Leadership Behavior Styles - Assignment Example

Leadership Models Name: Institution: 1- Which one of the contingency models described in Chapter 3 would be the most useful to you as a leader? Describe the model and state – Why? Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory According to this theory, leaders should develop and adapt their management styles according to the readiness and willingness of each follower to perform tasks. These tasks can be either supportive or directive. Four different leadership styles match the followers’ development levels: telling, participating, selling and delegating. These are discussed below and they generally discuss the focus of the relationship of the leader and the follower. They suggest that leaders should focus on the task in question according to the follower’s development level. A brief description of these leadership styles shall be given in this paper including their use in accordance with an individual’s personal development. Telling In this style, the follower is insecure, unwilling and unable. There is also high defectiveness as well as low supportiveness. The leader, on the other hand, has a low relationship focus and a high task focus. Incase the follower cannot perform the job or is afraid or unwilling to try new tasks; the leader takes a directive role and tells them what to do irrespective of the relationship. The leader can also give out a working structure showing how the job is done or how the person is controlled. However, the leader can first find out how the person looses motivation as well as any limitations in ability because the two factors can be integrated. In order to ensure that all actions are clear, the leader must therefore, keep a clear position. Selling The follower here is motivated or unwilling but unable and high in both directive-ability and supportiveness. The leader must have a high relationship and task focus. There is no need to tell the follower what to do because it might confuse them by conflicting with their ability and confidence. There is need for the leader to ‘sell’ another way of clarifying and explaining decisions. The leader must also spare time to advice, listen and share ideas with the follower so that the follower acquires the necessary skills through this selling method. Participating The follower is insecure, able but unwilling, low in directive-ability and high in supportiveness. The leader has a high relationship focus but a low task focus. Though the follower is able but unwilling to do the job due to lack of commitment, the leader should not worry about telling them what to do. The leader should concentrate on finding out why the person is not cooperative. It is clear that the employee has a problem with their work ethics, a factor that has much to do with motivation. The leader must therefore, spend time making the follower feel good about themselves and the job whenever the follower shows commitment. This can be achieved by listening and praising them. Delegating The follower is able, willing and motivated with low directive-ability and supportiveness. Here, the leader has to give emphasis to low relationship and task focus. Since the follower is able and willing to do the job, the leader can leave them to it trusting them to perform the job well while keeping an eye to make sure everything is well. At this level, followers do not need support although recognition is always welcome for motivation. The Heresy and Blachard’s theory in situational leadership was useful in this study for a big organization. According to these styles, one must be able to work with followers from the different levels. The narrow line as well as the complex relationship between followers and leaders has to be kept clear through a relationship management process. According to this theory, adjustments have to be made depending on the ability and willingness of the follower on the task. The follower must be shown that the needs and concerns of every individual are being taken care of. This theory can, therefore, improve trust between followers and leaders and take oriented-relationships to a higher level. 2. Describe/explain the supportive Leadership Behavior Style and a Leadership Situation in which you would find it useful? Supportive leadership helps in the making of a social relationship between the follower and the leader. Sa leader with friendly and considerate qualities is more likely to win the confidence and friendship of followers than a leader without these qualities. The perception of people towards their leader is important in achieving support and cooperation between the two parties. The working environment becomes satisfying when there is friendship, support and cooperation as opposed to aggressive, uncooperative and unwilling behavior. With supportive leadership, people get satisfied with their jobs and hence improving their performance. A recent study showed that job performance and pay are weakly related. Although the relationship between employee performance and supportive leadership is not well established, there are suggestive results to show that staff performance can be enhanced by supportive leadership. Supportive leadership behavior becomes well effective when there is good balance between the behavior, environment and the person. A leader should always be keen to show that these details are taken care-of in relation to lives and jobs of the followers. This can be achieved through display of trust, value and respect as well as helping followers to improve in their job performances. Several behaviors that can lead to the achievement of positive results can be outlined as: 1) Being understanding and considerate, 2) Being sympathetic to other individuals’ problems, 3) Helping followers develop their abilities and grow in their careers, 4) Respecting, trusting and showing concern to followers. Although leadership behavior is useful in enhancing positive attitude in followers, it can be ineffective especially when it produces an undesired reaction. The management must, therefore, share and discuss any relevant plans with the followers so that an effective outcome can be achieved. The leader must have the wisdom to know how and when to apply the supportive leadership behavior. This can be achieved by seeking an external source for support on how to handle situations that may be beyond personal ability. Two-way communication is an effective way of ensuring high supportiveness. Communication can be either supportive or non-supportive. Examples of supportive communication include words of action, descriptive and problem-oriented communication whereas non-supportive communication can be in the form of evaluative and person oriented communication. In order to show how followers are valued and appreciated, the leader uses both verbal and nonverbal communication