leadership

Essay text:

Leader Member Relations – the extent to which the leader has the support and loyalty of subordinates, and the relations with subordinates are friendly and cooperative 2. Position Power – the extent to which the leader has authority to evaluate subordinate performance and administer rewards and punishments 3. Task Structure – the extent to which there are operating procedures to accomplish the task, a detailed description of the finished product and objective indicators of how well the task is being performed • Favorability is determined by weighting and combining these three aspects of the situation • The weighting procedure assumes that leader-member relations are more important than task structure Propositions • According to the model, the situation is most favorable for the leader (octant 1) when: o The subordinates are good, o The leader has substantial position power o The Task is highly structured • The situation is least favorable for the leader (octant 8) when: o The relations with the subordinates is poor o The task is unstructured o Position power is low Conceptual Weaknesses • The LPC interpretation has been changed in an arbitrary fashion • The current interpretation is speculative • LPC scores may not be stable over time and may be more complex than assumed • In absence of behavioral variables the model does not provide any guidance for training leaders how to adapt to the situation • The model neglects medium LPC leaders, who probably outnumber high and low LPC leaders THE PATH GOAL THEORY OF LEADERSHIP • The path goal theory of leadership was developed to explain how the behavior of a leader influences the satisfaction and performance of subordinates Explanatory Processes • Expectancy theory describes work motivation in terms of a rational choice process in which a person decides how much effort to devote to the job at a given point in time • In choosing between a maximal effort and minimal (or moderate effort) a person considers the likelihood that a given level of effort will lead to successful completion of the task and the likelihood that task completion will result in desirable outcomes • Desirable outcomes include: o Higher pay o Recognition o Promotion o Sense of achievement • Expectancy – the perceived probability of an outcome • Valence – The desirability of an outcome Leader Behaviors 1...