1. Dilemmas of Destiny and Development
BORN OR MADE?
Dilemmas of Destiny and Development

2. Orientation The Born or Made Dilemma The Leadership challenge
Look closely at leadership maps to help understand
The natural born leader trait assumptions
Leadership training and the possibility of developing leadership capability in managers
The Leadership challenge
Leaders have fixed preferred styles of dealing with leadership challenges
Leaders find that the situation influences their style
task oriented vs. concern with relationships

3. A Leadership Challenge
  Which Map makes more sense to you?
  Map 1: Each leader has a preferred style of dealing with leadership challenges. and shows a preference for relationships with people or a motivation for getting the work tasks done effectively.  
Map 2: Leaders find their situations influence their style. The characteristics of the task and the characteristics of colleagues contribute to the different styles. The styles may be deliberately assumed, or they may be unconsciously shaped by circumstances
What are the implications of your preference for your leadership prospects?

4. Contingency Approach or Situational Approach
Bryman’s Eras of Leadership Theory
Trait Approach
dominant until late 1940s - assumes leaders born, not made
Style Approach
held sway until late 1960s - effects of leadership on those led
Contingency Approach or Situational Approach
popular to 1980s - situational factors are focus for understanding leadership
New Leadership Approach
since 1980s, leader seen as one who defines organizational reality through articulation of a vision
Source: Alan Bryman, Leadership in Organizations.1996

5. Trait Approach its Rise and Fall
Traits focus attention on person in the job
Fixed characteristics distinguishing leaders from non-leaders
physical traits, personal attributes and abilities
Recent research suggests that traits play a role but they alone cannot account for leadership effectiveness
Perceived traits of Intelligence; dominance & masculinity still retain significance

6. Leadership Style (Behaviours) Approach
Emphasized what a leader does rather than identifying who would be an effective leader
Associated with practical problems of selecting organizational leaders
Pioneered in Ohio State Studies identifying two major factors: Relationship or People Orientation (consideration), and Task Oriented (initiation of structure). The studies assumed behaviours can be measured and taught, and had different effects on followers and performance
Style approach increased understanding of leadership and focused attention on leadership training. Its simplistic view of very complex processes eventually led to maps studied in subsequent chapters

7. Contingency Approach
Personality, style or behaviour of effective leader dependent on requirements of the situation
No one best way to lead – different styles, traits or behaviours can all be effective. Situational or contextual factors help determine best style or behaviour
Fiedler’s least preferred co-worker model best known contingency approach
Leader’s disposition to favour task or relationships assessed by self-reports of leader’s view of co-workers
Assumes people can learn to become effective leaders, and both personal & situational characteristics affect leadership effectiveness
Little agreement about what constitutes effectiveness

8. The New Leadership Approach
A move away from trait, style and contingency modes
Leadership as a socially constructed process
Depict leaders as mangers of meaning rather than in terms of an influence process
Revived interest in leader’s personal characteristics
Role of leadership traits
key traits are not enough to make a leader - they are a precondition for effective leadership:
Experience, correct choices and exposure to right situations are also key to allow talents to develop

9. Day’s Meta-Study of Leadership Development
Examined leadership development theory practice and research
Leader development – focus on individual and what leaders are and do & what is needed to become more like them
Leadership development – considers overall dynamics of organizations in which leaders and followers engage
Day examines influential techniques for leadership development
360 Degree Feedback Coaching
Mentoring Networking
Job assignments Action learning

10. Developmental Dilemma of Embeddedness
Day’s degree of embeddedness related to the relative simplicity or complexity of organizational leadership programmes
Simple programmes, e.g.360 degree feedback - only identify simple empirical relationships
Complex designs, e.g. action research - may identify leadership that seems to be ‘working’ but its mechanisms are difficult to isolate
Dilemma is that study of simple programmes is study of incomplete programmes of development; complex programmes resist resolution to suggest effectiveness of their component parts

11. Leadership Development
Fixed Trait View
on being born great – the ‘right stuff’ of leadership exemplified by well-known historical or contemporary leaders
Developmental View
Implicit in worldwide leadership developmental programmes
Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)
John Adair – Action Centred Leadership
Boyatzis – Intentional Change Theory

12. Adair’s Action Centred Leadership
CCL Philosophy
Self knowledge most important factor in practice of leadership
Provides context which facilitates personal discovery and development
Leadership development programmes add value through - assessment, challenge and support
Adair’s Action Centred Leadership
European cultural tradition
Functional Leadership
Task, Team, Individual
Leadership functions enacted across three interacting regions of achieving the task, building and maintaining the team, and developing the individual

13. Boyatzis - Intentional Change Theory
Strategies that focus on intentional change are supported by leader development programmes
Model focuses on perceptions of actual and ideal self-images to facilitate individual leadership goals
Coaching is means by which individual is helped to understand gaps between actual and ideal self-image
Attention is on finding positive emotional experiences which build on strengths
As self-directed and intentional change develops, the individual is better able to cope with leadership challenges

14. Summary Two main maps of leadership develop
Eras of Leadership thought and
Territory of leadership development
Scientific studies failed to locate ingredients that made leaders
Trait theories replaced by increasingly complex theories that shifted emphasis from leaders to leadership
Studies focused on leaders at supervisory levels as well as on exceptional person and opened up possibility of leadership development
Leadership development programmes now integral part of organizational life
Evidence of success of these is extensive but dilemma of embeddedness adds to difficulty of evaluating for improved designs