Rainey, Chapter 11

1. Understanding and Managing
Public Organizations
Chapter 11
Leadership, Managerial Roles,
and Organizational Culture

2. Leadership Definition
• Leadership has been defined in various ways.
• As the focus of group processes, as a matter of personality
• As a matter of inducing compliance, as the exercise of influence
• As particular behaviors, as a form of persuasion
• As a power relation, as an instrument to achieve goals
• As an effect of interaction, as a differentiated role
• As an initiation of structure
• As many combinations of these definitions (Bass, 1998, 17)
• By leadership, most people mean the capacity of
someone to direct and energize people to achieve goals.
• A number of theories have attempted to answer the
challenges of leaders.

3. Trait Models of Leadership
• Early investigations considered leaders as individuals
endowed with certain personality leadership traits
constituting their leadership capacity.
• Examples: intelligence, foresight, personality characteristics
(enthusiasm, persistence)
• Attempts to isolate specific traits led to the conclusion
that no single characteristic distinguishes leaders from
nonleaders.

4. Blake and Moulton

5. 5
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
• One of the best frameworks for examining relationship
between leader style, organizational setting, and
effectiveness.
• Two types of leaders
• High LPC: relationship-oriented
• Low LPC: task-oriented
• Three contingencies
• Leader-member relations
• Task structure
• Position power of the leader

6. Fiedler’s Contingency Model
• The least preferred coworker scale (LPC) distinguishes
leadership styles.
– High LPC leaders are relationship oriented.
• They are rated more favorably.
• High LPC leaders perform best when the contingencies are
mixed in regard to favorability, that is, when conditions are
relatively ordered. The emphasis on relationships helps to
mitigate the negative effect of unfavorable contingencies.
– Low LPC leaders are task-oriented.
• They are rated more unfavorably.
• Low LPC leaders perform best when the three contingencies
are unfavorable (disorder) or all three are favorable (order).

7. Path-Goal Theory
• This approach is based on the expectancy theory of
motivation and emphasizes the three motivational
variables that leaders may influence through their
behaviors or decision-making styles.
• Valences
• Instrumentalities
• Expectancies
• At the heart of this theory is the notion that the leader’s
primary purpose is to motivate followers by clarifying
goals and identifying the best paths to achieve those
goals.
7

8. Path-Goal Theory
• The job of the leader, according to this theory, is to
manipulate these three motivational variables in
desirable ways.
• The theory proposes that four behavioral styles enable
leaders to manipulate the three motivational variables.
– Directive
– Supportive
– Participative
– Achievement-oriented

9. The Vroom and Yetton Model
• This model describes the different ways leaders can make
decisions and guides leaders in determining the extent to
which subordinates should participate in decision making.
• Leadership is defined in terms of the degree of subordinate
participation in decision-making processes.
• The decision tree model proposes that the most effective
leadership style depends on the characteristics of both the
situation and the followers.
• The decision tree emphasizes the fact that leaders achieve
success through effective decision making.

10. 10
Hersey and Blanchard: Life-Cycle Model
• This model proposes that the effectiveness of a leader’s decision-
making style depends largely on followers’ level of maturity, job
experience, and emotional maturity.
• The model proposes two basic dimensions on which decision-
making style may vary.
• Task orientation
• Relationship orientation
• The model suggests these two dimensions combine to form four
distinct types of decision styles.
• Telling
• Selling
• Participating
• Delegating

11. Attribution Models
• The main idea is that people actively search for
explanations of the behavior that they observe, and form
hypotheses as to the causes of that behavior.
• The resulting causal attributions determine cognitive,
affective, and behavioral responses toward the actor.
• Leaders take into account
• The extent to which behavior is consistent with past behaviors
• The extent to which others in the same situation behave likewise

12. Leader-Member Exchange Theory
• Leader-member exchange theory maintains that the
leader and each individual member of a work group have
a unique “dyadic” relationship.
• Each dyad is seen as a social exchange or negotiated
transaction of leader-member.
• The basic assumption is that leaders develop a separate
exchange relationship with each individual subordinate.
• Exchange relationships can take two different forms.
• High-exchange relationship
• Low-exchange relationship

13. Operant Conditioning and
Social Exchange
• This theory explains human behavior in terms of
continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive,
behavioral, and environmental influences.
• Behavioral patterns are learned through a process of
operant conditioning and observational learning.

