Motivation and Leadership

Introduction

Have you ever considered what motivates people to work? Why do some people outperform others? Why does the same person behave differently at various times? The answer is motivation from a company leader. A leader must motivate people to take action to achieve the desired results; he must combine the diverse human capacities and powers of the many people employed into a well-oiled, high-productivity machine. How do we get people to perform at a higher than “normal” percentage of their physical and mental capacities while also keeping them satisfied? This is the motivational challenge.

Motivation is the process of rousing and maintaining goal-directed behaviour. It is one of the more complex topics to address in organizational behaviour. Leadership is the process of exerting influence over a group. Leadership is a manager’s ability to inspire subordinates to work confidently and zealously.

What is Motivation?

Some of the widely quoted definitions are given below:

Grey Starke states, “Motivation is the result of processes, internal or external to the individual, that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action.”

According to Stephen P Robbins, “We define motivation as the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organisational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual needs.”

According to S. Zedeck and M. Blood, ” Motivation is a predisposition to act in a specific goal-directed way.”

According to Atkinson J.W, “(Motivation is) the immediate influences on the direction, vigour and persistence of action.”

According to S.W Gellerman, “(Motivation is) steering one’s actions toward certain goals and committing a certain part of one’s energies to reach them.”

According to M.R. Jones, “(Motivation is) how behaviour gets started, is energized, is sustained, is directed, is stopped and what kind of subjective reaction is present in the organism while all these are going on.”

All of these definitions share three characteristics of the motivating process:

1. What motivates human behaviour?
2. What motivates or channels such behaviour?
3. How is this behaviour preserved or maintained? Motivation has the following basic characteristics:
   1. It is a unique phenomenon. Each individual is unique, which must be acknowledged in motivation studies.
   2. Intentional motivation — When an employee accomplishes something, it is because he or she chooses to do so.
   3. Motivation has multiple sides – Researchers have studied different aspects of motivation, such as how it is aroused and directed, what determines its persistence, and how it is terminated.
   4. Motivation theories are designed to predict behaviour — A distinction must be established between motivation, behaviour, and performance. Motivation drives behaviour; if the behaviour is successful, good performance follows.

Motivation is the underlying process that drives, guides and sustains behaviour to meet physiological and psychological requirements. At any given time, behaviour can be explained as a combination of motives—needs or desires that motivate and lead behaviour toward a goal.

The intensity of our motivation, determined by the quantity and strength of the reasons involved, influences the amount of work and persistence with which we pursue our goals. Sometimes, we pursue an activity as an aim just because it is entertaining, without regard for any external gain. Intrinsic motivation is the name given to this form of motivation. Extrinsic motivation pulls us when we engage in activities not because they are enjoyable but because we want to receive some external benefit or avoid some negative consequence.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation and Human Factors

Motivation research may be traced back to the works of ancient Greek philosophers. They proposed hedonism as a theory of human motivation. According to the concept of hedonism, a person seeks comfort and pleasure while avoiding suffering and misery. Many decades later, hedonism remained a fundamental premise in the dominant economic and social philosophies of economists such as Adam Smith and J.S. Mill. They described motivation as humans attempting to maximise pleasure while avoiding pain.

The 1950s were an essential epoch in the evolution of motivational theories. During this time, three distinct ideas were developed, which, while hotly contested and today questionable in terms of veracity, remain the most well-known explanations for employee motivation. These are the following theories:

1. ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ Theory,
2. Theories X and Y, and
3. Motivation-Hygiene Theory.

 Theory of the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who created a theory of human motivation based mainly on a hierarchy of five need categories for interpreting behaviour. He understood that things other than one’s requirements (for example, culture) may influence behaviour. However, he concentrated his theoretical efforts on defining people’s interior demands.

Maslow classified the five hierarchical categories as physiological requirements, safety and security needs, love (social) needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological needs are those necessary for survival, such as air, water, food, and sleep. According to this theory, if these fundamental needs are not met, one will be motivated to meet them. Higher needs, such as social and esteem, are not recognised until the basic needs of existence are met.

Once one’s physiological needs are met, one focuses on safety and security to avoid physical and emotional harm. Such requirements may be met by living in a secure area, having medical insurance, a safe job, etc.

Higher-level motivators emerge when a person’s lower-level physiological and safety needs are met. Social needs are the first level of higher-level needs. Examples include friendship, belonging to a group, giving and receiving love, and other social needs.

When a person feels like they “belong,” the desire to achieve a certain level of importance emerges. External motivators and internal motivators are two types of esteem needs. Self-esteem, accomplishment, and self-respect are examples of internally motivating esteem needs. External esteem needs include things like reputation and recognition.

