Chapter 7

Leading Technical People

 Advanced Organizer

Managing Engineering and Technology

Management Functions Managing Technology Personal Technology

Planning Research Time Management

Design Ethics
Decision Making
Production Career
Organizing
Quality
Leading
Marketing
Controlling
Project Management
 Chapter Objectives

• Explain the difference between leaders and

managers
• Describe the nature of leadership and its
significance to an organization
• Address the application of servant
leadership in current organizations
• Recognize the different views of motivation
 Leadership
• Leadership is the ability to persuade
others to seek defined objectives
enthusiastically. It is the art of influencing
and inspiring the behavior of others in
accordance with requirement.
• A person is said to be a leader when his
group members are willing to accept his
instructions, guidance and suggestions.
 Leadership Secret
• Have a clear vision, a specific direction, and a goal for your
organization.
• Communicate your vision, strategy, goals, and mission to
everyone involved.
• Listen to what others tell you.
• Surround yourself with the right people, a strong team.
• Apply the Golden Rule. (Do unto others as you would have them
do unto you.)
• Lead by example. Take responsibility. Make tough decisions.
• Constantly innovate to gain and to sustain competitive
advantage.
• Plan everything. Leave nothing to chance.
 Nature of Leadership
• Process of interpersonal influence
• Leaders and followers
• Common goals
• Continuous exercise
• Leadership is situational
• Rest on power
• Blend of inspiration, motivation and
communication
Leadership and Management

Management Leadership
Relationship between
Function
Leaders and followers
Uses Formal and Uses Passion and
rational method emotion
Often uses fresh ideas
Experienced
or new arrival
 Leadership & Management

Managers Leaders
Administer Innovate
Ask how and when Ask what and why
Focus on systems Focus on people
Do things right Do the right things
Maintain Develop
Short term perspective Longer term perspective
Imitate Originate
Are a copy Are original
--Warren Bennis
 Nature of Leadership

Leadership is the process of getting the cooperation

of others in accomplishing a desired goal.
―mixture of persuasion, compulsion, and example
that makes men do what you want them to do.‖
--Sir William Slim, commander of the British Army
―You know what makes leadership? It is the ability
to get men to do what they don't want to do and
like it.‖
--Harry Truman
 Types of Leaders

• Formal leaders or titular are appointed branch

manager or committee chair or team captain and
have the advantage of formal authority (including
the power to reward and punish), but this only
gives them the opportunity to prove themselves
effective at leadership.
• Emergent, or informal leaders evolve based on
their expertise or referent power as it is expressed
in the process of group activity.
 Identifying Potential Leaders

• Leadership Traits
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 Leadership Traits

• Physical qualities of health, vitality, and

endurance;
• Personal attributes of personal magnetism,
cooperativeness, enthusiasm, ability to inspire,
persuasiveness, forcefulness, and tact;
• Character attributes of integrity, humanism,
self-discipline, stability, and industry; and
• Intellectual qualities of mental capacity, ability
to teach others, and a scientific approach to
problems.
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI)
1. The most favored Energy Source:
– The way people prefer to interact with the world, and the way they
prefer to receive stimulation and energy.
(E) Extraversion <> (I) Introversion
2. The most favored Perceiving Mental Process:
– The way people prefer to get data.
(S) Sensing <> (N) Intuition
3. The favored Judging Mental Process:
– The way people prefer to make decisions
(T) Thinking <> (F) Feeling
4. The mental process leads to Outside World Orientation:
– The way people prefer to orient their lives
(J) Judging <> (P) Perceiving
 Classification of Leadership Style

I. People/Task Matrix Approaches

• The Leadership Grid
• Ohio State studies
• Hersey and Blanchard life-cycle theory
II. Situational Approaches
• Leadership continuum
• Other viewpoints
• Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton
developed the leadership grid, also called
the managerial grid, which is an approach
to analyzing the style of management (that
is, collective leadership) in terms of two
dimensions: concern for people and
concern for production (now concern for
results).
 People/Task Matrix approaches
The Leadership Grid

(1,9) Country Club (9,9) Team Management, in

Management which individual objectives
Concern for People

are achieved in the process

of achieving organizational
goals,

(5,5) Middle of the Road

Management

(9,1) Authority
(1,1) Impoverished Compliance Management
Management
Concern for Production
 Leadership Styles

