NICMAR

PROJECT LEADERSHIP

Submitted by
Praveen Kumar. K 221079
Aishwarya. K 221085
Jagadeesh Kumar. M 221093
Ram Kumar M.V. 221103

Guided by
Prof. T.K. Ganguli
Dean, SOEE

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CONSTRUCTION

MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH
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INTRODUCTION

Leadership is an important element directing process. To get things done by sub

ordinates the manager has to lead and guide their activities leadership is an influence process.
Leadership is required in every organisation, the success or failure of an organisation to the
great extent depends on the quality of leadership particularly on the part of top management.

Peter Drucker has rightly pointed out that “the managers or business leaders are the
basic and scarce resource of any enterprise and most of the failures of business establishment
have been attributed to ineffective leadership”. It is because by using leadership qualities the
manager develops vision about organisation and directs the activities of members in that
direction.

DEFINITIONS OF LEADERSHIP

• Leadership is the ability of influencing people to strive willingly for mutual objectives-
TERRY

• Leadership is influencing people to follow the achievement of common goal. It is the

ability to exert interpersonal influencing by means of communication towards the
achievement of goals - KOONTZ O ,DONNEL

• Managerial leadership is a process of directing and influencing the task related activities
of group members - RELPH M.STODILL

FEATURES OF LEADERSHIP:

• Influence process

Leadership is an influence process whereby the leader directs the behaviour of the members
towards the achievement of pre determined activities. Through influence process he modifies,
reshapes and controls the behaviours of the members. He creates sense of loyalty,
belongingness and commitment among the members of group.
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• The Followers

Leaders require the followers to lead and guide. It is the activity of the followers which are
directed towards the accomplishment of goals. The leader exercises his authority or power to
influence working behaviour of the members of group. Without followers we cannot imagine
the process of leadership.

• Reciprocal Relationship

There is a reciprocal relationship between leader and his followers. This relationship is
created on the account of regular interaction between them. Mary Parker has rightly said that
a reciprocal relationship between leader and followers is one of the important characteristics
of leadership.

• Common Goal

The main job of leader is to lead, guide, inspire and motivate the followers of the group to
work for achieving common goals. He expresses and explain these goals to his followers
clearly so as to get their maximum cooperation for achieving them.

• Situation bound

The leadership is highly situational. The effectiveness of leader is greatly influenced by

situational variables including work environment, job contents, inter personal relationships,
group relations, attitude of members etc. towards leaders.

• Power based

Leadership is a power or authority based process. To influence the behaviour of the followers
and their performance leader needs adequate power. There are 3 bases of power enjoyed by
the leader.

1. Knowledge, Experience, Skill and competence of leader

2. Resources for rewarding, punishing and making a favour to the member

3. Formal authority which he gets by virtue of holding position in the organization

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• Satisfaction of members

The main characteristic of leadership is that it provides satisfaction to the members. The real
and effective leader is one who is capable of satisfying personal needs, wants and interest of
the members.

• Scope of leadership

The process of leadership is required in every group situation. Apart from business the other
non profit organizations such as an army, hospital, educational institution and political
organization need leaders to direct he activities of the members for achieving given
objectives.

IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership may be regarded as important part of management process. The manager becomes
more efficient and effective if he is a good leader. Significance of leadership can be
understood on the following grounds.

• Guiding and inspiring subordinates

Leader helps in motivating the members of the group to work for the accomplishment of
objectives. Leadership may be regarded as an important factor in guiding and channelizing all
energies of the employees in this direction.

• Securing co-operation of the members

Manager can secure whole hearted co-operation of the employees for achieving objectives
when they are good leaders. As a leader the manager persuades the subordinates to work
more enthusiastically.

• Creating confidence among employees

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By providing ready help guidance and support the leader successfully creates confidence and
zeal among the employees. He provides psychological support and infuses the spirit of
enthusiasm among the followers so that they can realise their capabilities and potentials.

• Creating confidence among employees

Leadership primarily aims at congenial and proper environment in work setting so that the
employees can make maximum contribution for seeking the objectives of the organization.
The leader maintains with the followers and has reciprocal relation with them which helps in
creating an environment of mutual help and trust.

• Implementing change

Leadership also helps in introducing change in the organization. The manager who has the
qualities of leadership finds it easy to convince the employees about the positive effects of
change to be introduced and thereby reduces the resistance to change. He takes them into
confidence and seeks their full cooperation in implementing the change.

• Maintaining discipline among members

An effective leader has qualities to get his orders and instructions, followed by the members.
He always attempts to produce goal directed working behaviour among them and forces them
to work in a disciplined manner.

