34 Theories of Leadership – I
Structure
1. Objectives
2. Introduction
3. Concept of Leadership
4. Overview of Leadership theories
5. Great Man Theory of Leadership
6. Charismatic Leadership Theory
7. Trait Theory of Leadership
8. Behaviourist Theory of Leadership
1. Objectives
At the end of the session learners will be able to
· Explain the concept of Leadership
· Classify Leadership Theories
· Explain Great Man Theory of Leadership
· Explain Charismatic Leadership Theory
· Explain Trait Theory of Leadership
· Explain Behaviourist Theory of Leadership
2. Introduction
Manager has to play the role of leader in any organization. He needs to have leadership qualities for proper functioning of the organization. Leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization. Leadership is a process in which an individual influences other group members towards attainment of group goal.
3. Concept of Leadership
There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who has attempted to define leadership. It is the process of directing and influencing the task related activities of group members. There are four implications of this definition.
First leadership involves other people, employees or followers. By their willingness to accept direction from the leaders, group members help define the leader’s status and make the leadership process possible.
Second, leadership involves an unequal distribution of power between leaders and group members. Leader usually have more power.
Third aspect of leadership is the influence. Leader influences behavior of members in different ways.
Fourth aspect combines the first three and acknowledge that leadership is about values. The leader who ignores the moral component invites problem for his existence.
What are the important characteristics that you believe every leader should possess?
Leader and manager are two different entities, but it is important for a manager to be a good leader also. Role of manager and leader differs. This can be explained from the following scenario.
Scenario 1
Mr. Deshpande has taken the charge of principal of the college after retirement. He wanted to bring many changes in the system. He calls meeting of the staff members and convey that in order to maintain the quality we need to restructure the functioning of our college. He asked the teachers to prepare a day wise timetable and not a fixed time table. It means a teacher needs to be aware about her lectures daily. Every week time table is new. Teachers resist the idea and started grumbling about it. He said those who cannot do that should give in writing so that he can take necessary action. Finally teachers plan Time Table day wise for four weeks. Mr. Deshpande has close review of everyday activities in the college. Initially teachers faced problems but later on started realizing that this system help them to give more number of lectures to teachers who needs more and less who completed much of their portion. Students were also alert about theory and practical classes. After six months when Mr. Deshpande took the review again then teacher mentioned that new Time Table is more flexible, make them more alert and removed the monotony of the job. Principal appreciated and thank the teachers for trying out new things.
Which role Mr. Deshpande is playing? Is he a manager or a leader?
How you will differentiate between these two roles?
What are the similarities between these two roles?
Here Mr. Deshpande is playing the role of manager. Manager is a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff. Mr. Deshpande wanted to bring many changes in the system. So he calls meeting of the staff members and convey that in order to maintain the quality we need to restructure the functioning of the college. While doing so he is managing the things for maintaining the quality. Manager plays the role to maintain the things, to do optimum utilization of resources, to bring changes for smooth functioning of the institution. Mr. Deshpande has close review of everyday activities in the college. So he is controlling the functioning.
4. Overview of Leadership Theories
There are many leadership theories as there are different views about the leader. Different people have defined leader in different ways. Many have tried to define what makes authentic leaders different from the mass. Leadership theories are commonly categorized by which aspect it is believed to define the leader. The most widespread are as follows.
· Great Man Theory
· Trait Theory
· Behavioral Theories
· Contingency Theories
– Fiedler model
· Situational Theories
– Hersey and Blanchard’s situational theory
· Path Goal Theory
5. Great Man Theory of Leadership
The Great man theory evolved around the mid 19th century. Just as the name suggests only a man could have characteristics of a great leader. The great man theory assumes that the traits of leadership are intrinsic. That simply means that great leaders are born, they are not made. This theory sees great leaders as they are destined to be great leader. Highly influential individuals who , due to either their personal characteristics , intelligence, wisdom or political skills used their power in a way that had a decisive historical impact .Eg. Napoleon Bonapart, Mahatma Gandhi. This theory believes that these people were born with leadership traits and only the great people possessed the leadership traits. According to the great man theory of leadership, leader calls for certain qualities like courage, intelligence, personality, persuasiveness etc. The great man theory states that some people are born with necessary attributes that set them apart from others and that these traits are responsible for their assuming positions of power and authority. The theory implies that those in power deserve to be there because of their special endowment. Furthermore the theory contends that these traits remains stable over time and across different groups. Thus it suggests that all great leaders share these characteristics regardless of when and where they lived or the precise role in history they fulfilled.
Earlier leadership was considered as quality associated mostly with the males, and therefore the theory was named as great man theory. Great man theory emphasizes ‘charismatic’ leadership.
