CH-7-8 Leadership – Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work : Chapter Notes

This Document Contains Chapters 7 to 8 Chapter 7 Leadership Chapter Overview This chapter provides a discussion of the nature of leadership. The chapter begins with a discussion of leadership behavior, situational aspects, and the concept of leaders as followers. Contingency approaches to leadership style are then presented, including the Fiedler model, the Hersey and Blanchard model, and the path-goal model. The final sections of the chapter include discussions of the supervisor’s unique leadership role and emerging approaches to leadership. Chapter Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, students should be able to understand: 1. The nature of leadership and followership 2. The difference between traits and behaviors 3. Different leadership styles 4. Early approaches to leadership 5. Contingency approaches to leadership 6. Substitutes for leadership 7. Coaching as a leadership role Discussion and Project Ideas The initial sections of the chapter describe the nature as well as various types of leadership. The chapter also differentiates between leadership and followership and explains why each one is important. The chapter is designed to test the leadership abilities of the students and make them understand the nuances of leadership. In addition, the various models of leadership are described in detail. Initiate the following discussions among the students. These discussions will help students understand some basics about leadership: • What traits and behaviors characterize many effective leaders? How about the ineffective leaders? • Think of a national or international leader such as U.S. President Barack Obama or Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel. What positive leadership characteristics have they exhibited? Did they exhibit any leadership weaknesses or deficiencies? • Negative (or bad, bullying) leadership is still in use today—especially in some countries. Why do you think this primitive and dysfunctional behavior still persists? Lecture Outline The Nature of Leadership • Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others (both individually and collectively) to work enthusiastically toward achieving shared objectives. o It is the critical factor that helps an individual or groups identify its goals, and then motivates and assists in achieving the stated goals. • There are three important elements of leadership: o Influence/support o Voluntary effort o Goal achievement • Leadership is the catalyst that transforms potential into reality • The ultimate test of leadership is the degree to which it identifies, develops, channels, and enriches the potential that is already there in an organization and its people—and then sustains it across both good and bad times. • Leadership approaches are descriptive, offering a variety of ways in which the actions of leaders differ. o For example, leaders can be positive or negative, autocratic or participative, employee-oriented or task-oriented. • Contingency approaches are more analytical, encouraging managers to examine their situation and select a style that best fits it. Management and Leadership • The primary role of a leader is to influence others to voluntarily seek defined objectives. • Managers are involved in: o Planning activities o Organizing appropriate structures o Controlling resources • Managers hold formal positions; leaders can be anyone with informal influence. o Managers achieve results by directing the activities of others, whereas leaders create a vision and inspire others to achieve this vision and to stretch themselves beyond their normal capabilities. o Because there is a substantial difference between management and leadership, strong leaders may still be weak managers if poor planning causes their group to move in the wrong directions. o A Weak leader can still be a reasonably effective manager, especially if she or he happens to be managing people who have a clear understanding of their jobs and a strong internal drive to work. • Leadership ability can be acquired and improved through: o The study of leadership research o Observation of effective role models o Participation in management training o Learning from work experiences • As managers are promoted to higher levels of responsibility, they must learn to change roles. o Executives must shift from bricklayer to architect, problem solver to agenda setter, tactician to strategist, and specialist to generalist. Traits of Effective Leaders • Traits are physical, intellectual, or personality characteristics. • The current research on leadership traits suggests that some factors do help differentiate leaders from non leaders. o The most important (primary) traits are:  A high level of personal drive (characterized by energy, determination, willpower, and tenacity)  The desire to lead (motivation to influence others)  Personal integrity (sense of ethics, honesty, and authenticity)  Self-confidence (optimism and belief in self-efficacy as a leader)  Authenticity (being real and genuine; believable) o Secondary traits include:  Cognitive (analytical)ability  Business knowledge  Charisma  Creativity  Flexibility (resilience)  Personal warmth (sociability, humility, and modesty) • Leadership traits do not necessarily guarantee successful leadership. o They are best viewed as personal competencies or resources that may or may not be developed and used. • Some leaders (such as Vladimir Putin, president of Russia), exhibit negative traits (paranoia, anger, inflexibility) that can be dysfunctional for their unit’s performance and their personal success. o One common negative trait is narcissism, in which leaders become filled with their own importance, exaggerate their own achievements, seek out special favors, and exploit others for their personal gain. • Unless it is carefully controlled, narcissism is at best self-deceptive and at worst produces leaders who are dangerously overconfident—power-seeking persons who desperately want to feed their own egos. o This leads them to disregard the rights of others, dismiss the importance of empathy, and fail to appreciate the feelings of their subordinates. • Other leaders may act in a manner similar to alpha dogs, who are intensely aggressive, egocentric, domineering, and controlling. o Alpha dogs in the corporate world ruthlessly use their personal characteristics, skills, or positions to intimidate others and maintain personal control; predictably, this produces an unhealthy environment for most employees. • Humble Leaders: o Exhibit self-awareness o Are open to new ideas from others o Are candid about their own limitations o Acknowledge their mistakes o Often project an aura of calmness and quietness • Followers of humble Leaders feel more valued, experience psychological freedom, and increase their level of engagement with the organization. Leadership Behavior • Successful leadership depends more on appropriate behavior, skills, and actions than on personal traits. o The difference is similar to that between latent energy and kinetic energy in physics:  One type (traits) provides the basic potential and the other (the behaviors, skills, and actions) is the successful release and expression of those traits, much like the kinetic energy. • The three broad types of leadership skills: o Technical o Human o Conceptual • Technical Skill o Technical skill refers to a person’s knowledge of, and ability in, any type of process or technique. o Technical skill is the distinguishing feature of job performance at the operating and professional levels, but as employees are promoted to leadership responsibilities, their technical skills become proportionately less important. (Figure 7.2) o In many cases, managers have never practiced the technical skills that they supervise. • Human Skill o Human skill is the ability to work effectively with people and to build teamwork. o It involves a wide range of behaviors such as:  Energizing individuals  Giving feedback  Coaching  Care-giving  Demonstrating empathy and sensitivity  Showing compassion and support for those who need it o One Gallop poll showed that most workers rated “having a caring boss” as more valuable than monetary rewards and fringe benefits. o No leader, at any level, escapes the requirement for effective human skill. • Conceptual Skill o Conceptual skill is the ability to think