Housekeeping News Topics Great Person/Trait theories: What do you look for in leaders? McGregor’s Theory X & Y: What

1. Housekeeping • News • Topics • Great Person/Trait theories: What do you look for in leaders? • McGregor’s Theory X & Y: What are assumptions underlying people? • Argyris’ Worker Maturity: What if you mismatch leader style & follower needs? • Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s Leadership Continuum: What are your choices? • Lippit & White’s Autocratic, democratic, laissez faire leadership: (dis)advantages of different approaches • Vroom-Jago Normative Decision Tree: Know when to delegate? • Team Task: applying a theory to a case & critiquing

2. The Leadership Tool Kit: Different theories for different purposes Trait Theory Leadership Practices McGregor’s X-Y, MBTI Tannenbaum-Wechsler Succession theory Substitutes/neutralizers Org. culture Identify qualities for selection, coaching, performance eval. Leadership Preferences Orientation Leader replacement Worker satisfaction & productivity Delegation & power sharing Vroom-Jago Normative Model Path-Goal Theory Crisis Management Mentoring Style & situation fit Leader-Member Exchange Vertical Dyad Linkage Cognitive Resources Theory Fiedler’s Leadership Contingency Hersey-Blanchard situational Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid Argyris Maturity Model

3. “A rose by any other name”-- Similarities among leadership theories

4. The Great Person Approach to leadership • Where does the Great Person approach come from and what are its assumptions? • What are the problems and limitations of the approach? • What is the trait approach? Why is it often linked to the GP approach?

5. 40 years of leadership research finds some traits are necessary but not sufficient: • Intelligence (but not too much), scholarship initiative, independence, inventiveness (correlated with age, drops after age 40) • Self assurance, confidence, aspiration, perceived occupational level • Reflection-- the “helicopter factor" (being able to hover above and reflect on self and team), objectivity • Demographic characteristics: good health, above or below average height, upper SES • Enthusiasm, sociability, integrity, courage, imagination, decisiveness, determination, energy • Sociability: dependable, responsible, active, socially participate, cooperative, popular • Motivation: show initiative and persistence • Cognitive ability: intelligent, scholarly, insightful, verbal, adaptable

6. Leadership Behaviors What behaviors and personal characteristics (traits) do you think would be most and least correlated with leadership? Correlate High with Leadership Correlate Low with Leadership • originality • popularity • sociability • judgment • aggressiveness (assertiveness) • humor • desire to excel • cooperativeness • liveliness • athletic ability • age • height • weight • physique • energy • appearance • dominance • mood control

7. The Behavioral Approach to Leadership • The Behavioral Approach suggests that leaders behave in ways that differentiate themselves from those who are not chosen for leadership. • What are some of the behaviors in a team or committee setting that would increase chances of being viewed as a leader? • What are behaviors in that setting that would mitigate against being seen as a leader?

8. Behaviors working for and against leadership selection For-- • high participation and talking • comfort and fluency in delivering information • forceful and energetic in presentation • does not express strong opinions early in group (can later) • initiates conversation • introduces new themes and topics • seeks comments from others (Gatekeeper role) • sits at head of table • in a position of receiving, dispensing, or coordinating information • avoids obviously persuading other to a point of view • interacts flexibly with others; changes style as needed but not seen as chameleon • promotes identity of group ("we, us, our", etc.) • listens accurately to other's contributions • demonstrates achievement, goal orientationand task structure Against– • low level of participation, involvement or contribution • uninformed contribution • overly directive comments • offensive language (including sexist and profanity) • stilted, overly formal language • dominates conversation • absent from meetings • volunteers as secretary or recorder of meetings • takes role of joker • shows contempt for leadership • willing to do as told • presents self too strongly early in group discussion

9. How would you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the trait/behavior approach?

10. A few problems with the trait approach • many of these traits are relatively abstract-- how they are defined may refer to different behaviors, and may be too abstract to be adequately measured • they may overlap in meaning making them difficult to distinguish or apply • hundreds (if not thousands) of traits have been identified-- it's not possible for a leader to have them all • there are too many exceptions to the rule-- some people don't have these traits but are successful leaders • some traits are actually opposites of each other • the trait approach does not view personality asn an integrated whole, but as a collection of features or behaviors. • what may be a useful trait in one setting or culture may not be useful in another • referring to traits implies relatively fixed or stable qualities, and does not consider how well they are developed, adapted and used • reduced to a minimum, traits may be necessary but not sufficient conditions for leadership • the trait approach does not consider the role of followers or situational conditions; too much weight is placed on the leader