6. Charismatic Leadership Theory
The term ‘charisma’ implies certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he set apart from ordinary men and treated as superhuman or person with exceptional power or qualities. Charismatic leaders are those leaders who by force of their personal abilities are capable of having extraordinary effects on followers. Charismatic leaders are self confident and have confidence in their subordinates, have ideological vision. Subordinates exhibits extreme loyalty to and confidence in the charismatic leader. Charismatic leaders have superior debating and persuasive skills and technical expertise. Charismatic attributes include self confidence, managerial skills, social sensitivity, empathy. Situations that promote charismatic leadership includes a crisis requiring dramatic change or followers who are dissatisfied with status-quo. But when it comes to the charismatic qualities of leaders, the emphasis is on how they communicate to followers and whether they are able to gain followers’ trust and influence and persuade them to follow.
Martin Leuther king, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill were known as dynamic, charismatic and inspirational leaders. What particular qualities or traits did someone like Martin Leuther king, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill possess that allowed them to lead and inspire so many people?
Let us try to understand this by analyzing Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership behaviour. Mahatma Gandhi was a freedom fighter who had great influence on his followers in freedom movement. He was a great communicator and his communication style was perceived as charismatic. Gandhi’s vision was clearly articulated to followers and was certainly ideological. He prompted concepts including truth, non violence and honesty. He believed that truth is the strongest weapon. He followed principles of truth and nonviolence throughout his life time. He was a great negotiator and was able to make effective decisions. He pride himself in truthfulness, equality, non- violence, and faith in self. He was considered as leader as he had developed and refined the skills that he was born with which made him a effective leader. He developed satyagraha, a willingness to die for his cause through starvation. He was able to inspire change through his belief, dedication to others and hard work.
What are important characteristics that you believe every charismatic leader should possess?
Effective communication is an essential quality in any leadership. In this regard, charismatic leadership is no different, but charismatic leaders act differently than non charismatic leaders. For the charismatic leader effective communication requires more than merely dissemination of information. To be effective, charismatic often include emotional appeals within their rhetoric. Charismatic must appear confident and communicate that self confidence in their rhetorical efforts.
As with effective communication, establishing vision is necessary trait for successful leaders. Charismatic leaders often emerge with a vision that is solution oriented and is very different from the status – quo.
Idealized influence, it is the leader’s ability to be a positive role model for followers. The charismatic leader also ‘walks the talk’ and is on the ‘working with followers. front line’. Inspirational motivation is the second quality. Their ability to inspire and motivate followers to perform at high levels, and to be committed to the cause or organization.
Establishing a trust relationship with followers is crucial for charismatic leaders.
There are different styles of charismatic leadership.
Conger and Kanungo (1998) describes five behavioral attributes of charismatic leaders.
- Vision and articulation
- Sensitivity to the environment
- To the member needs
- Personal risk taking
- Performing unconventional behavior
Charisma is essentially a process, an interface between the characteristics of charismatic leader, the group that is being led, their identification with their leader, their needs and the circumstances that require a charismatic leader like a crisis or need for change.
7. The Trait Theory of Leadership
The trait theory believes that people are either born or are made with certain qualities that make them excel in leadership roles. Certain qualities such as intelligence, sense of responsibility, creativity put any one in the shoes of a good leader. Leadership traits are not completely inborn but it can also be acquired. It can be taught. This approach believes that leader’s trait can be acquired. Traits like honesty, hardworking desire to lead, ambition, honesty and integrity, self confidence, Job related knowledge and supervising ability can be acquired.
Personality, social, physical and intellectual traits that differentiate leaders from non leaders. Like the great man theory this theory assumes that leader’s personal traits are key to leadership success. Now according to this approach emphasis has been shifted away from personality traits to job related skills like technical, conceptual and human related skills. Skills like organization, tactfulness, ability to speak well are the important skills require for a leader.
According to trait leadership theory, good leaders possess a variety of characteristics and personal traits that enable them execute their leadership responsibilities. These include integrity, assertiveness, empathy, honesty, likeability and decision making skills. The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders and is used to predict leadership effectiveness. The resulting list of traits is then compared to those of potential leaders to assess their likelihood of success or failure.
Let us try to understand this by following case.
Scenario 2
Principal Rane has two finalists for potential vice principal at secondary school in Mumbai. Both finalists were teacher having no prior principal ship experience but are from different backgrounds. Seema is a 5th grade elementary teacher with traits like assertiveness, positive, decisive, confident, determined and intelligent. Hemna is secondary teacher and coach with the traits organized, dependable, creative, acceptive, trusting, nurturing. It is important to note that Mrs Rane identifies strongly with Seema as reflective of her own trait while she finds trait of Hemna as complimentary to her own. In this case, the hiring principal acknowledges her own traits and those of her ideal candidate while examining how the traits of the two finalists fit into that ideal. Principal Rane is looking for someone who will be able to manage school operations, discipline students, conduct various activities in the school, and coach in instructional planning. She is described as chosen to head this school because of her confidence, determination and engaging personality traits.Having been promoted, it is possible that she identifies and values those same traits in her future assistant principal. Valuing traits that mirror one’s own differing traits may affect hiring practices when considering overall makeup of leader.
Both Mrs. Rane and Seema project confidence and intelligence while engaging their followers. Mrs Rane expresses that the other candidate, which exhibits different trait than her may contribute to more well rounded faculty. Hemna is described as more creative, trusting, acceptive and nurturing traits that could be valuable in her previous role. Seema and Hemna are similarly qualified but differ in personality traits. These traits will no doubt have an impact on overall educational environment. If using trait approach Mrs Rane will need to weigh the advantages of their differing traits from multiple viewpoints of staff, parents, students and principal. Mrs Rane could choose confident and intelligent Seema in hope to rally the educational community but may miss the creative and nurturing aspect of Hemna. Similarly trusting and accepting administrator may be perceived as weaker in the eyes of community.
8. Behavioral Theory of Leadership
Behavioural theories attempts to describe leaders in terms of what leaders can do. It believes that great leaders can be made, they are not born. According to this approach leadership is the result of effective role behaviour. Leadership is shown by person’s acts rather than his traits. It focuses on behavior of the leader as opposed to his mental, physical or social characteristics. Specific behaviour differentiates leaders from non leaders. Anyone who adopts appropriate behaviour can be a good leader.
Pattern of actions used by different individuals determines leadership potential eg. autocratic, democratic and laissez- faire leadership styles. Democratic leaders arecharacterized by the fact that they involve other team members in the decision making process. The suggestions that receive the most support from team members are adopted as final decisions. Autocratic leadership involves making of decisions without any prior consultation or involvement of team members. This approach has been regarded as being ineffective for team work dynamic and team agreement however it is considered ideal in situations where decisions needs to be urgently made. The Laissez – faire approach to leadership is carried out by allowing other team members to make most of the decisions with minimal interference from the leader. This approach is mostly applicable when team members are highly skilled and capable of making decisions independently.
This theory has it’s root in Social Psychology. There is positive exchange between leader and follower. Followers may actually affect leader as much as leader affects followers. Leaders and followers develop dynamic relationship which affects behaviour of both leader and followers eg. subordinates who are committed and who extends lot of efforts for the unit are rewarded with more of leader’s resources (like information, confidence, concern) than those who do not display this behaviour.
Scenario 3
There are two profiles of manager for the post of principal of the junior college. Mr. Varun (Ex Principal of junior college) and Mr. Avinash (College teacher). As a management personnel you have to choose one of them for the post of principal of the junior college.
Mr. Varun is Ex Principal of secondary school with 10 years of administrative experience. He is hardworking, sincere, honest, foresighted, technically sound, pleasant personality, can handle employee grievances, provides employee satisfaction, goes by rule of law when in difficulty, has good reputation.
Mr. Avinash is M.A (English) person. His performance in academics were excellent. He is calculative as thinks ten times before taking any decisions, evaluates pros and cons of issue at hand before proceeding, hard task master, obedient, maintain distance from other staffs, task oriented, has good communication skills, considered to be a management man. As a management personnel whom you will choose for the post of Principal?
As per the above case Mr. Varun possesses consultative participative leadership style where as Mr. Avinash possesses Task management leadership style. As a consultant one would choose Mr. Varun as a principal because of following reasons. He is experienced, hardworking, foresighted, technically sound, supportive and helpful behavioral traits.
How a manager leads will undoubtedly be primarily influenced by his background, knowledge, values, and experiences. For eg. A manager who believes that the needs of individual must come second to the needs of organization is likely to take a very directive role in employee’s activities.
Wide range of forces/factors determine whether directive leadership, participative leadership or something in between is the best.
It specifies five styles between the two extremes, i.e., boss-and subordinates-centered leadership. The following diagram shows this continuum;
Following diagram shows boss centered and subordinate centered leadership. As we move from boss centered to subordinate centered leadership area of use of authority by manager decreases whereas area of freedom for subordinates increases.