in terms of models, frameworks, and broad relationships, such as long-range plans. o It becomes increasingly important in higher managerial jobs. o Conceptual skill deals with ideas, whereas human skill concerns people, and technical skill involves things. Situational Flexibility • Successful leadership requires behavior that unites and stimulates followers toward defined objectives in specific situations. • Three variables that affect one another in determining appropriate leadership behavior: o Leader o Followers o Situation • To try to have all an organization’s leaders fit a standard pattern will suppress creative differences and result in inefficiency as well. • Although leadership involves a set of behaviors, it is more than mere activity. o Aggressiveness and constant interaction with others will not guarantee good leadership. • At times the appropriate leadership action is to: o Stay in the background, keeping pressures off the group o Keep quiet so others may talk o Be calm in times of uproar o Hesitate purposefully o Delay decisions • At other times, leaders may need to be more decisive, directive, and controlling. • The key task of leaders is to recognize different situations and adapt to them on a conscious basis. Followership • With few exceptions, leaders are also followers. o They nearly always report to someone else. o Even the president of a firm reports to a board of directors or trustees • Leaders must be able to relate effectively, both upward and downward. • Just as leaders give something to their superiors and employees, they need validation from higher authority as much as they need support from followers. o In formal organizations of several levels, ability to follow (dynamic subordinancy) is one of the first requirements for good leadership. o Being an effective follower is a testing ground for future leaders o Skillful performance in current roles unlocks the door to future leadership opportunities. • Many people fail in their jobs not as a result of any skill deficiencies, but because they lack followership skills. o These skills help employees support their current leader, be effective subordinates, and play constructive team roles. • Positive followership behaviors include: o Being loyal and supportive, a team player o Becoming actively engaged by pursuing dialogues and generating suggestions o Acting as a devil’s advocate by raising penetrating questions o Constructively confronting the leader’s ideas, ethical values, and actions o Anticipating potential problems and actively preventing them • Negative followership behaviors often involve: o Competition (opposing the leader so as to be in the limelight) o Uncritical (being a “yes” person who automatically agrees) o Rebellion (actively opposing a good leader, or supporting a bad one) o Passivity (failing to actively participate when the opportunity is provided to them) • Good followers need to succeed at their own jobs while helping their managers succeed at theirs o At the same time, subordinates must prepare themselves for promotion by developing conceptual and leadership skills. o Similarly, good leaders never forget when it is like in the trenches • Many effective leaders remind themselves of the importance of followership roles by periodically spending time, visiting their stores, working a shift in a plant, doing other things to remain in contact with first-level employees. Behavioral Approaches to Leadership Style • The total pattern of explicit and implicit leaders’ actions as seen by employees is called leadership style. • Leadership style represents a consistent combination of: o Philosophy o Skills o Traits o Attitudes • Each style reflects, implicitly or explicitly, a manager’s beliefs about subordinates’ capabilities—theory X or theory Y. o Employee perceptions of leadership style are all that really matters to them. o Employees respond to what they perceive leaders are, not just to what leaders think and do and say and intend. Positive and Negative Leaders • Positive leadership emphasizes rewards (economic or otherwise) and a supportive approach. o Better employee education, greater demands for independence, and other factors have made satisfactory employee motivation more dependent on positive leadership. o Positive leaders are also more likely to use a conversational approach to their communications, characterized by four primary features:  Intimacy (using physical and emotional proximity to “get close” to the employees; gaining trust, listening well, and soliciting feedback)  Interactivity (promoting open and fluid dialogue between two parties)  Inclusion (increasing emotional engagement by soliciting the knowledge, ideas, and reactions of others)  Intentionality (having a sense of intended outcomes so that the purpose is clear) • Negative leadership emphasizes on the use of threats, fear, harshness, intimidation, and penalties. o This approach may possibly get acceptable short-term performance in many situations, but has high human costs. o This type of leader acts domineering and superior with people. o To get work done, they hold over their personnel such penalties as:  Loss of job  Reprimand in the presence of others  A few days off without pay  They display authority in the false belief that it frightens everyone into productivity o They are bosses who are feared more than leaders who are admired. • Negative leaders are usually known as workplace bullies, but they have no more place in work organizations than in the elementary school playground. o These bullying bosses intimidate, ridicule, insult, blame, bark, harass, and make unreasonable demands. o Some effects on employees are subtle but no less real (psychological distress), while other effects involve undesired behaviors (e.g., absenteeism or turnover) or performance declines. o Worst of all, bullying by one manager begets bullying by others, who reflect the same behaviors that they see in their superiors or peers. • A continuum of leadership styles exists ranging from strongly positive to strongly negative. o Most managers use a mix of positive and negative styles every day, but the dominant style sets a tone within the group. • Style is related to one’s model of organizational behavior. o The autocratic model tends to produce a negative style. o The custodial model is somewhat positive. o The supportive, collegial, and system models are clearly positive. • Positive leadership generally results in higher job satisfaction and performance Autocratic, Consultative, and Participative Leaders • The way in which a leader uses power establishes a type of style: autocratic, consultative, or participative. o Each style has benefits and limitations. o A leader often uses all three styles over time, but one style tends to dominate. • Autocratic leaders centralize power and decision making in themselves. o They structure the complete work situation for their employees, who are expected to do what they are told and not think for themselves. o The leader takes full authority and assumes full responsibility. o This style is typically negative, based on threats and punishment, but it can appear to be positive as demonstrated by the benevolent autocrat who chooses to give some rewards to employees. o Some advantages of autocratic leadership include:  Satisfying for the leader  Permits quick decisions  Allows the use of less competent subordinates  Provides security and structure for employees o Disadvantages of autocratic leadership include:  Most employees dislike it, especially if it is extreme enough to create fear and frustration.  