Maslow’s motivation theory culminates in self-actualization. It is about the pursuit of one’s full human potential. Unlike lower-level needs, this need is never fully satisfied; as one grows psychologically, there are always new opportunities to grow. Truth, fairness, wisdom, and meaning are common motivators for self-actualized persons.

His idea remains popular, even though scientific evidence fails to support Maslow’s hierarchy. It serves as an introduction to motivation theory for many students and managers worldwide.

Theory X and Theory Y

One key organisational implication of the hierarchy of needs is the ideologies and tactics influencing how people are managed at work. Taking a cue from Maslow’s need-based theory, Douglas McGregor classified physiological and safety needs as “lower-order” and social, esteem, and self-actualization needs as “upper-order.” McGregor offered two sets of assumptions about people at work, depending on which demands were active motivators. He dubbed these two sets of assumptions – one essentially negative and the other essentially positive – Theory X and Theory Y, respectively. After observing managers’ interactions with employees, McGregor concluded that a manager’s view of the nature of human beings is founded on a set of assumptions and that he or she tends to shape his or her behaviour toward subordinates based on these assumptions.

According to McGregor, people should be treated differently depending on whether they are driven by lower-order or higher-order demands. McGregor, in particular, argued that Theory X assumptions were acceptable for personnel driven by lower-order desires. Theory Y assumptions, on the other hand, are appropriate for personnel driven by higher-order requirements, whereas Theory X assumptions are not. Furthermore, McGregor argued that by the 1950s, most American employees had satisfied their lower-order requirements and were thus motivated by higher-order demands. As a result, he advocated participative decision-making, responsible and challenging tasks, and robust group interactions as techniques to increase employee job motivation. Unfortunately, no data supports either set of assumptions or the idea that accepting Theory Y assumptions and changing one’s behaviour appropriately will result in more motivated workers.

Motivation-hygiene Theory

In contrast to the need hierarchy approach to motivation, Fredrick Herzberg investigated the experiences that satisfied or disappointed people’s needs at work. This need motivation hypothesis was dubbed the “two-factor theory.” During the 1950s, Herzberg’s original study comprised 200 engineers and accountants in Western Pennsylvania. Before that, it was usual for people studying work motivation to regard job satisfaction as one-dimensional, with job satisfaction and unhappiness viewed as opposite ends of the same continuum. This meant that removing something that produced job satisfaction would result in job discontent; similarly, removing something that caused job dissatisfaction would result in job satisfaction. Based on unstructured interviews with 200 engineers and accountants, Herzberg found that this understanding of job satisfaction was wrong and that satisfaction and discontent were conceptually distinct components induced by distinct phenomena in the workplace.

Motivation Factors

According to Herzberg, including motivational variables in a job results in job satisfaction. This is referred to as job enrichment. Responsibility, achievement, acknowledgement, advancement, and the task itself were highlighted as motivation elements in the original study. These criteria are related to the job’s content and what the employee accomplishes. When these elements are present, job incumbents exhibit higher performance and effort. Motivational factors promote positive mental health by challenging people to grow, contribute to the workplace, and invest in the organisation. The motivation variables are the more essential of the two sets of factors since they directly impact a person’s motivation to accomplish a good job. When absent, the individual is demotivated to work well and achieve perfection.

Work conditions satisfying the need for psychological growth have been labelled motivation factors. Workplace conditions that cause dissatisfaction due to discomfort or pain were labelled as ‘hygiene factors.’ Each set of factors related to a different aspect of what Herzberg identified as the human being’s dual nature in the workplace. Thus, motivational factors influence job happiness, while hygienic factors influence job dissatisfaction.

Hygiene and Motivating Factors

Hygiene Factors

When the hygiene aspects are either absent or insufficient, job discontent emerges. The hygiene factors in the original study were corporate policy and administration, technical supervision, interpersonal relationships with one’s supervisor and working circumstances, salary and position. These characteristics are related to the job context and may be considered support factors. They do not directly affect a person’s drive to work, but they influence dissatisfaction. These elements cannot promote psychological development or human development. Employees are not unsatisfied due to the excellent hygiene aspects, which contribute to the absence of complaints regarding these contextual issues.

Definitions and Meaning of Leadership

There are many definitions of leadership. Some of the definitions of leadership are reproduced below:

According to Alford and Beatty, “leadership is the ability to secure desirable actions from a group of followers voluntarily, without the use of coercion.”

According to Chester I Barnard, “It (leadership) refers to the quality of the individual’s behaviour whereby they guide people on their activities in organised efforts”.

Terry states, “A leader shows the way by his example. He is not a pusher; he pulls rather than pushes”.

According to Koontz and O’Donnell, Managerial leadership is “the ability to exert interpersonal influence by means of communication towards the achievement of a goal. Since managers get things done through people, their success depends, to a considerable extent, upon their ability to provide leadership”.

