Skills Approach Exam questions and answers
Skills Approach - ✅✅takes a leader-centered perspective on leadership
- emphasis on skills and abilities that can be learned and developed
Three-Skill Approach - ✅✅suggested that effective administration, leadership, depends on three
basic personal skills: technical, human and conceptual
- skills are what leaders can accomplish, whereas traits are who leaders are
Technical Skills - ✅✅knowledge about and proficiency in a specific type of work or activity
- play an essential role in producing the actual products a company is designed to produce
- most important at lower and middle levels of management and less important in upper management
Human Skills - ✅✅knowledge about and ability to work with people
- human skills allow a leader to assist group members in working cooperatively as a group to achieve
common goals
- important on all levels of management
Conceptual Skills - ✅✅the ability to work with ideas and concepts
- a leader with conceptual skills works easily with abstractions and hypothetical notions
- central to creating a vision and strategic plan for an organization
- important at upper management levels
Skills Model - ✅✅the model is characterized as a capability model because it examines the
relationship between a leader's knowledge and skills and the leader's performance
- unlike the "great man" approach, which implies that leadership is reserved for only the gifted few, the
skills approach suggests that many people have the potential for leadership
- rather than emphasizing what leaders do, the skills approach frames leadership as capabilities
(knowledge and skills) that makes leadership possible
, Mumford's Group Skill-Based Model - ✅✅has five components: competencies, individual attributes,
leadership outcomes, career experiences, and environmental influences
Competencies - ✅✅problem-solving skills, social judgement skills, and knowledge are at the heart of
the skills model
Problem Definition - ✅✅the ability to define noteworthy issues or significant problems affecting the
organization
Cause/Goal Analysis - ✅✅the ability to analyze the causes and goals relvant to addressing problems
Constraint Analysis - ✅✅the ability to identify the constraints, or limiting factors, influencing any
problem solution
Planning - ✅✅the ability to formulate plans, mental simulations, and actions arising from cause/goal,
and constraint analysis
Forecasting - ✅✅the ability to anticipate the implications of executing the plans
Creative Thinking - ✅✅the ability to develop alternative approaches and new ideas for addressing
potential pitfalls of a plan identified in forecasting
Idea Evaluation - ✅✅the ability to evaluate these alternative approaches' viability in executing the
plan
Wisdom - ✅✅the ability to evaluate the appropriateness of these alternative approaches within the
context, or setting in which the leader acts
Sensemaking/Visioning - ✅✅the ability to articulate a vision that will help followers understand,
make sense of, and act on the problem
Skills Approach - ✅✅takes a leader-centered perspective on leadership
- emphasis on skills and abilities that can be learned and developed
Three-Skill Approach - ✅✅suggested that effective administration, leadership, depends on three
basic personal skills: technical, human and conceptual
- skills are what leaders can accomplish, whereas traits are who leaders are
Technical Skills - ✅✅knowledge about and proficiency in a specific type of work or activity
- play an essential role in producing the actual products a company is designed to produce
- most important at lower and middle levels of management and less important in upper management
Human Skills - ✅✅knowledge about and ability to work with people
- human skills allow a leader to assist group members in working cooperatively as a group to achieve
common goals
- important on all levels of management
Conceptual Skills - ✅✅the ability to work with ideas and concepts
- a leader with conceptual skills works easily with abstractions and hypothetical notions
- central to creating a vision and strategic plan for an organization
- important at upper management levels
Skills Model - ✅✅the model is characterized as a capability model because it examines the
relationship between a leader's knowledge and skills and the leader's performance
- unlike the "great man" approach, which implies that leadership is reserved for only the gifted few, the
skills approach suggests that many people have the potential for leadership
- rather than emphasizing what leaders do, the skills approach frames leadership as capabilities
(knowledge and skills) that makes leadership possible
, Mumford's Group Skill-Based Model - ✅✅has five components: competencies, individual attributes,
leadership outcomes, career experiences, and environmental influences
Competencies - ✅✅problem-solving skills, social judgement skills, and knowledge are at the heart of
the skills model
Problem Definition - ✅✅the ability to define noteworthy issues or significant problems affecting the
organization
Cause/Goal Analysis - ✅✅the ability to analyze the causes and goals relvant to addressing problems
Constraint Analysis - ✅✅the ability to identify the constraints, or limiting factors, influencing any
problem solution
Planning - ✅✅the ability to formulate plans, mental simulations, and actions arising from cause/goal,
and constraint analysis
Forecasting - ✅✅the ability to anticipate the implications of executing the plans
Creative Thinking - ✅✅the ability to develop alternative approaches and new ideas for addressing
potential pitfalls of a plan identified in forecasting
Idea Evaluation - ✅✅the ability to evaluate these alternative approaches' viability in executing the
plan
Wisdom - ✅✅the ability to evaluate the appropriateness of these alternative approaches within the
context, or setting in which the leader acts
Sensemaking/Visioning - ✅✅the ability to articulate a vision that will help followers understand,
make sense of, and act on the problem
