Making decisions that are best for the team is an important aspect of leadership. Some decisions will be accepted positively by the team and others will not. For this Assignment, you will analyze a situation that needs a decision using the Normative Decis

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Making decisions that are best for the team is an important aspect of leadership. Some decisions will be accepted positively by the team and others will not. For this Assignment, you will analyze a situation that needs a decision using the Normative Decision Model in the course reading to identify the optimal decision making style by matching decision making style to situational factors. The idea is not to develop a solution to the problem, but to analyze the best style to make the decision.

The decision-making styles are detailed in the text and include:

Decide
Consult (individually)
Consult (group)
Facilitate
Delegate

To complete this week’s Assignment, review the decision-making styles, contingency factors, and application of the model in the text. After reviewing the textbook reading, choose a work situation that needs a decision ( hypothetical based in a early childhood center…probelm with a family! ).

Complete the analysis by answering the following questions on choosing a decision making style (use the contingency factors and application of the model in the text reading).

Briefly explain the situation and what decision needs to be made.
What are the contingency factors that need to be applied to the situation?
Which contingency factors were more challenging to answer and why?
How could answers to the contingency factors be found?
How do team dynamics influence the decision making process?
How can leadership style preferences influence the process?
What is the group’s final recommended decision-making style from the model?
How would the group implement the decision making style recommended by the model?
How would the decision-making style chosen effect team building?
What can a leader do to mitigate any negative effects of the final decision on the team?

Answers to the questions should be in sentence/paragraph format. Copy and paste the questions into a Word document and place your answers below each question. Paper should be two to four pages long, not including title and reference page. The paper should be typed, double-spaced, and follow APA style guidelines. It should be written in Standard American English with well-organized and original thoughts supported by the text material, and use correct grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You should incorporate the text material using proper APA in-text citations and References.

This assignment is very detailed. Let me know if you have any questions.

( hypothetical sitution is based in a early childhood center…problem with a family! ).

use: DuBrin, A. J. (2016). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills, 8th Edition. [Kaplan]. Retrieved from

https://kaplan.vitalsource.com/#/books/97813057350…

ATTACHED IS CHAPTER 4 AND 5

CHAPTER

Contingency and Situational Leadership

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter and doing the exercises, you should be able to

· • Describe how the situation influences the choice of leadership objectives. Present an overview of the contingency theory of leadership effectiveness.

· • Explain the path-goal theory of leadership effectiveness.

· • Explain

Situational Leadership® II (SLII)

.
· • Use the normative decision model to determine the most appropriate decision-making style in a given situation.

· • Explain the basics of leadership during a crisis.

· • Explain how evidence-based leadership can contribute to contingency and situational leadership.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

Situational Influences on Effective Leadership Behavior

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership Effectiveness

Measuring Leadership Style: The Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale

Measuring the Leadership Situation

Overall Findings

Making the Situation More Favorable for the Leader

Evaluation of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership Effectiveness

Matching the Leadership Style to the Situation

Steps Leaders Can Take to Influence Performance and Satisfaction

Situational Leadership® II (SLII)

Basics of SLII

Evaluation of SLII

The Normative Decision Model

Decision-Making Styles

Contingency Factors and Application of the Model

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Contingency Theory

Leadership During a Crisis

Evidence-Based Leadership for the Contingency and Situational Approach

Summary

Key Terms

Guidelines for Action and Skill Development

Leadership Case Problem A

Leadership Case Problem B

Notes

In March

, Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointed Kevyn Orr as emergency manager of Detroit for an eighteen-month term to help resolve the city’s overwhelming problems. Detroit had a history of political corruption, bribery, and sex scandals. The city’s population shrank from 1.

million in 1950 to

00,000 in 2013. Detroit led the United States in violent crime. Many parts of the outer city looked to be bombed out, with approximately

6,000 vacant lots, and 78,000 abandoned or distressed buildings, many of which were used as drug houses. A four-bedroom house in the inner city could be purchased for $7,000. City debt had reached $18 billion.
   Orr, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, had been a bankruptcy attorney for many years including working on Chrysler’s bankruptcy in 2009. Orr admitted he had dictatorial powers as an emergency manager but he said he was going to be a benevolent dictator. Five months after Orr’s appointment, Detroit filed for bankruptcy, and he regarded the decision as the beginning of the rebirth of the beleaguered city. He talked about other cities, such as Miami, Washington D.C., that rebounded from adversity in major sections of the metropolitan areas.
   Orr exuded optimism and energy as he talked about his plans to work Detroit out of bankruptcy before his term expired. He admitted that Detroit had horrendous problems, as reflected in his quip, “You can’t have 20-year-old oak trees growing through the roofs of houses and not notice that there’s some blight.” Yet Orr also pointed to pockets of optimism about the city. He referred to people in their 20s who are launching high-tech firms, restaurants, and rehabbing abandoned or blighted buildings. Venture capitalists and private foundations were investing billions in downtown. Dan Gilbert, the chairman of Quicken Loans, moved company headquarters to Detroit in 2010. He also attracted eighty-five other companies to downtown through a program that provides office space for startups.
   A key part of Orr’s strategy for revitalization was the Detroit Future City plan created by public officials, community groups, and philanthropists to undo blight, and improve lighting and public safety in six demonstration districts. The hope is that improvements in one neighborhood become contagious. Despite the city’s crippling debt, Orr proposed a $1.25 billion investment in the city over the next decade. At the same time, he is trimming costs through such measures as privatizing refuse collection and negotiating for lower pension payments to city retirees.

Although candid about the dreadful corruption and misjudgments of the past, Orr points his stakeholders toward a brighter future. He says that Detroit has been given a second chance that should not be wasted. “This is our opportunity for a great All-American city to show what it really is,” he says.

The story about the emergency manager of a troubled city illustrates an increasingly important leadership task: leading people through a crisis. Leadership of this type is a special case of the general subject of this chapter—adjusting one’s approach to the situation. Contingency and situational leadership further expand the study of leadership styles by adding more specific guidelines about which style to use under which circumstance.

In this chapter, we present an overview of the situational perspective on leadership. We then summarize four classic contingency theories of leadership: Fiedler’s contingency theory, path-goal theory, the situational leadership model, and the normative decision model. We also explain how a more contemporary theory, the leader-member exchange, contributes to understanding the contingency perspective. In addition, we describe crisis leadership because leading others through a crisis has become a frequent challenge in recent years. Finally, we describe how evidence-based leadership and management contribute to the contingency approach.

Situational Influences on Effective Leadership Behavior

The situation can influence the leadership behavior or style a leader emphasizes. The essence of a

contingency approach to leadership

is that leaders are most effective when they make their behavior contingent on situational forces, including group member characteristics. Both the internal and the external environment have a significant impact on leader effectiveness. For example, the quality of the workforce and the competitiveness of the environment can influence which behaviors the leader emphasizes. A manager who supervises competent employees might be able to practice consensus leadership readily. And a manager who faces a competitive environment might find it easier to align people to pursue a new vision.

A useful perspective on implementing contingency leadership is that the manager must be flexible enough to avoid clinging to old ideas that no longer fit the current circumstances.

Being stubborn about what will work in a given situation and clinging to old ideas can result in ineffective leadership. The effective leader adapts to changing circumstances. For example, at one point, offering employees generous benefits might not have been motivational. In reality, with many employers having cut back on benefits such as health insurance, these benefits can actually be helpful in attracting and retaining workers.

As mentioned in several places in this textbook, the leader needs to take into account the major situational variable of organizational culture when choosing which approach to leadership will lead to favorable outcomes. A command-and-control leadership style may not be effective in a company with a collaborative, friendly organizational culture. If the culture seems at odds with what a highly placed leader wants to accomplish, the leader may attempt to change the culture.

Victor H. Vroom and Arthur G. Jago have identified three conclusions about the role of situations in leadership, and these findings support the model of leadership presented in

Figure 1-2

Chapter 1

. The conclusions are geared to support the idea that leadership involves motivating others to work collaboratively in the pursuit of a common goal.

We also add a fourth conclusion, focused on the organization structure.

1. Organizational effectiveness is affected by situational factors not under leader control.
The leader might be able to influence the situation, yet some situational factors are beyond the leader’s complete control. The manager of a prosperous, independent coffee shop might be running her business and leading her employees successfully for ten years. Suddenly, a Starbucks opens across the street, thereby seriously affecting her ability to lead a successful enterprise. She might be smart enough to have a contingency plan of offering services Starbucks cannot equal, yet staying in business will be a struggle.

2. Situations shape how leaders behave. Contingency theorists believe that forces in the situation are three times as strong as the leader’s personal characteristics in shaping his or her behavior. How the leader behaves is therefore substantially influenced by environmental forces. In the face of competition from Starbucks, our coffee shop owner might now act with a greater sense of urgency, be much more directive in telling her workers what to do, and become much less warm and friendly. Her normal level of enthusiasm might also diminish.

3. Situations influence the consequences of leader behavior. Popular books about management and leadership assume that certain types of leader behavior work in every situation. Situational theorists disagree strongly with this position. Instead, a specific type of leadership behavior might have different outcomes in different situations. The leader behavior of empowerment illustrates this idea. Perhaps empowerment will work for our coffee shop owner because she has a group of dedicated workers who want their jobs and her enterprise to endure. However, empowering incompetent workers with a weak work ethic is likely to backfire because the workers will most likely resist additional responsibility.

. The type of organization influences which leadership approach is best. Henry Mintzberg has identified the form of organization as a key situational variable influencing which approach to leadership is likely to be most effective. Two examples will suffice here. In an entrepreneurial organization, the key leader will engage in considerable doing and dealing as well as creating visions. In a machine organization, or classic bureaucracy, the leader will engage in a considerable amount of controlling.

In this chapter, as well as throughout the book, possible situational factors are mentioned that should be taken into consideration in leading others. A general approach to being aware of all these factors is for the leader to be mindful of events in the environment. If you are mindful, you are sensitive to what is happening around you. According to stress researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn, you learn to pay attention on purpose to the present moment, in a nonjudgmental way, to whatever arises in your leadership situation.

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership Effectiveness

Fred E. Fiedler developed a widely researched and quoted contingency model more than forty years ago that holds that the best style of leadership is determined by the situation in which the leader is working.

Here we examine how the style and situation are evaluated, the overall findings of the theory, and how leaders can modify situations to their advantage. Although this theory is no longer the subject of new research, it still provides a few useful suggestions for today’s leader.

Measuring Leadership Style: The Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale

Fiedler’s theory classifies a manager’s leadership style as relationship motivated or task motivated. Style is therefore based on the extent to which the leader is relationship motivated or task motivated. According to Fiedler, leadership style is a relatively permanent aspect of behavior and thus difficult to modify. Leaders are regarded as having a consistent style of task or relations orientation. Fiedler reasons that once leaders understand their particular leadership style, they should work in situations that match that style. Similarly, the organization should help managers match leadership styles and situations.

The least preferred coworker (LPC) scale measures the degree to which a leader describes favorably or unfavorably his or her LPC—that is, an employee with whom he or she could work the least well. A leader who describes the LPC in relatively favorable terms tends to be relationship motivated. In contrast, a person who describes this coworker in an unfavorable manner tends to be task motivated. The coworker is described by rating him or her on a series of eighteen polar-opposite adjectives, such as the following:

Pleasant

8 7

Unpleasant

Tense

Relaxed

The leadership style measure presented in Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-1 is a more direct and less abstract way of measuring your style. To repeat, the general idea of the LPC approach is that if you have a positive, charitable attitude toward people you had a difficult time working with, you are probably relationship oriented. In contrast, if you take a dim view of people who gave you a hard time, you are probably task oriented. The message here is that a relationship-oriented leader should be able to work well with a variety of personalities.

Measuring the Leadership Situation

Fiedler’s contingency theory classifies situations as high, moderate, and low control. The more control that the leader exercises, the more favorable the situation is for the leader. The control classifications are determined by rating the situation on its three dimensions: (1) leader-member relations measure how well the group and the leader get along; (2) task structure measures how clearly the procedures, goals, and evaluation of the job are defined; and (3) position power measures the leader’s authority to hire, fire, discipline, and grant salary increases to group members.

Leader-member relations contribute as much to situation favorability as do task structure and position power combined. The leader therefore has the most control in a situation in which relationships with members are the best.

Overall Findings

The key points of Fiedler’s contingency theory are summarized and simplified in

Figure 5-1

. The original theory is much more complex. Leadership effectiveness depends on matching leaders to situations in which they can exercise more control. A leader should therefore be placed in a situation that is favorable to, or matches, his or her style. If this cannot be accomplished, the situation might be modified to match the leader’s style by manipulating one or more of the three following situational variables.

The theory states that task-motivated leaders perform the best in situations of both high control and low control. Relationship-motivated leaders perform the best in situations of moderate control. The results of many studies indicated that the relationship-motivated leader outperformed the task-motivated leader in three of the eight situations but that the reverse was true in the other five situations. The eight situations result from each of the three situational variables being classified in one of two ways (good or poor, high or low, or strong or weak), as shown in

Figure 5-2

FIGURE 5-1 Summary of Findings from Fiedler’s Contingency Theory.

Task-motivated leaders perform better in situations that are highly favorable for exercising control because they do not have to be concerned with the task. Instead, they can work on relationships. In moderately favorable situations, the relationship-motivated leader achieves higher group productivity because he or she can work on relationships and not get involved in micromanaging. In very-low-control situations, the task-motivated leader is able to structure and make sense out of confusion, whereas the relationship-motivated leader wants to give emotional support to group members or call a meeting.

Making the Situation More Favorable for the Leader

FIGURE 5-2 The Eight Different Situations in Fiedler’s Contingency Theory.

A practical implication of contingency theory is that leaders should modify situations to match their leadership style, thereby enhancing their chances of being effective. Consider a group of leaders who are task motivated and decide that they need to exercise more control over the situation to achieve higher work unit productivity. To increase control over the situation, they can do one or more of the following:

· • Improve leader-member relations through displaying an interest in the personal welfare of group members, having meals with them, actively listening to their concerns, telling anecdotes, and in general being a nice person.

· • Increase task structure by engaging in behaviors related to initiating structure, such as being more specific about expectations, providing deadlines, showing samples of acceptable work, and providing written instructions.

· • Exercise more position power by requesting more formal authority from higher management. For example, the leader might let it be known that he or she has the authority to grant bonuses and make strong recommendations for promotion.

Now imagine a relationship-motivated leader who wants to create a situation of moderate favorability so that his or her interests in being needed by the group could be satisfied. The leader might give the group tasks of low structure and deemphasize his or her position power.

Evaluation of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

A major contribution of Fiedler’s work is that it has prompted others to conduct studies about the contingency nature of leadership. Fiedler’s theory has been one of the most widely researched theories in industrial/organizational psychology, and at one time it was used extensively as the basis for leadership training programs. The model has also alerted leaders to the importance of sizing up the situation to gain control. At the same time, Fielder pioneered in taking into account both traits and the situation to better understand leadership.

Despite its potential advantages, however, the contingency theory is too complicated to have much of an impact on most leaders. A major problem centers on matching the situation to the leader. In most situations, the amount of control the leader exercises varies from time to time. For example, if a relationship-motivated leader were to find the situation becoming too favorable for exercising control, it is doubtful that he or she would be transferred to a less favorable situation or attempt to make the situation less favorable.

The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership Effectiveness

The

path-goal theory

of leadership effectiveness, as developed by Robert House, specifies what a leader must do to achieve high productivity and morale in a given situation. In general, a leader attempts to clarify the path to a goal for a group member so that the group member receives personal payoffs. At the same time, this group member’s job satisfaction and performance increase.

Similar to the expectancy theory of motivation on which it is based, path-goal theory is multifaceted and has several versions. Its key features are summarized in

Figure 5-3

The theory is so complex that it is helpful to consider an overview before studying more of the details. The major proposition of path-goal theory is that the manager should choose a leadership style that takes into account the characteristics of the group members and the demands of the task. Furthermore, initiating structure will be effective in situations with a low degree of subordinate task structure but ineffective in highly structured task situations. The rationale is that in the first situation, subordinates welcome initiating structure because it helps to provide structure to their somewhat ambiguous tasks. Instead of just flailing around, the leader provides guidance. In the situation of highly structured tasks, more structure is seen as unnecessary and associated with overly close supervision.

In his reformulated version of path-goal theory, House offered a metaproposition, which provides a capsule summary of a dizzying amount of studies and theorizing in relation to the theory. Understanding this metaproposition would be a good take-away from the theory: For leaders to be effective, they should engage in behaviors that complement subordinates’ environments and abilities. They should engage in these behaviors in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and that enhances subordinate satisfactions as well as individual and work unit performance.

For example, if our coffee shop owner found that one of her workers was fearful of losing his or her job because of Starbucks competition, she would give him or her lots of encouragement and explain the survival plan of the coffee shop in detail.

FIGURE 5-3 The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership.

To achieve the outcomes of productivity and morale, the manager chooses one of four leadership styles, depending on (a) the characteristics of the situation and (b) the demands of the task.

Two key aspects of this theory will be discussed: matching the leadership style to the situation and steps the leader can take to influence performance and satisfaction.

Matching the Leadership Style to the Situation

Path-goal theory emphasizes that the leader should choose among four leadership styles to achieve optimum results in a given situation. Two important sets of contingency factors are the type of subordinates and the tasks they perform (a key environmental factor). The type of subordinates is determined by how much control they think they have over the environment (locus of control) and by how well they think they can do the assigned task.

