Explain the effect of power and influence that leaders have on followers in the organization.

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Copyright Joseph W. Weiss

An Introduction to Leadership, Second Edition

Editor in Chief, AVP: Steve Wainwright

Sponsoring Editor: Christina Ganim

Development Editor: Thomas Finn, Dan Moneypenny

Assistant Editor: Teresa Bdzil

Editorial Assistant: Julie Mashburn

Production Editor: Catherine Morris

Copyeditor: Dana Richards

Cover Design: Tara Mayberry

Printing Services: Lightning Source Inc.

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Permission Editor: Karen Ehrmann

Video Production: Jordan McKinley

Cover Image: Nick Daly/Taxi/Getty Images

ISBN-10: 1621782441

ISBN-13: 978-1-62178-244-5

Copyright © 2015 Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

All rights reserved.

GRANT OF PERMISSION TO PRINT: The copyright owner of this material hereby grants the holder of this publication the right to print these materials for personal use. The holder of this material may print the materials herein for personal use only. Any print, reprint, reproduction or distribution of these materials for commercial use without the express written consent of the copyright owner constitutes a violation of the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101-810, as amended.

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Preface An Introduction to Leadership, Second Edition, explores leadership in an organizational setting with the premise that leadership is everywhere and everyone can be a leader. This expanded, 12 chapter edition increases coverage of gender, diversity, and culture; the generational divide; leader pro�iles and self-assessments; and virtual teams. This text presents the classical and contemporary studies that have shaped the leadership �ield, as well as personal assessments and exercises that allow students to determine their own leadership capacity and style.

Features

This text includes a number of features to help students understand key concepts and think critically about the material, including:

Opening Vignette. Each chapter begins with a brief pro�ile of a real leader relevant to the chapter’s discussion. Take the Lead. These applied features present the reader with real-world leadership challenges and encourage the reader to evaluate how one might address those challenges. Case Study Videos. These are embedded videos and examine the strengths and weakness of real leaders and organizations. Critical thinking questions accompany each video to help the reader explore the connections with the text. Leadership Videos. These are embedded videos that tap into the experiences and insights of organizational leaders and subject-matter experts. Assessments. Each chapter includes at least one leadership assessment activity. These allow the reader to examine leadership concepts with instruments used in the �ield. They cover a wide variety of topics from emotional intelligence to ethics.

Accessible Anywhere. Anytime.

With Constellation, faculty and students have full access to eTextbooks at their �ingertips. The eTextbooks are instantly accessible on web, mobile, and tablet.

iPhone To download the Constellation iPhone or iPad app, go to the App Store on your device, search for “Constellation for Ashford University,” and download the free application. You may log in to the application with the same username and password used to access Constellation on the web.

NOTE: You will need iOS version 7.0 or higher.

Android Tablet and Phone To download the Constellation Android app, go to the Google Play Store on your Android Device, search for “Constellation for Ashford University,” and download the free application. You may log in to the Android application with the same username and password used to access Constellation on the web.

NOTE: You will need a tablet or phone running Android version 2.3 (Gingerbread) or higher.

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Leadership involves in�luencing others to achieve a common goal, and with entrepreneurial leaders this often means doing things differently and often innovatively. This was the case with Steve Jobs at Apple®, Sam Walton of Walmart, Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines, and Oprah Winfrey at her media �irm Own Your Power Communications Inc.®, to name a

1 Leadership: Persons, Processes, and Systems

iStock/Thinkstock

Learning Outcomes

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

1. De�ine leadership and describe how followers are important to leaders and leadership.

2. Explain the organizing framework of leadership as persons, processes, and systems.

3. Explain why leadership matters.

4. Discuss the relationship between natural leadership traits and situational factors.

5. Describe the different roles of leadership and management.

6. Understand your own leadership qualities.

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Meet Three Leadership Experts

few. More recently, other ordinary individuals became extraordinary leaders. They include founders and CEOs of businesses like Uber, Airbnb, and Net�lix®. These entrepreneurs led followers to transform industries and societies.

For example, Uber’s Travis Kalanick launched a limousine service in San Francisco in 2010 aimed at creating an easier, less expensive means of local transportation without all the bureaucracy and cost. Uber is now a global company valued at $40 billion, operating in 300 cities and over 50 countries with an international network of 200,000 drivers who use their own cars.

