LEADING (DIRECTING/ACTUATING) FUNCTION

 Leading:
• It is a process of directing and influencing the task related activities
of group members and maintenance of group harmony.
• It is a process by which a manager guides and influences the work of
his/her subordinates
• The manager explains to his people what they have to do and helps
them to do it to the best of their ability. Leading thus involves 3 sub
functions i.e. Leadership, Motivation & Communication

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 Leadership
Leaders are the people who:
• Lead the group or follower
• Influence the behavior of others
• Possess the leadership skill
• Attain the organizational goals through their influence.

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 Function/Roles of Leadership
 Directing: Leadership inspires and influences others to give their
maximum efforts and cooperation for the attainment of group
objectives.
Leaders share the mission & goals, define and set performance
standard, explain plans and decision.
 Supervising: Supervision is concerned with the training, coaching
and development of the group members.
It includes the checkups required to assure the proper and
prompt execution of orders.
 Motivating: It means arousing desire in the minds of workers to give
their best to the enterprise. It involves recognition of individual
needs and satisfying those needs ranging from physiological to
social needs. To get people achieve goals, means you must be
able to motivate them –this could be done through financial or
none financial rewards.
 Communicating: Communicating with employees is a necessary
part of leadership function.
• Communication helps to generate ideas, create mutual understanding
and coordination, so providing information and facilitating
communication reduce conflict among group members.
Team building/Maintaining: Team building involves bringing
together people of different skills and knowledge to work together.
Maintenance function is related to retaining the members in a group. It is
concerned with providing safe work condition, good working
environment in the workplace and addressing the grievances of
employees and solving them in effective way.
 TYPES OF LEADERSHIP

• Traditional leader: Their power and leadership depends on

historical factors eg hereditary. Their positions are assured
through inheritance eg Kings, Queens
• Charismatic leader: Their influence springs up mainly from
one’s personality i.e. magnetism or individual attributes
e.g Napoleon. Very few people are endowed with such
exceptional qualities.
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 TYPES OF LEADERSHIP
• Appointed leader: Here influence is based on one’s position. E.g.
leadership in beauractic government and business. Appointment is
based on knowledge and skills. E.g. managing director.

• Situational leader: This one serves as a leader at a particular time, in

a particular place and for a particular time. E.g. sports captains. This
person will take change of the situation and it is temporary in nature.

• Functional leader: This is based on specific expertise that’s by what

he does rather than by what he is. e.g engineer, accountant.
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Leadership Style
• The behavior pattern of leaders in directing the behavior of members
in order to achieve the organizational goals is known as leadership
style.
• Leadership styles vary widely among leaders at different time and
different situation. It mostly depends on the philosophy,
attitude(outlook, arrogance), personality and the experience of the
individual leaders.
The four main styles of leadership are as follows:
• Authoritarian Style (Leader centered) [dictatorial/Autocratic]
Punishment base: Under this leadership style power, authority and
decision making are centralized in leaders.
• The leader rules with unlimited authority. So he/she determines
policies, make plans for the group without consulting them. Every
activity is directed by the leader and pressurized the employees to
complete them at a fixed time given by leader –They believe in “do
what I say or else…….”
 Authoritarian Style…….
Advantages
• It can increase efficiency, save time, and quick results esp in a crisis or
emergency.
• Chain of command and division of work are clear and fully understood by
all
Disadvantages
• One way communication without feedback typically leads to
misunderstandings and communication breakdown.
• does not motivate group member, people work only by the fear of punishment,
no upward communication

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Paternalistic Style (leader centered) (benevolent-kind
autocratic style): Under this style, leaders make the decision, but deal
more kindly with subordinates and allow them some flexibility.
• The leaders guides, protects and treats subordinates like children. –
They believe in “do what I say because am good to you”
Advantages: - If well used can increase effeciency save time and get
quick results.
Chain of command and division of work are clear and fully understood.
Disadvantages: - do not take advantage of ideas from the group.
Participative/Democratic style (group centered) (consultative):
Under this style, power and authority is decentralized and takes decision
in consultation with his/her subordinates.
• Subordinates are encouraged to demonstrate ideas and creativity and
take interest in setting plans and policies.
Advantages: - lets everybody feel involved in decision making process,
people get the opportunity to develop & grow with the organization.
Disadvantages:- time consuming in decision making , too much
autonomy result indiscipline, leaders may avoid responsibility.
Laissez-faire Style (Free rein Leadership): Under this style, a
leader entrusts the decision making authority to this subordinates.
• She/he avoids using power and leaves it to his subordinates to
establish the goals.
• The leaders only provide information, materials and facilities to
his/her subordinates. This type of style is only suitable for highly
trained and professional staff who, are creative, self motivated,
required minimum guidance and control.
Advantages: - lets the group run by itself, complete freedom to work,
potential of subordinates are fully utilized.
Disadvantages: - group lacks focus towards goal, people may avoid
responsibility, problems of coordination are created.
 FACTORS AFFECTING / INFLUENCING
LEADERSHIP STYLE
• Leader’s personality, i.e. aggressive, friendly, assertive, sensitive etc.
all these are influenced by the environment in which ones lives. If for
example one is aggressive, he will use coercion approach, where as
one who is sensitive will use participative approach.
• Past experience: This involves looking back to the past. How did we
lead in the past? We utilize the leadership style where we were
successful for instance in case you succeeded in utilizing
participative style, they you continue using the same style in order to
succeed.

