Trends in Leadership thought.

1. Trends in Leadership thought.

2. Quiz (1) • How would you define leadership? • Where would you expect to find the earliest recorded descriptions of leaders? • Who wrote about the lives of great engineers? • What assumption lies behind trait theories of leadership. • What do we remember as Stogdill’s contribution to leadership.

3. Quiz (2) • What assumption lies behind style theories of leadership? • Suggest two contrasting leadership styles found in experimental studies. • What is a contingency theory? • What leadership style is associated with ‘New Leadership’ theories of the 1980s? • What is distributed leadership?

4. Quiz (3) • What leadership concept was central to Max Weber’s social theorizing? • How did the theory re-emerge in later leadership studies? • What are usually listed as the historical periods of leadership thought? • What led to changes in leadership thought?

5. KEY STAGES IN LEADERSHIP THOUGHT: • Heroic leadership; • Trait based theories; • Transactional theories (style & situational approaches) • The “New leadership” movement (transformation leadership; vision, management of meaning)

6. Definitions: It depends what you mean by leadership ... • Influence processes, • Mobilizing resources to arouse, engage & satisfy the motives of followers; • Making sense [of what people are doing] …articulating purpose & values.

7. HEROIC LEADERSHIP: • Ancient ideas of leadership can be found in all cultures. • Heroic leaders were historic & mythic figures later analysed by Max Weber (Charisma) • Other18th/19th century studies examined contemporary & historic figures. • Influential accounts by Thomas Carlisle, Samuel Smiles, Friedrich Nietzsche.

8. Max Weber: • Weber explained the formation & disruption of social institutions; • His model involved the influence of charismatic leaders. • These were believed to possess special powers & gifts.

9. THOMAS CARLYSLE: • History made up of accounts of heroic leaders. • He argued that all heroes were flawed • … but should be excused their flaws. • “No man is a hero to his valet”.

10. SAMUEL SMILES: • Biographer of the hero-engineers of the Industrial Revolution; • He captured “Victorian values” such as self-help & public duty; • He tended towards uncritical hero-worship.

11. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: • Complex German Existential Philosopher; • Believed in the “great man” (Uberman) who was above normal laws of society.

12. LIMITATIONS OF THE HEROIC VIEW: • Became regarded as “romantic & pre-modern.” • Leading figures (Carlisle, Nietzsche) were espoused by totalitarian regimes. • Considered unsuited to modern organizations. • Concealed “the dark side.”

13. TRAIT THEORIES: • Seek the essence of leaders (‘born to lead’) • Francis Galton pioneered an empirical approach anticipating subsequent psychometric methods. • Studies produced many different traits, failed to establish a ‘universal’ theory. • Thurstone’s five factors proposal ignored for many years (but partially rehabilitated)

14. DECLINE IN TRAIT THEORIES: • The multiplicity of traits identified became a problem; • Stogdill’s Handbook called for a new approach (1960s) • This helped in the rise of Style theories, & other Transactional theories. • [Co-editor Bass later associated with transformational leadership]

15. STOGDILL & STYLE THEORIES: • Stogdill’s group at Ohio State pioneered style (what leaders do) over traits (what leaders are) • Labelled main styles as consideration [towards others], & initiation of structure (“People & Task” styles)

16. DECLINE OF STYLE THEORIES: • The approach failed to demonstrate a “universally effective leadership style.” • It overlooked ‘situational’ or contextual effects (which made effectiveness ‘contingent’ or ‘sometimes influenced by’ non-style factors)

17. STYLE & CONTINGENCY AS TRANSACTIONAL THEORIES: • Style & contingency can be seen as transactional theories; • A transactional leader is the term applied to leaders studied in terms of their behaviors, specifically in their transactions with others.

18. TRANSACTIONAL & TRANSFORMATIONAL THEORIES: • Transactional theories were replaced trait theories (1960s – 1980s). • They failed to satisfy needs in organizations for a change-centred theory. • This was provided by a series of studies by Bernard Bass & colleagues (1970s - )

19. BOTH/& … NOT EITHER/OR: • Bass & Avolio’s ‘Full Range’ leadership model indicated that transformational leadership was an ‘add-on’ not a ‘replacement for’ transactional behaviors. • The factors were important in developing a New Leadership era (1980s)

20. Factors in the full-range model -

21. NEW LEADERSHIP: • Term was coined by Alan Bryman; • Became widely-cited; • Focused on transformational change; • Regarded leaders as providers of vision; • Theory is an interpretative one.

22. WHAT’S BEYOND NEW LEADERSHIP? • New Leadership left a lot of issues unanswered. • These include ‘post-charismatic’ ideas such as 5th-level leadership; distributed leadership; & leaderless groups. (self-directed work teams)

23. Post- charismatic ideas (1990s-) • Fifth-level leaders (Jim Collins) were found to be “modest but of fierce resolve.” • Distributed leadership suggests that a team “owns” different parts of the leadership process. • Leaderless groups have been proposed as the “natural” condition of informal social activities. (Self-directed work teams)

24. Distributed leadership Model - The Slone Distributed Leadership Model (DLM) is based on: Sensemaking; Relating; Visioning; Inventing. (collaborative designing to realize a shared vision) DLM ‘seeks to help each leader discover a personal Change Signature (an individual approach grounded in personal beliefs)

25. How many of the introductory questions are easier to answer now?

26. To go more deeply • Rickards & Clark (2005), Dilemmas of Leadership, Routledge, http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415355850/ • Bryman, A., Leadership, • http://www.amazon.com /SAGE-Handbook-Organization-Studies/dp/0761949968 • http://sloanleadership.mit.edu/pdf/LeadershipinanAgeofUncertainty-researchbrief.pdf