In the words of R. T. Livingston, Leadership is “the ability to awaken in others the desire to follow a common objective”.

According to the Social Sciences Encyclopedia, “Leadership is the relation between an individual and a group around some common interest and behaving in a manner directed or determined by him”.

According to Peter Drucker, Leadership “is not making friends and influencing people, i.e., salesmanship is the lifting of man’s vision to higher sights, the raising of man’s performance to higher standards, the building of man’s personality beyond its normal limitations”.

From the above definitions, we can conclude that leadership is a psychological process of influencing followers (subordinates) and providing guidance, directing, and leading the people in an organisation towards attaining the enterprise’s objectives.

Characteristic of Leadership

1. Leadership necessitates the existence of followers: We evaluate a leader’s qualities by examining his followers. Leaders are followers; a supervisor reports to the branch head.
2. Leadership entails a shared goal between the leader and his followers: in other words, the goals of the leader and his troops are the same.
3. Leadership entails an unequal allocation of authority among leaders and group members: Leaders can command some of the group members’ actions, i.e., the group members are obligated or ready to obey most of the leader’s directives.
4. Leadership is an influence process. It implies that leaders can influence their followers or subordinates in addition to giving legitimate orders to them. For example, leaders such as Dhirubhai Ambani and Ratan Tata not only wielded lawful power but also touched the lives of Reliance and Tata employees (Respectively).
5. Leadership is the function of stimulation. It is the function of encouraging individuals to work hard to achieve organizational goals.
6. A leader must set a good example: In the words of George Terry – “A leader demonstrates the way forward by setting an example. He is not a pusher; instead, he pulls “.
7. A leader must be objective and impartial to secure absolute justice. He should not engage in unethical actions such as favouritism and nepotism. He must demonstrate fairness and ultimate justice in all his decisions and deeds.
8. Leadership styles and patterns: Tannenbaum and Schmidt have explored the variety of possible managerial leadership behaviours.

Leadership Styles

1. The Manager makes the following choice and announces it: It is an extreme kind of autocratic leadership in which the boss recognises the problem, considers potential remedies, chooses one, and then reports his decision to his subordinates for implementation.
2. The manager sells his decisions: This is a somewhat improved kind of leadership in which the manager goes the extra mile to convince his employees to accept his decision.
3. The Manager shares his thoughts and welcomes questions, which engages employees more. The boss decides but allows his subordinates to understand his reasoning and goals.
4. The manager presents a tentative decision that is subject to change: In this case, the manager takes the decision tentatively but is open to change and influence from the staff.
5. The Manager may discuss the situation, solicit suggestions, and then decide. In this case, the Manager provides ample chance for employees to comment, which the Manager carefully reviews.
6. The manager may specify the limits and propose what the group should decide. In this management style, the manager delegates decision-making authority to the group. His subordinates can make decisions under well-defined criteria and constraints.
7. The Manager may allow subordinates to fully participate in decision-making, a type of leadership known as ‘democratic’ leadership.

Leadership style is the behaviour pattern a leader uses to influence the behaviour of his subordinates to achieve organisational goals. It is difficult to prefer one leadership style over another because each has advantages and disadvantages. A variety of elements must be considered while deciding on a leadership style. Tannenbaum and Schmidt have identified the critical criteria that influence the selection of a leadership style. They are as follows:

1. Managerial forces, i.e., the manager’s personality, experience, and value system.
2. Subordinates’ forces, i.e., their decision-making readiness, knowledge, interest, need for independence, and so on.
3. Situational forces, such as problem complexity, time constraints, etc.

Different Leadership Styles

The various sorts of leadership styles are as follows:

1. Autocratic or Task Management Leadership: The autocratic leader issues directives that must be followed. He makes group policies without consulting them and does not provide extensive information about future goals, instead telling the group what immediate steps they must follow. In other words, an autocratic leader focuses all of his power on himself and does not delegate authority to subordinates. An autocratic ruler works under the following assumptions:
   1. The average person dislikes work and will avoid it if at all possible.
   2. His subordinates would not be in subordinate positions if they were intelligent enough.
   3. He believes dumb subordinates are immature, untrustworthy, and reckless and should be regularly monitored at work.
   4. Because he has no regard for his subordinates, he motivates them through negative means, such as threats of penalty and punishment.

Types of Autocratic Leadership

• Strictly autocratic leaders: A strictly autocratic leader depends on negative influence and issues directives that subordinates must follow. He may also utilise his power to bestow prizes to his followers.
• Benevolent Autocrat: A benevolent autocratic leader can achieve great productivity under various conditions and establish good human relationships. His motivational style is typically upbeat.
• Manipulative Autocrat: A manipulative autocratic leader makes subordinates believe they are involved in decision-making even when he has already made the decision.

2. Participatory or Democratic Leadership: A democratic leader consults with and invites subordinates to participate in decision-making. He issues commands only after consulting with the group and ensures that policies are hammered out in group choices and with group approval. A participatory leader works under the following assumptions:
   1. If given the opportunity and incentives, subordinates can conduct tasks independently and take responsibility for proper execution.
   2. Instead of being threatened and ordered to work, subordinates are supervised, guided, and assisted.
   3. Errors are not taken seriously. Discipline promotes employee discontent and frustration, resulting in an undesirable work environment.

3. Laissez-faire or Free-rein Leadership: A free-rein leader does not lead but lets the group use its own devices. The leader abstains from wielding power and delegated decision-making responsibility to his subordinates. He does not direct his subordinates, allowing them entire operational freedom. Members of groups operate independently and generate their incentives. The manager serves as a facilitator and contact point between the team and outsiders, delivering the knowledge and resources required to do its work to his group. A free-rein leader functions in the following ways:
   1. He adheres to the rule of least accountability.
   2. He abdicates responsibility and will blame his subordinates if something goes wrong.
   3. He lacks a clear understanding of the objectives to be achieved.
   4. He is more concerned with security than with status.

If the subordinates are highly educated and clever individuals with a genuine desire to move ahead and perform their responsibilities, this mode of leadership can yield excellent and speedy results.

4. Paternalistic Leadership: In this form of leadership, the leader plays a fatherly role. His mentality is to treat the leader’s relationship with his group as a family, with the leader as the head of the family. The leader works to assist, guide, defend, and keep his people joyfully working together as family members. He offers them decent working conditions, perks, and employee services. Employees under such leadership are thought to work harder out of gratitude and emotional bonding.

Leadership Skill

Because the leader is expected to serve multiple responsibilities, he or she must be qualified to direct others to organisational success. Although no absolute attributes or capabilities can be established, persons who wish to be leaders must be capable of leading others. Influential leaders must possess specific characteristics. The skills required for an industrial leader can be divided into four categories:

1. Human Skill: A good leader is attentive to his followers because his success relies heavily on their cooperation. He handles diverse difficulties regarding the people involved rather than the technical aspects. A good leader should understand human behaviour. He should be familiar with people and comprehend their requirements, sentiments, and emotions, as well as their actions and reactions to certain decisions, reasons, and so on. As a result, a successful leader has a human relations mentality. He is continually trying to improve his social understanding with others. The following are examples of human abilities:
   1. Empathy: A leader should be able to assess situations objectively and respect other people’s rights, opinions, and feelings.
   2. Objectivity: A good leader is fair and objective when dealing with subordinates. While emotionally involved with his followers, he must be free of bias and prejudice.
   3. Communication Skills: A leader must be able to persuade, inform, stimulate, direct, and persuade his subordinates.
   4. Teaching Skill: A leader should be able to demonstrate how to complete a specific activity.
   5. Social Skill: A leader must understand his supporters. He should be polite, compassionate, and helpful.

2. Conceptual Skill: “The key feature of the executive process is the sense of the organisation as a whole and the complete circumstances pertinent to it,” says Chester Barnard. Conceptual skills include:

(a) understanding organisational behaviour,

(b) recognising the firm’s competitors, and

(c) comprehending the firm’s financial situation.

A leader must be able to see the enterprise as a whole, comprehend that the various functions of an organisation are interdependent, and understand that changes in one influence all others. The leader should be able to run the firm so that its overall performance is solid in the long run.

3. Technical Skill: A leader should have a complete understanding of and expertise in the job’s concepts, methods, and operations. Technical talent entails specialised knowledge, analytical ability, and proficiency with the instruments and practices of a particular discipline. Technical competence is a crucial leadership quality.
4. Personal Skill: The leader’s most important responsibility is to elicit the best out of others. This is only feasible if he possesses specific characteristics. These personal skills include:

• Intelligence: Intelligence is a necessary attribute of leadership. Leaders, on average, have a somewhat higher level of intelligence than their followers.
• Emotional Maturity: A leader should be self-confident, avoid anger, make sensible decisions, and think clearly and maturely. A leader must also be tolerant of frustration. “Leaders cannot afford to become panicked, unsure of themselves in the face of opposing forces, doubtful of their convictions when questioned, or amenable to manipulation,” write Koontz and O’Donnell.
• Personal Motivation: This entails instilling passion in the leader to complete a task. Only by being enthusiastic can one achieve their goals. Leaders have a rather achievement-oriented, motivational drive. He should work harder to fulfil inner drives rather than for extrinsic monetary benefits.
• Integrity: W. Taylor defines integrity as “the straightforward honesty of purpose that makes a man truthful, not only to others but to himself; that makes a man high-minded, and gives him lofty aspirations and high ideals.”
• Flexibility of Mind: A leader must be willing to accommodate others’ points of view and, if necessary, adjust his decisions. A leader’s mind should be flexible enough to alter in response to changing circumstances. “A stupid consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind,” stated Thomas Carlisle.

To summarise, a leader must have a dynamic personality, academic aptitude, an affable disposition, an unpretentious temperament, and the ability to interact with his people.

Importance of Leadership

The significance of leadership in an organisation cannot be overstated. People who work in an organisation require individuals (leaders) who can guide the efforts of groups of workers to attain the goals and objectives of both the individuals and the organisation. The leader directs the actions of others in carrying out these tasks. A good leader inspires subordinates, builds trust, and boosts employee morale. “Good leadership is necessary for a firm’s success, yet business leaders are the scarcest resources of any enterprise,” says Peter F Drucker. The following points emphasise the significance of leadership:

1. Leadership influences an individual’s or a group’s activities to attain a goal.
2. An effective leader pushes subordinates to perform at a higher level.
3. Leadership fosters team spirit and teamwork, which are critical for success.
4. Leadership is a tool for authority. Dynamic and informed leadership aids in the efficient use of formal authority.
5. Leadership instils confidence in subordinates by providing appropriate counsel and suggestions.

Numerous examples in business history of good CEOs leading their companies to exceptional success. “The will to do is sparked by leadership, and lukewarm impulses for achievement are changed into flaming enthusiasm for successful accomplishments by the expert use of leadership abilities,” writes George R Terry.

Functions of a Leader

Peter Drucker stated, “An effective leader can inspire ordinary men to accomplish great things and ordinary people to do remarkable things. Leadership is raising a man’s sights to a higher vision, raising a man’s standard to a greater level of performance, and developing a man’s personality beyond its normal limitations.” This Peter Drucker approach emphasises the leader’s responsibility to achieve organisational goals while also paying attention to the requirements of his employees. The following are some of the most important functions of a corporate leader:

1. To take the initiative: A leader initiates all essential actions to ensure the health and progress of the organisation in a competitive economy. He should not look to others to direct or advise him. He should define the goals and objectives, start implementing them, and ensure the predetermined targets meet them.
2. He identifies group goals: A leader must constantly assist the group in identifying and achieving its goals. As a result, a leader is a goal-setter.
3. He represents the organisation: A leader represents the organisation and its purpose, ideals, philosophy, and difficulties to the people who work for it and to the rest of the world. In other words, a leader truly represents the entire organisation.
4. He functions as an arbitrator: When groups face internal conflict, whether emotional or intellectual, a leader can typically mediate the conflict. He acts as an arbiter to prevent severe disagreements within the organisation.
5. To give justifications for his actions: It is a leader’s sensitive responsibility to give reasons for his every directive. He must instruct all parties involved to understand things and ensure their cooperation is readily given.
6. To interpret: He interprets the organization’s aims and the methods for achieving them; he informs, convinces, and instils confidence in his followers.
7. To guide and direct: The leader’s principal responsibility is to guide and direct the organisation. He should issue the relevant orders and ensure that they are appropriately communicated.
8. To promote teamwork, a leader must strive to gain the trust of his subordinates and act like a team captain.
9. He controls the organisation: Finally, he manages the undertaking by organising the forecasting, planning, organisation, direction, coordination, and control of its activities.

Theories of Leadership

Leadership has been perceived differently by many experts and scholars. Some emphasise personal options, while others consider leadership to be situational. Behavioural scientists’ investigations on what makes a leader effective have resulted in “leadership theories.” The following are some of the most notable leadership theories:

1. Trait Theory of Leadership: The goal of trait theory is to identify the personal qualities of influential leaders. It emphasises that a person’s attributes or characteristics make him an effective or successful leader. Charles Bird reviewed twenty lists of leadership attributes given to leaders in separate surveys and discovered none of the traits featured on all lists. Leaders were defined by various characteristics ranging from neatness to nobility. Leaders are assumed to have more excellent judgement and to participate in social activities. Research shows many of these characteristics may be found in successful leaders’ lives. According to the trait hypothesis, individuals with the following traits or personal attributes may be successful leaders:
   1. Good personality: Physical attributes and maturity level determine an individual’s personality. A leader’s personality is crucial in determining his or her success.
   2. Intellectual ability: A leader must be more intelligent than a typical follower. A leader must accurately assess the issue and make appropriate decisions.
   3. Initiative: A leader should initiate appropriate actions at the appropriate time.
   4. Imagination: A leader should be able to envisage trends and devise policies and programmes creatively.
   5. Maturity: A leader’s emotional maturity and temperament should be balanced. They should also be tolerant of frustration.
   6. Willingness to accept responsibility: A leader must accept responsibility for the repercussions of any action he takes. In other words, he must bear complete accountability for his conduct.
   7. Self-confidence: A leader should be self-assured. Self-assurance is vital for motivating followers and raising morale.
   8. Flexibility: A leader must be willing to change his or her decisions to meet the views of others. He should have an open mind and be willing to accept and assimilate new ideas and points of view from others.
   9. Fairness and objectivity: A good leader is fair and objective when dealing with subordinates. Any excellent leader must be honest, fair, and of good character.
   10. Considerate: A good leader is thoughtful of his followers because his success as a leader is heavily reliant on their cooperation.

According to research, a few attributes have a weak but constant link to assuming leadership positions. People with a high amount of energy tend to rise to leadership positions. Leadership potential has been linked to the social attribute of dominance and the motivations of achievement and power. High self-esteem has also been connected to leadership. One of the most significant correlations between general cognitive capacity and leadership ability exists.

Limitations of the Trait Theory

1. It assumes that leadership is a natural trait. This is not always the case, but leadership skills can be cultivated through training.
2. A leader may be incredibly successful in one situation due to specific characteristics yet fail in another.
3. The theory also fails to highlight the characteristics required to maintain leadership. A trait usually is measured once a person becomes a leader.
4. There is no such thing as a universal set of personal characteristics shared by all influential leaders.
5. Personal characteristics are only a tiny portion of the overall environment. Focusing solely on personal characteristics can overlook a leader’s other qualifications.

Applications of Trait Theory

People continue to think about leadership attributes, notwithstanding the limits of trait theory. For example, in many recruiting and promotion decisions, the decision maker chooses persons with “leadership potential.” There is nothing wrong with such a decision, but is it a viable strategy? Most likely not. When valid processes are used for selection, higher-quality employees are produced than judgments based on non-job-related personality factors.

1. Behavioural Theory of Leadership: According to this theory, a specific behaviour of a leader brings higher happiness to his followers, and therefore, he is seen as a good leader. The behavioural approach is founded on the notion that effective role behaviour results in effective leadership. A leader influences the behaviour of his subordinates by using intellectual, human, and technological skills. The behavioural theory does not focus on the characteristics of leaders; instead, it encourages the study of leaders’ behaviours to uncover their behavioural patterns. The trait approach’s inability to consistently establish particular features that differentiate successful and failed leaders led to the conclusion that emphasising leader behaviour (which could be measured) rather than traits (which could not be measured) was a suitable new study strategy. This topic was the focus of research at Ohio State University and the University of Michigan beginning in the late 1940s and continuing into the early 1960s.
   2. Ohio State University Research: A team of researchers from Ohio State University, led by Edwin Fleishman, performed extensive surveys. The study’s purpose was to:
      2. Identify the behaviours displayed by leaders.
      3. Determine how these behaviours affected employee satisfaction and performance.
      4. Determine the most effective leadership style.

Surveys were created to assess leadership styles. The Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) was created to assess subordinate perceptions of the leader’s behaviours, whereas the Leader Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ) assessed the leader’s assessment of his style.

Following an examination of actual leader behaviour in a wide range of scenarios, two critical leadership behaviours were identified:

1. Initiating-structure behaviour (IS): Define the roles of leader and follower so that everyone understands what is expected. This includes creating official lines of communication and choosing how duties will be completed.
2. Consideration Behaviour(C): Showing concern for followers and attempting to create a nice and helpful work environment based on mutual trust.

These two types of behaviour were considered autonomous, meaning that a particular leader may score highly in the other or both. Leaders with high IS scores led high-producing units and were highly rated by their superiors. However, those leaders’ subordinates had worse morale, higher grievance rates, and increased turnover. On the other hand, leaders who scored high on C led groups with stronger morale but poorer production. As a result, each of the unique leader behaviours had positive and negative impacts. Some later theorists extended these findings to conclude that leaders who scored high on both LS and C would simultaneously satisfy their superiors (by achieving high performance) and their subordinates (by improving their morale).

1. 1. University of Michigan Studies: Researchers at the University of Michigan used Rensis Likert to conduct comprehensive interviews with managers and the employees who reported to them. After evaluating different industrial circumstances, the researchers determined that two leadership styles—employee-centred and production or task-centred—influenced employee performance and happiness.
      1. Task-Centered Leader Behaviour: An attempt to lead employees by focusing on their tasks and how well they perform. The task-centred leader is concerned with performance and pays great attention to employees’ work.
      2. Employee-centred Leader Behaviour: An effort to lead employees by fostering a cohesive work environment and ensuring employee happiness. The employee-centred leader prioritises the well-being of people over the jobs they execute.

According to the researchers, these behaviours are mutually exclusive; a leader will typically use one or the other. The Michigan studies found that employee-centered leaders oversaw groups with higher morale and productivity, whereas production-centered leaders supervised groups with lower morale and productivity. These findings concluded that employee-centered leadership was superior to production-centered leadership.