11. Lewin, Lippitt & White’s Autocratic, Democratic & Laissez Faire Leadership Styles (1938) • Why was this study so important at the time– why these variables chosen? • Where and on whom was the study done? • What did they conclude and how sound was it? • Is there anywhere that Theory X is still appropriate? Kurt Lewin Autocratic Democratic Laissez Faire

12. Douglas McGregor’s Theory X & Theory Y • Most people will try to do as little work as possible. • For most people, work is not as natural as play or recreation. • Most employees must be closely supervised in order to get them to perform up to expectations • Most employees actually prefer to be told exactly what to do rather than having to figure it out for themselves • Most employees do not care much about the organization's goals. • Most employees would prefer increased job security to increased responsibility. • Most people will not use their own initiative or do things that they have not been specifically assigned to do. • Employees generally do not have much to contribute when asked to participate in making decisions or solving problems • It is just basic human nature--people just naturally dislike work. • Most employees will not exercise self-control and self-motivation--managers must do this for them 41 - 50 points = strong Theory Y beliefs31 - 40 points = moderate Theory Y beliefs21 - 30 points = mixed Theory Y and Theory X beliefs11 - 20 points = moderate Theory X beliefs  5 - 10 points = strong Theory X beliefs

13. Argyris’ Worker Maturity Model (1957, 1962) Worker Maturity Chris Argyris • What are Argyris’ assumptions about the long term effect of work? • What are the implications for leadership & followership? • What happens when the leadership style and maturity are mismatched? • What could be done to enhance maturity?

14. Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s Leadership Continuum (1973) Robert Tannenbaum Forces in the manager: belief in team member participation and confidence in capabilities of members Forces in the subordinate: subordinates who are independent, tolerant of ambiguity, competent, identify with organizational goals Forces in the situation: team has requisite knowledge, team hold organizational values and traditions, teams work effectively Time pressure: need for immediate decision under pressure mitigates against participation

15. Advantages of Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s theory • gives managers a range of choices for involvement • presents criteria for involvement and delegation • focuses decision maker on relevant criteria (e.g., forces & time) • emphasizes employee development and empowerment • is heuristic--encourages research to see how effective delegation may be under the model • Limitations of this theory • involves only the initial step of assigning a task to someone, not the following processes that may determine the effectiveness of the outcome • assumes the manager has sufficient information to determine disposition to self or team • assumes "neutral" environment without social bonds or politics • simplifies complex decisions to a two-polar dimension; more simple than reality is

16. Delegation in decision making • What are the criteria that you would use as a manager to help you decide when to delegate a decision? (consider characteristics of the subordinate, nature of the decision, situation, etc.) • Can you place these criteria in a logical order that would lead you to a conclusion whether to make an authority decision, shared decision, or full delegation?

17. Vroom-Yetton-Jago Normative Decision Tree • Quality Requirement (QR): How important is the technical quality of the decision? • Commitment Requirement (CR): How important is subordinate commitment to the decision? • Leader's Information (LI): Do you (the leader) have sufficient information to make a high quality decision on your own? • Problem Structure (ST): Is the problem well structured (e.g., defined, clear, organized, lend itself to solution, time limited? • Commitment Probability (CP): If you made the decision by yourself, would your subordinates would be committed? • Goal Congruence (GC): Do subordinates share the organizational goals to be attained in solving the problem? • Subordinate conflict (CO): Is conflict among subordinates over preferred solutions likely? • Subordinate information (SI): Do subordinates have sufficient information to make a high quality decision? Victor Vroom Philip Yetton Arthur Jago

20. Team Task • Form discussion groups • Quickly describe several situations to which you might apply one or more of the leadership theories discussed tonight. Select one situation to examine in more detail • Use a theory to • Describe and explain what happened • Identify leverage points and recommend an intervention • Evaluate the utility of the theory used in this case analysis • Report to the class on utility of the theory