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Sources of power:

Legitimate: An agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviours of others.

Reward: Ability to control the allocation of rewards valued by others and to remove negative sanctions. Operates upward as well as downward

Coercive: Ability to apply punishment. Exists upward as well as downward. Peer pressure is a form of coercive power.

Leadership competencies: -Competencies – personal characteristics that lead to superior performance in a leadership role (e.g. skills, knowledge, values)

-Early research – limited relationship to effective leadership

-Emerging view – several competencies now identified as key influences on leadership potential and of effective leaders.

Eight Leadership Competencies:

Personality: Extroversion, conscientiousness (and other traits)

Self-concept: Positive self-evaluation. High self-esteem and self-efficacy. Internal locus of control

Drive: Inner motivation to pursue goals. Inquisitiveness, action-oriented

Integrity: Truthfulness. Consistency in words and actions

Leadership Motivation: High need for socialized power to achieve organizational goals

Knowledge of the Business: Understands external environment. Aids intuitive decision making

Cognitive/practical Intelligence: Above average cognitive ability. Able to solve real-world problems

Emotional Intelligence: Perceiving, assimilating, understanding, and regulating emotions

Competency Perspective Limitations:

  1. Implies a universal approach
  2. Alternative combinations of competencies might work just as well
  3. Assumes leadership is within the person

But leadership is also about relations with followers

  1. Competencies refer to leadership potential, not performance

Culture and its impact on an organization: Culture represents the beliefs, ideologies, policies, practices of an organization. It gives the employees a sense of direction and also controls the way they behave with each other. The work culture brings all the employees on a common platform and unites them at the workplace.

Assimilation: Acquired company embraces acquiring firm’s cultural values

Deculturation; Acquiring firm imposes its culture on unwilling acquired firm

Integration; Cultures combined into a new composite culture

Separation; Merging companies remain separate with their own culture

Stages of team development:

Performing; Period of testing and orientation in which members learn about each other and evaluate the benefits and cost of continued membership

Norming; The team develops its first real sense of cohesion as roles are established and a consensus forms around group objectives and a common or a complementary team-based mental model.

Storming; Is marked by interpersonal conflict as members become more proactive and compete for various team roles.

Forming; Team members have learned to efficiently coordinate and resolve conflicts.

Adjourning; Occurs when the team is about to disband.

Why we resist change:

  1. Direct costs

Losing something of value due to change

FBI’s new intelligence mandate would reduce status in law enforcement

  1. Saving face

Accepting change acknowledges own imperfection, past wrongdoing

New FBI mandate acknowledges value of CIA work

  1. Fear of the unknown

Risk of personal loss

Concern about being unable to adjust

  1. Breaking routines

Organizational unlearning is part of change process

But past practices/habits are valued by employees due to comfort, low cognitive effort

  1. Incongruent organizational systems

Systems/structures reinforce status quo

FBI career, reward, power, communication systems supported law enforcement, not intelligence

  1. Incongruent team dynamics

Norms contrary to desired change

Strategies to overcome resisting change:

Communication; Highest priority and first strategy for change. Improves urgency to change. Reduces uncertainty (fear of unknown). Problems — time consuming and costly

Learning; Provides new knowledge/skills. Includes coaching and other forms of learning. Helps break old routines and adopt new roles. Problems — potentially time consuming and costly

Involvement; Employees participate in change process. Helps saving face and reducing fear of unknown. Includes task forces, future search events. Problems — time-consuming, potential conflict

Stress Mgt; When communication, learning, and involvement are not enough to minimize stress. Potential benefits: More motivation to change, Less fear of unknown, Fewer direct costs. Problems — time-consuming, expensive, doesn’t help everyone

Negotiation; Influence by exchange — reduces direct costs. May be necessary when people clearly lose something and won’t otherwise support change. Problems: Expensive, Gains compliance, not commitment

Coercion; When all else fails. Assertive influence. Radical form of “unlearning”. Problems

Reduces trust. May create more subtle resistance. Encourage politics to protect job

What is leadership: Leadership is the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness of the organizations of which they are members

Strategies to preserve and strengthen culture: 

-Actions of Founders and leaders.

-Aligning artifacts.

-Introducing Culturally consistent rewards.

-Attracting, selecting and socializing employees.