Environmental contingency factors are those that are not within the control of group members but influence satisfaction and task accomplishment. Three broad classifications of contingency factors in the environment are (1) the group members’ tasks, (2) the authority system within the organization, and (3) the work group.

To use path-goal theory, the leader must first assess the relevant variables in the environment. Then he or she selects one of the four styles listed next that fits those contingency factors best:

· 1.
Directive style.
The leader who is directive (similar to task motivated) emphasizes formal activities such as planning, organizing, and controlling. When the task is unclear, the directive style improves morale.

· 2.
Supportive style.
The leader who is supportive (similar to relationship motivated) displays concern for group members’ well-being and creates an emotionally supportive climate. The supportive leader enhances morale when group members work on dissatisfying, stressful, or frustrating tasks. Group members who are unsure of themselves prefer the supportive leadership style.

· 3.
Participative style.
The leader who is participative consults with group members to gather their suggestions, and then considers these suggestions seriously when making a decision. The participative leader is best suited for improving the morale of well-motivated employees who perform nonrepetitive tasks.

· 4.
Achievement-oriented style.
The leader who is achievement oriented sets challenging goals, pushes for work improvement, and sets high expectations for team members, who are also expected to assume responsibility. This leadership style works well with achievement-oriented team members and with those working on ambiguous and nonrepetitive tasks.

A leader can sometimes successfully combine more than one of the four styles, although this possibility is not specified in path-goal theory. For example, during a crisis, such as a major product recall, the marketing manager might need to be directive to help the group take fast action. After the initial emergency actions have been taken, the leader, recognizing how stressed the workers must be, might shift to a supportive mode.

Few practicing leaders and managers attempt to systematically apply the path-goal theory, yet many effective leaders apply some aspects of the theory intuitively. An example is Mark Murphy, the president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers, a National Football League (NFL) team. Part of the reason Murphy is so well liked by team members and fans is that he uses a supportive style. At the same time, he emphasizes an achievement-oriented style to get the most from his staff and the players. After his playing days were over, Murphy earned a law degree and an MBA.

Joe Gibbs, a Hall of Fame coach, noticed Murphy’s knack for leadership early on. “He was somebody I could go and talk to if I were having problems,” he says. “Mark was so smart. He made the absolute most of his abilities.”11 Murphy also practices participative leadership, as evidenced by his frequent use of management by wandering around (MBWA) with his senior management.

(MBWA refers to casually dropping by the work sites of subordinates and chatting with them about work and listening to their input.)

Steps Leaders Can Take to Influence Performance and Satisfaction

In addition to recommending the leadership style to fit the situation, the path-goal theory offers other suggestions to leaders. Most of them relate to motivation and satisfaction, including the following:

· 1. Recognize or activate group members’ needs over which the leader has control.

· 2. Increase the personal payoffs to team members for attaining work goals. The leader might give high-performing employees special recognition.

· 3. Make the paths to payoffs (rewards) easier by coaching and providing direction. For instance, a manager might help a team member be selected for a high-level project.

· 4. Help group members clarify their expectations of how effort will lead to good performance and how performance will lead to a reward. The leader might say, “Anyone who has gone through this training in the past came away knowing how to implement a Six Sigma (quality standards) program. And most people who learn how to use this system wind up getting a good raise.”

· 5. Reduce frustrating barriers to reaching goals. For example, the leader might hire a temporary worker to help with a seasonal work overload.

· 6. Increase opportunities for personal satisfaction if the group member performs effectively. The if is important because it reflects contingent behavior on the leader’s part.

· 7. Be careful not to irritate people by giving them instructions on things they already can do well.

· 8. To obtain high performance and satisfaction, the leader must provide structure if it is missing and supply rewards contingent on adequate performance. To accomplish this, leaders must clarify the desirability of goals for the group members.

As a leader, you can derive specific benefit from path-goal theory by applying these eight methods of influencing performance. Although research interest in path-goal theory has almost disappeared in recent years, the basic tenets of the theory are on target. Any comprehensive theory of leadership must include the idea that the leader’s actions have a major impact on the motivation and satisfaction of group members.

Despite the potential contributions of path-goal theory, it contains so many nuances and complexities that it has attracted little interest from managers.

Situational Leadership® II (SLII)

The two contingency approaches to leadership presented so far take into account collectively the task, the authority of the leader, and the nature of the subordinates. Another explanation of contingency leadership places its primary emphasis on the characteristics of group members.

Situational Leadership II (SLII)

, developed by Kenneth H. Blanchard and his colleagues, explains how to match leadership style to the capabilities of group members on a given task.

(The SLII model presented here is a newer version of the older Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory.) For example, you might need less guidance from a supervisor when you are skilled in a task than when you are performing a new task. The situational model is particularly applicable to frontline leaders such as supervisors and team leaders.

SLII is designed to increase the frequency and quality of conversations about performance and professional development between managers and group members so that competence is developed, commitment takes place, and turnover among talented workers is reduced. Leaders are taught to use the leadership style that matches or responds to the needs of the situation.

Before delving further into the situational leadership model, do the Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 5-1. It will help alert you to the specific behaviors involved in regarding the characteristics of group members as key contingency variables in choosing the most effective leadership style.

Basics of SLII

SLII stems from the original situational model. The major premise of SLII is that the basis for effective leadership is managing the relationship between a leader and a subordinate on a given task. The major concepts of the SLII model are presented in

Figure 5-4

. According to SLII, effective leaders adapt their behavior to the level of commitment and competence of a particular subordinate to complete a given task. For example, team member Tanya might be committed to renting some empty office space by year-end and is also highly skilled at such an activity. Or she might feel that the task is drudgery and not have much skill in selling office space. The combination of the subordinate’s commitment and competence determines his or her developmental level, as follows:

· D1—Enthusiastic Beginner. The learner has low competence but high commitment.

· D2—Disillusioned Learner. The individual has gained some competence but has been disappointed after having experienced several setbacks. Commitment at this stage is low.

· D3—Capable but Cautious Performer. The learner has growing competence, yet commitment is variable.

· D4—Self-Reliant Achiever. The learner has high competence and commitment.

FIGURE 5-4 Situational Leadership II (SLII).

SLII explains that effective leadership depends on two independent behaviors: supporting and directing. (By now, you have read about this dichotomy several times in this chapter as well as in

Chapter 4

.) Supporting refers to relationship behaviors such as the leader’s listening, giving recognition, communicating, and encouraging. Directing refers to task-related behaviors such as the leader’s giving careful directions and controlling.

As shown in
Figure 5-4
, the four basic styles are:

S1—Directing. High directive behavior/low supportive behavior.

S2—Coaching. High directive behavior/high supportive behavior.

S3—Supporting. Low directive behavior/high supportive behavior.

S4—Delegating. Low directive behavior/low supportive behavior.

For best results on a given task, the leader is required to match his or her style to the developmental level of the group member. Each quadrant in
Figure 5-4
indicates the desired match between leader style and subordinate development level.

A key point of SLII is that no single style is best: An effective leader uses all four styles depending on the subordinate’s developmental level on a given task.

The most appropriate leadership style among SI to S4 corresponds to the subordinate developmental levels of Dl to D4, respectively: Enthusiastic beginners (Dl) require a directing (SI) leader; disillusioned learners (D2) need a coaching (S2) leader; capable but cautious performers (D3) need a supporting (S3) style of leader; and self-reliant achievers (D4) need a delegating (S4) style of leader.

Evaluation of SLII

Situational leadership represents a consensus of thinking about leadership behavior in relation to group members: Competent people require less specific direction than do less competent people. The model is also useful because it builds on other explanations of leadership that emphasize the role of task and relationship behaviors. As a result, it has proved to be useful as the basis for leadership training. At least 3 million managers have been trained in situational leadership, covering various stages of the model, so we can assume that situational leadership makes sense to managers and companies. The situational model also corroborates common sense and is therefore intuitively appealing. You can benefit from this model by attempting to diagnose the readiness of group members before choosing the right leadership style.

A challenge in applying SLII is that the leader has to stay tuned into which task a group member is performing at a given time and then implement the correct style. Because assignments can change rapidly and group members are often working on more than one task in a day, the leader may have to keep shifting styles.

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 5-1

Applying Situational Leadership II

You are playing the role of a team leader whose team has been given the responsibility of improving customer service at a consumer electronics megastore. Before jumping into this task, you decide to use SLII. Today, you are going to meet with three team members individually to estimate their developmental level with respect to performing the customer-service-improvement task. You will want to estimate both their competence and commitment to perform the task. (Three different people will play the role of group members whose readiness is being assessed.) After the brief interviews (about five minutes) are conducted, you will announce which leadership style you intend to use with each of the people you interviewed. Class members not directly involved in the role play will offer feedback on how well you assessed the team members’ readiness.

SLII presents categories and guidelines so precisely that it gives the impression of infallibility. In reality, leadership situations are less clear-cut than the four quadrants suggest. Also, the prescriptions for leadership will work only some of the time. For example, many supervisors use a coaching style (S2) with a disillusioned learner (D2) and still achieve poor results. A major concern is that there are few leadership situations in which a high-task, high-relationship orientation does not produce the best results.

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 5-1 provides you with the opportunity to practice implementing the situational leadership model. The same exercise also supports other contingency and situational models.

The Normative Decision Model

Another contingency viewpoint is that leaders must choose a style that elicits the correct degree of group participation when making decisions. Since many of a leader’s interactions with group members involve decision making, this perspective is sensible. The

normative decision model

views leadership as a decision-making process in which the leader examines certain factors within the situation to determine which decision-making style will be the most effective. Here we present the latest version of the model that has evolved from the work of Victor Vroom and his associates over thirty years, based on research with more than 100,000 managers.

The models have changed but they all include the basic idea of matching decision-making style to situational factors.

Decision-Making Styles

The normative model (formerly known as the leader-participation model) identifies five decision-making styles, each reflecting a different degree of participation by group members:

· 1.
Decide.
The leader makes the decision alone and either announces or sells it to the group. The leader might use expertise in collecting information from the group or from others who appear to have information relevant to the problem.

· 2.
Consult (Individually).
The leader presents the problem to the group members individually, gathers their suggestions, and then makes the decision.

· 3.
Consult (Group).
The leader presents the problem to group members in a meeting, gathers their suggestions, and then makes the decision.

· 4.
Facilitate.
The leader presents the problem and then acts as a facilitator, defining the problem to be solved and the boundaries in which the decision must be made. The leader wants concurrence and avoids having his or her ideas receive more weight based on position power.

· 5.
Delegate.
The leader permits the group to make the decision within prescribed limits. Although the leader does not directly intervene in the group’s deliberations unless explicitly asked, he or she works behind the scenes, providing resources and encouragement.

Contingency Factors and Application of the Model

The leader diagnoses the situation in terms of seven variables, or contingency factors, that contribute to selecting the most appropriate decision-making style. Based on answers to those variables, the leader or manager follows the path through decision matrices to choose one of five decision-making styles. The model has two versions: one when time is critical, and one when a more important consideration is developing group members’ decision-making capabilities. When development of group members receives higher priority, the leader or manager relies more on the group to make a decision even if the process is time consuming.

The situational factors, or problem variables, make the model a contingency approach. The decision-making style chosen depends on these factors, which are defined as follows:

·
Decision Significance:
The significance of the decision to the success of the project or organization (significance deals with decision quality).

·
Importance of Commitment:
The importance of team members’ commitment to the decision (commitment deals with decision acceptance).

·
Leader Expertise:
Your knowledge or expertise in relation to the problem.

·
Likelihood of Commitment:
The likelihood that the team will commit itself to a decision you might make on your own.

·
Group Support:
The degree to which the team supports the organization’s objectives at stake in the problem.

·
Group Expertise:
Team members’ knowledge or expertise in relation to the problem.

·
Team Competence:
The ability of the team members to work together in solving problems.

Accurate answers to these seven situational factors can be challenging to obtain. The leader may have to rely heavily on intuition and also minimize distorted thinking, such as believing he or she has some expertise but in fact does not.

Although applying the model in its true form is complicated and subject to misinterpretation, the take-away from the model provides useful clues about making group versus individual decisions, as follows:17

· 1. A consultative or collaborative decision-making style is likely to bring about the best results when (a) you need information from others to solve the problem in question, (b) the problem is not clearly defined, (c) team member acceptance of the decision is important, and (d) you have sufficient time to deal with a group decision.

· 2. A decide decision-making style (making the decision by yourself) is recommended when (a) you have more expertise than the individual group members, (b) you are confident about your ability to make the decision in question, (c) the team will most likely accept your decision, and (d) the time available for decision making is limited.

The normative model provides a valuable service to practicing managers and leaders. It prompts them to ask questions about contingency variables in decision-making situations. At a minimum, the model prompts the leader to reflect on whether to make a group or unilateral decision in relation to an issue of consequence.

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Contingency Theory

Another perspective on the contingency approach is suggested by the leader-member exchange theory. Leaders who adapt their style to different individuals within the group, or have different quality relationships with individual group members, are essentially practicing contingency leadership. Hundreds of studies have been conducted about LMX theory. One of the many questionnaires used to measure the quality of the relationship between the leader and the group member is presented in Leadership Self- Assessment Quiz 5-2. Here we present several conclusions from LMX research that suggest a contingency approach to leadership.

LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ 5-2

Quality of Leader-Member Relations

Instructions:
Indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements in reference to a specific present or former supervisor.

□

			AGREE	DISAGREE
	1.	I like my supervisor very much as a person.			□
	2.	I respect my supervisor’s knowledge and competence on the job.
	3.	My supervisor would defend me to others in the organization if I made a mistake.
	4.	I am impressed with my supervisor’s knowledge of his or her job.
	5.	My supervisor is the kind of person one would like to have as a friend.
	6.	My supervisor is a lot of fun to work with.
	7.	I do not mind working my hardest for my supervisor.
	8.	I admire my supervisor’s professional skills.
	9.	My supervisor would come to my defense if I were “attacked” by others.
	10.	I am willing to apply extra efforts, beyond those normally required to meet my supervisor’s work goals.
11.	My supervisor defends my work actions to a superior, even without complete knowledge of the issue in question.
12.	I do my work for my supervisor that goes beyond what is specified in my job description.

Scoring and Interpretation:
The more of the above statements you agree with, the higher the quality of your leader-member exchange. Agreeing with nine or more statements suggests a high-quality leader-member exchange. Agreeing with between four and eight statements suggests an average quality leader-member exchange. Agreeing with three or fewer suggests a poor-quality leader-member exchange.

Source: Robert Eisenberger et al., “Leader-Member Exchange and Affective Organizational Commitment: The Contribution of Supervisor’s Organizational Embodiment,” Journal of Applied Psychology, November 2010, p. 1091.

1. Leaders tend to give members of their in-group more favorable performance ratings than they give to out-group members, even when their objective performance is the same. This finding reflects the idea that the leader might be kinder toward group members he or she likes.

2. Leaders do not always develop entirely different relationships with each group member, but may respond the same way to a few members of the group. For example, the leader might show equal care and trust for three members of an eight-person team.

3. In larger groups, there tends to be more differences with respect to leader-member exchanges. As a result, the leader of a large group is more likely to use a slightly different style with various group members, such as being more authoritarian with several of the group members.

4. A manager is more likely to act as a servant leader toward subordinates with whom he or she has high-quality exchanges.

As a consequence, in-group members are likely to perceive that they have a leader who is working on their behalf.

5. Leaders are more likely to empower group members with whom they have a high-quality exchange (or good relationship) because they are more likely to trust those members. Research suggests, however, that better results for the organization will be attained if leaders attempt to have high-quality relationships with more group members and empower them at the same time.

6. Larger differences in leader-member exchanges tend to lead to higher team performance when the LMX-quality median is low (meaning that group members tend to have poor exchanges with the leader). In contrast, when the LMX-quality median is high, differences in leader-member exchanges are not related to team performance. (If most group members feel that they have good exchanges with the leader, being treated a little differently by the leader does not affect their performance.) Similarly, when the LMX-quality median is low, more differentiation in exchanges leads to higher commitment to the group by its members. In contrast, when the LMX-quality median is high, differentiation has no effect on commitment.

(If you like your exchanges with the leader, your commitment is not affected by his or her different relationships with team mates.)

Leadership During a Crisis

Among the potential crises facing organizations are a drastic revenue decline; pending bankruptcy; homicide in the workplace; scandalous or criminal behavior by executives; natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes; nuclear radiation spills; bombings and other terrorist attacks; and a cruise ship being shipwrecked. Leading during a crisis can be regarded as contingency leadership because the situation demands that the leader emphasize certain behaviors, attitudes, and traits.

Crisis leadership

is the process of leading group members through a sudden and largely unanticipated, intensely negative, and emotionally draining circumstance. Robin Kielkowski, vice president of Global Business Continuity with BNY Mellon, observes that leadership is the key ingredient in successful crisis management. Effective crisis leadership ensures that a business is prepared before a crisis emerges, and that successfully navigates response and recovery.

LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ 5-3

Checklist for Crisis Leadership

Instructions:
Indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements in reference to dealing with a work-related crisis.

AGREE

DISAGREE

□

10.

□

I can make decisions and recommendations although under extreme time pressures.

I stay composed when I have to deal with an urgent problem that is suddenly facing me.

I almost never choke under pressure.

When the pressure is heavy, I can give clear direction to other people.

When someone else is facing a very difficult situation, I am reassuring and helpful.

When faced with an emergency, I can make a good decision even without all the facts I need.

When facing a major problem, I quickly get the input from people who might have useful suggestions for dealing with the problem.

If I am faced with a real mess that is mostly or partly my responsibility, I tell the truth about what happened.

