Sammanfattning Leadership in Organizations av Gary Yukl PDF

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Sammanfattning av boken Leadership in Organizations av Gary Yukl (2013)....

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Chapter 1: The Nature of Leadership Different conceptions of leadership; it (the word leadership) carries extraneous

connotations that create ambiguity of meaning (Janda, 1960) ● Leadership has been defined in terms of traits, behaviours, influence, interaction patterns, role relationships and occupation of an administrative definition ○ Researchers usually define leadership according to their individual perspectives and the aspects of the phenomenon of most interest to them ○ Most definitions reflect the assumption that it involves a process whereby intentional influence is exerted over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization ■ Most behavioral scientists and practitioners believe that leadership is important for the effectiveness of organizations ○ Definitions differ in many respects ■ who exerts influence ■ the intended purpose of the influence ■ the manner in which influence is exerted ■ outcome of the influence attempt ○ Differing definitions means that deep disagreement between researchers about identification of leaders and leadership processes ● Controversy: Specialized role vs. Shared Influence Process ○ Specialized role: leadership functions cannot be shared too widely without jeopardizing the effectiveness of the group ■ In the group it is clear who is the leader and who are the followers ■ Research in the topic often revolves around ● attributes that determine selection of leader ● typical behavior of leader ● effects of behavior on other group members ○ Shared influence process: various leadership functions may be carried out by different people who influence what the group does, how it is done, and the way people in the group relate to each other

■ Important decisions are made through interactive processes involving many different people who influence each other ■ Research in the topic often revolves around ● Complex influence processes that occur among members ● Context and conditions that determine when and how they occur ● Processes involved in the emergence of informal leaders ● Consequences for the group or organization ● Controversy: type of influence process ○ What type of influence is exercised and what is the outcome? ■ Some theorists limit the definition of leadership to the exercise of influence resulting in enthusiastic commitment ● Use of control over rewards and punishments to manipulate or coerce followers is not leading; unethical ■ Opposing view is that this definition excludes influence processes that are important in the understanding of effective and ineffective leadership ● The ethical use of power should not limit the definition of leadership ● Controversy: purpose of influence attempts ○ Leadership occurs only when people are influenced to do what is ethical and beneficial for the organization and themselves; leaders motive must be selfless ○ Opposing view is that leadership occurs when people are influenced, regardless of leaders motive or beneficiary ■ Through the usually both positive and negative outcomes of leader actions it is difficult to determine the motive behind them and should therefore not limit the definition of leadership ● Controversy: influence based on reason or emotions ○ More recent conceptions of leadership propose that only the emotional, value-based aspects of leadership influence can account for the exceptional achievements of groups and organizations

■ Previously the emotional influence was rarely discussed ○ Opposing view is that neither rational nor emotional influence processes should be excluded from the definition of leadership ● Controversy: Direct vs. Indirect leadership ○ Direct: behaviors used to directly influence immediate subordinates ■ Memos and reports to employees, meetings, speeches, etc. ○ Indirect: behaviors used to influence other members of the organization who the leader does not have direct interaction with ■ Cascading: setting an example which influences employees at lower levels of the organisation ■ Influence over formal programs, management systems and structural forms, this influences attitudes, skills, behaviors and performance of employees ■ Influence over the organization culture, strengthening current culture or changing it ○ When using both direct and indirect leadership their effects can be magnified ● Controversy: leadership or management ○ Leadership and management are qualitatively different and mutually exclusive; leaders and managers are completely different types of people ■ Stereotypes presume that managers are more ineffective; care about short-term goals, impersonal, getting people to perform better whereas a leader is seen as the opposite ○ Kotter (1990) proposed that managing seeks to produce predictability and order, whereas leading seeks to produce organizational change ■ Balance between the two is important, but both are necessary in an organization ● Too much managing leads to a non risk taking bureaucracy with no clear purpose ○ But more management is needed when an organization becomes larger and more complex ● Too much leading leads to disrupted order and impractical change

