a.
II. Challenges to Our Understanding of Leadership
A. Introduction
1. Much of an organization’s success or failure is due to factors outside the influence of
leadership. In many cases, success or failure is just a matter of being in the right or
wrong place at a given time.
B. Leadership as an Attribution
1. As you may remember from Chapter 6, attribution theory examines how people try to
make sense of cause-and-effect relationships.
people make about other individuals.
b. We attribute to leaders intelligence, outgoing personality, strong verbal skills,
aggressiveness, understanding, and industriousness.
2. One longitudinal study of 128 major U.S. corporations found that whereas
whether they blame the leader for failure, regardless of how the leader assesses
himself or herself.
3. We also make demographic assumptions about leaders.
a. Respondents in a study assumed a leader described with no identifying racial
company.
i. In scenarios where identical leadership situations are described but the
leaders’ race is manipulated, white leaders are rated as more effective than
leaders of other racial groups.
has decreased over time.
c. Other data suggest women’s perceived success as transformational leaders may be
based on demographic characteristics.
improving positive relationships within the group.
4. Attribution theory suggests what’s important is projecting the appearance of being a
leader rather than focusing on actual accomplishments.
effective leaders.
C. Substitutes and Neutralizers to Leadership
1. Data from numerous studies collectively demonstrate that, in many situations,
whatever actions leaders exhibit are irrelevant.
procedures, and cohesive work groups can also replace formal leadership, while
follower outcomes. (Exhibit 12-8)
2. Sometimes the difference between substitutes and neutralizers is fuzzy.
substitute for them, or both?
doesn’t necessarily mean leadership doesn’t.
D. Selecting Leaders
1. The entire process that organizations go through to fill management positions is
essentially an exercise in trying to identify individuals who will be effective leaders.
conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
i. High self-monitors are better at reading situations and adjusting their behavior
accordingly.
especially in situations requiring transformational leadership.
iii. Broad experience is a poor predictor of leader effectiveness, but
situation-specific experience is relevant.
2. Some organizations seem to spend no time on leadership succession and are surprised
when their picks turn out poorly.
E. Training Leaders
1. Billions are spent on leadership training and development every year.
leadership-training budgets:
a. Leadership training is likely to be more successful with individuals who are high
self-monitors than with low self-monitors.
b. Second, organizations can teach implementation skills.
c. We also can teach skills such as trust building, mentoring, and situational-analysis
skills.
bottom-line results.
III. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Leadership plays a central part in understanding group behavior, because it’s the leader
who usually directs us toward our goals.
B. Knowing what makes a good leader should thus be valuable in improving group
performance.
personality and leadership.
D. The behavioral approach’s major contribution was narrowing leadership into
task-oriented (initiating structure) and people-oriented (consideration) styles.
E. By considering the situation in which the leader operates, contingency theories promised
to improve on the behavioral approach.
Specific implications for managers are:
1. For maximum leadership effectiveness, ensure that your preferences on the initiating
structure and consideration dimensions are a match for your work dynamics and
culture.
2. Hire candidates who exhibit transformational leadership qualities and who have
openness, which may indicate leadership readiness.
3. Hire candidates whom you believe are ethical and trustworthy for management roles
leadership effectiveness and reduce abusive supervision.
4. Seek to develop trusting relationships with followers, because, as organizations have
rules in defining expectations and relationships.
5. Consider investing in leadership training such as formal courses, workshops, rotating
job responsibilities, coaching, and mentoring.
Career OBjectives
How can I get my boss to be a better leader?
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the central tenets and main limitations of behavioral theories
Learning Outcomes: Discuss the influence of culture on organizational behavior; Summarize the major theories of
and approaches to leadership
AACSB: Diverse and multicultural work environments; Reflective thinking
My boss is the CEO, and she’s a gossipy, in-your-business oversharer. She’s always asking our
top management team personal questions and shares information with anyone. The other day, I
caught her e-mailing my colleague about my salary and career prospects! What should I do about
her poor leadership?—Phil
Dear Phil,
Nobody likes an oversharer! Perhaps your boss isn’t aware of the impact of her behavior and
thinks she is just being friendly. Assuming this is the case, you might be able to make her think
first before sharing. If you’re comfortable addressing her, you may suggest a private meeting to
discuss your concerns. You should bring a list of the types of information she solicits and shares
—with an example or two—and, if she’s open to discussion, problem-solve with her about her
habit. She may see that her “open book” approach is undermining her leadership effectiveness.
