MBA609 Study Guide

Navigating this Study Guide

Study Guide Structure

In this study guide, the sections in each unit (1a., 1b., etc.) are the learning outcomes of that unit. 

Beneath each learning outcome are:

• questions for you to answer independently;
• a brief summary of the learning outcome topic; and
• resources related to the learning outcome. 

At the end of each unit, there is also a list of suggested vocabulary words.

How to Use this Study Guide

1. Review the entire course by reading the learning outcome summaries and suggested resources.
2. Test your understanding of the course information by answering questions related to each unit learning outcome and defining and memorizing the vocabulary words at the end of each unit.

By clicking on the gear button on the top right of the screen, you can print the study guide. Then you can make notes, highlight, and underline as you work.

Through reviewing and completing the study guide, you should gain a deeper understanding of each learning outcome in the course and be better prepared for the final exam!

Unit 1: What is Leadership?

1a. Explain the difference between the behavioral and trait theories of leadership

 
Why do you think the generally accepted principles of management and leadership have changed over time?
What contributions did Max Weber make to management theories? What about Fayol's contributions?
How does Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid apply to behavioral leadership styles versus trait theory on leadership?
 
This section focused on the history of management in business. There were clearly early origins of leadership, even in ancient times. During the Industrial Revolution, in the 1800s, we saw business changes as goods and services were standardized, making it more effective for people to buy goods rather than make them themselves. During this period, we saw factories built to mass produce goods. However, during the Taylor Movement, there emerged research on how to help people be more efficient in their work. After this movement, the Human Relations Movement became popular, which addressed the need to understand people in order to better motivate them. From that point, many theories emerged on how to properly motivate and reward people at work, which you will learn about in this course.
 
Another important concept is the idea there are theories related to behavior in leadership, and traits. Behavioral means actions a leader takes. For example, a leader can focus on job-centered behaviors, such as planning and scheduling, while employee-member behaviors are more focused on support for employees. The trait leadership approach focuses on personality traits that make the leader effective, such as drive, motivation, and self-confidence. The difference between the two is that behavioral leadership is the actions a leader takes, while trait leadership is an approach that focuses on personality traits, such as drive and self-confidence.
 
To review, see A Situational Approach to Leadership, What Traits Make a Leader?, and What Behaviors Make a Leader?.
 

1b. Explain the difference between management and leadership

• Why do you think interpersonal skills are necessary for leadership?
• What are the different levels of management hierarchy?
• Of the four functions of management, which do you think is the most important, and why?
  

You were introduced to the concept of management, and how management relates to leadership. Management involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Leadership, on the other hand, is the set of skills that help organizations to achieve goals, usually, involving interpersonal skills. The difference between the two is that management is more focuses on day to day tasks, while leadership is part of management, it is an important topic all on its own because it applies interpersonal skills to make the management side of things more effective. There are three main levels of management, executive, middle, and first-line, and each requires a different skills set. Executive managers tend to need more conceptual skills, while first line managers need more technical skills. When managers plan, this involves strategic planning, operational planning, tactical planning, and contingency planning. Within the organizing role, the manager will divide tasks and assign authority and responsibility to employees. Leading involves guiding and motivating employees to help the organization to reach their goals. The controlling role of management involves looking at performance standards and goals and comparing the outcomes to the goals that were set forth.
 
To review, see The Role of a Manager, What Traits Make a Leader?, and Management v. Leadership.
 

1c. Choose the best leadership or decision-making theory to apply to a given situation 

• What does followership in the context of leadership mean to you? What makes a good follower?
•  Why is it so important to understand the situation when deciding the best way to lead individuals?
• What traits and behaviors should be applied to choose the best leadership style for a group of employees?
  

While traits of leaders are important, the behaviors a leader enacts are important to the success of managing people. Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leader-situation is one way to choose the best leadership style. With this model, the leader would look at leader member relations, task structure, and position power in order to lead in the appropriate manner.
 
