Psychology and Sociology - 1

Psychology and Sociology – Leadership

Definitions
 Leadership is a group process (there is o leader without followers), it is
about the relationship between leaders and followers, in which leaders
help to define collective goals, and make people do things because they
want to, not because they have to.
 In order to mobilize and direct followers' energies, leaders need not only
to (- Link)
o ‘be one of us’ (identity prototypicality), but also to
o ‘do it for us’ (identity advancement), to ‘
o craft a sense of us’ (identity entrepreneurship), and to
o ‘embed a sense of us’ (identity impresarioship).

Concepts
What is Leadership?
 Different explanations
o Great person t.: tall, attractive
o Trait t.: personality
o Behavioural t.: behaviour
o Leadership style: autocratic, democratic
o Fiedler’s contingency t.: about situation & how you can adapt
o Normative decision t.: situation but not the same as Fiedler’s
o To conclude: There are a lot of ways and approaches to what
leadership is, so what exactly is it?
 Which of the following is good leadership?
o NO: afraid of supervisor, liking the supervisor, conforming to norm
in company, receiving a bonus,
o YES: Supervisor convinces you that working should be the norm in
the company and then you adhere to it:
 Because you feel part of the company, the group goal and
you even agree to work hard to achieve that goal.
 Does leadership matter?
o CEO personality, agreeableness and openness affects behaviour of
the team which, hence, increases income growth (see pp-page 7)
o Top CEO’s add 25mil to the value of their company compared to
others
o “Good leadership has a major influence on performance
 Leaders and managers or vice versa?  NO
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 Effective vs. Good leaders

Effective leader Good leader
Objective evaluation of leadership Subjective evaluation of leadership
Someone who is successful in.. Someone who..
 Setting new goals  Has attributes we applaud
 Influencing others to achieve  Uses means we approve (e.g.
them democratic)
 Sets and achieves goals we
value (e.g. save environment)
o Examples:
 Martin Luther King:
Effective Leader: set goals and people followed him.
Good Leader: if you disagree with his values, he wasn’t a
good leader because; white people > black people
 Osama Bin Laden:
Effective Leader: set goals and people followed him.
Good Leader: if you disagree with his values, he wasn’t a
good leader.
 Sex difference
o No sex difference in leadership effectiveness
o Why women less represented?
 Drawing a leader  most people drew a male
Are Leaders born or made?
 Personality Theories – Leaders are born
o Effects of specific traits on leadership effectiveness
 Big Five (most advanced personality model)
 Most effective leaders are those who are open and
extraverted
 Other: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, neuroticism
 Behavioural Theories – Leaders are made
o Production-oriented leader
 Emphasis on technical or (groups) task aspect
o Employee-oriented leader
 Emphasis on interpersonal relations, accepts differences
among members.
 Both types are important to increase leadership
effectiveness and well-being of followers!
o Limits:
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 It depends on the context

 Democratic: good in non-stressful situations
 Autocratic: good in stressful situations
 Laissez-faire: good when group has high motivation

 Contingency Theory
o Hersey - Blanchard Situational Leadership Model
 Old model not used anymore
 Limits of old theories
o Theories focus on leader and don’t take relationship between
leader and followers into account
o Research doesn’t support these theories
Newer theories of leadership
 Leader-Member-Exchange
o Focus on relationships between leader and his subordinates
o To be effective a leader needs to
 Develop high-quality relationships
 Adopt different behaviours with individuals
o Diff. perception of members/not possible to have high LMX with all
members
 Close and most valued
 Favoured/receive benefits (material, psychological)
 Greater autonomy and responsibility given by leader
 Internalise groups goals
 Normal member
 Disfavoured/receive fewer benefits
 Little attempt by leader to motivate them
 Subordinates will simply comply with groups goals
 Most valued  Manager invests a great deal of
interpersonal energy
 Transformational Leadership
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o Focus on the way that leaders transform group goals and actions
o Inspire followers to adopt a vision make individuals better than
they are
o 4 means: charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual
stimulation and individualised consideration
o More effort undertaken for most valued followers
 Limits of both models
o Considers relationships as independent and does not take into
account the group process.
Social identity theory of leadership ( most recognised theory today!)
 Humans are Social Animals! We live and have evolved to function in
social groups, e.g. family, friends, sports events, work groups, etc.
 Identity Entrepreneurship (see Def.)
o Creating a group identity + embodiment
o E.g. Obama “Yes We can”
 Identity prototypicality
o People see themselves in the leader/ leader should be similar to
members of the group
o Experiment: When people feel they are part of the group, the
prototypical leader appears to be more appropriate and effective
 Identity advancement
o Leaders should promote core interest of the group to gain support
of the group
 Choosing more in-favour group members increases support
 Identity impresarioship
o Leaders should make the group visible to members but also to the
outside world, and impersonate the groups values/goals.
o Prison study (group identification of prisoners increased)
o Example: Nelson Mandela