Social Power And Influence On The Leadership Style Using The Taxonomy Of Power Identified By French And Raven Cited

The leader-member exchange theory often referred to as LMX, is a management theory which analyzes the relationship maintained between the manager or the leader and the members or subordinates within a group and organization. It further explains how this relation can either help the firm in growing or hold it back to its current position.

Grojean, Resick & Diskson (2004) suggest that leaders are responsible for facilitating their follower’s to become capable and guide them to improving their capabilities and strengths. Differentiating between different leadership styles can be done in a number of ways. It was determined that the traditional styles of leaders include authoritian (autocratic), democratic, permissive (laissez-faire) and bureaucratic (Viinamäki, 2009).

A1. Leadership Style Upon conducting research, it is clear that the definition of “leadership” is not agreed upon. It is fluid, based upon many perceptions, situations, and surroundings. According to Robinson (2010), adopting a specific style of leadership is rather futile as it is, “contingent on the personal traits of the leader, the people being led, and the nature of the activity.” Tools are available to help guide potential leaders in determining a preferred style of leadership. For example, utilizing the “Leadership Self-Assessment

Leaders are some of the most influential individuals in any society. They have the ability to influence those around them with various leadership styles including coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching. Effective leaders consistently adapt to the environment around them to either enhance or correct any situation facing them. Within these leadership styles the most effective style has been considered that of the authoritative style. This style brings individuals together, builds self-confidence, and easily adapts to the environment around it.

Adam and Phillip had a good leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship. It appeared that Phillip had established an in-group exchange relationship with his employees, which resulted in them having similar characteristics, one of which was a dedication to customer satisfaction. The benefits of having a good LMX relationship for the follower include more interesting assignments, greater authority, and tangible rewards such as pay increases. For the leader, benefits include increased effort and initiative of followers to carry out assignments and tasks successfully (Daft, 2015, pg. 54).

Leaders are the central figures in a team, and they are attributed to the largest share of blame or praise depending on the performance. New leaders in an organization are faced with many challenges on how to start making an impact and successfully lead the subordinates on the set mission. According to Kangas (2013), the key element for a new leader is to establish interpersonal links and relationships that are necessary for learning about the organization. The success of the leader and the organization as a team depends on the quality of interpersonal relationships that develop to help the leader in implementing their mission. Additionally, the influence of leaders over their followers is largely founded on the interpersonal relationship as members of a team (Kangas, 2013). Another major source of challenge for leaders in organizations is the implementation of changes that affect the existing relationships and roles in major operations. BBBSA demonstrates the challenges that can arise for new leaders in organizations in implementing changes and the effectiveness of the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory in addressing leadership issues.

One of the strengths of this approach is that it highlights that leaders and followers mutually affect each other, making leadership an interactive activity that is not restricted to only a formal leader. At the same time this approach lacks wide empirical research, specificity and conceptual

The role of the follower and the quality of the relationship itself are informally negotiated between followers and their leaders over time (Gils, Quaquebeke, & Knippenberg, 2009). Based on the LMX theory, leaders build a special relationship with an inner circle, or “in-group”, of followers, who often get high levels of responsibility and access to resources. The in-group members work harder and are more committed to task objectives. They are also expected to be totally committed and loyal to their leader. Conversely, other followers fall in the “out-group" and are given low levels of choice or influence. Aggression, sarcasm and a self-centered view are qualities seen in the out-group. The quality of the LMX relationship varies and is better when the challenge of the job is extremely high or extremely low (Graen et al., 1982).

According to the leader-member exchange theory the relationship between leader and the member develops over a period of time.

The styles today are less authoritative and more on trying to get feedback from co-workers. This change is driven by today’s individuals that want to be treated with respect and empowered to be self-driven. Today’s business environment requires managers to constantly evaluate his or her leadership style to maintain the so called competitive edge. Leadership moves through many power roles and how power vs. soft power that relates to managers as they manage people. The types of leaders are described with characteristics, as it relates to each individual. The characteristics styles that leaders show

The leader and follower relationship is looked at as winners and losers, when it is actually a symbiotic association. (Chaleff) Leaders cannot exist without followers and followers cannot exist without a leader. Leaders can forget that they need the backing of a solid team of followers in order to succeed. Because they make the “important” decisions and enjoy an astronomical rate of pay, it is easy to overlook the loyal, hard working individuals that make everything happen under them. Followers too can forget that they are a valuable element of a successful organization, and that their feedback and ideas are welcome.

The study of LMX has been theoretically based on the premise that leaders form different quality of relationships among their subordinates (Liden et al., 2006). For instance, the different quality of LMX created by leaders’ implementation of a social exchange framework is founded on the LMX role-making model (Graen & Cashman, 1975; Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995). Leaders have strong motivations to establish the range of varying quality relationships because leaders’ have time constraints. Therefore, leaders develop from lower to higher quality relationship with their subordinates quickly (Liden & Graen, 1980; Bauer & Gree, 1996; Liden et al., 1993). Previous research findings show the positive relationships between the quality of LMX and subordinates’ performance such as task performance, job satisfaction, and organization citizenship behaviors (Gerstner & Day,1997; Ilies, Nahrgang, & Morgeson, 2007; Zhang, Wang, & Shi, 2012). Additionally, high quality of LMX, in turn, influence on multilevel outcomes including subordinates, leaders themselves, group, and organizational performance outcomes (Liden et al., 2006, Henderson et al., 2008, Wilson et al., 2010).

Leadership comprises of a leader and their followers, and their interactions, where the leader utilizes their influence on their followers. Clawson states, "Leadership is about managing energy, first in leaders and then in their followers" (Clawson, 2006). The influence that a leader has on their followers is power. A leader can express their power in various manners, in French and Raven’s (1959) Five Base Model of power, a characterization of power in leadership and management, defined in five bases and citied by Hinken and Schrieshiem, (Bass, 1990) as followed:

Murphy (2005) maintains that leaders are accountable for helping their follower’s to become efficient and support them to develop their strengths and abilities. Distinguishing and categorising between different leadership styles can be done in several ways, (Gopee and Galloway, 2009). In this essay traditional classification of authoritian (autocratic), democratic, permissive (laissez-faire) and bureaucratic styles of leaders will be discussed.

Shared collective and leader-member exchange (LMX) represent two types of leadership approaches utilized in organizations. Each approach represents a different set of relationships between leaders and followers and the impact the relationship has on organizational outcomes. Baghai and Quigley (2012) write the definition of leadership has continued to evolve and symbolizes different concepts such as productivity, purpose, and people. This paper will explore both the shared collective approach and the leader-member exchange approach and the relevance of each approach to current organizations.