The goal-path theory of leadership states that this method is effective when the leader shows the path to a valued goal. The model looks at leader behavior and situational factors (like work environment), and combines these to include the employees.
 
You also learned about other styles of leadership, such as autocratic, authentic leadership, democratic leadership, and laissez faire leadership. In addition, understanding followership, and the role of being a follower in order to be a good leader is an important concept to note.

To review, see A Situational Approach to Leadership and What is Followership?.
 

Unit 1 Vocabulary 

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

• behavioral leadership
• Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leader-situation
• goal-path theory of leadership
• leadership
• management
• trait leadership

Unit 2: Skills and Abilities of Successful Leaders

2a. Explain the role of leaders in creating and communicating a company's vision, culture, and goals

• What managerial communication roles do you see in your organization? 
• What is noise in communication, and how can it be reduced in communications? 
• What methods of communication do you think are most effective?
  

One of the major roles of a leader is to communicate the company's vision, culture, and goals. The management communication process begins with the communicator, who encodes a message. The message is then decoded by the employee, who gives feedback to the manager (communicator). During the process, noise can take place, which is when a message gets distorted.

Organizations have a variety of ways to communicate, such as emails and texts. Daily interactions that managers engage in with regards to communication include speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Within these methods, managers can communicate laterally to a coworker, down to a subordinate, externally – outside of the organization, diagonally to a different department, and up to their supervisor.

As you probably already know, managers have to interact with many people on a weekly basis. One such interaction is as a figurehead – which includes ceremonial duties, for example, reading and responding to emails that relate directly to their status. Managers also have informational roles, where they gather, collage, analyze, store and disseminate information. In the decisional role, managers make decisions on behalf of the organization and stakeholders.

With communication skills, managers must communicate the vision, mission, and goals to employees in the organization. A vision statement is an expression of what a business's founders want the business to accomplish and is usually very broad. A mission statement is the why of a vision statement and focuses on how the firm will make its vision a reality.

To review, see Leadership Communication and Create a Vision and Mission.

2b. Motivate a team by applying the team development process

• In what ways is emotional intelligence within teams important? 
• What makes a successful team? 
• What are the stages of the team development process?

There are several elements that make a team environment successful: common commitment and purpose, specific performance goals, complementary skills, commitment to how the work gets done, and mutual accountability.

Teams develop over time, going through each stage of the team development process. The stages include: Forming, storming, norming, and performing. The forming stage is the introduction of team members. The storming stage begins when team members begin vying for leadership and test the group processes. During this phase there can be frustration around goals – and is the job of the manager to reduce this frustration. During the norming stage, the team starts to work well together, and there is buy-in for the group goals. As the team builds momentum, they enter the performing stage. During this phase, they work well together and have pride. If a new team member is added, or if goals change, sometimes the team will start over in the forming stage.

When managing an effective team, there are a few components that are important to consider as a manager. First, the manager must ensure behaviors within the team build trust. Second, team members must promise, and follow through on expectations. Emotional intelligence is important too, which is the ability to recognize your own feelings, and the feelings of others.

To review, see Building a Team and What is an Effective Team?.

2c. Use change management models to shepherd change in an organization

•  How are Lewin's and Kotler's change models similar and different?
•  What types of changes have you experienced in your organization? 
•  When do you think a top-down change is necessary?:

Change management is the process of designing and implementing change. Leaders are usually responsible for some degree of change management in organizations. There are a few different types of changes. A deficit-based change is one where there is a state of dysfunction or serious problems that need to be resolved. An abundance-based change is one where a high performing organization sees a need for change to continue to be high performing. Top-down change comes from the leaders in an organization, while bottom-up change relies on the investment of employees to make changes.

Structural changes relate to a change involving the relationships within an organization, such as a reorganization of departments. A technical change might be one where the company does a software upgrade. A cultural change is where the manager attempts to change the common patterns of thinking and behaving within the organization.

