Deck 12: Leaders and Leadership

Question 1

A leader who engages in initiating structure shows followers that he or she cares about their well-being, how they feel, and what they think.

Answer 1

False
A leader who engages in consideration shows followers that he or she cares about their well-being and is concerned about how they feel and what they think.

Question 2

University researchers have focused on the behaviors of effective leaders.

Answer 2

True
Research studies, such as those by Ohio State researchers, focused on what leaders actually do, that is, on the specific behaviors performed by effective leaders.

Question 3

All leaders exert influence over members of a group or organization.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The ability of informal leaders to influence others often stems from special skills or talents they possess.

Question 5

The leader trait approach asserts that emotional maturity helps a leader solve complex problems.

Question 6

Formal leaders are those managers who are given the authority to influence other members in the organization to achieve its goals.

Question 7

Leadership is the process in which a member of a group exerts influence over other members to help the group achieve its goals.

Question 8

Leader reward behavior occurs when a leader positively reinforces the desirable behavior of subordinates.

Question 9

Informal leaders are unable to exert much influence over members of an organization.

Question 10

Tolerance for stress is NOT an important trait for a leader to possess.

Question 11

Leaders influence learning within an organization.

Question 12

Consideration and initiating structure are complementary but independent leader behaviors.

Question 13

Behaviors indicating that a leader trusts, respects, and values good relationships with his or her followers are known as consideration.

Question 14

Early studies of leadership considered the traits that leaders possess.

Question 15

According to the leader trait approach, self-confidence helps a leader deal with the uncertainty inherent in any leadership role.

Question 16

The leadership behavior of initiating structure involves making sure that the work gets done and subordinates perform their jobs acceptably.

Question 17

Leader effectiveness is the extent to which a leader actually does help a group or organization to achieve its goals.

Question 18

For some traits, it is not clear what comes first: being in a leadership position or possessing the trait in question.

Question 19

According to the leader trait approach, integrity and honesty ensure that a leader behaves ethically and is worthy of the trust and confidence of his or her followers.

Question 20

All managers are leaders.

Question 21

A manager provides free lunch to his entire staff after they have exerted much effort to complete a difficult project. This is an example of leader reward behavior.

Question 22

Like the trait approach, Fiedler's contingency theory acknowledges that personal characteristics influence the effectiveness of leaders.

Question 23

Task-oriented leaders have high LPC scores.

Question 24

The trait approach takes into account leaders' personal characteristics but ignores the situations in which they try to lead.

Question 25

When leader-member relations are good, followers appreciate, trust, and feel a certain degree of loyalty toward their leader.

Question 26

The contingency theory of leadership considers how leadership is affected by individual characteristics and situational circumstances.

Question 27

Leader punishing behavior occurs when a leader reprimands or otherwise responds negatively to subordinates who perform undesired behavior.

Question 28

According to Fiedler's contingency model of leadership, leaders can easily change their style of leadership to fit the situation.

Question 29

The trait and behavior approaches to leadership both focus on what effective leaders are like.

Question 30

The behavior approach focuses attention on the interaction between individual and situational characteristics.

Question 31

The first priority of task-oriented leaders is having good relationships with their subordinates.

Question 32

The three situational characteristics in Fiedler's contingency model of leadership are position power, leader-member relations, and task structure.

Question 33

According to Fiedler, an organization must either assign leaders to situations in which they will be effective or change the situation to fit the leader.

Question 34

A factory supervisor who docks the pay of any subordinate who fails to wear safety glasses on the job is engaging in leader punishing behavior.

Question 35

Although relationship-oriented leaders want to develop good working relationship with their followers, their first priority is task accomplishment.

Question 36

Fiedler devised the least preferred co-employee scale (LPC) to measure leader style.

Question 37

When leader-member relations are poor, the situation is unfavorable for leading.

Question 38

The "Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire" asks subordinates to indicate the extent to which their leader or supervisor engages in a number of different consideration and initiating-structure behaviors.

