Leadership Theories: Traits, Behaviors, and Cultural Influences

This report delves into the evolution of leadership theories, beginning with early approaches that focused on distinguishing traits of leaders. It explores the 'Great Man' approach and subsequent research that identified personality traits, intelligence, and emotional intelligence (E.Q.) as key factors influencing leadership effectiveness. The report then transitions to leadership behaviors, examining autocratic and democratic styles, along with the impact of cultural contexts, such as Asian leadership styles and the paternal and sheikocratic approaches. The Leadership Grid and Vertical Dyad Linkage Model are also discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of leadership concepts and their practical applications. The report includes examples of successful leaders and their leadership styles.

 Discuss early approaches to understanding leader
 Explain how leadership is understood by what lea
are
 Identify the traits commonly associated with leade
 Explain how leadership is understood by what lea
do
 Understand what hinders managers from becomin
leader
 Recognise approaches to changing leadership beh

Since the last century, researchers have
questioned:
 What is the difference between a leader and a non-lea
 Can certain personal attributes help leadership proces E.g. Physical, personality, innate intelligence, creati
 Can certain characteristics impact on leadership? E.g. Hard working, driven, conscientious, friendly, w
take charge
 Does having ‘the right stuff’ make a leader?

 Distinguishing personal characteristics
 Great Man approach In early 1900s Leaders and followers are fundamentally different Leaders are born, not made – ‘natural leaders’
 However, Stodgill (1948) concluded:
 Leaders are not necessarily different from followers
 But those with certain characteristics tended to be mo
to influence others
 But, often is relative to the situation i.e.,
 Having these characteristics does not guarantee succ
leadership

Napoleon Bonaparte
Adolf Hitler
Winston Churchill Josef StalinHirohito
Benito Mussolini Mahatma Gandh
What do these
historical leaders hav
in common?
Kim Jong-il

Ritesh Agarwal (27 yo)
OYO Rooms, India
Leandro Leviste (25 yo)
Solar, Philippines
Abdallah Absi(28 yo)
Zoomal, Lebanon
Rika Shiiki(23 yo)
AMF, Japan
Founder
and CEO of
their
company

 Lord, DeVader, and Allinger (1986) and Hogan, Curph
Hogan (1994) studied how intelligence and personalit
can help leaders in influencing others
 Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) identified several person
to distinguish leaders with non-leaders
 Andersen Consulting developed a list of 14 characteri
important for leadership
 Recent interest in Emotional Intelligence (E.Q) as an
important trait to leadership
 Many researchers continue to support the traits appro
but in combination with other factors

Andersen Consulting, “The Evolving Role of Executive Lead
Andersen Consulting Institute for Strategic Change
Someone who:
1. thinks globally
2. anticipates opportunity
3. creates a shared vision
4. develops and empowers people
5. appreciates cultural diversity
6. builds teamwork and partnerships
7. embraces change
8. shows technological savvy
9. encourages constructive challenge
10. ensures customer satisfaction
11. achieves a competitive advantage
12. demonstrates personal mastery
13. shares leadership
14. lives the values

E.g. What kind of leader is this?
 SM Nasimuddin SM Amin (25 January 1955 – 1 May 2008)
 Was founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Naza Gr
Companies Malaysia, formed in 1974
 Malaysia's largest privately-owned conglomerate
 14 business divisions including motor trading, bikes, manufacturin
transport services
 Holds the Malaysian franchise for South Korea's Kia vehicles, and
Peugeot vehicles.
 In 1974, when he was 19, he had RM80,000 in his bank account w
from his remunerations from helping out his contractor father.
 He started his automobile business to import foreign cars. He ma
million in about a year.
 Went to Japan three months there and brought in his first 20 units
Japanese cars, which he sold in three months.

E.g. What kind of leader is this?
 Started his automobile business with a shop lot in Kuala Lumpur s
15 units of cars each month. In 1979, he opened a branch doing r
selling 40 to 60 cars monthly.
 He faced some challenges, including financing and how to convinc
to buy used cars when many were then not keen on foreign cars.
 But his passion and faith in the business drove him to success.
 “To succeed you must love what you do and you must know what
doing. You must plan ahead and have direction,”
 “In business you must start from small, study everything and go s
 “I have not changed much. The only difference is that I started off
employees and now I have about 4,000,”
 Received the Presidential Award industrial service medal from Sou
ambassador to Malaysia Son Sang-Ha, on behalf of the President o
Korea.
 He is the first Malaysian to have received the award.

