LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP

post has two assignments

• Case
 Assess your own leadership experience and analyze leadership according to environmental contingencies.
• SLP
o Assess your own level of cultural awareness and prepare a personal development plan.
• Discussion
o Analyze challenges and opportunities in creating a department merger plan.
Module Overview
As managerial hopefuls transition from supervisor through mid-level to upper-level positions, their specific expertise in a subject area becomes less important and their ability to influence others and inspire them to put their effort toward organizational goals increases. Yet most people are promoted not due to their ability to guide and direct others, but because of their skill in a functional area. Thus, a need is created to learn leadership skills to fill this void.
The Leadership Problem
What is the leadership problem? Google the word leadership and you will find a plethora of books, blogs, articles, and websites all claiming to know the key to effective leadership. Some pundits claim the key is trust, others the ability to challenge, motivate or inspire. Some say the best leaders are good facilitators and coaches, other that the best leaders are strong directors. The truth is all of them—and all of them are wrong.
What do we mean by this? Simply that good leaders can be all of these things, but not to all people at all times. How do we know which leadership activities are most effective with particular people in specific situations? This is the Leadership Problem.
In this module, we will study the leadership problem and seek to develop the critical thinking that will allow us to determine which leadership style or methods have the greatest chance of success with different types of followers and different types of circumstances. We will see how leadership is related to power and how different leadership practices elicit different kinds of reactions from followers.
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Module 3 – Background
LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
All background materials (as well as materials referenced on the home page) are required unless designated as optional or general reference materials.
People have wondered about what makes a great leader since the beginning of recorded history – and undoubtedly long before. The formal study of leadership dates back to the 1950’s, and is probably one of the most researched topics in Organizational Behavior. Today, after decades of study, we believe that:
• Leaders are made, not born, and leadership can be taught.
• Leadership occurs in all kinds of organizations and at all levels.
• To be a great leader, one does not have to be charismatic.
• There is no one right way to lead that will fit all situations.
In this module, we will review the major theories of leadership that persist to this day. Although some are more complex than others, each seems to have a nugget of truth and adds to our overall understanding of how leadership works and what makes great leadership. The following chart summarizes the major approaches or models that we will cover.
Leadership Model Principles
Trait Model Leaders have special innate qualities. Certain people are “natural leaders.”
Behavioral Models Leaders are concerned primarily with task or relationships, though the best leaders are concerned with both.
Contingency Models Different leader behaviors are effective for different types of followers and situations.
Influence (Power) Models Leadership consists of influencing others.
Transformational Models Leaders are visionaries who change organizations and people’s behavior.
Let’s begin with a PowerPoint presentation that will provide some background on these different models:
Eveland, J.D. (n.d.) Leadership. Trident University International.
The exercise of leadership, by definition, involves compelling people to do something they might not otherwise have done. The manner in which they carry out these tasks varies, however. The degree of motivation and enthusiasm with which a follower performs his or her work is related to the type of leadership that is used. Here are the most common reactions by followers:
• Commitment is characterized by the internalization of a leader’s goal or request and the follower’s decision to carry it out effectively. Frequently, the follower will go beyond what the leader has asked or expects – in other words, goes the extra mile.
• Compliance is an apathetic response where the follower does what the leader asks, but exerts no more than the required amount of effort.
• Resistance is a reaction where the follower opposed the leader‘sdirection and avoids carrying it out (passively through avoidance or aggressively through rebellion).
Let’s take a look at power, which is closely tied to leadership. Review the sources of power in the following video presentation:

