Theories Of Leadership And Leadership Theory Essay

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.

Leadership theories in and of themselves carry negative and positives characteristics. Within the various theories lie strengths and weaknesses that when applied to complex problems can highlight each one respectively. As I examine a few theories, I will look at the strengths and weaknesses of each and determine when and with which situation would these theories best be utilized. Collective leadership or distributive leadership, and leader-member exchange are both theories that incorporate specific team or group mentalities.

There are different leadership theories developed throughout the history. Most popular ones are trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. The author of the post will briefly discuss two theories, Fiedler contingency theory and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and compare and contrast their strengths and weakness.

The contingency model of leadership is based upon the relationship between three aspects of leader-follower-situation model. Apart from this contingency model, leaders are assumed to act in a flexible manner.

This is described as a high quality partnership in which the team members count on each other for loyalty and support. This is where the in-group developed because members go beyond their expected roles and receive special attention from their leaders. Leaders see the subordinates are people who are proactively trying to increase their role and because their performance the leaders are more likely to give positive evaluations, promotions, and more support (“Leadership-Member Exchange Theory”). The in group subordinates have a high degree of respect and trust built and bring positive results. Leaders will ask these people for special assignments or favors needed. Also the subordinates will have greater responsibility and have more commitment to the success. (Lunenburg, 2010). This is another criticism of LMX theory because it does not state in how one develops through the phases. It is not fully developed because it fails to include how high-quality exchanges are created and what happens once you reach trust and respect (Leadership-Member Exchange Theory). Not every subordinate is going to reach the mature phase at the same time because of different personalities. Extroverts may reach the mature phase faster than introverts just because they are more conversational or expressive with their emotions. Or an introvert may be more productive than an extrovert because they are not wasting time having conversations and are able to get the work done quicker. Another factor is the leader and their personality because leaders should be unbiased and not display favoritism but not everybody is going to. A leader might have favoritism towards a subordinate which only helps the subordinate. There are numerous ways in which subordinates could reach the different phases because some may want to be the person the leader depends on while others are just their to

Leaders primarily use expert, referent, and reward power to influence members of the in-group. The out-group includes followers with few or no social ties to their leader, in a strictly task-centered relationship characterized by low exchange and top-down influence. Leaders mostly use reward, as well as legitimate and coercive power, to influence out-group members.

Leader-member exchange (LMX) is a theory that describes the roles and relationships that developed over a period of time between a leader and his or her subordinates (Yukl, (2013). In other words, as the leader interacts with subordinates, a mutual relationship that defines roles is developed. Every leader at some point develops a core number of trusted assistants, advisors and lieutenants that they can call upon to perform critical tasks. So this calls for high dependability, compatibility, trust, and competency on the part of the subordinates (Yukl, 2013). As the leader continues to exchange with the subordinates, “trust, loyalty, and support” develops and behavior gets reinforced (Yukl, 2013 p.222).

In today’s world, leaders are not defined by age, race or gender. They can be a high school basketball coach, the shift supervisor at the local coffee shop, or even the President of the United States of America. In as many ways that leaders can vary by appearance and responsibility, there is also a variance in the ways that they lead. This case study aims to compare three of the more popular theories of leadership. These leadership theories are situational leadership, trait theory and transformational leadership.

The Contingency Theory applied to factors unique to each situation to determine whether specific leader characteristics and behaviors will be effective. Researched findings credit Fiedler 's contingency theory as the first to specify how situational factors interact with leader traits and behavior to influence leadership effectiveness. This theory suggests high interest in the situation determines the effectiveness of task- and person-oriented leader behavior.

The Leader-Member- Exchange theory (LMX) considers the interactions between leaders and followers, and assumes that key aspects of the leader follow situation can be assessed and leaders should change behaviour characteristics as required to suit the needs of the follower leadership situation. This model argues that leaders do not treat all followers uniformly (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015).

Leader-Member Exchange Theory, also called LMX or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory, describes how leaders in groups maintain their position through a series of tacit exchange agreements with their members. In-group and out-group In particular, leaders often have a special relationship with an inner circle of trusted lieutenants,

Everyone is a member of different organizations in different occasions, and human activities are set up on relationships (Homans, 2009, p. 1), so that relevant researches about relationship began decades ago (Vangelisti & Perlman, 2006, p. ix). Leader-member-exchange (LMX) theory is a kind of leadership style, which pays attention to a dyadic relationship between leader and member (Graen & Cashman, 1975; Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995, Breevaart, Bakker, Demerouti & Heuvel, 2015; Wilson, Sin & Conlon, 2010). There is a long time history that people began to research the relationship between a leader and follower, and how the relationship can impact on leaders and follower selves (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995). Most of previously researches

Leader-Member Exchange or LMX theory is unlike other forms of management theories like skills approach and situational approach as an example of two, which are emphasized, is based on the leader point of perception (Northouse, 2016). LMX theory is focused on interactions between leader and follower, this dyadic or sociologically significant relationship between two individuals exists in a dynamic exchange based on communication. This communication is exchanged in many forms and is not limited to verbal, written, and body language. Communication exchange between a leader and subordinate resulting in a flow of information, performance, job climate, innovation, organizational citizenship behavior, empowerment and so on, forming many aspects of an organization (Northhouse, 2016). LMX theory is a contemporary make-up of earlier

Upon reading Case 7.3, Jim Madison, Social Security Administration district office manager, engage with all 30 staff in an in-group/out-group manner. Northouse (2015), stated LMX theory works in two capacities: describing and prescribing leadership. The main concept dyadic relationship, is that leaders form relationships with each of their followers (Northouse, 2015). The theory suggest that it is important for the leader to recognize the existence of in- and out-groups within an organization (Northouse, 2015).

The leader-member exchange (LMX) theory is a theory based on the belief that there is a positive correlation between the quality of the relationships between a leader and their direct reports and the success of the organization (DuBrin, 2009, p.143). A manager within my organization effectively communicated using downward relations in the following ways.