Robbins & Judge

Organizational Behavior
13th Edition

Chapter 12: Basic Approaches to

Leadership

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 Chapter Objectives
• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
– Define leadership and contrast leadership and management.
– Summarize the conclusions of trait theories.
– Identify the central tenets and main limitations of behavioral
theories.
– Assess contingency theories of leadership by their level of
support.
– Contrast the interactive theories (path-goal and leader-member
exchange).
– Identify the situational variables in the leader-participation
model.
– Show how U.S. managers might need to adjust their leadership
approaches in Brazil, France, Egypt, and China.

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 What Is Leadership?
• Leadership
– The ability to influence a group toward the
achievement of goals
• Management
– Use of authority inherent in designated formal
rank to obtain compliance from organizational
members
• Both are necessary for organizational success

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 Trait Theories of Leadership
• Theories that consider personality, social, physical, or
intellectual traits to differentiate leaders from
nonleaders
• Not very useful until matched with the Big Five
Personality Framework
• Leadership Traits
– Extroversion
– Conscientiousness
– Openness
– Emotional Intelligence (Qualified)
• Traits can predict leadership, but they are better at
predicting leader emergence than effectiveness
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 Behavioral Theories of Leadership
• Theories proposing that specific behaviors
differentiate leaders from nonleaders
• Differences between theories of leadership:
– Trait theory: leadership is inherent, so we must
identify the leader based on his or her traits
– Behavioral theory: leadership is a skill set and can
be taught to anyone, so we must identify the
proper behaviors to teach potential leaders

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 Important Behavioral Studies
• Ohio State University
– Found two key dimensions of leader behavior:
• Initiating structure – the defining and structuring of roles
• Consideration – job relationships that reflect trust and respect
• Both are important
• University of Michigan
– Also found two key dimensions of leader behavior:
• Employee-oriented – emphasize interpersonal relationships and is
the most powerful dimension
• Production-oriented – emphasize the technical aspects of the job
– The dimensions of the two studies are very similar

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 Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid®
• Draws on both studies to assess leadership
style
– “Concern for People” is Consideration and
Employee-Orientation
– “Concern for Production” is Initiating Structure
and Production-Orientation
• Style is determined by position on the graph

Exhibit 12-1

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 Contingency Theories
• While trait and behavior theories do help us
understand leadership, an important component
is missing: the environment in which the leader
exists.
• Contingency Theory deals with this additional
aspect of leadership effectiveness studies.
• Three key theories:
– Fielder’s Model
– Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory
– Path-Goal Theory
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 Fiedler Model
• Effective group performance depends on the proper match
between leadership style and the situation
– Assumes that leadership style (based on orientation revealed in
LPC questionnaire) is fixed
• Considers Three Situational Factors:
– Leader-member relations: degree of confidence and trust in the
leader
– Task structure: degree of structure in the jobs
– Position power: leader’s ability to hire, fire, and reward
• For effective leadership: must change to a leader who fits
the situation or change the situational variables to fit the
current leader
Exhibit 12-2

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 Assessment of Fiedler’s Model
• Positives:
– Considerable evidence supports the model,
especially if the original eight situations are
grouped into three
• Problems:
– The logic behind the LPC scale is not well
understood
– LPC scores are not stable
– Contingency variables are complex and hard to
determine
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 Fiedler’s Cognitive Resource Theory
• A refinement of Fielder’s original model:
– Focuses on stress as the enemy of rationality and
creator of unfavorable conditions
– A leader’s intelligence and experience influence
his or her reaction to that stress
• Stress Levels:
– Low Stress: Intellectual abilities are effective
– High Stress: Leader experiences are effective
• Research is supporting the theory

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 Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational
Leadership
• A model that focuses on follower “readiness”
– Followers can accept or reject the leader
– Effectiveness depends on the followers’ response to the leader’s
actions
– “Readiness” is the extent to which people have the ability and
willingness to accomplish a specific task
• A paternal model:
– As the child matures, the adult releases more and more control
over the situation
– As the workers become more ready, the leader becomes more
laissez-faire
• An intuitive model that does not get much support from
the research findings

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 House’s Path-Goal Theory
• Builds from the Ohio State studies and the expectancy
theory of motivation
• The Theory:
– Leaders provide followers with information, support, and
resources to help them achieve their goals
– Leaders help clarify the “path” to the worker’s goals
– Leaders can display multiple leadership types
• Four types of leaders:
– Directive: focuses on the work to be done
– Supportive: focuses on the well-being of the worker
– Participative: consults with employees in decision-making
– Achievement-Oriented: sets challenging goals

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 Path-Goal Model
• Two classes of contingency variables:
– Environmental are outside of employee control
– Subordinate factors are internal to employee
• Mixed support in the research findings

Exhibit 12-4

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 Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
Theory
• A response to the failing of contingency theories to
account for followers and heterogeneous leadership
approaches to individual workers
• LMX Premise:
– Because of time pressures, leaders form a special
relationship with a small group of followers: the “in-group”
– This in-group is trusted and gets more time and attention
from the leader (more “exchanges”)
– All other followers are in the “out-group” and get less of
the leader’s attention and tend to have formal
relationships with the leader (fewer “exchanges”)
– Leaders pick group members early in the relationship

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 LMX Model
• How groups are assigned is unclear
– Follower characteristics determine group
membership
• Leaders control by keeping favorites close

• Research has been generally supportive

Exhibit 12-3

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 Yroom & Yetton’s Leader-Participation
Model
• How a leader makes decisions is as important as what
is decided
• Premise:
– Leader behaviors must adjust to reflect task structure
– “Normative” model: tells leaders how participative to be in
their decision-making of a decision tree
• Five leadership styles
• Twelve contingency variables

• Research testing for both original and modified models

has not been encouraging
– Model is overly complex
Exhibit 12-5

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 Global Implications
• These leadership theories are primarily studied in
English-speaking countries
• GLOBE does have some country-specific insights
– Brazilian teams prefer leaders who are high in
consideration, participative, and have high LPC scores
– French workers want a leader who is high on initiating
structure and task-oriented
– Egyptian employees value team-oriented, participative
leadership while keeping a high-power distance
– Chinese workers may favor a moderately participative style
• Leaders should take culture into account

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 Summary and Managerial Implications
• Leadership is central to understanding group
behavior as the leader provides the direction

• Extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness all

show consistent relationships to leadership
• Behavioral approaches have narrowed leadership
down into two usable dimensions

• Need to take into account the situational

variables, especially the impact of followers

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