Chapter 12 – Leadership and Trust
CHAPTER
12
LEADERSHIP
AND TRUST
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
12-1. Define leader and leadership.
12-2. Compare and contrast early leadership theories.
12-3. Describe the four major contingency leadership theories.
12-4. Describe modern views of leadership and the issues facing today’s leaders.
12-5. Discuss trust as the essence of leadership.
Management Myth
MYTH: Leadership can’t be taught.
TRUTH: Evidence suggests that while there are personality traits associated with leadership and
that these traits are more due to nature than nurture, leadership can be taught.
Teaching Tips:
As the topic of leadership is introduced to students, it is important to communicate that the study of
leadership is more of an art than a science. While there are several theories introduced in this
chapter, what makes a manager a great leader is still a little unclear. As you explore this opening
case with students, you might want to get them to think about the following dynamics that may be at
play:
1. A lot of managers/leaders berate employees. Is there a difference when the leader berating an
employee is a woman as opposed to a man?
2. As discussed in the previous chapter, not everyone is motivated in the same way. Could the
sailors’ problems with Capt. Graf have been among the minority?
3. Is it possible that Graf’s ineffective leadership style resulted in her getting promoted to bigger
ships? This question could lead to a discussion of the ‘Peter Principle.’
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Chapter 12 – Leadership and Trust
I. WHO ARE LEADERS, AND WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?
Introduction
1. A leader is someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority.
2. Leadership is a process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve
its goals. It’s what leaders do.
3. Because leading is one of the four management functions, ideally all managers
should be leaders.
From the Past to the Present
Both the Ohio State and Michigan studies have added a lot to our understanding of effective
leadership. The research showed both leader behavior dimensions—job-centered and
employee-centered—in the Michigan studies, and initiating structure and consideration in the
Ohio State studies are necessary for effective leadership. Leaders are expected to focus on both
the task and on the people he or she is leading. Finally, these early behavioral studies were
important for the “systematic methodology they introduced and the increased awareness they
generated concerning the importance of leader behavior.” The behavioral theories “served as a
springboard for the leadership research that followed.”
Discuss This:
Is saying that the leader’s “job” is to focus on the task and focus on the people too
simplistic? Explain.
How did the behavioral theories serve as a springboard for the leadership research that
followed?
Teaching Tips:
As college professors, we are leaders in our own way. It may be useful to get students to think
about the leadership behaviors that we exhibit in and out of class. What do professors provide
in the way of initiating structure? What do professors provide in the way of consideration?
How do showing these behaviors lead to students’ participation in the course and their
perceptions of the professor?
II. WHAT DO EARLY LEADERSHIP THEORIES TELL US ABOUT LEADERSHIP?
A. Introduction
1. Actual studies of leadership began in the twentieth century.
2. Early leadership theories focused on the person (leader trait theories) and the
behaviors – how the leader interacted with his or her group members (behavioral
theories).
B. What Traits do Leaders Have?
1. The average person’s definition of leadership.
a) Qualities such as intelligence, charisma, decisiveness, enthusiasm, strength,
bravery, integrity, and self-confidence.
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Chapter 12 – Leadership and Trust
b) These responses represent, in essence, trait theories of leadership.
2. If the concept of traits were to prove valid, all leaders would have to possess
specific characteristics.
3. Research efforts at isolating these traits resulted in a number of dead ends.
4. Attempts failed to identify a set of traits that would always differentiate leaders.
5. However, attempts to identify traits consistently associated with leadership have
been more successful.
a) Eight traits on which leaders are seen to differ from non-leaders include drive,
the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence,
job-relevant knowledge, extraversion, and proneness to guilt (See Exhibit
12-1).
6. Explanations based solely on traits ignore the interactions of leaders and their
group members as well as situational factors.
a) Possessing the appropriate traits only makes it more likely that an individual
will be an effective leader.
7. A major move away from trait theories began in the 1940s as researchers turned to
finding preferred behavioral styles that leaders demonstrated.
