ADM 612 - Leadership

1. ADM 612 - Leadership Lecture 11 – Team Leadership

2. Introduction • Leadership in organizational groups or teams has become one of the most popular and rapidly growing areas in leadership research. • Teams are organizational groups composed of members who are interdependent, share common goals, and who must coordinate their activities to accomplish these goals.

3. Introduction • 1920s and 1930s – Human relations theory on collaborative work. • 1940s – Group dynamics and social science theory. • 1950s – Sensitivity training, t-groups, and leadership.

4. Introduction • 1960s and 1970s – Organizational development; developing team and leadership effectiveness through interventions in ongoing work teams. • 1980s – Quality teams, benchmarking, continuous improvement. • 1990s – Quality teams, global perspective to maintain a competitive advantage.

5. Introduction • Team leadership process is very complex and presents a significant challenge to researchers. • Effective team leadership may be the primary ingredient in team success.

6. Functional Model of Team Leadership • Two critical functions of leadership: • Task function (team performance). • Maintenance function (team development). • What functions does a leader have to perform to help a group be more effective?

7. Dimensions of Leadership on Teams • Leader as the “medium”: the one who processes and acts on information. • The ability to monitor the situation and the ability to take action are both necessary to effective leadership.

8. Dimensions of Leadership on Teams • Effective team performance begins with the leader’s mental model of the situation: • The components of the problem. • Environmental and organizational contingencies. • Behavioral flexibility and a wide repertoire of actions or skills to meet the diverse needs of the team.

9. Dimensions of Leadership: Monitoring • Monitor internal and external environments of team. • Gather information, reduce equivocality, provide structure, and overcome barriers. • Information search (current state of team functioning) and structuring (analysis and interpretation to decide how to act).

10. Dimensions of Leadership: Action Taking • Skills of action mediation. • Ability to facilitate decision-making and task accomplishment (task/team performance. • Ability to manage interpersonal relations (maintenance/team development).

11. Characteristics of Effective Teams

12. Team Leadership Model

13. How Does the Team Leadership Model Work? • Model assesses current state of team and specific actions to improve team performance. • Leadership as a team oversight function to improve performance. • Points the way for constant team analysis and improvement.

14. Strengths • Focuses on real-life organizational work group and the necessary leadership needed therein. • Cognitive guide to help leaders design and maintain effective teams, especially if performance is below standards.

15. Strengths • Takes into account the changing role of leaders and followers in an organization. • Helps in selecting team leaders.

16. Criticisms • Entire model not fully tested or supported. • Model is complex and does not provide easy answers to difficult questions. • Identifies new and creative directions for leadership training, but directions are vague, complex, and overwhelming.

17. Application • Helps leaders to make decisions. • Should I monitor or should I act? • Internal or external action? • What is the appropriate skill to apply?