When faced with an overwhelming problem, I can usually imagine what can be done to find a solution.

I can change my usual work activities immediately to take care of an urgent need.

Scoring and Interpretation:
The more of the above statements you agree with, the stronger your tendencies for being an effective crisis leader. Agreeing with eight or more statements suggests (and your perception is accurate) high ability to deal with and lead others through a crisis. Agreeing with between three and seven statements suggests an average degree of crisis leadership ability. Agreeing with two or fewer statements suggests a limited ability right now to lead others through a crisis.

Source: Statements 1 and 10 are adapted from Constance Noonan Hadley, Todd L. Pittinsky, S. Amy Sommer, and Weichun Zhu, “Measuring the Efficacy of Leaders to Assess Information and Make Decision in a Crisis: The C-LEAD Scale,” The Leadership Quarterly, August 2011, p. 638.

Be Decisive
The best-accepted principle of crisis leadership is that the leader should take decisive action to remedy the situation. The graver the crisis, the less time the leader has to consult a wide array of people. After the plan is formulated, it should be widely communicated to help reassure group members that something concrete is being done about the predicament. After their physical facilities were destroyed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, several leaders announced the next day that their firms would move to nearby backup locations. Communicating plans helps reduce uncertainty about what is happening to the firm and the people in it. A leader who takes highly visible action to deal with a crisis is likely to be viewed as competent.

A corollary of being decisive during a crisis is not to be indecisive or to hide from the crisis in its midst. The first phase of crisis leadership is to stabilize the emergency situation and buy time.

Suppose, for example, that five key managers leave the company at the same time to join a competitor, and only one in-house replacement is available. To deal with the emergency, the CEO might hire four managers from an employment agency that specializes in providing temporary managers and professionals. The next step would be to prepare other company personnel to replace managers who quit in the near future.

Being decisive in response to a crisis also includes communicating widely the plans for resolving the problems that created the crisis, assuming that the organization had some responsibility for the crisis. Announcing these plans appeared to give many employees hope for better times ahead.

Another component of decisiveness is to avoid the fear of failure that can prevent taking the necessary action to exit the crisis. Chris Warner and Don Schmincke, authors of High Altitude Leadership, advise leaders that fear is the ultimate strategy killer. “It stops staff from making great decisions, stops change agents from disrupting the status quo, and stops leaders from leading.”

The decision of Alan Mullaly at Ford to bring back the defunct Taurus model is a good example of avoiding the fear of failure. Ford officials had discontinued the Taurus because of declining sales, but Mullaly thought the former popularity of the model warranted bringing it back to the public.

Lead with Compassion
Displaying compassion with the concerns, anxieties, and frustrations of group members is a key interpersonal skill for crisis leadership. The type of compassionate leadership that brings about organizational healing involves taking some form of public action that eases pain and inspires others to act as well. Compassionate leadership encompasses two related sets of actions. The first is to create an environment in which affected workers can freely discuss how they feel, such as a group meeting to talk about the crisis or disaster. The second is to create an environment in which the workers who experience or witness pain can find a method to alleviate their own suffering and that of others. The leader might establish a special fund to help the families of workers who were victims of the disaster or give workers the opportunity to receive grief counseling.

Another way to display compassion is for the leader to make personal sacrifices before asking others to make sacrifices to get through the crisis.

During a financial crisis facing an organization, many leaders have voluntarily taken a pay cut before mandating a salary reduction for others. An extreme approach is for the CEO of a troubled company to ask the board for an annual salary of $1.00 until the company is again profitable. (Skeptics will point out that executives who take the $1.00 annual salary usually receive generous stock options.)

Think Strategically (See the Big Picture)
A success factor for the leader of an organization or a key organizational unit is to think strategically, including seeing the big picture. During an organizational crisis, this cognitive skill increases in importance because subordinates may become so mired in the crisis that they see no way out. The effective crisis leader helps the group understand that conditions will soon change for the better. A group of researchers headed by Leslie A. DeChurch used measures of historical events (or historiometric analysis) to elucidate the aspects of leadership essential in extreme contexts. Critical incidents, or key activities, taking place during the crisis situation were also studied. Published reports of events, including newspapers and books, constituted the qualitative data in this type of analysis. These extreme situations included responding to the aftermaths of natural disasters and orchestrating post-war stability, support, transition, and reconstruction efforts.

As described in the study, multiteam systems are situations in which the leader orchestrates events beyond the individual and single team level but less than the total organization. The teams work together in a network fashion, such as teams of firefighters dealing with a burning apartment building. One category of multiteam systems studied was disaster response systems. The primary objectives of a disaster response system include immediate actions to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet human needs. A disaster response system would be called for in response to an event such as Hurricane Katrina.

Another category of multiteam systems studied was provincial reconstruction teams, or joint civilian-military systems designed to deliver aid and assist local communities in post-war reconstruction projects. At the same time, security is provided for the workers involved in the projects. The ability to reduce terrorism and build local communities and their governments (such as in Afghanistan and Iraq) is contingent upon the success of these teams.

A major finding of the historical analysis of leadership events was that the leadership function of strategy was important in dealing with the crisis event. One aspect of strategy relevant here was labeled analyze the situation/mission analysis. It involves such action as gathering information, analyzing what is going on, determining constraints, and defining the problem. Another aspect of strategy uncovered that is relevant here was understanding the big picture. It involves the integration of gathered information in such a way that an understanding of the multiteam system’s place in the system is achieved.

Understanding how the component teams fit into the system is also part of understanding the big picture.

Reestablish the Usual Work Routine
A temporary drop in performance and productivity is almost inevitable for most workers after disaster strikes, such as an earthquake or terrorist attack—even if the organization was not directly affected.

Although it may appear callous and counterintuitive, the leader should emphasize the temporary nature of the performance decline. An effective way of helping people deal with a workplace crisis is to encourage them to return to their regular work. It is important for workers to express their feelings about the crisis before refocusing on work, but once they have, returning to work helps ground them in reality and restores purpose to their lives. Randall Marshall, director of trauma studies for the New York State Office of Mental Health, said after 9/11, “A healthy response to this type of situation is to get back into a routine.”

Avoid a Circle-the-Wagons Mentality
One of the worst ways to lead a group through a crisis is to strongly defend yourself against your critics or deny wrongdoing. The same denial approach is referred to as maintaining a bunker mentality or stonewalling the problem. Instead of cooperating with other stakeholders in the crisis, the leader takes a defensive posture. A case in point is how U.S. interior secretary Ken Salazar dealt with one aspect of the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009. Part of the problem had been attributed to a too-friendly relationship between the Minerals Management Service and oil companies, which might have resulted in nonrigorous inspections of oil drilling. Instead of denying that problems existed at the Minerals Management Service, Salazar quickly reorganized the government unit with a new name: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement. Stricter ethical standards were also imposed to show that the new agency would act more independently in inspecting oil-drilling equipment and processes.

Display Optimism
Pessimists abound in every crisis, so an optimistic leader can help energize group members to overcome the bad times. The effective crisis leader draws action plans that give people hope for a better future (as in strategic thinking). Barbara Baker Clark contends that the role of a leader during a crisis is to encourage hopefulness. She states:

· I’m not saying that you have to plaster a stupid grin on your face even if the bottom line is tanking or people are dying in battle. I am saying don’t wallow in pessimism. Believe it or not, it matters to your employees that you remain reasonably optimistic. It will reduce anxiety and keep everyone motivated. That’s the power of leadership.

Prevent the Crisis Through Disaster Planning
The ideal form of crisis leadership is to prevent a crisis through disaster planning. A key part of planning for a physical disaster, for example, is to anticipate where you would go, how you would get in touch with employees, and where you might set up a temporary workplace. Having a list of backup vendors in case they are hit by a physical disaster is also important. Small business owners should be networking with other business owners and agree to assist each other if a crisis strikes. Arranging in advance for support groups, such as grief counselors, is another key element of disaster planning. Even the fact of letting employees know that a disaster plan is in place can be an effective leadership act because it may lower worker anxiety. Also, the leader might communicate that the company has purchased disaster insurance.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster was attributed, in part, to inadequate disaster plans. Former BP executive Tony Hayward said it was
probably true that the company didn’t do enough planning in advance of the disaster. He said that “There are some capabilities that we could have available to deploy instantly rather than creating as we go.” Apparently, BP was not prepared for the long-term, round-the-clock process of coping with a deep-sea spill.

Stay Calm and Provide Stable Performance
Effective leaders stay calm and are steady performers, even under heavy workloads and uncertain conditions. Remaining steady under crisis conditions contributes to effectiveness because it helps team members cope with the situation. When the leader remains calm, group members are reassured that things will work out. Stability also helps the managerial leader appear professional and cool under pressure. A representative example is Fréderic Oudén, the chairman and chief executive officer of Société Générale. One of the major crises faced by this French banking giant were the stock market plunge in 2008, followed by a stock market scandal that cost the bank $7 billion (U.S.). Another crisis took place in 2011 when rumors arose that the bank had lost its liquidity as the Greek debt crisis swept Europe. Oudén says that the key to dealing with crisis of this magnitude is to remain calm, and manage your stress. Furthermore, to avoid creating useless turbulence, you must create a process to help the teams organize themselves to make the right decisions at the right time.

Be a Transformational Leader
During times of large and enduring crisis, transformational leadership may be the intervention of choice. The transformational leader can often lead the organization out of its misery. Transformational leadership is likely to benefit the troubled organization both in dealing with the immediate crisis and in performing better in the long run. David Novak, the CEO of Yum! Brands (which includes KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Long John Silver’s), has seen his share of crisis, including vermin infestation in a restaurant that was broadcast on television and YouTube. He says that honesty, consistency, and continuity of communication is the key to managing through these issues and that the transformation may take six to nine months.

Another way a transformational leader helps a company or work unit cope with crisis is to establish a climate of trust long before a crisis strikes.

If workers and other shareholders trust the leader, they will take more seriously his or her directives during the crisis. Leaders at both Walmart and McDonald’s did a notable job of holding their work force together after Hurricane Katrina. Executives and store managers alike scrambled to get in touch with employees to assure them that they would all have their jobs back as soon as operations were up and running. In general, workers in the Gulf Coast area had trusted leadership at the two companies.

The Leader in Action profiles suggest a leader in a well-known company who practices contingency management, in general, and is facing a situation approaching the need for crisis leadership.

LEADER IN ACTION

Sandra E. Peterson, Group Worldwide Chairman of the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health Unit

In 2012, the Johnson & Johnson consumer health unit that manufactures and sells such household brands as Band Aid and Tylenol was really hurting. A series of forty-eight product recalls had cost the consumer unit about $1.6 billion in lost sales. Among the problems necessitating the recalls were metal shavings floating in some bottles, incorrect levels of certain ingredients, and bad odors. To help remedy these problems, the Johnson & Johnson board, including the company CEO decided to bring in an outsider.

Sandra A. Peterson, the person chosen for this position as the group worldwide chairwoman (officially “chairman”), was given the responsibility of overseeing consumer companies, information technology, and the global supply chain. Prior to this position, she was the chairwoman and chief executive of Bayer CropScience, a division of the German pharmaceutical company, Bayer. Upon recruiting Peterson, Alex Gorsky, the Johnson & Johnson chief executive said, “Sandi Peterson is an experienced global leader known for her strategic thinking and proven track record in growing businesses. She brings 25 years of experience to her new role, which will draw on her expertise in building fully integrated global businesses, and focusing on growth.”

As Peterson dug into her new position, she knew that the company was planning to make numerous upgrades in factories producing consumer health products, including rebuilding a factory that produces liquid children’s medicines such as Tylenol. The same factories had to undergo more frequent inspections under a consent decree with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Many people thought that Peterson’s distinguished career and stable leadership and management approach would give her the credibility needed to bring about these substantial changes.

Peterson received a BA in government from Cornell University and an MPA in applied economics from Princeton University. Prior to joining Bayer, she held several leadership roles at Medco Health Solutions and had been in charge of research and development, quality, and regulatory affairs and procurement at Nabisco, Inc. She also worked in strategy, finance, and product development at Whirlpool Corp., and began her career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company Inc.

QUESTIONS

· 1. Which aspect of Peterson’s leadership experiences do you think will enhance her ability to practice contingency management and leadership?

· 2. Why might her position at the consumer unit of Johnson & Johnson call for skills in crisis leadership?

· 3. Check media sources to see if Peterson has been successful in her leadership role at Johnson & Johnson.

Source: Original story based on facts and observations in the following sources: Ed Silverman, “J & J Hires Bayer Exec to Oversee Troubled Units,” Pharmalot (

www.pharmalive.com

), September 13, 2012, pp. 1–4; Katie Thomas, “J. & J. Names Outsider to Rut Its Troubled Consumer Unit,” The New York Times(

www.nytimes.com

), September 13, 2012, pp. 1–2; Jonathan D. Rockoff and Joann S. Lublin, “J & J Recruits Bayer Executive,” The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2012, p. B3; Linda A. Johnson, “J & J Taps Bayer Exec for New Post Over 3 Divisions,” The Associated Press, September 13, 2009; “Management Team: Sandra E. Peterson,” (

www.investor.jnj.com/

), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. 1997–2013, p. 1.

Evidence-Based Leadership for the Contingency and Situational Approach

A leading-edge way for a person to practice contingency leadership would be to look for research-based evidence about the best way to deal with a given situation. Before taking action, the leader would ask, “What does the research literature tell me is most likely to work in this situation?”

Evidence-based leadership or management

is an approach whereby managers translate principles based on best evidence into organizational practices.

Quite often the best evidence is empirical (based on experience) and recent. Yet, at times, old principles can still be useful. For example, it has been known for at least a century that when a manager has too many subordinates, coordinating the work of subordinates is difficult. The alternative to evidence-based leadership is to rely heavily on common sense and adopting practices used by other companies, whether or not they fit a particular situation. Many of the principles and suggestions presented throughout this text would help a manager practice evidence-based leadership.

An example of using evidence-based leadership follows: Research indicates that empowerment is more likely to succeed with group members whose cultural values favor a manager or leader sharing power. In contrast, empowerment is less likely to succeed when the group members expect the leader to retain most of the power. (See

Chapter 14

for the evidence.) In this example, a principle (empowerment works best when cultural values are compatible) is translated into practice (using empowerment to motivate and satisfy workers when the cultural values of the workers are compatible with empowerment).

An example of using evidence-based leadership stemming from the experience of managers is to regularly express thanks for a job well done.

The thank you can be expressed orally or in writing and should focus on something specific the person has accomplished such as, “Your tracking down of potential candidates for our opening by using the social media produced four good prospects. Thanks so much for lending your expertise.”

Evidence-based leadership and management is not yet widely practiced, but taking the study of leadership and management seriously will move managers and organizations toward basing their practices and decisions on valid evidence. The result is likely to be more precise contingency leadership.

READER’S ROADMAP

So far in this book, we have examined the nature of leadership, the inner qualities of leaders, and leadership styles, including contingency leadership. In the next chapter, we focus on a topic that incorporates many of these ideas: leadership ethics and social responsibility.

SUMMARY

Theories of contingency and situational leadership build on the study of leadership style by adding more specific guidelines about which style to use under which circumstances. Leaders are most effective when they make their behavior contingent on situational forces, including group member characteristics. Organizational effectiveness is affected by situational factors not under the leader’s control. Situations shape how leaders behave, and they also influence the consequences of leader behavior.

Fiedler’s contingency theory states that the best style of leadership is determined by the leader’s work situation. Style, in Fiedler’s theory, is measured by the LPC scale. If you have a reasonably positive attitude toward your LPC, you are relationship motivated. You are task motivated if your attitude is negative. Situational control, or favorability, is measured by a combination of the quality of leader-member relations, the degree of task structure, and the leader’s position power.

The key proposition of Fiedler’s theory is that in situations of high control or low control, leaders with a task-motivated style are more effective. In a situation of moderate control, a relationship-motivated style works better. Leaders can improve situational control by modifying leader-member relations, task structure, and position power.

The path-goal theory of leadership effectiveness specifies what the leader must do to achieve high productivity and morale in a given situation. The major proposition of the theory is that the manager should choose a leadership style that takes into account the characteristics of the group members and the demands of the task. Initiating structure by the leader works best when the group faces an ambiguous task. Effective leaders clarify the paths to attaining goals, help group members progress along these paths, and remove barriers to goal attainment. Leaders must choose a style that best fits the two sets of contingency factors—the characteristics of the subordinates and the tasks. The four styles in path-goal theory are directive, supportive, participative, and achievement oriented.

SLII, developed by Blanchard, explains how to match leadership style to the capabilities of group members on a given task. The combination of the subordinate’s commitment and competence determines the four developmental levels: enthusiastic beginner, disillusioned learner, capable but cautious performer, and self-reliant achiever. The model classifies leadership style according to the relative amounts of supporting and directing the leader engages in. The four styles are different combinations of task and relationship behavior, both rated as high versus low: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. The most appropriate leadership style corresponds to the subordinate developmental levels. For example, enthusiastic beginners require a directing leader.

The normative decision model explains that leadership is a decision-making process. A leader examines certain contingency factors in the situation to determine which decision-making style will be the most effective in either a time-driven or developmental situation. The model defines five decision-making styles: two individual styles and three group styles. By answering a series of seven diagnostic questions in a matrix, the manager follows the path to a recommended decision style. The most important take-away from the model is to know when to consult with the group versus making an independent decision.

Leader-member exchange theory provides some insights into contingency leadership. LMX influences such factors as the favorability of performance ratings, which group member receives servant leadership, extent of empowerment, and team member performance.

