Leadership Theories & Models
employee motivation and productivity.
By Kyra Bartolomei, eHow Contributor
updated: April 15, 2010
Theories behind leadership suggest that particular traits, behaviors and influential abilities
determine whether a leader is effective or not. Some leadership styles are better suited than
others for certain tasks and projects; other leadership styles are better suited for working
with larger groups. Since there are a lot of factors that go into leadership, it is important to
examine what the leadership theories entail.
Traits and Behaviors
1. Theories on leadership are usually broken down into two types: trait and
behavioral. Trait leadership theories and models focus on the personal qualities
and characteristics of leaders, whereas behavioral leadership theories and models
examine how leaders behave. Theories behind trait leadership styles suggest that
these types of leaders are born with natural leadership skills and abilities, whereas
behavioral leadership theories consider leadership qualities as being learned and
obtained.
Employee and Production Oriented Leadership
2. Employee-oriented leadership is a behavioral leadership theory that describes
leaders as being focused on interpersonal relations. Employee-oriented leaders are
concerned with their employees' needs and tend to have empathetic personalities.
In contrast, production-oriented leaders tend to be more technically focused, and
are mostly concerned with accomplishing tasks and project outcomes. This type of
leadership is less involved with employees on a personal level, as their interest is
outcomes-based.
Path-Goal Theory
3. The path-goal theory of leadership examines how leadership styles impact and
influence employee motivation and productivity. According to the Fall 1996 issue of
"Leadership Quarterly," Robert House, who founded the path-goal theory, explains
that the path-goal leadership model is primarily a theory of person- and task-
oriented leadership behavior. As such, there are four types of leadership behaviors
that support the path-goal theory: directive, supportive, participative and
achievement-oriented. In directive and achievement-oriented styles of leaderships,
the leader is not involved in the employee's personal or daily affairs unless they are
work affiliated. These are distant, impersonal styles of leadership. Based on the
path-goal theory, directive and achievement-oriented leadership are not likely to
enhance employee motivation or production. Supportive and participative
leadership, however, are leadership styles that help build and maintain effective
interpersonal relationships, which House identifies as being a contributing factor in
Relations-Oriented Leadership
4. The relations-oriented leadership style focuses on boosting subordinate trust and
confidence, developing their careers, emphasizing the importance of
communication, implementing rewards systems and using consideration tactics to
ensure that employees know their feelings are taken into consideration by their
leader. In this style of leadership, the theory goes that the more considerate,
friendly and supportive a leader is, the more likely subordinates will be loyal and
committed to their leader and to their work. According to the June 2008 issue of
"Leadership Excellence," Terry Bacon explains that employees are happier with
supportive leaders, and when employees are happy, they are more productive.
Transformational Leadership
5. Transformational leaders are infamous for being agents of change, and do so by
guiding employees to work toward accomplishing targeted objectives. According to
the Sept. 2009 issue of "Community College Enterprise," Cheryl Hawkins describes
transformational leaders as visionaries and role models, and usually having
unswerving commitment that keeps them going. More specifically, this type of
leadership is very goal-oriented.
Interest in leadership increased during the early part of the twentieth century. Early
leadership theories focused on what qualities distinguished between leaders and followers,
while subsequent theories looked at other variables such as situational factors and skill
levels. While many different leadership theories have emerged, most can be classified as one
of eight major types:
1. "Great Man" Theories:
Great Man theories assume that the capacity for leadership is inherent – that great leaders
are born, not made. These theories often portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and
destined to rise to leadership when needed. The term "Great Man" was used because, at the
time, leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military
leadership.
2. Trait Theories:
Similar in some ways to "Great Man" theories, trait theories assume that people inherit
certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. Trait theories often
identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders. If particular
traits are key features of leadership, then how do we explain people who possess those
qualities but are not leaders? This question is one of the difficulties in using trait theories to
explain leadership.
3. Contingency Theories:
Contingency theories of leadership focus on particular variables related to the environment
that might determine which particular style of leadership is best suited for the situation.
According to this theory, no leadership style is best in all situations. Success depends upon a
number of variables, including the leadership style, qualities of the followers and aspects of
the situation.
4. Situational Theories:
Situational theories propose that leaders choose the best course of action based upon
situational variables. Different styles of leadership may be more appropriate for certain types
of decision-making.
5. Behavioral Theories:
Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not
born. Rooted in behaviorism, this leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders not on
mental qualities or internal states. According to this theory, people can learn to become
leaders through teaching and observation.
6. Participative Theories:
Participative leadership theories suggest that the ideal leadership style is one that takes the
input of others into account. These leaders encourage participation and contributions from
group members and help group members feel more relevant and committed to the decision-
making process. In participative theories, however, the leader retains the right to allow the
input of others.
7. Management Theories:
Management theories (also known as "Transactional theories") focus on the role of
supervision, organization and group performance. These theories base leadership on a
system of rewards and punishments. Managerial theories are often used in business; when
employees are successful, they are rewarded; when they fail, they are reprimanded or
punished.
8. Relationship Theories:
Relationship theories (also known as "Transformational theories") focus upon the
connections formed between leaders and followers. Transformational leaders motivate and
inspire people by helping group members see the importance and higher good of the task.
These leaders are focused on the performance of group members, but also want each person
to fulfill his or her potential. Leaders with this style often have high ethical and moral
standards.
Leadership And Management
Many confuse when should you manage and when should you lead. These are the two key
roles to play on the stage of business is leader and manager. Discover the essential
differences between great leaders and managers.
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Effective Leadership And Effective Management
Throughout life, we will be called to play many roles. Two of the most important work roles
relate to that of leader and manager.
By Murray Johannsen
"Some leaders cannot manage— some managers cannot lead."
In business and in government, one must be both good at both management and
relationship effective as both a manager and a leader. These roles are extremely complex,
typically requiring university degree(s) and thousands of hours of practice.
Leadership and Management: They are not the Same
Most people talk as though leadership and management are the same thing.
Fundamentally, they are very different. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not understand this.
This was discovered a few years ago when doing on-site training in TQM. As part of a class
exercise, participants where asked for a definition of Total Quality Management. Everyone
got total right, there was even good consistency regarding quality. However, when it came to
management, participants were all over the the place. There really wasn't any consistent
definition.
This confusion extends even into the business schools. In fact, professors tend to lack
clarity about the fundamental differences between what a leader does and what a manager
does.

