A leader who uses an achievement oriented style

Leadership Assignment

Instructions

Select a well-known business leader and analyze him or her. Under three distinct headings, answer the following questions that will help guide your analysis:

(1) Leader Identification:

What traits does this leader possess that contribute to his/her successes and/or failures as a leader? What effective and/or ineffective behaviors does this leader engage in? Which contemporary theories of/approaches to leadership are most

applicable to this leader?

(2) Influencing Followers:

What approach does and/or should this leader use to influence followers?

(3) Leadership across Organizational

Contexts: How does/should this individual lead across organizational contexts? Discuss specific examples and consider how different contingency approaches to leadership play a role in successfully leading across contexts. Use references from books and journal articles to support all the sections of your discussion. Cite your

references within your discussion and include the full citations for your references on your

Reference - page at the end of the document and minimum of 8

Number of pages - Approximately 8 pages double space.

Use appropriate headings and sub-headings to clearly present the information.

Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan

Chapter 12 Leading People Within Organizations

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Learning Objectives

Define what leadership is and identify traits of effective leaders

Describe behaviors that effective leaders demonstrate

Specify the contexts in which various leadership styles are effective

Explain the concepts of transformational, transactional, charismatic, servant, and authentic leadership

Trait Description
Openness Being curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas.
Conscientiousness Being organized, systematic, punctual, achievement oriented, and dependable.
Extraversion Being outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoying social situations.
Agreeableness Being affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm.
Neuroticism Being anxious, irritable, temperamental, and moody.
Think of a leader you admire. What traits does this person have? Are they consistent with the traits discussed in this chapter? If not, why is this person effective despite the presence of different traits?
Can the findings of trait approaches be used to train potential leaders? Which traits seem easier to teach? Which are more stable?
How can organizations identify future leaders with a given set of traits? Which methods would be useful for this purpose?
What other traits can you think of that would be relevant to leadership?
What Do Leaders Do?
Behavioral Approaches to Leadership
Behavioral approaches to leadership show that task oriented and people oriented behaviors are two key aspects of leadership

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Democratic Decision Making Style

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Sergey_Brin,_Web_2.0_Conference.jpg

Give an example of a leader you admire whose behavior is primarily task oriented, and one whose behavior is primarily people oriented.
What are the limitations of authoritarian decision making? Under which conditions do you think authoritarian style would be more effective?
What are the limitations of democratic decision making? Under which conditions do you think democratic style would be more effective?
What are the limitations of laissez-faire decision making? Under which conditions do you think laissez-faire style would be more effective?
Examine your own leadership style. Which behaviors are you more likely to demonstrate? Which decision making style are you more likely to use?
Contingency Approaches to Leadership
The Role of Context

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
Situational favorableness Leader-subordinate relations Position Power Task structure Best Style
Favorable Good High High Low LPC Leader
Good High Low
Good Low High
Medium Good Low Low High LPC Leader
Poor High High
Poor High Low
Poor Low High
Unfavorable Poor Low Low Low LPC leader
Leaders choose from four basic situational leadership styles as defined by Blanchard and Hersey.
The style that a leader chooses is determined by situational factors such as employee readiness.
Development of the Individual

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Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
Influenced by Expectancy Theory of Motivation

Predictions of Path-Goal Theory

Situation Appropriate Leadership Style
When employees have high role ambiguity When employees have low abilities When employees have external locus of control Directive
When tasks are boring and repetitive When tasks are stressful Supportive
When employees have high abilities When the decision is relevant to employees When employees have high internal locus of control Participative
When employees have high abilities When employees have high achievement motivation Achievement oriented
Vroom and Yetton- Leadership Decisions
The Decision Tree

Source: Used by permission from Victor H. Vroom.

Do you believe that the least preferred coworker technique is a valid method of measuring someone’s leadership style? Why or why not?
Do you believe that leaders can vary their style to demonstrate directive, supportive, achievement oriented and participative styles with respect to different employees? Or does each leader tend to have a personal style that he or she regularly uses toward all employees?
What do you see as the limitations of the Vroom-Yetton leadership decision making approach?
Which of the leadership theories covered in this section do you think are most useful, and least useful, to practicing managers? Why?
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Transformational leaders lead employees by aligning employee goals with the leader’s goals

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ataturk_and_flag_of_Turkey.jpg

OB Toolbox: Be Charismatic!

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Self-Assessment: Rate Your LMX

Answer the following questions using: 1 = not at all, 2 = somewhat, 3 = fully agree

1. _____ I like my supervisor very much as a person.

2. _____My supervisor is the kind of person one would like to have as a friend.

3. _____My supervisor is a lot of fun to work with.

4. _____My supervisor defends my work actions, without complete knowledge of the issue.

5. _____ My supervisor would come to my defense if I were “attacked” by others.

6. _____ My supervisor would defend me if I made an honest mistake.

7. _____ I do work for my supervisor that goes beyond what is specified in my job description.

8. _____ I am willing to apply extra efforts to further the interests of my work group.

9. _____ I do not mind working my hardest for my supervisor

10. _____I am impressed with my supervisor’s knowledge of his/her job.

11. _____ I respect my supervisor’s knowledge of and competence on the job.

12. _____ I admire my supervisor’s professional skills.

Scoring: Liking=1+2+3, Loyalty=4+5+6, Contribution=7+8+9, Professional Respect=10+11+12

Source: Liden, R. C. & Maslyn, J. M. (1998). Multi-dimensionality of leader-member exchange: An empirical assessment through scale development.

Journal of Management, 24, 43-72. Used by permission of Sage Publications.

OB Toolbox: Ideas for Improving Your Relationship With Your Manager

Servant Leadership

OB Toolbox: Be a Servant Leader

Authentic Leadership

Witnessing his father’s losing jobs due to medical problems, he became passionate about a company’s need to care for its employees.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/a/ae/20081006001508!Howard-Schultz-Starbucks.jpg

What are the characteristics of transformational leaders? Are transformational leaders more effective than transactional leaders?
What is charisma? What are the advantages and disadvantages of charismatic leadership? Should organizations look for charismatic leaders when selecting managers?
What are the differences (if any) between a leader having a high quality exchange with employees and being friends with employees?
What does it mean to be a servant leader? Do you know any leaders whose style resembles servant leaders? What are the advantages of adopting such a leadership style?
What does it mean to be an authentic leader? How would such a style be developed?
The CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, is a leader who demonstrates passion for her vision and energizes those around her
toward her vision for the company

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Indra_Nooyi_-_World_Economic_Forum_Annual_Meeting_Davos_2008.jpg

Develop Your Authentic Leadership Skills
What is the connection between leadership and ethics?
Do you believe that ethical leaders are more successful in organizations?
Have you ever had an authentic leader? What did this person do that made you consider him or her to be authentic? How effective was his or her leadership?
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