Textbook Summaries
 

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is an integral part of the human experience.  There are leaders in every type of human society.  Leadership is best understood as a form of human, symbolic, communication.  Human communication is a process, circular in nature, complex, irreversible, and the characteristic that defines the total personality. 

Leaders use symbols to modify the attitudes and behavior of others in order to reach group goals.  In contrast to managers who value efficiency and focus on maintaining the status quo, leaders value effectiveness and focus on the future of the group or organization.  Managers plan and budget, organize and staff, and control and problem solves while leaders establish direction, align people, and motivate and inspire.  Both management and leadership are important in the overall success of a group or organization.

Leaders and followers are relational partners who play complementary roles.  Leaders exert a greater degree of influence and have more responsibility for the overall direction of the group.  Followers are more involved in implementing plans and carrying out the work.  Most people act as leader-followers, routinely shifting between leaders and follower functions.  Following is excellent preparation for leadership, and leading can prepare you for the follower role.

Leadership effectiveness depends on our willingness to communicate as well as on developing effective communication skills.  Developing skills builds confidence, which encourages us to interact with others.  Effective communication facilitates influence.

There are two sets of communication skills--functional and emotional--that are essential to leaders.  Functional communication skills include linking, thinking and reasoning, and regulating.  Linking skills involve monitoring the environment, creating a trusting climate, team building, and collaborating with outside groups.  Thinking and reasoning skills incorporate problem-solving abilities and creating agendas or visions.  Regulating involves influencing others through the wise use of power, compliance gaining, argument, negotiation, and other means.  Emotional communication competencies include: 

• perception, appraisal, and expression of emotion

• attending to the emotions of others

• emotional facilitation of thinking

• understanding and analyzing emotional information and employing emotional knowledge, and

• regulation of emotion.

Successful leaders match their communication behaviors to their goals through a process called impression management.  They are

• liked by others,

• link their attitudes and behaviors to the prototypes of leaders held by group members,

• strive to expand their ability to influence events, and are

• associated with high performance. 

Ethical leaders us impression management to read group objectives rather than to satisfy selfish, personal goals.

Dealing with groups of followers from a variety of cultural backgrounds is a fact of life for modern leaders.  Leadership effectiveness increasingly depends upon intercultural emotional competency--the ability to accurately send and receive emotional messages across cultural boundaries.  Transferring emotional intelligence to other cultures is difficult because the rules governing the understanding and expression of emotion vary from society to society.  Consider these examples:

• The Chinese believe that too much expression of emotion produces sickness.

• European-Americans value emotional self-restraint; African Americans value emotional expressiveness.

• Many people find US friendliness to be shallow and insulting.

Effective leaders and followers set aside their preconceived notions about how to send and interpret emotional messages and seek instead of learn as much as they can about the feelings rules of other cultures.

STYLE

Typical communicative behaviors of leaders include authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire, task, and interpersonal styles of leader communication. 

Authoritarian leaders maintain strict control over followers by directly regulating policy, procedures, and behavior.  Democratic leaders engage in supportive communication that facilitates interaction between leaders and followers.  Laissez-faire leaders may engage in either abdication or guided freedom.  Leaders exhibiting abdication generally withdraw from followers and offer little guidance or support.  Productivity, cohesiveness, and satisfaction often suffer.  By contrast, a more positive form of the laissez-faire leadership communication style affords followers a high degree of autonomy and self-rule while, at the same time, offering guidance and support when requested.  The laissez-faire leader providing this guided freedom approach does not directly participate in decision making unless she or he is requested to do so by followers.

The research focusing on leadership communication style suggests the leader adopting authoritarian communication can expect high productivity (particularly when he or she directly supervises followers); increased hostility, aggression and discontent; and decreased commitment, independence, and creativity among followers.  Democratic leadership communication contributes to relatively high productivity (whether or not the leader directly supervises followers) and increased satisfaction, commitment, and cohesiveness.  Followers under laissez-faire leadership are generally less productive and less satisfied.  The only situation in which laissez-faire leadership may be effective is with groups containing highly motivated and knowledgeable experts.

The leader employing the task style in primarily concerned with the successful completion of job assignments.  The task-oriented leader demonstrates a much greater concern for completing work than for people doing the work.  The interpersonal leader is concerned with relationships.  This style emphasizes teamwork, cooperation, and supportive communication.

Task- and interpersonal-oriented styles have been observed by

• the Michigan leadership studies believed that the production-oriented and employee-oriented styles were opposing sets of communicative behaviors.

• the Ohio State leadership studies Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) indicated two primary dimensions of leadership:  consideration and initiating structure (task).  Consideration consisted of interpersonal-oriented communication designed to express affection and liking for followers; the consideration of followers' feelings, opinions, and ideas; and the maintenance of an amiable working environment.  Inconsiderate leader criticized followers in front of others, made threats, and refused to accept followers' suggestions or explanations.

• McGregor's Theory X (people dislike work) and Theory Y (integrate organizational and individual goals, work is natural and a source of satisfaction).

