Leadership psychology

The Executive coaching is an independent and traditional branch of business psychology . It deals with the experience and behavior of people in the context of the influence of managers . Its theoretical foundation consists in a reception of psychological , in particular organizational psychological research findings. For example, many managers are poorly or not at all prepared to lead a team . Therefore, the need for information about successful leadership in both theory and practice is high.

Features of leadership psychology

The management of people is a complex phenomenon, the facets of which require differentiated consideration and analysis. Leadership psychology makes its contribution by dealing with the sub-aspects of leadership in the various areas of human coexistence. Based on Gibb , Lukascyk names the following four variables in leadership psychology , which are related to one another and are considered to pave the way for leadership-related interaction theory:

The personality structure of the manager including their innate talents and abilities as well as their individual experiences.
The personalities of those being led including their individual attitudes, expectations and needs in relation to the leader as well as the situation.
The group as a whole as a differentiated and integrated system of status-role relationships and common group norms.
The situation in which the manager and the group find themselves. This includes the type of task to be completed, the group goal and other external conditions.

If these elements are supplemented by management goals , management instruments or the success to be achieved together and introduced into a control loop in terms of system theory, then the person-oriented management process emerges .

In addition to clarifying the process phenomenon, research in leadership psychology is also devoted to the question of how leadership comes about, and it analyzes the effects of leadership. It is about the description and classification of different forms of leadership behavior or leadership styles and the analysis of the influence on the groups or on the overall system.

Sub-areas

Leadership psychology concentrates on those psychological aspects that are associated with the goal- or situation-related influence of managers on people. The guided are to be guided towards a jointly achieved success using management tools.

The main goal of the research activities is to obtain meaningful leadership theories . Important research areas are, for example, the management processes with the management goals, the manager, the leadership styles, the leadership success ( implementation skills ) and the leadership skills in leadership development .

In addition, leadership skills, management methods , management organization , presentation , work methodology , anti-stress training and the continuous improvement process are areas of consideration.

In particular, leadership-related findings from personality, group, motivational, communication, learning and volitional psychology are to be included.

Demarcation

Leadership psychology distinguishes itself from other fields of observation of psychology, because it does not see the following areas of the much broader organizational psychology, to which it is partially included, as its objects of consideration: organizational choice by individuals, intercultural management, organizational culture , organizational diagnostics, change management and Leaving the organization.

It can also be distinguished from personal psychology. This primarily focuses on the individual as an employee of an organization. However, management psychology does not deal with the issues of personnel planning, personnel deployment or personnel management control, which are dealt with in human resource management.

The social psychology as a science of experience and behavior between people has likewise intersections with issues of leadership psychology (z. B. the social group) but also continues with fields apart, are less interesting for the leadership psychology, z. B. social interaction and sociometric perception of the individual.

History of leadership psychology

Hermann Liebel gives an overview of the history of leadership psychology, who presents the development of leadership psychology very comprehensively and in a differentiated manner:

Impetus for leadership psychology was u. a. from Taylor , who with his proposals for scientific management tried to increase the productivity of human work by dividing it into small work steps ( Taylorism ). In contrast, the critical point of view related to the psycho-technique of Stern and Miinsterberg one on the economic analysis also mainly psychological and ergonomic factors into consideration.

In the course of history it has been shown that the purely productivity-oriented management needs to be supplemented by the social attitude of the company management. The aim of the human relations movement was above all to include the leadership of groups in the considerations. The research results of Mayo , Roetlisberger and Dickson ( Hawthorne effect ), Whitehead and above all Homans show that human relationships are of considerable importance for work behavior .

While the Norton Street Gang Investigation opened the internal organization of groups and the behavior of the informal leader and outsiders of White, who showed conformity studies of Solomon Asch that there are majority of the group in the group serious for managers influences. Members of a group often adapt to the supposed group opinion against their own convictions.

Papers by Bastine (1972), Neuberger (1976), Leavitt (1978), Sader (1976) and Liebel (1978) provide information about the diverse tasks, goals and scientific results of leadership psychology in the 1970s .