Lewin's Change Model is one model we can apply when making changes in our organization, which consists of three phases: unfreeze, move, refreeze. Kotler's change model has eight steps, which include establishing a sense of urgency, form a powerful guiding coalition, create a vision of change, communicate the vision, remove obstacles, create small wins, consolidate improvements, and anchor the change.

To review, see Change Management.

2d. Use innovation frameworks to encourage innovation in an organization

• How do companies use innovation to create a competitive advantage? 
• What is the role of a leader in creating an entrepreneurial orientation? 
• What are necessary considerations when creating an innovative organization?
  

An entrepreneurial orientation refers to the processes, practices, and decision-making styles of organizations that act entrepreneurially. This type of orientation tends to create innovative organizations, who embrace innovation. In order to create such an organization, autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking must be the elements present.

There are several necessary elements and considerations to innovation, which include: innovation degrees, innovation direction, innovation risk, innovation thresholds, innovation criteria, innovation processes, innovation diffusion, innovation pacing, innovation value, disruptive innovation, and 

Degrees of innovation is another important consideration, which includes incremental innovations, evolutionary innovations, and revolutionary innovations.

To review, see Entrepreneurial Orientation and Encourage Innovation.

2e, Coach and motivate employees in regular times and in crises

• What is the leader's role in coaching employees? 
• What are some of the methods leaders use to coach employees?
• How does talent development relate to employee coaching?

Coaching and motivating employees is an important part of leadership. Talent development refers to all processes and programs that an organization utilizes to assess and develop talent. Succession planning is the process for reviewing key roles and determining the readiness levels of potential candidates to fill these roles. When assessing talent, leaders look at employee competencies and behaviors, which may include business ,acumen, strategic thinking, leadership skills, people skills, learning and technology skills. They may also look at education, certifications, and accomplishments of those employees.

When coaching employees, there can be several roles that relate to performance of an employee, providing direction to them, supporting them and ensuring their personal wellbeing. This includes managing, training business coaching, life coaching, mentoring and counseling.

To review, see Developing Talent and Coaching Employees.

2f. Explain how power and influence within organizational leadership can drive company success

• How do leaders apply power in organizations?
• What is the best type of power to apply in most situations as a leader? 
• How might a leader unethically wield power? How can this be avoided?

There are several ways leaders can apply power. The first referent power, which is used when person A looks up to person B, and as a result, follows them because they look up to them. Expert power is demonstrated when a person has expertise in a particular area. Legitimate power is like authority, where someone may have a job title or role that gives them power over another. Reward power occurs when a person has power because they control the reward system. Coercive power is based on fear – where if I do x, then y will happen. Referent power, in many situations, is the best one to apply as a leader.

There are ethical considerations when applying power as a leader. Being fair, making appropriate requests, administering rewards as promised, being credible, and being sensitive to employee needs are ways to apply power ethically. Applying power appropriately is important to ensure organizational goals are met.

To review, see Types of Power in an Organization.

2g. Use continuous learning methods to foster an innovative, learning organizational culture

• What is a learning organization? 
• Why are learning organizations important, and what is the leader's responsibility in creating a learning organization? 
• How can you implement continuous learning in your daily life?
  

Lifelong learning is where someone continually learns throughout their lives, and they are never finished learning.  Thus, a learning organization is important to the success of an organization. It is defined as an organization where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, and where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured.

Successful learning organizations have five key aspects: systems thinking, mental models, personal mastery, building a shared vision and team learning.

Continuous learning also means lifelong learning, which means to continue learning throughout our lives, and never be finished learning.

To review, see Build a Learning Organization.

Unit 2 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

• change management
• decisional role
• emotional intelligence
• entrepreneurial orientation
• figurehead
• informational roles
• lifelong learning
• talent development

Unit 3: How to Handle Leadership Challenges

3a. Resolve substantive and emotional conflicts within a team

•  What conflict resolution style do you use?
•  What are some of the causes of conflict?
•  What is the best way to resolve conflict between team members?