14. Social Exchange Theory
• Later approaches took into account Social Learning Theory
(Bandura, 1978).
• People learn by watching others, through modeling, and through
vicarious learning. Thus leadership must also take into account
social learning and internal mental states.
• Use “feedforward” techniques to anticipate problems and avoid them
• Enhance employee acceptance of goals by involving them in their
development
• Emphasize self-management
• Recognize how your environment influences your behavior
• Employ personal goal-setting, rehearsal, and self-instruction

15. Cognitive Resource Utilization Theory
• This theory looks at the relationship between the
leader’s cognitive resources (intelligence and
experience) and group performance.
• The essence of the theory is that stress diminishes a
leader’s ability to think logically and analytically.
• A leader’s experience and intelligence can lessen the
influence of stress on his or her actions.
• Intelligence is the main factor in low-stress situations.
• Experience counts for more during high-stress moments.

16. Cognitive Resource Theory
• Interpersonal stress moderates the influence of leader intelligence
on performance when the leader is directive.
• Low stress allows intelligent leaders to be effective, but high stress
diminishes the impact of intelligence.
• Interpersonal stress also moderates the influence of leader
experience on performance when the leader is directive.
• Experience contributes to performance when stress is high, but has
little impact when stress is low.
• Directive leadership does not contribute to performance (and may
even diminish it) when subordinates are intelligent and skilled and
share the same objectives as the leader.

17. From POSDCORB to Mintzberg
• Gulick’s classic theories on the role of managers still has
life.
• Mintzberg’s focus is not on what managers must do, but
what they actually do.
• He concluded roles after lengthy observation of five managers.
• This is a widely accepted typology.

18. Managerial Roles and Skills
Allison (1983): Functions of General Management
Strategy Managing Internal Components
Establishing objectives and priorities Organizing and staffing
Devising operational plans Directing personnel and the personnel management system
Controlling performance
Managing External Constituencies
Dealing with external units subject to some common authority
Dealing with independent organizations
Dealing with press and the public
Mintzberg (1972): Executive Roles
Interpersonal Informational Decisional
Figurehead Monitor Entrepreneur
Leader Disseminator Disturbance handler
Liaison Spokesperson Resource allocator
Negotiator
Whetten and Cameron (2002): Management Skill Topics
Self-awareness Managing conflict Effective delegation and joint decision making
Managing personal stress Improving employee performance, Gaining power and influence
Creative problem solving motivating others Establishing supportive communication
Improving group decision making
The Benchmarks Scales (McCauley, Lombardo, and Usher, 1989)
1a. Resourcefulness 5. Confronting problem subordinates
1b. Doing whatever it takes 6. Team orientation
1c. Being a quick study 7. Balance between personal life and work
2a. Building and mending relationships 8. Decisiveness
2b. Leading subordinates 9. Self-awareness
2c. Compassion and sensitivity 10. Hiring talented staff
3. Straightforwardness and composure 11. Putting people at ease
4. Setting a developmental climate 12. Acting with flexibility

19. Managerial Roles and Skills
• Allison (1983) Functions of General Management
• Mintzberg (1972) Executive Roles
• Whetten and Cameron (2002)
• The Benchmark Scales (McCauley, Lombardo, and
Usher, 1989)