• Blake and McCanse Managerial Grid about concern for production (task orientation) and concern for people (interpersonal orientation).

Blake and McCanse's Leadership Grid

1,1 Impoverished Management has low concern for task and relationships.

9,1 Authority-Compliance has high concern for task, low for relationships.

5,5 Middle of the Road Management concerned with production and people.

1,9 Country Club Management is more concerned with interpersonal relationships than tasks.
9,9 Team Management has high concern for production and people and is ideal.

Generally, the use of both task and interpersonal oriented communication styles is associated with effective leadership.

Two components make up follower communication styles

1.  independent/ critical thinking

2.  active engagement.

Followers fall into one of five categories based on these characteristics.

1.  Alienated followers are highly independent thinkers who rank low on commitment to the organization.

2.  Conformists are committed to organizational goals but express few thoughts of their own.

3.  Pragmatists are moderately independent and engaged.

4.  Passive followers demonstrate little original thought or commitment.

Exemplary followers rate highly as both critical and active participants, contributing creative ideas and going beyond what is expected.  Exemplary followers add value to the organization by helping it reach its objectives and by building a network of relationships.  These outstanding followers cultivate a courageous conscience that allows them to make and implement ethical choices. 

Ultimately, the follower styles exhibited within a group, team , or organization are a reflection of the behaviors that are expected, demanded, promoted, or discouraged by formal leaders.  Although some followers may thrive when working with almost any leader or in almost any context or situation, most followers are powerfully affected, for better or worse, by the leaders with whom they work.
 

The Cranfield studies labeled the styles used within Europe as

consensus

• towards a common goal

• managing from a distance

• leading from the front is concerned primarily on an individual's performance.  These leaders are reluctant to create rules or procedures that might hinder individual performance.
   

The traits approach suggests that leaders are born with specific characteristics that predispose them to positions of influence.  Traits research, conducted primarily in the early part of the twentieth century, has failed to find a clear connection between personal and physical traits and leadership.  Certain traits may enhance the PERCEPTION that someone has the ability to lead others.

In the 1940's Stogdill published reviewed 124 studies to determine traits and personal factors related to leadership.

The situational approach claims that situational conditions influence leadership effectiveness.  Four of the most commonly cited situational approaches include the following:
 

1.  Fiedler's contingency model of leadership:  Our ratings of others with whom we do not like to work provide us with valuable information about our leadership behavior.  Three primary situational factors that control the amount of influence a leader has over followers.  These are (a) the leader's position power, (b) task structure, and (c) the interpersonal relationship between leader and members.

2.  Path-goal theory is based on expectancy theory, which claims that followers are more motivated to productive when they believe that successful task completion will provide a path to a valuable goals.  It is a leader's responsibility to communicate clearly what is expected of followers and what rewards can be anticipated when tasks are successfully completed.

3.  Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership theory.  The maturity level of followers plays an important role in selecting appropriate leadership behavior. 
Leader directed: 

R1   unable and unwilling or insecure (tell)
R2   unable but willing or confident (sell)

Follower directed:

R3 Able but unwilling or insecure (participative)
R4 Able and willing or confident (delegate)

4.  Leader-member exchange theory: Leaders develop two different types of relational role exchanges with followers: 

a.  in-group (high levels of trust, mutual influence, and support characterize in-group exchanges)
b.  out-group (low levels of trust and support characterize out-group exchanges).

Functional approach suggests that it is the ability to communicate like a leader that determines leadership.  Benne and Sheats were pioneers in the classification of functional roles in groups:
a.  task-related roles
b.  group building and maintenance roles
c.  individual roles

Traditional leadership is called transactional.

The transformational approach to leadership focuses on the actions of inspiring leaders as they attempt to meet the higher level needs of followers. 

Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests that basic needs must be satisfied first.

High

• Self-actualization needs

• Self-esteem needs

• Belonging and love needs

• Safety needs

• Physiological needs.

Basic

Transformational leaders are often creative, interactive, visionary, empowering, and passionate. 

Transformational leaders recognize that creativity is an integral part of leadership.  Wallas suggests that the creative process occurs in four steps:

1.  preparation (defining the problem and gathering background data)
2.  incubation (putting the problem on the "back burner" for a period of time)
3.  illumination (realization of the solution to the problem)
4.  verification (testing the validity and usefulness of the solution)

Overcoming creative roadblocks can help leaders to be more creative.  Adams identified four types of creative blocks:

• perceptual blocks (obstacles that prevent a problem-solver from seeing what they need to se to solve a problem)
   

• emotional blocks (emotions that inhibit creativity)
   

• cultural and environmental blocks (blocks imposed by culture or society)
   

• intellectual and expressive blocks (blocks based on inadequate knowledge or the inability to articulate solutions).

Strategies for becoming a creative leader include developing a problem-finding orientation and tolerating failure.

