The group and exchange theories of leadership are derived from social psychology. These have their roots in the exchange theory. Leaders from different kinds of relationships with various groups of subordinates. Group theories describe how leaders need to maintain their position in group dynamics.
Social exchange theory proposes that social behavior is the result of an exchange process. The purpose of this exchange is to maximize benefits and minimize costs. Social Exchange Theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. Social Exchange Theory posits that all human relationships are formed by the use of a subjective cost-benefit analysis and the comparison of alternatives.
Costs are the elements of relational life that have negative value to a person, like time, money, effort etc. and on the other hand rewards are the elements of a relationship that have positive value like sense of acceptance, support, and companionship etc. The Social Exchange perspective argues that people calculate the overall worth of a particular relationship by subtracting its costs from the rewards it provides. If worth is a positive number, it is positive relationship. On the contrary, negative number indicates a negative relationship. The worth of a relationship influences its outcome, or whether people will continue with a relationship or terminate it. Positive relationships are expected to endure, whereas negative relationships will probably terminate.
Social exchange theory can also be applied to leadership studies as reported by Hollandder and Julian (1969). They propose that the leader provides more benefits or regards than burden or costs to the followers who in exchange help him achieve the goals of the organization. There must be a positive exchange between the leader and followers in order for group goals to be accomplished. According to this group of theories, a leader provides more benefits/rewards than burdens/costs for followers.
In a group, members make contributions at a cost to themselves and receive benefits at a cost to the group or other members. The leader can give rewards to his followers in the form of appreciation or monetary increments or promotion for accomplishment of the organizational goals or tasks. These rewards have positive impact on attitudes, satisfaction and performance of the followers.
In return of these awards, followers respect the leader and give him due regard for his status and esteem and believe in his heightened influence. The leader tends to follow initiating structure when followers do not perform very well and increases his emphasis on consideration when the followers do a good job.
In this balancing act, the perception of his followers of his being an effective leader increases and this equation is mutually beneficial for both the leader and the follower. Interaction continues because members find the social exchange mutually rewarding.
The Valence Model of Leadership
The valence model of emergent leadership is based on a group-development sequence. As per the valence model, the process of emergent leadership passes through three distinct stages; Orientation, Conflict, and Emergence. Group members willingly start following and obeying the leader who has passed the "emergence threshold."
Neo-Emergent Leadership theory supports that leadership is created through the emergence of information. Leaders can only be recognized after a goal is met. Follower’s perception of leaders is influenced by the ways these goals were accomplished.
Normative leadership theories are built on moral principles and tell leaders how they ought to act. Victor Vroom formulated the normative model of leadership that specifically address leader behavior explicitly built on moral principles or norms. Normative leadership theories tell leaders how they should act to raise the moral performance inside the working group and manage their different responsibilities.
The style approach emphasizes that one style of leadership behaviour cannot be effective in all situations. Earlier theories treated leadership exclusively as a personality trait and behavior approach has widened the scope by including the behaviors of leaders and what they do in various situations. Explore how you can benefit from the concepts to understand your own behaviors and what are some of the leadership tools based on the style approach to leadership.
Investment Theory of Creativity
Sternberg in the year 2006, proposed the investment and confluence theory focused on understanding creativity. According to the investment theory, creativity requires a confluence of six distinct but interrelated resources known as intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality, motivation, and environment. It emphasizes that creativity is not about one thing, but about a system of things.
The development of teams is an ongoing process because the composition of the team may keep on changing. The new members may join and the old members may leave the team. The team members pass through several stages for the development of the team and there has been a lot of research to identify these stages. In this article, we discuss the common theories of team development.
Social learning theory is a theory of learning process that states that most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling. Behavior change can occur in response to leader modeling and learning occurs through the observation of rewards and punishments. The focus of this approach has been teaching leadership across formal and informal settings.
Lewin’s Change Management Model
Lewin's change management model is a framework for managing organizational change. Lewin's methodology of different Leadership Styles recognizes three distinct stages of change - creating the perception; moving toward the new desired level of behavior and, ensuring new behavior as the norm.
Robert Katz identified three leadership skills called - technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills as the basic personal skills essential for leadership. Leaders must possess these three skills that assist them in optimizing a leader's performance. Technical skills are related to the field, human skills are related to communicating with people and conceptual skills related to setting the vision.
Transactional Analysis also is known as the theory of human personality was proposed by Eric Berne in the 1950s. This theory of transactional leadership defines three different ego states in a person who engages in transactions with another person's ego states. These three ego states refer to major parts of an individual's personality and reflect an entire system of thought, feeling, and behavior.
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