Leading others through a crisis can be considered a form of contingency leadership because the leader adapts his or her style to the situation. In a crisis, leaders should (a) be decisive, (b) lead with compassion, (c) think strategically, (d) reestablish the usual work routine, (e) avoid a circle-the-wagons mentality, (f) display optimism, (g) prevent the crisis through disaster planning, (h) provide stable performance, and (i) be a transformational leader.

A leading-edge way for a person to practice contingency leadership would be to look for research-based evidence about the best way to deal with a given situation. This approach means using evidence-based leadership or management.

KEY TERMS

contingency approach to leadership
146

path-goal theory
151

Situational Leadership II (SLII)
155

normative decision model

159

crisis leadership

163

evidence-based leadership or management

170

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

· 1. A major contingency factor for a team or group leader is the talent and motivation of the individual being led. Although talented and well-motivated workers may not require close monitoring of their efforts, they still require encouragement and recognition to sustain high performance. Otherwise, the leader has very little impact on their performance or their intention to stay a member of the team or group.

· 2. When practicing the leader-member exchange theory of leadership by forming unique relationships with members of the group, it is important to minimize the potential unintended negative consequences of this type of leadership. For morale purposes, it is important to avoid establishing favorites or pets in the group, and having only superficial, mechanical relationships with other group members.

· 3. A subtle way of practicing contingency leadership is to adapt to times that may have changed in terms of the demands of your leadership position. You have to fine-tune your leadership approach to meet the new circumstances. Assume that hospital administrator Maggie has held her position for ten years. According to her perception of her role, the focus of her leadership would be to inspire her staff toward doing what is best for patient care. Yet her role has now changed. Focusing on what is good for patients still receives high priority, yet Maggie has to emotionally accept the reality that finding ways to inspire her group to reduce the cost of operating the hospital has become a key part of her leadership and management role.

Discussion Questions and Activities

· 1. What relevance might contingency leadership have for dealing with (a) men versus women, and (b) old versus young?

· 2. Describe how it might be possible for a manager to be charismatic yet also practice contingency leadership.

· 3. Identify a personality trait you think would help a manager function as a contingency leader. Also identify a trait you think might detract from a manager’s ability to function as a contingency leader.

· 4. How might a leader modify the clothing he or she wore to different work situations to help practice contingency leadership?

· 5. How would a manager know which variables in a given situation should influence which approach to leadership he or she should take?

· 6. Which of the four path-goal styles do you think would be the best for managing a group of software engineers? Justify your answer.

· 7. To what extent do you think that battlefield experience would help a person become an effective crisis leader in a business situation?

· 8. Why are both a task emphasis and a relationship emphasis often necessary to get a group through a crisis, such as a hurricane having destroyed a company facility?

· 9. To what extent do you think most business leaders will ever use experience-based leadership or management?

· 10. In what way do effective teachers practice contingency leadership?

LEADERSHIP CASE PROBLEM A

Supervisory Styles at the Red Rascal

Jessica Perez is the manager of a thriving Red Rascal Restaurant, a chain of several hundred moderately priced restaurants throughout the country. Jessica recently returned from a regional conference in which she was informed about a new program of recruiting several developmentally disabled workers to work at each restaurant. The restaurants would work closely with local institutions that provided vocational training for individuals who are intellectually challenged. In many of the communities, these institutions coordinate their effort with both psychology and special education departments at local colleges.

The developmentally disabled workers would be hired into basic positions that fit their capabilities, such as salad chefs, bakers, dishwashing machine attendants, and custodial workers. Restaurant (store) managers would receive training into how to optimize the capabilities of developmentally disabled workers, as well as how to motivate or discipline the workers as needed.

Three months after the program was launched, Jessica’s branch had hired three developmentally disabled young adults, all assigned jobs within the kitchen. Jessica spent a little time coaching her kitchen supervisors about supervising developmentally disabled workers. She emphasized the importance of providing clear, uncomplicated directions, and not overwhelming these workers by changing their assignments frequently. As instructed at regional headquarters, Jessica also explained the need to provide positive feedback and encouragement to the intellectually challenged recruits.

The program of hiring a few developmentally disabled kitchen workers appeared to be going generally well at the Red Rascal. No particular problems with the food prepared by the new workers were found, food preparation was not delayed, and their attendance was satisfactory. Yet as Jessica listened to several of the restaurant associates, the wait staff and kitchen staff included, she heard some grumbling. Head chef Tammy expressed her concerns in these terms: “I’m not exactly sure why this is happening, but these days my supervisor is treating me like I’m10 years old. She’s so condescending, and she tells me what she wants done in tiny details. I asked Mindy (the supervisor) to taste a new salad dressing I prepared. She told me, ‘Tammy, I’m so proud of you. You did a great job.’ I mean, she’s acting like I’m stupid or something.”

Kurt, the host, made a similar comment about Jessica. He said, “All of a sudden you’re treating me as if I’m a little slow. You made such a fuss just because my shoes were shined and my shirt was wrinkle free. Are you forgetting that I’m not developmentally challenged?”

Mindy began to think that maybe there were some supervisory style problems at the Red Rascal.

Questions

· 1. What does the restaurant scenario presented above have to do with contingency leadership?

· 2. In what ways might Jessica and the supervisors modify their leadership styles to adapt to the differences in intellectual levels of the Red Rascal staff?

· 3. What is the problem with the kitchen staff and wait staff at the Red Rascal? Should not all workers receive careful instructions, feedback, and encouragement?

ASSOCIATED ROLE PLAY

One student plays the role of a supervisor whose responsibility is to show a developmentally challenged recruit how to prepare a salad in a giant bowl, that will then be divided into single-portion salads as needed.

Another student plays the role of the twenty year-old recruit who has never previously prepared food. Observers should be particularly cognizant if the supervisor is using an effective leadership style.

LEADERSHIP CASE PROBLEM B

Metal Recycling Executive Attempts to Salvage Martha Stewart Living

For several years, Martha Stewart Living Omnia-media Inc. (MSLO) had been losing money as a media company despite the fame of company founder Martha Stewart. As a result, company management decided to recast itself a merchandising company, particularly because of its former success in home-décor retailing.

The company had also been involved in a prolonged lawsuit between retail chains Macy’s and J.C. Penny Co. Macy’s filed suit because it contended that it had the exclusive right to sell Martha Stewart branded merchandise in certain categories, including bedding and cookware. However, Martha Stewart Living also signed an agreement with Macy’s competitor J.C. Penney. As part of the settlement, Martha Stewart Living shortened by four years, the length of its contract with J.C. Penney. Also, J.C. Penney agreed not sell certain Martha Stewart products, such as bed and bath products, but would sell others including lighting and rugs.

During these troubled times, MSLO decided to appoint board member Daniel Dienst as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. Dienst was a metal industry veteran who had recently been CEDO of Sims Metal Management, the largest metal recycler in North America. Dienst had turnaround experience in the metals industry, plus corporate finance experience from positions he held on Wall Street.

Upon joining MSLO, Dienst said, “I have long been a fan of Martha Stewart, the person and the brand, and believe there is enormous untapped opportunity for this organization and a terrific base of talented people to help us realize that opportunity.” He also mentioned that the company had already embarked on a turnaround plan that is expected to produce good results quickly. Dienst also said, “I look forward to rolling up my sleeves, getting to work, and helping write the next few chapters of this remarkable Company’s story.”

During the ten years previous to Dienst, six different people served as CEO of MSLO. Other senior executives have departed also, often because they clashed with Martha Stewart, the company founder and nonexecutive chairman.

Questions

· 1. To what extent do you think Dan Dienst was facing a crisis leadership situation when he was appointed the CEO of the Martha Stewart company?

· 2. So what leadership steps should Dienst take to begin “rolling up his sleeves?”

· 3. What steps do you recommend that Dienst take to avoid becoming another senior executive who departs the company?

· 4. What situational factors might make running a media and merchandise business quite different from running a metal recycling company?

· 5. Based on current media reports, how successful has Dienst been in turning around MSLO?

Source: Original case based on facts and observations presented in the following sources: TNM Staff, “Metal Recycling Executive Becomes New CEO Of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia,” Talking News Media (

www.talking newsmedia.com

), October 29, 2013, pp. 1–4; Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, “Martha Stewart’s New CEO Is a Scrap- Metal Expert,” The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2013, pp. B1-B2; Crayton Harrison and Sarah Frier, “Martha Stewart Appointment of Dienst as CEO Signals Cuts,” Bloomberg(

www.Bloomberg.com

), October 29, 2013, pp. 1–2.

ASSOCIATED ROLE PLAY

One student plays the role of Daniel Dienst, the new CEO of MSLO. Wanting to avoid being scrapped within one year, Dienst takes the initiative to ask why so many senior executives preceding him have left the company. He is concerned that Stewart might be a domineering personality who likes to micromanage her senior executives. Dienst schedules a lunch with Stewart at a high-class restaurant to discuss the situation. Stewart recognizes that she is a household name and believes that her charm, creativity, and superior leadership skills make her an excellent boss for any executive who can obtain good business results. Observers will provide feedback as to whether the meeting has been productive.

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 5-2

My Leadership Portfolio

For this chapter entry in your leadership portfolio, visualize two different leadership scenarios that you witnessed directly, read about, or saw on television or in a movie. Think through how you would have used a different leadership approach for each one if you had been the leader. To illustrate, suppose you had passed a construction site for a skyscraper and noticed that the crane operator seemed confident and competent. You might conclude, “In this situation, I would have used a delegating style of leadership with the crane operator because she was so self-sufficient. Yet I would still have given her some recognition for a job well done at the end of her shift.”

Another scenario might be that you witnessed a bloody fight at a professional hockey match. You might conclude, “In this situation, I would be as directive as possible. I would suspend and fine the players, with no room for negotiation. Decisive action must be taken to quell violence in professional sports.”

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 5-3

Crisis Leadership

Working in a small group, find a crisis that a business or not-for-profit organization is facing these days. Examples would include a pharmaceutical firm needing to recall an over-the-counter medicine that has triggered illnesses in hundreds of consumers, or an investment banking firm in which several key executives have been accused of insider trading. After agreeing on which crisis to tackle, develop a list of suggestions on how the CEO should deal with the situation. Use several ideas from the section about crisis leadership presented in this chapter to help you develop an action plan.

NOTES

1. Original story based on facts and observations in the following sources: Anne VanderMey, “Detroit’s Benevolent Dictator,” CNNMoney, (http://features.blogs.fortune.com), July 23, 2013, pp. 1–2; Allysia Finley, “How Detroit Can Rise Again,” The Wall Street Journal, August 3–4, 2013, p. A11; Daniel Howes, “Status Quo Won’t Avoid Bankruptcy,” detroitnews.com, October 18, 2013, pp. 1–3; Matt Wirz and Emily Glazer, “European Banks Hold Out on Detroit,” The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2013, pp. C1, C4.

2. “Surprising and Effective Cure for Today’s Biggest Workplace Crisis,” Executive Focus, September 2004, p. 21.

3. Victor H. Vroom and Arthur G. Jago, “The Role of the Situation in Leadership,” American Psychologist, January 2007, pp. 6–16.

4. Henry Mintzberg, Managing (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009), pp. 106–107.

5. Cited in Karen Barrow, “Mindfulness Lets Leaders See More Possibilities,” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), January 18, 2009, p. 2E.

6. For a synthesis of contingency theory by one of its key researchers, see Martin M. Chemers, An Integrative Theory of Leadership(Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1997), pp. 2838. See also Bernard M. Bass (with Ruth Bass), The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications, Fourth Edition (New York: The Free Press, 2008), pp. 522–527.

7. Vroom and Jago, “The Role of the Situation,” p. 20.

8. Robert J. House, “A Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness,” Administrative Science Quarterly, September 1971, pp. 321–328; Robert T. Keller, “A Test of the Path-Goal Theory with Need for Clarity as a Moderator in Research and Development Organizations,” Journal of Applied Psychology, April 1989, pp. 208–212; Robert J. House and Terence R. Mitchell, “Path-Goal Theory of Leadership,” Journal of Contemporary Business, Autumn 1974, pp. 81–97.

9. Vroom and Jago, “The Role of the Situation,” p. 20.

10. Robert House, “Path-Goal Theory of Leadership: Lessons, Legacy, and a Reformulated Theory,” Leadership Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 3, 1996, p. 348.

11. Quoted in Jeff Bercovici, “The Power of the Packers: How Tiny Green Bay Became the NFL’s Most Improbable Financial Juggernaut,” Forbes, September 20, 2011, p. 90.

12. “Packers’ CEO Conveys Keys to Leadership Success,” University of Wisconsin-Parkside (http://www.uwp.edu/explore/media/), April 5, 2013, p. 1.

13. House and Mitchell, “Path-Goal Theory,” p. 84; Bass, The Bass Handbook of Leadership, pp. 804–811.

14. Chemers, An Integrative Theory of Leadership, p. 48.

15. Kenneth H. Blanchard, David Zigarmi, and Robert Nelson, “Situational Leadership After 25 Years: A Retrospective,” Journal of Leadership Studies, vol. 1, 1993, pp. 22–26; Kenneth Blanchard and Robert Nelson, “Recognition and Reward,” Executive Excellence, vol. 14, no. 4, 1997, p. 15; “Building Materials Leader Builds Better Leaders,” kenblanchard.com/casestudies/certainteed , accessed November 26, 2004.

16. Victor H. Vroom, “Leadership and the Decision- Making Process,” Organizational Dynamics, vol. 28, Spring 2000, pp. 82–93; VictorH. Vroom, “Educating Managers in Decision Making and Leadership,” Management Decision, vol. 10, 2003, pp. 968–978.

17. “The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Model: Deciding How to Decide,” Mind Tools (www.mindtools.com), Mind Tools Ltd, 1996–2013.

18. The first two statements are based on Li Ma and Qing Qu, “Differentiation in Leader- Member Exchange: A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Approach,” Leadership Quarterly, October 2010, pp. 733–744.

19. The second two statements are based David J. Henderson, Robert C. Liden, Brian C. Glibkowski, and Anjali Chaudrhy, “LMX Differentiation: A Multilevel Review and Examination of Its Antecedents,” Leadership Quarterly, August 2009, pp. 517–534.

20. Kenneth J. Harris, Anthony R. Wheeler, and K. Michele Kacmar, “Leader-Member Exchange and Empowerment: Direct and Interactive Effects on Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intentions, and Performance,” Leadership Quarterly, June 2009, p. 399.

21. Pascale M. Le Blanc and Vicente Gonzalez- Roma, “A Team Level Investigation of the Relationship Between Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and Commitment and Performance,” The Leadership Quarterly, June 2012, pp. 534–554.

22. Robin Kielkowski, “Leadership During a Crisis,” Journal of Leadership Studies, no. 3, 2013, p. 65.

23. Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky, “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 2009, p. 64.

24. Chris Warner and Don Schmincke, High Altitude Leadership: What the World’s Forbidding Techniques Teach Us About Success(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009), p. 6.

25. Observation of Bill George reported in Alan Murray, The Wall Street Journal Essential Guide to Management (New York: Harper Business, 2010), p. 18.

26. Leslie A. DeChurch, C. Shawn Burke, Marissa. L. Shuffler, Rebecca Lyons, Daniel Doty, and Eduardo Salas, “A Historiometric Analysis of Leadership in Mission Critical Multiteam Environments,” The Leadership Quarterly, February 2011, pp. 152–169.

27. Suzanne Koudsi, “How to Cope with Tragedy,” Fortune, October 1, 2001, p. 34.

28. Neil Simon, “Crisis Management: Department of Interior, Department of Labor,” Hispanic Business, October 2010, p. 43.

29. Barbara Baker Clark, “Leadership During a Crisis,” Executive Leadership, December 2001, p. 8.

30. Quoted in Ben Casselman and Guy Chazan, “Disaster Plans Lacking at Deep Rigs,” The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2010, p. 1A.

31. “Lead in the 21st Century: An Interview with Société Générale’s Frédéric Oudéa,”

www.mckinsey.com

, November 2013, p. 1.

32. Jia Lynn Yang, “A Recipe for Consistency,” Fortune, October 29, 2007, p. 58.

33. Erika Hayes James and Lynn Perry Wooten, “How to Display Competence in Times of Crisis,” Organizational Dynamics, vol. 34, no. 2, 2005, p. 146.

34. Demis M. Rousseau, “Presidential Address: Is There Such a Thing as ‘Evidence-Based Management’?” The Academy of Management Review, April 2006, pp. 256–269; Wayne F. Cascio, “Evidence-Based Management and the Marketplace for Ideas,” Academy of Management Journal, October 2007, pp. 1009–1012.

35. Quint Studer, “Evidence-Based Leadership,” Studer Group (www.studergroup.com), January 14, 2008.

CHAPTER

Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter and doing the exercises, you should be able to

· • Explain the key leadership dimensions of initiating structure and consideration.

· • Describe at least five task-oriented leadership behaviors and attitudes.

· • Describe at least five relationship-oriented attitudes and behaviors.

· • Explain how leaders use

60-degree feedback to improve their performance.
· • Describe the participative and autocratic leadership styles.

· • Present the case for the entrepreneurial style of leadership and for gender differences in leadership style.

