LOC 2 Flashcards
(23 cards)
Explain and evaluate the trait approach of leadership
The trait approach to leadership argues that leaders are born, not made. It assumes that leadership is based on inherent traits, such as confidence, intelligence, and extraversion, which are relatively stable across time and situations. According to this view, some individuals naturally possess qualities that make them more likely to emerge and succeed as leaders.
discuss which and how traits are related to leadership
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Stress Tolerance
Helps leaders stay calm and focused under pressure; essential for high-demand roles. -
Extraversion
Energetic, assertive, optimistic—linked to leadership emergence and being seen as leader-like. -
Conscientiousness
Organized, responsible, goal-driven—strongly predicts leadership effectiveness. -
Core Self-Evaluations (CSE)
Includes self-esteem, locus of control, self-efficacy, emotional stability. Boosts motivation, confidence, and resilience. -
Power Motivation
Socialized: Uses power to benefit others—linked to ethical and effective leadership.
Personalized: Seeks power for self—can lead to toxic leadership.
Summary: These traits influence who becomes a leader and how well they perform, moderated by context (e.g., crisis vs. routine).
- Understand and explain the meaning of bright and dark traits of leadership and illustrate them with concrete examples
Bright traits are positive personality traits that support both leadership emergence and effectiveness.
A leader recognizes team members’ contributions during a meeting, boosting morale and motivation.
→ This reflects extraversion and socialized power orientation.
Dark traits may help leaders emerge but often lead to negative outcomes.
A manager publicly shames an employee to assert dominance and maintain control.
→ This reflects dominance or narcissism.
explain the ltee model
The Leader Trait Emergence Effectiveness (LTEE) model explains how genetically influenced traits like extraversion and conscientiousness impact leadership. These traits affect leadership through four key mediators: getting along, getting ahead, providing meaning, and skills and abilities. This leads to leader emergence, either as perceived by others or through actual leadership roles. Effectiveness is then judged subjectively (e.g., ratings, follower attitudes) or objectively (e.g., performance outcomes). Moderators like culture, threats, and implicit leadership theories influence these relationships.
Criticism of the trait approach
While some traits have been identified
1 most traits are not guided by a theory that explains how traits are related to effectiveness
2 The LTEE model implies a linear, step-by-step process from traits to effectiveness.
Explanation: Real-world leadership is often nonlinear and dynamic—leaders continuously evolve, interact with their teams, and change their behavior over time. The model doesn’t fully capture this complexity, making it less realistic in practical settings.
3 Ignores the influence of context (situation may change trait effectiveness)
Understand the behavioral approach to leadership;
The behavioral approach focuses on what leaders do, rather than who they are. It studies specific behaviors that make leaders effective, and assumes that leadership can be learned and developed, not just based on traits.
Two main types of leader behavior: Task-oriented behavior and Relations-oriented behavior
This approach suggests that the most effective leaders adapt and balance both types of behaviors depending on the situation and team needs.
- discuss task-oriented leadership behavior and explain its usefulness; and provide concrete examples
task oriented leadership behavior is primarly concerned with accomplishing the tack effecively and reliabely – abt HETTING THINGS DONE
there are 4 parts of task oriented leaderhsip
1 planning work activities
2 Clarifiying roles and objectives
3 Monitoring operatioons and performance
4 Solving operational problems
Conctrete example: a leader that clearly defines what and how a task needs to be done, for example i am a summary writter my boos tells me i need to make sumaries that are 1/3 of the lengs of the articles, keep text accademical and submit every monday
- discuss Relations oriented leadership behavior and explain its usefulness; and provide concrete examples
Relations oriented leadership atre about buliding trust, supporting team members and maintaining positive relationships
It has 3 components
1 suppportive leadership/supporting
2 developing subordinate slikks
3 providing prase and recognition
Concrete example: my boss tells me im really good at organizing and tells me that they appreciate my punctuality
- Explain what the contingency approach to leadership entails and explain its usefulness.
Contingency approach to leadership states that the leader should adapt their style based on the environment (team, situtation, orgainisation…) so what works best realy depends on the situation
- Name and describe the core of some early contingency theories.
There are 2 early contingency theories: path path-goal theory and situational leadership
path goal leaders: A leader helps people reach their goals by showing the way and adjusting how they lead based on the situation (both person & task)
Situational Leadership Theory: leaders should adapt their style based on how ready or capable their followers are to perform a task
describe path goal theory
The path goal theory focuses on how leaders can motivate and suport their followers to achieve their goals
Followers adopt diffewrent styles depending on the situation (task/goal) and the needs of the followers the different styles leaders can adiopt:
- Directive – clear instructions and expectation
_ Supportive- friendly approachable, concern for well being
- Participative – involving followers in their decisions
- Achievement oriented – setting goals and encouraging high performance
describe Situational leadership theory
Situational leadership theory – leaders hsould adapt their leadership based on needs and developmenr of their folowers, the development id determined by followers skill and motivation
There are 4 developmental levels that determine how a leader should behave
D1 low competence lhigh commitment – new/inexperienced followers - DIRECTING
D2 some competence, low commintemt - COACHING
D3 high competence varieble commitment - SUPPORTING
D4 high competence hiogh commitmentr – DELEGATING
– The Double-Edged Sword of Leader Humility
Core Idea:
This study applies attribution theory as a contingency model to explain when leader humility leads to positive vs. negative outcomes for subordinates.