Laid Back Concern for people 9

1,9
9,9
Country club
8
management
Team management Leader
7

6
5,5
5 Organization man
management Compromizer
4

3
1,1 9,1
2
Loafer Impovrished Authority- Dictator
management obedience
1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Ralph V. Locurcio, P.E. Concern for production

 Ohio State studies
Consideration and initiating structure are two
dimensions of leader behavior identified as a
result of the Ohio State Leadership Studies
According to the findings of these studies,
leaders exhibit two types of behaviors,
people-oriented (consideration) and task
oriented (initiating structure), to facilitate goal
accomplishment.
 Consideration
Consideration is the extent to which a
leader exhibits concern for the welfare of
the members of the group.
This factor is oriented towards
interpersonal relationships, mutual trust
and friendship. This leadership style is
people-oriented.
 Consideration
Being friendly and approachable
Treating all group members as his/her

equal
Looking out for the personal welfare of

group members
Making him/herself accessible to group

members.
 Initiating Structure
Initiating structure is the extent to which
a leader defines leader and group
member roles, initiates actions,
organizes group activities and defines
how tasks are to be accomplished by the
group.
This leadership style is task-oriented.
 Initiating Structure
Letting group members know what is
expected of them
Maintaining definite standards of

performance
Scheduling the work to be done

Asking that group members follow

standard rules and regulations

 Initiating Structure v/s
Consideration
Initiating Structure • Considerations
• Always rule with an • Often do favors for
iron hand persons under
• Often encourage YOU
after duty work by • Often help persons
persons of your under you with
unit their personal
problems.
 Ohio State studies

Initiating Consideration (C)

Structure (IS) Low High
High H(IS)/L(C) H(IS)/H(C)
Low L(IS)/L(C) L(IS)/H(C)
Findings:
•High IS – High C may not be the most effective all time
•High IS helps only if task is unstructured.
•High C helps only if there is no adequate alt. source of
satisfaction
•Providing either structure or consideration when not
needed is unhelpful and may actually hinder
 Hersey and Blanchard life-cycle
theory (or "maturity" theory)

"the most effective leadership progresses with time

through the four quadrants‖
 High Initiating Structure, Low Consideration
 High Initiating Structure, High Consideration
 Low Initiating Structure, High Consideration
 Low Initiating Structure, Low Consideration
• Able + Willing = Laissez Faire Leadership
• Able + Unwilling = Participative Leadership
• Unable + Willing = Directional Leadership
• Unable + Unwilling = High Task Oriented
 Situational Approaches
Contingency theory
The manager must develop a reward system, a leadership
style, or an organizational structure to be appropriate for
the unique combination of such factors as
Situational approach assumes that the effectiveness of
leadership depends on the interaction of the leader’s
characteristics, the leader’s behavior and factors in the
leadership situation.
A successful leader must be adoptive and flexible. The
situational theory contends that there is no one best
style of leadership universally applicable for all
situations.
 Situational Approaches
Contingency theory
SL= f(L,F,S)
• the nature of the subordinates,
• the technology of the business and the tasks that result,
• the rate of change in the organization,
• the degree of integration of functions required,
• the amount of time the manager has to accomplish the
assignment,
• the quality of the manager's relationship with
subordinates.
 Leadership Continuum

