Page 243 - DCOM102_DMGT101_PRINCIPLES_AND_PRACTICES_OF_MANAGEMENT

Unit 13: Motivation and Leadership

Notes
Questions
1. What, according to you, were the reasons for Rohit's disillusionment? Answer the
question using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs or Expectancy Theory of Motivation.
2. How would you evaluate Aparna's behaviour in terms of need for power, need for
achievement and theory X/Y?
3. What should Rohit do to resolve his situation? What can a team leader do to ensure
high levels of motivation among his/her team members?

Source: www.icmrindia.org

13.3 Definitions and Meaning of Leadership

There are many definitions of leadership. Some of the definitions of leadership are reproduced
below:
"Leadership" according to Alford and Beatty "is the ability to secure desirable actions from a
group of followers voluntarily, without the use of coercion."
According to Chester I Barnard, "it (leadership) refers to the quality of the behaviour of the
individual whereby they guide people on their activities in organised efforts".
According to Terry, "A leader shows the way by his own example. He is not a pusher, he pulls
rather than pushes".

According to Koontz and O'Donnell, Managerial leadership is "the ability to exert inter-personal
influence by means of communication, towards the achievement of a goal. Since managers get
things done through people, their success depends, to a considerable extent upon their ability to
provide leadership".
In the words of R. T. Livingston, Leadership is "the ability to awaken in others the desire to
follow a common objective".
According to the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, "Leadership is the relation between an
individual and a group around some common interest and behaving in a manner directed or
determined by him".
According to Peter Drucker, Leadership "is not making friends and influencing people, i.e.,
salesmanship is the lifting of man's vision to higher sights, the raising of man's performance to
higher standards, the building of man's personality beyond its normal limitations".
From the above definitions we can conclude that leadership is a psychological process of
influencing followers (subordinates) and providing guidance, directing and leading the people
in an organisation towards attainment of the objectives of the enterprise

13.4 Characteristic of Leadership

1. Leadership implies the existence of followers: We appraise the qualities of a leader by
studying his followers. In an organisation, leaders are also followers, e.g., a supervisor
works under a branch head.
2. Leadership involves a community of interest between the leader and his followers: In other
words, the objectives of both the leader and his men are one and the same.
3. Leadership involves an unequal distribution of authority among leaders and group
members: Leaders can direct some of the activities of group members, i.e., the group
members are compelled or are willing to obey most of the leader's directions.

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