○ But more leadership is needed when the external environment becomes more dynamic and uncertain ○ Rost (1991) proposed that management is an authority-subordinate relationship, whereas leadership is a multidirectional influence, leader-follower relationship with a mutual motive of change ■ Leading is NOT necessary for a manager to be effective in selling/producing goods and services, but it is essential for major changes to be implemented on a larger scale because authority is seldom a sufficient basis for gaining commitment ● There is no single “correct” definition of leadership ○ Yukl’s definition: Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. ○ Includes: ■ Efforts to influence and facilitate the current work of the group or organization ■ Efforts to ensure that it is prepared to meet future challenges ■ Direct and Indirect influence ■ One leader or many leaders ○ The definition of leadership is not limited to processes that necessarily result in “successful” outcomes. ○ The focus is clearly on the process, not the person, and they are not assumed to be equivalent. Different ways of evaluating leadership effectiveness; most researchers evaluate leadership effectiveness in terms of the consequences of influence on a single individual, a team or group, or an organization ● Extent to which the performance of the team or organization is enhanced and the attainment of goals is facilitated ○ Sales, net profits, profit margin, market share, ratings obtained, etc. ● Follower attitude and perceptions of the leader ○ Questionnaires, interviews, etc.

■ Are they strongly committed to carrying out the leader’s

requests, or will they resist, ignore, or subvert them?, How well does the leader satisfy the needs and expectations of followers?, etc. ● Leader’s contribution to the quality of group processes, as perceived by followers or by outside observers ○ Does the leader enhance group cohesiveness, member cooperation, member commitment, and member confidence that the group can achieve its objectives?, Does the leader enhance problem solving and decision making by the group, and help to resolve disagreements and conflicts in a constructive way?, etc. ● Extent to which a person has a successful career as a leader ○ Is the person promoted rapidly to positions of higher authority?, Does the person serve a full term in a leadership position?, etc. Leaders have both immediate and delayed effects which can be both consistent or inconsistent, therefore it’s hard to know which criteria to use and when and for how long to measure these criteria when evaluating a leaders effectiveness Major Perspectives in Leadership Theory and Research; classifying leadership theory and research according to the type of variable that is emphasized the most ● Characteristics of leaders (most emphasized) ○ The Trait Approach (1930s &1940s) ■ Attributes such as personality, motives, values, skills; some people are born natural leaders ■ Research effort failed to find any traits that guarantee leadership success ○ The Behavior Approach (1950s) ■ Time spent, pattern of activities, responsibilities, functions for managerial jobs, how to cope with demands, constraints, role conflicts ■ Research not designed to assess leadership effectiveness but gives insight ○ The Power-Influence Approach ■ Leaders act and followers react; subordinate satisfaction, effort and performance

■ Explains leadership effectiveness in terms of the amount and type of power and how power is exercised ■ The study of influence tactics links the power-influence approach to the behavior approach ○ The Situational Approach ■ Emphasizes importance of contextual factors; characteristics of followers, nature of work performed by leaders, type of organisation, nature of external environment ■ Two major subcategories ● An attempt to discover the extent to which leadership processes are the same or unique across different types of organizations ● An attempt to identify aspects of the situation that “moderate” the relationship of leader attributes to leadership effectiveness ○ The Integrative Approach ■ More than one type of leadership variable; still rare to find a theory that includes all approaches and outcomes ■ Charismatic leadership ● Characteristics of followers ● Characteristics of the situation Level of Conceptualization for Leadership Theories; classifying leadership theory and research according to the type of constructs used to describe leaders and their influence on others ● Levels are viewed as a hierarchy; emphasized level will depend on the primary research question, type of criterion variables used to evaluate leadership effectiveness, and the type of mediating processes used to explain leadership influence 1. Intra-Individual Processes a. Theories of personality traits, values, skills, motivation, cognition, roles, behaviors, decision styles are used for describing and comparing leaders 2. Dyadic Processes a. Focuses on the relationship between a leader and another individual who is usually a subordinate or another type of follower

i.