· • Determine how to choose the most appropriate leadership style.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

The Classic Dimensions of Consideration and Initiating Structure

Task-Related Attitudes and Behaviors

Relationship-Oriented Attitudes and Behaviors

360-Degree Feedback for Fine-Tuning a Leadership Approach

Leadership Styles

Participative Leadership

Autocratic Leadership

Leadership Grid™ Styles

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Gender Differences in Leadership Style

Selecting the Best Leadership Style

Summary

Key Terms

Guidelines for Action and Skill Development

Leadership Case Problem A

Leadership Case Problem B

Notes

By job title, Sheryl Sandberg is COO (chief operating officer) at Facebook, placing her in charge of business operations that encompass sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy, and communication. Beyond her job title, Sandberg has been a driving force behind the phenomenal success of Facebook, the best-selling author of Lean-in: Women, Work, and the Will to Succeed, and regarded as one of the most powerful women in the world. She is also a mentor to her boss, company cofounder, Mark Zuckerberg.

Before joining Facebook in

008, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, Chief of Staff to the United States Secretary of the Treasury, and a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Sandberg graduated from Harvard College, with a major in economics, and an MBA from Harvard University.

As part of her role as COO, Sandberg provides leadership for solving the problems of users, advertisers, and partner websites by using automated systems rather than hiring new staff. She generously praises team members who develop productivity-generating tools that enable Facebook to grow in members and revenue without growing the size of the company.

Jim Breyer, a member of the Facebook board, said about Sandberg, “I have never met anyone with her combination of infectious, enthusiastic spirit, combined with extraordinary intelligence.” As Zuckerberg sees it, Sandberg “… is unique in that she has a high IQ and EQ [emotional intelligence quotient], and it’s just really rare to get than in any single person.”

Sandberg’s management style has been described as highly professional, because she pairs empathy with high expectations and frequent direct feedback, and values entrepreneurial problem-solving above all else. During meetings, Sandberg is an attentive listener, and makes careful observations about how people feel. For example, during an acquisitions meeting, she reminded the team that the firm’s founder was about to have a birthday, and the he wanted to complete the deal before the big day.

If you want to know if you are a good leader, according to Sandberg, answer the following three questions:

· • Do I have followers?

· • Do I have a cause bigger than myself?

· • Do I get stuff done?

The story about a world leading technology executive illustrates how leaders’ behaviors can influence their effectiveness. Among these behaviors are listening carefully to staff members, providing feedback and guidance, and welcoming risk taking. This chapter describes a number of key behaviors and attitudes that help a manager function as a leader. We also describe the closely related topic of leadership styles.

Frequent reference is made in this chapter, and at other places in the text, to leadership effectiveness. A working definition of an

effective leader

is one who helps group members attain productivity, including high quality and customer satisfaction, as well as job satisfaction. Leadership effectiveness is typically measured by two key criteria.

The first criterion relates to objective data, such as those dealing with sales, production, safety, number of patents produced by the group, cost cutting, or staying within budget. Measures of job satisfaction and turnover are also used to measure leadership effectiveness. The second criterion focuses on judgments by others about the leader’s effectiveness, such as a plant manager rating a supervisor or the board rating a CEO. Most of the research reported throughout this text includes measures of leadership effectiveness in the study design.

The Classic Dimensions of Consideration and Initiating Structure

Studies conducted at Ohio State University in the 19

0s identified 1,800 specific examples of leadership behavior that were reduced to 150 questionnaire items on leadership functions.

The functions are also referred to as dimensions of leadership behavior. This research became the foundation for most future research about leadership behavior, attitudes, and styles. The researchers asked team members to describe their supervisors by responding to the questionnaires. Leaders were also asked to rate themselves on leadership dimensions. Two leadership dimensions accounted for 85 percent of the descriptions of leadership behavior: consideration and initiating structure.

Consideration

is the degree to which the leader creates an environment of emotional support, warmth, friendliness, and trust. The leader creates this environment by being friendly and approachable, looking out for the personal welfare of the group, keeping the group abreast of new developments, and doing small favors for the group.

Leaders who score high on the consideration factor typically are friendly and trustful, earn respect, and have a warm relationship with team members. Leaders with low scores on the consideration factor typically are authoritarian and impersonal in their relationships with group members. Three questionnaire items measuring the consideration factor are as follows:

· 1. Do personal favors for people in the work group.

· 2. Treat all people in the work group as your equal.

· 3. Do little things to make it pleasant to be a member of the staff.

The relationship-oriented behaviors described later in this chapter are specific aspects of consideration. Another key example of consideration is making connections with people. For example, much of the time Sheryl Sandberg spends outside the office on business is devoted to making connections with key people who could advance the cause of Facebook, as well as help women succeed in their careers.

Being soft-spoken is a leadership style element that contributes to consideration because workers feel respected when the leader does not attempt to dominate the discussion. Adam Silver, the National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner is regarded as dispassionate, congenial, and practical— and rarely argumentative.

Initiating structure

means organizing and defining relationships in the group by engaging in such activities as assigning specific tasks, specifying procedures to be followed, scheduling work, and clarifying expectations for team members. A team leader who helped group members establish realistic goals would be engaged in initiating structure. Other concepts that refer to the same idea include production emphasisand task orientation. The taskrelated leadership behaviors and attitudes described later in this chapter are specific aspects of initiating structure.

Leaders who score high on this dimension define the relationship between themselves and their staff members, as well as the role that they expect each staff member to assume. Such leaders also endeavor to establish well-defined channels of communication and ways of getting the job done. Three self-assessment items measuring initiating structure are as follows:

· 1. Try out your own new ideas in the work group.

· 2. Emphasize meeting deadlines.

· 3. See to it that people in the work group are working up to capacity.

A positive example of an emphasis on initiating structure is the way Sheryl Sandberg focuses on finding operating efficiencies such as using software instead of adding more people to resolve user problems.

Leaders have been categorized with respect to how much emphasis they place on consideration and initiating structure. As implied by

Figure 4-1

, the two dimensions are not mutually exclusive. A leader can achieve high or low status on both. For example, an effective leader might contribute to high productivity and still place considerable emphasis on warm human relationships. The four-cell grid of
Figure 4-1
is a key component of several approaches to describing leadership style. We return to this topic later in this chapter and in

Chapter 5

A study of the validity of consideration and initiating structure indicates that these classic dimensions do indeed contribute to an understanding of leadership because they are related to leadership outcomes. A meta-analysis showed that consideration is strongly related to the job satisfaction of group members, satisfaction with the leader, worker motivation, and leader effectiveness. Initiating structure was slightly more strongly related to job performance, group performance, and organization performance. However, initiating structure was also associated with satisfaction and performance.

These results are encouraging because they reinforce the importance of this pioneering research.

Recent research conducted with an online research group and U.S. Air Force officers provides additional insight into the effects of initiating structure and consideration on employee work-related attitudes. The focus of the research was the fit between consideration and initiating structure needed and received. One key result of the study was that when employees did not receive the amount of consideration and initiating structure they thought they needed, unfavorable attitudes were forthcoming. Among these attitudes were less trust in the supervisor, lower job satisfaction, and less commitment to the organization. The study also found that excess levels of consideration were associated with favorable attitudes, and excess levels of initiating structure were associated with unfavorable attitudes. (Apparently, employees don’t mind being treated with excess kindness, but they do object to being over-controlled.)

FIGURE 4-1 Four Combinations of Initiating Structure and Consideration.

Task-Related Attitudes and Behaviors

The task-related versus relationship-related classification remains a useful framework for understanding leadership attitudes, behaviors, and practices. This section identifies and describes task-related attitudes and behaviors that are characteristic of effective leaders, as outlined in

Table 4-1

. Task-related in this context means that the behavior, attitude, or skill focuses more on the task to be performed than on the interpersonal aspect of leadership.

As mentioned in

Chapter 2

, a synthesis of many studies indicates that the combination of leadership traits and behaviors (both task and relationship) accounts for a minimum of 31 percent of the differences in leadership effectiveness. Yet, according to the research in question, leader behaviors have a bigger impact on effectiveness than do traits. Although certain traits may predispose individuals to certain behaviors, behaviors are the more important predictor of leadership effectiveness. For example, a leader who is assertive may take naturally to providing clear guidelines and providing feedback to subordinates. It is also noteworthy to recognize that it is easy to develop behaviors than to develop or modify traits.

1.
Adaptability to the situation.
Effective leaders adapt to the situation. Adaptability reflects the contingency viewpoint: A tactic is chosen based on the unique circumstances at hand. A leader who is responsible for psychologically immature group members will find it necessary to supervise them closely. If the group members are mature and self-reliant, the leader will use less supervision. The adaptive leader also selects an organization structure that is best suited to the demands of the situation, such as choosing between a brainstorming group and a committee.

2.
Direction setting.
Given that a major responsibility of leadership is to produce change, the leader must set the direction of that change. Direction setting is part of creating a vision and a component of strategy. The strategy describes a feasible way of achieving the vision. Former GE executive turned business author Larry Bossidy believes that it is part of a business leader’s job to communicate clearly where the business is going, why, and how the company will benefit if goals are achieved.

TABLE 4-1 Task-Related Leadership Attitudes and Behaviors

1. Adaptability to the situation

2. Direction setting

3. High performance standards

4. Concentrating on strengths of group members

5. Risk taking and execution of plans

6. Hands-on guidance and feedback

7. Ability to ask tough questions

8. Organizing for collaboration

3.
High performance standards.
Effective leaders consistently hold group members to high standards of performance. High performance standards can also take the form of challenging the thinking of others. Former General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson has been known to press executives in meetings to justify their plans and initiatives. Furthermore, he does not back down when told that matters were complicated. Akerson would reply that issues should not be complicated; instead, they should be simplified.

When performance is measured against high standards, productivity is likely to increase, since people tend to live up to the expectations of their superiors. This is called the

Pygmalion effect

, and it works in a subtle, almost unconscious way. When a managerial leader believes that a group member will succeed, the manager communicates this belief without realizing it. Conversely, when a leader expects a group member to fail, that person will not disappoint the manager. The manager’s expectation of success or failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because the perceptions contribute to success or failure.

4.
Concentrating on the strengths of group members.
An axiom of effective leadership and management is to make good use of the strengths of group members rather than concentrating effort on patching up areas for improvement. The effective leader helps people improve, yet still capitalizes on strengths. A team member might have excellent interpersonal skills, yet poor technical skills. It would be best to assign that person a role that emphasizes interpersonal skills, while at the same time helping him or her improve technical skills. Marcus Buckingham emphasizes that capitalizing on each person’s unique pattern of skills saves time because group members are not laboring at tasks outside their capability and interest. The manager might even develop a job description that best fits each employee’s uniqueness.

Suppose you are the leader of a call center, and one staffer is great at calming down angry customers. Other call center members are then asked to refer customers who have gone ballistic to your team member who can handle customer rage well.

5.
Risk taking and execution of plans.
To bring about constructive change, the leader must take risks and be willing to implement those risky decisions. The relevance of risk taking to leadership effectiveness is emphasized by Sarah Mensah, the chief operating officer & chief marketing officer of the professional basketball team, the Portland Trail Blazers. She believes that the ability to welcome and seek out risks is a valuable skill: “I’ve learned that if there is no risk, there will be no reward.”

Larry Bossidy says about the importance of execution: “I’m an impatient person, and I get more satisfaction from seeing things get done than I do about philosophizing or building sand castles. Many people regard execution as detail work that’s beneath the dignity of a business leader. That’s wrong. It’s a leader’s most important job.”

6.
Hands-on guidance and feedback.
You will recall that technical competence and knowledge of the business are important leadership characteristics. They enable the leader to provide group members with hands-on guidance about how to accomplish important work. The leader who provides such guidance helps the group accomplish important tasks; at the same time, group members learn important skills. Too much guidance of this nature, however, can be a symptom of poor delegation and micromanagement (managing too closely). Too little guidance, and macromanagement is the result, in which the manager gives too little or no direction to group members. Henry Mintzberg observes that the leader’s strategy might suffer because he or she does not understand the operations of the business.

Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca-Cola Co., is a well-regarded leader who emphasizes using hands-on management to help him better understand the business. He says that he goes to the market at least once a week everywhere he is at the time to help him comprehend the dynamics of the business. When he joined the company in 1978, he spent time on the trucks for about seven and one-half months.

(The point here is that understanding the frontline operations of the business facilitates providing hands-on guidance.)

Closely related to guidance is giving frequent feedback on performance. The leader can rarely influence the actions of group members without appropriate performance feedback. This feedback tells group members how well they are doing so that they can take corrective action if needed. It also serves as reinforcement that prompts group members to continue favorable activities. Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-1 provides practice in developing feedback skills.

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 4-1

Feedback Skills

After small groups have completed an assignment such as answering the case questions or discussion questions, hold a performance feedback session. Also use observations you have made in previous problem-solving activities as the basis for your feedback. Each group member provides some feedback to each other member about how well he or she thinks the other person performed. Use only volunteers, because this type of feedback may be uncomfortable and disturbing to some individuals. Students not receiving feedback can serve as observers and later present their views on what took place during the exercise. To increase the probability of benefiting from this experience, feedback recipients must listen actively. Refer to the section in

Chapter 10

on coaching skills and techniques for more information on feedback and active listening.

A convenient way to do this exercise is for everyone to sit in a circle. Choose one feedback recipient to begin. Going clockwise around the circle, each group member gives that person feedback. After all people have spoken, the feedback recipient gives his or her reactions. The person to the left of the first recipient is the next one to get feedback.

After everyone has had a turn receiving performance feedback, hold a general discussion. Be sure to discuss three key issues:

· 1. How helpful was the feedback?

· 2. What was the relative effectiveness of positive versus negative feedback?

· 3. Were some group members better than others in giving feedback?

7.
Ability to ask tough questions.
Often, leaders can be effective by asking tough questions rather than providing answers. A

tough question

is one that makes a person or group stop and think about why they are doing or not doing something. (A tough question might also be considered the right question.) In this way, group members are forced to think about the effectiveness of their activities. They might ask themselves, “Why didn’t I think of that? It seems so obvious.” Asking questions is important because quite often group members may have the solutions to difficult problems facing the organization.

When Alan R. Mulally was the newly appointed CEO at Ford Motor Co., he was told that the company loses close to $3,000 every time a customer buys a Focus compact. He asked, “Why haven’t you figured out a way to make a profit?” Given a few excuses, Mulally hammered away again: “I want to know why no one figured a way to build this car at a profit, whether it has to be built in Michigan or China or India, if that’s what it takes.”

8.
Organizing for collaboration.
A leadership behavior on the borderline between a task orientation and a relationship orientation is to demand that workers collaborate with each other. The task focus is that the information sharing takes place, whereas the relationship focus is that group members must work collaboratively with each other. The Corporate Executive Board, a research and advisory service company, recommends three steps for the leader who wants more collaboration:

· • First, identify the high-value business outcomes desired, such as accelerating new-product development, before selecting collaboration technologies.

· • Second, identify collaboration hot spots. Speak with employees to understand their communication patterns and workflows. (A specialist might be required here to help map workflows, such as who is interacting with whom. More will be said about this topic in

Chapter 12

· • Select technologies that will improve or speed up existing workflows. For example, a search engine dedicated to in-company practices might be effective. Most leaders would have to work with an IT consultant to find a technology most likely to increase collaboration.

Now that you have studied various components of task-oriented attitudes and behaviors, do Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-1. It will further sensitize you to the task activities of leaders and managers

Relationship-Oriented Attitudes and Behaviors

Leadership involves influencing people, so it follows that many effective leadership attitudes, behaviors, and practices deal with interpersonal relationships.

LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ 4-1

Task-Oriented Attitudes and Behaviors

Instructions:
Indicate whether you mostly agree or mostly disagree with the following statements. Relate the statements to any work situation—including sports, community activities, and school activities—in which you have been responsible for others’ work. If a work situation does not come to mind, imagine how you would act or think.

MOSTLY AGREE

1. I keep close tabs on productivity figures and interpret them to the group.

□

2. I send frequent e-mail and text messages to group members, giving them information about work procedures.

□

3. I clearly specify the quality goals our group needs to achieve.

□

4. I maintain clear-cut standards of performance.

□

5. When I conduct a meeting, the participants can count on a clear-cut agenda.

□

6. I feel good about my workweek only if our team has met or exceeded its productivity goals.

□

7. Workers should not access e-mail, text messages, or the Internet during working hours unless the activity is actually increasing productivity.

□

8. I freely criticize work that does not meet standards.

□

9. I spend at least 5 percent of my workweek either planning myself or helping team members with their planning.

□

10. I spend a good deal of time solving technical or business problems myself, or helping group members do the same.

□

Interpretation:
If you responded “mostly agree” to eight, nine, or ten of these statements, you have a strong task orientation. If you responded “mostly disagree” to four or more of the statements, you have below-average taskoriented behaviors and attitudes.

Skill Development:
A task orientation is important because it can lead directly to goal attainment and productivity. Nevertheless, a task orientation must be balanced with a strong people orientation and interpersonal skills for maximum effectiveness.

Table 4-2

lists the seven relationship-oriented attitudes and behaviors that we will discuss next. (Most other parts of this book describe the interpersonal skill aspects of leadership.)

1.
Aligning people.
Getting people pulling in the same direction and collaborating smoothly is a major interpersonal challenge. To get people pulling together, it is necessary to speak to many people. The target population can involve many different stakeholders. Among them are managers and team leaders, higher-ups, peers, and workers in other parts of the organization, as well as suppliers, government officials, and customers. Anyone who can implement the vision and strategies or who can block implementation must be aligned.

After being aligned, organizational members can pull together toward a higher purpose. Alignment also incorporates getting the group working together smoothly.

TABLE 4-2 Relationship-Oriented Attitudes and Behaviors

1. Aligning people

2. Openness to worker opinions

3. Creating inspiration and visibility

4. Satisfying higher-level needs

5. Giving emotional support and encouragement

6. Promoting principles and values

7. Being a servant leader

2.
Openness to worker opinions.
A major part of relationship-oriented leadership is to engage in

management openness

, or a set of leader behaviors particularly relevant to subordinates’ motivation to voice their opinion.