One way to understand leadership and management is to imagine a Venn diagram. Most of
the time, the two do not intersect. However, certain activities require both outstanding
leadership and management skills. Three examples:
Project manager. One must ably manage the resources associated allocated to the
project and while exercising leadership skills to build a strong team.
Delegation. Essentially, one must plan what to do and persuade someone to do it.
Change "Management." If one is putting a new light bulb in the socket, one can
management that change. However, real organizational change has both a leadership and a
management component.
Visual leadership vs management
Basic Definitions of Leadership and Management
"One cannot do what one cannot define."
One institution that never got the differences between managment and leadership
confused is the U.S. military. One person who clearly knew what she was talking about was
Grace Hopper. An interesting lady, she started in the Navy Waves in WW II and retired as a
rear admiral. One story about her goes:
In the early days of computers, there was a great deal of mechanical parts and relays.
One day, her engineers and programmers got into a big argument about whether the
software was wrong or whether the hardware was messed up. She went pulled off a back
panel and found an insect crawling in the electronics. This lead to the words, “There is a bug
in the computer.”
Another saying attributed to her was, "It's better to seek forgiveness, than to ask for
permission."
Discovering Leadership and Management Roles
"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts." —
William Shakespeare As You Like It)
To understand the difference, it helpful to look at a role--not the thing you eat
unfortunately. A role is a fairly standardized behavior. Technically, a social role is, "An
expected behavior for a given individual that relates to social status and social position."
In a family environment, a woman plays the role of mother, aunt, sister, daughter,
grandmother, lover, etc. as she goes through life. A man will play complementary roles, the
father, uncle, son, brother and so on.
It's important to understand, that one also plays roles at work. For example, the Dictionary
of Occupational Titles has thousands listed. In the professional category, many professions
such as medicine and law have even have a number of specialty roles.
Certain roles function almost as a class. These include: employees (or workers), manager,
executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and stockholders. Within the executive class, we have
c-level roles such as: the CEO, CFO, CIO, COO, and so on.
Leadership And Management: Understanding Management
"Not one talks about managing fun and play." — Anonymous
Management focuses on work. We manage work activities such as money, time,
paperwork, materials, equipment, etc. Management focus more on:
* Planning
* Organizing,
* Controlling
* Coordinating
* Directing
* Resource use
* Time management
* Logistics and the supply chain
* Finance and money management
* Budgeting
* Strategy
* Decision Making
* Problem Solving
The first five (planning, organizing, controlling, directing, and coordinating) are often listed
in the management 101 texts as the major functions of management. Certain conceptual
skills such as decision making, strategy development, and problem solving seem to fit better
in management verses the leadership area, but you can go either way..
Some professors like to say "Managers are decision makers." but that doesn't seem quite
right. A better description is, "Executives are decision makers— manager’s are problem
solvers."
However, some things some things should be managed and others should not. People
should not be managed—it implies we threat them like a thing.
Leadership and Management: Understanding Leadership
"I don't like to be managed. But if you lead me, I'll follow you anywhere." — A comment
heard in the halls of a large corporation
 Leadership is hard to understand, there are so many definitions, some of them bad ones. Management Skills vs. Leadership Skills: A Popular Distinction
Leadership has an essential focus on people and how they can be influenced. Leader’s focus
more on: Few people would like to be a manager with no leadership ability, and few would like to be a
leader who can't manage. Yet both in academia and on the front lines of business, it is
* Vision popular to distinguish the underlying skills and character traits associated with each as if they
* Inspiration were altogether distinct. This categorization is reflected in individual development plans,
* Persuasion with managers attending project management courses and prospective future directors
* Motivation having fun on leadership development courses. I myself found the latter a real treat, with
* Relationships zany games and creative thinking exercises and tough fictional business scenarios to work
* Team work through. But always there lingered a suspicion that whole tracts of crucial character
* Listening development remained untouched by even the best (and certainly most fun) so-called
'leadership courses'.
One can add to the list activities such as:

* Counseling, Here's one look at the ways in which I believe the popular distinction mixes insight with
* Coaching, confusion to generate a plausible but misleading picture of the world, followed by a coaching
* Teaching, perspective on the unifying features underlying both management skills and leadership skills.
* Mentoring. This represents my own view of the conceptual territory. However, as I stress in the last
section on evidence for this view, my perspective is also well informed by significant work in
Conclusion psychology, particularly that of the renowned US psychologist Carl Rogers -- arguably the
most influential researcher and clinician in the field since Freud.
It's vital for senior individuals in positions of great responsibility to be able to play both
roles: the boss who cannot manage will kill an organization just as fast as one who cannot In keeping with my underlying belief that you are the best expert on your own life and
lead. But the person who can do both, they are on the path to success. business, your coaching may focus on completely different areas, or it may address these
areas in different ways -- as you see fit.

Management Skills vs. Leadership Skills: The Management Side

A popular view is that managers work to optimize the deployment of resources like people,
time and materials within a set of constraints, or boundary conditions, like the cost of labour
or materials, the time and cash available, or an empirically measured function such as that
relating price and demand. Managers work, according to a popular view, within a structure of
relative priorities set by leaders, not concerning themselves with whatever justifications
underpin those priorities.

All too often, however, this view neglects the creative aspects of (better) management, the
listening and empathic skills of (better) management, and other personal character traits of
someone who can sustainably deliver (better) management: the caricature of a manager as
devoid of vision and focused entirely on meeting the numbers, whatever numbers they may
be, is plausible but wrong.

