Classmates

From this article you will learn:

• How does an informal leader in an organization differ from a formal one?
• What kind of informal leader can appear in an organization?
• What qualities does he have?
• What is the role of an informal leader in an organization?
• How to work with it
• Can an informal leader in an organization be re-educated?

An informal leader in an organization can either benefit or harm it. It is quite easy to detect its appearance, although employees who have every chance of taking on this role do not indicate this fact in their resumes and do not talk about it during an interview, but they will not hide their ambitions for long. Is it necessary to fire an informal leader? Maybe try to negotiate and benefit from his activities? You can find the answer to these and many other questions in this article.

Formal and informal leaders in an organization: what is the difference

In every team there is a relationship between leader and followers. In this case, the leader can be both formal and informal. A leader is an official position that provides a certain amount of power over subordinates. The position of the manager is secured by specific rules, regulations and instructions. An informal leader in an organization influences other employees without relying on his place in the corporate hierarchy. He can only use his own authority and established relationships.

It is quite simple to recognize an official leader in any office: he has his own office, he gives orders and demands their implementation within the specified time frame. Finding an informal leader in an organization is a little more difficult. Visually, this person can blend in with the rest of the employees, but at the same time he manages to competently subordinate people to his own ideas. Often, ordinary employees are not aware of the level of his influence, although in difficult situations they turn to him, discussing the problem more actively and energetically than during official consideration.

What contributes to the emergence of an informal leader in an organization? Many experts believe that this is an absolutely normal situation for any team, since informal relationships have always been and will be part of the work process. Whatever abilities the appointed boss has, there will be candidates for the role of informal leader in the organization. How to become a real leader not in words, but in practice? Take part in the Practicum Group Business Regatta 2018 in Croatia.

There is another opinion, which is that the appearance of such a person in the team is dictated by the omission of certain functions by the immediate supervisor. They are taken over by an authoritative employee. In any case, it should be noted that the role of the informal leader in the organization is directly related to the position of the official administration; they can be an inverse reflection of each other. If a strict authoritarian management style reigns in a company, and the manager does not strive to establish friendly relationships with his subordinates, then there will definitely be a sociable and charming employee in the team who will be able to defuse the situation and relieve tension in relationships by listening and comforting colleagues. And a very soft and pliable boss guarantees the appearance of a tough employee, capable of making decisions for all the people in the company.

We present several standard scenarios for the formation of an informal leader in an organization:

• It appears only due to the situation: any employee can become an authority, but under the right circumstances.
• Leaders sometimes change, and usually this happens when the team or management changes.
• Sometimes a company has several authoritative employees who interact well with each other. It also happens that each of this group performs the functions of the leader of one direction, and in this case the process work in progress very efficient and effective.

There are informal leaders who strive to occupy the position of official leader. Such employees do not want to fade into the background, as this does not correspond to their ambitions. Often they do not reveal all their cards, but manipulate the team covertly. Such a person can stand in opposition to the official leadership and act in his own selfish interests.

If an informal leader leaves the organization, then long-term unrest may occur in the team, lasting until a new authoritative employee appears. The official manager is obliged to find these hidden leaders and direct their activity in a direction useful for the company. To do this, you need to have conversations with them, praise, encourage and motivate.

The emergence of the position of an informal leader in an organization is dictated both by the human desire to be in charge and to influence certain situations, and by the modern trend in society. But this is a bold decision, because this place is not always safe. In addition to increased attention, the employee faces great risk and a lot of difficulties. Today, leadership is a clear indicator of social importance, it implies popularity and a better life. On this basis, many leadership development trainings have appeared, where a huge number of people are sent, many of whom are not intended for leading roles. Unfortunately, it is difficult to become the first even in the absence of certain abilities, and even after special training.