Transformational leaders are masterful communicators able to articulate ideas and concepts to others; they interact with followers on a regular basis.  Communicating a vision and direction to followers may well be the most important act of a transformational leader.  Transformational leaders encourage participation and involvement.  These leaders know how to give power away and make others feel powerful.  Transformational leaders are also passionately committed to their work.  They encourage others because they, first and foremost, encourage themselves.

We ended the chapter with a discussion of charisma--the quality possessed by leaders who exert extraordinary influence over followers.  Scholars in many disciplines have been interested in charismatic leadership.  Major perspectives on charisma include:
1.  sociological

2.  psychoanalytical

3.  political

5. behavioral

6.  attributional

7.  communication-based.

While the first five perspectives make communication a prominent part of charismatic leadership, only the communication-based approach sees charisma as the product of symbolic activity.  Charismatic leaders excel in every function of human communication.  They form strong emotional bonds with followers, emphasize transcendent visions, generate perceptions of confidence, communicate high expectations, and inspire others. However, charisma also has a dark side, often reflects in failure of vision, misarticulation of goals, and poor management practices.

Hofsted offers the following examples of US leadership theories that are culturally bound.

1.  Expectancy theories of motivation are based on the premise that individuals operate according to their self-interest.  In more collectivist or group-oriented cultures, the relationship between workers and organizations is moral in nature.

2.  Only US participants seem to follow Maslow's hierarchy.

3.  Both Theory X and Theory Y are based on the assumption that work is good and desirable and should serve the goals of the organization.  Southeast Asian societies view work as a necessity and are more concerned with traditions and their place in society.

4.  US researchers and writers focus on the deeds of the individual leader who makes important decisions.  The Dutch expect to be involved in consensus decision making.

5.  The Leadership Grid and related theories promote participative management but assume that the leader will take the initiative to solicit employee input.  In Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Israel, subordinates take the initiative, expecting to participate in the decision process.  In societies that accept large differences in power and status, such as Greece, workers don't expect leaders to ask them for feedback; they expect leaders to tell them what to do.

Bass argues that the concept of transformational leadership may be truly universal--transcending organizational and national boundaries.  Leadership in general and transformational leadership in particular are found in one form or another at all levels in all cultures.  These corollaries have been supported across a variety of cultures.

1.  Transformational leaders are more effective than leaders adopting a more transactional approach.

2.  Transformational leadership adds value to transactional leadership, but the inverse is not true.

3.  Whatever the country, when people think of leadership, their prototypes and ideals are transformational.

Power, the ability to influence others, is the "currency of leadership."  Leadership is not possible without power, although not everyone who exercises power is a leader.  There are five sources or types of power:

1.  coercive

2.  reward

3.  legitimate

4.  expert

5 reference

Personal forms of power (expert and referent) are less costly to use and generate higher satisfaction and job performance.  Because expert and referent power are more tied to personal characteristics than to position, developing our communication skills and abilities can increase these power bases and improve our leadership potential.  Adopting powerful speech is one way to build expert and referent power. 

Avoid the use of such powerless speech features as

• hesitations,

• hedges,

• tag questions,

• disclaimers,

• accounts, and

• side particles.

Powerful speakers are seen as authoritative, persuasive, and informative.

Leaders frequently want to distribute rather than to maintain power.  Five reasons for empowering others are:

1.  to increase follower task satisfaction and performance

2.  to foster greater cooperation in the group

3.  to ensure the survival of the group or organization

4.  to encourage the personal growth and learning of group members

5.  to prevent power abuses.

Components of the empowerment process include modifying the work environment, supplying resources,  and  building a sense of personal power (self-efficacy).  Leaders eliminate situational factors that create feelings of powerlessness, shift decision-making authority to those doing the work, and supply information and other resources.  They help followers believe in their own abilities by providing positive emotional support, expressing confidence, and modeling successful performance, and structuring tasks so that followers experience initial success.

Leading the Journal and Superleadership/ Self-Leadership are two systematic approaches to empowering followers.  In the Leading the Journey model, leaders set the overall direction in consultation with end users, remove obstacles that lower performance, help constituents develop ownership, and stimulate self-directed actions.  Proponents of Superleadership argue that the leader's ultimate goal is to help followers learn to lead themselves.  Empowering followers to become self-leaders (those who take charge of their own thoughts and behaviors) involves modeling the desired behaviors, providing guidance, and creating a climate that promotes independent through and action.  Followers can become self-leaders without the help of their superiors if they engage in such self-behavior modification strategies as goal setting, rewarding themselves, creating positive physical cues, and rehearsal.  Aspiring self-leaders should also find enjoyment or pleasure in the task itself and replace destructive self-talk with opportunity thinking.

Credibility is built on perceptions of competence, trustworthiness, and dynamism.  These perceptions, in turn, can be modified by adopting credibility-building behaviors:  discovering yourself, appreciating constituents, affirming shared values, developing capacity, serving a purpose, and sustaining hope.

