There is no agreement among management theorists on the definition of
leadership. Though most of them do agree that leadership involves influencing
others, the disagreement arises on the issue of how this takes place. Another
issue of contention among experts is whether managing and leading are
equivalent. According to some experts, managers and leaders are different.
Managers generally devote their time to developing plans, organizational
structures and controlling deviations from the plans.
Leaders focus on developing a vision for the future, communicating the vision
to people, integrating the efforts of their followers, helping them overcome
hurdles and developing their abilities to realize the vision. Managers derive
their power from their position in the organization. Leaders do not need any
formal authority but derive power from people who follow them because of
their abilities.
Leadership is the ability to influence people and drive them toward the
achievement of goals. The research on leadership has led to the development
of three types of theories - Trait, behavioral and contingency theories.
According to trait theories, some traits such as extroversion,
aggressiveness, self-confidence, honesty and integrity and intelligence
differentiate leaders form non-leaders. According to the behavioristic
school, successful leadership depends more on appropriate behavior and
skills, and less on personality traits. The three broad types of skills used
by leaders, as identified by Robert Katz, are technical, human and conceptual
skills.
Four different behavioral theories - the Ohio State Studies, the University
of Michigan Studies, the Managerial Grid and the Scandinavian Studies -
sought to identify the different behaviors adopted by leaders. The Ohio State
Studies concluded that leaders who score high on the dimensions of initiating
structure (task orientation) and consideration (concern for people) achieve
superior subordinate performance and satisfaction, compared to those who
score low on either one of them or both.
The Michigan Studies found that an employee-centered style of leadership is
more effective than a production-centered style of leadership. The Managerial
Grid proposed by Blake and Mouton suggested that leaders who have equal
concern for people and production are most effective. The Scandinavian
studies resulted in the emergence of a new dimension called
'development-oriented' behavior. According to these studies, leaders who
embrace change and encourage new ideas and practices are successful.
The contingency theories deal with the situational aspects of leadership
styles. Some of the well known contingency theories are Fiedler's contingency
model, Hersey and Blanchard's situational theory, Leader-Member exchange
theory, Leader Participation model and the Path-Goal theory. Fiedler's model
suggests that the leader should choose his style of leadership depending on
the favorability or unfavorability of the overall situation.
Hersey and Blanchard's situational theory states that the most critical
factor that influences the selection of a leader's style is the maturity
level of his subordinates. The Leader-Member exchange theory suggests that
leaders try and establish a special relationship with a small group of
subordinates; this small group would constitute an in-group, with all the
rest of subordinates being in an out-group. The in-group members get more
attention from the leader and enjoy special privileges. The Leader
participation approach provides a sequential set of rules that can be
followed for identifying the type of situation and determining the amount of
participation that should be demanded from subordinates for decision making.
According to the Path-Goal theory, the leader should guide his followers in
achieving the organizational goals, and also establish individual and group
goals that are compatible with the broad organizational goals.
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Short Case Studies / Caselets