When the leader is open in this way, subordinates perceive that their boss listens to them, is interested in their ideas, and gives fair consideration to suggestions. Being open to worker opinions is part of the consideration dimension, and it is also central to participative leadership. A representative example being open to worker opinions is Frank Blake, the CEO of Home Depot. He incorporates face-to-face meetings with almost all new store managers or assistant managers at the home-improvement chain, as well as occasional meetings with other store managers.

During these meetings, Blake listens attentively to suggestions for improving store operations and customer experience.

3.
Creating inspiration and visibility.
As described in the discussion of charismatic and transformational leadership, inspiring others is an essential leadership practice. Inspiring people usually involves appealing to their emotions and values, such as when the head of a snowmobile business unit encourages workers to believe that they are making winters more enjoyable for people who live in regions that accumulate snow as well as facilitating rescue missions.

Because human contact and connections reinforce inspiration, another part of being inspirational is being visible and available. Frank Blake’s frequent visits to Home Depot stores help create the visibility that has enhanced his stature as the company leader. The fact that he dons the Home Depot uniform of an orange apron adds to his accessibility.

4.
Satisfying higher-level needs.
To inspire people, effective leaders motivate them by satisfying higher-level needs, such as needs for achievement, personal growth, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, and a feeling of control over one’s life. Many leaders in organizations express an awareness of the importance of need satisfaction for building good relationships with workers. A robust method of satisfying workers’ higher-level needs is to help them grow professionally. Star executive W. James McNerney, now the Boeing Company chairman, president, and CEO, says that he has been a successful executive at three major companies primarily through helping people perform better. McNerney contends that people who grow are open to change, have the courage to do so, work hard, and are good team players. In his words, “What I do is figure out how to unlock that in people, because most people have that inside of them. But they often get trapped in a bureaucratic environment where they’ve been beaten about the head and shoulders.”

5.
Giving emotional support and encouragement.
Supportive behavior toward team members usually increases leadership effectiveness. A supportive leader gives frequent encouragement and praise and also displays caring and kindness even about nonwork-related matters such as the health of a worker’s ill family member. Keep in mind that encouragement means to fill with courage. One of the many work-related ways of encouraging people is to ask for their input about important decisions. Emotional support generally improves morale and sometimes improves productivity. In the long term, emotional support and encouragement may bolster a person’s self-esteem. Being emotionally supportive comes naturally to the leader who is empathetic and warm.

Giving encouragement was also the eighth leadership principle of Dale Carnegie, the famous early proponent of human relations principles, in work and personal life. Recently, Tessa E. Basford and Andrea Molberg searched for empirical evidence for the validity of Carnegie’s leadership principles, including encouragement. Overall, they found support for Carnegie’s recommendations to use encouragement. Encouragement is linked to improvement of job performance and attitudes, probably because encouragement boosts feelings of self-worth.

Michael Mathieu, the CEO of YuMe, an online video advertising team, believes that part of the reason he landed his job was his personality, which includes the willingness to encourage workers. He says that his employees can talk to him about anything with absolutely no fear of being told their idea is stupid.

6.
Promoting principles and values.
A major part of a top leader’s role is to help promote values and principles that contribute to the welfare of individuals and organizations. This promotion can be classified as relationshiporiented because it deals directly with the emotions and attitudes of people, and indirectly with the task. The late Stephen Covey, who is widely quoted for his uplifting messages, advises that an organization’s mission statement must be for all good causes.

Leaders who believe in these good causes will then espouse principles and values that lead people toward good deeds in the work place. To encourage managers and all other employees to conduct their work affairs at a high moral level, many companies put their values in written form. The values might be placed in employee handbooks, on company intranets, or on company websites.

IBM is an example of a company that heavily emphasizes values in the leadership of the enterprise. Randy MacDonald, the company’s worldwide HR czar explains that being an IBMer is not about a product line, about a team, or
about the individual. The focus is on the values built into the enterprise with an emphasis on the client, innovations for the both the company and society around trust and personal responsibility, and the way company employees treat each other.

An emphasis on such values helps an IBM project leader inspire the team to develop solutions to help a city decrease pollutants.

Another value that often helps an enterprise is a strong focus on the welfare of employees. A notable example is the leadership of Rich Snyder, CEO of the successful fast-food chain, In-N-Out Burger. Wages and benefits are relatively high, and managers who meet their goals are eligible for company paid luxury vacations. The Snyder family was committed to viewing employees as if they were family members. As a result, In-N-Out Burger boasts one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry. Snyder met an early death at age 49, but the family kept the business operating based on the same values.

Providing moral leadership begins with understanding one’s own values. Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-2 gives you an opportunity to think through your work-related values so that you can better provide moral leadership to others. Also, more will be said about values and ethics in

Chapter 6

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 4-2

Clarifying Your Interpersonal Work Values

Instructions:
To provide effective value leadership, it is essential that you first understand your own values with respect to dealing with others. Rank from 1 to 15 the importance of the following values to you as a person. The most important value on the list receives a rank of 1; the least important, a rank of 15. Use the space next to “Other” if we have left out an important value related to interpersonal relations on the job.

· _____ Having respect for the dignity of others

· _____ Ensuring that others have interesting work to perform

· _____ Earning the trust of others

· _____ Earning the respect of others

· _____ Impressing others with how well my group performs

· _____ Giving others proper credit for their work

· _____ Inspiring continuous learning on the part of each member in our group, myself included

· _____ Holding myself and others accountable for delivering on commitments

· _____ Helping others grow and develop

· _____ Inspiring others to achieve high productivity and quality

· _____ Developing the reputation of being a trustworthy person

· _____ Being in contact regularly with work associates using social networking sites

· _____ Contributing to the job satisfaction of work associates

· _____ Avoiding creating intense job dissatisfaction for any work associate

· _____ Other

· 1. Compare your ranking of these values with that of the person next to you, and discuss your observations.

· 2. Perhaps your class, assisted by your instructor, might arrive at a class average on each of these values. How does your ranking compare to the class ranking?

· 3. Look back at your own ranking. Does your ranking surprise you?

· 4. Are there any surprises in the class ranking? Which values did you think would be highest and lowest?

Clarifying your values for leadership is far more than a pleasant exercise. Many business leaders have fallen into disgrace and brought their companies into bankruptcy because of values that are unacceptable to employees, stockholders, outside investigators, and the legal system. For example, a CEO who valued “developing the reputation of being a trustworthy person” would not borrow $400 million from the company while paying thousands of employees close to the minimum wage.

7.
Being a servant leader.
Your desire to help others is another important workplace value. A

servant leader

serves constituents by working on their behalf to help them achieve their goals, not the leader’s own goals. The idea behind servant leadership, as formulated by Robert K. Greenleaf, is that leadership derives naturally from a commitment to service.

Serving others, including employees, customers, and community, is the primary motivation for the servant leader. A study with CEOs found, not surprisingly, that narcissism as measured by a personality test is negatively related to servant leadership.

True leadership emerges from a deep desire to help others. A servant leader is therefore a moral leader. Servant leadership has been accomplished when group members become wiser, healthier, and more autonomous. The following are key aspects of servant leadership.

· • Place service before self-interest. A servant leader is more concerned with helping others than with acquiring power, prestige, financial reward, and status. The servant leader seeks to do what is morally right, even if it is not financially rewarding. He or she is conscious of the needs of others and is driven by a desire to satisfy them. (You will recall that wanting to satisfy the needs of others is a relationship behavior.)

· • Listen first to express confidence in others. The servant leader makes a deep commitment to listening in order to get to know the concerns, requirements, and problems of group members. Instead of attempting to impose his or her will on others, the servant leader listens carefully to understand what course of action will help others accomplish their goals. After understanding others, the best course of action can be chosen. Through listening, for example, a servant leader might learn that the group is more concerned about team spirit and harmony than striving for companywide recognition. The leader would then concentrate more on building teamwork than searching for ways to increase the visibility of the team.

· • Inspire trust by being trustworthy. Being trustworthy is a foundation behavior of the servant leader. He or she is scrupulously honest with others, gives up control, and focuses on the well-being of others. Usually such leaders do not have to work hard at being trustworthy because they are already moral. In support of this principle, a survey found that most employees want a boss who is a trusted leader, not a pal.

· • Focus on what is feasible to accomplish. Even though the servant leader is idealistic, he or she recognizes that one individual cannot accomplish everything. Therefore, the leader listens carefully to the array of problems facing group members and then concentrates on a few. The servant leader thus systematically neglects certain problems. A labor union official might carefully listen to all the concerns and complaints of the constituents and then proceed to work on the most pressing issue.

· • Lend a hand. A servant leader looks for opportunities to play the Good Samaritan. As a supermarket manager, he or she might help out by bagging groceries during a busy period. Or a servant leader might help clean out mud in the company lobby after a hurricane.

· • Provide emotional healing. A servant leader shows sensitivity to the personal concerns of group members, such as a worker being worried about taking care of a disabled parent. A recurring example of the need for emotional healing is when a natural disaster, such as a tornado or sinkhole strikes an employee’s home. The servant leader would likely grant the employee time off with pay to manage the problem, and also direct the employee toward any company resources available for emergency help.

· • Act as a role model for other organizational members to emphasize service. As a result of the behaviors just described, servant leaders often ignite a cycle of service by acting as a role model servant behavior. A study conducted in a large retail chain found that the leader’s servant behavior is mirrored through coworker modeling behavior and high-quality customer service.

In addition to being logically sound, research with 182 workers indicates that servant leadership has a positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior, job performance, and staying with the organization.

A study with seven multinational companies in Kenya suggested that servant leadership sets up a positive climate (company atmosphere) that in turn encourages employees to be good organizational citizens.

Recent evidence suggests that servant leadership at the top of the organization has a positive impact on the performance of a firm. The study involved 126 CEOs in the United States from the software and hardware technology industries. Servant leadership was measured by a self-report questionnaire, and firm performance was measured by return on assets (annual income divided by net assets). Analysis of data revealed that CEO servant leadership tendencies were significantly related to firm performance. Another part of the study suggested that CEOs who were company founders were more likely to be servant leaders,
32
reinforcing the idea that founders are often passionate about their company and its employees.

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-3 provides an opportunity for you to practice relationship-oriented and task-oriented behaviors. Combined, these are sometimes referred to as the nuts and bolts of leadership.

360-Degree Feedback for Fine-Tuning a Leadership Approach

In most large organizations, leaders not only provide feedback to group members, but they also receive feedback that gives them insight into the effects of their attitudes and behaviors. This feedback is systematically derived from a full sampling of parties who interact with the leader. In particular,

360-degree feedback

is a formal evaluation of superiors based on input from people who work for and with them, sometimes including customers and suppliers. It is also referred to as multirater feedback. The process is also called 360-degree survey because the input stems from a survey of a handful of people. The multiple input becomes another way of measuring leadership effectiveness. The specific 360-degree form is often customized to a particular firm’s needs, but standardized (off-the-shelf) forms are used by about 25 percent of firms using the method.

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 4-3

Applying Relationship-Oriented and Task-Oriented Attitudes and Behaviors

About six role players who can tolerate brutal outdoor conditions are needed for this exercise. The setting is an oil drilling rig in the Arctic Circle, where deep underground oil reserves have been discovered, and energy companies are now digging. Today the wind chill factor is –40 degrees Fahrenheit. The crew of five is uncomfortable and a little confused about how to get the drilling started this morning. The leadership task of the supervisor is to help the crew get the digging accomplished.

Supervisor A attempts to engage in relationshiporiented attitudes and behavior with the group. He or she will use several of the behaviors mentioned in the text. The other five or so role players will react to his or her leadership. Work the role play for about ten minutes.

After the first scenario is complete, Supervisor B will engage in task-oriented attitudes and behaviors, using several of the behaviors mentioned in the text. The other five or so role players will react to this leadership. Continue the role play for about ten minutes.

Class members not thrown into the frozen tundra will observe the interactions of the supervisor with the workers. Provide feedback as to (a) how well the leadership attitudes and behaviors were carried out, and (b) how likely these attitudes and behaviors were helpful in accomplishing the task of getting the drilling started.

Specialists in the field view 360-degree feedback as more suited for its original purpose of development for a manager or leader than for administrative purposes, such as performance evaluation and salary administration. When used for development, 360-degree feedback should emphasize qualitative comments rather than strictly quantitative ratings.33 For example, being told, “You do not maintain eye contact with me during meetings,” is more helpful than simply receiving a low rating on “Makes others feel comfortable.” The feedback is communicated to the leader (as well as others receiving 360-degree feedback) and interpreted with the assistance of a human resources professional or an external consultant.

The data from the survey can be used to help leaders fine-tune their attitudes and behavior. For example, if all the interested parties gave the leader low ratings on “empathy toward others,” the leader might be prompted to improve his or her ability to empathize, such as by reading about empathy, attending a seminar, or simply making a conscious attempt to empathize when involved in a conflict of opinion with another person.

An example of a 360-degree feedback form is shown in

Figure 4-2

. When used for purposes of development, the leader will often provide a self-rating on each dimension and then compare self-ratings with those of subordinates as well as other work associates. When there is a large gap between self-ratings and ratings by others, professionally trained counselors or business coaches should be involved in 360-degree feedback. Some people feel emotionally crushed when they find a wide discrepancy between their self-perception on an interpersonal skill dimension and the perception of others. A middle manager involved in a 360-degree evaluation prided herself on how well she was liked by others. The feedback that emerged, however, depicted her as intimidating, hostile, and manipulative. Upon receiving the feedback, the woman went into a rage (proving the feedback true!) and then into despondency. Professional counseling can sometimes help a person benefit from critical feedback and place it in perspective.

For best results, it is extremely important that 360-degree surveys reflect those behaviors and attitudes that the organization values most highly. Care should also be taken that the dimensions measured reflect important aspects of leadership functioning. Following are some suggestions for making better use of 360-degree surveys.

FIGURE 4-2 A 360-Degree Feedback Chart

· • The person receiving the multiple feedback should have some say about who the raters will be. The supervisor of the person receiving the survey is also invited to suggest who should provide the feedback.

· • Customize the assessment dimensions based on the leadership competencies that are associated with success in your organization.

· • Train workers in giving and receiving feedback. Giving constructive feedback takes coaching, training, and practice.

· • Create an action plan for improvement for each leader based on the feedback. For example, a leader rated low on interpersonal skills might benefit from training in emotional intelligence. When a serious leadership problem exists, the regular sessions might be scheduled with an industrial psychologist or executive coach.

· • Ensure that the managers rated have full ownership of the feedback information so that they will perceive the feedback as being geared toward personal development rather than administrative control.

A potential problem with 360-degree feedback is its anonymity. Much like people who post nasty comments about people on social media websites, an angry subordinate can write an insulting and crushing comment about a manager on the 360-degree feedback form. The criticism might be without merit.

Leadership Styles

A leader’s combination of attitudes and behaviors leads to a certain regularity and predictability in dealing with group members.

Leadership style

is the relatively consistent pattern of behavior that characterizes a leader. Studying leadership style is an extension of understanding leadership behaviors and attitudes. Most classifications of leadership style are based on the dimensions of consideration and initiating structure. Comments such as “He’s a real command-and-control-type” and “She’s a consensus leader” have become commonplace.

An important insight into leadership style is that personality traits influence which style will be natural for a given individual. The same association exists between the leadership behaviors already described in this chapter. Imagine a person who is authoritarian and controlling; this person would gravitate toward an authoritarian leader. And a person who scores high on the traits of agreeableness and extraversion might take naturally to a shared type of leadership.

Reinout E. de Vries conducted a study with 113 leaders and 201 subordinates at several companies to explore the relationship between personality traits and leadership style. His key findings support information presented at several places in this book in addition to being directly related to the styles to be described in this section. The study concluded that (1) honesty– humility was positively related to ethical leadership, (2) extraversion is positively related to charismatic leadership, (3) agreeableness is positively related to supportive leadership, and (4) conscientiousness is positively related to task-oriented leadership.

Here we describe the participative leadership style, the autocratic leadership style, the Leadership Grid, the entrepreneurial leadership style, gender differences in leadership style, and choosing the best style. Chapter 5 continues the exploration of leadership styles by presenting several contingency leadership theories.

Participative Leadership

Sharing decision making with group members and working with them side by side has become the generally accepted leadership approach in the modern organization. Consultant Maria Collar observes that in today’s volatile markets where abilities to explore and innovate are highly valued, collective approaches to leadership can help foster creative problem solving.

A useful perspective for understanding collective and participative leadership is that they are based on networks of people working together and sharing information. A social network consists of a set of individuals and the relationships that bind them, such as people within a work group who trust each other enough to accept their advice on a problem.

(Social network in this context refers more to physical than virtual groups).

Participative leaders

share decision making with group members. The terms shared leadership, collaborative leadership, and team leadership all refer to the same idea as participative leadership. Participative leadership encompasses so many behaviors that it can be divided into three subtypes: consultative, consensus, and democratic.

Consultative leaders

confer with group members before making a decision. However, they retain the final authority to make decisions.

Consensus leaders

strive for consensus. They encourage group discussion about an issue and then make a decision that reflects general agreement and that group members will support. All workers who will be involved in the consequences of a decision have an opportunity to provide input. A decision is not considered final until it appears that all parties involved will at least support the decision.

Democratic leaders

confer final authority on the group. They function as collectors of group opinion and take a vote before making a decision.

