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Functional leadership theory (Hackman & Walton, 1986; McGrath, 1962) is a theory for addressing specific leader behaviours expected to contribute to organizational or unit effectiveness. This theory argues that the leader's main job is to see that whatever is necessary to group needs is taken care of; thus, a leader can be said to have done their job well when they have contributed to group effectiveness and cohesion.
Functional theories of leadership are developed by studying successful leaders and identifying the actions and behaviours they show. Large studies with a large amount of data make it possible to correlate what leaders actually do, i.e. their actions or functions with their successful results.
In the functional leadership model, leadership does not rest with one person but rests on a set of behaviours by the group that gets things done. Any member of the group can perform these behaviours, so any member can participate in leadership. The Functional theory of leadership, places greater emphasis on how an organisation or task is being led rather than who has been formally assigned a leadership role.
One of the best known and most influential of functional theories of leadership, used in many leadership development programmes, is John Adair's "Action-Centred Leadership".
John Adair developed a model of Action-Centred Leadership that has connecting circles that overlap because:
Adair's model challenged trait theory by focusing on what leaders do. He showed that leadership could be taught and did not depend on the traits a person had.
Adair noted the following 8 key functions for which team leaders are responsible. (Examples are given in brackets)
Some people consider Adair's Three Circles Model too simplistic and to be outdated as it was developed in the 1970s.
This question of whether leaders are born or made is part of the whole question of whether human behaviour is due to nature or nurture. It is a short leap from functional leadership theory, to the belief that if one person can do something, then others can also learn to do it. The implication that leaders are made and not necessarily born with the necessary traits for leadership, opened up the possibility of leadership development.
Industrial and organizational psychology which is also known as occupational psychology, organizational psychology, or work and organizational psychology; is an applied discipline within psychology. Industrial, work and organizational psychology (IWO) is the broader global term for the field internationally.
An organization, or organisation, is an entity – such as a company, an institution, or an association – comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
Leadership is both a research area, and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. Often viewed as a contested term, specialist literature debates various viewpoints, contrasting Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, and also North American versus European approaches.
A team is a group of individuals working together to achieve their goal.
Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group, or between social groups. The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, business and managerial studies, as well as communication studies.
Motivation is what explains why people or animals initiate, continue or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often held that different mental states compete with each other and that only the strongest state determines behavior. This means that we can be motivated to do something without actually doing it. The paradigmatic mental state providing motivation is desire. But various other states, like beliefs about what one ought to do or intentions, may also provide motivation.
Work design is area of research and practice within industrial and organizational psychology, and is concerned with the "content and organization of one's work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities" (p. 662). Research has demonstrated that work design has important implications for individual employees, teams, organisations, and society.
The contingency model by business and management psychologist Fred Fiedler is a contingency theory concerned with the effectiveness of a leader in an organization.
Political psychology is an interdisciplinary academic field, dedicated to understanding politics, politicians and political behavior from a psychological perspective, and psychological processes using socio-political perspectives. The relationship between politics and psychology is considered bidirectional, with psychology being used as a lens for understanding politics and politics being used as a lens for understanding psychology. As an interdisciplinary field, political psychology borrows from a wide range of other disciplines, including: anthropology, sociology, international relations, economics, philosophy, media, journalism and history.
The forming–storming–norming–performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who said that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for a team to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results.
Transactional leadership or transactional management is the part of one style of leadership that focuses on supervision, organization, and performance; it is an integral part of the Full Range Leadership Model. Transactional leadership is a style of leadership in which leaders promote compliance by followers through both rewards and punishments. Through a rewards and punishments system, transactional leaders are able to keep followers motivated for the short-term. Unlike transformational leaders, those using the transactional approach are not necessarily looking to change the future. Transactional leadership "occurs when one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of valued things".
Maintenance actions, historically referred to as socio-emotive actions, are those leadership actions taken by one or more members of a group to enhance the social relationships among group members. They tend to increase the overall effectiveness of the group and create a more positive atmosphere of interaction within the group.
Managerial psychology is a sub-discipline of industrial and organizational psychology, which focuses on the efficacy of individuals, groups and organizations in the workplace. Its purpose is to specifically aid managers in gaining a better managerial and personal understanding of the psychological patterns common among individuals and groups within any organization. Managerial psychology can be used to predict and prevent harmful psychological patterns within the workplace and can also be implemented to control psychological patterns among individuals and groups in a way that will benefit the organisation long term.
A team leader is a person who provides guidance, instruction, direction and leadership to a group of individuals for the purpose of achieving a key result or group of aligned results.
The goal of most research on group development is to learn why and how small groups change over time. To quality of the output produced by a group, the type and frequency of its activities, its cohesiveness, the existence of group conflict.
Situational Leadership Theory, or the Situational Leadership Model, is a model created by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, developed while working on Management of Organizational Behavior. The theory was first introduced in 1969 as "life cycle theory of leadership". During the mid-1970s, life cycle theory of leadership was renamed "Situational Leadership Theory." Hersey and Blanchard's model is considered as part of the larger Situational and Contingency Theories of Leadership of which Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Situation is also a part.
Team service management (TSM) is an open-source management framework that uses and integrates existing management methods and techniques to help teams deliver ever improving services. TSM is designed to be used by any and all teams within an enterprise including sales, production, administration, IT, finance and management teams.
Trait leadership is defined as integrated patterns of personal characteristics that reflect a range of individual differences and foster consistent leader effectiveness across a variety of group and organizational situations. The theory of trait leadership is developed from early leadership research which focused primarily on finding a group of heritable attributes that differentiate leaders from nonleaders. Leader effectiveness refers to the amount of influence a leader has on individual or group performance, followers’ satisfaction, and overall effectiveness. Many scholars have argued that leadership is unique to only a select number of individuals and that these individuals possess certain immutable traits that cannot be developed. Although this perspective has been criticized immensely over the past century, scholars still continue to study the effects of personality traits on leader effectiveness. Research has demonstrated that successful leaders differ from other people and possess certain core personality traits that significantly contribute to their success. Understanding the importance of these core personality traits that predict leader effectiveness can help organizations with their leader selection, training, and development practices.
The Three Levels of Leadership is a leadership model formulated in 2011 by James Scouller. Designed as a practical tool for developing a person's leadership presence, knowhow and skill, it aims to summarize what leaders have to do, not only to bring leadership to their group or organization, but also to develop themselves technically and psychologically as leaders. It has been classified as an "integrated psychological" theory of leadership. It is sometimes known as the 3P model of leadership.
Coaching psychology is a field of applied psychology that applies psychological theories and concepts to the practice of coaching. Its aim is to increase performance, achievement and well-being in individuals, teams and organisations by utilising evidence-based methods grounded in scientific research. Coaching psychology is influenced by theories in various psychological fields, such as humanistic psychology, positive psychology, learning theory and social psychology.