Chapter 19
Towards a definition of leadership
When a leader exerts influence over others and inspires, motivates and directs their behaviour to
achieve goals.
Leadership and Management
John Kotter states that leaders deal with change stemming from business environments
characterised by major, on-going change.
The result of on-going change is that organisations become more complex.
Managers, on the other hand, need to deal with this complexity in their organisations.
Leaders
o Cope with change
Managers
o Cope with complexity
Components of leadership
Power
o Leaders are able to influence others because they possess power.
o Sources of power:
Legitimate power
Reward power
Referent power
Expert power
Authority
Responsibility
Delegation
Accountability
, Leadership Approaches
Categories of leadership theories:
1. Trait theory
a. Focuses on the unique personal characteristics of successful leaders, like:
i. Self-confidence, honesty/integrity and drive
b. To be trusted, leaders need to display the following traits:
i. Integrity
ii. Competence
iii. Consistency
iv. Loyalty
v. Openness
2. Behavioural theory
a. Behavioural approach researchers attempted to determine how successful leaders
act. Specific studies within this approach include:
i. Kurt Lewin and his associates at the University of Iowa identified two
leadership styles, namely the autocratic and democratic styles
1. Autocratic: Makes decisions and limit employee participation
2. Democratic: Involves employees in decision making and encourages
participation
3. Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt expanded on this work
and suggested that leadership styles could be explained on a scale
ranging from ‘autocratic’ to ‘democratic’
ii. Ohio State University identified two independent dimensions of leadership,
namely initiating structure and consideration
iii. Researchers at the University of Michigan identified two basic forms of
leadership behaviour, namely job-orientated leader behaviour and
employee-orientated leader behaviour.
1. Job: leaders who focus their attention on the job and work
procedures involved with the job
2. Employee: Describes the behaviour of leaders who develop
cohesive work groups and ensure employee satisfaction
iv. Blake and Mouton developed the leadership grind which is an instrument
that assists in identifying the ideal leadership style.
1. Impoverished management
a. Little concern for task or people and exerts just enough
effort to survive in the organisation
2. Authoritarian management
a. Manager is concerned with the task at the expense of the
employees
3. Country club management
a. The manager promotes good relationships with employees
at the expense of the task
4. Middle-of-the-road management
a. Manager assumes that the needs of the organisation and
the needs of the people are in conflict and thus seeks to find
a compromise and attends to but, but not sufficiently to
either the task or the employee
5. Team management
a. The manager emphasis both the production and people
needs by obtaining maximum productivity and making full
Towards a definition of leadership
When a leader exerts influence over others and inspires, motivates and directs their behaviour to
achieve goals.
Leadership and Management
John Kotter states that leaders deal with change stemming from business environments
characterised by major, on-going change.
The result of on-going change is that organisations become more complex.
Managers, on the other hand, need to deal with this complexity in their organisations.
Leaders
o Cope with change
Managers
o Cope with complexity
Components of leadership
Power
o Leaders are able to influence others because they possess power.
o Sources of power:
Legitimate power
Reward power
Referent power
Expert power
Authority
Responsibility
Delegation
Accountability
, Leadership Approaches
Categories of leadership theories:
1. Trait theory
a. Focuses on the unique personal characteristics of successful leaders, like:
i. Self-confidence, honesty/integrity and drive
b. To be trusted, leaders need to display the following traits:
i. Integrity
ii. Competence
iii. Consistency
iv. Loyalty
v. Openness
2. Behavioural theory
a. Behavioural approach researchers attempted to determine how successful leaders
act. Specific studies within this approach include:
i. Kurt Lewin and his associates at the University of Iowa identified two
leadership styles, namely the autocratic and democratic styles
1. Autocratic: Makes decisions and limit employee participation
2. Democratic: Involves employees in decision making and encourages
participation
3. Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt expanded on this work
and suggested that leadership styles could be explained on a scale
ranging from ‘autocratic’ to ‘democratic’
ii. Ohio State University identified two independent dimensions of leadership,
namely initiating structure and consideration
iii. Researchers at the University of Michigan identified two basic forms of
leadership behaviour, namely job-orientated leader behaviour and
employee-orientated leader behaviour.
1. Job: leaders who focus their attention on the job and work
procedures involved with the job
2. Employee: Describes the behaviour of leaders who develop
cohesive work groups and ensure employee satisfaction
iv. Blake and Mouton developed the leadership grind which is an instrument
that assists in identifying the ideal leadership style.
1. Impoverished management
a. Little concern for task or people and exerts just enough
effort to survive in the organisation
2. Authoritarian management
a. Manager is concerned with the task at the expense of the
employees
3. Country club management
a. The manager promotes good relationships with employees
at the expense of the task
4. Middle-of-the-road management
a. Manager assumes that the needs of the organisation and
the needs of the people are in conflict and thus seeks to find
a compromise and attends to but, but not sufficiently to
either the task or the employee
5. Team management
a. The manager emphasis both the production and people
needs by obtaining maximum productivity and making full