As a leader, there is a very likely chance you will have to deal with conflict, either with a team member, among team members, or upper management. The three "I's" of conflict describe the reason for a conflict which entails: interdependence, incompatible goals, or interactions.

There are several areas of conflict to be aware of. First, latent conflict refers to the fact that conditions may be ripe for conflict, such as personal factors or cultural factors. A perceived conflict means that one or more parties believe incompatibilities exist. Felt conflict refers to a phase of conflict where parties formulate strategies on how to deal with the conflict A manifest conflict refers to the strategies taken to attempt to manage the conflict. The conflict aftermath refers to the long and short-term results of the conflict, such as how it affected the relationship.

There are several ways to manage a conflict, such as accommodation, avoiding, compromising, collaborating, and competing. Each person tends to have their own style for conflict resolution. Awareness of your conflict style, and the conflict styles of others can help conflicts be resolved more readily.

To review, see Understanding Conflict.

3b. Help teams overcome dysfunction by understanding individual personalities and motivation

• What are the five dysfunctions of a team? 
• If you see one of the five dysfunctions occurring on your team, what action should you take? 
• What leadership characteristics can contribute to team dysfunction?
  

There are five main types of team dysfunctions you may experience and must handle as the leader in an organization. The first is an absence of trust, which means an unwillingness to be vulnerable within a group. Fear of conflict means the team seeks artificial harmony over constructive debate. Lack of commitment refers to people feigning buy-in for team goals. Avoidance of accountability means to duck responsibility to call people on counterproductive behavior, which sets low standards. Inattention to results means people within the team are focused on their personal success and/or ego instead of focusing on the team.

When leaders portray certain traits, this can negatively impact team dysfunction in an organization. Some of these traits include being authoritarian, being unpredictable, along with aggressive, and manipulative behavior. In a dysfunctional organization, team members often feel oppressed, constantly under threat, emotionally drained, and not valued.

To review, see Types of Team Dysfunctions and Avoiding and Overcoming Dysfunctions.

3c. Explain "the dark side of leadership" and how leaders avoid this phenomenon

• How does UPB relate to the dark side of leadership? 
• What elements are normally present when the "dark side of leadership" occurs?
• What elements often occur for a follower when presented with a dark-sided leader?

While charisma is often a valued trait for leaders, at times this charisma can turn into what researchers call "the dark side of leadership". The research in this area focuses on leader traits and behaviors, interaction between leaders and followers, and how interactions between leaders and followers can impact relationships and decision making.

Three "nightmare" traits of leaders include dishonesty, disagreeableness, and carelessness. These three traits can contribute to the dark side of leadership. When a leader applies these traits, they often leverage abusive supervision, are self-interested, and create fear among employees. As you remember reading, fear is one of the dysfunctions of a team, so when leaders leverage fear, it is detrimental to the team.

When you look at the interactions of these types of leaders and followers, when leaders have some or all of these traits, abusive supervision results in lower follower participation and higher experiences of burnout for the followers.

Along the same thinking for the dark side of leadership, leaders sometimes engage in unethical preorganization behavior (UBP), which refers to activities conducted to enhance the operation of the company, leaders, or members, yet breaches critical social values and damages the interests of the internal stakeholders. This often occurs with charismatic leaders, the need for followers to have psychological safety. When combined with performance pressure, this may create UBP within an organization, with detrimental long-term effects on morale and productivity. On the flip side, leaders that are ethical can create organizations that promote ethical values, while promoting the best interests of the organization.

To review, see Avoiding the Darkside and Leadership Charisma.

3d. Address performance issues with employees through effective coaching and discipline processes

• What are some potential performance issues leaders must handle with employees?
• How can companies ensure performance issues are handled quickly and fairly?
• What internal and external factors influence employee performance?

Leaders are usually responsible for managing performance issues with their employees. There are many possible performance issues, such as tardiness, family issues, drug or alcohol abuse, nonperforming, and quality of work, among many others.

There are internal and external factors that influence performance. Internal factors should include conflicts, perceived unfairness, or job dissatisfaction. External factors can include lack of management support or the skills needed for the job, and the skills of the employee are mismatched.

