CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

Chapter 11
Leadership & Influence

11.1 Introducing Leadership

1. "Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about

what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual
and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives." (Yukl, 2006: 8).

2. Leadership is a highly valued property in organisations today, seen to make the

difference between the success or failure of teams and, at the most senior level,
whole organisations. We glorify leadership in society, too, with it being seen to
transform the world and inspiring others to do the same (Fortune, 2019).

3. As such, organisations look for those with leadership ability because they believe
that they bring important qualities, skills or abilities to the organisations and can
ultimately improve the standing of the organisation.

1
 CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

11.2 Leadership vs Management

Leadership Management
Image of Leader Image of Manager

reliant on team relationships Juggling tasks

strategic smiling and looking confident
climbing the mountain computing to produce documents,
reaching goals spreadsheets and graphs.
setting the vision talking to people
overcoming challenges day-to-day transactions,
meeting strategic goals. juggling work

A typical definition of leadership may be Fayol’s early definition (1916) suggesting

something like: “Leadership is a process that management is about planning,
whereby an individual influences a group of organising, staffing and controlling.
individuals to achieve a common goal.”
(Northouse, 2018).

Leadership produces change and Management produces order and

movement consistency

Establishing direction Planning and budgeting

Create a vision Establish agendas
Clarify the big picture Set timetables
Set strategies Allocate resources
Aligning people Organizing and staffing
Communicate goals Provide structure
Seek commitment Place people in roles
Build teams and coalitions Establish rules and procedures
Motivating and inspiring Controlling and problem solving
Inspire and energize Develop incentives
Empower followers Generate creative solutions
Satisfy unmet needs Take corrective action

Leadership as a function of management

1. In the context of this module, we are interested in leadership as a function of

management because we are interested in what managers do, and what concerns
them. And so, we are interested in whether and how managers do leadership.

2
 CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

2. Google undertook research to understand what made a good manager, called Project
Oxygen. They found that, in the Google context, a good manager is (Garvin, 2013):

A good coach
Empowers the team and does not micromanage
Expresses interest in and concern for team members' success and personal
well-being
Is productive and results-oriented
Is a good communicator: listens and shares information
Helps with career development
Has a clear vision and strategy for the team
Has key technical skills that help him or her advise the team

11.3 Trait Theories

1. The first major research direction in business leadership research was Trait Theory. It
emerged in the 1920s and developed apace in the 1930s, trying to identify the
characteristics of leaders.

2. In more recent years, overwhelmed by the amount of new studies on what traits might
make a great leader, researchers have tried to produce meta-analyses. A meta-
analysis is a study that uses data from other studies and tries to extrapolate common
patterns. These meta-analyses have looked for patterns in the trait data, to try to
identify common threads.

3. These meta-studies have shown that there are five that come up repeatedly:
Intelligence: a sense that leaders have a higher intelligence level than non-leaders
(as evidenced in research by Zaccaro at al. (2017)
Self-confidence: having a high level of certainty about one's abilities and skills. We
often see this characteristic in famous leaders, such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or
Jeff Bezos.
Determination: they are full of desire and drive to get the job done, and will get it
done. They are less likely to be put off by the scale of the challenge than others
might be.
Integrity: they are honest and trustworthy.
Sociability: they enjoy being sociable and as such, seek out pleasant relationships
and maintain them

4. Taking a slightly different approach, Judge et al. (2002) performed a meta-analysis on

previous studies using the trait perspective of leadership. They organised others’

3
CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

findings around the Big Five personality traits (extraversion; openness; agreeableness;
conscientiousness; and neuroticism). They found that leaders tend to be high in
extraversion, openness and conscientiousness, and low in neuroticism. The fifth 'big
five personality factor' - agreeableness - was found to be largely irrelevant.

4
 CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

11.4 Behavioural Leadership Theories

1. The trait theory assumes that the traits are common to many individuals and they
vary in absolute amounts. Also, the traits remain consistent over a period, and thus
can be measured through the behavioural indicators.

2. Leadership became about behaviours that individuals could practise, although it

was acknowledged that different individuals might practise them to different
degrees. The approach was developed in the Midwest of the USA. Studies by Ohio
State University identified two categories of leadership behaviour:

a. Consideration: develop relationships of mutual trust, respect for followers’

ideas, regard for their feelings

b. Initiating structure: define and structure own role and those of followers.

3. Most effective leaders came up high on both consideration and initiating structure.

4. Michigan Leadership Studies began in the 1950s and indicated that leaders could
be classified as either ‘employee centred’ or ‘job centred’. Twin categories of ‘task’
and relationship behaviours – similar to the Ohio studies – were identified which
were theoretically orthogonal but empirically associated with being ‘high’ in the
most effective behavioural pattern.

5. The five leadership styles Blake and Mouton discuss are:

Authority-compliance management, which places the emphasis on the
results – focusing on task and process. People are treated as little more
than tools to achieve the result, and as such, the leader can come across
as domineering and ruthless.
Country-club management, which places emphasis on the people at the
expense of the task. They are agreeable and eager to help, and comforting
and controversial. As such this could be seen as an over-focus on people
without any concern for results.
Impoverished management, where leaders are unconcerned with both
people and results. They go through the motions but are ultimately
disengaged. They might be described as apathetic or indifferent.
Middle of the road management, where leaders compromise – they give
up some of the push for production and some of the attention on what the
employees need to avoid conflict and arrive at some kind of easy
equilibrium state. As such, this type of leader ‘swallows convictions in the
interest of progress.’ (Northouse, 2019: 78)
Team management, where leaders have a strong emphasis on task and on
the interpersonal relationships that are relevant to their role. They do not
avoid conflict, or challenge, preferring to make priorities clear, get any
problems out in the open, and likely enjoy working.

