Perspectives on Leadership Context

Question 1

What is Lewin’s model of behaviour?

Answer 1

• B = f(P*E) (interactive term, i.e. both are as important)
  
  • P: Person (age, gender, personality, values, attitudes, emotions, perceptions, skills, motivational state)
  • E: Environment (relationships with group members and boss, organisational structure, organisation and culture characteristics, opporuntiesi for leadership)

Question 2

What is true of context in Lewin’s model of behaviour?

Answer 2

• Case studies illustrate aspects of the situation that enable and constrain leadership effectivness
• Example: size of an organisation make leadership more formal and beauracratic - command and control styles predominate and communication is often characterised by social distance between leaders and followers
• But context is more than just physical space and locaiton
• Leadership also reflects the symbolic space that gives meaning to leadership
  
  • e.g. in a military setting, leadership is a symbol of the hierarchical command structure; in Apple leadership may be seen as a reflection on innovative behaiouvr and risk taking

Question 3

What are the psychological perspectives on context?

Answer 3

• Implicit Leadership Theory

* Social Identify Theory

Question 4

What is implicit leadership theory?

Answer 4

• Key to understanding leadership is in the ‘mental models’ (schemas, mental maps) individuals use to interpret explain and predict their worlds
• Asking leaders what ‘success’ means to them at work gives insight into the cognitive models leaders use to influence others to gain successful work outcomes
• All of us carry around ideal ‘images’ (implicit theories) of what good leaders should do - these are often stereotypes by gender (men talk, women listen), position (to lead requires a powerful position) and effect (all mental models of leaders and leadership are positive)
• Perceptions of ideal leadership characteristics are therefore subjective
• Negative and ineffective leader characteristics are also part of general implicit leadership theories of individuals

Question 5

What is social identity theory/

Answer 5

• Leadership is focused on the group
• Explains how/why individuals self-categorise themselves as members of different by related social categories in order to maintain a healthy self identity and espouse attitudes and behaviours typical of these group categories
• Belonging to different social groups satisfies needs for security, affiliation, recognition and certainty (less stress)
• Prototypical leaders excel at reducing followers’ fear and uncertainty - they model the right answers, give directions… link success to their sources of information
• Prototypical behaviours, traits and social ideality shared by a group have a fundamental influence on who is a leader and what is effective leadership

Question 6

What is prototypicality?

Answer 6

• Followers think more positively about their leader if the leader is able to share and create a common identity with a group
• Leaders who are not in-group members will find it more difficult to be accepted and effective

Question 7

What are the sociological pespectivties on context?

Answer 7

• Social Construction of Leadership

* Discourse and Context

Question 8

What is the social construction of leadership?

Answer 8

• An interpretivist perspective places emphasis on the social interactions between individuals and group sin their specific context
• Language of leaders and followers is important as this reveals how individuals construct their daily lives and realities
• Leadership is seen as not an objective truth or set of ‘best practices’, but more a subjective product of social activity within a given social context
• How you lead and influence changes as you construct your understanding (knowledge) of a social context in interactions with others
• Contest of leadership is multi-dimensional, changing, fluid and subjective - universal models are eschewed in favour of more fluid, evolving approaches
• The process of leadership (changes over time) matters more; how leaders and followers interact in a given social space and organisational context

Question 9

What is discourse and context as a perspective on context?

Answer 9

• Focus is on the use of language and text as a key aspect of context - words reflect meaning leaders give to the process of leadership
• Leadership depicted in most textbooks reflects a US (western) reality (language) of what is important - a reality is created assumed to matter to everyone across different cultures
• Leadership has been given a corporate universal discourse that assumes all influence must be in the best interest of organisation and its manager/leaders - other social groups tend to be marginalised or ignored

Question 10

What is the summation of psychogical vs sociological perspectives on context>

Answer 10

• Psychological
  
  • Perceptions (schemas of leadership - implicit theory)
  • Effective leadership depends on leaders and followers sharing common assumptions and ‘mental models’
• Sociological
  
  • Interaction between all individuals in a social situation - social constructionism
  • Changing social context matters over time; role of power and discourse
  • Effective leadership cannot be controlled by individuals - how it happens is a social interaction; more involvement of individuals in a process may produce stronger social outcomes

Question 11

What is the summary of perspectives on leadership context?

Answer 11

• Personal (traits) and situational (environmental) factors interact to create leadership behaviour [B = P*E]
• The interactive terms P*E is often referred to as the perceived enironment or work culture
• Context and leadership behaviour is more than physical space - it’s a symbolic (psychological) space we make up in our heads - implicit theories of leadership (mental models or schemas)
• Behaviour is influenced by the social groups we belong to and identify with - social identity theory
• Who we are as leaders and/or followers is shaped by the membership of the group and what the group values (we socially categorise as either in the in or out group)
• Language (discourse) of leaders and followers is important as this reveals how individuals construct their daily lives and realities - gives insight into what is valued in an organisiton