By Amna

Theoretical Overview. Fiedler’s contingency model of leadership is a model which proposes that leadership success is dependent on the “favorableness” or “fit” of leadership style with situational factors. The three situational characteristics addressed in the model are leader- member relations, task- structure, and position power. Firstly, Leader- member relations, relates to the level of “confidence”, “trust”, and “respect” that the leader gets from his followers. Secondly, task- structure, relates to “how structured a job is with regard to requirements, problem-solving alternatives, and feedback on job success.” Thirdly and finally, position power, relates to the degree of power intrinsic in the leadership position. In the two extremes in the model, the favorable leadership style is task- motivated. A task-motivated leader in highly favorable and unfavorable situations achieves the “desired performance.” The model categorizes eight situations with different combinations (good or poor, high or low, and strong or weak) of leader-member relations, task- structure, and position power, respectively. The “very favorable extreme”, with good leader-member relations, high task structure, and strong position power denotes task-motivated leader as the favorable leadership style. In the moderate range, the six middle situations favor relationship-motivated leadership style. The “very unfavorable” extreme with poor leader-member relationship, low task structure, and weak position power also favors task- motivated leadership style.

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By Amna

Theoretical Overview. The behaviors of effective leaders can be studied by interpreting and connecting what leaders do in “accomplishing the task” and “maintaining the effort of people doing the task.” One distinct style of leadership is job-centered leader, whose focus is on completing a task and supervising closely in order for subordinates to accomplish their tasks following the assigned procedure. A job- centered leader initiates task structure; which “involves behavior in which the leader organizes and defines the relationships in the group, tends to establish well-defined patterns and channels of communication, and spells out ways of getting the job done.” This leader’s main focus is on the attainment of goals and results.

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By Amna

Theoretical Overview. Trait theory of leadership, aims at defining specific attributes (physical, mental, personality associated) that relate to leadership success; Although, there is not a particular attribute or mix of qualities that a leader encompasses, the theory depends on research which hypothesizes the numerous traits (abilities, personality traits, motivation) and factors contributing to leadership success. Abilities: effective leaders possess particular abilities and skills that permit them to accomplish their jobs: cognitive, technical, and interpersonal skills. Personality traits: effective leaders exhibit particular personality traits including personal integrity, self-confidence and emotional maturity. Finally, Motivation: effective leaders exude particular motivational attributes encompassing a relatively high desire for power, high levels of accomplishment and persuasiveness.

Scene Summary. An old friend visits the Godfather to make a request for the Godfather to avenge his daughter who was the victim of a serious assault. He comes to the Godfather for “justice” because he believes he has failed to get justice from the legal system. The Godfather is affronted by the fact that this “friend” has failed to treat him as a friend and only comes to see him when he wants a service done, in this case murder. The Godfather reminds him of the obligations of friendship before ultimately agreeing to help him and provide the service required, but only in exchange for the man’s agreement to reciprocate service when called upon by the Godfather. (ch.1 0:50- 6:40mins)

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Theory 1: Goal Setting

Goal setting is the process of establishing goals. It sometimes involves subordinate and superior working together to establish goals for a set period of time. There are several attributes of the cognitive process of goal setting:

• Goal specificity: Jan tells Michael to award a gift that costs up to $1,000 to the person who makes the most sales. However, a specific sales target isn’t set up which makes it difficult for employees to compete against one another. If the goal were more specific, they’d have more of a goal to aim for.

• Goal difficulty: In the case of The Office, the difficulty of achieving highest sales varies according to the motivation levels of other employees.

• Goal Commitment: degree of commitment to a target depends on the rewards an employee would receive whether its recognition, monetary or in the form of benefits. However seeing as Michael ends up using the award money for a coffee machine for an attractive lady, employees would soon lose the motivation to do well.

• Goal Intensity: The degree of competition in the office isn’t very high which wouldn’t make the process of achieving the goal very intense.

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The Office, Season 1, Episode 3: Health Care

Theory 1: Organizational Reward Systems

The main objectives of reward programs are to keep employees coming to work and to motivate employees to achieve high levels of performance. When Michael Scott is forced by upper management to cut employee benefits, he immediately shirks the responsibility knowing that no matter how small the cut, employees will be disgruntled.

Determinants of whether or not individuals are satisfied with their rewards:

• It’s a function of how much is received and how much the individual feels should be received. The employees are obviously dissatisfied because they feel they deserver more health care benefits than they currently receive, yet even that is being cut.

• Comparisons with what happens to others. Some people start making up diseases probably believing that if some are getting medical pay for what they have, then everyone should be receiving the same level of compensation regardless of whether or not they have an illness.

• How satisfied employees are with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. There’s little opportunity of extrinsic reward satisfaction seeing as there isn’t much opportunity for promotions in position or pay within the office. As for intrinsic rewards, most employees are unhappy with their jobs and keep them because of their need for a set salary.