Kalanick, noted for his scrappiness and determination, failed twice in business before he created Uber. His �irst start-up was a �ile-sharing company named Scour®. Trade groups from the recording and �ilm industries sued Scour for copyright infringement and forced it into bankruptcy. His second start-up software company, Red Swoosh®, enabled customers to transfer �iles quickly. Kalanick sold it because of failing demand for $18.7 million six years after it started. He then persisted in his goal of creating innovative ideas and leading people, and founded Uber. He is known as “one of Silicon Valley’s toughest �ighters, with an unusual ability to convince others to join him in taking on the world and a �ierceness developed over more than a decade spent �ighting to make it as an entrepreneur” (Mishkin, 2015).

We began with Kalanick’s story to show that it’s not easy to lead, and it’s not easy to succeed. Sometimes we get swept away in the romance of success stories; in reality, leaders and successful businesses require many hours of very hard work and struggle. But strong leadership is generated from a wide and complex variety of factors, not the least of which are persistence and a willingness to be and do better.

As a �ield of study, leadership includes theories and practices that continue to evolve over time. Theories provide a system of ideas based on principles; practices are activities and methods that have been experienced. Both work together. And it seems in this globalized, high-tech 21st century that the cycle of change is becoming ever faster as the interaction between leadership theory and practice also quickens through the exchange of ideas and experience in social media, blogs, as well as academic journals. This book explores the evolution of leadership in order to better inform and prepare you to be an effective, knowledgeable leader.

The rest of this chapter gets us started on this exploration of leadership. We begin by trying to establish a working de�inition of leadership and by trying to understand leadership in the dynamic framework of people, processes, and systems. Then we touch on some of the core questions regarding leadership, such as why it matters, how leaders are created, and what is leadership’s relationship to management. We conclude with a self-assessment of your own leadership qualities.

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Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty

Travis Kalanick failed in his �irst couple of business ventures. But he persisted and now he is the founder and CEO of Uber, a $40 billion company.

1.1 De�ining Leadership Leadership is the ability to in�luence followers to achieve common goals through shared purposes (Rost, 1993; Rost & Barker, 2000). Leadership is both art and science. There is no exact mathematical formula for being an effective leader; leaders in hospitals, banks, retail stores, government agencies, the military, and classrooms have the ability to in�luence others around common goals and shared purposes to achieve organizational visions and missions. There are, however, some characteristics and behaviors that are constant—even measurable—among in�luential and effective leaders. Kouzes and Posner (2012) found that leaders’ actions—that is, “commitment, loyalty, motivation, pride, and productivity” (p. 25) —contribute more to employees’ workplace engagement than any other single variable.

The ability to in�luence others is also a distinctive part of the de�inition of leadership; “leaders are in�luential in determining the fate of their organizations through their decisions, strategies, and in�luence on others” (Dinh et al., 2014). In�luence refers to a person’s ability to affect or to change the actions, behaviors, and opinions of others, and sometimes of industries and even societies, as Travis Kalanick is doing. Leaders motivate others to perform certain tasks and may even in�luence them to act ethically (Provitera, 2003; Schaubroeck et al., 2012). An example is Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani young woman who at 12 years old was shot by the Taliban when she demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She translated her mission into a campaign, in�luencing others worldwide with her cause. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her courageous leadership (“Malala Yousafzai,” 2015).

Followers are those who are in�luenced by leadership; they are not necessarily subordinates, but, depending on the level and structure of the organization, can be peers, team leaders, vice presidents, directors, and supervisors. We use the term subordinates generically and interchangeably with the term followers for the remainder of the book. Leaders need followers in order to help them achieve their goals; it is dif�icult, after all, to accomplish much on one’s own. Likewise, followers need the direction that leaders provide. This critical relationship requires mutual trust, respect, and an understanding that the two groups need each other; it is not a mindless relationship. Just as there are effective and ineffective leaders, there are effective and ineffective followers. Leaders should not assume they are “better” than followers, and followers should not simply be “yes people” (Bennis, 2004). In fact, the qualities of effective leaders are often the same as those of high- performing followers. As you read through the text, think about the situations in which you have the opportunity to be a leader or a follower.

The phrases “common goals” and “shared purposes” reveal the need for unity in the leader–follower relationship. “Common goals” refers to the desired future or end state of the organization. Common goals help leaders and followers orient themselves in the same direction. “Shared purposes” is similar in meaning but speaks more to how leaders and followers arrive at common goals. Imagine a rowboat with two oars, one for the leader and the other for the follower. The two rowers need to row in the same direction, otherwise the rowboat will simply turn in circles. Thus, even though a leader may set the goal, followers must agree with it; and, the common goal must supersede the individual goals. In our rowboat example, if one rower’s goal is to row as fast as possible while the other rower’s goal is to row at a deliberate pace, the rowboat will struggle to reach its intended destination even though the two are rowing in the same direction. A group can have multiple common goals, and they may be as simple as completing a task before lunch or as complex as becoming an industry’s market leader and increasing productivity and pro�itability.

