Unit-7 Leadership,

Power & Politics

What is Leadership?

• Leadership is the energetic process of getting people fully and willingly committed to a new and sustainable course of action, to meet commonly agreed objectives while having commonly held values.

• A Leader is who reflects the key attributes of leadership such as ideas, vision, values, influencing and inspiring others with the ability to take tough decisions.

Leadership

• Koontz & Donell- “ Leadership is defined as the ability to exert interpersonal influence by means of communication towards achievement of goals.”

• “Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work enthusiastically toward achieving objectives.”

• Leaders must possess equal parts of Vision, Empowerment and Team Leadership.

Leadership

• According to Dr. George Odiorne employees are classified into 4 categories-

• Dead woods-Low Potential & Low Performance

• Work Horses-Low Potential & High Performance

• Problem Children-High Potential & Low Performance

• Stars-High Potential & High Performance

Comparison Between A Manager and A Leader

A Manager

• Thinking Process Takes initiative Is more focused on things Prefers looking inward Easily accepts reality• Direction of OperationMakes plans operationalTries to improve upon the existing setting

Focuses on immediate financials • Relationship with Employees Tries to gain control Considers employees as subordinates Instructs, directs and co-ordinates the efforts of the employees• Mode of OperationBelieves in efficiencyCan deal with complexity by asking the 'how' and 'when'Can manage change • Decision Making/Taking Decision method involves policy, rules and procedures Relies more on process and system Strives to achieve what's expected

A Leader

• Is originative• Is more focused on people• Looks outward• Believes in investigating reality

• Has a vision for the future• Tries to create a 'new' future• Looks out for new markets

• Prefers to empower people Treats employees as associates• Helps employees to learn through trust and development

• Believes in effectiveness• Embraces complexity by asking 'what' and 'why'• Creates change

• Decision method involves values and principles• Relies more on 'ideas' and people • Strives to excel

Leadership Theory

Trait Theory: Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles.

Great Events Theory: A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person.

Transformational Leadership Theory: People those who have unique leadership skills.

The Four Framework Approach to Leadership (Bolman and Deal)

• Structural Framework – The leader is a social architect whose leadership style is analysis and design.

• Human Resource Framework – The leader is a catalyst and servant whose leadership style is support, advocacy, and empowerment.

• Political Framework – The leader is an advocate whose leadership is coalition (alliance) and building.

• Symbolic Framework – The leader is a prophet, whose leadership style is inspiration.

Leadership Styles

Leadership Styles

Coercive Style

Democratic Style

Pace Setting StyleAffiliative Style

Authoritarian Style

Coaching Style

Leadership Styles , their Impact on Employees

Authoritarian Style• The full authority lies with the leader. The leader takes

the decision, communicates the same to the subordinates along with the instructions on how the decisions are to be carried out and the subordinates are expected to do what is told to them by the leader. This type of leadership is visible in the Defense forces.

• The biggest advantage of this style is -Tasks can be accomplished efficiently and quickly, without wasting time in a two way communication process.

• The drawback of this style is- That employees are aware of what to do but not why they are required to do so. This leads to low employee morale, losing initiative and avoiding shouldering of responsibility.

The Coercive Style• This style is similar to the authoritative style. Here

the leader adopts an extreme top-down decision making style, thereby killing all new ideas on the other side. The subordinates feel very disrespected even to think and come up with ideas since ultimately they will all be ignored and their ideas shot down. This is because the leader does not believe or encourage a two way communication flow. He/she will take all the decisions which have to be abided without raising any doubts or questions.

Coercive Style• Advantages It is effective in case of emergency like fire or instances when

it is absolutely imperative, say in case of a hostile takeover of the company is looming. In such instances, the coercive leadership style can help to break failed business habits and shock people into new ways of working.

• Drawbacks This leadership style is not effective in the long run as it is

insensitive to the morale and feelings of the followers which can be ruinous in the long run.

Coercive leadership has a damaging effect on the reward system, leaving high performance workers de-moralized, de-motivated measured in terms of diminished clarity and commitment and alienated from their own job

Democratic Style The leader confers final authority on the group. The

entire group functions as collectors of opinion and together take a consensus decision. As per this style, the leader delegates full authority to his/her followers.

• Advantages This style is effective for a high performing group

members who get highly motivated when they are allowed to make decisions and experience feelings of increasing self-worth and satisfaction due to this.

• When decision is arrived at through discussions and employees participation, it not only gains more acceptance but also paves the way for better quality solutions to problems.

Democratic Style

Drawbacks• The democratic style does not work always

especially when the leader is unwilling to delegate authority completely to the subordinates. At times when the subordinates are not mentally and physically willing to shoulder the entire responsibility of decision making this style does not work.