to tell them this. Leaders must improve and sharpen their interpersonal skills in order to increase followers’ self-confidence. This is also helpful when a follower is under pressure or upset in the job. Some skills such as interpersonal skills, communication, expert power and reward power can make a big difference in the work place by boosting the achievement of success. The facilitation and limitation of supportive leadership can impact almost all areas of an organization in the same way that followers can. Examples of those conditions include: 1) Leader’s style preferences 2) Culture or mission of the organization 3) Followers’ preference for supportive behaviors Some situational factors have the capacity to substitute, enhance or neutralize supportive leadership. A brief discussion of these factors shall be given here. Firstly, some follower characteristics such as insecurity, self-esteem, self-confidence and growth needs are influential in the enhancement of leadership supportive behavior. Secondly, other group or organizational characteristics such as external conflicts and newly formed groups are also influential and so are task characteristics such as dissatisfying, highly structured and stressful tasks. Situational factors that are known to neutralize supportive leadership behaviors include dogmatic followers, large groups, high-leveled jobs as well as broad scope of tasks. Those factors that substitute for supportive leadership include task satisfaction, intrinsic rewards, task feedbacks and organizational importance. The above discussions lead one conclusion that it is important for a leader to work properly with all the situational factors and requirements in order to achieve the aspirations and goals for both the leader and the organization. 3. Describe/explain the Directive Leadership Behavior Style and a Leadership Situation in which you would find it useful. Directive leadership deals with activities that structure and guide actions of group members. Leaders identify the needs of the followers for information and guidance during task performances and provide the necessary help to meet those needs. Here, importance is placed on the appropriateness of directive leadership behaviors as well as the timing. Whereas some tasks require guidance and structure for the goal-setting stage, others require performance feedback and clarification during execution time. In the same way, some followers require technical directions from their leader while others need to be guided to relate the work they do to that of other employees. The two most important skills for directive leadership are technical expertise and communication. Communication Skills as a Directive Leader Behavior Tool: Specify how workers should accomplish tasks. Provide performance feedback. Define and clarify roles. Communicate desired behaviors to workers and offer performance incentives. Clearly explain procedures and rules. Expert Knowledge: Necessary for scheduling, planning and assigning of responsibilities. Necessary for accomplishment of tasks by followers. Personal Traits: Self-confidence (includes high decisiveness, self-esteem, and self-belief) Assertiveness. Helps leader in problem solving. Experience in the provision of necessary skills and knowledge for structuring and guiding tasks. Power Sources: Legitimate power – this is necessary since the compliance of followers is based on their belief that the leader provides direction that followers do not have a choice but to comply. Expert power - high level of skills, knowledge and ability are needed for performing tasks. It enables leader to solve problems, make effective plans and strategies and achieve task objectives. The effectiveness of the leader’s behavior is enhanced when followers seek advice and guidance from their leader. Resource power – this enables the provision of data and supporting information to the followers to justify the leader’s direction. When the orders of the leader are justified by clear evidence of past performance, followers are more likely to view the direction as helpful. Role clarity – this is one of the critical psychological effects. When information about a follower’s expectations or guides the follower’s work methods is provided by the leader, a clear picture is sent to the follower about what is required of them. This relieves any uncertainty and stress and the follower knows exactly how to behave. In this case, the leader is providing the follower with the structure. Satisfaction – when there is good structure, uncertainty is relieved, higher satisfaction is achieved with both the supervisor and the job. Studies done on autocratic, punitive, and authoritarian fields have indicated decreases in satisfaction of the follower. Stress & Burnout - When directive leadership is composed of providing expertise guidance and information and then integrated with supportiveness; burnout and stress is reduced in followers. Group cohesion - Directive leaders who are not necessarily authoritarian, autocratic or punitive have high cohesive groups. The result here is normally higher performance. Results - Non-directive leaders in large organizations, which have several levels of management, are likely to receive lower ratings in merit than directive leaders. This is especially true when the conditions are time-constrained such as in manufacturing. It is, however, less true in human service organizations, which normally have more productive and higher performing followers. Task Characteristics: Follower performance in highly structured tasks improves with directive behavior. This is probably the case since the existence of task structure offers the leader a clear correct set of steps to use when guiding followers. Direct follower contact with customers and task interdependence also respond favorably to directive leadership. Followers then realize the added importance attached to performing their tasks correctly and are therefore more responsive to their leader’s directive guidance. Stressed followers always appreciate direction, especially when this is combined with supportive behavior. High experience in leaders is more valuable than high intelligence in the leaders in high stress environments. Group Characteristics: A directive leader is required to control large groups of people since there is less cohesiveness in large groups. Their major function here is to explain performance norms and develop shared commitment. Followers expect lower level leaders to be directive and clear in bureaucratic situations where the higher-level leaders make decisions. Higher satisfaction is apparent when this expectation is met by the leader. Autonomous teams or work groups where there is frequent interaction among the followers, guidance from coworkers are necessary. The Creation of autonomous teams where there is competence