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 FACTORS AFFECTING / INFLUENCING
LEADERSHIP STYLE
• Expectations and Behaviors of superiors Employees always
copy their superiors behaviors. If for example the superior is
corrupt or aggressive, then the subordinate is also most likely
to be corrupt or aggressive
• Subordinates characteristics, expectations and behaviors. if
subordinates are highly skilled, knowledgeable and
committee, they prefer participative approach. H/W if they
are incapable, unskilled, and not knowledgeable, they prefer
authoritative/ exploitative style of leadership.

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 FACTORS AFFECTING / INFLUENCING
LEADERSHIP STYLE
• Task requirement. (Nature of ones task): This will affect leadership
styles differently. Where jobs requires precise in structure,
authoritarian style is appropriate e.g. army. But where jobs are left to
employees or where much cooperation and teamwork are involved,
Employee oriented style is appropriate.
• Peer expectations and behaviors: Colleagues in an organization have
an effect on behavior of the leader e.g if one’s peers are hostile and
uncooperative, then he will use aggression in leadership style. If
however the peers are cooperative or friendly, then one participates
with them as regards achieving organization goals

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 FACTORS AFFECTING / INFLUENCING
LEADERSHIP STYLE
• Organizational culture and policies: The culture of the
organization shapes both leaders behavior and
expectations of subordinates what are the values and
practices of the organization? In beauracratic organization
where there are rules and regulations directive readership
or task oriented are applied eg Banks, MTN.

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 THEORIES/APPROACHES OF LEADERSHIP
There are various approaches to the understanding of
effective leadership and they include the following:
• Traits approach to leadership.
• Leadership behavior and styles approach.
• Situational or contingency approaches.

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 THEORIES/APPROACHES OF LEADERSHIP
1. TRAITS THEORY/Great man theory of Leadership
This is the earliest theory of leadership which stipulates that
leaders have certain traits or characteristics which others don’t
have. According to this theory, leaders are born but not made
E.g Churchill, Napoleon etc. Some of the most important traits
as advanced by researchers include:
• Intelligence: Ability to analyze complex information and being
able to create visions and solve problems.

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 TRAITS THEORY……..cont
• Drive: The desire to achieve or being ambitious.
• Self-confidence: Believing in one’s self in terms of capacity
and capabilities. A realistic degree of self-confidence
enhances effective leadership.
• Interpersonal skills: Being able to relate or work with others
however having different personalities
• Physical traits: Being physically attractive and well built.
• Discipline: Having self-control both physically, emotionally
and mutually
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Limitation:
• No common trait applicable for all.
• It does not identify any trait as being absolutely essential for
leadership
• Problem of measuring the traits –How do we measure the amount of
a particular trait?
• Problem in perception (personal characteristics as a leadership quality
without evaluating whether that quality can be useful to the
organizational success.)
• Difficult to decide whether leadership is a cause or effect of trait. (
effect-leadership behavior is because of strong self confidence or
cause- the person is a leader so she/he has that level of confidence )
 2.The behavioral approach: The theory concerned with what a
leader actually does and how she/he does it. The assumption under this
theory is;
• The behavior of an effective leader would be different from the
behavior of less effective leader. E.g the way they communicate, plan,
conduct meetings motivate etc. It believes that leaders are not born
but can be trained.
• The behavior of effective leaders would be the same across all
situations.
3.Managerial Grid: Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Morton developed this
concept on 1964. The leadership grid states the leadership’s effectiveness
behavior in terms of leaders’ orientation to either people or production.
Some leaders are people/employee orientated while others are
production oriented.
• A leader might show moderation of all these behavior and thus equal
in both dimension. According to this theory, there are five main
perspectives of leadership.
 MANAGERIAL GRID (M, D)
High concern
9
4
5
6
7
8
for people 3

