Theory and Practice Implicit Leadership Theory (ILT) Romance of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Critical leadership: Theory and Practice Implicit Leadership Theory (ILT) Romance of Leadership (RoL)

Implicit Leadership Theories ILTs It is all in our heads  `General ideas about what leaders are like and how they behave are called implicit leadership theories` (Schyns, & Felfe, 2006 p301)  Representations unconsciously held by followers that help distinguish “leaders” from “non - leaders” (Shondrick & Lord, 2010)  Followers implicitly compare leaders to their cognitively represented image of a leader: prototype (Foti, Bray, Thompson & Allgood 2012)  People in general and followers use ILTs to explain leader`s behaviours, not objective measures or ratings (Schyns & Shilling, 2011; Junker & van Dick, 2014)

Implicit leadership theories (2)  Followers grant leadership to those who most closely match their prototype (Lord & Maher, 1991, Lord et al,1982, Shondrick & Lord, 2010).  When a leader matches the prototype:  Leader prototypes found to be:

Spot the leader

Implicit Leadership Theories ILTs (3)  More recent research has identified nuances:  Norms and valence of prototypes exist (Junker & Van Dick, 2014)  Norms: Typical V Ideal  Valence: Positive V Negative

Common traits in prototypical leaders  Sensitivity, Intelligence, Dedication, Tyranny, Charisma,, Strength, Masculinity, Attractiveness (Offerman et al. 1994)  6 of these were replicated in 2004 (Epitropaki & Martin)  Despite an increase in negative traits, the originals were still found in 2011 (Schyns & Schilling)

Some implications  Biasing effects are well discussed in Shondrick & Lord, 2010) and Shondrick et al, 2010)  Some other examples:  (Epitropaki & Martin, 2005)  (Junker and Van Dick, 2014)  Implicit followership theories also exist.  (Scullen, 2000)

Height matters! See: Blaker, et al. (2013)

The research says: See: Scott & Brown 2006, Spisak, Homan, Garbo & Van Vugt, 2011

My research ( Schyns, Tymon, Kiefer & Kerschreiter 2013)  138 drawings analysed  79.2% were male  Common symbols included:  Muscles and weapons  Brains, books and qualifications  Enlarged features – eyes, ears, mouth  Halos, height , size and position  Smart dress, smiles and hairstyles emphasised  Only 41% contained followers  83% of followers were smaller than the leader

Discussion points  Does it matter?  What are the implications of implicit leadership theories for organizations and society in general?  What can be done to minimise the implication?  Potential implications

Why leadership matters  We are fascinated by the subject  Amazon - 5,000 non-fiction books with the word `leadership` in the title  Cost to organizations and societies  Hiring: -2 to 3 times annual salary!  Firing or losing them!  Estimated $30billion annual spend on leadership development!  But most organizations and countries report dissatisfaction with leaders abilities  But are we partly to blame?

Romance of leadership (Meindl, Ehrlich & Dukerich1985)  Individuals view leadership through `rose tinted` glasses  We over-attribute performance outcomes to leaders (Schyns & Hansbrough 2012)  In uncertain situations ROL increases (Bligh & Schyns, 2007)

Romance of leadership & followers  ‘Leaders make a pact with followers that accords the former power, and privilege, in exchange for the assumption of the weight of responsibility in an increasingly ominous world’ (Raelin, 2011 p. 197)  Once in leadership positions, leaders reinforce the romance by constructing the story (Grint, 2005)  History is written by the victors!

Chelsea and Inter Milan football clubs

January 20 th 2009 Less than 12 months later

Watch this space!

