Key points from the recommended books and lecture recalling....

 

Leadership

 

“The process of influencing a group toward the achievement of goals.”

  

“ Leaders are people who can influence  the behaviors of  others  without having  to rely on force; leaders are people whom others accept as leaders.”

  

“ The art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals.”

 

Leaders list on the board ( Muhammad (pbuh)........QAzam.......ZAB...Ghandi....King jr,....Jeff..Steve......other related to  business ..) in the light of vision , charisma, inspiration etc........

 

 

 

Manager vs Leader

  

Manager ability to influence people is based on formal authority given to him while leaders can influence beyond formal authority. Managers can be leaders while leaders may not be managers(i.e may not be able to plan, organize, control)

   

Leadership theories :

 

Trait Theory

 

1920’s ----- 1930’s          research focused on traits which would distinguish between a leader and non-leader.

 

Six traits of effective leadership

 ( SA Kirkpatrick and E.A Lock, “leadership:Do Traits Really Matter” Academy of management executive, May 1991.pp 48-60

Drive:

level of effort high    high desire for achievement, ambitious

lots of energy      tirelessly persistent       initiative

 

Desire to lead

Strong desire to influence and lead others

Willing to take responsibility

 

Honesty and Integrity

 

Building trusting relationship between themselves and followers by being truthful or

non-deceitful and by showing high  consistency between word and deed.

 

Self-confidence :

Self-confidence helps them convince others of their rightness of goals and decisions.

 

Intelligence:

    To gather ,synthesize and interpret amounts of  information, creat vision,solve problems and make correct decisions.

 

Job relevant knowledge:

Knowledge about the company,industry ,technical matters

   Behavioral approach/Theories 

Researchers’ hope:  The theory would not only provide definitive answers about the nature of leadership but also would have practical implication.

    

If  the Traits Theory had been successful , it would give a basis of selecting the right people to assume formal leadership positions in organization.

   

But if the behavioral studies turned up critical behavioral determinants of leadership, people could be trained to be leaders

 

Four main studies

 

University of Iowa

 

Democratic Style:  involving subordinates , delegating ,authority , and encourage participation.

Conclusion: most effective, although later studies showed mixed results.

 

Autocratic Style: dictating work methods, centralizing decision-making, and limiting participation

 

Laissez-faire style: giving group freedom to make decisions and complete work

 

Ohio State

 

 Consideration: being considerate of followers ideas and feelings  initiating structure : structuring work and work relationships to meet job goals.

 

Conclusion : high-high leader (high in consideration and high in initiating structure)  achieved high performance  and satisfaction ,but not in all situations.

 

University of Machigan:

Employee oriented: emphasized interpersonal relationships and taking care of employees’ needs

Production oriented: emphasized technical or task aspects of job

 

Conclusion:Employees-oriented leaders were associated with high group  productivity and higher job satisfaction.

 

The managerial Grid

    

Contingency Theories of leadership

 

The fiedler Contingency model

 

“ A leadership theory that proposed that effective group performance depended on the proper match between a leader’s style of interacting with his or her followers and the degree to which the situation allowed to control and influence.”

 

The premise: A certain leadership style be most effective in different situations

 

Leadership styles:

Task oriented         Relationship oriented

 

A questionnaire of 16 questions of contrasting adjectives (pleasant-unpleasant, boring-interesting, friendly-unfriendly) to rate the one co-worker who was least preferred. If the leader rated high a least preferred employee, it means he is interested in good personal relationship. Thus, he is relationship oriented.

But if the least preferred coworker was described in unfavorable terms, the leader’s style was task oriented.

 

Another assumption:  Leadership style always was the same (fixed)

 Now how to evaluate situation 

Three contingency dimensions defining key situation to find out

 

      Leader-member relations:  the degree of confidence, trust and respect employees had for their leader (rated as good or poor)

    Task structure: the degree to which job assignments were formalized and procedurized (rated as either high or low)

         The degree of influence leader had over hiring, firing, salary, discipline, salary, promotion (rated as strong or weak)

       {Each leadership situation was evaluated in terms of these three contingency variables}

 

Conclusion: There are two alternatives to improve leader’s effectiveness

     (a) Change the leader (b) change the situational factors to fit the leader

 

Criticism:  The overall validity of Fiedler’s model was found ok. But there were some shortcoming. For example, a person cannot change leadership style. But effective leaders do change and can change their style to fit the situation.

    

Situational leadership Theory

 

“ A leadership contingency theory that focuses on  followers readiness.”

 

It is the followers who accept or reject the leader, regardless of what he does; effectiveness depends on the actions of his or her followers.

 

Readiness means the ability and willingness of people to accomplish a specific task.

 

 

Controlling /Control

 

Control 

 

The process of monitoring activities to ensure that they are being accomplished as planned  and of correcting any significant deviations.

 

How controlling  contribute to goal achievement will define it effecitveness.

 

Market Control:

 

Based on external mechanism: price competition, market share

This will suit those org whose product or services face  competition in the market

Thus each divisions  is a profit center and is evaluated on its contribution  to the total corporate profits.

Resource allocation, strategic changes etc are based on such evaluation

  

Bureaucratic  Control.

 

“An approach that emphasizes  organizational authority and relies on  administrative rules, regulations, procedures, and policies.”

  

Clan Control

 

“An approach to control in which employee behavior  is regulated  by the shared values , norms, traditions ,rituals , beliefs, and other aspects of the organization’s culture.”

 

(corporate rituals)Annual employee award  dinners or holiday bonuses paly a vital role in controlling behavior.

This form of control is often used in organization where teams are often used for work activities and technology changes

 

Instead of  administrative control , employees are guided and controlled by culture

          The controlling Process 

Measuring actual performance , comparing actual performance against a standard, and taking managerial action to correct deviations.

   

Measuring  Performance:

 

Personal observation, statistical reports, oral reports(meetings, telephone calls, and conversations etc),  and written reports

 

Comparing performance:

 

The acceptable parameters  of variance between actual performance and the standard.

Determining acceptable range is important

 

Correct actual performance:

 

If the variance is unsatisfactory , the management needs to correct the situation by changing strategy, structure,compensation, training programs , redesigning jobs, or firing employees.

Revising the standard:  people will usually blame the standard as too tough etc . Students do it about their grades when they are low . Sales people about their monthly targets. But as a manager you think that the standard is achievable and reasonable then stick to it.

               Types of  control  Feedforward  Control “A type of control  that focuses on preventinganticipated problems since  it takes place in advance  of actual work activity”. In this type of control manager takes action before a  problem occure. Therefore, timely and accurate information required.    Concurrent Control “A type of control that takesplace while a work activity is in progress.”During the work . Therefore, correcting the problem before it becomes to costly. Direct supervision is best form  of this kind of control. MS word , prompts of incorrect spellings etc is another similar example Feedback Control “A type of control that takes place after a work  activity is done.”  to be edited.........   Note:All Students are advised to do extensive research on the topics included in the course outlines(except innovation and change) to be edited......

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