Pace Setting Style

The pace setting style is admirable, Under this style, the leader sets extremely high performance standards and exemplifies them himself. The guidelines for working may be clear in the leader's head but he may not state them clearly. The leader is usually obsessive about doing things better and faster and expects the same from the subordinates. The leader is quick in pointing out poor performers and demands more from them. If the subordinates are not able to rise to the occasion, the leader replaces them with people who can. Such an approach is adopted by the leader so as to obtain quick results but this does not usually happen.

• Advantages This style works well when all employees are self motivated, highly

competent and need little direction or co-ordination. For instance, this style is suitable when the work involves highly talented, skilled and self motivated professionals like good R & D groups ,legal teams, those who work for the project that it is completed on time or even before the scheduled time

Pace Setting StyleDrawbacks• This style can destroy the organizational climate especially when the

employees are overwhelmed by the pace setter leader's demands for excellence and this results in a drop in their morale.

• The employees feel that work is not something which one is required to give his/ her best performance but is more of second guessing (or mind reading) of what the leader wants.

• Without being given a chance to take initiative, the subordinates may feel that the work is so task focused, and boring without any flexibility and responsibility involved.

• The employees are not given any feedback on their work performance and the leader merely will forcefully take over when he feels work is lagging. Further, if such leader leave, the employees will feel directionless as they are so used to the "expert" setting the rules.

Affiliative Style This approach involves the leader listening

to the subordinates, trying to seek an understanding of each key employee as a person, exploring their lives, dreams and aspirations.

Affiliative Style

• Advantages An Affiliative leader is able to build rapport with the employees because he

can sense how the employees are feeling and respond in a way congruent to that person's emotions.

• An Affiliative leader displays a natural ease in forming new relationships by getting to know the employee as a person, cultivating a bond with them and thus willingly extract the desired work performance.

• Affiliative leader displays high emotional intelligence, empathy in building relationships and good communication which will work well in all types of work environment and work groups.

• Drawbacks Though the Affiliative style is good for the organization in the long run, in

case of emergencies or quick decisions to be taken and implemented, the leader may have to combine this style with probably another style (like authoritative style) to get a fast responses.

Coaching Style

• Coaching leaders help employees to identify their unique strengths and weaknesses and tie these up to their personal and career aspirations. Such leaders encourage and counsel employees about their role and responsibilities in enacting development plans (or goals), provide plentiful instructions and feedback so as to attain their goals. Coaching leaders are ready to delegate, provide challenging assignments to subordinates and willing to put up with short term failure if this could result in long term learning.

Coaching Style

Advantages• Coaching style primarily focuses on personal

development.

• Coaching style enables the employee to be aware of what is expected of him and of how his job will fill into the larger vision or strategy, thereby ensuring clarity of work.

• Coaching style facilitates the employee commitment to the job.

Coaching Style

Drawbacks• Research has indicated that the coaching style is used

least often especially because the leaders do not have the time in the existing high pressure economy to go slow and adopt the tedious work of teaching people and helping them grow.

• The coaching style makes little sense when the employees for whatever reason are resistant to learn or change their ways.

• This style may be unsuitable or ineffective if the leader is unfamiliar or lacks the expertise to coach and give constructive feedback to his subordinates.

Current Issues in Leadership

• Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

• A good leader needs to possess the basic intelligence and skills to manage people, understand their feelings….

• EQ Component- Self Awareness, Self Management, Self Motivation, Empathy , Social Skills.

Current Issues in Leadership

Woman Leaders• Kiran Mazumdar (CMD, Biocon India)

• Sulajja Firidia Motwani ( Kinetic Engineering )

• Ekta Kapoor ( Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms)

Managerial Grid

Low High

1,9 Country Club 9,9 Team

1,1 Impoverished 9,1 Task

Concern for Production

Concern for People

5,5 Middle Road

Power & Politics

Power• Power can be defined as the potential capacity

to influence the behavior of others.• Interpersonal (or Intergroup) relationship in which

one individual (or group) can cause another individual (or group) to take an action that it would not otherwise take.

• Involves changing the behavior of another.• Person A has power over person B if B believes A

can force B to comply.

Power• According to John B. Miner — "Power is

the ability to induce a person to do something he or she would not otherwise have done."

• John Miner further adds "Influence is a broader concept referring to anything a person does to alter the behavior, attitudes, values, feelings and such of another person, ... Power is thus one form of influence."

Power/Leadership/Authority

Power is closely related to Leadership and

Authority

Leadership

Authority Power

Authority

• Against to power Authority is referred to as power legitimated by a formal organization structure and also accepted by the employees as being right .

Difference b/w Leadership & Power

• Leadership is an attempt to influence other individuals.

• Leadership is more focused on the individual and his style.

• Power is the resource which enables a leader to influence.

• Power is broader and includes both individuals & groups with more focus on tactics to gain compliance.