Types of informal leaders in an organization

Eat various types informal leaders in the organization, some of whom are useful for the company, others are only harmful. Let's look at the most common options:

1. Emotional leader. This is an employee who is useful for the organization in many ways, who has a good imagination, offers a lot of interesting ideas and inspires the team. He easily convinces his colleagues of the merits of his proposals, but quickly gives up at the first signs of criticism against him. For such people, the efficiency of the work process depends very much on their mood. They often show selfishness, and their dreams and goals do not always come true.
2. Organizer. This type of leader knows how to organize colleagues well - he makes plans, knows who needs to be involved in the work, who needs to be entrusted with what, and calculates time perfectly. But he has problems with charisma and expressiveness. If a person does not show emotions, he alienates other employees. His ideas may actually be useful, but he does not know how to “infect” his colleagues with them.
3. Anti-leader. This employee absolutely accurately selects the right words and can express his thoughts correctly. He easily gets into an argument because he is confident that he is right. If a negative informal leader of an organization conflicts with management and quits his job, then most of the department may follow him. Such a person is capable of destroying the most friendly team.

Informal leaders can also be divided according to motivational and behavioral indicators.

• "Conductor". Works well with management. If a manager needs an excellent result, but does not strive to build trusting relationships with subordinates, then this particular employee can be used to manage the team. Such informal leaders in the organization strictly adhere to the line set by their boss; they are motivated by a sense of their own importance in front of their superiors. Most often, these people are efficient and friendly, they perfectly organize the team’s activities within the framework of the company’s goals, and instill in their colleagues a desire and interest in work activities. “Conductors” are distinguished by their slow but steady career growth. The position of middle manager is the most suitable profession For this type of people, top management is more difficult for them because of the need to make independent decisions.
• "Shirt guy." The soul of the company, sociable and charismatic, he is perfectly capable of motivating individual employees to carry out those instructions that they would like to avoid. This effect is achieved with the help of charm and positive energy. In his mouth, even ordinary tasks become interesting, and it is very difficult to refuse this informal leader. His own motivation is that he has the right to communicate with his superiors “on an equal footing.”
• "The Gray Cardinal". A very important employee for a manager. This informal leader will create competent and effective tactics for achieving goals, while taking into account the individual characteristics of each person. Such an employee remembers all the little things well, because it is with their help that it is easiest to manipulate people. He does not pretend to be the author of all projects, does not try to grow in the eyes of others, a role in the background is enough for him, since the “Grey Cardinal” understands that in reality many tasks were realized precisely thanks to his efforts.
• "Rebel". A rather complex type of informal leader in an organization. He feels a natural call to protest, cannot come to terms with any injustice and is constantly faced with it. A characteristic feature of this employee is the frequent setting of any conditions, and even the organization of riots. Such a person will actively defend the interests of others, both the boss and the subordinate - it all depends on whose rights were infringed.

Usually management does not try to build special relationship with an informal leader in the organization, which can lead to a number of problems. An uncontrolled authoritative employee can seriously reduce the performance of the team or become the cause of constant conflicts.

The most “harmless” type of informal leader in an organization can be called the “conductor” and the “shirt guy.” But even they can create certain difficulties in the work of the entire company.

Informal leader in the organization and his main qualities

Regardless of the people around him, an informal leader in an organization is characterized by a number of distinctive features, which include the following:

• High communication skills. It will not be difficult for any informal leader to find a common language with the right people and strike up a conversation with them.
• Ability to win an argument and correct the interlocutor’s opinion in such a way that the opponent himself does not notice it.
• The desire to be in charge. Such employees try to completely take control of the situation and manage other employees.
• The ability to focus the attention of others on one’s own personality and on your opinion.
• Charisma. An externally and internally attractive person can become an informal leader in an organization. Such an employee attracts people and inspires trust.
• No fear of change. This person easily navigates in an unusual environment and is able to find a way out of a difficult situation that he encountered for the first time.
• Positive attitude. An informal leader in an organization radiates positivity even in difficult times; he does not give up in the face of difficulties because he believes in success and charges the rest of the employees with his energy.

