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BMA547 Organisational
Behaviour
Week 10: Leading
Week 10 Learning Objectives
Examine contemporary forms of leadership such as
adaptive and distributed leadership
Compare and contrast adaptive leadership with
traditional approaches to leadership
Differentiate distributed leadership from
traditional leadership theories
Leadership
• Leadership theory taught in management and OB traditionally focuses on the following concepts:
• Trait theory – are leaders born or made?
• Behavioural theory
• Contingency or situational approaches to leadership
• Charismatic
• Transactional and transformational leadership
• The “dark side” of leadership
• These forms of leadership remain relevant but contemporary leadership theorists also include the following:
• Adaptive leadership
• Distributive leadership
• Self-leadership
3
Adaptive leadership
• Adaptive leadership is often best suited to managing problems created by uncertainty or crises than technical
problems (which are often solved through traditional leadership approaches)
• Adaptive leadership emphasises leadership in a complex and adaptive system
• Emphasis is on change and constantly adapting and thriving
• A learning focus – we are unlikely to already know
• Adaptive leadership builds on the past rather than starting afresh
• Adaptation occurs through experimentation and making mistakes
• Diversity is a necessary part of adaptive leadership
• Adaptive leadership is a long term effort and is strategy led (but often does not have an end point)
• Traditional leadership theories often mistake leadership for authority (i.e., management) – adaptive leadership
views leadership as a process
• Viewing organisations from a systems approach
• Diagnosing the system
• Interpreting, re-interpreting and creating change
4
Distributed leadership
• Traditional leadership tends to focus on heroic leadership - distributed leadership draws upon theory that leadership
should be multi-level
• Emphasis is placed upon a set of people collectively performing leadership functions
• Leadership can be distributed across different parts of the organisation
• Traditional leadership theory breaks people into leader-follower, distributed leadership expands on this
approach
• A collective approach to leadership
• Self-leadership and accountability at all levels of the organisation
• Power to make decisions and make mistakes
• How distributed leadership works at UTAS