CHAPTER 8

LEADING

There are times when in spite of great difficulties, jobs are needed to be done, projects are needed to
be finished on time, and services are needed to be provided. Employees in the production lines tend to be
irritated by delays in the arrival of necessary production materials and supplies. Workers complain when difficult
jobs are assigned to their units. When calamities strike, employees of public works agencies need more than
wages to complete assigned tasks as quickly as possible. These and other difficulties found in the workplaces
provide sufficient reasons for poor productivity. The situations cited require managers with effective leadership.
There are many instances, however, when the ill effects of whatever shortcomings happen. They
seriously affect the performance of workers. Effective leadership tends to neutralize such difficulties. Good
working conditions, however, cannot overcome the disadvantages of bad leadership. These are proven by many
cases which occurred in the past and even in modern times.
Successful firms regard the leadership skill requirement as a high priority concern. Big companies like
Warner Lambert Philippines, Shell, Fuji-Xerox, and Daewoo are seriously involved in training their managers to
become effective leaders.
Engineer managers, in whatever management level they happen to be, are not exempted from the
problem of effective leadership. If this is really so, then they must be concerned with the management function
of leading.

WHAT IS LEADING?
Leading is that management function which involves influencing others to engage in the work behaviors
necessary to reach organizational goals. The definition indicates that a person or group of persons tasked with
managing a group must assume the role performed leaders. While leading refers to the function, leadership
refers to the process.

HOW LEADERS INFLUENCE OTHERS

Engineer managers are expected to maintain effective work forces. To be able to do so, they are required to
perform leadership roles. Leaders are said to be able to influence others because of the power they possess.
Power refers to the ability of a leader to exert force on another Bases of Power
The power possessed by leaders may be classified according to various bases. They are as follows:
1. Legitimate power
• A person who occupies a higher position has legitimate power over persons in lower positions
within the organization. A supervisor, for instance, can issue orders to the workers in his unit.
Compliance can be expected.
2. Reward power
• When a person has the ability to give rewards to anybody who follows orders or requests, he is
said to have reward power. Rewards may be classified into two forms: material and psychic.
• Material rewards refer to money or other tangible benefits like cars, house and lot, etc. Psychic
rewards consist of recognition, praises, etc.
3. Coercive power
• When a person compels another to comply with orders through threats or punishment, he is said
to possess coercive power Punishment may take the form of demotion, dismissal, withholding of
promotion, etc.
4. Referent power
• When a person can get compliance from another because the latter would want to be identified
with the former, that person is said to have referent power.
5. Expert power
 • Experts provide specialized information regarding their specific lines of expertise. This influence,
called expert power, is possessed by people with great skills in technology.
• The expert power exercised by environmental scientists was enough to force governments
throughout the world to pass legislations favorable to environmental protection.

THE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership may be referred to as “the process of influencing and supporting others to work
enthusiastically toward achieving objectives.” Leadership is expected of any manager in charge of any unit or
division.
One cannot expect a unit or division to achieve objectives in the absence of effective leadership. Even if a leader
is present, but if he is not functioning properly, no unit or division objectives can be expected to be achieved.

Traits of Effective Leaders

There are certain leadership traits identified by researchers and which may be useful in developing effective
leaders. These traits are as follows:
➢ a high level of personal drive
➢ the desire to lead
➢ personal integrity
➢ self-confidence
➢ analytical ability or judgment
➢ knowledge of the company, industry or technology
➢ charisma
➢ creativity
➢ flexibility

Personal Drive
• Persons with drive are those identified as willing to accept responsibility, possess vigor, initiative,
persistence, and health. Drive is a very important leadership trait because of the possibility of failure in
every attempt to achieve certain goals, If a chosen way to reach a goal is not successful, a leader finds
another way to reach it, even if it precedes a succession of failed attempts. This will, of course, require
a high level of personal drive from the leader.

• An example of a person with a high level of personal drive is Paul Mediarito, plant director of the Polo
plant of San Miguel Corporation between 1992 and 1994. He was instrumental in radically changing the
problem-riddled Polo plant to a world-class brewery with modern technology and a work force with a
new attitude. How he was able to prove himself as a leader with enough drive is a feat worth emulating.