• Representing the members

The leader is a representative of members led by him. He attempts to protect and promote the
interest of all the members of his team and integrates it with a common interest.

FUNCTIONS OF A LEADER

The five important functions of a leader are:

• Leadership renders a service

• Leadership makes a decision

• Leadership elicits response

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• Leadership achieves results

• Leadership is willingness to be different

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

The manager gets things accomplished through people; therefore he will be more effective if
he is also a leader. The terms management and leadership are very often used
interchangeably. But these two are different concepts, because it is understandable that a
manager can do a reasonably good job of managing without being a good leader. The
relationship between management and leadership can be understood based on the following
points.

• The term management is basically concerned with people, things and ideas. It involves
mobilisation and utilisation of both physical as well as human resources for achieving
predetermined objectives. But the concept of leadership is mainly confined to direction of
human resources that is people or followers. And to direct their activities the leader has to
create interpersonal relations with the follower. Thus the concept of leadership is highly
related to management but it is certainly narrower than management.

• The position of the manger in an organisation is marked by formal authority which he

derives from his position by virtue of occupying it. And it is by exercising this authority
he influencing working behaviour of subordinates and gets things done by them. But
leadership is a position held by the leader in the group which is backed by acceptance,
knowledge and charismatic personality of the leader. The leader drives power from these
to influence the followers.

• To become effective manger one has to acquire the knowledge of management through
formal education and training and use this knowledge in a practical situation along with
his other skills. Unfortunately in India base on theoretical knowledge is almost non-
existent in case of leadership. There are no institutes like management institutes imparting
knowledge on leadership. Thus one becomes leader because he has a desire to so and he
is accepted by the followers to do so.
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• To get the things done by others manager places more emphasis on formal authority
relationship of superior and subordinate, which is considered as backbone of the
organization. However, leaders lay emphasis more on social and personal relationship
with the followers. The members of the group follow leader because they accept and
respect him. Moreover, the leader has reciprocal relationship with the members which is
based on mutual trust, satisfaction and support.

• The mangers are selected to fill up the positions which are identified in terms of authority,
responsibility, functions and activities. They are selected in highly rational, objective and
formal manner because the organization has expectations from them to contribute as
effectively as possible to achieve its objectives. But leadership occurs in a situation in
which members in a group give their acceptance to a particular individual to act as a
leader. Thus the leaders are generally elected by the members in a highly subjective and
informal manner.

• The knowledge of management is applied on the work setting and organizations having
predetermined policies, procedures, rules and methods which are to be followed by the
members. However the leadership situation is highly flexible, unstructured and not
backed by predetermined procedures and rules. Although both organizations as well as
leadership situations have to operate in uncertain environment but it seems to be more
complex and dynamic in leadership as compared to management.

• More interestingly, these two concepts of management and leadership are highly related
but are distinctly different from each other. Manager can manage without having qualities
of leadership, and leaders lead others without being good manager. Contrary to it, to
become more effective manager one has to have leadership qualities and similarly leader
can become more effective if he manages like a manager.

LEADERSHIP THEORIES

Like the study of management knowledge, the leadership concept has also been supported by
various theories

• Personality theories of leadership

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• Behavioural approach to leader ship

PERSONALITY THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP

Personality theories can be classified into two theories

• Great man theory

• Trait theory

Great man theory:

According to this theory leaders are born and not made and the various qualities which the
leader is supposed to have cannot be cultivated or developed because they are present and
carried in genes.

Advocates of this theory also forwarded the following arguments in support of it

• They believe that leaders are god’s gift to mankind and they have come on earth for
seeking welfare of mankind by using their gifted qualities

• No one else can become such a great leader because these qualities of leadership cannot
be acquired through formal education and training.

• They strongly believe that it is only a personality and inborn qualities associated with it
has made them great leaders, and other elements of leadership like situational variables,
needs of followers and environment did not have any impact on leadership process

But Great Man Theory is subject to following critics

• This theory of leadership has no scientific basis and has not been supported by empirical
studies.

• It ignores the effect of situational variables like need and aspirations of the followers,
environment and other related factors.

