SIES COLLEGE OF COMMERCE & ECONOMICS FY BMS-A

Leadership theories
Trait theories When Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of Great Britain, she was regularly singled out for her leadership. She was described in terms such as confident, iron willed, determined and decisive. These terms are traits and, whether Thatchers advocates and critics recognized it at the time, when they described her in such terms they became trait theorist supporters. The media has been a believer in trait theories of leadership differentiating leader from non-leaders by focusing on personal qualities and characteristics. Research efforts at isolating leadership traits resulted in a number of dead ends. A review of 20 different studies identified nearly 80 leadership traits, but only five of these traits were common to four or more of the investigations. the search was intended to identify traits that were consistently associated with leadership, the six traits on which leaders tend to differ from non leaders are ambition, energy, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self confidence, intelligence, and job relevant knowledge. The trait approach has some limitations i.e. there are no universal traits that predict leadership in all situations. Traits predict behaviour more in weak situations than in strong situations. These limitations have lead researchers to look in other directions. A major movement away from traits began as early as the 1940s. Although there has been a resurgent interest in traits during the past 20 years. Leader member exchange theory It is assumed generally that the leaders treat all their followers in the same manner, but it is not so leaders very often act differently towards different people. The LMX theory says that because of time pressures, leaders establish a special relationship with a small group of their followers. These individuals in the group get a disproportionate amount of leaders attention, and are more likely to receive special privileges. The theory proposes that in the history of the interaction between the leader and a given follower, the leader implicitly categorizes the follower as an in or an out and that relationship is relatively stable over time. Just precisely how the leader chooses who falls into each category is unclear, but there is evidence that leaders tend to choose in group members because they have attitude and personality characteristics that are similar to the leaders or a higher level of competence than out group members. Research to test LMX theory has generally been supportive. The theory and research provide substantive evidence that leaders do differentiate among followers and that these
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SIES COLLEGE OF COMMERCE & ECONOMICS FY BMS-A

disparities are far from random. These positive findings for in group members shouldnt be totally surprising given our knowledge of the self fulfilling prophesy. Thus it can be said that leaders invest their resources with those they expect to perform best. Path goal theory This theory was developed by Robert House. The path goal theory is a contingency model of leadership that extracts key elements from the Ohio state leadership research on initiating structure and consideration and the expectancy theory of motivation. It is one of the most respected approaches to leadership. The path goal theory says that it is the leaders job to assist followers in attaining their goals and to provide the necessary direction and/or support to ensure that their goals are compatible with the overall objectives of the group or the organization. House identified four leadership behaviours. The directive leaders lets followers know what is expected of them, schedules work to be done, and gives specific guidance as to how to accomplish tasks. The supportive leader is friendly and shows concern for the needs of followers. The participative leader consults with followers and uses their suggestions before making a decision. The achievement oriented leaders sets challenging goals and expects followers to perform at their highest level. The research evidence generally supports the logic underlying the path goal theory. i.e. employee performance and satisfaction are likely to be positively influenced when the leader compensates lacking in either the employee or the work setting. But the leader who spends time explaining tasks when those tasks are already clear to the employee then he is likely to be in effective as the employee will see such directive as redundant.

Leader Participation Model Victor vroom & Philip Yetton developed a leader participation model that related leadership behavior and participation in decision making. Vroom and Yetton model was normative-it provided a sequential set of rules that should be followed in determining the form and the amount of participation in decision making, as determined by different types of situations. The model was a decision tree that incorporated seven contingencies whose relevance could be identified by making yes or no choices. Recently vroom & Arthur Jago has resulted in a revision of this model. The new
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SIES COLLEGE OF COMMERCE & ECONOMICS FY BMS-A

model retains the same file alternative leadership styles-from the leader making the decision completely by himself or herself to sharing the problems with the group and developing a consensus decision-but adds a set of problems types and expand the contingency variables. These variables are 1) Importance of the decision 2) Importance of obtaining follower commitment to the decision 3) Whether the leader has sufficient information to make a good decision 4) How well structured the problem is 5) Whether an autocratic decision would receive follower commitment. 6) Whether followers buy into the organizations goal. 7) Whether there is likely to be conflict among followers over solution alternatives. 8) Whether followers have the necessary information to make a good decision. 9) Time constraints of on the leader that may limit follower involvement. 10) Whether costs to bring geographically dispersed members together is justified. 11) Importance to the leader of minimizing the time it takes to make the decision. 12) Importance of using participation as a tool for developing follower decision skills. Trait Theories Trait theories have since long been used for differentiating between leaders and non leaders. Ambition, energy, the desire to lead, honesty, integrity, self confidence, intelligence, and job relevant knowledge are the six important traits on which leaders tend to differ from the non leader, research also shows that people who are high self monitors this is who are highly flexible emerged as leaders in group that those who are low self monitors. The trait theory has some limitations, firstly 1) There are no universal traits predict leadership in all situations rather than appear to predict leadership in selected situation. Secondly, 2) Trait theory predict behavior more in weak situations rather than in strong situations. 3) The evidence is unclear in separating cause from effect. Finally, 4) The traits do a better job at predicting the appearance of leadership than in actually distinguishing between effective and ineffective leaders. Some believers in trait theory of leadership are 1) Margaret Thatcher 2) Nelson Mendela 3) Virgin Group CEO-Richard Branson 4) Apple Co Founder-Steeve Jobs
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SIES COLLEGE OF COMMERCE & ECONOMICS FY BMS-A

Qualities of a leader Leadership may be defined as the process of influesing and supporting others to work towards the achievement of group goals. The qualities and characteristics of ledership are as follows 1) Dynamic-A leader should be dynamic and always be ready to take risk where some important controversial decisions are taken into consideration. He should be couragieous and not to be afraid of facing difficult situations. 2) Tactfullness-A leader should be tactful so that he can get the things done from his subordinates. 3) Motivation-A leader should always motivate his subordinates through his actions and speech. 4) Good oration-A leader should be a good orator so that he can convenience other people indoing what he wants than to do. 5) Foresightedness-It is always necessary for a leader to be a foresighted so that he can take proper decisions. 6) Good Analyser-A leader should be a good analyzer so that he can analyse problems, situations and persons correctly which will help himto make proper decisions. 7) Interactions-A leader should always be interactive. He should always mingle with his subordinates so that he can understand and know them better. 8) Supportive-He should always be supportive to his subordinates, he should support people during their difficulties and problems. 9) Job Related Knowledge-A leader should have proper job related knowledge so that he can get successful results. 10) Confidence-A good leader should always be confident of what he is doing. He should not keep on changing his mind and should not be ficklish.