Housekeeping Quiz News: Obama’s speechObama’s speech Topics Rcap last week Leaders vs. managers What is a theory & how can it be evaluated?

Leaders and Managers: What’s the difference and is it meaningful?

Good & Poor Leaders: What’s the difference? Make two columns: one of “good” leaders, the other “poor” leaders List several examples of each Identify the principles of what makes a leader good or poor

Leader Constraint Theory (McClelland et al, 1972) McClelland used the TAT to identify power needs, then examined projective stories from leaders containing the word “not.” Low scorers on activity inhibition were often occupied with personal dominance and winning at others’ expense’ high scorers more often expressed good for others, humanity, or some moral cause.

Leaders with high need for power and have high activity inhibition, are more effective leaders because they manifest their need for power in socially appropriate (“prosocial”) ways while also meeting their role demands for influence

What’s your personal leadership theory? What is “leadership”? How does one become a leader? What difference does it make in an organization? Can it be developed/trained? How?

What exactly is a “theory” anyway? What should it do? “I have a theory about that…

How do you know if a theory is any good?

How to evaluate a theory Parsimony – simplest, reasonable answer Operationality – terms defined by operations & measurements Generativity/Heuristic – generates hypotheses, stimulates questions Power – accounts for events with increasing accuracy & utility (nominal, descriptive, predictive, control) Falsifiability – can be tested and rejected Importance – relevant events Internal consistency – concepts logically related and consistent with one another Scope – definable focus for application Organization – explains relationship among concepts Empirical support – data/studies that support it Measurement – level of measurement & instrumentation