• People differ in the rewards they desire and the relative importance different rewards have for them. Older employees such as Stan take the health care quiz much more seriously because they really need the financial help, while Pam and Jim take it as a joke because it isn’t an immediate concern for them.

• Some extrinsic rewards are satisfying because they lead to other rewards. Employees in the office don’t receive either, making it very hard for them to be satisfied with their jobs.

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Theory 1: Socializing A Culturally Diverse Workforce

The Office has a largely diverse group of employees that differ culturally and physically, which constitutes the spectrum of human differences.

Diversity is based on age, ethnicity, gender, physical attributes, race, and sexual/affectional orientation. Because of the various differences that exist between people, a socialization process must be undertaken in the workplace to ensure that the leader is familiar with the various ethnicities and cultures that exist around them.

An attempt to socialize Dunder Mifflen can be seen in The Office as management brings in an organization to teach an insensitive Michael Scott about diversity.

Diversity training:

Process vs. content: Diversity training focuses on the process that’s undertaken rather than the content. In The Office, Michael brings together his employees in order to discuss why some acts may be seen as offensive while others are not.

Emotional vs. conceptual training: The informal, unstructured dialogue that’s encouraged through the use of process training techniques encourages people to learn about how to deal with others with respect to their feelings.

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Theory 1: Leadership Fundamentals

Leadership occurs “when one group member modifies the motivation or competencies of others in the group (p.313).” In The Office, Michael Scott believes that he is loved by his employees for being a great mentor and leader, which motivates them to work for him. However, it quickly becomes obvious that the employees are still at Dunder Mifflin more out of a need for steady jobs rather than out of love for Michael. Figure 11.1 provides a framework for studying leadership

Trait Theories of Leadership show that there are some traits that are often associated with leadership effectiveness - many of these traits appear to be missing in Michael. For example in terms of personality, he lacks emotional maturity, integrity, and stress tolerance. He at times has excessive, undeserved self-confidence, as well as extreme energy levels. In terms of motivation, his strong need to have people like him holds him back at times, and the fact that he doesn’t have a strong need for professional achievement is a drawback (He says that he’s a friend first and a boss second). Finally, he lacks the actual abilities that would make him a good leader; he doesn’t seem to have strong cognitive skills or interpersonal skills.

Behaviors of Effective Leaders

An employee-centered leader focuses on satisfying the basic needs of his employees and taking care of their personal advancement and growth. Michael constantly stresses the importance of his employees’ happiness and comfort in the workplace. He often fails however to keep them comfortable by making awkward and inappropriate jokes

A job-centered leader uses close supervision to ensure that jobs are done. Leaders usually rely on coercion, reward, and legitimate power to influence behavior, which makes it difficult for Michael seeing as he usually doesn’t try to enforce his leadership.

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Theory

Chapter 11 of our textbook is entitled "Leadership Fundamentals." In Figure 11.1 the authors provide a "Framework for Studying Leadership" containing four major components, as shown above. These are (1) the leader's traits (2) the leader's behavior (3) situational variables and (4) effective results.

Although they concede that there is debate in certain circles about whether leadership makes a difference in organizational performance, the authors' point of view is clear: there is something that "sets apart those individuals who become leaders from those who do not." The broad name which they give to that "something" is "traits", specifically the "specific characteristics ... associated with leadership success." As shown in Figure 11.1, these traits include (1) Abilities (2) Personality and (3) Motivation.

The three most important abilities, according to the text, are the possession of interpersonal, cognitive, and technical skills. The first refers to "the ability to get along with people", as well as "persuasiveness, tact ,and diplomacy." Cognitive skills refers to having a level of intelligence that is higher than the followers, but not too much higher, and to having sound judgment and fluency of speech. By technical skills the authors mean "more than passing technical knowledge of relevant to the task undertaken by the followers" (p. 315).

Several personality traits are identified: energy level, stress tolerance, self-confidence, emotional maturity, and integrity. Another one, decisiveness, deserves special attention. About the authors state that one researcher found

...that the ability to initiate action decisively was related to the individual's level in the organization. The higher the person went in the organization, the more important this trait became; CEO's were more decisive than the middle managers, who were more decisive than supervisors.

Finally, the model includes four important aspects of the successful leaders' motivation: socialized power orientation, strong need for achievement, weak need for affiliation, and persuasiveness. About the first we are told that while leaders exhibit a high need for power, successful ones "act on that need in socially acceptable ways." That is to say, they work "within the system to accomplish socially-desirable outcomes"; they "use power for constructive purposes."

The "weak need for affiliation" construct doesn't mean that leaders don't care to associate or affiliate with others. Nor does it mean that they ought to be unfriendly or aloof or that they lack the ability to affiliate. Rather, it just means that the leader "would be more motivated by getting the task done than by interacting with other people." In other words, as the founder of CMU is famous for having said "My heart is in the work."

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