There are many verbal compliance-gaining strategies used to make requests in face-to-face encounters.  In the interpersonal context, prosocial strategies that put the compliance seeker and target in a positive frame of mind are most popular.  In the organizational setting, successful leaders take a rational yet flexible approach to influencing superiors and subordinates.  They generally offer reasons for compliance first but switch tactics when appropriate.  Hard tactics, like applying pressure, forming coalitions or appealing to authority, gain compliance at the expense of long-term commitment.  Soft tactics, such as consulting with others, putting the other person in a good mood, and arousing enthusiasm, work better when combined than when used alone.  Mixing incompatible strategies greatly decreases the likelihood of compliance.

Argumentation and negotiation skills are essential to managing conflict.  When two or more people take different sides on controversial issues, they often try to establish the superiority of their positions through argument.  Argumentative competence consists of stating the controversy in propositional form, inventing arguments, presenting and defending your position, attacking other positions, and managing interpersonal relations.

The goal of negotiation is to reach a conclusion that is satisfying to both parties.  Successful negotiators build a cooperative atmosphere, take the perspective of the other person, and work together to reach a join solution.  Joint problem-solving negotiation involves separating the people from the problem, identifying the interests of each party, brainstorming options for mutual gain, and basing the settlement on objective criteria.

The goal of negotiation is to reach a conclusion that is satisfying to both parties.  Successful negotiators build a cooperative atmosphere, take the perspective of the other person, and work together to reach a joint solution.  Joint problem-solving negotiation involve separating the people from the problems, identifying the interests of each party, brainstorming options for mutual gain, and basing the settlement on objective criteria.

Leaders must resist influence as well as exert it.  Manipulative influence tactics appeal to the principle of reciprocation (give and take), the desire for consistency, social proof (Looking to others), likening, authority, and the principle of scarcity.  Being aware of the dangers of these unethical strategies reduces their power over our decisions.

Inhabitants of different countries have sometimes radically dissimilar viewpoints on power.  In some countries such as Israel, Denmark, and New Zealand, workers often expect that power will be shared.  In countries like Malaysia, Indian, and the Philippines, followers are generally much more willing to be directed.

The Swazi are a hospitable people, but approach every negotiation with a skeptical attitude because they have been victimized in the past by colonial powers and neighboring South Africa (all of whom stole their land and natural resources).  Foreigners are considered guilty of deception until they prove themselves innocent through their conduct.  A humble intermediary is needed to build relationships.

Communication scholars are more interested in the interaction between group members than in the characteristics that members bring with them to the group.  From a communication viewpoint, a small group has five essential elements:
1.  a common purpose or goal

2.  interdependence

3.  mutual influence

4.  face-to-face communication

5. a size of three to twenty members.

Groups evolve over time.  Both group decisions and group leaders emerge as the group changes and matures.  Emergent group leaders (leaders who aren't' appointed by someone outside the group) emerge by a process of elimination--the method of residues.  Leader contenders are eliminated until only one remains.  To emerge as a leader, avoid actions that lower your status.  Instead, participate frequently in the group discussion, make constructive contributions, demonstrate your competence, and help build a cohesive unit.  Another way to think of establishing leadership credentials is through idiosyncratic credits.  Potential leaders build their credits in the eyes of other group members by demonstrating that they can help the group complete its task.  They also conform to group norms. 

Followers expect more from emergent than from appointed leaders.  On the other hand, they are willing to give emergent leaders more freedom to act on behalf of the group.

Leading meetings is an important task for both emergent and appointed leaders.  To provide effective leadership in meetings

1.  determine if a meeting is necessary before calling people together

2.  have a clear agenda

3.  maintain focus on the agenda throughout the meeting

4.  listen to others

5.  involve all participants

6.  keep a record.

Groups charged with making decisions are more likely to succeed when they use communication to fulfill key problem-solving functions--analysis of the problem, goal setting, identification of alternatives, and evaluation of solutions--through the use of such formats as the Standard Agenda and Single Question model.  They also avoid logical pitfalls through counteractive influence--highlighting problems in reasoning and getting the group back on track.  Leaders of these groups help members combat groupthink--the tendency to put cohesion above performance.  Better decisions emerge when leader solicit input rather than push for their own choices and when they take steps to encourage diverse opinions and constructive group thought patterns. 

There are significant differences between working groups and teams.  A working group shares the overall mission of the organization and measures its effectiveness by how well the organization as a whole performs.  Group members meet to share information and ideas, but they are judged on their individual efforts.  In contrast, a team has a unique purpose and clearly defined performance standards.  Members work together to produce a joint product, and the team is accountable for achieving its objectives.  Teams are often more productive than working groups and encourage personal growth and organizational change.  When they determine that a team approach is best, successful leaders use team-building skills to help working groups move up the performance curve. 

Eight characteristics essential to effective team performance include

• clear and inspiring team goals,

• result-oriented team structure (clear roles and responsibilities, an effective communication network, frequent feedback, objective criteria)

• competent team members

• unified commitment

• a collaborative climate

• standards of excellence

• external support and recognition

• and principled (transformational) leadership.

Self-directed work teams (SDWATs) operate like small businesses within a larger organization. 

