9.7: Key Takeaways

• Leaders fulfill a group role that is associated with status and power within the group that may be formally or informally recognized by people inside and/or outside of the group. While there are usually only one or two official leaders within a group, all group members can perform leadership functions, which are a complex of beliefs, communication patterns, and behaviors that influence the functioning of a group and move a group toward the completion of its tasks.
• There are many perspectives on how and why people become leaders:
  • Designated leaders are officially recognized in their leadership role and may be appointed or elected.
  • Emergent leaders gain status and respect through engagement with the group and its task and are turned to by others as a resource when leadership is needed.
  • The trait approach to studying leadership distinguishes leaders from followers based on traits or personal characteristics, such as physical appearance, communication ability, intelligence, and personality. While this approach is useful for understanding how people conceptualize ideal leaders, it doesn’t offer communication scholars much insight into how leadership can be studied and developed as a skill.
  • Situational context also affects how leaders emerge. Different leadership styles and skills are needed based on the level of structure surrounding a group and on how group interactions play out in initial meetings and whether or not a leadership struggle occurs.
  • Leaders also emerge based on communication skill and competence, as certain communication behaviors function to create the conditions of leadership. This approach is most useful to communication scholars, because in it leadership is seen as a set of communication behaviors that are learnable and adaptable rather than traits or situational factors, which are often beyond our control.
• Leaders can adopt a directive, participative, supportive, or achievement-oriented style.
  • Directive leaders help provide psychological structure for their group members by clearly communicating expectations, keeping a schedule and agenda, providing specific guidance as group members work toward the completion of their task, and taking the lead on setting and communicating group rules and procedures.
  • Participative leaders work to include group members in the decision-making process by soliciting and considering their opinions and suggestions.
  • Supportive leaders show concern for their followers’ needs and emotions.
  • Achievement-oriented leaders strive for excellence and set challenging goals, constantly seeking improvement and exhibiting confidence that group members can meet their high expectations.
• Leaders and other group members move their groups toward success and/or the completion of their task by tapping into various types of power.
  • Legitimate power flows from the officially recognized power, status, or title of a group member.
  • Expert power comes from knowledge, skill, or expertise that a group member possesses and other group members do not.
  • Referent power comes from the attractiveness, likeability, and charisma of the group member.
  • Information power comes from a person’s ability to access information that comes through informal channels and well-established social and professional networks.
  • Reward power comes from the ability of a group member to provide a positive incentive as a compliance-gaining strategy, and coercive power comes from the ability of a group member to provide a negative incentive (punishment).

Exercises

1. In what situations would a designated leader be better than an emergent leader, and vice versa? Why?
2. Think of a leader that you currently work with or have worked with who made a strong (positive or negative) impression on you. Which leadership style did he or she use most frequently? Cite specific communication behaviors to back up your analysis.
3. Getting integrated: Teachers are often viewed as leaders in academic contexts along with bosses/managers in professional, politicians/elected officials in civic, and parents in personal contexts. For each of these leaders and contexts, identify some important leadership qualities that each should possess, and discuss some of the influences in each context that may affect the leader and his or her leadership style.

References

Bormann, E. G., and Nancy C. Bormann, Effective

Small Group Communication, 4th ed. (Santa Rosa, CA: Burgess CA, 1988), 130–33.

Cragan, J. F., and David W. Wright,

Communication in Small Group Discussions: An Integrated Approach, 3rd ed. (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1991), 120.

Deutschman, A., “Exit the King,” The Daily Beast, September 21, 2011, accessed August 23, 2012, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/08/28/steve-jobs-american-genius.html.

Fiedler, F. E., A Theory of

Leadership Effectiveness (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967).

French Jr., J. R. P., and Bertram Raven, “The Bases of Social Power,” in Studies in Social Power, ed. Dorwin Cartwright (Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, 1959), 150–67.

Hargie, O., Skilled Interpersonal Interaction: Research, Theory, and Practice (London: Routledge, 2011), 456.

House, R. J., and Terrence R. Mitchell, “Path-Goal Theory of

Leadership,” Journal of Contemporary Business 3 (1974): 81–97.

Lewin, K., Ronald Lippitt, and Ralph K. White, “Patterns of Aggressive Behavior in Experimentally Created ‘Social Climates,’” Journal of Social Psychology 10, no. 2 (1939): 269–99.

Pavitt, C., “Theorizing about the

Group Communication-Leadership Relationship,” in The Handbook of Group Communication Theory and Research, ed. Lawrence R. Frey (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999), 313.

Wood, J. T., “Leading in Purposive Discussions: A Study of Adaptive Behavior,”

Communication Monographs 44, no. 2 (1977): 152–65.

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