"a continuum of leadership style extending from complete

retention of power by the manager to complete freedom
for subordinates"
• Autocratic ("Telling"). Manager makes decisions with
little or no involvement of non-managers.
• Diplomatic ("Selling). Manager makes decisions
without consultation but tries to persuade non-managers
to accept them.
• Consultative ("Consulting"). Manager obtains non-
managers' ideas and uses them in decision making.
• Participative ("Joining"). Manager involves non-
managers heavily in the decision (and may even delegate
it to them completely).
 Fiedler Contingency Model
• The model states that there is no one best
style of leadership. Instead, a leader's
effectiveness is based on the situation.
This is the result of two factors –
"leadership style" and "situational
favorableness" (later called "situational
control").
• Identifying leadership style is the first step in using the
model. Fiedler believed that leadership style is fixed, and
it can be measured using a scale he developed called
Least-Preferred Co-Worker (LPC) Scale
• The model says that task-oriented leaders usually view
their LPCs more negatively, resulting in a lower score.
Fiedler called these low LPC-leaders. He said that low
LPCs are very effective at completing tasks. They're
quick to organize a group to get tasks and projects done.
Relationship-building is a low priority.
• Situational favorableness depends on three distinct factors:
• Leader-Member Relations – This is the level of trust and
confidence that your team has in you. A leader who is more trusted
and has more influence within the group is in a more favorable
situation than a leader who is not trusted.
• Task Structure – This refers to the type of task you're doing: clear
and structured, or vague and unstructured. Unstructured tasks, or
tasks where the team and leader have little knowledge of how to
achieve them, are viewed unfavorably.
• Leader's Position Power – This is the amount of power you have
to direct the group, and provide reward or punishment. The more
power you have, the more favorable your situation. Fiedler identifies
power as being either strong or weak.
• Imagine that you've just started working at a new
company, replacing a much-loved leader who recently
retired. You're leading a team who views you with
distrust (so your Leader-Member Relations are poor).
• The task you're all doing together is well defined
(structured), and your position of power is high because
you're the boss, and you're able to offer reward or
punishment to the group.
• The most effective leader in this situation would be high
LPC – that is, a leader who can focus on building
relationships first.
Path Goal Theory
Robert House, 1971
 Leadership continuum (cont.)

3 deciding forces:
• Forces in the manager
Manager’s value system regarding leadership, confidence in the non-managers,
feelings of security in an uncertain situation.
• Forces in the subordinate (or non-manager)
Non-managers expect independence, ready for responsibility, can tolerate
ambiguity, interested in the problem, understand goals, have necessary
knowledge and experience, and have learned to expect a share in decision
making.
• Forces in the situation
Type of organization, experience and success the non-managers have had in
working together as a group, the nature and complexity of the problem, and
the pressure of time,
 Servant Leadership
• Servant leadership begins with the natural
feeling that one wants to serve, to serve
first. Then conscious choice brings one to
aspire to lead.
• Servant leadership is about:
Serving other, not yourself
Not leading by title
Helping people develop and perform as highly as possible
Promoting genuine team ownership and harnessing the collective
power of a team.
 Characteristics of Servant
Leadership
• Committed to listen others
• Full attention to people
• Strive to understand other people
• Value others
• Ability to look and think about yourself
before serving
• Use persuasion
• Long term focus
 Qualities of Servant Leader
• Value diverse opinion
• Cultivate a culture of trust
• Develops other leaders
• Helps people with life issues
• Encourages
• Sells instead of Tells
• Think YOU, not me
• Think long term
• Act with humility
 Other viewpoints:
14 types of executives by their behavior

"merely successful" (Table 7-3)

• Bureaucrat (We go by the book)
• Zealot (We do things my way, inspite of the orgn)
• Machiavellian (We depersonalize and use you)
• Missionary (We love one another)
• Climber (I vault over any one I can)
• Exploiter (When I bark they jump)
• Temporizer (We bend to the strongest pressure)
• Glad-Hander (We sell the sizzle, not the steak)
 Other viewpoints:
14 types of executives by their behavior

"effective leaders" (Table 7-4)

• Entrepreneur (We do it my way. Only risk taking
achievers need apply)
• Corporateur (We all work together on my team)
• Developer (People are our most important resources)
• Craftsman (We do important work as perfectly as we can)
• Integrator (We build consensus and commitment)
• Gamesman (We win together but I must win
more than you)
 True Leader

"A leader is best when people barely know

he exists. Not so good when people obey
and acclaim him.
Worse when they despise him.
But of a good leader who talks little, when
his work is done and his aim fulfilled, they
will say, "We did it ourselves."
-- Lao Tsu, 600 B.C.
 Motive & Motivation

Definition of Motive:
• ―An inner state that energizes, activates, or moves, and
that directs or channels behavior toward goals.‖
– Berelson & Steiner
Definition of Motivation:
• ―The willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach
organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to
satisfy some individual need.‖ – Robbins
• ―3 measures of resulting behavior: direction, strength, and
persistence‖ – Campbell
 Nature of the Individuals

• McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y (2

assumptions about basic nature)
Theory X
 Nature of the Individuals

"Theory X":
• Management is responsible for organizing the elements of
productive enterprise--money, materials, machine, men--in
the interest of economic ends.
• With respect to people, this is a process of directing their
efforts, motivating them, controlling their actions, modifying
their behavior to fit the needs of the organization.
• Without this active intervention by management, people
would be passive--even resistant to organization needs.
They must therefore be persuaded, rewarded, punished,
controlled--their activities must be directed. This is
management's task....
 Nature of the Individuals

