What the Chapter Covers

Chapter 13 Leadership: Advanced Theories

This is the second of two chapters dealing with leadership. After dealing with basic concepts in the previous chapter this one considers more advanced ideas, and it covers:  five contingency theories: Fiedler’s LPC model; path-goal theory; the Vroom-Yetton-Jago model; the Hersey and Blanchard model and the substitutes for leadership model  recent developments in leadership theory: transactional versus transformational leadership and the attributional approach  potential effects of national cultures on leadership The chapter closes with an overview section that pulls together material from this and the previous chapter and, in addition to the three learning outcomes set-out at its start, the same three themes that emerged in Chapter 12 also surface in this one.

New Concepts Introduced in Chapter

Decision Acceptance: whether subordinates embrace a decision and commit themselves to its implementation

Decision Quality: whether a decision results in effective task performance

Environmental Factors (Leadership): features of a work content that make a leadership style more or less appropriate

Follower Characteristics (leadership): the attributes and skill of followers that influence how they react to a particular leadership style

Influence Perspective: an approach to leadership theory which explicitly addresses the issue of `how' leaders influence follower behaviour

Leadership Neutralisers: workplace factors that remove the capability of a leader to influence subordinate behaviour

Leadership Substitutes: situational factors that enable subordinates to function well without leader guidance

Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC): the subordinate a supervisor was least able to work with successfully on a prior occasion

Psychological Readiness: subordinate characteristics that make them willing to accept the responsibility of working without leader guidance

Situational Leadership Model: a situational theory of leadership which suggests that leader style should be varied according to the readiness of followers to direct their own actions

1 Task Related Readiness: subordinate skills and abilities that enable them to do a job without leader guidance

Transactional Leadership: the leadership style that is said to be the most appropriate to stable conditions

Transformational Leadership: the approach to leadership which is said to be the most appropriate in times of significant organisational change

Time Out Exercises: Hints for Completing

Again these exercises are particularly suitable for use as short hands-on interludes in formal teaching sessions and in what follows a number of prompts are given that have been found useful in triggering student discussion.

Exercise on pages 386-387: Path-goal Leadership & Shared Decision Making

Question 1

The starting point for this question is to identify which of the four styles given on page 383 of the text was a used by the leader, which is a relatively easy. Your main task is to explain ‘why’, by using the follower characteristics and environmental factors shown in Figure 13.3 on page 382 of the text. To do this try asking yourself ‘what was it about follower characteristics and the environment in which the group operated that made the leaders style so acceptable to followers?’

Question 2 This is somewhat more difficult and here it can be helpful if you try to recall a specific decision facing the group. To identify the style used, you could then try to recall how the decision was taken using the decision styles shown in Figure 13.4 on page 385 of the text. You could then ask yourself whether the decision style was acceptable to the group concerned and identify why, or why not. Here it is important to note that to be able to use decision trees, four are required to cover all conceivable circumstances. Since only one example of a tree is given in the book (one that covers a decision affecting a group, where speed is very important), unless these conditions apply the decision tree is not really applicable.

Exercise on page 390: Substitutes for Leadership

This exercise poses a different situation to others in the chapter. You are asked (somewhat controversially) to start by considering a lecturer as being in a position of headship or leadership vis- à-vis a group of students, with the task-related output goal being that of a group of students who successfully pass a module. You should now examine the list of leadership substitutes and neutralisers to determine whether the output goal is achievable without the lecturer focusing on either relationship-oriented or task-oriented behaviours. If you examine the left hand column in table 13.3, you can see that there are four groups of characteristics. Using the first group (characteristics of the subordinate) you could ask yourself:

2 1. to what extent does passing the course depend on the ability, training and knowledge of students?

2. if students have ability, training and knowledge, does this reduce the need for the lecturer to build a helping relationship keyed to pushing them to complete their learning tasks?

Now you should work your way through the complete list and summarise the situation by answering question 3.

Supplementary Illustrative Materials

In addition to the OB in Action features in this chapter of the book, given below is an additional one which is associated with a point made in the introduction to the chapter. This is that as circumstances in organisations change, if leadership styles are to be appropriate, they might also need to change; an idea that underpins virtually all of the theories covered in the chapter.

OB in Action: A Vision of Styles for the Information Age

It is widely accepted that the future will almost certainly bring about radical changes in the nature of organisations. This raises the questions of whether new styles of leadership will be needed for these conditions, and for one prominent figure in British industry the answer is a resounding yes! This is Sir Iain Vallance, the chairman of British Telecom, for whom the future, if not the present is synonymous with the term ‘information age’. Vallance argues that the information age makes the traditional view of organisational structure and functioning completely redundant. In the future it will no longer be sufficient for organisations to be the best at doing whatever is that they do. Rather, they will need to become highly proficient in doing new things in very different ways. Because information on almost everything will be widely disseminated and easily accessible to almost everybody, customers will become far more discerning. For this reason organisations will need to be in very close touch with, and highly responsive to their environments and if they are to be successful, they will need to build up working partnerships with both customers and suppliers. The key to this he argues, is for leadership to be diffused throughout the whole organisation, which can be brought about by having a common set of values that promote continuous learning by the organisation, which facilitates rapid reaction to fast moving events outside. In essence therefore, Vallance implies that people would be led organisational culture, rather than by other individuals. Nevertheless, he also implies that specifying the culture and bringing it into existence is a task for the Chief Executive of the organisation and in this respect, like most managers he uses the words leader and manager interchangeably. Presumably therefore, managers are considered to be leaders by virtue of their positions in an organisation.

SOURCE Vallance I (1999) In my opinion, Management Today December; 14

Useful Sources of Additional Material

For those who enjoy exploring study materials on the internet, given below are a number of potentially useful websites that give further information on the topics and issues covered in the chapter. http://www-mugc.cc.monash.edu.au/psy/olpsych.html

3 An extremely useful and encyclopedic website maintained by Monash University, Australia for its Open Learning courses. It covers virtually every branch of psychology and organisation studies (including leadership) and has cross-links to many other websites, bibliographies and other sources of material. http://www.sci.monash.edu.au/psych/subject/psy2112/download/lecture17.html An very useful site, which is part of the Monash University, Australia website. It gives brief lecture notes that make-up an overview of different leadership theories. http://www.sedl.org/change/leadership/history/html A excellent brief, but very readable account of the history and development of leadership theories, showing how different approaches have emerged in attempts to address issues not explained by previous theories. http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/fied.htm A thorough, but surprisingly brief and readable synopsis and explanation of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership, authored by Patrich Antoine. http://www.ed.goc/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed347636.html A very useful digest of ideas on transformational leadership produced by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management. http://www.richmond.edu/academics/leadership/ConferencePapers/LATCapHollander.htm Reprint of a paper by E P Hollander, which addresses two of the more recent approaches to leadership theory: the attributional approach and transformational leadership.