Exam 14: Leadership

According to the University of Michigan studies,leaders who were ________ were associated with higher group productivity and higher job satisfaction.

Jack and Jill (Scenario) Jack Jones and Jill Smith are both managers at a large medical supply firm. Jack emphasizes to his subordinates that the work must be done, regardless of circumstances, and encourages them to meet their sales quotas. He is generally liked, but some employees complain that he is too focused on sales quotas and resent his rather heavy-handed approach. Jill has tried hard to build a good rapport with her employees and knows each of their families. She encourages her employees to work hard, but to be certain to take time for themselves and their families. -According to Fiedler,the best leadership style is a function of ________.

According to Hersey and Blanchard,if a follower is unable but willing to perform a task,then the leader should adopt a "selling" orientation.

The theory that effective group performance depends on the proper match between the leader's style of interacting with employees and the degree to which the situation gives control and influence to the leader is ________.

According to the path-goal theory,achievement-oriented leader sets challenging goals and expects followers to perform at their highest level.

The Ohio State studies dimension called "initiating structure" includes behaviour that attempts to organize work,work relationships,and goals.

Sources of Leader Power (Scenario) Rachel is confused. As the new department manager, she had hoped that everyone would acknowledge her authority and respect her decisions. However, she has noticed that some of her employees seem to have nearly as much power as she does. For example, everyone seems to go to Helen whenever they have a question about the computer system. Helen helped with the design and implementation of the system, and employees find that she can usually correct problems faster than the system support staff. Then there is a sales representative named Joe who has a remarkable amount of charm and charisma. He is liked and admired by everyone, and seems to have a power based simply upon "being himself." Then there is Jill, her secretary, who also seems to have a lot of power. All employees have to record timecards, and it is Jill's responsibility to turn in the timecards every week. Occasionally, Rachel has seen Jill override the time clock to record an employee in earlier than they actually arrived or out later than they actually left. When Rachel questioned her about it, Jill just laughed and said it had been a common practice for years. Since the company did not pay overtime, she was merely adjusting the time cards to informally compensate those who put in extra time. Although Rachel was skeptical about this practice, Jill insisted that it was all right because the timecards always averaged out. As Rachel considered these and other events in her department, she began to wonder if she had any power at all! -Joe possesses ________ power.

According to the University of Iowa studies,a leader who tends to centralize authority,impose work methods,and make unilateral decisions has a(n)________ leadership style.

________ power is based on the leader's ability to punish or control.

Evidence indicates that ________ leadership is strongly correlated with lower turnover rates,higher productivity,and higher employee satisfaction.

The Team Leader (Scenario) Carl has been a team leader at Triad Corporation for three years. To effectively lead his team, he spends a lot of time performing various roles. This morning he spent two hours in budget sessions with Finance, and another hour meeting with the vendor of an important production component. His team had discovered a problem with the component yesterday, and he knows how critical it is to the quality of the finished product. On a typical day, Carl will spend about three hours dealing with influences from groups both inside and outside the company. This afternoon he is scheduled to meet with his work team for two hours to consider the vendor's solution offered at this morning's meeting. Later in the afternoon, he will be mediating a dispute between three team members who are arguing about overtime assignments. He recently learned the technique of letting the parties involved in the dispute come up with their own solution. The rest of the time, Carl visits employees at their work area as he walks to or from meetings, or he goes out to the floor to simply chat about the day and offer support to encourage continued high work performance. -This afternoon when Carl meets with his team to consider the vendor's solution to the problem they discovered yesterday,he will be performing which of the following roles?

Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory (Scenario) Eric is trying to find the right leadership approach to use on his diverse group of employees. The workers vary widely in age, experience, and enthusiasm. Some employees need a lot of direction, while others do not. Yesterday, Eric accidentally upset one of the older and more experienced workers, Hazel, by trying to offer too much help. Hazel is a very capable and willing employee, and after 20 years with the company, she probably knew the job a lot better than Eric did. But he was only trying to be helpful, and he was also trying to compensate for the day before when he had not offered enough help to another worker, Joe. As a new employee, Joe had very little experience and needed a lot of specific information about his work duties. Other employees were more like Hank, who was able to do his job and liked to share in decision making. In his interactions with Hank, Eric focused more on communication and facilitation. After some consideration, Eric has chosen to apply Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership theory. -To apply situational leadership theory,Eric needs to focus most on which of the following variables?

Research has been able to identify a set of traits that always differentiate leaders from nonleaders.

According to path-goal theory,which leadership behaviour is used when a leader lets subordinates know what's expected of them,schedules work to be done,and gives specific guidance as to how to accomplish tasks?

The managerial grid developed by Blake and Mouton uses which two behavioural dimensions?

The leader-member exchange (LMX)theory states that when leaders treat all subordinates the same resulting in general feeling of job satisfaction in the organization.

One reason why organizations are increasingly empowering employees is that this demonstrates clearly the ethical leadership of the executives.

In a short essay,discuss Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership theory.Describe the four specific leadership styles and explain the four stages of follower readiness.

At Falcons Inc.,Jeremy is the head of the marketing department.However,he is not in the habit of deciding everything on his own.He involves his team in the decision-making process as much as possible.He believes in communicating clearly and is always ready to help his team to get the best out of them.Jeremy's leadership style will be classified as which of the following?

According to Hersey and Blanchard,which leadership style is best if a follower is unable but willing to do a job (R2)?