Leaders can help managers who must switch from a supervisory to a facilitator role by helping them deal with

• perceived loss of power and status,

• feelings of ambiguity

• job security concerns

• and outdated appraisal standards by screening out unsuitable candidates

• by providing training

• by ensuring job protection, and

• by developing team-oriented evaluation guidelines.

The Self-directed work team (SDWT) is an intact, interdependent group of approximately six to ten highly-trained employees who are responsible for managing themselves and their work.  SDWTs are generally responsible for a complete product or process.  Unlike traditional group or team structures, where an organizational segment may be divided by functional specialties (for example, accounting or marketing), SDWTs are usually responsible for the delivery of an entire service or product.  In this way, SDWTs operate like a small business within a larger organization.

Several characteristics typically distinguish SDWTs from other types of teams.

1.  SDWTs consist of multi-skilled, cross-trained employees who are responsible for an entire job.

2.  Quality an process control are an ongoing, key SDWT responsibility.

3.  SDWTs are empowered to share a wide variety of management and leadership functions, including scheduling, budgeting, purchasing, inventory control, and in many cases, hiring and firing.

4.  Leadership is shared by the SDWT, rather than assigned to a supervisor.  If there is a designed team leader he or she plays the role of facilitator, supporting the group as a coach, rather than acting as a boss.

5.  SDWTs meet regularly to diagnose and to solve their own problems.

6.  Customer satisfaction and overall business needs are the primary focus of SDWTs.  Information generally reserved for management is passed on to the team, so members can make informed decision.

7.  SDWTs engage in ongoing training as a means for enhancing team skills.

In practice, SDWTs can be classified by their degree of empowerment.  The first level on the continuum describes the responsibilities generally assigned to a newly formed team.  These team duties include such tasks as running meetings ("housekeeping"), cross-training, and scheduling.  As the team matures and the level of empowerment increases,

• members may take responsibility for continuous improvement of their processes,

• monitoring external customer relationship

• recruiting and selecting new members, and

• making decisions about capital expenditures and budgeting.

The mature self-directed team assumes the responsibilities related to performance appraisal, discipline, and even compensation.  At this level the team controls about 80 percent of their total work responsibilities.  The remaining responsibilities, mostly administrative and strategic in nature (e.g., establishing administrative policies, long-range planning), are generally performed by leaders outside the team.

Although eh SDWT approach has only recently begun to receive widespread attention, SDWTs have been successfully used in organizations for many years.  In 1951, management professor Eric Trist and his student Kenneth Bamforth trained British coal miners to work in SDWTs.  The miners were taught to assist one another with key tasks and to trade jobs when workloads became unbalanced or tedious.  Further, each work team was permitted to set its own rate of production and was responsible for handling its own conflicts.  The output of these self-directed teams was compared with that of groups in the same organization using traditional hierarchical management.  Trist and Bamforeth discovered clear indications of higher productivity and job satisfaction among those workers in the self-directed teams.  The miners in SDWTs outperformed their hierarchically managed counterparts by approximately 34 percent, or 1.8 tons of coal per shift.

Application of self-direction didn't begin in the US until the early 1960s.  The earliest SDWT experiment was undertaken by Procter and Gamble.  The results of this experiment with self-direction were so successful that the company declared them trade secret, with all the restrictions and security precautions associated with product development.  In 1990, 26 percent of all organizations in the US had employees working in SDWTs.  By 1992, the percentage of organizations using SDWTs had climbed to 35 percent.  Over the past decade a wide variety of large (Boeing, Bristol-Myers, Squibb, Corning, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Xerox) and small (Ampex, Johnsonvilled Foods, Lake Superior Paper, and Sterling Winthrop Limited) companies have had success with SDWTs. 

These numbers will likely continue to increase as more organizations become aware of the dramatic results of self-directed work teams.

Making the transition from a traditional organizational structure to a SDWT environment can be difficult.  The transition is, perhaps, most difficult for managers who much make the switch from playing the role of supervisor to playing the role of facilitator.  The differences between the traditional manager and SDWT facilitator are that the facilitator will:

1. Empower
    

2. Develop
    

3. Focus on people
    

4. Assist with decision making
    

5. Remove barriers for team
    

6. Listen to team members
    

7. Trust people
    

8. Be visible and available
    

9. Reward risk taking
    

10. Embrace change
     

11. Focus on the customer and the employee
     

12. Believe there are no limits.

An organization is the product of communication.  As organizational members communicate, they develop shared meanings that form the organization's unique way of seeing the world--an organization's culture.  Cultures are made up of underlying assumptions, values, and symbols called artifacts.  Because the organization is the product of symbol using, organizational leaders are really symbolic leaders who use symbols to interpret events and to help determine the direction of the group.  They play an important role in the formation of organizational meaning or culture.

You can embed and transmit culture by primary and secondary mechanisms.  Primary mechanisms are the most important elements for shaping culture

• what you pay attention to

• how you react to critical incidents

• the way you spend budgeted monies

• how you role model

• the criteria you select for allocation of rewards

• and the criteria you use for selection.