Additional beliefs of "Theory X":

• The average person is by nature indolent—he/she works as
little as possible.
• He/She lacks ambition, dislikes responsibility, prefers to be
led.
• He/She is inherently self-centered, indifferent to
organizational needs.
• He/She is by nature resistant to change.
• He/She is gullible, not very bright, the ready dupe of the
charlatan and the demagogue.
Theory Y
 "Theory Y"

• Management is responsible for organizing the

elements of productive enterprise--money,
materials, equipment, people--in the interest of
economic ends.
• People are not by nature passive or resistant to
organizational needs. They have become so as a
result of experience in organizations.
 "Theory Y"

• The motivation, the potential for development, the capacity

for assuming responsibility, the readiness to direct behavior
toward organization goals are all present in people.
Management does not have to put them there. It is the
responsibility of management to make it possible for people
to recognize and develop these human characteristics for
themselves.
• The essential task of management is to arrange
organizational conditions and methods of operation so that
people can achieve their own goals best by directing their
own efforts toward organizational objectives.
 ―Theory X‖ v.s. ―Theory Y‖

―Theory X places exclusive reliance upon external

control of human behavior, while Theory Y relies
heavily on self-control and self-direction. It is
worth noting that this difference between treating
people as children and treating them as adults.‖
--McGregor
 Motivation Theories:

Content Theories:
Based on human needs and people’s effort to satisfy them
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Herzberg's 2-factor theory
• McClelland’s Trio of Needs
Process Theories:
Assumes that behavioral choices are based on expected
outcomes
• Equity Theory (Adams)
• Expectancy Theory (Vroom)
• Porter-Lawler Extension
• Behavior Modification (Skinner)
 Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
(The appearance of one need usually rests upon the prior
satisfaction of another.)

• Physiological needs: air, water, food, shelter, sex

• Safety needs: safe work, with security that the
physiological needs will continue to be met (through job
tenure and medical, unemployment, and disability
insurance and retirement provisions)
• Love needs: affectionate relations with friends, family,
and people in general, and group acceptance
• Esteem needs: self-respect or self-esteem, and the
esteem of others (expressed in reputation, prestige, and
recognition)
• Self-actualization (or self-fulfillment) needs: the
desire to become everything one is capable of becoming
(to become actualized in what one is potentially)
 Criticism of the theory

• Hierarchy classification is not universal

• Not fully comprehensive
• Ignores simultaneous emergence of needs
• Neglected situational factors
• Ignores complex human behaviour
 Herzberg's 2-factor Theory
• The dissatisfaction-avoidance or hygiene factors The
presence of hygiene factor does not motivate employees but
absence of it causes dissatisfaction.
• These factors are necessary to maintain a minimum level of
need satisfaction.
• These factors bring employees to the zero level of
motivation from negative direction.
• The growth or motivator factors The presence of
motivating factor causes high level of motivation and job
satisfaction, whereas their absence does not cause high
dissatisfaction.
• Employees are motivated when job is challenging, finds
scope of innovation, freedom, growth and recognition.
Hygiene factors Motivating factors

Company policy and Achievement

administration Recognition
Supervision Advancement
Relationship with supervisor Work itself
Working conditions Personal growth
Salary Responsibility
Relationship with peers
Personal life
Relationship with subordinates
Job security
Status
Security
 Applications of
Herzberg's 2-factor Theory

• Job Enrichment: To increase the content of

motivators in a job.
• Reducing the number and frequency of controls
• Making the worker responsible for checking his/her
own work
• Establishing a direct relationship between worker
and the customer (internal or external)
• Increasing authority and autonomy
 McClelland’s Trio of Needs
(Different people have different needs)

• Need for achievement: the drive or desire to

excel, to accomplish something better than has
been done in the past. (entrepreneurs)
• Need for power: the desire to control one’s
environment, including resources and people.
(managers)
• Need for affiliation: the need for human
companionship and acceptance. (coordinators,
integrators, counselors, and sales)
 Process Theories:

Process theories treat human needs as just

one part of the mechanism that people
use in choosing their behavior. These
theories place greater emphasis on the
expectation of favorable consequences or
rewards.
 A. Equity Theory

An EPL footballer negotiated a 5-year, $30 million

contract

In year 3, the player has a great season and says

that he wants to re-negotiate his contract or he will
sit out the next season.