Personality
 What kind of leader is this?
 Interaction between traits and situational factors
 Situational factors that are ‘weak situations’ can emphasis
 Traits cannot be seen but expressed through consistent pa
of behaviour
 Behaviour that is relatively similar across different situation
also different from another person
 Behaviour based on the strength of the traits they possess
 Can help identify potential leaders by knowing how the per
behave in various situations
 Indentifying and positioning potential leaders in organisatio
positions can lead to organisational success

Personality : The Five Factor Model
Important research on
personality traits and brai
structures have been
conducted, providing
correlations between the
Big 5 personality traits an
specific areas of the brain

Personality : The Five Factor Model
 Leadership personality traits can be catergorised
 Leadership personality traits can be measured and as
 Research shows that FFM link to leadership success a
in Asian context
 Leadership personality tends to be difficult to change
 Leadership personality is under conscious control – we
choose to act differently if we want to
 Provides insight to one’s potential leadership strength
 Provides insight to one’s leadership development nee
effort required to develop those needs

Intelligence
 A person’s all-around effectiveness in activities directe
thought
 Is an unseen quality expressed through behaviour
 Formal linkage between intelligence and leadership
established in China, around 1115 B.C.
 Research shows that there is a strong, positive relatio
between intelligence and leadership
 Leadership positions are often to solve problems and
problem-solving skills are linked to intelligence
 Heredity plays a role but intelligence can be modified
through education and experience

Intelligence
 Intelligence and intelligence testing are very controve
 Nevertheless, research shows that more intelligent lea
are: Faster learners Make better assumptions, deductions & inferences Better at creating a compelling vision Better at developing strategies Can develop better solutions to problems Can see more the primary and secondary implications of their
decisions Faster to respond/react

Problem-solving
How things get done
and how to do them
Produce work that is
both novel and useful
Sternberg’s (1985, 1997, 2002, 2003)Triarchic Theory of Intelligenc
Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (E.Q.)
 What is Emotional Intelligence?
 Can E.Q. be measured?
 Can E.Q. be developed?
 What are the implications for E.Q. for leaders or poten
leaders?
 Will cover more in Week 5

 Examines fundamentally what leaders actually do To influence others
 To identify how successful leaders act
 To identify what behaviours are needed for effective
leadership
 There are may leaders who do not realise how their
behaviour affects their followers
 While traits predisposes a leader to act in distinctive w
behaviour can be learned and be adopted
 Leaders can discern which behaviours are more appro
and effective

 Leadership behaviour research done extensively throu
series of very detailed questionnaires
 To measure different leader behaviour
 To measure the rate or extend of the behaviour Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) (Hemphill
Coons, 1957) LBDQ-XII (Stogdill, 1959) Supervisory Descriptive Behaviour Questionnaire (SDBQ) (Flei
1972) Leadership Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ) (Fleishman, 1989)

Autocratic versus Democratic Leadership
 Autocratic(boss-centred) Centralised authority Positional power base Control or positive & negative reinforcements
 Democratic(subordinate-centred) Delegation Participation Uses followers’ knowledge and experience Referent power base

Autocratic versus Democratic Leadership

Autocratic versus Democratic Leadership
 Both behaviour approaches can be effective, but: Autocratic can raise feelings of hostility in followers Democratic usually raises positive feelings Democratic allows followers to continually perform well even w
leader’s presence
 Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1973) ‘Leadership Continu That leadership behaviour can exist on a continuum

Autocratic versus Democratic Leadership :
Do male leaders have different behaviours than fe
leaders?
 There is a large study on gender differences in leader
 However, there are contradictory findings:
 Some argue there are differences Male leaders more autocratic, female more democratic
 Some assert there are no differences
 Some argue there are more differences within the sam
gender
 But, most experts agree some generalisations are war
Similar findings
in Asia

• CEO of Olayan Financing Company, Saudi
Arabia
• The company is one of the most successfu
conglomerates with operations spanning
distribution, manufacturing, services and
investments, across the Middle East
• Top 5 most powerful Arab women
“I never think about taking personal credit.
accomplish things and then move on. I neve
on what I’ve personally achieved. As a group
very proud of where we are now. It’s our ph
that the best job should be given to the mos
competent person. That is something I truly
in.”
Lubna Olayan