It seldom generates strong organizational commitment that leads to lower turnover and absenteeism. • Consultative leaders approach one or more employees and ask them for input before making a decision. o The leader may then choose to use or ignore information and advice received. o If the input is seen as used, employees are likely to feel as though they had a positive impact. o If inputs are consistently rejected, it will have a negative impact on employees. • Participative leaders clearly decentralize authority. o Participative decisions are not unilateral, as with the autocrat, because they use inputs from followers and participation by them. o The leader and group are acting as a social unit. o Employees are informed about conditions affecting their jobs and encouraged to express their ideas, make suggestions, and take action. o The general trend is toward wider use of participative practices because they are consistent with the supportive, collegial, and systems models of organizational behavior and because they are strongly desired by many younger employees. Leader Use of Consideration and Structure • Two different leadership styles used with employees are consideration and structure, also known as employee orientation and task orientation. • Considerate leaders are concerned about the human needs of their employees. o They try to build teamwork, provide psychological support, and help employees with personal problems. o They invite suggestions, listen with open minds, explain their own reasoning, and cultivate a network of supporters. • Task-oriented leaders o Keep people constantly busy o Closely monitoring employee actions o Ignore personal issues and emotions o Urge employees to produce • Consideration and structure are somewhat independent of each other, so they should not necessarily be viewed as opposite ends of a continuum. o A manager may have to use both orientations in varying degree. o The most successful managers are those who combine relatively high consideration and structure, giving somewhat more emphasis to consideration. • Early research on consideration and structure was done at the University of Michigan and at the Ohio State University. o In several types of environments, the strongly considerate leader was shown to have achieved somewhat higher job satisfaction and productivity. o Subsequent studies confirm this general tendency and report desirable side benefits, such as lower grievance rates, lower turnover, and reduced stress within the group. o Turnover, stress, and other problems seemed more likely to occur if a manager was unable to demonstrate consideration. • There has been much debate in recent decades about the glass ceiling in organizations—an invisible barrier that has prevented many females from reaching important positions. o Women tend to exhibit consideration-oriented qualities (friendly, compassionate, kind, sympathetic), whereas men tend to display more aggressive, forceful, and controlling (structure-oriented) characteristics. o Frustratingly, men can show both sets of features without penalty, whereas women are commonly criticized if they accent their “softer” side. • Models of leadership that incorporate consideration and structure (or similar behaviors) have been useful for highlighting multiple dimensions of leadership, getting managers to think and talk about their styles (and the impact of them), and stimulating debate and further studies about leadership. Contingency Approaches to Leadership Style • The prime need for leaders is to be able to identify when to use a different style. o A number of models have been developed that explain these exceptions, and they are called contingency approaches.  These models state that the most appropriate style of leadership depends on an analysis of the nature of the situation facing the leader. o Key factors in the situation need to be identified first.  When combined with research evidence, these factors will indicate which style should be more effective under certain types of conditions. Fiedler’s Contingency Model • An early, but controversial, contingency model of leadership was developed by Fred Fiedler and his associates. o This model builds upon the previous distinction between task and employee orientation. o It suggests that the most appropriate leadership style depends whether overall situation is favorable, unfavorable, and intermediate stage of favorability. • Fiedler shows that a leader’s effectiveness is determined by the interaction of employee orientation with three additional variables that relate to the followers, the task, and the organization: leader–member relations, task structure, and leader position power. o Leader–member relations are determined by the manner in which the leader is accepted by the group. o Task structure reflects the degree to which one specific way is required to do the job. o Leader position power describes the organizational power that goes with the position the leader occupies. • The relationship among these variables is shown in Figure 7.3. o High and low employee orientations are shown on the vertical scale. o The eight distinct combinations of the other three variables are shown on the horizontal scale (leader favorableness). o Each dot on the chart represents the data from a specific research project. o The chart clearly shows that the considerate employee-oriented manager is most successful. o At the chart’s extremes, which represent conditions either quite favorable or quite unfavorable to the leader, the structured task-oriented leader seems to be more effective. o If leader–member relations are positive, the situation is favorable for task-oriented leaders who can use their strengths. o A structured leader is more effective in a position of weak power, low task structure, and poor leader–member relations. • The conclusions of the Fiedler model may be explained in the following manner: o In highly unstructured situations, the leader’s structure and control are seen as removing undesirable ambiguity and anxiety that results from it, so a structured (task-oriented) approach may actually be preferred by employees. o In situations where the task is highly routine and the leader has good relations with the employees, employees may prefer a task orientation as supportive to their job performance (clearing the path). o The remaining broad middle ground requires better leader-member relations to be established, so a more considerate, employee-oriented leader is effective. • Despite criticism, Fiedler’s contingency model has played a major role in stimulating discussions on leadership style and in generating useful guidelines. o For example, managers are encouraged to:  Use their analytical skills to examine their situation—the people, task, and organization  Draw upon their research-based knowledge to see the causal relationship between situation and style effectiveness  Be flexible in the contingent use of various skills within an overall style  Reflectively modify elements of their situations to obtain a better match with their preferred style  Examine a subordinate’s preferred style before placing him/her in a supervisory role Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership • The situational leadership (life cycle) model was developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard. o This model suggests that the most important factor affecting the selection of a leader’s style is the development (maturity) level of a subordinate. • Development level is the task-specific combination of an employee’s task competence and motivation to perform (commitment). • Development level is assessed by examining: o An employee’s level of job knowledge, skill, and ability o An employee’s willingness and capacity to take responsibility and to act independently  Employees typically (according to Theory Y assumptions) become better developed on a task as they receive appropriate guidance, gain job experience, and see the rewards for cooperative behavior. • Both the competence to perform a given task and the commitment to do so can vary among employees; therefore different development levels demand different responses from leaders. • Hersey and Blanchard combined guidance and supportive (also called task and relationship) orientations to create four major styles: o Telling o Selling (coaching) o Participative (supporting) o Delegating  These are matched with the development levels of employees, suggesting that leadership style should not only vary with the situation, but evolve over time toward the delegating style. • Advantages of this model are as follow: o It is simple and intuitively appealing o It accents an important contingency factor (the individual employee’s capabilities on a specific task), that is sometimes often overlooked. • Some of the drawbacks of the situational model are as follows: o It ignores several other critical elements that determine leadership style o It does not have a widely accepted research base. • Despite its limitations, the situational model has achieved considerable popularity and also awakened many managers to the idea of contingency approaches to leadership style. Path-Goal Model of Leadership • Path-goal leadership states that the leader’s job is to use structure, support, and rewards to create a work environment that helps employees reach the organization’s goals. o The two major goals are to create a goal orientation and to improve the path toward the goals so they will be attained. • Figure 7.5 shows the path-goal process. o Leaders identify employee needs, provide appropriate goals, and then connect goal accomplishment to rewards by clarifying expectancy and instrumentality relationships. o The expected results of the process include job satisfaction, acceptance of the leader, and greater motivation. • Leaders need to provide a balance of both task and psychological support for their employees. o They provide task support when they help assemble the resources, budgets, power, and other elements necessary to get the job done.  