20. Leadership Styles
• Transformational leadership
• Charismatic leadership

21. Types of Leadership
• Burns (1978) distinguished between two opposing types
of leaders.
• Transactional Leaders
• Motivate followers by recognizing their needs and providing
rewards in exchange for their performance and support.
• Transformational Leaders
• Rely on power but not in a controlling centralized way.
• Raise followers’ goals to a higher plane (self-actualization)
• Have talent for coupling visions of success to empowerment and
motivation

22. Types of Leadership
• Bennis and Nanus (1985) distinguished between “leading” (guiding
directions, actions or opinions to “do the right thing”) and “managing”
(accomplishing things efficiently or “doing things right.” Excellent
leaders lead others by carefully “managing themselves.”
• Creating a vision of successful futures
• Effectively communicating this vision to others by giving meaning to their
work
• Choosing the best course and sticking to it
• Having a high regard for their own skills and utilizing then effectively
• Concentrating on success and not become preoccupied with failure—
Wallenda factor
• Empowering others

23. Types of Leadership
• Bass (1985, 1998) and Bass and Avolio (2002)
• Effective leaders combine transactional with
transformational elements of leadership.
• They provide a systematic analysis of transformational
leaders .

24. Types of Leadership
• Bass identified seven areas of leadership behavior that
would identify transformational and transactional
leadership.
• Transformational
• Idealized influence
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individual consideration
• Inspirational motivation
• Transactional leaders
• Contingent rewards
• Management by expectation
• Active management by exception

25. Charismatic Leadership
• This is an extension of work on transformational
leadership.
• Charisma is treated as a matter of the characteristics
that followers attribute to their leaders.
• There are two strains.
• The attribution theory of charismatic leadership
• The self-concept theory of charismatic leadership

26. Charismatic Leadership
• Attribution theory of charismatic leadership
• Followers are more likely to identify with leaders who
• Advocate a vision that is highly discrepant from status quo
• Act in unconventional ways
• Demonstrate self-sacrifices
• Have confidence
• Use persuasive appeals rather than authority or participative decision
process
• Use capacity to access context and locate opportunities
• Self-concept theory of charismatic leadership
• Emphasizes observable characteristics of leaders and followers
• Personal identification
• Social identification and self-esteem
• Internalization of leader’s beliefs

27. Leadership and Organizational Culture
• Transformational leaders exert their influence through “social
architecture,” by working with the basic symbols and core values, or
culture, of their organization.
• Leaders play key roles in forming, maintaining, and changing those
cultures.
• Organization theorists have been interested in similar themes for a
long time, as suggested by the work of Chester Barnard and Phillip
Selznick.
• Recently, the subject came alive when management experts began
to find that leaders in excellent corporations placed heavy emphasis
on managing the cultural dimensions of their firms (Peters and
Waterman, 1982; Ouchi, 1981).

28. Organizational Culture
• Affects many aspects of organizations
– Effectiveness
– Motivation
– Change
– Communication
– Coordination costs

29. Increasing Importance of Culture
• Schein (1992) suggests that organizational culture is
even more important today than it was in the past.
• Increased competition, globalization, mergers,
acquisitions, alliances, and various workforce
developments have created a greater need for
– Coordination and integration across organizational units in order
to improve efficiency; quality; and speed of designing,
manufacturing, and delivering products and services.
– Product innovation

30. 30
Schein’s Levels of Culture Model
Shallow
Visible
Deep Invisible
Basic
underlying
assumptions
Artifacts
Espoused values
Mission statement
Ethical code
Shallow Visible

31. Adapted from Schein 1980, 1985

32. The Communication of Culture
• Various forms that transmit an organization’s culture
serve as “sense-making mechanisms” for people in the
organization as they interpret what goes on around
them.
– Symbols
– Language
– Narratives
– Practices and events

33. The Communication of Culture
• Symbols: Physical objects, settings, and certain roles within an
organization convey information about its values and basic
assumptions.
• Language: Slang, songs, slogans, and jargons can all carry the
messages of a culture.
• Narratives: The people in an organization often repeat stories,
legends, sagas, and myths that convey information about the
organization’s history and practices.
• Practices and Events: Repeated practices and special events can
transmit important assumptions and values. They may include rites
and ceremonies.

34. Leading Cultural Development: Strategies
1. Make clear what leaders will monitor, ignore, measure, control.
2. React to critical incidents and organizational crises in ways that
send appropriate cultural messages.
3. Practice deliberate role modeling, teaching, coaching.
4. Establish effective criteria for advancement, punishment.
5. Coordinate organizational designs and structures with cultural
messages.

35. Leading Cultural Development: Strategies
6. Coordinate organizational systems and procedures with
cultural messages
7. Design physical spaces to communicate culture.
8. Employ stories about events and people.
9. Develop formal statements of organizational
philosophy.
10. Approach cultural leadership as comprehensive
organizational change.

36. Leadership and Management in Public
Organizations
• Evidence is mounting on the distinct nature of public and
private sector contexts for managers.
• This theme is carried throughout the book and applies to
culture as well.

37. The Distinctiveness
• Mintzberg (1972) found that public managers spent more time in
contacts and formal meetings with external interest groups and
governing boards and received more external status requests than
did the private managers.
• Kaufman (1979) found that federal bureau chiefs operate within a
web of institutional constraints on organizational structure, personnel
administration, and other matters.
• Chase and Reveal (1983) emphasize the key challenges in
managing a public agency with respect to the external political and
institutional environment.

38. Does Context Affect Performance
and Behavior?
• We know that the public sector context creates unique
challenges for public managers, but are there
implications for performance?
• Challenges leave less time spent to deal with the organization
itself (Warwick, 1975).
• Lynn (1981) and Allison (1983) refer to a performance deficit
due to arrays of rules, controls.
• National Academy of Public Administration (1986) refers to
adverse effects on federal manager’s capacity to motivate.
• Volcker Commission (1989) refers to damaged morale of federal
service.

39. Survey of Leadership Practices
• Surveys of government employees’ ratings of their
supervisors provide mixed evidence about the quality of
leadership.
• Some studies show that public employees express
favorable impressions of their supervisors.
• Other studies show that ratings are 10 to 15 percent
higher in surveys comparing sector responses.
– In light of the public manager’s challenges, we would expect
differences and question whether such a comparison should
even be made.

40. Contingencies and Variations
• Many variations in context and in the individual officials
surveyed account for the different views about
managerial roles of public managers.
– The level of the manager and the institutional context varies.
– Public managers must balance managerial tasks with
policymaking and with handling the political and institutional
environment (oversight agencies, legislative and other executive
authorities, clients and constituents, and the media).

41. Effective Leadership in Government:
Entrepreneurs
• Clearly, the generalizations are inaccurate. Government
executives, like private manager executives, vary widely
in their skill, motivations, orientations, and so on.
• A typology on managerial skills and commitment to goals
is one approach to addressing this (Marmor and
Fellman, 1986).

42. Generalist
Managers
Program Loyalists-
most likely to have
an entrepreneurial
impact
Administrative
Survivors
Program
Zealots
Commitment to Program Goals
Skills
Low
High
High
Entrepreneur Typology of Public Executives
Adapted from Rainey 2003, explanation of classification by Marmor and Fellman (1986) and Marmor
(1987)

43. Modeling and Measuring Public
Management
• Literature can be contrasted on the basis of the question,
Does management matter?
• Early literature implies management is not a main factor in
performance (for example, population ecology).
• More recent studies suggest that the degree that management
matters can be measured.
• O’Toole and Meier (1999) treat management as one input to the
system.

44. Measuring Current Performance
• O’Toole and Meier (1999) posit that current performance
is a result of past performance plus shocks that come
from inside or outside the system. The model in its
simplest form is
O = 0 Ot-1 + 2Xt + t
• The model can be extended to incorporate managerial
strategies, for example a conscious decision to manipulate
the environment or a strategy to buffer.