Question 39

Leaders who are task-oriented want their subordinates to perform at a high level and accomplish all of their assigned tasks.

Question 40

The trait and behavior approaches contribute to our understanding of effective leadership by indicating what effective leaders tend to be like and what they do.

Question 41

According to path-goal theory, directive behavior lets subordinates know what tasks need to be performed and how they should be performed.

Question 42

Directive leadership behaviors are likely to be beneficial when subordinates work on complex and difficult projects.

Question 43

According to Fiedler, leaders cannot be taught to be relationship-oriented or task-oriented; moreover, a leader cannot alter his or her style according to the situation.

Question 44

Position power has little effect on whether a situation is favorable for leading.

Question 45

Situations are more favorable for leading when task structure is low.

Question 46

Position power is the amount of informal authority that a leader has.

Question 47

The three path-goal theory guidelines are based on the equity theory of motivation.

Question 48

Supportive leadership behaviors can be effective when subordinates are under a lot of stress.

Question 49

According to Fiedler's leadership model, task-oriented leaders are most effective in situations that are very favorable or very unfavorable.

Question 50

The Vroom and Yetton model deals with the multifaceted aspects of leadership.

Question 51

Path-goal theory describes how leaders can motivate their followers to perform at a high level and keep them satisfied.

Question 52

If a manager has little control over rewards and punishments for her employees, she has low position power.

Question 53

Directive behavior is very similar to consideration.

Question 54

The leader-member exchange takes into account the fact that leaders often develop different kinds of relationships with different subordinates.

Question 55

The Vroom and Yetton model offers guidelines regarding the extent to which subordinates should participate in decision making.

Question 56

Task structure is low when group goals are vague and group members are unsure of how to perform their jobs.

Question 57

Task structure is the extent to which the work to be performed by a group is clearly defined.

Question 58

When it is important for subordinates to accept a decision that a leader needs to make, participative leadership is likely to be effective.

Question 59

Path-goal theory enhances our understanding of effective leadership in organizations by specifying how leaders should motivate their followers.

Question 60

According to Fiedler, relationship-oriented leaders are most effective in moderately favorable situations.

Question 61

Building trust is an important aspect of transformational leadership.

Question 62

The relationship between out-group followers and the leader is based on the formal authority of the leader and obedience to rules.

Question 63

The relationship between in-group followers and the leader is characterized by mutual trust, commitment, and involvement.

Question 64

Autocratic leaders allow subordinates to have some input, but the leader makes the decision.

Question 65

A leader who is really ineffective may be helped by the romance of leadership.

Question 66

Transformational leaders change their followers' awareness of performing tasks, their need for personal development, and their source of motivation.

Question 67

Leadership neutralizers are functional for an organization because they reduce the need for intervention by leaders.

Question 68

Transactional leaders cause followers to view problems differently and feel some degree of responsibility for helping to solve them.

Question 69

The leader-member exchange theory suggests leaders should have as big an in-group and as small an out-group as possible.

Question 70

Transformational leaders are charismatic leaders.

Question 71

An individual's level of intrinsic motivation and ability can function as a substitute for leadership.

Question 72

The biggest disadvantage to employee participation in decision making is cost.

Question 73

Only the characteristics of a leader's subordinates have the potential to act as a substitute for leadership.

Question 74

Leader-member exchange theory focuses on the leader-follower dyad, that is, the relationship between the leader and the follower.

Question 75

Leaders may be wise to conform to popular beliefs about what a successful leader should be "like" because subordinates will be more likely to listen to them.

Question 76

A leadership neutralizer is something that prevents a leader from having any influence and negates his or her leadership efforts.

Question 77

Leadership substitutes are functional for organizations because they free up some of a leader's time for other activities.

Question 78

Staff members stop listening to their manager because they feel that he is too autocratic. The manager's autocratic style was his leadership substitute.

Question 79

Charismatic leaders have a vision of how good things could be in an organization in contrast to how things currently are.

Question 80

According to the Vroom and Yetton model, a consultative decision-making style allows the subordinates to have some input, but the leader makes the decision.