Equally important, they can remove environmental constraints that sometimes inhibit the performance of the employee. o Leaders must also provide psychological support to stimulate people to want to do the job and to attend to their emotional needs. • Leadership Styles o According to path-goal theory, the leader’s roles are to help employees understand what needs to be done (goal) and how to do it (path). o Leaders must decide which style to use with each employee; the path-goal model identifies four alternatives:  Directive leadership—the leader focuses on clear task assignments, standards of successful performance, and work schedules.  Supportive leadership—the leader demonstrates concern for employees’ well-being and needs, while trying to create a pleasant work environment.  Achievement-oriented leadership—the leader sets high expectations for employees, communicates confidence in their ability to achieve challenging goals, and enthusiastically models the desired behavior.  Participative leadership—the leader invites employees to provide input to decisions, and seriously seeks to use their suggestions as final decisions are made. • Contingency Factors o Two major factors must be analyzed—the general work environment and the specific characteristics of the employee. o In the work environment, a leader must identify:  Whether the employee’s task is already structured or not.  Whether the formal authority system is most compatible with a directive or participative approach.  Whether the existing work group already provides for satisfaction of employee social and esteem needs. o The leader must assess three significant variables of each employee.  Locus of control—alternative beliefs about whether an employee’s achievements are the product of his or her own effort (an internal locus, which is more compatible with a participative style) or the result of outside forces (an external locus, which is more receptive to a directive approach).  Willingness to accept the influence of others—if this variable is high, a directive approach will be more successful; if it is low, a participative style is more appropriate.  Self-perceived task ability—employees who have high confidence in their potential will react most favorably to a supportive leader; alternatively, employees lacking a perception of their own task ability will more likely embrace an achievement-oriented leader. o Stereotypically, Generation Y employees have a stronger internal locus of control, an unwillingness to accept the influence of superiors, and a strong image of their own task competence, capacity to learn, and ability to act independently. o The path-goal model has made a contribution by identifying additional contingency variables, as well as broadening the range of leader behaviors to choose from.  It is also pragmatic since it explicitly relates leadership style to an underlying motivational model. o Existing research indicates that use of the model does correlate with employee satisfaction with leadership, but its impact on performance is not yet fully documented. Vroom’s Decision-Making Model • A useful decision-making model for selecting among various degrees of leadership style (autocratic to participative) was developed by V. H. Vroom and others. o They recognized that problem-solving situations differ, so they developed a structured approach for managers to examine the nature of those differences and to respond appropriately. • Problem Attributes o This model helps managers assess a current decision situation along five-point scales according to its problem attributes:  How important is technical quality with regard to the decision being made?  How important is subordinate commitment to the decision (employee acceptance)?  Do you already have sufficient information to make a high-quality decision?  Is the problem well structured?  If you made the decision, would the subordinates be likely to accept it?  Do subordinates share the goals to be attained in solving the problem?  Is there likely to be conflict among subordinates over alternative solutions?  Do subordinates have sufficient information to allow them to reach a high-quality solution? o Decision-quality dimensions include cost considerations, the availability of information and whether or not the problem is structured. o Employee-acceptance dimensions include:  The need for their commitment.  Their prior approval.  Congruence of employee’s goals with that of the organization.  The likelihood of conflict among employees. • Leadership Options o After the type of problem being faced is determined, guidelines are then offered to help managers select one of five approaches to use. o These considerations all have an impact on the choice of whether to use a more autocratic or a more consultative approach from among the five described below:  Autocratic I—leader individually solves the problem using information already available.  Autocratic II—leader obtains data from subordinates and then decides.  Consultative I—leader explains problem to individual subordinates and obtains ideas from each before deciding.  Consultative II—leader meets with group of subordinates to share the problem and obtain inputs, and then decides.  Group II—leader shares problem with group, facilitates a discussion of alternatives, and then reaches group agreement on a solution. • The usefulness of Vroom’s model rests on several key assumptions: o Managers can accurately classify problems according to the criteria offered. o Managers are willing and able to adapt their leadership style to fit the contingency conditions they face for each major decision. o Managers are willing to use a rather complex analytical model. o Employees will accept the logic of different styles being used for different problems. o Employees will accept the validity of a leader’s classification of the situation. Alternative Perspectives on Leadership • Despite the seemingly substantial differences among the leadership models, they are remarkably consistent in some way. o Figure 7.7 identifies their common emphasis on “hard” and “soft” factors. Neutralizers, Substitutes, and Enhancers for Leadership • Previous leadership models suggests that a formal leader is necessary to provide task direction, structure, and rewards, plus the consideration and social support that employees require. o Unfortunately, these leadership roles may create an unhealthy dependency on leaders that stifles the growth and autonomy of subordinates. o A leader may also lack the necessary traits, knowledge, and skills needed to fulfill the roles, or they may not be able to be present at all times. • Neutralizers can also intervene—these are attributes of subordinates, tasks, and organizations that actually interfere with or diminish the leader’s attempts to influence the employees. o Neutralizers include physical distance, rigid reward systems, and a practice of bypassing the managers by either subordinates or superiors. • Substitutes for leadership are factors that make leadership roles unnecessary through replacing them with other sources. o Examples of such factors are listed in Figure 7.8; they are found in the contingency factors of the task, organization, and employees. • If the situation or leader cannot be readily changed, there may be substitutes or even enhancers for leadership. o Substitutes for leadership are factors that make leadership roles unnecessary through replacing them with other sources.  Presence of such substitutes as strong subordinate experience, clear rules, or a cohesive work group helps decrease the need for a leader’s traditional task orientation.  