Distinguish between different approaches to the study of leadership and discuss critically what you see as the relevance today of each of these approaches.
Answers
Answer:
The Qualities or Traits approach: leaders are born, not made; leadership consists of certain inherited personality traits or qualities.
The Functional or Group approach: leadership can be learned and developed. Focuses on the accountabilities, responsibilities and functions of the leader and the nature of the group. Examines how the leader’s behaviour affects and is affected by the group of followers.
One of the key theories of the functional approach is Adair's Action-Centred Leadership. This approach focuses on what leaders do and the need to balance the needs of the individual, the task and the team.
Behavioural styles approach: focuses on the behaviour of people in leadership positions, the importance of leadership style and how it influences group performance.
Likert, Blake and Mouton and Blake and McCanse compared behavioural styles across two dimensions: concern for production (relates to McGregor Theory X) and concern for people (relates to McGregor Theory Y).
Styles of leadership: focuses on leadership styles and how they impact those being led. The premise is that subordinates are more likely to work effectively for managers who adopt a certain style of leadership than others:
Lewin defined three basic styles of leadership: autocratic (or authoritarian), democratic, laissez-faire style.
Belbin defined two diverging styles of leadership: the Solo Leader and the Team Leader.
Tannenbaum and Schmidt presented a continuum of leadership styles based on the degree of authority exercised by the manager and the degree of autonomy available to followers in making decisions.
Situational approach and Contingency Models: the situation itself determines the leadership style that will be most effective and no single style of leadership is appropriate for all situations.
Major leadership contingency models include:
Fiedler: Favourability of the leadership situation (leader-member relations, task structure and the power in the position held by the leader)
Vroom and Yetton and Vroom and Jago: Quality and acceptance of a leader’s decision
House and House and Dessler: Path-Goal Theory
Hersey and Blanchard: Competence of followers
Transactional and Transformational leadership: An approach that looks at two levels of leadership:
Transactional: appeals to the self-interest of followers to achieve organizational goals and is based on the leader’s position of authority in the structure.
Transformational leadership takes a further step: it creates a vision for transforming the performance of the organization and appeals to the higher ideals and the values of the organization’s people to make it happen. People are motivated by more than just their own self-interest, and they are motivated to give more effort than what transactional leadership alone can achieve.
Transformational leadership is viewed as an extension of transactional, rather than an alternative to it.
Explanation: