LECTURES LEADERSHIP
Lecture 1
Leadership
It is not clear what leadership really is, quite mysterious. It is also not clear why you
follow one leader but not another.
Leadership on the other hand is also something you experience on a daily basis,
behaviors of leaders affect your life
Purpose of this course:
At the end of the course the student is able to:
• Define leadership and followership.
• Define key concepts and theories (at interpersonal, intergroup and
organizational level) of leadership as they apply to the work context.
• Evaluate these theories in terms of the current state of empirical findings on
leadership in the work context.
• Define the active role of followers in shaping leaders' attitudes and behaviors.
• Define the impact of different leadership styles on employee work outcomes.
Hoofdstuk 1 – The nature of Leadership
What is leadership?
[Leadership is defined as an ability to influence a group toward the achievement of
goals.]
Also well seen as the behavior of practicing from a group towards a goal
The goals can be both positive and negative
Forms of leadership
• Leadership as a specialized role
o From top to bottom
• Specific leadership roles are assigned.
o People are hired to be that person (leader) and given the responsibility
for it
• Leaders and followers
• The questions that can be asked with this type of leadership are “why do we
select leaders?” (Why do we assign leaders), “Why do we select one and not
the other?”
• Leadership as a shared influencing process
o From bottom to top
• Comes naturally, they naturally move people toward a goal
• Any lid can be a leader at any time
• The questions you can ask in this type of leadership are: "Who emerges as a
leader?", "What personality trait does the leader have?"
,How do we see leadership?
• Leadership is limited to
influencing processes based on
getting followers enthusiastic
and committed to work towards
a goal
• Leadership also includes
influencing processes based on
punishing and rewarding
followers and forcing them to work towards a goal
• It concerns processes of punishment and coercion
• Having the power to do something
• This is mainly about leadership effectiveness, how effective is a leader?
Manager ≠ Leader
In the past, managers had to do the things that are in the left side of the sphere, but
in modern organizations they are also asked to lead
Indicators of leadership effectivity
1. Performance and facilitation of goal-attainment
a. How much has been sold, profit etc.
2. Follower attitudes and perceptions of the leader
a. Do the followers trust/do the followers like the leader?
3. Contributions to the quality of the group process
a. You can test this with turnover: how many followers want to work for
another organization? How many people call in sick?
4. Career success
a. Elections
Studying Leadership Effectiveness
• Investigating when leaders are effective
o Survey research
• Observations, diaries, critical incidents or interviews
• Experiments and field experiments
• Field experiments: when you can manipulate something in the group
• Belangrijke perspectieven in leiderschap
o Trait approach
o Situational (contingency) approach
o Behavior approach
o Value-based approach
o Power-influence approach
Trait approach
• One of the early approaches to leadership: focuses on leadership qualities
• Looking at certain personality traits that leaders possess and normal
people do not
• Attempts to demonstrate that they possess certain qualities that non-
leaders do not have
, • They looked at great (mostly male) leaders who had a major impact on
society, such as case studies
• Leadership is inherent, not learned
• Turned out to be a dead end
Situational (contingency) approach
• There is no “one best way”;
leadership effectiveness
depends on the situation
• The same type of leadership
is not always effective in
every situation
• The situational theory of
Hersery & Blanchard
o The suggested
leadership depended
in part on the maturity
of the followers
• Low maturity à structuring
leadership style
• Moderate maturity à less
structuring style; increase attentive style
• High maturity à decrease both leadership styles
Behavior approach
• From the 1950s, the focus shifts to the behavior of leaders (e.g. Ohio State
Studies)
• Associate the different types of behavior with leadership effectiveness
• Leadership can be learned
• If you exhibit a certain behavior, you can achieve a certain goal
Op waarde gebaseerde benadering [Value-based approach]
• Diepgewortelde leiderswaarden die volgers aanspreken en beïnvloeden
o Leiders hebben specifieke waardes en gebruiken die om een beroep
doen op en het beïnvloeden van volgers
• Charismatisch en transformationeel leiderschap
• (On)ethische gevolgen
o Ethisch: MLK of Ghandi
o Onethisch: Hitler
Power-influence approach
• Power: asymmetric control over valued resources
• High power individuals influence one's salary
• Low power individuals depend on high power individuals for their salary
• How does power influence the behavior of leaders and what kind of power do
leaders exercise?
• The impact of different influencing tactics
, Individual-level
• Focuses on personality traits, values,
skills, motives, cognitions, and emotions
of leaders to explain their decisions and
behavior
• Similar to the trait approach
• Low value (initially): No consistent relationships are found between leaders'
traits and effectiveness
Dyadic-level
• Dyad: two individuals (one leader and one follower)
• Focuses on a relationship between the leader and one other individual
• Leaders behave differently towards different followers (subordinates)
• Leader-Member Exchange approach (LMX)
• Investigates the impact of the quality of the relationship between supervisor
and followers (subordinate)
Group-level
• Focuses on the influence of leaders on collective processes of the group
achieving performance
• Leaders who work with teams
• Leading different types of teams, dealing with subgroups in teams, etc.
• More and more organizations work in a team and leaders are then asked to
ensure that they can all work well in a team
Organisation-level
• Targets leaders in a larger “open system” in which: groups are subsystems
• Full organization
• Strategic leadership and dealing with organizational change
• Better explanation of an organization's financial performance
• Widest level
Key points of this lecture
• Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group toward the
achievement of goals
• Leadership is defined as an ability to influence a group toward the
• The main leadership approaches are: trait, situational, behavioral, value and
power approaches.
• Leadership theories can be conceptualized at: intra-individual level, dyadic
level, group level and organizational level.
Lecture 1
Leadership
It is not clear what leadership really is, quite mysterious. It is also not clear why you
follow one leader but not another.
Leadership on the other hand is also something you experience on a daily basis,
behaviors of leaders affect your life
Purpose of this course:
At the end of the course the student is able to:
• Define leadership and followership.
• Define key concepts and theories (at interpersonal, intergroup and
organizational level) of leadership as they apply to the work context.
• Evaluate these theories in terms of the current state of empirical findings on
leadership in the work context.
• Define the active role of followers in shaping leaders' attitudes and behaviors.
• Define the impact of different leadership styles on employee work outcomes.
Hoofdstuk 1 – The nature of Leadership
What is leadership?
[Leadership is defined as an ability to influence a group toward the achievement of
goals.]
Also well seen as the behavior of practicing from a group towards a goal
The goals can be both positive and negative
Forms of leadership
• Leadership as a specialized role
o From top to bottom
• Specific leadership roles are assigned.
o People are hired to be that person (leader) and given the responsibility
for it
• Leaders and followers
• The questions that can be asked with this type of leadership are “why do we
select leaders?” (Why do we assign leaders), “Why do we select one and not
the other?”
• Leadership as a shared influencing process
o From bottom to top
• Comes naturally, they naturally move people toward a goal
• Any lid can be a leader at any time
• The questions you can ask in this type of leadership are: "Who emerges as a
leader?", "What personality trait does the leader have?"
,How do we see leadership?
• Leadership is limited to
influencing processes based on
getting followers enthusiastic
and committed to work towards
a goal
• Leadership also includes
influencing processes based on
punishing and rewarding
followers and forcing them to work towards a goal
• It concerns processes of punishment and coercion
• Having the power to do something
• This is mainly about leadership effectiveness, how effective is a leader?
Manager ≠ Leader
In the past, managers had to do the things that are in the left side of the sphere, but
in modern organizations they are also asked to lead
Indicators of leadership effectivity
1. Performance and facilitation of goal-attainment
a. How much has been sold, profit etc.
2. Follower attitudes and perceptions of the leader
a. Do the followers trust/do the followers like the leader?
3. Contributions to the quality of the group process
a. You can test this with turnover: how many followers want to work for
another organization? How many people call in sick?
4. Career success
a. Elections
Studying Leadership Effectiveness
• Investigating when leaders are effective
o Survey research
• Observations, diaries, critical incidents or interviews
• Experiments and field experiments
• Field experiments: when you can manipulate something in the group
• Belangrijke perspectieven in leiderschap
o Trait approach
o Situational (contingency) approach
o Behavior approach
o Value-based approach
o Power-influence approach
Trait approach
• One of the early approaches to leadership: focuses on leadership qualities
• Looking at certain personality traits that leaders possess and normal
people do not
• Attempts to demonstrate that they possess certain qualities that non-
leaders do not have
, • They looked at great (mostly male) leaders who had a major impact on
society, such as case studies
• Leadership is inherent, not learned
• Turned out to be a dead end
Situational (contingency) approach
• There is no “one best way”;
leadership effectiveness
depends on the situation
• The same type of leadership
is not always effective in
every situation
• The situational theory of
Hersery & Blanchard
o The suggested
leadership depended
in part on the maturity
of the followers
• Low maturity à structuring
leadership style
• Moderate maturity à less
structuring style; increase attentive style
• High maturity à decrease both leadership styles
Behavior approach
• From the 1950s, the focus shifts to the behavior of leaders (e.g. Ohio State
Studies)
• Associate the different types of behavior with leadership effectiveness
• Leadership can be learned
• If you exhibit a certain behavior, you can achieve a certain goal
Op waarde gebaseerde benadering [Value-based approach]
• Diepgewortelde leiderswaarden die volgers aanspreken en beïnvloeden
o Leiders hebben specifieke waardes en gebruiken die om een beroep
doen op en het beïnvloeden van volgers
• Charismatisch en transformationeel leiderschap
• (On)ethische gevolgen
o Ethisch: MLK of Ghandi
o Onethisch: Hitler
Power-influence approach
• Power: asymmetric control over valued resources
• High power individuals influence one's salary
• Low power individuals depend on high power individuals for their salary
• How does power influence the behavior of leaders and what kind of power do
leaders exercise?
• The impact of different influencing tactics
, Individual-level
• Focuses on personality traits, values,
skills, motives, cognitions, and emotions
of leaders to explain their decisions and
behavior
• Similar to the trait approach
• Low value (initially): No consistent relationships are found between leaders'
traits and effectiveness
Dyadic-level
• Dyad: two individuals (one leader and one follower)
• Focuses on a relationship between the leader and one other individual
• Leaders behave differently towards different followers (subordinates)
• Leader-Member Exchange approach (LMX)
• Investigates the impact of the quality of the relationship between supervisor
and followers (subordinate)
Group-level
• Focuses on the influence of leaders on collective processes of the group
achieving performance
• Leaders who work with teams
• Leading different types of teams, dealing with subgroups in teams, etc.
• More and more organizations work in a team and leaders are then asked to
ensure that they can all work well in a team
Organisation-level
• Targets leaders in a larger “open system” in which: groups are subsystems
• Full organization
• Strategic leadership and dealing with organizational change
• Better explanation of an organization's financial performance
• Widest level
Key points of this lecture
• Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group toward the
achievement of goals
• Leadership is defined as an ability to influence a group toward the
• The main leadership approaches are: trait, situational, behavioral, value and
power approaches.
• Leadership theories can be conceptualized at: intra-individual level, dyadic
level, group level and organizational level.