The participative style is based on management openness because the leader accepts suggestions for managing the operation from group members. Welcoming ideas from below is considered crucial because as technology evolves and organizations decentralize, frontline workers have more independence and responsibility. These workers are closer to the market, closer to seeing how the product is used, and closer to many human resource problems. Frontline knowledge can provide useful input to leaders for such purposes as developing marketing strategy and retaining employees.

The participative style encompasses the teamwork approach. Predominant behaviors of participative leaders include coaching team members, negotiating their demands, and collaborating with others. Often, the team member who has the most relevant knowledge for the task at hand slips into a leadership role. Research indicates that poor-performing teams are often dominated by the team leader, whereas high-performing teams are characterized by shared leadership.

The participative style is well suited to managing competent people who are eager to assume responsibility. Such people want to get involved in making decisions and giving feedback to management. Because most graduates from business and professional programs expect to be involved in decision making, participative leadership works well with the new breed of managers and professionals.

Participative leadership does have some problems. It often results in extensive and time-consuming team meetings and committee work. Also, consensus and democratic leaders are sometimes accused of providing too little direction, or being macromanagers. Sometimes, participative leadership is carried to extremes. Team members are consulted about trivial things that management could easily handle independently. Another problem is that many managers still believe that sharing decision making with members reduces their power.

If democratic leadership goes one step further, the result is extreme macromanagement, which is referred to as the laissez-faire leadership style. A study conducted with 4,500 Norwegian employees found that employees managed by a laissez-faire (the French term for “let do”) leader experienced role ambiguity. The ambiguity led them to anxiously guess what criteria their supervisor would follow when evaluating their performance, and also guess about which tasks should receive the highest priority.

A practical problem with participative leadership, especially the consensus subtype, is that it consumes so much time, particularly in the form of so many face-to-face meetings to make decisions. The use of communication technology, such as collaborative software, can often help overcome the problem of the time consumed by in-person meetings.

The accompanying Leader in Action describes a high-technology executive who emphasizes a consensus style.

Autocratic Leadership

In contrast to participative leaders are

autocratic leaders

, who retain most of the authority. They make decisions confidently, assume that group members will comply, and are not overly concerned with group members’ attitudes toward a decision. Autocratic leaders are considered task-oriented because they place heavy emphasis on getting tasks accomplished. Typical autocratic behaviors include telling people what to do, asserting authority, and serving as a model for team members.

In some situations, and in some organizational cultures, autocratic leadership is called for. Dan Ackerman became the CEO at General Motors in 2010, a time when quick results were needed. He had served GM for a year previously as a financial officer. Ackerman was a former naval officer with a reputation for being tough-minded in seeking results and quite decisive. Also, as a private equity fund manager, he had led companies in turnaround situations where clear goals must be attained quickly. As with other effective autocratic leaders, Ackerman moves quickly in making many decisions but does seek some input from trusted advisors.

To be described as autocratic does not necessarily mean the leader is impulsive or stubborn.

LEADER IN ACTION

Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President, Software Engineering at Apple Inc.

A key rising star at Apple Inc. is Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of software engineering, who reports directly to CEO Tim Cook. He oversees several major Apple technology groups including the common operating system engineering teams. The teams Federighi oversees are responsible for delivering the software at the heart of Apple’s products, including the user interface, applications, and frameworks.

Prior to his present position, Federighi had been working at Apple on and off for many years. He began his professional career as a project engineer in 1994 at NeXT, the company Steve Jobs started after being released from Apple in the 1980s. Federighi joined Apple when the company acquired NeXT, and Jobs was brought back. Soon thereafter, Federighi resigned from Apple to join Ariba, an enterprise software company. He spent ten years at Ariba, eventually being promoted to chief technology officer. Federighi rejoined Apple to head the division responsible for the Mac OS X.

Federighi contributes enormous technical expertise to the company and frequently appears on stage during product launch events, such as the developer’s conference. His passion for Apple hardware and software, combined with his charisma contribute to his effectiveness as a product pitchperson. As Federighi explains, “OK, I’m a technology freak, but I think probably if someone mapped my brain, you would find there were moments when I lit up the love pattern in my neurons in association with our products.”

Several people who know both Federighi and Tim Cook say that the two are similar in their preference for building consensus on major decisions, which often increases the time consumed in making a decision. Federighi also works to attain collaboration among specialists who relish complexity in products with those who look to make things simple for the end user. He says that having team members who are good at complexity and those who are not is a critical element of collaboration.

To overcome some of the divisiveness that existed in the previous top-management team, the new top team consisting of Cook, Jony Ive, and Federighi emphasizes collaboration and camaraderie. The three men collectively are considered to be the new visionary-in-chief to replace the late Steve Jobs.

Federighi’s formal education includes a Master of Science degree in computer science and a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

QUESTIONS

· 1. How would you characterize the leadership style of Craig Federighi?

· 2. What appear to be several of Federighi’s leadership characteristics?

· 3. To what extent do you think Federighi is qualified for his position as a leading technology executive?

Sources: Original story created from facts and observations in the following sources: Seth Fiegerman, “Apple’s Next Big Thing: Craig Federighi,” Mashable (

www.mashable.com

), June 12, 2013, pp. 1–10; Jessica E. Lessin, “Apple’s Rising Star: Craig Federighi,” The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2013, p. B8; Casey Newton, “Apple’s Most Important Introductions: Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and Jony Ive,” Verge
(

www.theverge.com

), September 20, 2013, pp. 1–11; Sam Grobart, “Apple’s Jonathan Ive and Craig Federighi: The Complete Interview,” Businessweek (

www.businessweek.com

), September 25, 2013, pp. 1–20.

Part of your skill development as a leader involves gaining insight into your own leadership style or potential style. To this end, do Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-2.

Leadership Grid™ Styles

A classic method of classifying leadership styles suggests that the best way to achieve effective leadership is to integrate the task and relationship orientations. The

Leadership Grid™

is a framework for specifying the extent of a leader’s concern for production and people.

LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ 4-2

What Style of Leader Are You or Would You Be?

Instructions:
Answer the following statement, keeping in mind what you have done, or think you would do, in the scenarios and attitudes described.

□

	MOSTLY TRUE	MOSTLY FALSE
1. I am more likely to take care of a high-impact assignment myself than turn it over to a group member.
2. I would prefer the analytical aspects of a manager’s job to working directly with group members.
3. An important part of my approach to managing a group is to keep the members informed almost daily of any information that could affect their work.
4. It is a good idea to give two people in the group the same problem and then choose what appears to be the best solution.
5. I like to have updates a few times a day on the work progress of subordinates, even if the update is simply a text message or instant message.
6. I look for opportunities to obtain group input before making a decision, even on straightforward issues.
7. I would reverse a decision if several of the group members presented evidence that I was wrong.
8. Differences of opinion in the work group are healthy.
9. I think that activities to build team spirit, like fixing up a poor family’s house on a Saturday, are an excellent investment of time.
10. If my group were hiring a new member, I would like the person to be interviewed by the entire group.
11. An effective team leader today uses e-mail or other digital media for about 98 percent of communication with team members.
12. Some of the best ideas are likely to come from the group members rather than from the manager.
13. If our group were going to have a banquet, I would get input from each member on what type of food should be served.
14. I have never seen a statue of a committee in a museum or park, so why bother making decisions by committee if you want to be recognized?
15. I dislike it intensely when a group member challenges my position on an issue.
16. I typically explain to group members how (what method) they should use to accomplish an assigned task.
17. If I were out of the office for a week, most of the important work in the department would get accomplished anyway.
18. Delegation of important tasks is something that would be (or is) very difficult for me.
19. When a group member comes to me with a problem, I tend to jump right in with a proposed solution.
20. When a group member comes to me with a problem, I typically ask that person something like, “What alternative solutions have you thought of so far?”

Scoring and Interpretation:
The answers for a participative leader are as follows:

· 1. Mostly false

· 2. Mostly false

· 3. Mostly true

· 4. Mostly false

· 5. Mostly false

· 6. Mostly true

· 7. Mostly true

· 8. Mostly true

· 9. Mostly true

· 10. Mostly true

· 11. Mostly false

· 12. Mostly true

· 13. Mostly true

· 14. Mostly false

· 15. Mostly false

· 16. Mostly false

· 17. Mostly true

· 18. Mostly false

· 19. Mostly false

· 20. Mostly true

Give yourself a score of 1 for each answer that matches the answer key.

If your score is 15 or higher, you are most likely (or would be) a participative leader. If your score is 5 or lower, you are most likely (or would be) an authoritarian leader.

Skill Development:
The quiz you just completed is also an opportunity for skill development. Review the twenty statements and look for implied suggestions for engaging in participative leadership. For example, statement 20 suggests that you encourage group members to work through their own solutions to problems. If your goal is to become an authoritarian leader, the statements can also serve as useful guidelines. For example, statement 19 suggests that an authoritarian leader first looks to solve problems for group members.

Concern for production is rated on the grid’s horizontal axis. Concern for production includes results, bottom line, performance, profits, and mission. Concern for people is rated on the vertical axis, and it includes concern for group members and coworkers. Both concerns are leadership attitudes or ways of thinking about leadership. Each of these concerns (or dimensions) exists in varying degrees along a continuum from 1 to 9. A manager’s standing on one concern is not supposed to influence his or her standing on the other. As shown in

Figure 4-3

, the Grid encompasses seven leadership styles. If you are already familiar with the Grid, you will notice that the names of the styles have been changed in this version.

The creators of the Grid argue strongly for the value of 9, 9 Sound (contribute and commit). According to their research, the sound management approach pays off. It results in improved performance, low absenteeism and turnover, and high morale. Sound (9, 9) management relies on trust and respect, which combine to bring about good results.

An example of a manager who might qualify as a 9, 9 leader is Mark Mason, the CEO of the private banking division of Citigroup Inc. He has a staff of his own and is also responsible for working with each of the regional CEOs in addition to market managers, bankers, and investment counselors for the purpose of accelerating growth. Mason is known for his outstanding business results and also has been highly effective in developing relationships with team members, his mentors, and senior executives.

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Many entrepreneurs use a similar leadership style that stems from their personality characteristics and circumstances. Although there are different types and definitions of entrepreneurs; in general, an entrepreneur is a person who founds and operates an innovative business. Not all business owners, including franchise operators, are therefore entrepreneurial leaders. The general picture that emerges of an entrepreneur is a task-oriented and charismatic person. Entrepreneurs drive themselves and others relentlessly, yet their personalities also inspire others.

This entrepreneurial leadership style often incorporates the behaviors described in the following paragraphs. Although some authorities disagree about whether an entrepreneurial personality exists, evidence is accumulating that many entrepreneurs share a recognizable personality pattern.

Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-3 gives you the opportunity to think about the type of entrepreneurial thinking and behavior typical of the entrepreneurial personality.

1.
Strong achievement drive and sensible risk taking.
Entrepreneurs have stronger achievement motives than most leaders (see
Chapter 2
). Building a business is an excellent vehicle for accomplishment and risk taking. To accomplish what they think needs to be accomplished, entrepreneurs are willing to work extraordinary hours, with twelve-hour days, seven days a week not being unusual. Because entrepreneurs take sensible risks, many do not perceive themselves as being risk takers—just as many tightrope walkers believe they are not taking risks because they perceive themselves to be in control.

2.
High degree of enthusiasm and creativity.
Entrepreneurs are highly enthusiastic, partially because they are so excited about their achievements. As Entrepreneur magazine puts it, “Something about being an entrepreneur is, for them, a five-star, butt-kicking, rocket-boosting blast.” Entrepreneurs’ enthusiasm, in turn, makes them persuasive. As a result, they are often perceived as charismatic. Some entrepreneurs are so emotional that they are regarded as eccentric.

The enthusiasm of entrepreneurs often develops into passion. The late Anna Roddick, who founded the Body Shop, asserted that “to succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality.” A theoretical analysis of entrepreneurial passion suggests that it is invested in three roles. First is the inventor role of recognizing an opportunity such as seeing the need for a product or service. Second is the founder role of creating the venture, with all its associated managerial and leadership responsibilities. Third is the developer role of growing the venture, such as expanding into the global market.

3.
Typical pattern of being proactive.
Leon C. Prieto argues that the proactive personality has potential for providing additional insight into how personality traits are related to entrepreneurship. The natural link is that entrepreneurship is inherently proactive—to be an entrepreneur one has to scan the environment to find an opportunity, and then capitalize on the opportunity. Individuals with a proactive personality may be more inclined to mobilize resources and gain the commitment required for value creation that the entrepreneur requires.

LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ 4-3

Entrepreneurial Thinking and Behavior

Instructions:
Indicate how well each of the following statements reflects your attitudes or behavior, using this scale: very inaccurately (VI), inaccurately (I), moderately well (MW), accurately (A), very accurately (VA).

VI	I	MW	A	VA
1. I have actually started a business of my own.
2. The thought of starting my own business appeals to me.
3. So many new products are being introduced practically every week that it seems senseless to bother dreaming up an idea for another new product.
4. In enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and explaining what I do.
5. I get excited about thinking of a new idea for a product or service.
6. My career advice to young people is to pursue a well-established occupation with a high demand for newcomers to the field.
7. Betting money on sports is exciting and fun.
8. Taking care of administrative details is boring for me.
9. I am (or would be) comfortable working outside of regular working hours.
10. The best job for me would be one that offers a stable salary, regular working hours and vacations, and a guaranteed pension.
11. Self-employment fits (or would fit) my personality.
12. What a horrible life it would be for me to get paid strictly on commission.
13. I enjoy the challenge of selling my ideas and myself to people I have not met before.
14. I need at least eight hours of sleep and regular rest breaks during the day to perform well.
15. If I personally knew a family that had been a disaster victim, I would be willing to attempt to raise money for that family.
16. I enjoy purchasing lunch from a street vendor when the opportunity arises.
17. If you are not a scientist or an engineer it is useless to try to invent something that is intended for the marketplace.
18. Most people who become rich and famous got there by luck.
19. I would enjoy the experience of working on developing new products in a company department located away from where most employees worked.
20. If I were self-employed or worked from home for an employer, I would probably start my workday at about 10 A.M.
Total Score:_________________________________________

Scoring and Interpretation:
Add the numbers that you have circled.

· • 85–100: The results suggest that you have many of the tendencies of an entrepreneurial personality. You probably enjoy risk taking and change, and would be willing to take the risk of earning your income through self-employment.

· • 50–84: You most likely have average tendencies toward being an entrepreneurial personality. You probably would not enjoy a career filled with risk and uncertainty.

· • 20–49: Your personality makeup most likely does not resemble that of an entrepreneurial personality. You might place a high value on stability and security. A regular paycheck is probably quite important to you.

Proactive personality types may have a strong desire to become entrepreneurial leaders to create value for the firm. An assistant manager at a large restaurant, for example, might explore the possibilities of establishing a team-building component based on the preparation of gourmet meals. The program would be sold to organizations, as has been done successfully by a handful of elite restaurants.

4.
Tendency to act quickly when opportunity arises.
Entrepreneurs are noted for seizing upon opportunity, as part of their proactivity. When a deal is on the horizon, they push themselves and those around them extra hard. Entrepreneurs are always in a hurry. While engaged in one meeting, their minds typically begin to focus on the next meeting. Their flurry of activity rubs off on group members and those around them. Entrepreneurs often adopt a simple dress style in order to save time, and they typically allow little slack time between appointments.

5.
Visionary perspective combined with tenacity.
Entrepreneurs, at their best, are visionaries. As with other types of effective leaders, they see opportunities others fail to observe. Specifically, they have the ability to identify a problem and arrive at a solution. Ted Turner of CNN is a legendary example of an entrepreneurial visionary. Turner picked up on a trend that people wanted—an all-news cable channel that they could access anytime. Not only is CNN a commercial success, but it also revolutionized the way people get their news all over the globe. After the vision is established, the entrepreneur tenaciously implements the vision, working an eighty-hour week if need be.

For many entrepreneurs, just growing their businesses requires tenacity. A relevant example is none other than Mark Zuckerberg, who in his early twenties became one of the best-known entrepreneurs of all time. During the Great Recession, he sank money and time into developing Facebook and grew its engineering ranks by 50 percent.

6.
Dislike of hierarchy and bureaucracy.
Entrepreneurs are not ideally suited by temperament to working within the mainstream of a bureaucracy. Many successful entrepreneurs are people who were frustrated by the constraints of a bureaucratic system. The implication for leadership style is that entrepreneurs deemphasize rules and regulations when managing people.

7.
Preference for dealing with external customers.
One reason that entrepreneurs have difficulty with bureaucracy is that they focus their energies on products, services, and customers, rather than on employees. Some entrepreneurs are gracious to customers and moneylenders but brusque with company insiders. A blind spot many entrepreneurs have is that they cannot understand why their employees do not share their passion for work and customer focus. As a result, they may be curt with employees who do not share their dedication to the firm.

8.
Eye on the future.
Entrepreneurs have the pronounced characteristic of thinking about future deals and business opportunities even before a current business is running smoothly. “Where is my next deal coming from?” is the mantra of the true entrepreneur. Even after accumulating great wealth from a current business activity, the entrepreneurial leader looks toward future opportunities. A good example is Richard Branson, whose empire contains about 250 companies with the Virgin label, yet he continues to look for the next company to start or acquire.

A survey conducted by Ernest & Young and The Wall Street Journal found that the six top qualities of an entrepreneurial leader are vision, passion, drive, integrity, innovation, and risk-taker thereby supporting most of the points just presented.

A caution, however, is that the entrepreneurial personality carried to an extreme can lead to addictive behavior, including substance abuse.

