Chapter 10 Flashcards
The act of influencing others
toward a goal.
Leadership
Those who hold a position of
authority and may utilize the
power that comes from their
position, as well as their
personal power to influence
others.
Formal leaders
Those without a formal
position of authority within
the organization but
demonstrate leadership by
influencing those around them
through personal forms of
power.
Informal leaders
KT 10.2
Many studies searched for a limited set of personal attributes, or traits,
which would make someone be viewed as a leader and be successful as a
leader. Some traits are consistently related to leadership, such as
intelligence (both mental ability and emotional intelligence), personality
(extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, self-esteem), and
integrity. The main limitation of the trait approach was that it ignored the
situation in which leadership occurred. Therefore, it is more useful to
specify the conditions under which different traits are needed.
Behaviors involving
structuring the roles of
subordinates, providing them
with instructions and behaving
in ways that will increase the
performance of the group.
(Also called initiating
structure.)
Task-oriented leader behaviors
Behaviors that include showing
concern for employee feelings
and treating employees with
respect. (Also called
consideration.)
People-oriented leader behaviors
When leaders make the
decision alone without
necessarily involving
employees in the decisionmaking process
authoritarian decision making
Making choices among
alternative courses of action,
including inaction.
democratic decision making
When leaders leave employees
alone to make the decision. The
leader provides minimum
guidance and involvement in
the decision.
laissez-faire decision making
KT 10.3
When researchers failed to identify a set of traits that would distinguish
effective from ineffective leaders, research attention turned to the study of
leader behaviors. Leaders may demonstrate task-oriented and peopleoriented behaviors. Both seem to be related to important outcomes, with
task-oriented behaviors more strongly relating to leader effectiveness and
people-oriented behaviors leading to employee satisfaction. Leaders can also
make decisions using authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire styles. While
laissez-faire has certain downsides, there is no best style and the
effectiveness of each style seems to vary across situations. Because of the
inconsistency of results, researchers realized the importance of the context
in which leadership occurs, which paved the way to contingency theories of
leadership.
Theory stating that a leader’s
main job is to motivate
employees with the beliefs that
(1) their effort will lead to high
performance, (2) their high
performance will be rewarded,
and (3) the rewards they will
receive are valuable to them.
Path-goal theory of leadership
Those leaders who provide
specific directions to their
employees.
Directive leaders
Those leaders who provide
emotional support to
employees.
Supportive leaders
Those leaders who make sure
that employees are involved in
making important decisions.
Participative leaders
Those leaders who set goals for
employees and encourage
them to reach their goals.
Achievement-oriented leaders
KT 10.4
The contingency approaches to leadership describe the role the situation
would play in choosing the most effective leadership style. Fiedler’s
contingency theory argued that task-oriented leaders would be most
effective when the situation was the most and the least favorable, whereas
relationship-oriented leaders would be effective when situational
favorableness was moderate. Situational Leadership Theory takes the
maturity level of followers into account. House’s path-goal theory states that
the leader’s job is to ensure that employees view their effort as leading to
performance and increase the belief that performance would be rewarded.
For this purpose, leaders would use directive, supportive, participative, and
achievement-oriented leadership styles, depending on what employees
needed to feel motivated. Vroom and Yetton’s normative decision model is a
guide leaders can use to decide how participative they should be given
decision environment characteristics.
Those leaders who lead
employees by aligning
employee goals with the
leader’s goals.
Transformational leaders
Those leaders who ensure that
employees demonstrate the
right behaviors because the
leader provides resources in
exchange.
transactional leaders
Behaviors leaders demonstrate
that create confidence,
commitment, and admiration
to the leader.
Charisma
When leaders come up with a
vision that is inspiring to
others.
inspirational motivation
When leaders challenge
organizational norms and
status quo and encourage
employees to think creatively
and work harder.
intellectual stimulation
When leaders show personal
care and concern for the wellbeing of their followers.
individualized consideration
Rewarding employees for their
accomplishments.
contingent rewards
Leaving employees alone but at
the same time proactively
predicting potential problems
and preventing them from
occurring.
Active management by exception