• Theorists did not forward any concrete proof regarding the fact that only a particular set
of qualities make the person a leader
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• The theory does not state why, how and when the leadership occurs

• The advocates of this theory could not make it clear that inborn leader had which set of
qualities which perhaps cannot be learned by training and education

Trait theory of leadership:

This theory advocates that leadership qualities and trades are not inborn but can be acquired
by an individual through an education, training and other forms of learning

The advocates of this theory of leadership are TEAD, SCHELL and others

TEAD holds that there are ten qualities that are essential for effective leadership, namely
physical and nervous energy, a sense of purpose and direction, enthusiasm, friendliness and
affection, integrity, technical mastery, decisiveness, intelligence, teaching skills and faith

Similarly, in the words of RALPH STOGDIL the leader to be effective should have the
qualities like drive for responsibility, task orientation, vigour and persistence in pursuit of
goals, venturesomeness, originality problem solving skills, drive to exercise, initiative in
social situations, self-confidence and ability to influence other persons etc

It is criticised many of the following grounds

• Trait theory also lacks scientific basis. It does not offer any explanation that why
leadership occurs.

• It does not state which set of qualities are important for leader

• It does not take into account situational variables, needs of followers and environment
which determine effectiveness of leadership

• Trait theory has also failed in discovering any trait which clearly and consistently
distinguishes leaders from followers.

BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP:

In this theory instead of finding out what effective leaders were, researchers attempted to
determine what effective leaders did; how they assigned a task, how they communicated with
and tried to motivate subordinates and how they carried out their job etc.
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Intensive research studies in USA at Ohio state university and university of Michigan
revealed

That there are two broad dimensions of leadership behaviour namely:

• Initiating structure

• Consideration

Initiating structure:

which also known as task –oriented behaviour, implies setting goals by the leader, defining
and organizing the task to be performed by his followers, determining working relationship
and controlling their behaviour and performance by the leader

Consideration:

Which is also known as ‘employee-oriented’ behaviour refers to friendship, trust and support
of leader towards the members of the group. Such leaders believe in motivating subordinates
rather than controlling them.

By making matrix out of these two distinct dimensions of leadership the Ohio state
researchers have identified four styles of leadership
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Low structure High structure

High consideration High consideration
Leader strives to promote Leaders strive to achieve
group harmony and social productive balance between
need satisfaction getting the job done and
maintaining cohesive friendly work

Low structure High structure

Low consideration Low consideration
Leader retreats to general Leader devotes primary attention
passive role of allowing the to getting the job done, personal
situation to take care of it self concerns are strictly secondary

On the basis of conclusions from Ohio state and Michigen studies the following two theories
have been developed.

Management grid or leadership grid:

The management grid developed by Robert Blake and Jane Moutan reflects multi
dimensional nature of leadership and helps in measuring relative concern off manager for
people and task. The management grid identifies various alternative combinations of ‘concern
for people’ and ‘concern for production’. These combinations are being put in horizontal and
vertical dimensions of the grid having a scale from 1to 9.

Impoverished leadership style: this style refers to minimum concern on the part of leader for
both production as well people. The role of leader is passive and he allows the situation to
take care of itself. This style is sometime called ‘laissez faire’ management. The leader
believes that use of minimum efforts is required to get work done and to sustain morale of the
members.
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TEAM LEADERSHIP (9, 9) OR DEMOCRATIC MANAGEMENT: It refers to high concern

for production and people. It is considered as the effective management style. Because this
style of leadership will in almost all results in improved performance, low absenteeism and
turn over and high employees satisfaction. Such types of leaders are successful in cooperation
and building interpersonal relation and respect.

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD LEADERSHIP (5, 5): It refers to equal consent for production and
people. Such leaders believe that adequate level of organisational performance is possible
through balancing the necessity to get work done by maintaining morale of the people at
satisfactory level. It is safe style seeking balance between requirements of production and
needs of the people.

TASK LEADERSHIP (9, 1): It represents high concern for production and low concern for
people. The leader places more emphasis on production, targets and productivity and peoples
need and satisfaction becomes secondary.

COUNTRY CLUB LEADERSHIP (1, 9): It refers to low concern for production but high
concern for people. Such leaders believe in creating friendly interpersonal relation with
people at work. He creates enthusiasm among them and motivates them to work efficiently.

Likert’s management systems:

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Likert developed four models of management which are known as ‘systems of management’.
These systems have been developed on the basis of seven important variables which are
closely related to management process. These variables are leadership, motivation,
communication, interaction, influence, decision making process, goal-setting and control
process.

