The Nature of Leadership

Summarized & Edited by

Cr. Dr. Ling Ying Leh
 Learning Outcomes
• By the end of this topic, you should be able
to:
1. Discuss the roles of a leader.
2. Differentiate between leadership and
management.
3. Discuss the traits of effective leadership.
4. Explore the importance of the principal’s
instructional leadership.
5. Explore the role of power in leadership and
the leader-follower relationship.
6. Discuss the changing perspectives on
leadership.
 Definition of Leadership
• Interpersonal influence, directed through
communication toward goal attainment.
• The influential increment over and above
mechanical compliance with directions and orders.
• An act that causes others to act or respond in a
shared direction.
• The art of influencing people by persuasion or
example to follow a line of action.
• The principal dynamic force that motivates and
coordinates the organisation in the accomplishment
of its objectives (Bass, 1990).
• A willingness to take the blame (Zaslow, 1998).
 Interpretation of Leadership
• Leadership is associated with
interpersonal influence,
communication, goal attainment,
motivation and coordination and
willingness to take the blame.
Leadership & Management
Nine Leadership Roles
 Figurehead
• The term here does not downgrade the
role of a leader. Usually, before a person
is promoted into the leadership role, he
would have gone through the mill. He
would have the experience of taking
responsibilities of doing the difficult
tasks when still climbing the ladder of
the organisation
 Spokeperson
• One of the criteria of promotion is oneÊs
thorough knowledge of the organisation.
Therefore, it is most appropriate for the
leader to be the representative of the
organisation.
 Negotiator
• A leader is judged by his ability to
negotiate difficult bargaining situations
especially with trade unions or for
bargaining the best deal from vendors or
business partners.
 Coach
• An effective leader would help
subordinates by coaching them to be
more effective.
 Team Builder
• A very important aspect of leadership is
building an effective team where team
members cooperate effectively with each
other. The members feel that they all
belong to the organisation and have high
group morale. They are also encouraged to
talk about their accomplishments, problems
and concerns and they would try to help
and motivate each other in the process of
reaching greater heights of achievements.
 Team Player
• A leader should also be a team player
who has to exhibit appropriate
behaviours such as abiding by the team
decision.
 Technical Problem Solver
• The responsibility of middle managers
and supervisors.
• To help team members to solve their
technical problems.
 Entrepreneur
• Contributing innovative ideas on how to
attract more students to enrol into
courses offered by the institute.
 Strategic Planner
• The leader has to be a good actor at first
and in the process, absorb all the traits
that are required to be a successful role
player in all the nine roles.
• A leader who can adapt himself to the
roles that are demanded out of him will
be able to bring together his staff to
support him and the organisation.
 Strategic Planner
• Team builder
– Someone who establish and develop a great
sense of collaboration and trust between
members.
• Team player
– Someone who able to get along with their
colleagues and work together in
a cohesive group.
 Traits of Effective Leadership
• The communicator
– Attend to the needs of the staff
– Listen and understand to the grouses and opinions of his
subordinates
– Empathise with whatever difficulties encountered by the staff
and provide means to ease them through cooperation
– Disclose himself to others
– Get the whole story
– Ask the right questions
– Say what he means and mean what he says. A leader should be
straight forward and not beat about the bush;
– Accept criticism
– Give correction
– Communicate creatively
– Disagree agreeably
 Traits of Effective Leadership
• The educator
– Unselfish in sharing his knowledge and
experiences with others in the organisation to
ensure the achievement of the vision of his
organisation.
• The communicator
– Say what he means and mean what he says
• The envisioner
– Has sixth sense and can sense future
happenings.
– Make a difference and can see the invisible.
 Traits of Effective Leadership
• The facilitator
– A person who facilitates the smooth running of
affairs among members within the organisation as
well as with outsiders.
– It helps others to see things in a positive way and
boost the possibility of cooperation and
collaboration from the most unlikely people.
• The change master
– He knows that changing paradigms are difficult to
begin with, and therefore he anticipates there would
be resisters and knows how to deal with them. In
time, the resisters will become supporters when
they see the reasons and rationale for the change.
 Traits of Effective Leadership
• The culture builder
– Knows what a good culture looks like, in order to plan
and execute the cultural building plan of the
organisation
• The activator
– Risk taker
• The producer
– Believes that achievement is the bottom line
• The character builder
– He is human; which means that he has his weak moments
however perfect he is in the eyes of his followers
• The contributor
– A good steward for others to trust and follow
Leadership and Power
Power – A Focus on Individuals
• Power is described as the ability of an
individual or group to influence another
individual or group.
 Power – Shared Leadership
Distributed leadership is a conceptual and analytical
approach to understanding how the work of leadership takes
place among the people and in context of a complex
organization. Though developed and primarily used in
education research, it has since been applied to other
domains, including business and even tourism.