3. Contingency Theory of Leadership: Fiedler’s contingency model is one of the most severe and extensive situational theories in leadership literature. Fiedler was most likely the first researcher to recognise the need for a more comprehensive explanation of leadership phenomena based on situational variables. Fiedler’s concept is called a ‘contingency’ model since the leader’s efficacy depends on three primary situational elements.
   3. Leader-member relations relate to the followers’ confidence, trust, and respect for the leader. They reflect how much group members like the leader and are willing to accept the leader’s behaviour as an influence on them.
   4. Task structure assesses how routine or non-routine the tasks done by subordinates are. In other words, task structure refers to how routine and predictable the workgroup’s tasks are.
   5. Leader position power relates to the extent to which the leader has various rewards and sanctions, his authority over group members, and the extent to which the organisation supports this authority.
   6. Situational favorableness: Fiedler developed eight combinations, ranging from highly favourable to unfavourable conditions, based on the ‘high’ and ‘low’ categories of these situational characteristics.

A favourable environment is one in which the leader-member relationships are positive, the work is well-structured, and the leader has enormous power to influence the subordinates. With this high degree of favorability, the first cell in the table is recognised. An unfavourable situation is one in which the leader’s power is weak, relationships with members are bad, and the task is unstructured and unpredictable. This circumstance is represented by the last cell. The position of intermediate difficulty exists between these two extremes. According to Fiedler, a permissive, relationship-oriented attitude is preferable when the circumstance is moderately favourable or unfavourable. A task-oriented style generates the desired performance, whether the situation is exceedingly favourable or highly unfavourable.

4. Managerial Grid: Robert R Blake and Jane S Moulton have created a method for organisational growth that emphasises the importance of the two main leader behaviours (concern for people and concern for productivity) discovered in the Ohio State and Michigan investigations. The model is intended to assist managers in first recognising their existing leadership style and developing the ideal style. Blake and Mouton argue that there is an optimal management style. However, they discovered that most managers adopt a middle-of-the-road approach. The managerial grid divides leadership behaviour into two categories: concern for people and concern for production. Instead of viewing each type of concern as an absolute measure, the managerial grid places them on two distinct continuums. Thus, a manager has a low to high concern for people and a low to high concern for output.

• Improvised (1,1) Management: No regard for productivity or people. This managerial approach results in people performing the bare minimum.
• Authority-Compliance (9.1) Management: Production is prioritised over people. This management style produces more efficient operations.
• Country Club (1,9) Management: High concern for people and low concern for output. This management approach fosters a pleasant working atmosphere for employees.
• Middle of the Road (5,5) Management: Moderate care for people and output. This management style achieves appropriate performance by balancing needs through compromise.
• Team (9,9): High levels of care for people and output. This managerial style leads to higher performance from dedicated personnel.

The managerial grid Robert Blake and Jane Mouton proposed is a slightly more complicated leadership model. This concept is seen in Figure The Leadership Grid, and is known as the Leadership Grid in the most recent version developed by Robert Blake and Anne McCanse.

5. Situational Theory of Leadership: The situational theory of leadership is heavily influenced by the circumstances in which a leader arises and works. This approach emphasises that the overall interaction between the group and the leader is critical in determining a leader’s success. People (followers) tend to follow the person (leader) who can help them achieve their goals. As a result, a leader sees the situation’s requirements and responds accordingly. This idea has the advantage of emphasising that there is no single universally “best style” of leadership. A leader’s leadership style must alter depending on the scenario. Contingency or situational theories differ from personality and behavioural theories in that they suggest that no single style of leadership works in all situations. According to recent studies, managers should choose the leadership that best matches the scenario. Effective managers diagnose the situation, decide the most effective leadership style, and then assess their ability to implement the appropriate style. According to early situational research, three general characteristics influence the right leadership style in a specific situation.
   5. Subordinate Considerations: These should reflect the leader’s awareness of the subordinate’s expertise, experience, competence, job knowledge, hierarchical level, and psychological qualities.
   6. Supervisor Considerations: Reflect the leader’s level of upward influence and attitudes and behaviours similar to those in higher levels.
   7. Task Considerations: Reflect the degree of time urgency, physical hazard, permissible error rate, presence of stress, autonomy, job scope, relevance and meaningfulness, and ambiguity of the work being performed.

The specific features of each dimension that determine the most effective leadership style vary depending on the situation. According to most situational theorists, influential leaders create various leadership styles that adapt to different situations.

Limitations of Situational Theory Leadership

1. This theory emphasises a person’s leadership skills in a particular context but does not address whether he will fit in another situation.
2. If the leader uses the same method in every situation, he may not be successful. Although this is not always the case, leaders have been successful in all eras and circumstances.