Activity  Work out the scores of your RoL questionnaire (pre-session preparation)  To get SCORE 1  Add the total scores for ITEMS: 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30  To get SCORE 2  Add the total scores for ITEMS: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 21, 23, 25 and 29  To get SCORE 3  Add the total scores for ITEMS: 6, 13, 16, 19 and 27  Then add Score 1 and Score 2  Subtract Score 3 = your RoL score  N B: No wrong or right answers

Activity  Total score: The higher the score the more you believe in the RoL  Range = 0-130 midpoint = 65  Score 1: Influence of leaders score  The higher the score the more you believe leaders have influence  Range = 16 to 80 midpoint = 32  Score 2: Inter-changeability of leaders  The higher the score the more you believe leader influence is transferable  Range = 9 to 45 midpoint = 18  Score 3: The impact of other factors  The higher the score – the more you believe factors other than leaders are important  Range = 5- 25 Midpoint = 10

Conclusions  Leadership research has moved on beyond the `great men` traits theories of 100 years ago  21 st century businesses and societies need new forms of leadership  Implicit leadership theories may prevent new types of leaders being recognised  Romance of leadership raises unrealistic expectations and prevents leaders being fairly appraised

Who will be the next `James Bond`?

Selected References  Berneth, J., Armenakis, A., Field, H. Giles, W. & Walker, H. (2007). Leader-member social exchange (LMSX): Development and validation of a scale. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Vol. 28, 979-1003 Bligh, C and Schyns, B. (2007). The Romance Lives On: Contemporary issues surrounding the Romance of  Leadership. Leadership, 3: 343-360  Dansereau, F., Graen, G. & Haga, W. (1975). A vertical dyad linkage approach to leadership within formal organisations _ Longitudinal investigation of the making process. Organizational behaviour and human performance, Vol. 13: 46-78  Dienesch, R. & Liden, R. (1986). Leader-member-exchange model of leadership: A critique and further development. Academy of Management Review, 11 (3), 618-634  Epitropaki O and Martin R (2004) Implicit leadership theories in applied settings: Factor structure, generalizability and stability over time. Journal of Applied Psychology 89(2): 293 – 310. Foti , R., , Bray, B., Thompson, N. & Allgood, S. (2012). Know thy self, know thy leader: Contributions of a  pattern-oriented approach to examining leader perceptions, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 23, (4), 02 – 717  Graen, G. & Uhl-Bien, M. (1998). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of the LMX theory of leadership over 25 years: In F. Dansereau & F. Yammahrino (Eds). Leadership: The multiple-level approaches – Part B: Contemporary and Alternative pp, 103-134. Stamford, Connecticut, Jai press  Grint, K. (2005). Problems, problems, problems: The social construction of `leadership`. Human Relations , Vo. 58, 1467 – 1494 Meindl, J., Ehrlich, S. & Dukerich, J. (1985). The romance of leadership. Administrative Science Quarterly ,  Vol. 30, 78-102

Selected references (2)  Offermann LR, Kennedy JK and Wirtz PW (1994) Implicit leadership theories: Content, structure, and generalizability. Leadership Quarterly 5(1): 43 – 58  Raelin, J. (2011). From leadership-as-practice to leadership practice. Leadership 7(2) 195-211.  Schyns, B. & Hansbrough, T. (2012). The Romance of Leadership Scale and Causal Attribution. Journal of Applied Social Psychology , Vol. 42, (8), 1870-1886  Schyns, B., Paul, T., Mohr, G. & Blank, H. (2005). Comparing antecedents and consequences of Leader-member-exchange in a German working context to findings in the US. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 14 : 1-22  Schyns B and Schilling J (2011) Implicit leadership theories: Think leader, think effective? Journal of Management Inquiry 20: 141-150. Schyns, B., Tymon, A., Kiefer, T. & Kerschreiter, R. (2013). New ways to leadership  development: A picture paints a thousand words. Management Learning , 44 (1) ISSN 1350-5076, doi 10.1177/1350507612456499  Shondrick, S,, Dihn, A, & Lord, R. (2010). Developments in implicit leadership theory and cognitive science: Applications to improving measurement and understanding alternatives to hierarchical leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, Vol.21,(6) :959 – 978