One of the first steps in leadership and performance management is to ensure all rules and procedures are written and revised on an as-needed basis.

There are different levels of performance issues that may be handled in different ways. A mandated issue is one that must be handled immediately, such as harassment. A single incident is defined as a mistake a person has made, while a behavior pattern means the employee keeps making the same mistake over again. Each of these types of performance issues should be handled immediately, following the company rules and procedures.

To review, see Performance Issues.

Unit 3 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

• felt conflict
• latent conflict
• perceived conflict
• unethical preorganization behavior (UPB)

Unit 4: Leadership Development Plans

4a. Assess your own emotional intelligence and create strategies to improve emotional intelligence skills

• Based on the quiz you took in this section, what is your level of emotional intelligence? 
• What are some strategies you can implement to develop your emotional intelligence skills?
• Identify people you know with high emotional intelligence skills, and observe their behaviors and traits.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, pay attention to, and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others. It is an important leadership skill. EQ involves four pillars: self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills. Self-awareness and self-regulation refers to understanding your emotions, and logic, and controlling those emotions to handle situations you may be faced with as a leader. Empathy is the ability to understand other people's emotions. Social skills refer to the ability to understand other people's emotions and act on their emotions. Please note that intelligence quotient (IQ) is important, but EQ is another important aspect to being a good leader.

Leaders with high emotional intelligence are able to understand their own strengths and weaknesses. They also adapt to change, and don't let change paralyze their emotions. Understanding and "stepping in someone else's shoes'' can help leaders give better feedback and make them not reactive to emotional situations. People who are highly intelligent also view mistakes as opportunities to grow, and do not let failures become roadblocks to success. 

To review, see The Fours Pillars of EQ and Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Success.

4b. Compare and contrast models for effective decision making and critical thinking skills

• What are some of the barriers to effective decision making?
• How do programmed and non-programmed decisions vary in nature?
• How can you apply the decision-making process in order to more effectively make decisions?

Leaders are able to make well thought out decisions. There are two types of decisions, programmed decisions and non-programmed decisions. Programmed decisions are those that are repeated over time and for which an existing set of rules can be developed to guide the process. Non-programmed decisions are novel, unstructured decisions that are generally based on criteria that are not well-defined.

The decision-making process involves six main steps, which include: 

Recognize that a decision needs to be made. Generate multiple alternatives. Analyze the alternatives. Select an alternative. Implement the selected alternative. Evaluate its effectiveness.

There are several barriers to effective decision making. Escalation of commitment is the tendency of decision makers to remain committed to poor decision, even when doing so leads to increasingly negative outcomes. Some leaders also have time constraints in which they must make a decision but do not have all information. Personal bias can hinder our decision making as well. There are also logical fallacies that impact decision making, which include non sequitur, false cause, ad hominem, genetic fallacy, appeal to tradition, and many others.

To review, see Decision-Making Process.

4c. Evaluate personal and organizational goals using the SMART Goal model

• What SMART goals do you have for the next year?
  
• What tactics will you use to meet your SMART goals? 
  
• How will you measure each of your goals?

Another topic in this unit is effective goal setting. In order to be a successful leader, setting goals and monitoring progress toward those goals is important. One such as to set goals is to focus on SMART goals. A SMART goal is specific (defined), measurable (defined outcomes to measure success), attainable (reasonable and within your ability to accomplish), relevant (the goal applies to the situation), and time-bound (set a specific time frame for meeting the goal.

Once SMART goals are set, an action plan is needed to make sure the goals are achieved. You'll want to put a plan together that lists the goal, tasks you must accomplish to meet that larger goal, and put a timeline to it.

To review, see Goal Setting Strategies.

4d. Apply effective public speaking and communication skills

• What are some best practices when preparing an oral presentation?
  
• What are best practices associated with preparing a written paper, email, or business-related text?
• How might the demographics of the group change your delivery of the message?