• With recognition given to distributed

leadership, the focus of power has
shifted from the individual to that of
equal distribution between leaders and
followers.
 Changing Perspectives on
Leadership
• There were four major findings that
emerged from the Ohio State University
LBDQ (Leader Behaviour Description
Questionnaire) studies (Halpin, 1966).
• The findings:
– Initiating structure and consideration are
fundamental dimensions of leader behaviour.
– Effective leader behaviour tends most often to
be associated with frequent behaviours on both
dimensions.
 Changing Perspectives on
Leadership
• The findings:
– Superiors and subordinates tend to evaluate the
contributions of the leader behaviour
dimensions oppositely in assessing
effectiveness. Superiors tend to emphasise
initiating structure; subordinates are more
concerned with consideration.
– Only a slight relationship exists between how
leaders say they should behave and how
subordinates describe that they do behave.
 Changing Perspectives on
Leadership
• In order for the organisation to run
smoothly to achieve its objectives, the
common ground for both sides to
interact actively must be broad enough
so that both sides would perceive that
their interests were taken care of.
 Charismatic Leadership
• Charismatic leadership by House (1977)
– House (1977) defined charismatic
leadership as distinguishable from other
leadership by its characteristics.
Charismatic leaders are characterised by
dominance, self-confidence, need to
influence and strong conviction in the moral
correctness of their beliefs.
 Charismatic Leadership
• Charismatic leadership by House (1977)
– House and Howell (1992) refined the personality
traits of charismatic leadership which were first
constructed by House (1977). The refined
personality traits include the following:
• Achievement-oriented
• Creatively and innovatively-oriented
• Very energetic and has a high level of involvement
• Self-confident
• Has a need for social influence with concern for the moral
use of power
• Takes high risk and has a deep work involvement
• Nurturing, sensitive socially and considerate towards
followers.
 Charismatic Leadership
• Charismatic leadership by House (1977)
– Both Conger and Kanungo (1988) summarised
that charismatic leaders show the following
behaviour:
• Has a future vision;
• Manages impressions;
• Makes self-sacrifices;
• Takes personal risks;
• Models behaviour for followers to imitate;
• Engages in unconventional behaviour for followers to
imitate; and
• Shares power.
Charismatic vs. Transformational
Leader
 Transactional and
Transformational Leadership
• Yukl (1998) said that transformational leaders
are expected to:
– Define the need for change
– Create new visions and muster commitment to the
visions
– Concentrate on long-term goals
– Inspire followers to transcend their own interests to
pursue higher order goals
– Change their organisation to accommodate their
vision rather than work within the existing one
– Mentor followers to take greater responsibility for
their own development and that of others.
 Transactional and
Transformational Leadership
• Bass (1998) views that transformational
leaders go beyond transactional leaders
by employing the four Is:
– Idealised influence
– Inspirational motivation
– Intellectual motivation
– Individualised experience.
 Transactional and
Transformational Leadership
 Transactional and
Transformational Leadership
 Instructional Leadership
• Hallinger (1982) developed 10 job functions
that reflect the areas of responsibility of the
principal as an instructional leader.
Instructional Leadership
Model of Instructional Leadership
Elements of Murphy’s (1990)
 Moral Leadership
• Transformational leadership would be more
potent if it was accompanied by certain values
and beliefs that are used as guiding principles.
• The other form of leadership that are based on
values and beliefs which complement and
strengthen transformational leadership is
termed by Sergiovanni (1991) as moral
leadership.
• Moral leadership requires courage the ability to
step forward through fear and act on one’s
values and conscience).