Theories of Leadership

Trait theories identify traits or characteristics that help in leadership.

Leaders were more intelligent than the average of the group being led, but, interestingly, the leader is not the most intelligent of the group.

Emotion quotient (EQ) characteristics such as empathy, graciousness, optimism, and being able to read the nonverbal cues in social situation are associated with effective leaders. The leader should be able to assess himself as an able person (Self efficacy).

From the trait theories,  a list of skills categorized as technical, conceptual and human skills needed for effective management or leadership are specified. Yukl further identified that skills such as creativity, organizing ability, persuasiveness, diplomacy and tactfulness, knowledge of the task, and the ability to speak well contribute to leader success.

In the language of competencies, the following competencies were identified as having a relation to leadership effectiveness.

1. Drive, or the inner motivation to pursue goals (achievement motivation).

2. Leadership motivation -  the use of socialized power to influence others to succeed.

3. Integrity, the idea includes truthfulness and the will to translate words into deeds.

4. Self-confidence exhibited through impression management

5. Leading others to feel confident.

6. Intelligence – ability to process information, analyze alternatives, and discover opportunities.

7. Knowledge of the business – ideas relevant to the business are initiated.

8. Emotional Intelligence: self-monitoring personality, ability to adapt to circumstances as needed.

According to this group of theories, a leader provides more benefits/rewards than burdens/costs for followers.  

In a group, members make contributions at a cost to themselves and receive benefits at a cost to the group or other members. Interaction continues because members find the social exchange mutually rewarding. 

(If every member of the group has to get more reward than his personal cost, the group must have synergy. The individual contributions result in bigger output due to the synergy) 

In this group of theories, one idea is that leader behavior changes with subordinate behavior. When subordinates are not performing very well, leaders tend to emphasize the task and initiate structure to improve the performance. With subordinates who are doing a good job, consideration to people becomes the dominant behavior. 

Some scholars in this group, emphasize the role of subordinates and this means subordinates have to be trained to be good followers so that group comes out successful and leader looks good. 

Another aspect of leadership brought out by this line of theory is that subordinates who are committed and who expend a lot of effort for the unit are rewarded with more of the leader’s potential resources than those who do not display these behaviors. “Thus over a time the leader develops an “in-group” and an “out-group” of subordinates and these two groups are treated in different ways. The in-group reports fewer difficulties in their relationship with the leader and the out-group people have more complaints and grievances. 

Fred Fiedler, presented a rigorous version of contingency theory wherein situation plays a part in leadership process. 

Fiedler described the favorableness of a situation using three dimensions. 

1. The leader-member relationship – cordial or opposing

2. The degree of task structure at hand – structured or unstructured

3. Leader’s position power – Formal authority of the leader 

Fiedler found that when situation is very favorable or unfavorable, authoritarian leadership style delivered better results. When the situation is moderately favorable or unfavorable, human oriented or democratic leadership delivered better results. 

Fiedler also came out with cognitive resource theory (CRT) of leadership. According to CRT 

1. More intelligent leaders develop better plans, decisions, and action strategies than less intelligent leaders.

2. Intelligence contributes more strongly to group performance if the leader is directive and the group members are motivated and supportive of the leader.

3. Interpersonal stress distracts the leader from the task and the leader’s intelligence will contribute more highly if the leader has relatively stress-free relationship with superiors and subordinates.

According to this theory leaders have to understand the goals of the followers and prescribe a path that promises the fulfillment of goals to the followers. 

The theory asserts that leader behavior will be acceptable to followers to the extent that the followers see such behavior as either an immediate source of satisfaction or as instrumental to future satisfaction. 

Leadership behavior will be motivational and increase the effort of the followers to the extent that (1) it makes satisfaction of follower needs contingent on effective performance of the tasks planned by the leader and (2) it complements the environment of subordinates by providing the coaching, guidance, support, and rewards which are necessary for effective performance and which may otherwise be lacking in subordinates or in their environment.  

Leaders can exhibit the following types of behavior as they feel appropriate to a situation. Same person can exhibit all the behaviors as appropriate. 

1. Directive leadership: Leader decides the path and directs the followers.

2. Supportive leadership: Leaders friendly.

3. Participative leadership: Leader asks for and uses suggestions of followers.

4. Achievement oriented leadership: Leader sets challenging goals and shows confidence that followers will attain those challenging goals.

Robert House suggested that charismatic leaders are characterized by self confidence and confidence in subordinates, high expectations for subordinates, ideological vision, and the use of personal examples. Followers identify with leader and his mission, exhibit extreme loyalty to and confidence in the leader, emulate leader’s values and behavior, and derive self esteem from their relationship with the leader. The leaders foster attitudinal, behavioral and emotional changes in their followers.  Charismatic leaders produce performance in followers beyond expectations.

Transactional leadership involves an exchange relationship and can be interpreted as guiding followers to produce according to their values, beliefs. Transformational leaders shift the values, beliefs and even needs of their followers. 

Transformational leaders have the following characteristics 

1. They identify themselves as change agents.

2. They are courageous.

3. They believe in people.

4. They are value driven

5. They are life long learners.

6. They have the ability to deal with complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty.

The cognitive approach emphasizes understanding. A leader has to understand himself, his needs, and his behavior and also has to understand the environment that includes followers, their needs and behaviors. Leadership is coming out with plans and actions that are acceptable to followers and achieve the objectives of the group. 

The steps in this approach can be described as:

1. The leader identifies the environmental variables that control his  behavior.

2. The leader spares his time to work with the subordinate to discover the personalized set of environmental contingencies that regulate the subordinate’s behavior.

3. The leader and subordinate jointly attempt to discover ways in which they can manage their individual behavior to produce more mutually reinforcing and organizationally productive outcomes.