Retrieved April 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSb06mh7EHA.
Now, consider reactions to leadership’s exercise of power (by type):
Type Most Common Reaction
Reward Compliance
Coercive Compliance or resistance
Legitimate Compliance
Referent Commitment
Expert Commitment
This chart would indicate that the most a leader can hope for if he relies on the power received from holding a position (legitimate, reward, coercive) is compliance with directives. If leaders rely too heavily on coercive power, they risk meeting resistance. If, instead, a leader needs to have the follower’s commitment (the knowledge that a follower will comply with directives regardless of whether or not the follower is being monitored or not), then the leader must rely on personal sources of power – such as referent or expert power.
While commitment is very often the most desired reaction, sometimes compliance is enough to accomplish the leader’s objectives. Resistance, however, is something all leaders should want to avoid as it could render them totally ineffective.
Contingency Models
The Eveland PowerPoint presentation also covered contingency models of leadership. Contingency models are based on the idea that the most effective leadership style is one that matches the demands of the situation. There are three basic models of contingency leadership that we will cover in this module. Each has a slightly different prescription as to the factors that a leader needs to consider when exercising the most successful leadership style.
1. The Fiedler Model
2. The Path-Goal Model and
3. The Normative Decision Model
The Fiedler Model
Unlike the behavioral theorists who came before him, Fiedler did not believe that there was one best style of leadership. He agreed that individuals tend to possess either a task-oriented or relationship-oriented leadership style, but that to know the appropriate style for a given circumstance, you also needed to understand the situation:
Situational Factor Characteristics
Leader-Member Relations Do the followers have trust and confidence in the leader?
Task Structure Is the task structured or unstructured?
Leader’s position power Does the leader have the discretion to reward or punish?
Read the following article to learn how these factors combine to indicate which leadership style would be most effective given specific situational constraints, and criticisms of the model:
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory (2016). Leadership-central. Retrieved from http://www.leadership-central.com/fiedler%27s-contingency-theory.html#axzz3OemkTtoM
While Fiedler thought that different leadership styles worked better under different conditions, he did not think that people could change their preferred style. So the important task of management was to match the leader with the right style to the right situation. The next contingency theory of leadership we will examine does not hold that leadership style is static, and instead proffers the argument that leaders can change and adapt their style to fit the situation.
Path Goal Model
The path-goal model of leadership proposes four different leadership styles and considers two situational factors (the follower’s capabilities and motivation) to match the most effective leadership style with the characteristics of the situation as follows:
Appropriate Leadership Style Situation
Directive • Employee role ambiguity is high
• Employees have low abilities
• Employees have external locus of control
Supportive • Tasks are boring and repetitive
• Tasks are stressful
Participative • Employee abilities are high
• Decisions are relevant to employees
• Employees have internal locus of control
Achievement-oriented • Employees have high abilities
• Employees have high achievement motivation
In other words, a leader does not use the same approach with hourly employees with limited skills the same way she would lead employees who are highly educated and highly skilled. Read more about this approach to leadership:
Martin, R. (2012) “PathGoal Theory of Leadership.” Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. Ed. John M. Levine and Michael A. Hogg. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2009. 636-37. SAGE Reference Online . Web. 30 Jan. 2012. Retrieved April 2017 from https://studysites.uk.sagepub.com/northouse6e/study/materials/reference/reference7.2.pdf
Normative Decision Model: Vroom-Yetton-Jago decision tree
The last contingency model we will consider is the Normative Decision Model, so called because it gives leaders a tool to use to decide exactly which of five leadership styles is appropriate for a given circumstance to ensure that the highest quality alternative is selected and the followers have the greatest likelihood of acceptance of that alternative. By asking a series of questions and following the answers through a decision tree, the leader can select the style that is most likely to yield the response she desires. The five leadership styles are:
Decision style Characteristics
A1: Autocratic Leader gathers information and decides alone.
A2: Autocratic Leader gets information from followers but decides alone.
C1: Consultative Leader shares problem with individual followers, asks for input, but decides alone.
C2: Consultative Leader shares problem with group of follower, asks for input, but decides alone.
G2: Group based Leader shares problem with group, seeks consensus on solution.
Find out what the key questions are and see how the decision tree works by reading the following article. Be sure to try out the interactive tool that allows you to try out the decision tree for yourself!
Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision-making Model of Leadership (2013). Leadership-central. Retrieved from http://www.leadership-central.com/Vroom-Yetton-Jago-decision-making-model-of-leadership.html#axzz3OjpF9lI8
Transformational leadership
Transformational leaders are people who inspire followers to exert their greatest efforts toward achieving a vision for the future of the organization. To do this, the transformational leader needs to clearly communicate his vision for the organization and this vision must be linked to strong values that followers will find motivating. The transformational leader works hard to build trust with his followers – so that his “open area” of the JoHari Window is maximized. (See Module 2 for an explanation of the JoHari Window.)
Although he does not use the term “transformational”, Leadership expert Simon Sinek is clearly describing what constitutes this type of leadership in the following TED talk:
TED (2010) Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action
Much of what is written about transformational leadership focuses on the role of top management – particularly CEO’s – as transformational. But what about the rest of us who lead people on a daily basis, but from the middle of the organization? Does the model of transformational leadership have anything to offer individuals who are not at the top of the leadership “food chain”?
The following article does just that by making clear how managers at all levels of the organization can become more effective leaders by infusing transformational principles into the meaning of work. Drawing on the Job Characteristics Model (remember this from module 1?), the authors show how “transformational leaders promote (i.e., shape) subordinates’ perceptions of work by influencing their perceptions of key job characteristics.” (p. 354)
Dean J., Cleavengera, D.J., and Munyonb, T.P. (2013). It’s how you frame it: Transformational leadership and the meaning of work. Business Horizons 56(3), 351-360.
You can find this article in the Trident University Library.
Optional Reading
Center for Creative Leadership Website. (2015) Retrieved from http://www.ccl.org/index.shtml
McNamara, C. (2017) All about Leadership. In Free Management Library. Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/leadership/
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DISCUSSIONS ASSIGNMENT

Week 1: Merger and Unit Integration Issues
As a leader/manager, one circumstance you may encounter is the necessity to integrate or merge two organizational units. This can be a stressful period which, if not properly managed, can cause a good deal of tension and/or conflict, often leading to decreased organizational performance.
Consider that senior management has dictated that your unit will merge with another manager’s unit over the next three months. You will be the leader of the newly merged group. The previous manager will remain on your staff. Senior management has asked you to submit a merger plan. (If you have previously been involved in an actual unit merger, please share the organizational dynamics you experienced as well as any lessons learned.)
(Bring in and cite at least one source of information from your background readings for each of your weekly initial posts.)
Week 1 Discussion Question:
What are the key issues/challenges/opportunities you face, both short- and long-term?

Week 2: Merger and Unit Integration Issues

Using the same scenario as Week 1 of this Discussion, answer the question in bold below:
In describing three key elements of your merger plan, explain the sources of power that will be available to you and upon which you will draw to help achieve a successful merger.

2:Reflective account on a observed consultation with in a general practice setting on a autistic 18 year old male who came with a relative for annual asthma review

Use Gibbs reflective cycle 1998

asthma