An important skill required for leaders is effective communication. In addition to the information we've already presented in this course on written and verbal communication, we will dig deeper into this topic on how to prepare a message for a particular audience such as a speech or even a written email communication. The first step revolves around how to get to know your audience when preparing a presentation. There can be three main types of audiences: primary, secondary, and hidden audience. Understanding their demographics, interest in your message, environment, the information they need, you can customize the message to the specific audience.

Of course, if your communication involves public speaking, you will want your speech to be well prepared, defined, and practice it to make sure it provides the intended message. 

There are several things that can impact verbal messages, including tone, paralanguage, body language, level of eye contact, and facial expressions to name a few. Information richness refers to the amount of sensory input available during a communication. Face to face communication, for example, has higher richness than a written document. 

To review, see Perfecting Public Speaking and Presentations.

4e. Develop effective negotiation skills, such as building rapport, to meet organizational and personal goals

• What is BATNA in negotiations?
  
• How would you define a reservation point in negotiations? 
  
• What are some ways you can prepare for a negotiation? 

There can be many things that make someone a poor negotiator. Since leaders often negotiate, this is an important skill to learn. People often aren't good negotiators because they settle for less, or because they have faulty feedback in the process. 

Preparation in negotiations is the key, understanding the situation and parties, the issues, the interests of all parties, the goals, and then applying tactics to have a successful negotiation. Negotiations aren't fixed-sum – in other words, "you win, I lose". It means to use tactics that help people come to a conclusion they can both be happy with.

There are a few negotiation tactics you can try, they include distributive strategy, integrative strategy or mixed-motive strategy A distributive strategy means to "win it all" or claim everything for yourself. An integrative strategy attempts to create value for all and find solutions that fit best with the needs of all or most parties. A mixed-motive strategy focuses on finding a solution that meets the needs of all, while obtaining your personal needs.

To review, see Negotiation Theory and Practice.

4f. Apply networking and impression management skills, such as the use of social media, to enhance leadership abilities

• Why is networking important as a leader?
  
• How should a proper handshake be given?
  
• What types of other social skills would you like to develop in order to hone your leadership skills?

Part of emotional intelligence is social skills. One aspect to social skills is applying proper etiquette in all situations. First, workplace etiquette involves dressing appropriately, making sure your body language is appropriate (such as making eye contact), using appropriate communication, being one time, and knowing how to give a proper handshake. Another important aspect to etiquette is making sure you are able to introduce people's property to one another. Being professional, speaking professionally, and being positive are all important traits to demonstrate as a leader.

Networking is another important tool to help develop your career as a leader. Many people network by talking to others in social situations, however, networking must go further than that. When you network it is more than getting business cards, it is having a plan of action on what to do and how to leverage those contacts.

To review, see Leadership Etiquette and Develop Your Network.

4g. Identify gaps between personality traits and leadership skills to develop leadership goals and plans

• What type of self-reflection have you done recently, and how will you continue to ensure you are engaging in self-reflection?
  
• What are your short term goals? 
  
• What plans do you have in place to achieve both short and long term goals? 

In this final section of our course, you were able to perform some self-assessment to further develop your leadership skills. Important aspects to leadership include time management skills, including putting together a time management guide to help you better manage time. We also addressed the importance of having a mentor to help guide you as you grow in your career.

Self-reflection as a leader is also necessary – the ability to make decisions, and reflect on those that worked well, and those that didn't. It is also the ability to identify strengths and weaknesses and make attempts to address the weaknesses you may have. 

Finally, putting together a leadership plan helps you create a roadmap to fully understand where you are now, and where you want to be. The leadership developed a plan addressed near term goals, mid-term goals, and long-term goals. Then, you'll want to look at traits you need to develop, skills you should develop, as well as action plans that relate to your goals.

To review, see Leadership Plans.

Unit 4 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

• distributive strategy

• escalation of commitment

• information richness

• integrative strategy

• mixed-motive strategy

• non-programmed decisions

• programmed decisions

• SMART goal