To practice one aspect of entrepreneurial leadership, do Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-4.

Gender Differences in Leadership Style

Controversy over whether men and women have different leadership styles continues. Several researchers and observers argue that women have certain acquired traits and behaviors that suit them for relations-oriented leadership. Consequently, women leaders frequently exhibit a cooperative, empowering style that includes nurturing team members. According to this same perspective, men are inclined toward a command-and-control, militaristic leadership style. Women find participative management more natural than do men because they appear to feel more comfortable interacting with people. Furthermore, it is argued that women’s natural sensitivity to people gives them an edge over men in encouraging group members to participate in decision making. Here we look briefly at some of the evidence and reasoning whether gender differences exist in leadership style.

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 4-4

Entrepreneurial Leadership

An important part of the entrepreneurial role is convincing others of the merit of your idea so that they will invest in your company or lend you money. Two students play the role of a team of entrepreneurs who have a new product or service and want to launch a business. (The two entrepreneurs choose the product or service.) About five other students play the role of a group of venture capitalists or bankers listening to the presentation to decide whether to invest or lend money. The entrepreneurs will communicate excitement and commitment about their product, along with a good business plan. (You might want to quickly review the material about persuasive communication in
Chapter 12
.) The students who are not participating will evaluate how well the two entrepreneurs displayed aspects of the entrepreneurial leadership style.

As many researchers use the term, gender refers to perceptions about the differences among males and females. An example would be to believe that women managers tend to be better listeners than their male peers. Gender differences refer to roles that men and women occupy. Sex differences, however, refer to actual (objective and quantitative) differences, such as the fact that the mean height of men exceeds that of women. Nevertheless, the terms gender and sex are still used interchangeably in general usage and to some extent in scholarly writings.

The Argument for Male–Female Differences in Leadership Style
Judy Rosener, a specialist in workplace gender issues, concluded that men and women do tend toward opposite styles. Based on self-reports, she found that men tended toward a command-and-control style. In contrast, women tended toward a transformational style, relying heavily on interpersonal skills.

As corporate managers, women tend to place greater emphasis on forming caring, nurturing relationships with employees. Women are also more likely than men to praise group members. And when an employee falls short of expectations, women are more likely to buffer criticism by finding something praiseworthy.

Fundamental differences in the biological and psychological makeup of men and women have also been used as evidence that the two sexes are likely to manifest different leadership styles. Brain researchers Raquel Gur and Ruben Gur uncovered one such set of differences. They found that women may be far more sensitive to emotional cues and verbal nuances than men are. Women leaders would therefore be more suited to responding to the feelings of group members and understanding what they really mean by certain statements.

Gender differences in communication also are reflected in leadership style. Above all, women are more likely than men to use spoken communication for building relationships and giving emotional support.

Men focus more on disseminating information and demonstrating competence. Women are therefore more likely to choose a relationship-oriented leadership style.

An experiment was conducted with working adults by administering questionnaires about how men and women exhibit certain aspects of transformational leadership, and which aspects they should emphasize to get promoted. Conforming to stereotypes about gender differences, it was found that women display more transformational behavior and give rewards more based on merit. It was also believed that women engage in fewer management-by-exception (only intervening when a problem exists) and laissez-faire behaviors than do men. In terms of getting promoted, inspirational motivation was perceived as more important for men than women, especially to be promoted to CEO. In contrast, individualized consideration (responding to the needs of individuals) was perceived as more important for women than men, and especially important for promotion to CEO.

Placing Gender Differences in Leadership Style in Perspective
To what extent the stereotypes of men and women leaders are true is difficult to judge. Even if male and female differences in leadership style do exist, they must be placed in proper perspective. Both men and women leaders differ among themselves in leadership style. Plenty of male leaders are relationship oriented, and plenty of women practice command and control (the extreme task orientation). Many women believe that women managers can be more hostile and vindictive than men managers.

Perhaps the best approach to leadership takes advantage of the positive traits of both men and women. To compete in the global marketplace, companies need a diverse leadership team including men and women. Not recognizing that both male and female styles are needed can lead to confusion for women managers.

Selecting the Best Leadership Style

An underlying theme of our discussion of leadership styles in this and the next chapter is that there is no one best or most effective leadership style. A study of 3,000 executives revealed that leaders who get the best results do not rely on one style. Instead, they use several different styles in one week, such as being autocratic in some situations and democratic in others.

Another consideration is the national culture in which the leadership takes place. An effective leadership style for most German workers would be a high performance (task) orientation and a modest amount of compassion (consideration).

However, Scandinavian workers respond best to a democratic leadership style.

The organizational culture also influences which leadership style will be tolerated and effective. A friendly, collaborative culture calls for more of a consensus style of leadership. In contrast, in a perform-or-perish culture, a more directive or autocratic leadership style will be effective.

At several places in this book, we will mention the leader–member exchange (LMX) theory. A key point of the theory is that the leader establishes different quality relationships with each group member.

Part of establishing a high-quality relationship would be for the leader to vary his or her style to meet the needs of each subordinate. For example, Randy might need more guidance, and Suzanne might want to work more independently.

Over forty years ago, pioneering researcher Ralph Stogdill made a statement about selecting a leadership style that still holds today: “The most effective leaders appear to exhibit a degree of versatility and flexibility that enables them to adapt their behavior to the changing and contradictory demands made on them.”

A recent suggestion urges leaders to follow a similar path of changing with the times, and customize a culture that is specific to each company, and the personality of its work force.

Before moving on to the end-of-chapter activities, do Leadership Skill- Building Exercise 4-5 that deals with flexibility and adaptability.

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 4-5

Contrasting Leadership Styles

One student plays the role of a new associate working for a financial services firm that sells life insurance and other investments. The associate has completed a sixweek training program and is now working full time. Four weeks have passed, and the associate still has not made a sale. The associate’s boss is going to meet this associate today to discuss progress. Another student plays the role of a task-oriented leader. The two people participate in the review session.

Before playing (or assuming) the role of the associate or the boss, think for a few minutes how you would behave if you were placed in that role in real life. Empathize with the frustrated associate or the taskoriented leader. A good role player is both a scriptwriter and an actor.

Another two students repeat the same scenario, except that this time the manager is a strong relationship-oriented leader. Two more pairs of students then have their turn at acting out the task-oriented and relationship-oriented performance reviews. Another variation of this role play is for one person to play the roles of both the task-oriented and the relationship-oriented boss. Other class members observe and provide feedback on the effectiveness of the two styles of leadership.

READER’S ROADMAP

So far in this book, we have examined the nature of leadership and the inner qualities of leaders, along with their behaviors, attitudes, and styles. In the next chapter, we describe some of the specific approaches to adapting one’s leadership approach to the situation.

SUMMARY

Effective leadership requires the right behaviors, skills, and attitudes, as emphasized in the classic Ohio State University studies. Two major dimensions of leadership behavior were identified: consideration and initiating structure. Consideration is the degree to which the leader creates an environment of emotional support, warmth, friendliness, and trust. Making connections with people is a current aspect of consideration. Initiating structure is the degree to which the leader organizes and defines relationships in the group by such activities as assigning tasks and specifying procedures. Both consideration and initiating structure are related to important leadership outcomes such as job satisfaction and performance.

Many task-related attitudes and behaviors of effective leaders have been identified. Among them are (1) adaptability to the situation, (2) direction setting, (3) high performance standards, (4) concentrating on strengths of group members, (5) risk taking and execution of plans, (6) hands-on guidance and feedback, (7) ability to ask tough questions, and (8) organizing for collaboration.

Many relationship-oriented attitudes and behaviors of leaders have also been identified. Among them are (1) aligning people, (2) openness to workers’ opinions, (3) creating inspiration and visibility, (4) satisfying higher-level needs, (5) giving emotional support and encouragement, (6) promoting principles and values, and (7) being a servant leader.

Servant leaders are committed to serving others rather than achieving their own goals. Aspects of servant leadership include placing service before selfinterest, listening to others, inspiring trust by being trustworthy, focusing on what is feasible to accomplish, lending a hand, and emotional healing.

Many leaders receive extensive feedback on their behaviors and attitudes in the form of 360-degree feedback, whereby people who work for or with the leader provide feedback on the leader’s performance. Such feedback is likely to be useful when the feedback relates to business goals and strategy and to important aspects of leadership, when training is provided in giving and receiving feedback, when action plans are developed, and when managers own the feedback evaluation. The anonymous comments in 360-degree feedback can be a problem.

Understanding leadership style is an extension of understanding leadership attitudes and behavior. Participative leaders share decision making with group members. The participative style can be subdivided into consultative, consensus, and democratic leadership. The participative style is well suited to managing competent people who are eager to assume responsibility. Yet the process can be time-consuming, and some managers perceive it to be a threat to their power. Autocratic leaders retain most of the authority for themselves. The Leadership Grid™ classifies leaders according to their concern for both production (task accomplishment) and people.

Another important style of leader is the entrepreneur. The entrepreneurial style stems from the leader’s personal characteristics and the circumstances of self-employment. It includes a strong achievement drive and sensible risk taking; a high degree of enthusiasm (including passion) and creativity; a typical pattern of being proactive; the tendency to act quickly on opportunities; hurriedness and impatience; a visionary perspective; a dislike of hierarchy and bureaucracy; a preference for dealing with external customers; and an eye on the future.

Male–female differences in leadership style have been observed. Women have a tendency toward relationship-oriented leadership, whereas men tend toward command and control. Perhaps the best approach to leadership takes advantage of the positive traits of both men and women.

Rather than searching for the one best style of leadership, managers are advised to diagnose the situation and then choose an appropriate leadership style to match. To be effective, a leader must be able to adapt style to circumstance.

KEY TERMS

effective leader
109

consideration

110

initiating structure

110

Pygmalion effect
113

tough question
115

management openness
117

servant leader
120

360-degree feedback
121

leadership style

124

participative leaders

125

consultative leaders

125

consensus leaders

125

democratic leaders

125

autocratic leaders
126

Leadership Grid™
129

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

A major consideration about choosing a leadership style is that you may have to modify your style to fit the occasion. For example, your group members may need close direction at one point, and at other times they may require less direction (as explained in several of the leadership theories presented in this chapter).

Most leadership-style classifications are based on the directive (task-oriented) dimension versus the nondirective (relationship-oriented) dimension. In deciding which of these two styles is best, consider the following questions:

· 1. What is the structure of your organization and the nature of your work? You might decide, for example, that stricter control is necessary for some types of work, such as dealing with proprietary information.

· 2. Which style suits you best? Your personality, values, and beliefs influence how readily you can turn over responsibility to others.

· 3. Which style suits your boss and the organization culture? For example, a boss who is highly directive may perceive you as weak if you are too nondirective. In a tough-minded, perform-or-perish culture, you might want to use a highly directive leadership style.

· 4. Is there high potential for conflict in the work unit? A directive leadership style can trigger conflict with independent, strongwilled people. A more nondirective style allows for more freedom of discussion, which defuses conflict.

It is probably better for you to lead in the style you consider to be the most effective rather than be concerned with a gender stereotype dictating the style you should be using. For example, many male leaders are the most effective when being conciliatory and supportive. And many female leaders prefer to be more task-oriented in their leadership and are less concerned with building cordial relationships and being supportive.

Discussion Questions and Activities

· 1. Give an example of a high-consideration behavior that a supervisor of yours showed on your behalf. What was your reaction to his or her behavior?

· 2. Why is direction setting still an important leadership behavior in an era of empowerment and shared leadership?

· 3. How might a manager use e-mail and text messaging to help carry out both task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors?

· 4. Why do so many CEOs say they want entrepreneurial style leaders in their company even though the company is essentially a large bureaucracy?

· 5. Why would being a highly narcissistic person interfere with being an effective servant leader?

· 6. Visualize yourself in a leadership position in a field of interest to you. How would you feel about being described as a hands-on leader by the members of your team?

· 7. How would you characterize the leadership style of your favorite executive, athletic coach, or television character who plays a boss?

· 8. Why is shared or participative leadership likely to be effective with well-educated and intelligent team members?

· 9. Which, if any, style differences have you noticed between men and women leaders?

· 10. Several people have commented that this chapter deals with the “nuts and bolts of leadership.” What makes them say that?

LEADERSHIP CASE PROBLEM A

Frank Won’t Accept “We Can’t” for an Answer

Frank is the business development manager at a small firm that provides business process improvement solutions to federal, state, and local governments. His firm’s organization structure includes four project managers who are both managers of projects and also solicit for new business. Up until last year, the company had enough contracts to be profitable. This year, a few big government contracts have expired and have not yet been renewed. As a result, the company could lose money and perhaps be forced to lay off one-third of the staff.

Frank is particularly worried. He calls a meeting with his four project managers to discuss the need for more sales. A couple of minutes into the meeting, Frank informs his four direct reports, “The time for excuses is over. We need at least $1 million worth of new contracts to stay afloat. I haven’t heard about even a warm lead for a new contract from any of you in about a year. We need new business, and we need it now.”

Project manager Jennifer responded: “Frank, I hear you. The other project managers hear you. But government spending has tightened up. It’s not possible to squeeze a contract out of a government agency if they don’t have money in the budget.”

Oliver, another project manager, responded, “Frank, I have to agree with Jenny. There is no way to coax a contract out of a government agency when the well is dry. You know as well as we do that government funding is way down for everything but national defense. Help us by pointing us in a new direction for obtaining contracts. Do you have any contacts in private industry that we might pursue?”

Shaking his head in discouragement, Frank said: “I’ve heard enough excuses. I know you are trying, but get out there and try harder. I don’t care which one of you pulls it off, but I want one new pending contract for my approval within six months.

“I will do what I can to find new business for the firm also. But I am not here to do your job. Get back to me when you have made some progress.”

Questions

· 1. Based on the limited evidence, how would you characterize Frank’s leadership style?

· 2. What leadership behaviors and attitudes is Frank displaying?

· 3. How else might Frank approach his project managers about developing new business?

ASSOCIATED ROLE PLAY

One student plays the role of Frank who wants to use an effective leadership approach to encourage his project managers/account managers to bring in a few new accounts. He knows that this is a tough leadership task. Four other students play the roles of the project manager who will react to Frank’s leadership initiatives. Class members providing feedback should be particularly observant of Frank’s leadership approach.

LEADERSHIP CASE PROBLEM B

Tricia and Her Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers

Tricia is the human resources team leader in the regional headquarters of an international bank. She has five direct reports plus considerable individual responsibility for carrying out various human resource initiatives. About six months ago, Tricia started thinking about how she could improve her leadership effectiveness with her team of human resource professionals, plus one support person. As she reflected on feedback she had received from their boss, the vice president of administration, Tricia thought that perhaps she was a little too business-like and task oriented. The insight came to her that perhaps she should become Facebook friends and have Twitter exchanges with her staff of five.

Tricia’s first step was to invite each staff member to become a Facebook friend and also follow each group member on Twitter. (All five direct reports already had Facebook and Twitter accounts.) Tricia began her social media initiative by writing about strictly work-related topics, with posts such as the following:

· • “I feel good about the response we are getting to our proposed wellness program.”

· • “Did you catch how the regional VP of administration said in her monthly intranet post that our team was doing a great job?”

· • “Our new group interview program seems to be working. Most of our new hires are turning in above-average performance, and turnover among them is below average.”

After a couple of months of these business-like posts on Facebook and Twitter, Tricia did not observe that she and the group were developing a better personal relationship. Consequently, she decided to send posts that were more personal, including the following:

· • “How about you and I spending a little quality time at the shopping mall this weekend?”

· • “My two-year old nephew is having a birthday party October 10 at noon. You are warmly invited. Let me know ASAP.”

· • “I thought that taupe and beige combination you wore to the office today was stunning. The way you dress picks up morale.”

· • “My boyfriend was angry with me last night because he said I don’t like his parents.”

· • “Don’t let the fact that I’m the team leader interfere with us being friends.”

Tricia did receive a few positive responses from her posts, but a few responses to her posts suggested the team members were not comfortable receiving the personal messages. One tweet response was simply “????.”

Questions

· 1. What would you advise Tricia to do about future posts of a personal nature to the team?

· 2. Which one or two relationship-oriented behaviors does Tricia appear to be exaggerating?

· 3. If your team leader sent you a post about his or her team leadership role and your potential friendship, how would you respond?

ASSOCIATED ROLE PLAY

One student plays the role of Tricia who happens to meet Ken, the benefits specialist, in the company cafeteria. Another student plays the role of Ken who wants to preserve a good working relationship with Tricia, but he thinks her social media posts to him have become unprofessional. Class members who provide feedback will be particularly observant of (a) how receptive Tricia is to the feedback from Ken, and (b) how diplomatic Ken is in expressing his concerns.

LEADERSHIP SKILL-BUILDING EXERCISE 4-6

My Leadership Portfolio

For this addition to your leadership portfolio, identify four leadership task-oriented behaviors or relationship-oriented behaviors that you have demonstrated this week. Your list can comprise any combination of the two sets of behaviors. Also jot down the result you achieved by exercising these behaviors. Here is an example:

“Thursday night, I applied direction setting and it really worked. We have a group assignment in our marketing class with each group consisting of about five people. Our assignment is to analyze how well employee self-service is working in supermarkets and home-improvement stores. The group was hitting a wall because in their Internet searches they were finding mostly advertisements for Home Depot and the like. I suggested that we each visit a supermarket or home-improvement store and make firsthand observations of the customers who were using the automated checkout system. I also suggested we ask a couple of questions of the store associate supervising the activity. The group loved my idea, and the project was a big success. We supplemented written articles with a firsthand field study. I set the group in the right direction.”

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