Creating and Sustaining Effective Teams

Session 10: Leadership & Interpersonal Trust

Leadership

• Leadership: The ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals.

• Source of influence: Both formal and informal.

• Characteristics of Team Leadership:

o Teams vary in their types of leaders, the distribution of leadership roles, and power imbued in their leaders.

o Leaders vary in the power and authority they possess.

o Leaders may be selected and assigned to the team, the team may elect the leader, or the position may be rotated among the team
members.

o When leaders are elected or rotated, they have limited power and serves primarily as facilitator of the group process.

o A designated leader with organizational power is useful when: (i) the task is complex and structure is needed, (ii) there is conflict
between the team members, and (iii) when someone is needed to manage the relationship between the team and other parts of the
organization.
Approaches to Leadership

Trait Approach Behavioral Approach

Contingency Approach
A. Trait Approach
• Focuses on personal qualities and characteristics.

• Revolves around Big 5 Personality research- Extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience is closely related
to leadership.

o Extraversion and Conscientiousness related to leaders’ self-efficacy.

• Emotional Intelligence is another important trait.

• Role of Dark Triad- Moderate level of Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Narcissism are useful traits in a leader.
• Focus: Select the right people for leadership

• Problems with the trait approach.

o Number of traits?

o Which traits are important?

o Traits can predict leadership but can not distinguish between effective and ineffective leadership.
B. Behavioral Approach

• Is there something unique in the way effective leaders behave?

• Behaviors differentiate leaders from non-leaders.

• Focus: Train people to become leaders.

• Two important focus areas to determine substantial behavioral dimensions:

1. Decision Making Focus: Examined benefits of authoritarian leadership with democratic leadership.

a) Authoritarian Leadership: Efficient decision makers but creates dissatisfaction and implementation
problems.

b) Democratic Leadership: Encourage high morale, job satisfaction, and commitment. Decision making is
slow.
2. Task versus Social Focus: Leaders’ primary role to organize and manage the task or to ensure social relations are good,
team members are satisfied and motivated?

• Ohio State Studies Results: Two important dimensions of leadership behaviors are:

i. Initiating Structure: The extent to which a leader is likely to define and structure his or her role and those of
subordinates in the search for goal attainment.

ii. Consideration: The extent to which a leader is likely to have job relationships characterized by mutual trust,
respect for subordinates' ideas, and regard for their feelings.

• University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center Results: To locate behavioral characteristics of leaders that
appeared related to performance effectiveness:

i. Employee-Oriented Leader: A leader who emphasized interpersonal relations, takes a personal interest in the
needs of employees, and accepts individual differences among members.

ii. Production-Oriented Leader: A leader who emphasizes technical or task aspects of the job.
C. Contingency Approach

• Combines traits or behaviors of good leaders with the situation.

• Starts with focusing on some characteristics of a situation, like leader-member relationship, task structure,
power position.

• Next, focus is on some aspect of the leader’s personality or behavior, like task orientation or relationship
orientation.

• These two sets of factors are linked to show how the leader should behave depending on the situation.

• Approaches to isolate situational variables:

i. The Fiedler model

ii. Situational theory

iii. Path–goal theory

i. The Fiedler Model: Proposes that effective group performance depends on the proper match between the leader’s
style and the degree to which the situation gives the leader control.

a) Identifying leadership style

• A key factor in leadership success is the individual’s basic leadership style.

• Created the least preferred co-worker (LPC) questionnaire to identify that style by measuring whether a person
is task or relationship oriented.

• Assumed an individual’s leadership style is fixed.

b) Defining the situation: Three situational dimensions:

• Leader–member relations is the degree of confidence, trust, and respect members have in their leader.

• Task structure is the degree to which the job assignments are procedurized (that is, structured or
unstructured).

• Position power is the degree of influence a leader has over power variables such as hiring, firing, discipline,
promotions, and salary increases.

• Better the leader–member relations, the more highly structured the job, and the stronger the position power, the
more control the leader has.
c) Matching Leaders and Situations

Fiedler has condensed these eight

situations down to three:

• Task-oriented leaders perform best in

situations of high and low control.
• Relationship-oriented leaders perform
best in moderate control situations.

Evaluation of Fiedler’s Model:

• Respondents’ score.
• Assumption that the leadership style is
fixed.
• Contingency variables are complex and
difficult for practitioners to assess.
Other Contingency Theories
ii. Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) focuses on the followers.

• Successful leadership depends on selecting the right leadership style contingent on the followers’
readiness, or the extent to which they are willing and able to accomplish a specific task.

• Developmental approach that assumes that one of the goals of leadership is to develop the team.
iii. Path-goal Theory: It is the leader’s job to assist followers in attaining their goals and provide the necessary
direction and support to ensure that their goals are compatible with the overall objectives of the group or
organization.

• Situation analysis determines if the leaders should be directive or supportive.

• Structured and well laid out tasks; experienced employees: Supportive leadership

• Unstructured and ambiguous tasks; inexperienced employees: Directive Leadership

Summary of Approaches to Leadership

• Personal characteristics and qualities differentiates leaders from non leaders.

TRAIT • Implication: Use tests to select leaders.
APPROACH

• Specific behaviors differentiates leaders from non-leaders.

BEHAVIORAL • Implication: Train people to become good leaders.
APPROACH

• Examine characteristics of a situation and link it to leader’s personality and behavior.

CONTINGENCY • Implication: Link traits/behaviors to situations.
APPROACH
Leader Member Exchange Theory

• Theory looks inside a team to see how leaders and members interact.

• Because of time pressure, personal compatibility, competence, personality, and certain biases, leaders form in-group and
out-groups.

• Formation of in-groups and out-groups happens early in the relationship.

• In-groups:

o Those who are in the in-groups are more trusted, get disproportionate amount of leaders’ attention, and are more
likely to receive special privileges.

o High performance ratings, less turnover, more satisfied than out-group members, display citizenship behavior.
Contemporary Leadership Theories

A. Theme: Individuals who inspire followers through words, ideas, and behaviors.

1. Charismatic Leadership: Theory states that followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership
abilities when they observe certain behaviors.

• Key characteristics: Vision and articulation, Personal risk, sensitivity to follower needs, and unconventional
behaviors

2. Transactional Leadership: Leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by
clarifying role and task requirements.

3. Transformational Leadership: Leaders who inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests and who are
capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on the followers.
B. Theme: Role of ethics and trust in leadership.

1. Authentic Leadership: Leaders who know who they are, know what they believe in and value, and
act on those values and beliefs openly and candidly.

2. Ethical Leadership: Leadership demonstrating and promoting normatively appropriate conduct

through personal actions and interpersonal relations.

3. Servant Leadership: Going beyond the leader’s own self-interest and instead focusing on
opportunities to help followers grow and develop.
 Trust and Leadership

• Trust: Psychological state that exists when you make yourself vulnerable to another because you have a
positive expectations that another will not act opportunistically.

Affective Trust: Develops due

to safe, respectful, and honest
behavior of the leader.

Cognitive Trust- Develops due to

competence and knowledge of
the leader in the domain.