Autocratic versus Democratic Leadership :
Does Asian culture influence leadership?
 Culture does account for differences in leadership styl
 E.g. Chinese culture has led to autocratic leadership
(Han and Bae, 1998; Farh & Cheng, 2000) High power distance Acceptance of hierarchical structuring Unequal leader-follower relationship Compliance and conformity to authority Unquestionable obedience from subordinates

Autocratic versus Democratic Leadership :
Does Asian culture influence leadership?
 Culture does account for differences in leadership styl
 E.g. Japanese culture has led to democratic leadership A very collectivist society Tighter social framework Great emphasis on belonging, working together and being a g
member Japanese managers have a strong belief in the capacity of
subordinates for leadership and initiative Every group member is responsible for lending a hand in achie
objectives of the group. Whole group is recognized and rewarded

Does Asian culture influence leadership?
Paternal Leadership:
 A cultural characteristic of leadership
 Leader acts as a father figure to followers
 Leader emphasizes on the welfare and taking care of
followers (and their family)
 Leader is decisions maker on the premise that the “le
knows best” and “on behalf of” the followers
 Followers reciprocate with absolute loyalty and obedie
 Common leadership approach in Southeast and East A

Does Asian culture influence leadership?
Sheikocratic Leadership:
 A cultural characteristic of leadership
 From the term “Sheikh” – leader/elder/governor
 A combination of autocratic and paternalistic approach
 Leader emphasizes on the welfare and taking care of followers (a
family)
 Leadership driven by personal relations and connections
 Leadership position inherited
 A degree of informality and “open door policy” approach is expe
the followers
 Rooted from the culture of Arab tribalism Sheikh as the head, judge and representative of the Arab tribe comm Solving conflicts in intra and inter tribes as an important and expecta
 Common leadership approach in the Middle East

Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1973) ‘Leadership Co

Should secondary/high school be more:
 Concerned for people - students Allow decisions predominantly by the students for:
1. Rules and regulations of the school
2. Duration of classes and break period
3. Selection of extra-curricular activities
 Concerned for production – school results perfor Allow decisions predominantly by the principal and h
teachers for:
1. Rules and regulations of the school
2. Duration of classes and break period
3. Selection of extra-curricular activities

The Leadership Grid
 University of Texas (R.R. Blake & J.S. Mouton)
 Based on Ohio Studies and Michigan University Studie
 Developed a grid with an axis: Concern for People Concern for Production
 Identified pros and cons for each of the five Grid

The Leadership Grid

Vertical Dyad Linkage Model (VDL)
 A framework that focuses on the interactions between
leader and his or her follower
 The model reflects its focus on two people (a dyad)
 Position of the leader is above the follower (vertical)
 There is interrelated behavior between them (linkage)
 Leaders develop separate exchange relationships with
follower ; can result in: In-group exchange Out-group exchange

Vertical Dyad Linkage Model (VDL)
 Challenges the dominant perspective in many behavio
and situational leadership models that leaders should
the same leadership style for all group members
 VDL model opens up research to the different kinds of
possible developments and relationships between lea
and follower: Leader-Member Exchange Partnership Building Systems and Networks

Vertical Dyad Linkage Model (VDL)

Vertical Dyad Linkage Model (VDL)
Leader-Member Exchange
 High quality LMX can lead to high positive outcomes Stage 1: Strangers Stage 2: Acquaintances Stage 3: Maturity, and determination of in-group and out-group
Partnership Building
 Claims that LMX is not effective leadership
 Leaders should build LMX with every single follower
 ‘Individualised Leadership’
 High quality individualised relationship can lead to high
performance
Systems and Networks
 Expanding the LMX beyond just the subordinates
 Expanding the LMX to other internal stakeholders, and exte
stakeholders

Managerial Derailment and Self-defeating Behaviours
 Research on behaviour that causes leadership failures
 Early 1980s by Center for Creative Leadership
 Studied manager with high potential leadership but after th
years did not succeed to leadership position
 Studies of Managerial Derailment phenomena varied but h
many consistent findings: Inability to build relationships Failure to meet objectives Inability to lead and build a team Inability to adapt Inadequate preparation for promotion Self-defeating behaviour (similar to dark-side traits)

Changing Behaviour
 Learning how to change behaviour is a keep leadersh
 Important for adaptability to: One’s own management career path Situational factors
 Common methods for behavioural change: Development Planning Coaching Mentoring