It is difficult to provide an actual definition for leadership as is it a very subjective topic. Chemers described leadership as:
‘A process of social influence through which an individual enlists and mobilizes the aid of other in the attainment of a collective goal’
Leadership is a huge part of humanity and some have even argued it has an evolutionary function. When it comes to effective leadership there has shown to be a difference between what may be described as ‘good’ leadership and what may be described as ‘effective.’ For example, an effective leader would be someone who is good at influencing others to achieve goals whereas a good leader would work to achieve goals that the group would value, however the idea of being a ‘good’ leader …show more content…
An example of this is Sherif et all’s Robbers Cave study. He divided a group of twelve year old boys into two groups and found that when conflict was introduced the leader changed to someone who was more physical and hostile and therefore seen as more suitable to lead the group. Leadership reflects situational demands. One way that uses situational factors to measure what makes an effective leader is to look into styles of leadership. A range of theories are used to identify certain styles and many psychologists have conducted detailed studies into certain styles. An example of this is Lippitt and White’s study into the effects of different styles of leadership on group atmosphere. They used an after-school club to introduce three different styles of leadership, either an Autocratic style where they were seen as distant and only focused on the completion of the task, a Democratic style where the leader behaved like they were a member of the club and openly accepted any suggestions from the group, the third was a Laissez-faire style of leadership where the leader left the group to do what they wanted. It was found that democratic leaders where most liked and created very high group productivity which didn’t decrease when the leader left the room. This provides us with the idea that a democratic style of leadership may in fact be the most …show more content…
This is a social factor contributing to effective leadership that argues to be effective one must be prototypical. This can be shown in a laboratory experiment by Hains, Hogg & Duck. They split participants into two groups and presented one with a prototypical leader and another a none prototypical leader. They found that when being a member of the group was very important, prototypically was a big influence on their idea of leadership effectiveness. Being a prototypical leader involves a range of processes; the first being that they must obtain the group’s main attributes, this allows the rest of the group to model their behaviour based on their leader. Another is that the leader must be liked by the rest of the group and the group must unanimously agree on the prototype, this therefore allows influence by the leader. The leader must also have quite a large investment in the group and be a central member to identify closely with the norms of the group. This theory argues that leaders are able to change the actual prototype of the group to make sure they stay a central part. It states that effective leaders are able to change how the group see themselves. This theory is well supported by research using a range of methodology such as lab experiments and surveys, it is also supported because it looks at the influence of followers as well as
‘A process of social influence through which an individual enlists and mobilizes the aid of other in the attainment of a collective goal’
Leadership is a huge part of humanity and some have even argued it has an evolutionary function. When it comes to effective leadership there has shown to be a difference between what may be described as ‘good’ leadership and what may be described as ‘effective.’ For example, an effective leader would be someone who is good at influencing others to achieve goals whereas a good leader would work to achieve goals that the group would value, however the idea of being a ‘good’ leader …show more content…
An example of this is Sherif et all’s Robbers Cave study. He divided a group of twelve year old boys into two groups and found that when conflict was introduced the leader changed to someone who was more physical and hostile and therefore seen as more suitable to lead the group. Leadership reflects situational demands. One way that uses situational factors to measure what makes an effective leader is to look into styles of leadership. A range of theories are used to identify certain styles and many psychologists have conducted detailed studies into certain styles. An example of this is Lippitt and White’s study into the effects of different styles of leadership on group atmosphere. They used an after-school club to introduce three different styles of leadership, either an Autocratic style where they were seen as distant and only focused on the completion of the task, a Democratic style where the leader behaved like they were a member of the club and openly accepted any suggestions from the group, the third was a Laissez-faire style of leadership where the leader left the group to do what they wanted. It was found that democratic leaders where most liked and created very high group productivity which didn’t decrease when the leader left the room. This provides us with the idea that a democratic style of leadership may in fact be the most …show more content…
This is a social factor contributing to effective leadership that argues to be effective one must be prototypical. This can be shown in a laboratory experiment by Hains, Hogg & Duck. They split participants into two groups and presented one with a prototypical leader and another a none prototypical leader. They found that when being a member of the group was very important, prototypically was a big influence on their idea of leadership effectiveness. Being a prototypical leader involves a range of processes; the first being that they must obtain the group’s main attributes, this allows the rest of the group to model their behaviour based on their leader. Another is that the leader must be liked by the rest of the group and the group must unanimously agree on the prototype, this therefore allows influence by the leader. The leader must also have quite a large investment in the group and be a central member to identify closely with the norms of the group. This theory argues that leaders are able to change the actual prototype of the group to make sure they stay a central part. It states that effective leaders are able to change how the group see themselves. This theory is well supported by research using a range of methodology such as lab experiments and surveys, it is also supported because it looks at the influence of followers as well as