C. What Behaviors do Leaders Exhibit?
1. It was hoped that the behavioral theories would provide more definitive answers.
a) If behavioral studies were correct, we could train people to be leaders.
b) We shall briefly review the most popular studies: studies at the University of
Iowa; the Ohio State group; the University of Michigan studies, and the
managerial grid.
2. What Did the University of Iowa Tell Us About Leadership Behavior?
a) One of the studies at the University of Iowa identified three leadership
behaviors, or styles: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire.
b) An autocratic style tends to centralize authority, dictate work methods, etc.
c) The democratic style tends to involve employees in decision making, delegates
authority, encourages participation in deciding work methods, and uses
feedback to coach employees.
d) The laissez-faire leader generally gives employees complete freedom.
e) Which one of the three leadership styles was most effective?
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Chapter 12 – Leadership and Trust
1) Democratic leadership style could contribute to both quantity and high
quality of work.
2) Later studies of autocratic and democratic styles of leadership showed
mixed results.
3. What Did the Ohio State Studies Show?
a) Two dimensions: consideration and initiating structure.
1) Consideration: being considerate of followers’ ideas and feelings.
2) Initiating structure: structuring work and work relationships to meet job
goals.
b) High-high leader (high in consideration and high in initiating structure)
achieved high subordinate performance and satisfaction, but not in all
situations.
4. How Did the University of Michigan Studies Differ?
a) Two dimensions of leadership behavior – employee-oriented and
production-oriented.
1) Employee-oriented leaders emphasized interpersonal relations, took a
personal interest in employees’ needs, and accepted individual differences
among members.
2) The production-oriented leaders emphasized the technical aspects of the
job.
b) The Michigan researchers strongly favored leaders who were
employee-oriented.
D. What Is the Managerial Grid?
1. A two-dimensional view of leadership.
a) Based on the styles of “concern for people” and “concern for production.”
2. Blake and Mouton concluded that managers perform best using a 9, 9 style.
What Now?
1. Dual nature of leader behaviors—focusing on the work to be done and focusing on
the employees—is an important characteristic of each of these studies.
2. Leadership researchers were discovering that predicting leadership success
involved something more complex than isolating a few leader traits or preferable
behaviors.
3. They began looking at situational influences. Specifically, which leadership styles
might be suitable in different situations and what were these different situations?
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Chapter 12 – Leadership and Trust
III. WHAT DO THE CONTINGENCY THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP TELL US?
A. Introduction
1. Four contingency theories: Fielder, Hersey-Blanchard, leader-participation, and
path-goal.
a) Each looks at defining leadership style and the situation, and attempts to
answer the if-then contingencies.
B. What was the First Comprehensive
Contingency Model?
1. The first comprehensive contingency model for leadership was Fiedler’s
contingency model.
2. Effective group performance depends on the proper match between the leader’s
style of interaction and the degree to which the situation gives control and
influence to the leader. (See Exhibit 12-2.)
3. Fiedler developed an instrument, the least-preferred co-worker (LPC)
questionnaire, that measures the leader’s behavioral orientation—either task
oriented or relationship oriented.
4. Fiedler argued that leadership style is innate to a person—you can’t change your
style.
5. It is necessary to match the leader with the situation based on three criteria.
a) Leader-member relations—the degree of confidence, trust, and respect
subordinates have in their leader.
b) Task structure—the degree to which the job assignments of subordinates are
structured or unstructured.
c) Position power—the degree of influence a leader has over power variables
such as hiring, firing, discipline, promotions, and salary increases.
6. The next step is to evaluate the situation in terms of these three contingency
variables.
a) The better the leader-member relations, the more highly structured the job, and
the stronger the position power, the more control or influence the leader has.
b) Fiedler concluded that task-oriented leaders perform best in situations that are
very favorable or very unfavorable to them.
c) A moderately favorable situation, however, is best handled through
relationship-oriented leadership.
7. Problems exist with the Fiedler model.
a) The LPC is not well understood and scores are not stable over time.
b) The contingency variables are complex and difficult for practitioners to assess.
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How do Followers’ Willingness and Ability Influence Leaders?
1. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard developed the situational leadership model.
a) Called situational leadership (SL), it shows how a leader should adjust
leadership style to reflect what followers need.
2. A contingency theory that focuses on the followers.
a) Successful leadership is contingent on the follower’s level of readiness.
3. Why focus on the followers? And what do they mean by the term readiness?
a) This emphasis reflects the reality that it is the followers who accept or reject
the leader.
b) Regardless of what the leader does, effectiveness depends on the actions of his
or her followers.
c) The term readiness refers to the extent that people have the ability and the
willingness to accomplish a specific task.
4. Hersey and Blanchard identify four specific leadership styles.
a) Telling (high task–low relationship): The leader defines roles and tells people
what, how, when, and where to do various tasks.
b) Selling (high task–high relationship): The leader provides both directive and
supportive behavior.
c) Participating (low task–high relationship): The leader and followers share in
decision making; the main role of the leader is facilitating and communicating.
d) Delegating (low task–low relationship): The leader provides little direction or
support.
5. The most effective behavior depends on a follower’s ability and motivations shown
as four stages of readiness.
a) R1: If a follower is unable and unwilling, the leader needs to display high task
orientation.
b) R4: At the other end of the readiness spectrum, if followers are able and
willing, the leader doesn’t need to do much.
6. SLT has an intuitive appeal—it acknowledges the importance of followers and
builds on the idea that leaders can compensate for the lack of ability and
motivation of their followers.
7. Research efforts to test and support the theory have generally been mixed.
D. How Participative Should a Leader Be?
1. Back in 1973, Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton developed a leader-participation
model.
a) It related leadership behavior and participation to decision making.
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Chapter 12 – Leadership and Trust
2. Recognizing that task structures have varying demands for routine and nonroutine
activities, these researchers argued that leader behavior must adjust to reflect the
task structure.
a) Vroom and Yetton’s model was normative—it provided a sequential set of rules
to be followed in determining the form and amount of participation in decision
making in different types of situations.
3. The model was a decision tree incorporating seven contingencies and five
alternative leadership styles.
a) More recent work by Vroom and Arthur Jago revised that model.
4. The new model retains the same five alternative leadership styles but expands the
contingency variables to twelve. (See Exhibit 12-3.)
5. Research testing the original leader-participation model was very encouraging.
a) But the model is far too complex for the typical manager to use regularly.
b) The model has provided us with some solid, empirically supported insights into
key contingency variables related to leadership effectiveness.
c) The model confirms that leadership research should be directed at the situation
rather than at the person.
d) Vroom, Yetton, and Jago argue against the notion that leader behavior is
inflexible.
E. How Do Leaders Help Followers?
1. Another approach to understanding leadership, developed by Robert House, is
path-goal theory.
2. House identified four leadership behaviors:
a) The directive leader tells employees what is expected of them, schedules work,
and gives specific guidance as to how to accomplish tasks. It parallels initiating
structure.
b) The supportive leader is friendly and shows concern for the needs of
employees. It is essentially synonymous with the dimension of consideration.
c) The participative leader consults with employees and uses their suggestions
before making a decision.
d) The achievement-oriented leader sets challenging goals and expects employees
to perform at their highest levels.
3. In contrast to Fiedler, House assumes that leaders are flexible.
a) Path-goal theory implies that the same leader can display any or all leadership
styles, depending on the situation.
4. Exhibit 12-4, path-goal theory proposes two classes of contingency variables:
a) Those in the environment that are outside the control of the employee (task
structure, the formal authority system, and the work group).
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1) Environmental factors determine leader behavior required if employee
outcomes are to be maximized.
b) Those that are part of the personal characteristics of the follower (locus of
control, experience, and perceived ability).
1) Personal characteristics determine how the environment and leader
behavior are interpreted.
c) The theory proposes that leader behavior will be ineffective when it is
redundant to sources of environmental structure or incongruent with
subordinate characteristics.
5. Research to validate path-goal predictions is encouraging, although not all support
is positive.
a) The majority of the evidence supports the logic underlying the theory.
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