Leadership Continuum
1- Manager sells decision to staff
2- Manager Presents ideas and invites questions
3- Manager Presents tentative ideas, subject to change
4- Manager Presents problem, assembles ideas, makes decision
5- Manager Defines decision limits but asks group to make decision
6- Manager Allows group to operate within defined limits defined by him
Manager allows greater participation and freedom when employees crave independence and freedom of action, want to have decision making responsibility, identify with organizational goals, are knowledgeable and experienced enough to deal with problem effectively. Where these conditions are absent, managers might need to adopt a more authoritarian style. They can however modify their leadership behavior as employees gain self confidence, skill and organizational commitment.
There are two important Behavioural studies. The Ohio State and University of Michigan Studies.
1. Ohio State University Studies (1940’s)
Ohio State Leadership Studies is Behavioral Leadership Theory. Series of studies on leadership was done by the Ohio State University in 1945 to identify observable behaviors of leaders instead of focusing on their individual traits.
They found two critical characteristics of leadership either of which could be high or low or independent of one another.
The research was based on questionnaires to leaders and subordinates of the organizations.
At the Ohio state university researchers studied effectiveness of ‘’initiating structure’’( task oriented and ‘’ consideration’’ (employee oriented) leadership behavior. They found that employee turnover rates were lowest and employee satisfaction highest under leaders who were rated high under consideration. Conversely , leaders who were rated low in consideration and high in initiating structure had high grievance and turnover rates among their employees.
In the above case Mr. Varun is considerate (employee oriented) whereas Mr. Avinash is initiative structure ( task oriented).
These studies narrowed the description of leader behavior into two dimensions:
Initiating Structure Behavior:
The behavior of leaders who define the leader-subordinate role so that everyone knows what is expected, establish formal lines of communication, and determine how tasks will be performed.
Consideration Behavior:
The behavior of leaders who are concerned for subordinates and attempt to establish a worm, friendly, and supportive climate.
Task oriented Leaders
The task oriented leaders focuses their behavior on the organizational structure, the operating procedure and likely to keep control. Leaders with task focus will have behavior that are in line with initiating, organizing, clarifying, information gathering.
People oriented leaders
The people oriented leaders focuses on the behavior that satisfies inner needs of the people. They will seek to motivate their staff through emphasizing human relations. Leaders with people focus will have behavior that are in line with encouraging, observing, listening, coaching and mentoring.
The Ohio State Leadership Studies also showed that initiating structure and consideration are two distinct dimensions and not mutually exclusive. A low score on one does not require a high score on the other.
Hence, leadership behavior can be plotted on two separate axes rather than on a single continuum, as shown in the following diagram;
Dimensions of Leader Behaviour
(Source – https://iedunote.com/ohio-state-leadership-studies)
The four quadrants in the above figure show various considerations of initiating structure and consideration.In each quadrant, there is a relative mixture of initiating structure and consideration and a manager can adopt any one style.
Although an early study, this is still often referenced.It is notable that the two factors correlate with the people task division that-appears in other studies and as preferences.
The findings of Ohio State Leadership Studies suggest that effective leaders possess a strong ability to work with others and build a cohesive team which is balanced with the capability to create structure within which activities can be accomplished.
2. Michigan State University Studies (1950’s)
Michigan Leadership Studies is a behavioral Leadership Theory that indicates the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan conducted empirical studies to identify styles of leader behavior that results in higher performance and satisfaction of a group.
The studies identified two distinct styles of leadership;
Job-centered Leadership:
Managers using job-centered leader behavior pay close attention to subordinates’ work, explain work procedures and are keenly interested in performance.
Employee-centered Leadership:
Managers using employee- centered leader behavior are interested in developing a cohesive work group and ensuring that employees are satisfied with their jobs.
The Michigan Leadership Studies found that both the styles of leadership led to increase in production, but it was slightly more in case of production of job-centered style.
The studies identified two broad leadership styles as employee centered leadership and job centered leadership. Leadership style might not be one dimensional. Both job orientation and employee orientation are not only possible, but could be crucial to superior performance. Blake and Mouton argue that democratic management wherein high concern for both production and employee morale is the best style of leadership. It results in improved performance, low absenteeism and turnover, and high employee satisfaction. They also identified three critical characteristics of effective leaders as task oriented behavior, relationship oriented behavior and participative leadership.
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References
- Pandya,S.R (2004) Administration and management of Education,HimalayaPublishingb House, Mumbai.
- Singh Nirmal (2000). Principles of Management – Theory, Practices, Techniques. Deep & Deep Publication Pvt Ltd., New Delhi.
- Stoner, J, Freeman,R,Gilbert,D (2013) Management,sixthEdition,Pearson Education, Inc. South Asia.