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Country Club (1-9)- High degree of concern for people. Try to satisfy the
needs of people and maintain good relation.
Team management (9-9) - High degree of concern for people and
production, maintain good relationship of trust and respect through
committing people to work for common goals.
Impovirished Management (1-1): - Low degree of concern of both
people and production, putting minimum effort to get required work done
with the need to sustain organization membership.
Task/Authority type (9-1): High degree of concern for production,
concentrate on work efficiency and arranging work condition.
Midle of the road (5-5) Optimum level of concern for people and
production, balance between the work with need satisfaction of people.
 THEORIES ….cont
4. CONTIGENCY THEORY. / SITUATIONAL APPROCH
Here effective management style depends on situation. You
cannot utilize one management style for instance. In
punishing defaulter, one should use coercion, in
determining the wages to pay, one should use participative
approach. Where group works well, there is less supervision.
Where groups don’t work well, task style
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 CONTIGENCY THEORY…….cont
 HERSEY AND BALANCHARD LEADERSHIP
• They looked at leadership style according to maturity
levels of subordinates. They said that people always move
away from immaturity to maturity levels.
• When workers have just joined the organization then
managers will have to use a directive kind of leadership
approach. This is at the initial stage (immaturity stage).
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 CONTIGENCY THEORY…….cont
• At semi – maturity stage, workers gain some experience, skills
and knowledge and is willing to take responsibility,. Here
managers initiate some kind of delegation through
participative leadership approach.

• At maturity stage, subordinates are skilled are loyal to

management objectives. In this case management leaves
workers to carryout tasks on their own. Participative
leadership approach is therefore used.

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 CONTIGENCY THEORY…….cont
 FIEDLERS’S MODEL
According to him, he argued that it is difficult to change a
leadership style. He said that you choose a situation, which is
conducive to the style. He identified three situations, which
affect leadership style
• Leader – member relation
• Task structure
• Position power
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 CONTIGENCY THEORY…….cont
• He argued that in cases where subordinates respect the leader as
regards skills, knowledge and personality, the leader may lead
informally because of the influence he has or exerts.
• In situations where tasks are well structured and they are
comprehensive procedures and regulations are highly structured.
Leadership will be task oriented. Leaders have a lot of power in this
kind of situation. However where there are no or very few guidelines,
the leadership position is challenged then leeadership centered
approaches will apply.

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 CONTIGENCY THEORY…….cont
• In an organization there are high power leadership
position and low power leadership position. In case of low
position leadership takes persuasive and participative
approach. In high positions, leadership takes coercion or
authoritative approach.

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 5. Path-goal theory of leadership (Robert House): This theory
suggests that motivation of employees can be enhanced by linking reward
with performance.
• It states that effective leaders have to clarify the path (behavior) that will
ultimately lead to desired reward (goal).
• Path-goal theory is based on expectancy theory of motivation and it
includes four leadership styles.
Directive: Provide specific guidance, schedules, rules and regulation, standard.
Supportive: Treat equally and maintain friendly environment.
Participative: Encourage to generate ideas and seek suggestion from
employees in decision making process.
Achievement Oriented: Set challenging goals, emphasize excellence and
seek continuous improvement.
An effective leader should have following qualities.
• A clear sense of purpose: Leader must be able to define and share the vision
and mission with subordinates.
• Self-confidence: Leader should believe in his/her ability and skill to achieve goals.
• Good Judgment: Leader should be able to judge the environment and take
necessary decisions and understand their consequences.
• Objectivity: Leader should be able to see all sides of a situation, and be impartial
in reaching conclusions.
• Emotional Maturity: Leader should be able to acknowledge subordinates
thoughts and their importance.
• Integrity: Leader should be honest, and fair in implementing organizational
policies and decisions.
• Adaptability: Leader should be able to adapt quickly to new situation and lead
the organization to overcome the new situation effectively.
Motivation is the degree to which an individual willingly desires to
exert effort towards attaining job performance.

According to Stephen P. Robbins: “motivation is the process that

accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort
toward attaining a goal”
-intensity: how hard a person tries?
-direction: which way to decide?
-persistence: how long a person will continue to devote effort?
Theories of motivation:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Abraham Maslow)
Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American
psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a
theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in
priority, culminating in self-actualization.
• Maslow was a psychology professor at Brandeis University, Brooklyn
College, New School for Social Research, and Columbia University.
• He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people,
as opposed to treating them as a "bag of symptoms".
• A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Maslow
as the tenth most cited psychologist of the 20th century
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow hypothesized that within every human being, there exists a hierarchy
of five needs.
1. Physiological: Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex and other bodily needs.
2. Safety: Security and protection from physical and emotional harms.
3. Social: Affection, belongingness, acceptance and friendship.
4. Esteem: Internal factor such as self respect, autonomy and achievement
and external factors such as status, recognition and attention.
5. Self- actualization: Drive to become what one is capable of becoming:
includes growth, achieving one’s potential and self fulfillment

