Understanding the Link between Leaders & Followers: Leader-Member Exchange Theory, Slides of Leadership and Team Management

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Leadership Theories

Andrea Reger

Theories

• Trait Approach
• Skills Approach
• Style Approach
• Situational Approach
• Contingency Theory
• Path-Goal Theory
  • Leader Member Exchange
  • Transformational
  • Transactional
  • Team Leadership

Leader Member Exchange Theory

(LMX)

• Leadership is a process that is centered on the

interactions between leaders and followers.

• LMX makes the dyadic relationship between

leaders and followers the focal point of the

leadership process.

• Focus is also placed on the differences that

might exist between the leader and each of his

or her followers – the leader can not treat all

the followers the same.

Leader Member Exchange

Leader Member Exchange

S Subordinate

Out-Group In-Group

Leader

S S

S

S S

S

S

S S

S

S

S

In-Group more information, influence, confidence & concern from Leader more dependable, highly involved & communicative than out-group Out-Group less compatible with Leader usually just come to work, do their job & go home

LMX

• Researchers found that high quality leader

member exchanges produced less employee

turnover, more positive performance evaluations,

higher frequency of promotions, greater

organizational commitment, more desirable work

assignments, better job attitudes, more attention

and support from the leader, greater participation,

and faster career progress over 25 years.

• When leaders and followers have good

exchanges, they feel better, accomplish more,

and the organization prospers.

Stranger

• Interactions within the leader-subordinate dyad are generally rule bound
• Rely on contractual relationships
• Relate to each other within prescribed organizational roles
• Experience lower quality exchanges
• Motives of subordinate directed toward self-interest rather than good of the group Acquaintance
• Begins with an “offer” by leader/subordinate for improved career-oriented social exchanges
• Testing period for both, assessing whether
  • the subordinate is interested in taking on new roles
  • leader is willing to provide new challenges
• Shift in dyad from formalized interactions to new ways of relating
• Quality of exchanges improve along with greater trust & respect
• Less focus on self-interest, more on goals of the group Mature Partnership
• Marked by high-quality leader-member exchanges
• Experience high degree of mutual trust, respect, and obligation toward each other
• Tested relationship and found it dependable
• High degree of reciprocity between leaders and subordinates
• May depend on each other for favors and special assistance
• Highly developed patterns of relating that produce positive
• outcomes for both themselves & the organization

Leader Member Exchange

Strengths

• It makes sense by describing work in terms of those who contribute more and those who do the bare minimum.
• Unique because it is the only theory to identify the dyadic relationship. Effective leader member exchanges are important
• Notes the importance of communication in leadership
• Reminds leaders to be fair about who they let into the in group – this is based on work performance not race, sex, ethnicity, religion, etc
• Large amount of research supports this theory

Transformational

Leadership

Transformational Leadership

• A process that changes and transforms people. It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards and long term goals and includes assessing followers motives, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings.
• Incorporates charismatic and visionary leadership and though the leader plays a pivotal role in precipitation change, followers and leaders are inextricably bound together in the transformation process.
• The process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower.

Transformational Leadership

• Charisma
  • A special personality characteristic that gives a person superhuman or exceptional powers and is reserved for a few, is of divine origin, and results in the person being treated as a leader.
  • Charismatic leaders act in unique ways that have specific charismatic effects on their followers

Personality Characteristics, Behaviors, and

Effects of Followers of Charismatic

Leadership

Transformational Leadership

• Bennis and Nanus research
  • Leaders had a clear vision of the future state of their organizations
  • Leaders were social architects for their organizations
  • Leaders created trust in their organizations by making their own positions clearly known and then standing by them
  • Leaders used creative deployment of self through positive self-regard

Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire Not at all once in while sometimes Fairly Often Frequently 0 1 2 3 4

Idealized influence (attributes) I go beyond self interest for the good of the group ___ Idealized influence (behaviors) I consider the moral and ethical consequences of decisions ____ Inspirational motivation I talk optimistically about the future ____ Intellectual stimulation I re-examine critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate ____ Individualized consideration I help others to develop their strengths ____

(Also used comparisons to transactional leadership and passive avoidant leadership styles)