Discussion Board
When looking at the Leadership Grid on Page 355, choose a coach, past or present, and detail where they would have fallen on the grid. What was their concern for production versus their concern for people? How did their level in either area impact their success or failure as a coach? What do you feel is the ideal style of leadership? Is there one best style for all situations?
LDR6410 Leadership and Organization in Sport
Master of Sports Leadership Program
Leading to Victory
Week Eight
As Kent and Chelladurai note, “While leadership has been an immensely
popular area of study in industrial and organizational psychology, research
on the topic of sport management has been largely focused on coaches
rather than administrators.”
Management professor Dr. Judith Neal (University of New Haven) commented
that what we once called coaching is now more appropriately called
leadership.
Leaders influence people to work to achieve the organization’s objectives. We
frequently use manager and leader interchangeably. We shouldn’t, because
they are not necessarily the same. Leading is one of the four management
functions (along with planning, organizing, and controlling).
• Leadership style is the combination of traits, skills, and behaviors
managers use to interact with employees.
• In the 1930s, before behavior theory became popular, researchers at the
University of Iowa studied leadership styles of managers and identified
three basic styles.
• Autocratic. The manager makes the decisions, tells employees what to do,
and closely supervises them—theory X behavior.
• Democratic. The manager encourages employee participation in
decisions, works with them to determine what to do, and doesn’t supervise
them closely—theory Y behavior.
• Laissez-faire. The manager lets employees go about their business
without much input. Employees decide what to do and take action, and the
manager doesn’t follow up.
The leadership grid uses the same dimensions as the two-dimensional model;
in the grid, these dimensions are called concern for production (the x axis)
and concern for people (the y axis). The leadership grid identifies the
ideal leadership style as having a high concern for both production and
people.
(1,1) Impoverished leaders show low concern for both production and people.
They do the minimum required to remain employed.
(9,1) Authority-compliance leaders show a high concern for production and a
low concern for people. They focus on getting the job done by treating people
like machines.
(1,9) Country club leaders show a low concern for production and a high
concern for people. They strive to maintain a friendly atmosphere without
much regard for production.
(5,5) Middle-of-the-road leaders balance their concerns for production and
people. They strive for performance and morale levels that are minimally
satisfactory.
(9,9) Team leaders show a high concern for both production and people. They
strive for maximum performance and maximum employee satisfaction.
Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts has come close to creating an overall 9,9
situation. The players are happy to play for the Colts, and the team has been
very productive on and off the field.
1. Leader makes decision and announces it to employees
individually or in a group without discussion.
2. Leader makes decisions and sells it to employees through a
presentation of why it’s a good idea.
3. Leader presents ideas and invites employees’ questions.
4. Leader presents tentative decision subject to change.
5. Leader presents problem, gets suggested solutions, and makes
the decision.
6. Leader defines limits and asks the employees to make a
decision.
7. Leader permits employees to make ongoing decisions within
defined limits.
• Current researchers focus on which behaviors make top-notch managers
outstanding, even though the managers’ individual leadership styles may
vary dramatically.
• These researchers have identified charismatic, transformational,
transactional, and symbolic leaders.
• Charismatic leaders inspire loyalty, enthusiasm, and high
levels of performance. Charismatic leaders have a vision and a
strong personal commitment to their goals; they communicate
their goals to others, display self-confidence, and are viewed as
able to make the radical changes needed in order to reach the
goals.
• In our media-driven age, charismatic fits many contemporary
leaders, including Lebron James (basketball), Derek Jeter
(baseball), David Beckham (soccer), and Brett Favre (football).
• Researchers A. Kent and P. Chelladurai found that charismatic
leaders have a strong influence on employees’ commitment to
the organization.
(continued)
• Transformational leaders create significant changes as they
foster relationships and commitment from their employees.
• Pat Gillick of the Seattle Mariners is a transformational leader.
When he arrived in 1999, the Mariners had just lost their three
best and most popular players. Gillick was brought in to
inspire the team and lead it to winning. He succeeded by
finding players who were positive role models and who
worked well together. Gillick also brought an attitude that
winning should be fun—as he says, “Be positive. Be upbeat. Be
supportive.”
• Transactional leaders emphasize exchange. Exchange is about
rewarding jobs well done.
• Symbolic leaders establish and maintain a strong organizational culture.
An organization’s workforce learns the organization’s culture (shared
values, beliefs, and assumptions of how workers should behave in the
organization) through its leadership.
• In the 1970s, Victor Vroom and Philip Yetton attempted to bridge the gap
between leadership theory and managerial practice by developing a
normative leadership model.
• Normative leaders use one of five decision-making styles appropriate for
the situation. Vroom and Yetton identified the five leadership styles. Two
are autocratic (AI and AII), two are consultative (CI and CII), and one is
group-oriented (GII).
The late Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach, used AI-style
leadership. Does the AI style work today? It depends. Pat Summitt’s
leadership style is quite similar to Lombardi’s. So is Bill Parcells’, who took
the New York Giants to Super Bowl victories in 1986 and 1990. Other
coaches prefer GII-style leadership. Phil Jackson, coach of the NBA-
champion Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, uses Zen-like philosophy
to motivate and train his players. He has been blessed with superstar
players, but he has also used a group attitude to produce results.
Substitutes for leadership eliminate the need for a leader. In certain
circumstances, three characteristics can counteract or neutralize the
efforts of leaders or render them unnecessary:
1. Characteristics of subordinates
2. Characteristics of the task
3. Characteristics of the organization
- Slide Number 1
Chapter 12
Leadership Research
Coaching Requires Leadership
Managing Versus Leading
Leadership Styles
Three Leadership Styles
Leadership Grid
Figure 12.2
Leadership Grid Styles
Creating a 9,9 Situation
Figure 12.4
Continuum Model of Leadership
Current Leadership Research
Charismatic Leaders
Transformational Leaders
Transactional and Symbolic Leaders
Vroom and Yetton
Coaching Styles
Substitutes for Leadership