Harold Leavitt has divided the basic management psychology problem into the following forms:

The single person as an individual
Two people in the context of communication
Three to twenty people in a group
Hundreds / thousands of people in an organization as a whole.

This classification shows that leadership psychology is closely related to social psychology, personnel psychology and organizational psychology. More recent scientific work on the management of working groups was presented by Pietruschka (2003) and Wegge (2004).

Related areas in psychology

Current leadership psychology researches human leadership behavior, the behavior of employees and the investment and environmental factors on which behavior is based. In this context, it often builds on the findings of sub-areas:

The personality psychology , dealing with topics such as consciousness / subconscious, self-esteem , transactional analysis , social skills , soft skills employed, behavior modification, personality, personality analysis, talent management and defense mechanisms.

The group psychology , the results of the research group presented to team leadership. Intersections with leadership psychology can be found here in questions about leading individual group members or entire teams , leading self-regulated working groups, the influence of leadership styles and leadership techniques on the success of those being led.

The motivational psychology , which deals in general with action control, action impulses and needs. Topics relevant to leadership psychology are the motives of what is being led, incentives from managers: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, the power motive , coaching and motivation through target agreements.

The psychology of communication which mainly interpersonal communication as mutual information has people to look object (eg. As communication theory of Watzlawik ). Leadership psychology derives knowledge about behavior in conferences and meetings, conflict training, conflict resolution, return talks and conversations.

The learning psychology , which arises with the processes of the psychological processes of learning, which results as products of the science of the learning theories. Organization results from thinking and what has been effectively learned.

The personnel psychology , at them with personnel management, personnel organization, recruitment processes, personnel marketing and staff support.

The organizational psychology , which acts as work psychology with the work, the individual, the group, the staff and the organization develops.

Leadership theories

While the beginnings of leadership research mainly deal with the characteristics and behavior of executives and the situation in which leadership takes place, more recent research approaches investigate the interaction process of leadership. Overall, the following theories on leadership have developed:

Contingency theory (leadership theory) by Fiedler (1967)
Situational leadership by Hersey and Blanchard
Transactional leadership
Authentic leadership
Charismatic leadership
Spiritual guidance
Transformational leadership by Bass and Avolio
Leadership continuum by Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt (1958)
Systemic leadership theories

literature

K. Lewin , R. Lippitt, RK White: Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. In: Journal of Social Psychology. 10, 1939, pp. 271–301 (classic study of the effects of authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire leadership on the group climate)

Jens Asendorpf : Psychology of Personality. 4th edition. Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-71684-6 .

R. Bastine: Group tour. In: CF Graumann (Ed.): Handbuch der Psychologie. Volume VII: Social Psychology. 2nd half volume, Göttingen 1972, pp. 1654-1709.

Ekkehard Crisand, Gerhard Raab (ed.): Workbooks for leadership psychology . Hamburg 2010.

Hans G. Gemünden, Martin Högl (Ed.): Management of teams. 2nd Edition. Wiesbaden 2001.

Hermann Liebel: Leadership Psychology . Göttingen / Toronto / Zurich 1978.

Harold J. Leavitt: Fundamentals of Leadership Psychology . Zurich 1978.

Kurt Lukaszyk: On the theory of the leader role. In: Psychological Rundschau. Vol. 11, 1960, pp. 179-188.

Oswald Neuberger : Lead and let lead. 6th edition. Stuttgart 2002.

Horst-Joachim Rahn : Compact personnel management . Munich 2008.

Hans-Georg Huber / Hans Metzger: Sensibly successful. Leading oneself and others , Rowohlt Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-61936-9 .

Peter Schettgen: Leadership Psychology in Transition . Wiesbaden 1991.

Thomas M. Steiger, Eric D. Lippmann : Handbook of applied psychology for managers. 3. Edition. Heidelberg 2008.

Rainer W. Stroebe: Leadership styles. 8th edition. Heidelberg 2007.

Niels Van Quaquebeke: Psychology of leadership: understanding people. Move people. (Book and online video) , ZEIT Akademie, Hamburg, 2018.