The Desire to Lead

• There are some persons who have all the qualifications for leadership, yet they could not become
leaders because they lack one special requirement: the desire to lead.
• Even if they are forced to act as leaders, they will not be effective because their efforts will be half-
hearted Leaders with a desire to lead will always have a reservoir of extra efforts which can be used
whenever needed.

Personal Integrity
• A person who is well-regarded by others as one who has integrity possesses one trait of a leader. One
who does not have personal integrity will have a hard time convincing his subordinates about the
 necessity of completing various tasks. If this is these case, the leader will, then, resort to “exercising his
authority and getting things done entirely by the use or threat of use of the coercive powers vested in
him by virtue of the rank and position he occupies in the hierarchy.” If this happens, the economic and
emotional costs will be too high to be maintained for a desirable length of time. As it is, the better option
is to have personal integrity.
• According to V.K. Saraf, integrity means and includes honesty, honor, incorruptibility, rectitude,
righteousness, uprightness, and similar virtues.”

Self-Confidence
• The activities of leaders require moves that will produce the needed outputs. The steps of
conceptualizing, organizing, and implementing will be completed if sustained efforts are made. For the
moves to be continuous and precise, self-confidence is necessary.
• McKinsey and company found in a study they conducted that leaders of mid-sized, high growth
companies were “almost inevitably consummate salesmen who radiate enormous contagious self-
confidence.
• Wess Roberts was very precise when he declared the following as one of the traits of a good leader:
“A chieftain cannot win if he loses his nerve. He should be self-confident and self-reliant and even
if he does not win, he will know he has done his best.”

Analytical Ability
• Leaders are, oftentimes, faced with difficulties that prevent the completion of assigned tasks. A
subordinate, for instance, may have a record of continually failing to produce the needed output. A
leader with sufficient skill to determine the root cause of the problem may be able to help the
subordinate to improve his production.
• The ability to analyze Is one desirable trait that a leader can use to tide him over many challenging
aspects of leadership.

Knowledge of the Company, industry or Technology

• A leader who is well-informed about his company, the industry where the company belongs, and the
technology utilized by the industry, will be in a better position to provide directions to his unit.
• A company, for example, may be the industry leader because it satisfies the need of its particular market,
i.e., providing quality products at affordable prices. When a competing firm is fast catching up with the
leader, and the leader’s managers know this, they will better serve the interest of their company.

Charisma
• When a person has sufficient personal magnetism that leads people to follow his directives, this person
is said to have charisma. Great personalities in history like Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius l Caesar, Adolf
Hitler, George Washington, Elvis Presley and others are said to possess charisma. This characteristic was
greatly responsible for whatever accomplishments they achieved.
• When used properly, charisma will help the leader in achieving his goals. With some adjustments,
subordinates may be expected to do their tasks willingly.

Creativity
• Ronnie Millevo defines creativity as “the ability to combine existing data, experience, and preconditions
from various sources in such a way that the results will be subjectively regarded as new, valuable, and
innovative, and as a direct solution to an identified problem situation.”
 • As leaders are tasked to provide solutions to problems besetting their particular units or divisions,
creativity will be a very useful trait. Problems, are oftentimes, complex and challenging, and if they are,
the leader will need all the creative abilities he has.

Flexibility
• People differ in the way they do their work. One will adapt a different method from another person’s
method. A leader who allows this situation as long as the required outputs are produced, is said to be
flexible.
• There is wisdom in being flexible. It allows the other means of achieving goals when the prescribed
manner is not appropriate.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Leaders need to have various skills to be effective. They are
➢ Technical skills
➢ Human skills, and
➢ Conceptual skills.

1. Technical Skills
➢ These are skills a leader must possess to enable him to understand and make decisions about
work processes, activities, and technology. Technical skill is the specialized knowledge needed to
perform a job. When a leader has the technical skill related to his area of responsibility, he will
be more confident in performing his functions. The engineer manager, for instance, must be able
to perform engineering jobs, if he wants to maintain a motivated work force.

