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

 `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)

It is all in

• ur

heads

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

• rganizations 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

• n 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 20th 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

NB: 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

 21st 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

• rganisations _ 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