It is important to note that for decades scholars and researchers have dedicated time to the broader study of effective leadership. From this research, we’ve come

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Andre Burton/Getty Image News/Thinkstock

Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for leading the movement to have all girls in – Pakistan receive an education.

to learn much more about the importance of context, interpersonal dynamics, communication skills, gender, culture, generational divides, and so on.

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1.2 Leadership in the Context of Persons, Processes, and Systems: A Multidimensional Perspective

Figure 1.1 shows us an inclusive model that incorporates the importance of a leader’s in�luence and actions to achieve common goals through shared purposes. This framework is referred to throughout the text, and it shows that leaders do not act or in�luence others in a vacuum. All leaders and their followers work within the context of organizational systems that call for the different processes and skills needed to accomplish work in different situations.1

Figure 1.1 takes into account broader, integrative contexts, namely “persons, processes, and systems” (Avolio, 1999, 2007; Dinh et al., 2014). Persons count. In other words, leaders and followers must understand their personality traits and behaviors before they’re able to start exerting effective in�luence. As the saying goes, “If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead others.” A classic Harvard Business Review article (Goffee & Jones, 2000) entitled “Why should anyone be led by you?” also supports this point. Individual leaders, in particular, and also followers, stakeholders, and stockholders exert in�luence on organizational goals and performance.

Figure 1.1: Persons, processes, and systems

All persons—leaders as well as followers—work within the context of organizational systems that call for the different processes and skills needed to accomplish work in different situations. This is the leadership context.

Processes also matter. Leaders rely on and use strategic communication, values, decision making, negotiation, con�lict resolution, and problem-solving skills, which enable followers and others to guide and keep organizations on course. Dinh et al. (2014) argued that “By understanding how leaders in�luence underlying processes that lead to organizational outcomes, scholars can also develop integrative perspectives that unify diverse theories and stimulate novel leadership research in the new millennium.”

Systems (strategies, structures, cultures) are both partially created by leaders and also serve as the contexts in which leaders align persons and processes toward goal attainment. “[L]eaders are embedded within organizational systems that are continually evolving, creating a more complex picture for understanding how individuals think, feel, and behave in response to changing events” (Dinh et al., 2014, p. 55).

When you are hired into an organization or company and are assigned a supervisor, you are already involved in the leader–follower in�luence process within a system. It is helpful to understand the larger landscape of organizations from a person, process, and system perspective to see the different interconnecting layers of leadership and know where you are located in that landscape. Figure 1.1 illustrates such a landscape. It also presents an overview of this text’s coverage of

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the �ield of leadership. Building on the previous discussion, leaders do seek to in�luence followers and they do so in organizational settings through processes that relate to leadership styles and ways of communicating, in�luencing, and managing people to accomplish goals and objectives.

Individuals, followers, teams, and groups are the starting point for understanding leadership. Whether an organization is as large and complex as Microsoft®, General Electric, or Apple or as small as a start-up, it is still the founders, current CEOs, and other individual leaders whose personalities, histories, visions, ethics, values, and missions direct, guide, and in�luence those inside and outside the organization. It is also to leverage leaders who are hired, promoted, and often times �ired when performance and other goals are derailed or fail to work. Relationships are also at the heart of leadership. Whether in dyads, triads, groups, or teams, in one or multiple locations around the globe, it is leaders who in�luence individuals in corporations, institutions, and nations.

Leaders also in�luence followers and constituencies through processes—that is, procedures, mechanisms, methods, practices, roles, and styles. Leaders use different styles, roles, and methods to communicate, negotiate, problem solve, resolve con�licts, and innovate depending on the nature and requirements of particular environments, tasks, individuals, and groups. One size (or “process”) does not �it all. Learning leadership styles that �it different followers, tasks, and organizational settings is a major part of leadership effectiveness.

Leaders are charged with identifying strategies, goals, and the dominant culture (ethics and values) within their teams in order to guide and navigate an organization’s overall direction and performance. These dimensions are also the systems within an organization. How effectively leaders and their teams “�it” the overall strategies, goals, and culture to an organization’s external environment determines the effectiveness of the leader and these leadership systems. The persons and processes of leadership are integral parts of the systems. So, taken together, this multidimensional approach involves understanding the persons, processes, and systems of leadership in organizations, and how these dimensions �it (or not) to affect their environments. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) discussed at the end of this chapter offers examples of how these systems work together to respond to the external environmental demands of leaders and organizations.