➢ The engineer manager of a construction firm must have sufficient technical skills to undertake
construction works. The manager of en electrical engineering firm must possess the skill to install
and maintain electrical facilities and equipment.

2. Human Skills
➢ These skills refer to the ability of a leader to deal with people, both inside and outside the
organization. Good leaders must know how to get along with people, motivate them, and inspire
them.
 ➢ Apart from motivating, human skills include coaching, communicating, morale building, training
and development, help and supportiveness, and delegating .

3. Conceptual skills
➢ These skills refer to “the ability to think in abstract terms, to see how parts fit together to form
the whole. A very basic requirement for effective implementation is a clear and well-expressed
presentation of what must be done. A leader without sufficient conceptual skills will fail to
achieve this.
BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP STYLES

Those in positions of leadership exhibit a pattern of behavior that is unique and different from other
patterns. This total pattern of behavior is called leadership style.

Several approaches used in classifying leadership styles

1. According to the ways leaders approach people to motivate them.
2. According to the way the leader uses power.
3. According to the leader's orientation towards task and people.

Ways Leaders Approach People

There are two ways, a leader may approach people to motivate them. They are: (1) positive leadership and (2)
negative leadership.

When the leader’s approach emphasizes

rewards, the style used is positive leadership. The reward
may be economic, like an increase in monthly salary, or
it may be noneconomic Like membership in an advisory
committee.
When punishment is emphasized by the leader,
the style is said to be negative leadership. The
punishment may take the form of reprimand,
suspension, or dismissal. Leaders, sometimes, alternately
use positive and negative leadership depending on the
characteristics of the individual subordinates.
Ways Leaders Uses Power
Leadership styles also vary according to how power is used. They are as follows:

1. Autocratic Leaders
➢ Leaders who make decisions themselves, without consulting subordinates are called autocratic
leaders. Motivation takes the form of threats, punishment, and intimidation of all
➢ Autocratic style is effective in emergencies and when absolute followership is needed. An
example is a civil engineering charge of constructing a temporary bridge over one that has been
currently damaged.
➢ The disadvantages of autocratic leadership is that the leader “receives little, if any, information
and ideas from his people as inputs into his decision-making.”

2. Participative Leaders
➢ When a leader openly invites his subordinates to participate or share in decisions, policy-making
and operation methods, he is said to be a participative leader.
➢ The advantage of participative leadership is that it generates a lot of good ideas. Another
advantage is the increased support for decisions and the reduction of the chance that they will
be unexpectedly undermined.
➢ The disadvantage of participative leadership is that it is time-consuming and frustrating to
people who prefer to see a quick decision reached.

3. Free-rein Leaders
➢ Leaders who set objectives and allow employees or subordinates relative freedom to do
whatever it takes to accomplish these objectives, are called free-rein leaders. They are also
referred to as laissez-faire leaders. This leadership style is most applicable to certain
organizations manned by professionals like doctors and engineers. An example is the engineering
department of a university which is headed by the dean.
➢ If free-rein leadership fits the situation, there is full managerial delegation resulting to optimum
utilization of time and resources. This happens because many people are motivated to full effort
only if given this kind of free-rein.
➢ The weakness of free-rein leadership is that there is very little managerial control and a high
degree of risk. If the leader does not know well the competence and integrity of his people and
their ability to handle this kind of freedom, the result could be disastrous.

Leaders Orientation Toward Tasks and People

Leaders may be classified according to how they view tasks and people. Consequently, a leader may either be:
Employee Oriented and Task Oriented.

Employee Orientation
➢ A Leader is said to be employee-oriented when he considers employees as human beings of "intrinsic
importance and with individual and personal need to satisfy.
Task Orientation
➢ A leader is said to be task-oriented if he places stress on production and the technical aspects of the job
and the employees are viewed as the means of getting the work done.
CONTINGENCY APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP STYLE

The contingency approach is "an effort to determine through research which managerial practices and
techniques are appropriate in specific situations.” The various contingency approaches are as follows:
• Fiedler's Contingency Model
• Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Model
• Path-Goal Model of Leadership
• Vroom's Decision Making Model

Fiedler's Contingency Model

According to Fred Fiedler, "leadership is effective when the leader's style is appropriate to the situation.
The situational characteristics is determined by three principal factors:

1. the relations between leaders and followers

2. the structure of the task
3. the power inherent in the leader's position.