Another tactic might start with your researching the best privacy practices, laws, and business
guidelines. Be sure to source your organization’s HR handbook for any mentions of privacy
expectations. Then in your meeting you could present your research findings. With both direct
approaches, you run the risk of offending your boss, which may very well happen if she becomes
embarrassed. Moreover, she may defend her behavior if her oversharing is actually strategic
gossip and not see the problem, which could have ramifications for what she then thinks and says
about you!
These approaches still might be worth trying, but from what you’ve said about her, it’s highly
unlikely she will change her general behavior. Research indicates that her personal tendencies
will prevail over time. It sounds like she is extraverted, for instance—you’re not going to change
that. She may be clever and manipulative, purposefully leveraging her information for personal
gain without a concern for others (high-Machiavellian or narcissistic). In that case self-awareness
can help, but her behavior won’t change unless she is willing to practice self-regulation.
Perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t seem that you like your boss. This may be a real problem
that you cannot surmount. How are you going to build a relationship of trust with her, trust that
will be needed for you to continue to feel motivated and work hard? Unfortunately, if you cannot
thrive in this environment, it may be best to move on.
Good luck for your best possible outcome!
Sources: A. E. Colbert, M. R. Barrick, and B. H. Bradley, “Personality and Leadership Composition in Top Management Teams: Implications
for Organizational Effectiveness,” Personnel Psychology 67 (2014): 351–387; R. B. Kaiser, J. M. LeBreton, and J. Hogan, “The Dark Side of
Personality and Extreme Leader Behavior,” Applied Psychology: An International Review 64, no. 1 (2015): 55–92; and R. Walker, “A Boss Who
Shares Too Much,” The New York Times, December 28, 2014, 7.
Myth or Science?
“Top Leaders Feel the Most Stress”
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Describe the contemporary theories of leadership and their relationship to foundational
leadership
Learning Outcomes: Discuss the influence of culture on organizational behavior; Summarize the major theories of
and approaches to leadership
AACSB: Reflective thinking
register stress. Another study found that individuals in higher-status occupational groups
registered less perceived stress and lower blood pressure readings than those in lower status
occupations.
If you’re thinking this is one more reason why “it’s better at the top,” you may be right, if only
plenty of employees to carry out their directives therefore can fight stressors before they affect
them.
Sources: M. Korn, “Top-Level Leaders Have Less Stress Than Others,” The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2012, B6; G. D. Sherman, J. J. Lee,
A. J. C. Cuddy, et al. “Leadership Is Associated with Lower Levels of Stress,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United
571–-577.
Class Exercise
1. Divide students into groups of three to five.
2. Ask students to extend the discussion in this feature by looking at the two perspectives of
stress and top leaders at:
tml
INC, “How to Beat CEO
Burnout”:http://www.inc.com/tom-searcy/how-to-beat-ceo-burnout.html
3. Based on this information, ask each group to develop recommendations to help an
organization deal with stress at different levels of management.
role.
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education),
(http://go.secondlife.com/landing/education/) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-ke-anna-sk
ipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
MyLab Management
Watch It!
Leadership (TWZ Role Play)
exercise.
MyLab Management
Personal Inventory Assessments
Ethical Leadership Assessment
If you’ve ever worked for someone who was an unethical leader, you know the importance of
MyLab Management
Try It!
Leadership and Teams; Leadership
If your instructor has assigned this activity, go to www.pearson.com/mylab/management to complete the video
exercise.