Other factors, such as intrinsically satisfying tasks, professional orientations by employees, or an employee’s high need for independence, may diminish the need for a leader’s consideration-oriented behavior. o Enhancers for leadership are elements that amplify a leader’s impact on the employees.  A directive orientation may be improved by an increase in the leader’s status or reward power or when that leadership style is used in jobs with frequent crises. • A supportive leadership style may be enhanced by encouraging more team-based work activities or by increasing employee participation in decision making. • The important contribution of the neutralizers/substitutes/enhancers approach is that it gives organizations an alternative remedy where it is not feasible to replace or train the leader or to find a better match between leader and job. Coaching • Coach is a rapidly-emerging metaphor for the leader. • Coaching means that the leader prepares, guides, and directs a “player” but does not play the game. o These leaders recognize they are on the sidelines, not on the playing field. o Their role is to select the right players, to teach and develop subordinates, to be available for problem-oriented consultation; to review resource needs, to ask questions, and to listen to inputs from employees. • Coaches see themselves as cheerleaders and facilitators. o They recognize the occasional need to be tough and demanding o They focus on enhanced performance supported by high expectations and timely feedback • One role of any executive—and managerial coaches in particular—is that of sensemaking. • According to psychologist Karl Weick, sensemaking is similar to cartography (map making). o It is the process of finding order in complex or ambiguous situations requiring situation awareness, data gathering from multiple sources, the two-way act of fitting data into a mental model and/or adapting a mental framework to fit the data, and checking with others on an ongoing basis to gain from their perspectives. o The product—making sense of the world around oneself—is never-ending and often requires other persons (coaches and collaborators) for assistance. • Good coaching focuses mostly on enhanced performance as supported by high expectations and timely feedback while building on the tools of trust, mutual respect, integrity, openness, and common purpose. • The specific areas in which most managers need coaching are as follows: o Improving their interaction style o Dealing more effectively with change o Developing listening and speaking skills • Prerequisites to successful coaching are as follows: o Willingness to change o Capability of changing o Opportunity to practice new behaviors An Integrative Model of Leadership Behaviors • Gary Yukl and his colleagues developed a proposed taxonomy of leadership behaviors. o This taxonomy identifies four major categories and fifteen component behaviors, as follows:  Task-oriented (accomplishing objectives by clarifying, planning, and monitoring operations; problem solving)  Relations-oriented (improving human capital by supporting, developing, recognizing, and empowering people)  Change-oriented (stimulating creativity, mutual learning, and environmental adaptation by envisioning, advocating, and encouraging change)  External-oriented (acquiring resources for the organization and promoting the unit to its stakeholders by networking, external monitoring, and engaging in representational behaviors) Other Approaches • Two other perspectives on leadership are visionary leadership and the reciprocal nature of influence. o Visionary leaders can paint a portrait of what the organization needs to become and then use their communication skills to motivate others to achieve the vision.  This is especially important during times of transition o A second approach looks at the reciprocal nature of influence between managers and their employees and studies the exchanges that take place between them.  This approach serves as the basis for participative management in which both parties give and gain something. Chapter 8 Empowerment and Participation Chapter Overview This chapter discusses what empowerment and participation are, management programs that foster them, their benefits, and their limitations. The chapter begins with discussions on the nature of empowerment and the nature of participation. The next section is devoted to discussing how participation works as a process. Prerequisites for participation as well as its benefits are presented. The final section of the chapter describes and reviews several types of participation programs. Chapter Objectives After reading this chapter, students should be able to understand: 1. The nature of empowerment and its prerequisites 2. The participative process 3. Benefits of participation 4. Types of participative programs 5. Limitations of participation 6. Servant leadership Discussion and Project Ideas Of all the ideas in organizational behavior, participation is among those with major potential. Participation historically was absent from the employment environment. People were told what to do, and that was all. Even now, as more participative activities are brought into work, some managers look upon participation as merely a device to manipulate their personnel. The objective of this chapter is to explain that participation is something more than manipulation and to present a general discussion of participation. The following exercises and assignments should help to demonstrate and achieve these objectives. • After seeking consent from your students, have each student submit his or her name and whether or not the course is a requirement or an elective. Check the correlation between voluntary participation and students’ grades after the first exam. Discuss the reasons for the correlation. Also discuss variables which may reduce the size of the correlation between voluntary participation and grades. • Ask students to research the dynamics of the student protests in U.S. colleges and universities during the 1960s and 1970s with regard to the students’ demand for more voice in curriculum and other administrative decisions. What level of participation was sought by the protesters? What programs exist on campus today as a result? Which programs discussed in the text could be instituted today, if they have not been? Are there any reasons that today’s students may not be as desirous as their predecessors of such participation? • Invite a representative from an organization in the community which has developed a program or policies that encourage participation. Have this individual explain the results of the program and its relative advantages and disadvantages. • If you assign a term paper, programs on employee participation may be good subjects. Encourage students to start their papers by reviewing the end-of-chapter references and then to progress to library research. Many programs in other countries, such as Germany, Denmark, Yugoslavia, and Japan, are quite different from the programs typical in this county and may be interesting topics for papers. • Have students research organizations that have implemented successful and unsuccessful participation programs. Instruct students to summarize the reasons for success and failure and how long did implementation take (if available). Lecture Outline Introduction • An employee orientation and a participative style are often important for effective leadership. o Participation has excellent potential for developing employees and building teamwork, but it is a difficult practice and can fail if it is poorly applied or if executives do not truly believe in its value. o Used effectively, two of the best results are acceptance of change and a strong commitment to goals that encourage better performance. The Nature of Empowerment and Participation What is Empowerment? • Many employees believe that they are dependent on others and that their efforts will have little impact on performance. o This powerlessness contributes to the frustrating experience of low self-efficacy—the conviction among people that they cannot successfully perform their jobs or make meaningful contributions.  