These systems are under

System 1: Exploitative or Authoritative

• Highly autocratic

• Leader sets goals and action plans at his own

• No participation of followers

• Close supervision and control

• Use of negative motivators

• Unfriendly relation with followers

System 2: Benevolent Authoritative

• Autocratic

• Leader sets goals and action plans at his own

• One way communication

• Master-servant relation

• Negative and positive motivator

• Close supervision and control

System 3: Consultative

• Participation of subordinates in goal setting and decision making to a lesser degree

• Two way communication

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• More emphasis on positive motivators than negative one

• Flexible and goal oriented control

• Recognition of human factor

System 4: Participative democratic

• Fully humanistic approach

• Active participation of subordinates

• Friendly relation with subordinates

• High degree of decentralization

• Relaxeo and self control

• Positive motivators

• Free and frank two way communication

SITUATIONAL/ CONTINGENCY APPROACH TO LEADERSHIPS:

The situational factors or variables which dominate the effectiveness of leadership may be
described as under.

• Leadership Factors

This set of factors mainly includes all those factors which are related to the personality of
leader his orientation and skills which he uses for influencing others.

• Group factors

They include all those factors and forces which operate in a group and effect leadership
process.

• Other factors
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The other factors are authority structure, organisational plans, values and goals motivation,
communication, political, socio-cultural, legal and technological factors.

Various situational theories of leadership are being discussed as under

Leadership Continuum

In this theory Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt have described various leadership
styles and have placed leadership behaviour on a continuum having two extremes and many
styles in between them. At one end of the continuum behaviour of the leader is authoritative
while at the other end authority, power and influence structure moves towards subordinate
and they get lot of freedom and participation in management.

Tannenbaum and Schmidt strongly believed that situational variables play an

important role in determining effectiveness and appropriateness of leadership style in a
various situations. They also advocated that there cannot be one best style of leadership
which is effective and appropriate in all situations therefore, leader must be sensitive enough
to choose and modify his style as per the need of the situation.

Contingency theory

Contingency approach of leadership states that management and leadership style that best
contributes to the achievement of organisational goals.

The performance of a leader depends on two interrelated factors.

1. The degree to which situation gives a leader control and influence that is the likelihood
that the leader can successfully accomplish the job

2. The leaders basic motivation that is whether leaders self esteem depends primarily on
accomplishing the tasks or as having close supportive relations with others

Fiedler has identified three leadership situations which help in determining that which
leadership style will be effective. These are leader-member relations, the task structure and
leader position of power.

Leader member relation has significant influence on manager’s authority and

effectiveness. If he gets along well with group members and members also respect the
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manager for his personality and character then the manger may not have to rely on formal
authority and position.

In structured task for which procedures and instructions are available for its each step
and members of group have clear idea that what they expected to do, the managers in such
situation has high power.

The power held by the manager may be great or small depending on a specific
position.

Path goal theory

Path goal theory helps us in understanding and predicting effectiveness of leadership

in different situations. It is derived from expectancy theory of motivation and based on the
assumption that the effective leader increase subordinate motivation by:

1. Clarifying subordinate perception about the goals of work

2. Explaining how goals and desired rewards can be achieved

3. Linking meaningful rewards with goal attainment

Advocates of path goal theory believe that motivation is an essence of leadership.

According to Evans most important is the ability of manager to provide rewards and to
specify that what subordinated must do to earn them. Path goal theorists have also identified
two sets of variables which help in determining effective leadership style, namely personal
characteristics of subordinates and environmental pressures and demand. Advocates of path
theory believe that managers need to rely contingently on the following different leadership
styles

• Directive style: In this style the manager tells his subordinates that what is expected of
them and sets goals and task responsibility for them. He provides specific guidance,
schedules, rules regulations and standards and monitors their performance regularly.

• Supportive style: According to this style the leader treats his subordinates as equal to
friendly manner. He establishes friendly interpersonal relations with them share their
feelings and view points and attempts to improve their well being.
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• Participative style: Such leader seeks participation of his subordinates. He consults them
as to get their suggestions and consider them seriously at the time of making decisions.
He also keeps them informed on various task and goal situations.

• Achievement-oriented style: The leader sets challenging goals, places emphasis on

developing skill, talent and excellence seeks continuous improvements, make their job
more interesting and meaningful and finally provides enough freedom to them. He carries
high degree of confidence that subordinates will meet difficult challenges in a responsible
manner.
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CONCLUSIONS:

The concept of leadership assumes important role in management because to get better results
increased efficiency and more co-operation from the subordinates. Success and failure of the
organisations to some extent depends on the effectiveness of leadership.

According to Ohio state university and Michigan university of USA the effectiveness of
leadership were developed-namely employee-oriented and work-oriented dimensions

The effective leadership depends on integrated approach formulated on the basis of the
following elements.

1. Personality traits and qualities to be possessed by the leader.

2. Leadership style based on his behaviour.

3. Situational variables.

4. Charismatic qualities and energy of leader.

5. Basic philosophy of management and self-leadership