An Ethical Choice
Holding Leaders Ethically Accountable
This exercise contributes to:
and approaches to leadership
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking
Most people think that leaders should be held accountable for their actions. Leaders must
balance many and conflicting stakeholder demands. The first, largely unspoken, demand is
for strong financial performance; leaders are probably terminated more often for missing this
leadership. Consider, for example, legendary management guru Peter Drucker’s advice
(1967): “It is the duty of the executive to remove ruthlessly anyone—and especially any
manager—who consistently fails to perform with high distinction. To let such a man stay on
corrupts the others.” Modern ethical leadership guidelines say this cut-throat mindset fails to
Sources: T. E. Ricks, “What Ever Happened to Accountability?,” Harvard Business Review, October 2012, 93–100; J. M. Schaubroeck et
al., “Embedding Ethical Leadership Within and Across Organizational Levels,” Academy of Management Journal 55 (2012): 1053–1078;
and J. Stouten, M. van Dijke, and D. De Cremer, “Ethical Leadership,” Journal of Personnel Psychology 11 (2012): 1–6.
Class Exercise
Servant-Leadership”
https://apscomunicacioenpublic.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/larry-spears-practicing-servant-leadershi
p.pdf
3. Each team should prepare a training plan to develop organizational managers to the
servant leadership style.
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education),
(http://go.secondlife.com/landing/education/) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-ke-anna-sk
ipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
Point/Counterpoint
CEOs Start Early
This exercise contributes to:
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Point
If you really get down to specifics, you can see that CEOs start in leadership roles early in life.
They have similar backgrounds, childhood challenges, and coping strategies. In fact, it’s easy to
see a CEO-in-the-making at your neighborhood lemonade stand.
American Water, learned as a child that “no matter how bad things get, it’s about working hard
and taking personal responsibility, because nobody owes you anything.” Frei “had an opportunity
to do big things early on. When I was 6 years old, my dad . . . put me in the pickup, put it in first
gear, and I drove it home with my 5-year-old sister in the passenger seat.” Many CEOs grow up
and captain of that.”
Clearly, CEOs start early.
Counterpoint
CEOs who start early have good stories to tell when they become successful, but that doesn’t
of CEOs.
First, we know that much of our personality is attributable to genetics, but it’s incorrect to infer
that we can (a) map the genetic trail for a personality trait from ancestors to CEO, or (b) tell
where a young person’s traits will lead. Likewise, we can’t say that if the parents are successful
through industriousness, their children will be. Story’s parents worked in a cotton mill and a
like them.”
Second, what child is raised without responsibilities? None, even if all they have to do is go to
school. There are plenty of CEOs who had a lot of responsibilities growing up, and others who
did not. Munson’s parents “emphasized two things. One was education, and the other was
participating in 4-H.” Zecher “had a paper route. I was a girl scout, and I was involved in a lot of
clubs and sports in high school.”
Sources: A. Bryant, “A Good Excuse Doesn’t Fix a Problem,” The New York Times, December 28, 2014, 2; A. Bryant, “Always Respect the
Opportunity,” The New York Times, October 19, 2014, 2; A. Bryant, “Don’t Let Your Strengths Run Amok,” The New York Times, May 18,
2014, 2; A. Bryant, “Knowing Your Company’s Heartbeat,” The New York Times, May 30, 2014, B2; A. Bryant, “The Danger of ‘One Size
Fits All,’” The New York Times, March 29, 2015, 2; A. Bryant, “The Job Description Is Just the Start,” The New York Times, September 14,
Academy of Management Journal 57, no. 3 (2014): 652–674.
Class Exercise
1. Ask students to read the following web page at Telegraph, “Heroes Are Born Not Made,
Scientists Claim”:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/4636614/AAAS-Heroes-are-born-not-made-scienti
sts-claim.html
occurring stress controls in crisis situations.
3. Ask student teams of three to five students each to do a search to determine if stress
control can be developed in anyone, making it more likely that he or she will respond
calmly and rationally to a crisis situation.
4. Have each team present its findings to the class.
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education),
(http://go.secondlife.com/landing/education/) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-ke-anna-sk
ipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.