Secondary mechanisms reinforce primary messages:

• how you mold the organizational structure

• how you utilize organizational systems and procedures

• your use of rites and rituals

• how you design physical space to reinforce key values

• the stories you tell about important events and people

• the way you communication organizational philosophy.

Preparation is the key to leading in a crisis.  The typical crisis passes through phrases

• prodromal (warning)

• acute crisis

• chronic crisis

• crisis resolution

Effective leaders help their organizations develop emergency tool kits to deal with crises before they happen.  Crisis management tools include

• a vigilant problem solving style,

• action plans,

• crisis management teams,

• designated spokespersons,

• cooperative media strategies,

• honesty and compassion and

• image insurance.

Expectations shape motivation and performance.  The Pygmalion Effect refers to our tendency to live up to the expectations of others.  Generally, the higher the expectancy, the higher the performance. 

Leaders communicate expectations through

• climate (social and emotional atmosphere)

• input (the number and type of assignments they give to employees)

• output (the number of opportunities that followers have to voice opinions) and

• feedback (the frequency of praise or criticism).

To create a high expectations/ high performance cycle, effective leaders

• build a warm climate,

• delegate important responsibilities

• solicit ideas

• provide frequent positive feedback.

Self-expectations (called the Galatea effect) also influence performance.  Followers who set high standards for themselves are more productive.

Distributed work groups--teams that work on joint projects in a variety of locations from the headquarters to the most distant branches--use audio and video conferencing, email, simultaneous computer chats.

The potential benefits of distributed work teams are that communicating electronically greatly reduces the cost and time of travel.  Team members can draw upon the expertise of colleagues from around the world who have a better sense of how local markets will respond to new products and services.  The disadvantage is that electronic communication is not as rich as face to face interaction.  Physical separation is a barrier, encouraging the growth of organizational subcultures.

McDonald's financial future will depend on its continuing ability to connect with global customers.  The company serves 46 million people every day in 30,000 restaurants in 121 countries (1500 restaurants in other countries). 
 

Public leaders influence the attitudes and behaviors of large audiences at all levels of society.  These leaders use public relations activities, public address, and persuasive campaigns to shape public opinion.  Outstanding public relations programs share a number of elements.  They recognize the necessity of effective performance before any publicity campaign.  They also serve the interest of the public, involve two-way communication, shape policy, and take a proactive stance.  Effective public speeches are based on

• careful pre-speech planning (deciding on a mode of delivery, audience analysis)

• clear organization (developing a thesis statement, arranging and linking ideas)
  clear, vivid, and appropriate language

• extensive rehearsal

• delivery that appears natural and creates a sense of immediacy

• skillful anticipation and response to questions after the presentation is over.

A persuasive campaign consists of a series of messages aimed at changing the beliefs and behaviors of others.  To have a significant impact, campaigns must pretest their messages and identify market segments

• expose a large portion of the audience to campaign messages

• use the media most accessible to target groups

• rely on the media to raise awareness

• utilize interpersonal communication to bring about behavior change

• employ high credibility sources

• direct messages at individual needs

• emphasize positive rewards rather than prevention.

There are six steps or stages to any type of persuasive campaign:

• situation analysis

• objectives

• strategies

• budget

• implementation

• evaluation

Collaborative leaders focus on the decision-making process instead of promoting a particular solution. 

They have little formal power but get discussions started, help the group reach agreement, and work with other participants to implement the solution.  Successful collaboration:

• Good timing and a clear need.

• Strong stakeholder groups.

• Broad-based involvement
  Credible and open process.

• Participation of high level, visible community leaders.

• Formal support.

• Ability to overcome mistrust and skepticism.

• Strong leadership of the process.

• Celebration of ongoing achievement.

• Shift to broader concerns.

In high-context cultures, members prefer indirect or covert messages and determine meaning based largely on the context or setting.  In low-context cultures, members communicate through overt messages and embed much more information in the language used to construct the message.  Five values dimensions have been used to analyze cultures:

• power distance (how societies deal with inequities)
   

• individualism-collectivism (the relative emphasis on the individual or the group)
   

• masculinity-femininity (the definition and differentiation of sex roles)
   

• uncertainty avoidance (the extent to which people feel uncomfortable in unstructured situations)
   

• long-term-short-term orientation (the extent to which societies sacrifice immediate gratification).

Successful leaders recognize and respond in cultural differences, striving for cultural synergy.  In cultural synergy, decision-makers draw upon the diversity of the group and cultural awareness to produce and implement a better than expected solution.

The benefits of fostering diversity include cost savings, improved resource acquisition and utilization, greater market share, better decision making, and higher creativity.  Obstacles to diversity operate at the personal, group, and institutional levels.  Individuals engage in prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping.  Group members often suffer from ethnocentrism and experience conflicts based on cultural differences.  Institutions sponsor practices that limit the progress of minorities.  Organizations that have been the most successful at promoting diversity rely on a variety of strategies aimed at making existing leaders accountable for diversity progress, helping nontraditional employees develop leadership skills, and recruiting more diverse members.  Aspiring minority executives need to choose recruiting more diverse members.  Aspiring minority executives need to choose high quality experiences over fast advancement in organizations that match their goals and have good diversity track records.