Because leadership involves relationships, understanding your own style and that of leaders and followers with whom you will be working is important to your success. After reading and studying the �irst few chapters of this book, you will be able to identify and evaluate your own leadership style and the style of others. You will begin to see how your style and others’ styles �it (or not) with different organizational strategies and cultures. You will also learn to evaluate the effectiveness of both your and your leader’s personal and professional style from a full range leadership model (McCleskey, 2014), which is discussed later in this book.

Systems, from this view, refers to particular perspectives and mind-sets, or “mental models,” that leaders and team members in organizational departments form as part of their culture. As new employees, learning to “read” and discover these perspectives is important because it will help you “�it” within a team. You will also be able to question assumptions and contribute to the effectiveness and ef�iciency of a team after you understand how members’ beliefs and values impact work assignments. Your own knowledge and perspective about how an organization’s culture �its (or not) with its strategy and stated ethics will become more evident. Leaders’ and followers’ perspectives within and across departments in organizations differ and may or may not always be in alignment with the larger organization’s direction, mission, and values. After you read and study this text, you will get a more realistic picture of what type of organizational culture, strategy, and system you prefer and what type best suits your current emerging leadership style. Keep Figure 1.1 in mind as a road map while reading the text.

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1.3 Why Leadership Matters The need for leadership is clear. Think of situations in your life—or even in the news—where the person or persons in charge made all the difference, whether it was a corporate scandal, a tragic event, or just a group project. Or perhaps consider how simply setting a positive example—going to college, doing the right thing, championing a cause—can motivate others. Much of this text examines leadership in an organizational setting, but leaders are everywhere; and leadership practices and development are in demand now more than ever before.

The following excerpt provides a brief overview of the current changing business environment in which leaders are needed and where they work. A recent survey of 2,532 business and human resources (HR) leaders in 94 countries around the world identi�ied the following urgent top concerns: “leadership, retention and engagement, the reskilling of HR (human resources), and talent acquisition. . . .”2 The report states

Building global leadership is by far the most urgent. . . . Companies see the need for leadership at all levels, in all geographies, and across all functional areas. . . . In a world where knowledge doubles every year and skills have a half-life of 2.5 to 5 years, leaders need constant development. This ongoing need to develop leaders is also driven by the changing expectations of the workforce and the evolving challenges businesses are facing, including two major themes underlying this year’s trends: globalization and the speed and extent of technological change and innovation.3

Leaders must create and manage change while dealing with the economic effects of an expanding global economy, unstable political events, an increasingly diverse workforce, unpredictable consumer markets, misconduct, and sometimes corruption. Organizational responses to these changes include �latter structures, virtual and dispersed teams, and increased use of information technologies for faster and more frequent communication, often while having to “do more with less.” Organizational leaders are called on to reimagine, recreate and reenergize a sense of purpose, mission, values, and practices in a multigenerational workforce who require constant development to stay competitive and be successful. So, are you ready to be a leader? Take Assessment 1.1 to get a better sense of your leadership readiness.

Assessment 1.1: Are You Ready to Be a Leader?

Instructions

Indicate the extent to which you agree with each of the following statements, using the following scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree

1. I am energized when people count on me for ideas.

2. As a practice, I ask people provocative questions when we are working on projects together.

3. I take delight in complimenting people that I work with when progress is made.

4. I �ind it easy to be the cheerleader for others, when times are good and when times are bad.

5. Team accomplishment is more important to me than my own personal accomplishments.

6. People often take my ideas and run with them.

7. When involved in group projects, building team cohesiveness is important to me.

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8. When involved in group projects, coaching others is an activity that I gravitate toward.

9. I �ind pleasure in recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of others.

10. When involved in group projects, my team members’ problems are my problems.

11. Resolving interpersonal con�lict is an activity that I enjoy.

12. When involved in group projects, I frequently �ind myself to be an idea generator.

13. When involved in group projects, I am inclined to let my ideas be known.

14. I �ind pleasure in being a convincing person.

Scoring and Interpretation

Sum your responses to the 14 questions and then divide that number by 14. Your score should fall between a low of 1 and a high of 5. A tentative interpretation of your scoring is as follows:

4.5 and higher implies a high motivation for leadership.

3.0 implies uncertainty about your motivation for leadership.

1.75 and lower implies a low motivation for leadership.

My leadership motivation (readiness) score is ____________________.

Source: Pierce, J. and Newstrom, J.W. Leaders and the Leadership Process, 4th ed, p. 67. Reprinted by permission of McGraw-Hill Education. Reprinted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

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Is leadership something that one is born with, or is it something that can be learned over time? Barbara Brady, PhD, Tara Martinez, and Brian Hemphill, PhD, discuss the distinctions.

Leaders: Born or Made?

Critical Thinking Questions