MOTIVATING KNOWLEDGE PROFESSIONALS LEADERSHIP TRAIT THEORIES

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Principles of Management MGT503

Lesson 13.37

MOTIVATING KNOWLEDGE PROFESSIONALS

LEADERSHIP TRAIT THEORIES

Motivating the "New Workforce i.e. Knowledge Professionals."

Another current motivation issue revolves around motivating the "new workforce." These special groups

present unique motivational challenges to managers. These professionals possess specialty knowledge of

markets, of customers, of supplier, of software, of hardware, of technology and are very important to run

the organizations smoothly in 21st century.

Motivating professionals is one of these special challenges.

Professionals are different from nonprofessionals and have different needs.

Money and promotions are typically low on the motivation priority list for professionals. Job

challenge is usually ranked high as is support and the feeling that they're working on something

important.

Special challenges in motivating professionals include their long-term commitment to their field of

expertise, with greater loyalty to their profession than to their employer. Money and promotions are

typically low on professionals' priority list. Contingent workers lack the security that permanent employees

have and do not identify with or display much commitment to the organization. Temporary workers also

typically lack benefits such as health care and pensions. Low-skilled minimum-wage workers typically have

limited education and skills; offering higher pay is usually not an option.

Leadership

The recognition of the important role that leadership plays in organizational performance is widely

acknowledged by managers everywhere. Leadership is what makes things happen in organizations.

MANAGERS VERSUS LEADERS

There are distinctions between managers and leaders. Managers are appointed and have legitimate power

within the organization.

Leaders are those persons who are able to influence others and who possess managerial authority.

Leadership, then, is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals.

How leaders influence others

Leadership, the foundation of the management function of leading, is the process of influencing others

toward the achievement of organizational goals.

Power is the capacity to affect the behavior of others.

There are different types of power depending upon their sources originally identified by French and Raven.

Legitimate power stems from a position's placement in the managerial hierarchy and the authority

vested in the position.

Reward power is based on the capacity to control and provide valued rewards to others.

Coercive power is based on the ability to obtain compliance through fear of punishment.

Expert power is based on the possession of expertise that is valued by others.

Information power result from access to and control over the distribution of important

information about organizational operations and future plans.

Referent power results from being admired, personally identified with, or liked by others.

The different types of power can engender different levels of subordinate motivation.

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Principles of Management MGT503

With commitment, employees respond enthusiastically and exert a high level of

effort toward organizational goals.

Commitment is the most common outcome of referent power and expert

power.

Commitment is least likely to result from the use of coercive power.

With compliance, employees exert at least minimal efforts to complete directives,

but are likely to deliver average, rather than stellar, performance.

Compliance is the most likely outcome of the use of legitimate power,

information power, and reward power.

Compliance is a possible outcome of coercive power if used in a helpful

way or of referent power of expert power when some element of apathy is

present.

With resistance, employees may appear to comply, but actually do the absolute

minimum, possibly even attempting to sabotage the attainment of organizational

goals.

Resistance is a likely outcome of coercive power.

Resistance is a possible outcome of other types of power if used

inappropriately.

The effective manager is one who does not have to rely on a single power base but

rather, has high levels of power in several (all if possible) of these six power types.

Searching for Leadership Traits

Researchers began to study leadership in the early part of the 20th century. These early theories focused on

the leader (trait theories) and how the leader interacted with his/her group members (behavior theories).

Trait Theories

Research in the 1920s and 1930s focused basically on leader traits with the intent to isolate one or

more traits that leaders possessed, but that nonleaders did not.

Identifying a set of traits that would always differentiate leaders from nonleaders proved

impossible.

Traits are distinctive internal qualities or characteristics of an individual such as physical

characteristics (e.g., height, weight, appearance, energy), personality characteristics (e.g., dominance,

extroversion, originality), skills and abilities (e.g., intelligence, knowledge, technical competence), and social

factors (e.g., interpersonal skills sociability, and socioeconomic position).

A number of the early research attempts were reanalyzed in the 1950s and concluded that there is

no set of traits which consistently distinguish leaders from nonleaders.

Recent efforts suggest that the trait approach may have been abandoned prematurely.

More sophisticated statistical techniques are now available.

Several rather predictable traits have now been suggested such as

intelligence

dominance

aggressiveness

decisiveness

The question of whether traits can be associated with leadership remains open. Recent research

work has looked at communication skills, human relations skills, resistance to stress, tolerance of

uncertainty, and others.

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