experience and performance among members is a desirable trait. Direct task feedback and authority is also required to make and implement work-related decisions. This will result in an increase in the worker’s psychological output as well as the performance while giving leaders more time to make strategic initiatives. High task structure can also be noted on this list for enhancing effectiveness of directive leadership. In this environment, the worker’s satisfaction is negatively affected by directive leadership. Most studies, however, show improvement in productivity. Here is a pictorial model for directive leadership behavior. From the top, directive leader behaviors can be seen to influence the follower or group psychological reactions. This in turn affects the followers’ behavioral outcomes. Situational factors causing a decrease or increase in the effectiveness of directive leadership behavior are hereby shown. Their impact comes to play after interaction with the supportive behavior. The arrows coming from the indicated leader’s supportiveness box into the boxes for situational factor indicate that the leader has the capacity to manipulate some situations to improve the reactions of followers indirectly. This replaces the need for provision of directive behaviors. This model discussed here is intended to show how the previously discussed model is used. Three key tasks for effective leadership are described in this model. The Leader first diagnoses the situation by responding to a series of questions that relate to the followers and their task situations. If the response to at least one of these questions is positive, then the application of directive leadership is probably necessary. Once the necessary behaviors are practiced by the leader, both the situational and follower characteristics should be looked into to see if there is any one of them responsible for decreasing the leader directive-ability and effectiveness. If possible, these factors should be eliminated to improve the influence of the leader on the followers. In conclusion, a number of methods used by top managers today have been presented together with the effectiveness of these methods on Directive Leadership. Some leadership techniques are more suitable in some situations and not others hence an effective leader will always be dynamic in their style of management. The ability to adapt to a complex work environment, cater to individual employee needs, while meeting deadlines at the same time is not an easy task. Directive leadership requires an experienced, effective, decisive and self-confident leader to keep a company on track. 4. Describe/explain the participative Leadership Behavior Style and a Leadership Situation in which you would find it useful. Participative Leadership entails leaders’ behaviors that occupy supporters in the decision-making processes. It includes consultations with individuals and holding meetings with group of supporters to discuss and gather input for decisions. It also involves collecting information from supporters and asking for their opinions about decisions in addition to conveying a specific problem with tasks to an individual or a group of supporters to make up your mind. This type of leadership is accommodating for organizations because it enhances the accessibility of supporters and seeks information from them for the decision-making process. Most of the time, supporters have more fresh information regarding a work task than the leaders, and their opinion is helpful in making better decisions. This is because such decisions are made with more information. Participative leadership repeatedly makes followers satisfied at work, motivated and loyal to the decision making process with increased attempts to contribute. Different levels of participative leadership behaviors to the type of decision situation can be exhibited by leaders. These different levels of participation are shown in Figure 2. The first one is despotic decision, where the decision is made with little or no followers’ participation. The next one is the review approach, which involves discussing decision problems with followers and/or making the decision jointly with them. The Final approach is delegation, which represents the level of participation. Here, the leader gives the problem to the followers to decide and share their experience. Useful leaders can expand their knowledge with some traits, skills, and sources of powers to help them use participative leadership behaviors with their followers. Reliability is one of the most important characteristics. When the leader is honest with followers, they learn to trust the information given by the leader. Another important trait is that the leader has socialized need for power, which makes the leader to train and develop followers to build and improve their control over their tasks and the work place environment. Participative leaders also develop listing skills, high self-monitoring, managing conflict skills and assertiveness (though not aggressiveness). In addition to these, they develop three types of powers: legitimate, where followers’ confidence is gained in the participative process; connection/resource, where there is minimized conflict and interaction among followers; and expert, where information is provided to support decision-making involvement. Many of situational characteristics can present the effectiveness of participative leadership. First are the task characteristics which include situations when work tasks are especially important for the organization; followers’ assurance is essential to make the decision; or there is environmental uncertainty. Second in the list are the group and organizational characteristics, which include situations where a group of followers is in a trusting agreement with the leader. The third are the follower characteristics, which include situations where followers have a high level of capability, proficiency, and knowledge concerning the decision task. Here, the followers need independence and expect participation in their working task. Finally, some situational characteristics neutralize the effectiveness of participative leadership. One of these is a high quantity of task structure where the large group would neutralize participative leadership. In this case, it is hard to effectively share information with all members and make them feel that they can manipulate or debate on the decision. This has a decreasing effect on the amount of satisfaction and performance that comes from participative leadership. Finally, participative behaviors are not effective when followers are authoritarian, inactive, with little interest or willing to accept repressive decisions. Reference Daft, R. L., & Lane, P. G. (2008). The leadership experience. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Read More