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Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower orders.
Lower order needs: needs that are satisfied externally such as
physiological needs, and safety needs.
Higher order needs: The needs that are satisfied internally, such as
social, esteem and self-actualization needs.
Maslow’s theory implied the employees could be motivated to perform
when their job allows them opportunities to satisfy any of their
dominant needs. However Herzberg found that all job factors didn’t have
the same effect on the needs of the employees.
Herzberg’s Two factor Theory ( Motivation –Hygiene theory)(Friderick
Herzberg
According to Herzberg, the factors that lead to job satisfaction are
separate and distinct from those that lead to job dissatisfaction
Psychologist Frederick Herzberg proposed the two factor theory
believing that an individual’s relation to work and one’s attitude toward
work can determine success or failure. This theory has emphasized the
role of two set of factors.
1. Hygiene factors (maintenance factors/job context): This
factors results in dissatisfaction when they are not present but this do
not necessarily motivate employees. E.g. Salary, job security, working
condition, status, company procedure, technical supervision
interpersonal relation among superior, peer and subordinates.
2. Motivating factors (job content): This factor satisfies the
employee’s needs for self actualization. E.g. achievement, recognition,
responsibility, advancement, the work itself, the possibility of the
personal growth. (it is the outcome of the job)
Reward system to motivate Performance
• Reward is defined as the material and psychological payoffs for
performance tasks in the work place.
• According to Decenzo and Robbins: “reward refers to the total
compensation system that involves the assessment to employee’s
contribution in order to fairly distribute, equitable direct and indirect
organizational rewards in exchange for his/her contribution.”E.g.
bonus, salary, recognition, promotion, profit sharing etc.
Reward is categorized into two groups:
Intrinsic reward: The rewards which are internal to the job itself and
can be satisfied with feeling of accomplishment, challenge and being a
part of the organization. E.g. opportunity to work, responsibility,
recognition, job freedom etc.
Extrinsic reward: The rewards which are the result of management
policies and practices and are external to the job. E.g. promotion,
commission, fringe benefits, working condition etc.
In an organization, reward system must be effective to motivate the
employees towards work. Thus, reward system should satisfy the
following condition to be an effective.
• The reward must satisfy the needs
• One must believe that effort will lead to reward.
• Reward must be equitable.
• Reward must be linked with performance.
Motivation through employees’ participation
Employee’s participation is one of the management techniques to
motivate employees towards the work. It includes employee
involvement, workplace democracy, and empowerment and employee
ownership.
• Increase productivity
• Increased worker commitment.
• Flexibility to meet market demand.
• Increase intrinsic motivation.
 COMMUNICATION
• Communication is the process of passing information and
understanding from one person to another. A proper
understanding of information is one very important
aspect of communication. If the information is not
understood by the receiver in the same meaning in which
the sender wants him to understand it, the purpose of
communication is defeated.

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 Importance of Communication
Every organization structure is a social system involving the
interactions of people working at different levels and proper
communication among them is necessary for achieving the
goals of the organization. Therefore, communication plays
the following purposes;
1. Communication is needed in the recruitment process to
persuade potential employees of the merits of working for
the organization.
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 Importance of Communication
2. Communication is needed in the area of orientation to
make people acquitted with peers, superiors and with
company rules and regulations.
3. Communication is needed to acquaint subordinates with
evaluation of their contribution to the organization goals
4. Communication is key in projecting the image of the
organization in the society
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 Importance of Communication
5. Communication helps in the decision making process.
6. Communication helps in achieving coordination

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 Formal and informal communication
Formal Communication; This flows in formally established
channels and is concerned with work related matters. It is in
the form of;
• Downward communications
• Upward communication
• Horizontal communications

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 Formal and informal communication
 Informal Communication (grapevine); People who know
each other in the organization talk together informally
about the happenings in the organization. It is mostly oral

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 FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
• Oral Communication
• Written communication

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 Communication process
1. Ideation; The sender has an idea s/he wants to communicate.
2. Encoding; The sender develops a message to convey the idea.
Language kills is key.
3. Transmission; The message is sent, it can be written or oral
4. Receiving; The message is received
5. Decoding; The receiver interprets and attaches meaning.
6. Acting; The reciever respond in the same way.
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 Barriers to Communication
• Badly expressed massages.
• Distrust of of a communicator
• Language barrier
• Withholding part of the information by the sender

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 PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION
• Assignment;
Identify and discuss principles of effective Communication

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 PRACTICING QUESTIONS

• With the use of a diagram, elaborate the stages of motivation as per Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs and how you can use them to motivate employees to
obtain organizational objectives at different stages.
• Discuss the different qualities of leaders as highlighted by traits approach.
• “Leaders are not born but made”. Discuss
• Explain the different leadership styles and factors that influence the
adoption of the leadership style.
• Discuss types of leadership
• Explain the functions of leadership

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