5
CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

6. These two broad categories of people-orientation and task-orientation continue

to have very wide currency in the leadership and management literature. They are
used in the analysis of teams and teamwork at the micro-level, and organisational
culture at the macro-level. They replicate in this literature the broad engineering
concern for efficiency and the human relations concern for work relations.

6
 CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

11.5 Situational Leadership

1. Situational Leadership II (SLII) is a model that focuses on the need for different
leadership in different situations (Blanchard et al., 1993).

2. SLII stresses that leadership is comprised of:

a. Directive leadership behaviours: these clarify what is to be done, how it
should be done, and who is responsible for doing it. They are often one-
way, from the leader to the follower.
b. Supportive leadership behaviours: these involve two-way communication,
which facilitate and show social and emotional support to others

3. By assessing how much support and direction a follower needs, you can decide
whether to lead in a way that is:
a. Directing (high direction, low support) Here, instructions are given clearly
on what to do and how to do it.
b. Coaching (high direction, high support) Here, leaders focus both on
communicating clear goals and ways to achieve them, as well as meeting
the socioemotional needs of the followers.

7
CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

c. Supporting (high support, low direction) Here, leaders need to focus less
on specific goals, but more on listening, praising, giving feedback and
asking for input. A big focus is placed on recognition and the social support
that is given to followers.
d. Delegating (low support, low direction) Here, leaders offer less focus on
both goals and on meeting socioemotional needs. The leader generally
lessens intervention, trusting followers to manage their own goals and
socioemotional needs.

4. Once follower needs are identified, the relevant leadership style can be selected.

5. Situational Leadership theory is praised for being simple to understand and

prescriptive. Once you understand how to diagnose followers' needs, it is easy to
work out what you, as a leader, should do. It also encourages leaders to be flexible
in their approach - not just using a 'one size fits all' approach to leadership.

8
 CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

11.6 Leader Follower Approach

1. One of the prominent theories that first recognised the importance of the follower-
leader relationship is Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory. In its earliest form, LMX
theory believes that an in-group and an out-group form around a leader (Graen and
Uhl-Bien, 1995).

2. Followers become part of the in-group if they get along well with the leader and are
willing to take on responsibilities within the leader's domain.

3. As the theory developed, the emphasis switched to recognition that good quality
exchanges between leaders and their followers would lead to higher individual and
thus organisational performance, and then an interest in how to encourage such
exchanges (Northouse, 2013).

4. LMX is a well-researched theory, which not only describes what happens in successful
(and unsuccessful) relationships between leaders and their followers, but which also
offers up some suggestions on how to improve these relationships (for example,
leaders should try to be trusting and cooperative, and to offer employees decent
opportunities to participate in career-related exchanges).

5. However, its suggestion that there will be an out-group as well as an in-group runs
counter to ideas that work should be fair and just. In a working world which
increasingly promotes equality, the idea of needing an in-group and an out-group for
leadership to function is problematic, because it suggests division and inequality. It
may also lead to dissatisfaction and demotivation in those in the out-group which is
less than ideal.

9
 CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

11.7 Transformational Leadership

1. Leadership is now portrayed as something that can be performed independent of

someone’s place in the hierarchy. Anyone can be a leader, even if they do not have a
formal management position.

2. Acknowledging the split between hierarchically-prescribed ‘management’ activities

focusing on monitoring/exchange versus those more people-based activities focused
on affect is Bass’ theory of Transformational Leadership (1985), which is by now
relatively well-established. Bass distinguishes:

3. Transactional leaders – motivate employees through an exchange process involving

rewarding and correcting. This is much more in line with what rational economic
theory suggests managers will need to do in order to negate some of the Principal-
Agent problems. Transactional leadership, done well, can help employees to meet
expected outcomes.

4. Transformational leaders – motivate employees by adding idealized influence,

inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration to
the mix. In so doing, the theory suggests that they help employees to perform beyond
expectations.
Idealized influence: leaders act as strong role models for their followers. Followers
identify with the leaders, who usually have high ethical and moral standards.
Leaders provide vision and a strong sense of purpose, and followers emulate the
leaders, leading to the possibility of performance beyond expectations.
Inspirational motivation: Leaders communicate high expectations to their
followers, inspirating them to align with the vision and mission of the organisation
and in so doing, they achieve more than they would if they simply acted in their
own self-interest.
Intellectual stimulation: Leaders stimulate followers to use their intellect to be
creative, innovative and to challenge the beliefs of themselves, their leaders and
the organisation. Followers thus engage in problem solving and other
improvement initiatives.
Individualised consideration: Leaders provide a supportive environment in which
they respond to the individaul needs and wants of followers. Leaders coach and
advise whilst also helping followers to develop their own skills - whether through
direction or delegation.

5. The reasoning behind the model is that if a leader can embrace these four elements,
they can improve employee commitment and, ultimately, performance.

10
CRESCENDO INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE MN2177 - CORE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

11