and enable subordinate involvement in decision making. Achievement oriented leadership means encouraging subordinates to reach the highest performance by settings clear and challenging goals.

Modern Leadership Approachs

Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic leaders have exceptional qualities that followers identify with that person which result with high influence power more than in any other leadership styles.

According to House, charismatic leaders have some traits such as:

• A strong need for power,
• A high level of self-confidence,
• A tendency to dominate,
• A need to influence others,
• A strong belief in their own beliefs

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a process that transforms and changes the needs, beliefs and values of employees and organizational strategies to fit with the surrounding environment.

Transformational leaders are the charismatic ones. But every charismatic leaders cannot be adapted as transformational ones. To become a transformational leader, the leader has to transform a social system, a nation, or a firm.

Authentic Leadership

Luthans and Avolio’s study is generally regarded as the starting point of the authentic leadership researches. According to Avolio and associates (2004), “authentic leaders act in accordance with deep personal values and convictions, to build credibility and win the respect and trust of followers”.

After comprehensive studies, Walumbwa and colleagues (2008) constructed four-behavioral components to define authentic leadership process; namely self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing and internalized moral perspective. Self-awareness refers to the personal insights of the leader. With relational transparency, a leader is openminded and honest in presenting his/her true self to others. Balanced processing refers a leader’s ability to analyze all relevant information objectively and examine other people’s opinions before making decisions. Lastly, Internalized moral perspective involves a self-regulatory process that leaders use their internal moral standards and values to guide their behavior rather than those behaviors that are based on external forces such as societal, organizational and peers’ pressure.

Paternalistic Leadership

Paternalism is a cultural characteristic of traditional eastern societies such as China, Japan, India, and Korea, which is more than just a leadership style.

Paternalism is conceptualized as the employer’s authority and guidance in return for loyalty and respect from his/her subordinates. Paternalistic leadership is “a style that blends strong discipline and authority with fatherly benevolence and moral integrity couched in a personality atmosphere”

Paternalistic leader creates a family environment at work, behaves like a father to subordinates. He protects and establishes close relations with them and gives fatherly advice for both work and personal lives.

Paternalistic leadership is usually examined in a positive way because leader behaves like a father that concerns followers as a child and attempts to create a family-like atmosphere.

Paternalism is a social-cultural concept that is rooted in Eastern cultures. It could be an effective leadership style under the appropriate cultural context. “New paternalism” is used as a way of humanizing and remoralizing workplace in the organizational setting.