The situational characteristics vary from organization to organization. To be effective, the situation must
fit the leader. If this is not so, the following may be tried:

1. Change the leader's trait or behaviors.

2. Select leaders who have traits or behaviors fitting the situation.
3. Move leaders around in. the organization until they are in positions that fit them.
4. Change the situation.

Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Model

The situational leadership model developed by Hersey and Blanchard suggests that the most important
factor affecting the selection of a leader’s style is the development (or maturity) level of subordinate.” The
leader should match his or her style to this maturity level.
Maturity has two components:
➢ Job skills and knowledge
➢ Psychological maturity

Blanchard and others elaborated on the leadership styles appropriate for the various maturity level of
subordinates, They are as follows:

Style 1: Directing - is for people who lack competence but are enthusiastic and committed. They need direction
and supervision to get them started.

Style 2: Coaching - is for people who have some competence but lack commitment. They need direction and
supervision because they’re. still relatively inexperienced. They also need support and praise to build their self-
esteem, and involvement in decision-making to restore their commitment.

Style 3: Supporting – is for people who have competence but lack of confidence or motivation. They do not
need much direction because of their skills, but support is necessary to bolster their confidence and motivation.
Style 4: Delegating – is for people who have both competence and commitment. They are able and willing to
work on a project by themselves with little supervision or support.

Path-Goal Model of Leadership

The path-goal model of leadership espoused by Robert J. House and Terence R. Mitchell, stipulates that
leader ship can be made effective because leaders can influence subordinate’s perceptions of their work goals,
personal goals, and paths to goal attainment.

By using the path-goal model, it is assumed that effective leaders can enhance subordinate motivation by:
1. Clarifying the subordinate’s perception of work goals,
2. Linking meaningful rewards with goal attainment, and
3. Explaining how goals and desired rewards can be achieved.
Leadership Styles
The leadership styles which may be used by path-goal proponents are as follows:

1. Directive leadership – where the leader focuses on clear task assignments, standards of successful
performance, and work schedules.

2. Supportive leadership – where subordinates are treated as equals in a friendly manner while striving to
improve their well-being.

3. Participative leadership – where the leader consults with subordinates to seek their suggestions and
then seriously considers those suggestions when making decisions.

4. Achievement – oriented leadership where the leader set challenging goals, emphasize excellence, and
seek continuous improvement while maintaining a high degree of confidence that subordinates will
meet difficult challenges in a responsible manner.

Vroom’s Decision-Making Model

Vroom’s model of leadership is one that prescribes the proper leadership style for various situations,
focusing on the appropriate degrees of delegation of decision-making authority.
Five distinct decision-making styles are identified under the Vroom model. Two of them are autocratic,
two others are consultative, and one is group directed.
The Vroom model, shown in Figure 8.5, may be useful as a guide for the leader. It may also be helpful
as a training guide.
 SUMMARY
Managers are expected to provide the required outputs by utilizing the various inputs including labor.
Those who provide labor, however, will perform when properly led. As such, engineer managers are required
to possess leadership skills.
The management function which involves influencing others to engage in the work behaviors necessary
to reach organizational goals is referred to as leading.
Leaders influence others because of the power they possess. Power may be classified as (1) legitimate,
(2) reward, (3) coercive, (4) referent, and (5) expert.
In developing effective leaders, certain leadership traits have been identified by researchers.
Leaders need to have technical, human, and conceptual skills to be effective. Leadership style may be
classified in terms of behavior as follows: (1) according to the ways 1eaders approach people to motivate them,
(2) according to the way the leader uses power, and (3) according to the leader's orientation towards task and
people.
Leadership style may also be classified in terms of contingency as follows: Fiedler's contingency model,
Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model, Path-Goal model of leadership, and Vroom's decision-
making model.