The percentage of women in leadership positions shrinks with every step up the organizational and societal ladder, creating a gender leadership gap.  This gap is not the result of differences in male and female leadership behavior; it is generated largely by gender role stereotypes.  Gender typing keeps some women from seeking leadership positions, lowers the self-confidence of others, limits females to service roles, encourages tokenism, and limits the range of acceptable behavior for females.  To narrow the gender leadership gap, women may need to confront differences in male and female communication styles that keep them from getting the credit they deserve.  However, it is important to remember that outstanding leaders of both sexes display both masculine and feminine characteristics.

Linear organizational structure are best suited for Euro-American speakers and audiences who reason in a systematic, step-by-step fashion.  Configural patterns may work better in Native American, Latino, and Eastern cultures.  Configural patterns include:

• narrative

• web (idea emanate from core or central point)

• problem-no solution

• multiple perspective

• wave (lead up to crests and a series of waves)

• spiral (series of examples or narratives, each more dramatic)

• star (choice points of emphasis according to the audience)

Friedman says there are three ways to reconcile globalization with respect for the needs of local peoples:

1.  Encourage nations to provide more access to capital that will allow the poor to get into business for themselves.

2.  Provide retraining for new jobs to help those hurt by rapid change to recover.

3.  Provide assistance when needed (welfare, food aid, subsidized housing).

These economic tactics must be accompanied by political changes if they are to make a difference.  It is hard to participate in the global economy without reliable systems.

Leaders face a set of six unique ethical challenges:

1.  issues related to truthfulness and the release and collection of information.

2.  the extent of their responsibility for the actions of followers

3.  use of power

4.  accumulation of social and material rewards

5.  conflicting and broken loyalties

6.  inconsistent treatment of subordinates and outsiders.

How they respond to these challenges will determine if they cast light or shadow over the lives of followers.

Four communication processes lead to ethical behavior:

1. moral sensitivity

2. moral reasoning

3. moral motivation

4. moral action

Ethical leaders are sensitive to the presence of ethical issues, make principled choices, place a high value on ethical behavior, and implement the decision no matter what the cost.

There are five perspectives or approaches that are particularly relevant to ethical leadership.  Kant's categorical imperative argues that decision makers ought to do what is morally right no matter what the consequences.  Certain behavior like exaggeration, lying, stealing are always wrong because we wouldn't want others to engage in them.  The premise of utilitarianism is that ethical choices should be based on their consequences.  The best decisions are those that generate the most advantages as compared to disadvantages and that benefit the greatest number of people.  Virtue ethics highlight the role of the person making ethical choices.  Leaders with high moral character (who display virtues such as courage, integrity, justice, wisdom, and generosity) are more likely to behave in an ethical manner.  Communitariaism strives to build strong, more ("civic") communities that foster character development. 

Civic leaders place the common good above narrow interests.  Servant leadership suggest that viewing leadership as an opportunity to serve others encourages ethical behavior.  Servant-leaders put the needs of followers before their own needs.

• Courage (accepting a higher level of risk) is critical for those in the follower position.  Followers must
  take responsibility for themselves and the organization

• serve their leaders through hard work

• challenge leaders when they engage in destructive behaviors

• help leaders overcome destructive patterns and habits,

• leave when a leader's behaviors clash with important values or when the leader endangers others.

Courageous followers support their leaders through hard, often unglamorous, work.  This labor takes a variety of forms, including:

• Helping leaders conserve their energies for their most significant tasks.

• Organizing the flow of information from and to the leader.

• Controlling access to the leader.

• Defending the leader from unjust criticism.

• Relaying a leader's messages in an accurate, effective manner.

• Acting in the leader's name when appropriate.

• Shaping a leader's public image.

• Helping the creative leader focus on the most useful ideas generated.

• Presenting options during decision making.

• Encouraging the leader to develop a variety of relationships.

• Preparing for crises.

• Helping the leader and the group cope with the leader's illness.

• Mediating conflicts between leaders.

• Promoting performance reviews for leaders.

Kidder suggested the following universal values of "ethical thought leaders" from around the world:

1. love (compassion that transcends cultural and political differences)

2. truthfulness (honesty, keeping promises, not keeping secrets)

3. fairness (even-handedness, fair play, a concern for justice and equality)

4. freedom (right to express ideas and act on individual conscience)

5. unity (putting emphasis on community, solidarity, cooperation)

6. tolerance (respect for the dignity, rights, and ideas of others)

7. responsibility (for oneself, others, future generations)

8. respect for life (not killing)

Leadership development is a lifelong process.

Establishing connections with those who can help you achieve your goals will greatly increase your chances of emerging as a leader in an organizational context.  The most beneficial relationships are with mentors.

