Subject: Human Behavior in Organization

Professor: Dr. Perla Estrella

Topic: Leadership (part 1/2)
Discussant:
Date: June 5, 2010

THE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership

The process of influencing and supporting others to work enthusiastically toward

achieving objectives.
The leadership process is similar in effect to that of the secret chemical that turns a
caterpillar into a butterfly with all the beauty that was the caterpillar’s potential. Leadership,
then, is the catalyst that transforms potential into reality.
The ultimate test of leadership is the degree to which it identifies, develops, channels and
enriches the potential that is already in an organization and its people.

Management and Leadership

Leadership is an important part of management, but it is not the whole story.

There is a difference between management and leadership, strong leaders may be weak
managers if poor planning causes their group to move in the wrong directions. While a weak
leader can be an effective manager, especially when he is managing people who have a clear
understanding of their jobs and a strong drive to work.

Traits of Effective Leaders

Current research showing the differences of leaders from nonleaders:

Primary Traits
1. Personal drive
2. Desire to lead
3. Personal integrity
4. Self-confidence

Secondary Traits
1. Cognitive ability (analytical)
2. Business knowledge
3. Charisma
4. Creativity and originality
5. Flexibility and adaptiveness
 6. Positive affectivity (personal warmth)
*Leadership traits do not necessarily guarantee successful leadership. They are best
viewed as personal competencies or resources that may or may not be developed and used.

Leadership Behavior

Technical Skill- a person’s knowledge and ability in any type of process or technique
Human Skill- the ability to work effectively with people to build teamwork
Conceptual Skill- is the ability to think in terms of models, frameworks, and broad
relationships, such as long-range plans.

Situational Flexibility

Leaders, Followers and Situation are variables that affect one another in determining
appropriate leadership behavior. Leadership is situational. There is no simple way to answer:
What makes a leader? Sometimes leaders must resist the temptation to be visible in a situation.
The key task for a leader is to recognize different situations and adapt to them on a conscious
basis.

Followership

Leaders in organizations may also be followers because they nearly always report to
someone else. Ability to follow or dynamic subordinancy is a first requirement for good
leadership. Many people fail in their jobs because of lack of followership skills.

Followership behaviors include:

• Not competing with the leader to be in the limelight

• Being loyal and supportive, a team player
• Not being a ‘yes person’ who automatically agrees
• Acting as a devil’s advocate by raising penetrating questions
• Constructively confronting the leader’s ideas, values and actions
• Anticipating potential problems and preventing them

*Good followers need to succeed at their own jobs while helping their managers succeed at
theirs. Effective subordinates can prepare themselves for promotion by developing their
conceptual and leadership skills.
 Leadership Skills vs. Management Skills
(John Kotters “Leading Change” 1996)

The main three things that the manager does are:

1. Plans and budgets (the manager sets up timetables to achieve results, and allocates
needed resources for execution)
2. Organizes and staffs (the manager sets up structures to achieve the plan, staffs the
structure, delegates authority to execute the plan, provides policies and procedures to
guide the staff, and creates systems to monitor the execution)
3. Controls and solves problems (the manager keeps an eye on outcomes, detects variations
from the plan, and plans and organizes to correct such variations)

The main three things that the leader does are:

1. Establishes direction (the leader develops a vision and the necessary strategy for
achieving such vision)
2. Aligns people (the leader communicates the direction in such a way that all those whose
cooperation is needed, understand it, accept it, and act upon it)
3. Motivates and inspires (the leader helps people to overcome barriers to change, by
satisfying basic human needs)

BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP STYLE

The total pattern of explicit and implicit leaders’ actions as seen by employees is called
leadership style. Employees do not respond solely to what leaders think and do and say but to
what they perceive leaders are.

Reacting to Crises- these challenge managers to rise to new heights and display fundamental
leadership state. It involves moving from being:

1. Comfort-centered to results-centered
2. Externally directed to internally directed
3. Self-focused to other-focused
4. Internally closed to externally open

Positive and Negative Leaders

Positive leaders = motivates people, emphasis on rewards (economic or otherwise)

Negative leaders = emphasizes on threats, fears, harshness and penalties

Autocratic, Consultative and Participative Leaders

Autocratic leaders = centralize power and decision making in themselves

 Consultative leaders = asks for inputs in decision-making
Participative leaders = decentralizes authority. Leader and group act as a social unit.

Leader Use of Consideration and Structure

Considerate (Employee Oriented) Leaders: concerned about the human needs of their
employees. They try to build teamwork, provide psychological support and help employees with
their personal problems.
Structured (Task Oriented) Leaders: believe that they get results by keeping people
constantly busy, ignoring personal issues and emotions and urging them to produce.

*The most successful managers are those who combine relatively high consideration and
structure, giving somewhat more emphasis to consideration.

Educational (School) Leadership

Is the process of enlisting and guiding the talents and energies of teachers, pupils, and
parents toward achieving common educational aims.
Demands were made on schools for higher levels of pupil achievement, and schools were
expected to improve and reform. These expectations were accompanied by calls for
accountability at the school level. Maintenance of the status quo was no longer considered
acceptable. Administration and management are terms that connote stability through the exercise
of control and supervision. The concept of leadership was favored because it conveys dynamism
and proactivity. The principal or school head is commonly thought to be the school leader;
however, school leadership may include other persons, such as members of a formal leadership
team and other persons who contribute toward the aims of the school.