week 9: Leadership in group

Leadership plays a central part in understanding group behavior, for it is the leader who usually provides the direction toward goal attainment. Therefore, a more accurate predictive capability should be valuable in improving group performance.The original search for a set of universal leadership traits failed. At best, we can say that individuals who are ambitious, have high energy, a desire to lead, self-confidence, intelligence, hold jobrelevant knowledge, are perceived as honest and trustworthy, and are flexible are more likely to succeed as leaders than individuals without these traits. The behavioral approach’s major contribution was narrowing leadership into task-oriented and people-oriented styles, but no one style was found to be effective in all situations. A major breakthrough in our understanding of leadership came when we recognized the need to develop contingency theories that included situational factors. At present, the evidence indicates that relevant situational variables would include the task structure of the job; level of situational stress; level of group support; the leader’s intelligence and experience; and follower characteristics such as personality, experience, ability, and motivation.

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