Implicit Leadership Perspective

The competency, behavior, contingency, and transformational leadership perspectives make the basic assumption that leaders make a difference. Certainly, there is evidence that senior executives do influence organizational performance. However, leadership also involves followers perceptions about the characteristics and influence of people they call leaders. This perceptual perspective of leadership is collectively called implicit leadership theory. 72 Prototypes of Effective Leaders Implicit leadership theory consists of two related concepts. The main part of this theory states that everyone has leadership prototypespreconceived beliefs about the features and behaviors of effective leaders. These prototypes, which develop through socialization within the family and society, 73 shape our expectations and acceptance of others as leaders, and this in turn affects our willingness to serve as followers. In other words, we are more willing to allow someone to influence us as a leader if that person looks and acts like our prototype of a leader. For example, one recent study established that inherited personality characteristics significantly influence the perception that someone is a leader in a leaderless situation. 74 Such leadership prototypes not only support a persons role as leader; they also form or influence our perception of the leaders effectiveness. If the leader looks like and acts consistently with our prototype, we are more likely to believe that the leader is effective. 75 This prototype comparison process occurs because people have an inherent need to quickly evaluate individuals as leaders, yet leadership effectiveness is often ambiguous and might not be apparent for a long time. The Romance of Leadership Along with relying on implicit prototypes of effective leaders, followers tend to distort their perception of the influence that leaders have on the environment. This romance of leadership effect exists because in most cultures people want to believe that leaders make a difference. Consider the experience of Ricardo Semler, the charismatic CEO of Brazilian conglomerate SEMCO SA: At the company, no matter what you do, people will naturally create and nurture a charismatic fi gure, Semler suggests. The charismatic fi gure, on the other hand, feeds this; it doesnt just happen, and it is very diffi cult to check your ego at the door. The people at SEMCO dont look and act like me. They are not yes-men by any means. What is left, however, is a certain feeling that has to do with the cult of personality. They credit me with successes that are not my own, and they dont debit me my mistakes. They give undue importance to what I say, and I think that doesnt go away. 76 There are two basic reasons why people inflate their perceptions of the leaders influence over the environment. 77 First, leadership is a useful way for us to simplify life events. It is easier to explain organizational successes and failures in terms of the leaders ability than by analyzing a complex array of other forces. Second, there is a strong tendency in the United States and other Western cultures to believe that life events are generated more from people than from uncontrollable natural forces. 78 This illusion of control is satisfied by believing that events result from the rational actions of leaders. In other words, employees feel better believing that leaders make a difference, so they actively look for evidence that this is so. One way that followers support their perceptions that leaders make a difference is through fundamental attribution error (see Chapter 3). Research has found that (at least in Western cultures) leaders are given credit or blame for the companys success or failure because employees do not readily see the external forces that also influence these events. Leaders reinforce this belief by taking credit for organizational successes. 79 The implicit leadership perspective provides valuable advice to improve leadership acceptance. It highlights the fact that leadership is a perception of followers as much as the actual behaviors and formal roles of people calling themselves leaders. Potential leaders must be sensitive to this fact, understand what followers expect, and act accordingly. Individuals who do not make an effort to fit leadership prototypes will have more difficulty bringing about necessary organizational change.

1. summarize the information above.