Problems with self-efficacy are often caused by major organizational changes that are beyond the employees’ control (such as mergers). o Problems may also stem from having to work:  Under an authoritarian leader  Within a reward system that fails to reinforce competence or innovation  In a job that lacks variety, discretion, or role clarity • Feelings of low self-efficacy are similar to the imposter phenomenon in which individuals at all levels and in all industries fail to acknowledge properly their own expertise and accomplishments. o They feel like a fake and erroneously attribute their success to luck, charm, personal contacts, or timing, instead of talent, competence, or perseverance. • Individual perceptions of low levels of self-efficacy can be raised by empowering employees. o Empowerment is any process that provides greater autonomy to employees through the sharing of relevant information and the provision of control over factors affecting job performance. o Empowerment helps remove the conditions that cause powerlessness while enhancing employee feelings of self-efficacy. o Empowerment authorizes employees to cope with situations and enables them to take control of problems as they arise. • Five broad approaches to empowerment: o Helping employees achieve job mastery o Allowing more control o Providing successful role models. o Using social reinforcement and persuasion o Giving emotional support • When managers use the empowerment approaches, employees believe that: o They are competent and valued o They truly have some autonomy o Their jobs have meaning and impact o They have opportunities to use their talents • When employees have been legitimately empowered, their efforts are more likely to result in personal satisfaction and the kind of results that the organization values. • Figure 8.1 shows In the process of empowerment, powerlessness is diminished and self-efficacy enhanced. • Managers use behavioral tools to attack the powerlessness problem, such as: o Mutual goal setting o Job feedback o Modeling o Contingent reward systems o Participative management What is Participation? • Participative managers consult with their employees, bringing them in on problems and decisions so they work together as a team. • Participative managers are not autocrats, but neither are they managers who abandon their management responsibilities. o They have learned to share operating responsibility with those performing the work. o The result is that employees feel a sense of involvement in group goals. • Participation is the mental and emotional involvement of people in group situations that encourages them to contribute to group goals and share responsibility for them. • Involvement o Participation means meaningful involvement rather than mere muscular activity.  A person who participates is ego-involved instead of merely task-involved. o Some managers mistake task involvement for true participation which often leads to empty managerial actions that constitutes pseudo participation (fake involvement, or merely a façade).  As a result of employees fail to become ego-involved. • Motivation to Contribute o Participation stimulates people to contribute. o Participation is what motivates people to release their resources of initiative and creativity toward the objectives of the organization. o Participation differs dramatically from consent.  Consent uses only the creativity of the manager; consenters merely acquiesce and passively approve ideas.  Participation is more than getting consent for something that has already been decided; its great value is that it taps the creativity of all employees. o Participation especially improves motivation by helping employees understand and clarify their paths toward goals.  According to the path-goal model of leadership, improved understanding of path-goal relationships produces a heightened sense of responsibility for goal attainment; therefore resulting in improved motivation. • Acceptance of Responsibility o Participation encourages people to accept responsibility in their group’s activities.  It is a social process by which people become self-involved in an organization, committed to it, and want to see it work successfully. o Participation helps employees become good organizational citizens who take ownership for results rather than non-responsible, machinelike performers. o As individuals begin to accept responsibility for group activities, they see in it a way to accomplish a job for which they feel responsible.  This idea of getting the group to want teamwork is a key step to developing a successful work unit.  Under these conditions, employees see managers as supportive contributors to the team. o Employees are likely ready to work actively with managers rather than reactively against them. Why is Participation Popular? • Participation can have statistically significant effects on performance and satisfaction. o These benefits were first demonstrated experimentally in classic studies in industry by Roethlisberger, Coch and French, and others.  Conducted by skillful social scientists under controlled conditions, these experiments were useful in drawing attention to the potential value of participation.  Their collective results suggested the general proposition that, especially in the introduction of changes, participation tends to improve performance and job satisfaction. • Global market competition is causing keen interest in any managerial practice that offers to aid in the attraction or retention of qualified employees, increase productivity, or to speed the introduction of products to market. o Participative practices expedite these goals by placing more responsibility at lower levels of the organization and speeding up the approval process. o Participative practices may also provide power opportunities earlier to minority workers in an increasingly diverse workforce, since such workers need not wait until reaching higher organizational levels before being allowed to contribute meaningfully. • Participation helps satisfy the awakening employee need for meaning and fulfillment at work. o The search for spirit or harmony among all facets of life as guided by a higher (religious) power has challenged organizations to search for ways to restore a “soul” to their workplaces.  These organizations have found that employees are searching for a sense of significance, the opportunity to use their minds, and a chance to devote their efforts to a higher purpose in their work. • Other reasons for the popular use of participative practices are noteworthy. o The education level of the workforce often provides workers with unique capacities that can be applied creatively to work problems.  These employees also acquire a greater desire for influencing work-related decisions.  They have a strong expectation that they will be allowed to participate in these decisions. • A strong argument can be made that participation is an ethical imperative for managers. o This view rests on the conclusion that highly nonparticipative jobs cause both psychological and physical harm to employees in the long run. o A participative approach is the ‘right’ thing to do if a manager cares about employee welfare. o Managers need to create participative conditions that will allow interested employees to experience feelings of empowerment in their work. How Participation Works The Participative Process • A simple model of the participative process is shown in Figure 8.3. • Participative programs often result in mental and emotional involvement that produces generally favorable outcomes for both the employees and the organization. o Participating employees are generally more satisfied with their work and their supervisor, their stress from working under an authoritarian manager diminishes, and their self-efficacy rises as a result of newfound empowerment. The Impact on Managerial Power • Leader-Member Exchange o Participation is a sharing process between managers and employees. o Participation is built upon the leader-member exchange model of leadership. o This model suggests that leaders and their followers develop a unique reciprocal relationship with the leaders selectively delegating, informing, consulting, mentoring, praising, or rewarding each employee.  In exchange, subordinates contribute various degrees of task performance, loyalty, and respect to the manager.  The quality of the relationship varies, depending on the balance of exchanges made with some employees attaining favored status (the in-group); others perceiving unfairness in their treatment (the out-group). o If a manager believes that an employee has high ability and that a high-quality exchange relationship exists, the manager is more likely to allow a greater degree of influence in decisions.  