Part 1:
A. Do you think men and women lead the same way or differently? Why?
B. What do you think are the major differences between behavioural and contingency leadership theories?
C. Does knowing about these theories impact your leadership style? How could you use these theories to change your leadership style?
Part 2:
A. Think of a prior or present manager of yours who had coercive power. Provide an example of how he or she uses or used reward and punishment to achieve an objective.
B. Do you think using coercive power is the most effective strategy to get results? Explain.
C. If you had to use a type of power to influence others, which would you choose and why?
Part 3:
A. Identify a specific task assigned to you by a manager. Break down the steps he or she took in the oral message-sending process.
B. What is your weakest listening skill? How can you improve that?
C. Have you ever used paraphrasing? Has it been used on you? Describe the situation and your thoughts on whether it was helpful in communicating.
Part 4:
A. Based on the LMX theory, focus on the existence of in-groups and out-groups. Think about a working unit or organization you are or were involved in that included in-groups and out-groups. Describe how the manager's behaviour and actions toward the in-group was different from those toward the out-group. Did this difference impact the out-group's productivity? How?
B. The team focused leadership discussed in the TMX theory is said to result in group identification and increased productivity. In your opinion, is this correct? Do you think employing a TMX centered approach to leadership would increase effectiveness?