Leadership theories

2.  Theories that consider personal qualities and
characteristics that differentiate leaders from
non-leaders.
 Leaders who like being around are able to
assert themselves ,disciplined and able to
keep commitments they make, creative and
flexible, have an apparent advantage when it
comes to leadership.

3.  Another trait that may indicate effective
leadership is Emotional Intelligence (EI)
 A core component of EI is empathy
 Empathetic leaders can sense others needs,
listen to what followers say( and don’t say)
and read the reaction of others
 The mere fact that someone cares is more
often than not rewarded with loyalty

4.  Traits can predict leadership
 Traits do a better job predicting the
emergence of leaders and the appearance of
leadership that actually distinguishes
between effective and ineffective leaders

5.  Trait research provides a basis for “selecting”
the right people for leadership. In contrast,
behavioral studies implied we could “train”
people to be leaders
 Ohio State Studies listed “initiating structure”
and “consideration” qualities for effective
leadership
 The Michigan group also came up with two
behavioral dimensions, the “employee
oriented leader” and “ production oriented
leader”

6.  Initiating Structure: A leader high in initiating
structure is someone who,
 assigns group members to particular tasks
 expects workers to maintain definite standard of
performance and
 emphasizes the meetings of deadlines
 Consideration: A leader high in consideration
helps employees with personal problems, is
friendly and approachable, treats all
employees as equal, and expresses
appreciation and support

7.  The Fiedler Model
 Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational theory
 Path-goal theory
 The Fiedler Model
◦ Developed by Fred Fiedler
◦ Proposes that effective group performance depends
on the proper match between leader’s styles and
the degree to which the situation gives the leader
control

8.  Model has four stages
◦ Identifying leadership styles
◦ Defining the situation
 Leader-member relation
 Task Structure
 Position Power
◦ Matching leaders and situation
◦ Evaluation
 LPC ( least preferred co-worker)
questionnaire is a tool to identify that style by
measuring whether a person is task or
relationship oriented

9.  SLT focuses on the followers
 It says successful leadership is achieved by
selecting the right leadership style contingent
on followers readiness, or the extent to
which they are willing and able to accomplish
a specific task
 SLT has intituitive appeal

10.  Developed by Robert House
 It extracts elements from the Ohio State
leadership research on initiating structure
and consideration and the expectation theory
of motivation
 It says it’s the leaders job to provide
followers with the information, provide
support or other resources necessary to
achieve their goals

11.  It predicts the following;
◦ Directive leadership yields greater satisfaction
when tasks are ambiguous or stressful than when
they are highly structured and well laid out
◦ Supportive leadership results in high performance
and satisfaction when employees are performing
structured tasks
◦ Directive leadership is likely to be perceived as
redundant among employees with high ability or
considerable experiences

12.  A leadership theory that provides a set of
rules to determine the form and amount of
participative decision making in different
situation
 Developed by Victor Vroom and Philip Yetton
 The model is normative-it provides a
decision tree of seven contingencies and five
leadership styles for determining the form
and amount of participation in decision
making

13.  This theory argues that, because of time
pressures, leaders establish a special
relationship with a small group of their
followers
 A theory that supports leaders creation of in-
group and out-group; subordinates with in-
group status will have higher performance
ratings, less turnover and greater job
satisfaction