Some managers feel that allowing participation will reduce their authority however this is not true as participative managers often still retain final authority.  All they do is share the use of authority so employees will experience a greater sense of involvement in the organization. o Managers engage in a two-way social exchange with workers, in contrast to imposing ideas from above.  They demonstrate their trust in employee potential by giving employees some power, and they receive employee creativity and commitment in return. • Two Views of Power o Strange as it may seem, participation actually may increase the power of both managers and their employees.  The autocratic view of management is that power is a fixed quantity; is legitimate, and flows downward, so someone must lose what another gains.  The participative view is that power in a social system can be increased without taking it from someone else (Figure 8.4). o Managerial power depends partly on:  Employee trust in management  A feeling of teamwork  A sense of responsibility o Participation improves the managerial power conditions through the application of socialized power.  Since employees feel more cooperative and responsible, they are likely to be more responsive to managerial attempts to influence them.  Employees feel supported, enabled, and more capable. Prerequisites for Participation • The success of participation is directly related to how well certain prerequisite conditions are met. o Some of these conditions occur in the participants; others exist in their environment. • Major prerequisites include: o Adequate time to participate o Potential benefits greater than costs o Relevance to employee interests o Adequate employee abilities to deal with the subject o Mutual ability to communicate o No feeling of threat to either party o Restriction to the area of job freedom  The area of job freedom for any department is its area of discretion after all restraints have been applied. • Within the area of job freedom, participation exists along a continuum (Figure 8.6). o Over time, a manager will practice participation at various points along the continuum, sometimes moving up and down on the diagonal line. o Each manager gradually becomes identified with a general style of participation as a usual practice. Contingency Factors • Several contingency factors influence the success of participative programs. They may be found in the: o Environment o Organization o Leadership o Nature of the tasks performed o Employees • Emotional Intelligence o Emotional intelligence is the combination of two personal abilities—self-awareness and self-management—and two social competencies—social awareness and relationship management. o Emotional intelligence means being aware of and understanding one’s own feelings, realizing why one feels that way, and managing one’s own feelings effectively. o A parallel set of skills deals with a leader’s ability to assess and manage the emotions of employees by using:  Empathy  Compassion  Optimism  Humor  Integrity  Caring  Persuasiveness o Emotional intelligent leaders build the kind of relationship with employees that assures them that their talents and inputs will be used effectively for the benefit of all.  Managers who are low in emotional intelligence typically lack the sensitivity to employee emotions and needs, and are unlikely to be able to use participative approaches effectively.  Effective leaders set an example through their sensitivity, persuasiveness, humility, and comfort with ambiguity to build a strong feeling of trust in the organization. • Differing Employee Needs for Participation o Some employees desire more participation than others. o Educated and higher-level workers often seek more participation, because they feel more prepared to make useful contributions.  When they are not allowed to contribute, they tend to have lower performance, less satisfaction, lower self-esteem, and more stress. o Other employees desire only minimum participation and are not upset if they are not actively involved. o The difference between an employee’s desired and actual participation gives a measure of the potential effectiveness of participation, assuming that the employee has the ability to contribute.  When employees want more participation than they have, they are “participatively deprived” and there is under-participation.  When they have more participation than they want, they are “participatively saturated” and there is over-participation. o Under-participation or over-participation causes people to be less satisfied than those who participate in a degree that closely matches their needs. This relationship is shown in Figure 8.7. o Participation is not something that should be applied equally to everyone. • Responsibilities of Employees and Managers o The success of any participative program depends on the degree to which all employees recognize that the opportunities provided are accompanied by a set of responsibilities. o Ideally, all employees would agree to:  Be fully responsible for their actions and their consequences  Operate within the relevant organizational policies  Be contributing team members  Respect and seek to use the perspectives of others  Be dependable and ethical  Demonstrate responsible self-leadership o Responsibilities of employees provide a balance to those of the manager:  Identifying the issues to be addressed  Specifying the level of involvement desired  Providing relevant information  Providing relevant information and training (in advance)  Allocating fair rewards Programs for Participation • Some types of participative programs o Suggestion programs o Quality circles o Total quality management o Rapid cycle decision making o Self-managing teams o Employee ownership plans o Flexible work arrangements • One or more of these programs can be used within a single company. • Programs can vary substantially in their o Nature o Formality o Degree of direct or indirect involvement o Opportunity to exert influence o Time of involvement • When a company uses either a very significant approach with widespread application or a sufficient number of programs to develop a substantial sense of empowerment among its employees, it is said to practice participative management. Suggestion Programs • Suggestion programs are formal plans to invite individual employees to recommend work improvements. o In most companies, the employee whose suggestion results in a cost savings may receive a monetary award in proportion to the first year’s savings. • Only a small fraction of employees are usually active participants who regularly make suggestions in most firms. • Delays in processing suggestions and rejections of seemingly good ideas can cause a backlash among contributors. • Some supervisors have difficulty looking constructively upon the suggestions and instead view them as criticisms of their own ability and practices. Quality Emphasis • Both union and nonunion firms have organized groups of workers and their managers into committees to consider and solve job problems; these groups may be called: o Work committees o Labor-management committees o Work-improvement task forces o Involvement teams • These groups of workers have broad usefulness for improving productivity and communications because most of the employees can be involved. • Popular approaches to problem solving are quality circles and total quality management. • Quality Circles o Quality circles are voluntary groups that receive training in process improvements and problem-solving skills and then meet to produce ideas for improving productivity and work conditions.  They meet regularly, apply problem analysis/problem-solving skills and statistical tools, and generate solutions for management to evaluate and implement. o Quality circles gained utility as an involvement technique in the United States and Europe after achieving widespread success and popularity in Japan. o The quality-circle approach helps employees feel that they have some influence on their organization, even if not all their recommendations are accepted by higher management. o Quality circles provide opportunities for personal growth, achievement, and recognition. o Further, employees are more committed to the solutions they generate, because they “own” them. o To be successful, quality circles should follow these guidelines:  Use them for measurable, short-term problems.  