Management Skills vs. Leadership Skills: The Leadership Side

A popular view is that leaders deliver vision and direction, inspiration and motivation. The
leader exists to set direction and to create some structure of relative priorities between high-
level constraints which will then be the primary parameters of interest to the manager.
Leaders, according to this view, need not concern themselves with the implementational
details of what it might take to deliver results within the priorities they have set out -- that's
why they have managers.
All too often, however, this view neglects the (better) leader's ability to recognize and accept
the realities on the ground, the (better) leader' ability to appreciate the challenges for
managers of working to their priorities, and other personal character traits of someone who
can sustainably lead, inspire and motivate: the caricature of a leader as someone who simply
tells other people what to do, unable to delegate and devoid of business empathy or the
ability to 'reality check', is plausible but wrong.
A Coaching Perspective on Management Skills vs. Leadership Skills: What's Really
Important?
From a coaching perspective, both management skills and leadership skills rest upon human
character. Leading and managing are performed by real human beings, and my own
perspective is that some of the most important character traits underpinning good
management and good leadership are exactly those described on the Executive Coaching
front page:
 Listening to and understanding the self and others,
 Accepting and valuing what is, and
 Being honest and transparent to self and others
These character traits suggest certain attitudes and behavioural tendencies which I believe
increase the effectiveness of other management skills and leadership skills significantly:
 Expressing one's own reactions and motivations openly and honestly and listening
to others when they do the same
 Expressing feedback to others sensitively and empathically and listening to
feedback offered by others
 Relying on one's own judgement and resources and respecting others when they
do the same
 Accepting the creative, 'wild side' resources within ourselves and accepting them in
others
 Fostering the development and autonomy of others every bit as much as our own
My approach to executive coaching is built around these very traits, attitudes and
behaviours: I believe that paying attention to the areas outlined on the front Executive
Coaching page promotes not just better management and leadership, but also better
coaching.
Evidence for This View of Management and Leadership
As described in the section on My Coaching Philosophy, these suggestions are not simply
made up, and they do not represent mere uninformed personal opinion; rather, they are
based on the work of the renowned US pioneer of psychology Dr Carl Rogers. Empirical
studies underscore the central importance in human relations of Rogers's three 'core
conditions' of acceptance, authenticity and empathic understanding -- and Rogers himself did
significant work on the psychology of management and administration, some of which is
summarised in his 1978 book On Personal Power. (A full reference is available from the
Annotated Bibliography of my counselling site CounsellingResource.com.)
Combining Rogers's psychological theory with empirical evidence in the field, as well as my
own observations of management and leadership at widely varying levels of the
administrative hierarchy, leads me to take seriously the ideas outlined here as worthwhile
starting points for structuring my understanding of the management skills vs. leadership skills
debate.
The Role of Nursing Leadership in Creating a Mentoring Culture: Conclusion
 Sidebar: Executive Summary
Conclusion
An essential task for nursing leaders today is to create a sustainable nursing workforce in a
health care system that is currently undergoing significant changes including the loss of
experienced nurses to retirement, and new graduates to horizontal violence. Mentoring is
one method that can enhance staff satisfaction, and therefore, can reduce the feeling among
nurses that they are being devalued, discriminated against, and disempowered by their own
peers. In utilizing mentoring to enhance staff development, to assist nurses to adapt to new
and different roles, and to increase staff satisfaction, nursing leadership must understand
that mentoring is influenced by the organizational culture within which it exists. That is, staff
nurses and nurse managers alike must recognize and understand the interrelationships
among mentoring, organizational culture, and leadership for the optimal development of
effective mentoring. As a means of achieving success in this endeavor, professional nurses
must align the organizational culture with appropriate leadership and mentoring strategies.
By utilizing principles and qualities adapted from transformational leadership, specifically
Bass's (1994) four leadership initiatives, registered nurses can assist in creating an
empowering, innovative, and dynamic culture within which successful mentoring can be
developed and sustained. Consequently, this will lead to increased job satisfaction, more
effective nursing care, and the promotion of quality health care outcomes.