Explain why this is happening?

 A. Equity Theory

Equity theory was first developed in 1963 by John

Stacey Adams.
It says that individuals compare their job inputs
and outcomes with those of others and then
respond to eliminate any inequalities.
The higher an individual’s perception of equity, the
more motivated they will be.
If someone perceives an unfair environment, they
will be demotivated.
Equity Theory
Equity Theory
 Basic reactions

• Overpayment inequity
• Underpayment inequity
• Equitable payment
 4 basic referent group for
comparison
• Self inside
• Self outside
• Other inside
• Other outside
Expectancy Theory
• Motivational force =
Expectancy(E)  Instrumentality(I) 
Valence(V)
 B. Expectancy Theory

Environment

Effort Performance Outcome

Ability Valence of
Outcomes
Effort to Performance to
Performance Outcome
Expectancy Expectancy
 B. Expectancy Theory

• Effort-to-performance expectancy
• Performance-to-outcome expectancy
• Valence: Strength of a person’s desire for
these outcomes
 C. Porter-Lawler Extension

• Personal effort, abilities and traits, and role perceptions (the

employee's belief that certain tasks need to be done to do
his or her job effectively) determine performance.
• Performance, in turn, leads to intrinsic and extrinsic
rewards, as in the expectancy model.
• The perceived equity (fairness) of these rewards determines
the satisfaction the employee gains from the work.
• This satisfaction colors the value placed on the rewards
anticipated for future cycles of work, and therefore it
influences future effort.
 D. Behavior Modification
(Reinforcement Theory)
Behavior is followed by an event (reinforcement) that
affects the probability that the behavior is repeated.
• Positive reinforcement increases the probability that desired
behavior will be repeated by providing a reward (praise,
recognition, raise, promotion, or other).
• Negative reinforcement, or avoidance, seeks to increase the
probability that desired behavior will be repeated by letting the
employee escape from undesired consequences.
• Punishment seeks to decrease the probability that undesired
behavior will be repeated by imposing penalties (undesired
consequences) such as reprimands, discipline, or fines.
• Extinction seeks to decrease the probability that undesired
behavior will be repeated by ignoring it and withholding positive
reinforcement.
 Motivating And Leading Technical
Professionals
General Nature of the Technical Professional
• Having a high need for achievement and deriving their
motivation primarily from the work itself.
• Desiring autonomy (independence) over the conditions,
pace, and content of their work.
• Tending to identify first with their profession and
secondarily with their company.
• Seeking to maintain their expertise, gained through long
and arduous study, and stave off obsolescence through
continuing education.
 Motivation Factors for Engineers

1. Type of work, interesting, diversified (45.0%)

2. Salary (33.9%)
3. Location, good place to live, family (31.2%)
4. Opportunity for advancement (29.8%)
5. Challenge, more responsibility, chance to use creative
ability (16.9%)
6. Reputation, prestige of company (13.7%)
7. Working conditions, personnel policies (11.7%)
8. Growing organization, growing field (6.9%)
9. Security, retirement plan, benefits (6.8%)
10.Opportunity to learn, broaden experience, training
programs (6.6%)
 Leading Technical Professionals

Dimensions of technical leadership

1. Coach for peak performance. “Listen, ask,
facilitate, integrate, provide administrative
support;” act as a sounding board and supportive
critic; help the professional manage change.
2. Run organizational interference. Obtain
resources, act as advocate for the professional
and his or her ideas, and minimize the demands of
the bureaucracy (time and paperwork) on the
Professional.
 Leading Technical Professionals

Dimensions of technical leadership

3. Orchestrate professional development.
Facilitate career development through
challenging assignments; foster a business
perspective in professionals; find sources where
new areas of knowledge are required.
4. Expand individual productivity through
teamwork. Make sure teams are well oriented
regarding goals and roles, and that they get the
resources and support they need.
 Leading Technical Professionals

Dimensions of technical leadership

5. Facilitate self-management. Assure that
technical professionals are empowered to
make their own decisions by encouraging free two-
way information flow, delegating enough authority,
and providing material and psychological support.
 Leading Technical Professionals

Leading as orchestration – McCall (4 general

areas where the leader can make
difference)
• Technical competence.
• Controlled freedom.
• Leader as metronome.
• Work challenge.