Limitations 1. Real leaders seldom have a single subordinate 2. Dyadic theories do not include some leadership behaviors that are necessary to facilitate collective performance 3. Dyadic theories are inadequate in attention to context b. Explanation of leader influence is usually in terms of how the leader causes the subordinate to be more motivated and more capable of accomplishing task assignments i. Leadership behavior as a source of influence, and on changes in the attitudes, motivation, and behavior of an individual subordinate as the influence process 3. Group Processes a. Focus is on the influence of leaders on collective processes that determine team performance and group effectiveness i. Examples: How well the work is organized to utilize personnel and resources How committed members are to perform their work roles effectively How confident members are that the task can be accomplished successfully (potency) The extent to which members trust each other and cooperate in accomplishing task objectives b. Provide a much better explanation than dyadic theories i. Limitations 1. Psychological processes that are useful for explaining influence 2. External relationships are viewed from the perspective of the team 3. Implications of leader actions 4. Organizational Processes a. Describes leadership as a process that occurs at a larger “open system” in which groups are subsystems i. Survival and prosperity of an organization depends on adaptation to the environment, the acquisition of necessary resources, efficiency of the transformation process used; strategic leadership

1. Gathering and interpreting information about the environment 2. Identifying threats and opportunities 3. Developing an effective strategy for adapting to the environment 4. Negotiating agreements that are favorable to the organization 5. Influencing outsiders to have a favorable impression of the organization and its products 6. Gaining cooperation and support from outsiders upon whom the organization is dependent ii. Organization-level theories usually provide a better explanation of financial performance 5. Multi-level Theories a. Include constructs from more than one level of explanation i. Independent and dependent variables are at the same level of conceptualization, but moderator variables are at a different level Other Bases for comparing Leadership Theories ● Leader-Centered of Follower-Centered Theory ○ Leader characteristics vs. follower characteristics ● Descriptive or Prescriptive Theory; not mutually exclusive ○ What a leader does vs. what a leader must do to be effective ● Universal or Contingency Theory ○ Some aspect of leadership that applies to all types of situations vs. some aspect of leadership that applies to some situations but not to others ■ Can be descriptive or prescriptive ■ Distinction is a matter of degree, not a sharp dichotomy

Chapter 2: Nature of Managerial Work Activity Patterns for Managers ● Pace of work is hectic and unrelenting ○ Take work home, on vacation ○ No break in the workload ○ Continuous requests for info, direction, assistance, etc.

● Content of work is varied and fragmented ○ Tasks are brief in duration ○ Frequent interruption ○ Important and trivial activities ● Many activities are reactive ○ Many interactions are initiated by others, rather than proactive ○ Problems occur in random order ○ Respond to problems when there is pressure for immediate action; crisis, deadline ● Interactions Often Involve Peers and Outsiders ○ Descriptive research has found that managers typically spend considerable time with persons other than direct subordinates or the manager’s boss ○ Developing networks; managers depend on cooperation and assistance of numerous people outside the immediate chain of command Decision Making and Planning by Managers ● Emotions and intuition are often involved ○ Decisions often reflect the influence of intuition rather than conscious rational analysis of available alternatives and their likely outcomes ● Important decisions are disorderly and political ○ Important decisions in organizations require the support and authorization of many different people ○ Different people making a decision often disagree ○ Highly political decisions surrounding complex problems require complex solutions ■ Different parties have conflicting interests ● Routine decisions are different ○ These decisions often involve problems for which ready-made and low-risk solutions are available ○ The manager has the authority to make a decision, few important people will be affected by the decision, little conflict exists about objectives or solutions ● Most planning is informal and adaptive ○ Short-term and long-term responsibilities and issues