Obtain continuous support from top management.  Apply the group’s skills to problems within the circle’s work area.  Train supervisors in facilitation skills.  View quality circles as one starting point for other more participative approaches to be used in the future. • Total Quality Management o Not all quality circles are successful; and some firms using quality circles experienced a number problems with them including:  Not all employees participate  Trivial issues may be addressed first  Some groups may feel isolated in their efforts  An impact could not be seen on the larger organization o In response to this checkered experience, continued competitive pressures, and the opportunity to compete for national recognition, some companies have initiated a total quality management (TQM) program, in which:  Every employee gets involved in the process of searching for continuous improvements in their operation.  Quality of products and services becomes a rallying cry for employees to focus on.  Every step in the firm’s processes is subjected to intense and regular scrutiny for ways to improve it.  Employees are trained extensively in problem solving, group decision making, and statistical methods.  The total quality management approach constitutes a formal program with direct participation of all employees.  Almost any issue is subject to exploration, and the process is a continuing one of long duration. Rapid-Cycle Decision Making • Involving employees in participative processes typically takes time and draws them away from immediately-productive tasks. o One solution lies in the use of a rapid-cycle decision-making process. Its highlights are these:  Creation of a project steering committee  Identification of a constituent group of possibly affected employees  Framing of key issues and presentation via one-page overviews  Distribution by email, with opportunity to comment and return votes cast for approval/ disapproval  Ruling that non-response on a timely basis implies lack of interest in that issue, and hence willingness to support the collective decision  Final judgments made by the steering committee where consensus could not be achieved o This participative process is time-efficient, inclusive, genuine, transparent, and yields definitive outcomes. Self-Managing Teams • Some firms have moved beyond limited participation, allowing a number of major decisions to be made by employee groups. o This approach incorporates extensive use of group discussion, which makes full use of group ideas and group influence. • A more formal version of the group-decision approach is the self-managing team. • They are sometimes called semi-autonomous work groups or sociotechnical teams, Self-managing teams are natural work groups that are given a large degree of decision-making autonomy. o They are expected to control their own behavior and results. o The manager’s role is diminished (or dramatically changed) as team members acquire new skills. Employee Ownership Plans • Employee ownership of a firm emerges when employees provide the capital to purchase control of an existing operation. o The stimulus often comes from threatened closings of marginally profitable plants, where workers see little hope of other employment in a devastated local economy. • On the surface, these plans appear to offer the highest degree of participative decision making, as employees take control. o However, employee ownership plans do not necessarily result in greater day-to-day control or direct involvement by employees in key decisions o Moreover, compensation gaps between workers and management may widen and labor-management relations deteriorate from previous levels. Flexible Work Arrangements • Employees today value autonomy, choice, empowerment, and control. • A parallel need is for an increasingly greater (and healthier) balance between the demands of work and family life. o One broad response to these pressures is to grant employees more flexibility (independent choice) in determining how, when, and where work gets done. • A variety of flexible work arrangements are now offered by a majority of U.S. employers. The primary forms include: o Telecommuting—working part or full time off-site, often at home, using electronic technology to communicate with coworkers and receive/submit work products. o Compressed workweeks—adding hours to some days of work so as to have lessened work—or no work—on other days. o Job sharing—two persons sharing one full-time position by dividing up the tasks and hours of work to provide the equivalent of full coverage. o Flexible schedules—employees are allowed to choose their starting and ending times of work, provided that they are present for an employer-defined set of core hours. o Part-time work—employees contract for a limited number of hours per week. o Time away from work—employees are allowed to take personal time off [PTO] for a wide variety of reasons such as military service, volunteerism, maternity/paternity, family illness, or stress relief. Important Considerations in Participation Benefits of Participation • Participative programs in various types of organizations under many different operating conditions, participation has contributed to a variety of benefits, such as: o Higher output o Better quality of output o Lead to ideas that produce genuine long-run improvements o Improved motivation o Improved self-esteem, job satisfaction and cooperation with management o Reduced conflict and stress o More commitment to goals o Better acceptance of change o Reduced turnover and absences o Organizational changes can be implemented more rapidly o Establishes better communication Limitations of Participation • The strong push toward participation is partially offset by other factors pushing in the opposite direction. • Some managers have difficulty adjusting to their new roles in a high-involvement system o They may cling to Theory X beliefs and assumptions o They may fear losing status as decision makers o They may believe that they will have less power and control than previously • Other impediments to success: o An organization’s failure to properly prepare either managers or employees for new roles. o Lack of support for, or even resistance to, participative programs by top management. A New Role for Managers • In order for participative programs to work best, managers need to start relinquishing their roles of judge and critic and begin viewing themselves as partners with employees. o Their new role invites them to view themselves as stewards (caretakers, guardians, and developers) of a broad range of human and technical resources. o This stewardship paradigm shifts their emphasis from exclusively direction and control to that of servant leadership, where their challenge is to help others attain relevant goals while developing their skills and abilities. • The essence of servant leadership is placing the needs of others above one’s own self-interest. o The goal is to help others develop their talents fully, make meaningful contributions, and succeed. o To accomplish this, servant leaders typically exhibit several key behaviors:  Listen actively and empathetically  Engage in introspection to understand better their own attitudes and feelings  Treat others with respect, as equals  Admit to mistakes, confess their own vulnerability, and ask for help from others  Seek to engage in dialogue and often paraphrase to ensure understanding  Affirm the worth and contributions of each participant  Willing to admit mistakes and ask for help  Build trust by articulating their values and acting consistently with them  Place great emphasis on helping other people succeed Concluding Thoughts • In spite of limitations, participation generally has achieved substantial success and popularity. • The demand of younger employees to gain more power and use their talents is neither a passing fancy nor a competitive advantage to be ignored. • The need for participation is a basic drive in human beings. • Employees want some control over things that affect them and some meaning in their work. • Leaders must devote long-range efforts and continuing discussion toward promoting participation as a means of building some of the human values needed at work. Instructor Manual for Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work John W. Newstrom 9780078112829, 9781259254420