Discus the three approaches to leadership
The three approaches to leadership are (1) Trait Approach, (2) Behavioural Approach, and (3) The contingency Approach.
(i) THE TRAIT APPROACH
This theory seeks to separate certain characteristics that separate effective from ineffective managers. The proponents of this theory identified the following as some of the unique characteristics.
- Physical These include physical appearance, weight, height, age etc.
- Alertness, verbal facility, originality, judgement, aptitude, personal charisma, character
- Scholarship, knowledge, athletic accomplishments
- Activity, sociability, cooperation, adaptability, humour.
- Socioeconomic position, popularity.
- Leaders exhibit a high effort level. They have a relatively high desire for achievement; they are ambitious; they have a lot of energy; they are tirelessly persistent in their activities; and they show initiatives.
- Desire to lead. Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others. They demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility
- Honesty and integrity. Leaders should build trusting relationships between themselves and followers by being truthful or non-deceitful and showing high consistency between word and deed.
- Self-confidence. Followers look to leaders for an absence of self doubt. Leaders therefore, need to show self- confidence in order to convince followers of the rightness of their goals and decisions.
- Leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather, synthesise, and interpret large amounts of information, and they need to be able to create visions, solve problems, and make correct decisions.
- Job-relevant knowledge. Effective leaders have a high degree of knowledge about the company, industry, and technical matters. In-depth knowledge allows leaders to make well-informed decisions and understand the implications of those decisions
- Leaders are energetic, lively people. They are sociable, assertive, and rarely silent or withdrawn.
Thus, these theorists sought to judge the effectiveness of leadership be personal characteristics of the leader.
This theory has failed to prove itself practically, in real life situations as there are no distinct traits that aptly describe the effectiveness of a leader.
(ii) THE BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH.
Following the failure of the trait approach to explain how characteristics of a leader could influence the effectiveness of leadership new approaches were developed.
This approach shifted emphasis to the behavioural characteristics of the effective leader i.e. what effective leaders did. This included analysis of how the leader motivated and guided subordinates.
The major advantage of behaviours over traits was that they could be learnt i.e. with adequate training, the leader’s behaviour could be altered. The researchers analysed two aspects of leadership behaviours.
- Leadership Function: - It is the term used to analyse the behaviour of a manager in terms of whether it is “task- related” (problem-solving) or “group maintenance” (social function. An effective leader is the one who is able to blend these two
- Leadership Style: - These are the various behaviour patterns favoured by leaders during the process of directing and influencing subordinates. Manager with task-oriented style closely supervise subordinates to make sure that the tasks assigned to them are carried out.
(iii) THE CONTINGENCY APPROACH
There are various situational factors (variables) which causes one leadership style to be more effective than another. Put differently, leaders are the product of given situations i.e. leadership is strongly is strongly influenced by the situation from which the leader emerges and in which he operates.
The following factors were identified
- Leadership personality and experience. These include past experience, expectations and standard of education. For example, a manager who has been successful in exercising little supervision is bound to adopt a more employee-oriented approach than his other counterparts – who may have proved that close control is more effective and hence opt for a more task-oriented approach
- Expectations and Behaviour of superiors. This emanates from the fact that superiors are usually the ones to review the leaders’ Use of reward power by superiors implies that they can influence the leadership behaviour of subordinates referent power on the part of the superiors may also have a bearing on subordinate’s leadership style.
- Expectations, characteristics and behaviour of subordinates. These entail the subordinates’ skills, training, attitudes, confidence, degree of self-motivation, desire for responsible tasks, preferable leadership styles i.e. close supervision, autonomy etc. The appropriateness of a particular leadership style depends on the above factors.
- Task Requirements. The manager’s leadership style also hinges on the job responsibilities of the subordinates. The task requiring precise instructions, for example, would tend to warrant a task-oriented approach than tasks with lesser operating procedures - this is also called the task structure and a task requiring precise instructions is also called a highly structured tas.
- Organisational Culture and Policies. Culture refers to the general pattern of behaviour, shared beliefs, and values that organisational members have in common. It establishes implied rules for the way people should It therefore follows that the organisational culture and policies do influence the leadership style a leader would adopt.
- Expectations and behaviour of peers. Peers are colleagues at the same echelons (ranks) with the leader and they interact in meetings and exchange ideas (including those on leadership styles). Peer pressure may influence a particular leader to follow the leadership styles advocated by peers.