 

6. Great Man Theory of Leadership: According to the belief, leaders are born rather than made. This is especially true with natural leaders who are exceptional. Specific attributes are required for leadership, such as a dominating personality, charm, courage, intelligence, honesty, persuasiveness, tenacity, and aggressiveness. These characteristics are of such a nature that they cannot be taught or learned formally. This method is used in the following ways:

• Leaders are born with specific leadership abilities.
• A leader’s natural abilities are adequate for success.
• No ordinary person can become a leader.
• Leadership abilities cannot be taught.

Thus, exceptional leaders are “God’s gift” to humanity. Their divinely intended and approved judgments and actions impart immense good to mankind.

Limitations of Great Man’s Theory of Leadership

1. The theory is considered almost antiquated and ludicrous due to its lack of scientific and empirical support.
2. The idea does not explain who leaders are, how they arise and behave, and what makes them effective.

 

7. The Path-goal Theory: The Path Goal theory, developed by Robert House, is one of the most regarded approaches to leadership. The notion states that it is the leader’s responsibility to help his or her followers achieve their goals and provide the necessary direction and/or support to guarantee their goals are compatible with the group’s or organisation’s general objectives. According to this notion, leaders try to influence their subordinates’ perceptions of the benefits of achieving their goals and show them how to do so. Thus, a leader’s behaviour is motivating to the extent that it (a) makes subordinates need satisfaction contingent on successful performance and (b) provides the required coaching, advice, support, and rewards for effective performance.

House identified four leadership behaviours or styles to test these statements:

1. Directive Style: The leader tells subordinates what is expected of them, provides instructions on what should be done, and demonstrates how to do it.
2. Supportive Style: The leader is warm and approachable, demonstrating concern for the well-being and needs of his or her subordinates.
3. Participative Style: The leader discusses with subordinates their perspectives on the situation, asks for their suggestions, considers those suggestions in reaching a decision, and sometimes lets the subordinates decide themselves.
4. Achievement-Oriented Style: The leader assists subordinates in setting goals, rewards achievement of these goals, and encourages subordinates to take responsibility for their completion.

House argues that leaders are adaptable and that the same leader can exhibit any or all of these behaviours depending on the circumstances.

Using the Path-Goal Theory: The leader will begin by selecting a leadership style appropriate for the situation. To do so, the leader must evaluate five characteristics of the circumstance and the persons involved:

1. Assess the task: Structured tasks with clear goals require less direction than unstructured tasks with undefined goals.
2. Assess the leader’s formal authority: managers with formal authority should avoid using directive styles since they duplicate their authority, but they can employ supportive achievement-oriented or participative styles.
3. Assess the nature of the workgroup: The leader should evaluate the work group’s cohesiveness and experience working together. Because supporting leadership is redundant with the group’s nature, the more cohesive the group, the less need for it.
4. Assess the organisation’s culture: A culture that encourages involvement also encourages a participative leadership style. A culture that supports goal achievement or a results focus reinforces an achievement-oriented style.
5. Assess the subordinate’s skills and needs: Skilled subordinates require less instruction than less skilled subordinates. Subordinates with high achievement requirements demand a style that assists in meeting these requirements. Subordinates with social demands require a style that assists in meeting these needs.

Participation Theory of Leadership: Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton created a paradigm of leadership and participation that linked leadership behaviour and involvement to decision-making. They assume leaders make judgments in four fundamental styles: authoritative, consultative, group-based, and delegation. These styles resulted in the solution of individual and group problems using various decision-making processes.

Contemporary Issues in Leadership

1. 1. Male/female leadership styles: As more women assume visible leadership roles, many observers see disparities in the two sexes’ leadership approaches. Due to disparities between male and female leadership styles, studies show that women tend to lead more democratically than males. Women are more likely to encourage decision-making participation, to share power and knowledge, and to try to boost their followers’ self-esteem. They wield power due to their charisma, competence, personal connections, and interpersonal skills. Conversely, men are more prone to rely on their position’s authority and issue commands to their followers.
   2. Empowerment-based leadership: Managers are currently advised to lead through empowerment. Influential leaders share power and responsibilities with their workforce. The role of the empowering leader is to demonstrate trust, provide vision, increase performance, remove impediments, offer encouragement, motivate, and coach personnel.
   3. Biological basis for leadership: According to a growing body of research, the best leaders are not always the smartest, most vital, or most aggressive members of a group but rather those who are most adept at navigating social interactions. Researchers discovered that effective leaders have a distinct biological combination of hormones and brain chemistry that aids in forming social relationships and managing stress. Higher quantities of the chemical serotonin promote sociability and moderate aggression, whereas higher levels of testosterone promote aggressive inclinations and competitive drive.