Enhancing Organizational Performance (1997) / Chapter Skim
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4 Developing Leaders
4 Developing Leaders
Pages 97-119
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From page 97... ...
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 95 the control of managers is what Trice and Beyer (1984) called cultural rites, already discussed as cultural forms (see Table 3-1)
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From page 98... ...
96 ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE 4. Because cultures channel behaviors in some ways and not others, they are bound to affect individual and organizational performance.
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From page 99... ...
We then examine various types of training techniques and developmental activities that may be of use to increase these competencies and improve leadership effectiveness. LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES Over the past half century, thousands of studies have been conducted to discover the underlying reasons for effective leadership.1 Some progress 97
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From page 100... ...
These taxonomies differ in purpose, level of abstraction, and number of behavior categories, and there has been much confusion and disagreement about the most useful way to classify leadership behavior. The accumulated research evidence suggests that a number of specific types of behavior are especially relevant to leadership effectiveness: (1)
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From page 101... ...
Extensive research over several decades using a variety of research methods demonstrates that supportive leadership usually increases the satisfaction of subordinates with their leader and their job, regardless of the situation (see reviews by Bass, 1990; Fisher and Edwards, 1988)
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From page 102... ...
Without adequate monitoring, a leader will be unable to detect problems before they become serious, provide appropriate recognition for subordinate achievements, identify subordinates who need coaching or assistance in accomplishing their work objectives, evaluate performance of subordinates accurately, and have a sound basis for determining allocation of rewards such as pay increases. Several types of studies provide evidence that monitoring is related to leadership effectiveness (Daft et al., 1988; Grinyer et al., 1990; Kim and Yukl, 1995; Komaki, 1986; Kotter, 1982; Larson and Callahan, 1990; Peters and Austin, 1985)
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From page 103... ...
Some studies found evidence that participative leadership resulted in higher subordinate performance, whereas other studies failed to find significant results. In contrast, findings from descriptive case studies of effective managers have been more consistently supportive of the benefits of participative leadership (e.g., Bradford and Cohen, 1984; Kanter, 1983; Peters and Austin, 1985)
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From page 104... ...
. They build follower confidence and hope by acting confident and optimistic themselves, by expressing confidence that followers can attain challenging objectives, by communicating a credible strategy for achieving strategic objectives, by planning activities in a way that will ensure that progress is experienced early in the task, and by celebrating successful accomplishments by the group (Shamir et al., 1993; Kouzes and Posner, 1987)
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From page 105... ...
. Skills Related to Leader Effectiveness Three basic categories of skills relevant to leadership effectiveness are technical skills, conceptual skills, and interpersonal skills (Katz, 1955; Mann, 1965)
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From page 106... ...
A combination of specific technical, cognitive, and interpersonal skills is involved in the ability to perform relevant managerial functions such as planning, delegating, and supervising; this fourth category is referred to as administrative skills. Research on skills relevant for leadership effectiveness generally supports the conclusion that technical skills, conceptual skills, interpersonal skills, and administrative skills are necessary in most managerial positions (Bass, 1990; Boyatzis, 1982; Bray et al., 1974; Howard and Bray, 1988; Mann, 1965)
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From page 107... ...
These experiences can take many forms, including coaching by the boss or coworkers, mentoring by someone at a higher level in the organization, special assignments embedded within the current job, special assignments on temporary leave from the current job, and a promotion or transfer that provides new challenges and opportunities for skill development. The effectiveness of training programs and developmental experiences depends in part on organizational conditions that facilitate or inhibit learning of leadership skills and the application of this learning by managers.
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From page 108... ...
The instructional processes should enhance trainee self-efficacy and expectations that the training will be successful. Organizational Conditions Affecting Training Success Research on the success of leadership training provides mixed results, and it is evident that the training is not always successful (Burke and Day, 1986; Latham, 1988)
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Two promising techniques that are becoming widely used for leadership training are behavioral role modeling and large-scale simulations. Behavior Role Modeling Behavior role modeling is a training method widely used to enhance the interpersonal skills of managers.
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Few studies have measured behavior change back on the job or subsequent performance improvement in addition to immediate learning of behaviors in the training session. Despite the positive results found in most studies on the effects of behavior role modeling training, we still know little about when and why the training is effective.
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From page 111... ...
Researchers have begun to investigate what is learned, how it learned, and the necessary conditions for successful development of leadership competencies. The extent to which leadership skills and values are developed during operational assignments depends on the type of experiences afforded by these assignments.
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From page 112... ...
More leadership development is likely in an organization in which top management values it highly and perceives it to be important for organizational effectiveness. In an organization with a learning climate that values continuous learning, more members of the organization will be encouraged to seek opportunities for personal growth and skill acquisition (Kozlowski and Hults, 1987)
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From page 113... ...
These planned techniques can be used to supplement informal coaching by the boss or peers. The sections below briefly discuss special developmental assignments, job rotation, mentoring, after-action reviews, multirater feedback workshops, developmental assessment centers, and action learning.
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Similar recommendations are made by White (1992) , who in effect is suggesting the integration of special assignments with mentoring and multirater feedback.
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. Some of the research suggests that informal mentoring is more successful than formal mentoring programs.
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There has been little research to evaluate the benefits of after-action reviews for increasing leadership development. Additional research is clearly needed to determine the conditions and procedures appropriate for using after-action reviews to improve leadership skills and processes.
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Developmental Assessment Centers and Workshops. Traditional assessment centers use multiple methods to measure managerial competencies and potential for advancement.
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From page 118... ...
Neither study provides a clear indication of the unique effects of the developmental assessment center, because other developmental activities such as skill training and special assignments were used in conjunction with it. When combined with studies on participant perceptions about assessment centers (e.g., Fletcher, 1990; Iles et al., 1989; Jones and Whitmore, 1992)
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From page 119... ...
CONCLUSIONS Considerable progress has been made in identifying the competencies related to leadership effectiveness. Nevertheless, ambiguity in the conceptualization of leadership competencies and measurement difficulties have impeded faster progress.
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