○ Agenda items are usually vague, incomplete, and only loosely connected Managerial Roles ● Mintzberg’s taxonomy of roles; account for all activities expected of a manager and are largely predetermined by the nature of the managerial position ○ Information processing roles ■ Monitor role: seek information and analyze to discover problems and opportunities ■ Disseminator role: special access to sources of information; some is passed on to subordinates ■ Spokesperson role: transmit information and express value statements to people outsiders ○ Decision-making roles ■ Entrepreneur role: acts as an initiator and designer of controlled change to exploit opportunities for improving the existing situation; juggler ■ Disturbance handler role: deals with sudden crises that cannot be ignored; this role is given priority ■ Resource allocator role: maintains control over strategy formation and acts to coordinate and integrate subordinate actions in support of strategic objectives ■ Negotiator role: authority to make commitments in negotiations ○ Interpersonal roles ■ Leader role: responsible for making their organizational subunit function as an integrated whole in the pursuit of its basic purpose; leader role pervades all managerial activities ■ Liaison role: includes behaviour intended to establish and maintain a web of relationships with individuals and groups outside of a manager’s organizational unit; for information and favors ■ Figurehead role: perform certain symbolic duties of a legal and social nature; attending certain meetings and ceremonial events, participating in rituals or ceremonies, receiving official visitors and signing documents

● Role Conflicts ○ Different people (role senders) make incompatible demands (role expectations) on the manager ■ Role expectations from subordinates or superiors are sometimes inconsistent with objective task requirements and living up to these expectations can make the leadership less effective ○ A manager who is able to reconcile successfully the divergent concerns of superiors and subordinates is more likely to be effective Demands, Constraints, and Choices ● Core components; define the job of a manager and strongly influence the behaviour of anyone who occupies the position ○ Demands: required duties, activities and responsibilities ○ Constraints: characteristics of the organization and external environment limiting what a manager can do ○ Choices: activities that a manager may do but is not required to do ■ Demands and constraints are situational influences on the leader and affect the scope of the leader’s choice of actions. ● Situational determinants; different patterns of demands, constraints and choices for different types of managerial jobs ○ Pattern of relationships: the demands made on a manager by superiors, subordinates, peers, and persons outside the organization influence how the manager’s time is spent and how much skill is needed to fulfill role requirements ○ Work pattern: the pattern of role requirements and demands affect managerial behavior ■ Useful factors in classifying managerial jobs ● The extent to which managerial activities are either self-generating or a response to the requests, instructions, and problems of other people ● The extent to which the work is recurrent and repetitive rather than variable and unique ● The amount of uncertainty in the work

● The extent of managerial activities requiring sustained attention for long periods of time ● The amount of pressure to meet deadlines ○ Exposure: the amount of responsibility for making decisions with potentially serious consequences, and the amount of time before a mistake or poor decision can be discovered ■ There is more exposure when decisions and actions have important, highly visible consequences for the organization ● How much discretion do managers have? ○ Despite demands and constraints, some choice of behavior remains, particularly with respect to what aspects of the job are emphasized, how much time is devoted to various activities, and how much time is spent with different people; here research showed that there was considerable variability between managers Other Determinants of Managerial Work; managerial activities are influenced by several situational variables ● Level of management: job responsibilities and the skills necessary to carry them out vary somewhat for managers at different authority levels in the organization ○ Different job requirements and discretion across levels ● Size of organisational unit: volume of issues and activities and the lack of detailed knowledge becomes greater if the size of the organizational unit is greater ● External dependencies: the extent to which a leader’s subunit is dependent on other subunits in the same organization or on external groups will affect leader behavior to a considerable extent ○ Interdepence, coordination, mutual adjustments ● Crisis situations: when there is an immediate crisis or disruption of normal operations, the role expectations for the leader are likely to change ○ Effective leaders show initiative in defining the problem, identifying a solution, directing the response to the cris...