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Habit 1:  Be proactive.

Habit 2:  Begin with the end in mind.

Habit 3:  Put first things first.

Habit 4:  Think win / win

Habit 5:  Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Habit 6:  Synergize--create a solution that is greater than the sum of its parts.  Creative solutions can only come out of trusting relationships where participants value their differences.

Habit 7:  Sharpen the saw through continual renewal of the physical, social/emotional, spiritual, and

mental dimensions of the self.  Healthy leaders take care of themselves.

Kevin Cashman's Leadership from the Inside Out

Pathway One:  Personal Mastery is the ongoing commitment to exploring who you are.

Pathway Two:  Purpose Mastery is learning how you make a difference.

Pathway three:  Change mastery is letting go of old patterns and taking a fresh approach and be creative.

Pathway Four:  Interpersonal Mastery focuses on interpersonal competencies and building relationships.

Pathway Five:  Being Mastery involves using periods of peace and silence to understand one's inner most depths of character and being.

Pathway Six:  Balance Mastery is taking time for self, family, and friends to maintain balance.

40% of newly promoted managers and 60% of senior leaders appointed from outside the organization have to be replaced within 18 months. 

John Gabarro uses the term "taking charge" to describe how newly appointed managers become leaders.  They take charge by developing an understand of the leadership situation, gaining acceptance as leaders, and having an impact on organizational performance.  To achieve these outcomes, they engage in three types of work or processes:

• cognitive (learning about the organization and its culture, acquiring technical knowledge, diagnosing problems, understanding issues)
   

• organizational (developing a set of shared expectations with followers, working out conflicts, and building a cohesive management team)
   

• interpersonal (developing good working relationships with superiors, subordinates, and peers).

Here are the stages:

1. Taking hold is a period of intense activity.

2. Immersion is immersion in day-to-day operations and deeper organizational understanding.  Plan for improving performance

3. Reshaping:  Implement concepts developed.

4. Consolidation: Follow through on changes.

5. Refinement:  Major changes are in place.

Taking charge is a complex, difficult, and demanding task.  Gabarro makes these suggestions to help manage transitions:

• Recognize that taking charge takes time.

• Develop effective working relationships immediately.

• Assess and act on prior experience.

• Clarify expectations.

Experts report that effective succession-planning programs share the following characteristics:

• Participation and support of top management.  When top leaders are involved, others are more likely to devote time and effort to succession concerns.

• Include all leadership levels.  Succession planning is important for low level management positions as well as for executive ones.

• Organizational needs assessment.  Organizations must decide on the direction in which they're headed before they know what types of skills their future leaders must develop.

• Focusing on competencies means equipping people to take a variety of positions, not just the next one up the organizational ladder.

• Accountability comes from appointing one person to oversee the succession program as well as from evaluating current leaders on how well they are preparing potential replacements.

• Future leaders must be developed.  Development tools include job rotation, training programs, and mentoring.  Every employee is responsible for acquiring the competencies he or she needs to move into new leadership positions.

Leadership development draws upon deeply rooted cultural values and is not easily transferable to other cultures.

Leadership is at the core of human experience and a lifelong process.

We examined leadership and followership communication styles.

We looked at the historical perspectives of the Michigan Leadership Studies, the Ohio State Leadership Studies, McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, and the Blake and McCanse's leadership Grid.

When examining trait, situational, and functional leadership, we considered four situational approaches:  (a) Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership, path-Goal Theory, Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory, Leader-Member Exchange Theory.

Instead of the traditional transactional ional approach, we discussed the value of transformational approach to leadership.:  the creative, interactive, visionary, empowering, and passionate.  We considered perspectives on charisma:  the sociological, psychoanalytic, political, behavioral, attribution, and communication approach.  We also discussed the dark side of charisma.

We examined the relationship between leadership and power, a relationship that is interdependent but not interchangeable.  Components of the empowerment process include modifying the environment, supplying resources, building a sense of personal power, providing empowerment models, leading the journal, and superleadership/self/leadership.

We discussed the nature of leadership and influence, including building credibility, using compliance-gaining strategies, developing argumentative competence, and becoming an effective negotiators.

We looked at leadership in groups and teams, including meetings, group decision making, and self-directed team work.

We discussed leadership in a crisis and the power of expectations.

When studying public leadership, we considered leading public opinion through public relations, influencing audiences through public speaking, persuasive campaigns, and collaborative leadership.

We talked about leadership and diversity and ways to understand cultural differences, ways of fostering diversity, and the gender leadership gap.

We considered ethical challenges of leadership, ethical perspectives, and followership.

Finally we considered leadership development as a lifelong journey.  We talked about the importance of learning, gaining experience, and developing relationships.  We discussed the work of Stephen Covey and Kevin Cashman and others.

Through the many short and one comprehensive leadership measure you were able to analyze your own leadership skills and plan for the future.  We hope this course has given you the knowledge, skill, and values you need to plan for your future as a leader.

The visuals below are from Microsoft Office.