Sources of Power

According to French and Raven there are

5 Interpersonal sources of power-

• Coercive Power

• Reward Power

• Legitimate Power

• Expert Power and

• Referent Power

Coercive Power• Coercive power is an individual's ability to

influence others' behaviors by punishing their undesirable behaviors.

• This is the power to give or withhold punishment, such as suspension, termination, or even the withholding of praise and goodwill.

• The employee (say subordinate) may comply because of his fear in expectation of the punishment for failure to respond favorably to the managerial directives.

Reward Power

• It refers to the person's ability to influence others' behaviors by rewarding their desirable behaviors. Employees (or individuals) comply with the wishes or directives of their superiors, because by doing so they may get positive benefits and rewards for their compliance.

• The power to give pay raises, promotion, praise, interesting projects, and other rewards to subordinates.

Legitimate Power

• The power to control and use organizational resources to accomplish organizational goals.

• The legitimate power is based on the structural position in an organization, which can result in the manager's ability to influence the behaviors of the subordinates. Further, subordinates may also respond to such influence because they acknowledge the manager's legitimate right to prescribe certain expected formal behaviors.

Expert Power

• Expert power is the individual's ability to influence other's behavior on the basis of recognized competencies, talents, or specialized knowledge.

• It is an Informal power that stems from superior ability or expertise. Eg.-

• C.K. Prahlad (Core Competency)• Bill Gates (Vision of the role IT in this millennium )• Piyush Pandey (Impact of Advertising)

Referent Power

• Referent power refers to an individual's ability to influence other's behaviors because of being respected, admired or liked.

• It is also an Informal power that stems from being liked, admired, and respected. eg.-

• Amitabh Bachchan is advertising 'Parker Pens', or Sachin Tendulkar is advertising 'Boost.'

Power and Politics• Power: The ability of one

person or group to cause another person or group to do something that they otherwise might not have done.

• Organizational Politics: Activities in which managers engage to increase their power and to pursue goals that favor their individual and group interests.

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The Dark Side of Power and Politics

Power and politics often have negative connotations because people associate them with attempts to use organizational resources for personal advantage and to achieve personal goals at the expense of other goals.

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The Bright Side

• Managers can use power to control people and other resources so that they cooperate and help to achieve an organization’s current goals.

• Managers can use power to engage in politics and influence the decision-making process to help promote new,

more appropriate organizational goals.

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Sources of Individual Power

Formal individual power is the power that stems from a person’s position in an organization’s hierarchy.

Informal individual power is the power that stems from personal characteristics.

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Power Tactics

Power tactics are ways in which individuals translate power bases into specific actions.Strategies to Exercise Power-Reasons- Facts & Data

Friendship-Creation of goodwill

Coalition-Support System

Bargaining-Negotiation

Assertiveness-Direct & Forceful approach

Influence Strategies• Influence strategies are used by individuals or groups so as to

exert power or influence other people's behaviors. • Managers must effectively use the power to influence the behavior

of others ; to motivate employees to work efficiently and earn more and also to experience job satisfaction and less work stress.

• Rational persuasion, inspirational appeal, consultation , personal appeal, pressure are the various strategies used at the work place. Research suggests that from the various strategies rational persuasion, inspirational appeal and consultation strategies are more effective in a variety of circumstances while the least effective strategies are pressure, coalition and legitimating. But for all practical purposes it is difficult to draw a line stating which strategies will work and which will be less effective. This is because at times these strategies may be worked out independently while at other times they may be used in combination depending upon the availability of power sources, the direction of influence being attempted (up, down or lateral) and the goals being sought.

Influence StrategiesThe effective use of power to influence the behaviors of others isindeed a challenging job and depend upon the following:• Both managers and employees have to understand both the

interpersonal and the structural sources of power and to effectively use them to influence people.

• The managers and employees, need to have a clear understanding of the nature of the exchange process underlying successful attempts so as to influence them.

• Both should be aware of the proper legitimate behavior to be used.

• How both seek and perform jobs that allow the development and use of power with full maturity and self control.

Politics

Organizational Politics• When people come together, try to influence each other and

exercise power over others for individual gains, it is called politics.

• Political behavior is defined as those activities that are not needed as a part of one's formal role in the organization but can exert influence on the behavior of other individuals and the course of events in the organization so as to protect their self interests and advance their own goals in the organization.

• Organizational politics refers to actions by individuals, teams, or departments to acquire, develop and use power and other resources in order to obtain preferred outcomes when uncertainty or disagreement about choices exist.

Factor Causing Political Behavior

• Individual Factors- Need for Power and High Expectations, Machiavellianism , Locus of control etc.

• Organizational Factors- Reallocation of sources, chances of advancements, low trust within the organization, Role Ambiguity etc.

The End