Contingency Explained:
The effect of leader humility on outcomes (like deviance) depends on subordinates’ attributions:
* High self-serving attribution: Subordinates think the leader is humble because of their own excellence. This boosts psychological entitlement → increases workplace deviance.
* Low self-serving attribution: Subordinates think the leader is just being genuinely humble. This improves Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) → reduces workplace deviance.
Key Application:
Humility is not universally good; its outcomes depend on how employees interpret it, making attribution a crucial contingency variable.
Seeing From a Short-Term Perspective
Core Idea:
This study investigates how daily abusive supervision can have both functional and dysfunctional consequences, depending on the subordinate’s general motive attribution.
Contingency Explained:
* Performance-promotion attribution: If subordinates think the abuse is meant to push performance, they engage in task reflexivity at night → better performance the next day.
* Injury-initiation attribution: If they believe the abuse is to harm them, they engage in rumination → leader-directed deviance the next day.
Key Application:
Abusive behavior doesn’t always harm performance—but whether it “works” depends on what subordinates believe about the leader’s intentions.
What determines whether abusive supervision leads to improved task performance or deviance the next day?
A. The leader’s daily mood
B. Subordinates’ attribution of the leader’s motives
C. The size of the team
D. The length of employment
B.
When abusive supervision is attributed to performance-promotion motives, what is the likely short-term outcome?
A. Lower trust and higher deviance
B. Higher turnover intentions
C. Increased task reflexivity and better performance
D. Complete emotional detachment from work
c
What nighttime cognitive process mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and deviance when harm is attributed?
A. Goal setting
B. Rumination
C. Cognitive dissonance
D. Problem-solving reflection
b
What is the key moderator that determines whether leader humility leads to deviance or positive outcomes?
A. Employee personality
B. Leader-member exchange quality
C. Subordinates’ self-serving attribution of humility
D. Organizational culture
c
What positive outcome is associated with leader humility when subordinates do not make self-serving attributions?
A. Increase in micromanagement
B. Higher deviance
C. Stronger leader-member exchange and reduced deviance
D. Passive employee behavior
c
What negative effect can occur when subordinates make self-serving attributions of leader humility?
A. Increased employee motivation
B. Reduced performance pressure
C. Increased psychological entitlement and workplace deviance
D. Decreased turnover intentions
c
According to the Trait Approach of leadership, some individual traits, values, skills or competencies are related to leader effectiveness, as described by Yukl and Gardner (2020).
Question: Which of the following statements is in line with their discussion on the need for power of leaders?
a) Managers with a socialized power orientation are more emotionally mature and their strong need for power is expressed by using influence to build up the organization and make it successful.
b) Managers with a personalized power orientation use power to enlarge themselves and have great self-control, making them more effective than leaders with a socialized power orientation.
c) A strong need for power is undesirable, since managers that score high on need for power tend to dominate subordinates by keeping them weak and dependent.
a
Path-Goal Theory (PGT) and Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) are both contingency theories of leadership.
Question: Which of the following comparisons of these theories is correct?
a) PGT assumes that leaders can adapt their behavior to match the situation, whereas SLT assumes that leaders must choose or adapt situations to match their preferred behavioral style.
b) SLT assumes that leaders must and can adjust their behavior based on employee characteristics, whereas PGT also includes task characteristics as contingent variables.
c) SLT is based upon theory regarding the differential impact of power and status, whereas PGT is based on motivational theories combined with theory on the hierarchy of human needs.
b
Given: One of the traits that has been found to be positively related to gaining a leader position and to leader effectiveness is Core Self Evaluations (CSE).
Question: a) Explain what CSE is (1 point), b) how it may be reflected in a leader’s behavior (1 point) and and c) explain why it may lead to leader effectiveness (1 point)
core sefl evaluations - is a broad personality trait that reflects how people view themselves it can be presented positively or negaively, b) in general CSE is a positive trait as a high self evaluation leads to confidence bit sometimes it can lead to too much confidence abd risky behavior because of the toohigh CSE c) this can have a positive or negative impact on effectiveness as a leader that is high on CSE can confidently lead the followers throigh some ambigous times but it can as i said lead to risky behavior as wrll