If we turn to nature, we can see that among animals the leader is that representative of the species who has a number of distinctive qualities. For example:

1. Fighting skills and features:

• Body size and weight.
• Better development of organs that contribute to success in fights.
• Aggressiveness.
• Agility.
• Tendency to fight.
• Physical courage.
• Confidence.
• Assertiveness.
• Experience.
• Vigilance.
• Quick reaction to danger.
• Physical strength and endurance.
• Great physical activity.

1. Sexual characteristics:

• Increased sexual capabilities (the leader chimpanzee copes with several females every day, sometimes resorting to violent acts).
• Sexual attractiveness for sexually mature females.

1. Qualities that help a leader achieve success in relationships with his relatives:

• The leader must remain in the pack for a fairly long time, because newcomers do not inspire trust and do not have the necessary authority.
• The leader needs to find a common language with the rest of the group.
• He is the organizer of all the actions of the pack.
• Usually the leader has a fairly high and developed intelligence, and in this indicator he is superior to other individuals.

It should be noted that the leaders of the animal kingdom differ mainly in their physical capabilities for exercising dominance. In primitive society, men could be leaders, because they are much stronger and more resilient than women. And in our time, an informal leader in an organization most often stands out at first sight. Usually this is the employee who looks more impressive than the rest. He may be tall, slender and pleasant. Another distinctive feature is age. Typically, the leader is older than most of the company's employees.

3 examples about the influence of an informal leader on an organization

Do informal leaders have a positive or negative impact on the organization? It is impossible to give an exact answer to this question. The role of an informal leader in an organization is very ambiguous.

Example 1. A new employee was hired into the accounting department, but the manager did not tell her in detail about her responsibilities, but only indicated where the papers were located - invoices, invoices, etc. The chief accountant did not introduce the woman to the rest of the team and did not even show where other departments were located that needed to be worked with. But the situation was saved by a colleague holding the position of senior accountant. It was she who provided the details necessary information. The senior accountant was an informal leader in the organization. She had extensive work experience, and even the general director recognized her authority.

In this situation, the leader directs his energies to actions that are beneficial to the company. The official leader does not fulfill the full list of his responsibilities, deliberately or unconsciously shifting them to an informal representative. Such people are supported, given special powers, and sometimes made into a kind of boss. To do this, you can promote the employee to deputy or add the words “senior”, “chief”, “leading”, etc. to the existing job title. It should be noted that this will not give the employee special power, but he will become official representative head of the organization's department.

An unusual approach was used in the United States military. They were able to competently use informal leadership. All units, except the chief officer, have a sergeant. It is he who organizes the execution of orders given by the officer. This is a special rank, since the sergeant must prove himself as a true leader. He is considered a model of behavior for ordinary soldiers, and therefore is obliged to keep his performance at the highest level. In this army there is even a kind of parallel hierarchy of sergeants - staff sergeant, master sergeant, sergeant first class, master sergeant.

Example 2. The organization's chief accountant noted that his instructions are not always carried out equally quickly - sometimes this happens immediately, and in other cases the matter is seriously delayed. He decided to talk to his employees about this topic, and it turned out that before starting work, most subordinates turn to the informal leader in the organization. An authoritative employee gives advice and recommendations, and makes his own changes.

Informal leaders can negatively influence both the work of official management and the activities of ordinary employees.

Example 3. The organization's personnel service noticed that accounting employees were rapidly leaving one after another. The chief accountant could not find the reason for this phenomenon for a long time, but soon interesting information was received from one of the employees who quit. It turned out that an authoritative employee had organized a kind of hazing in the department. The informal leader formed a coalition around himself, whose members made life difficult for other employees - those who did not want to submit to his authority. The team waged a real war: they forced opponents to stay late, did not share work data, forced others to take vacations at inconvenient times, jointly filed complaints with management, showing the “oppositionists” in an unfavorable light, and at the same time covered up each other’s mistakes.

Negative informal leaders in an organization can unite workers, organizing a kind of “criminal” group. This has an extremely negative impact on the entire activity of the company.

How to identify the informal leader of an organization

In order to determine which employee of the organization is an informal leader, you will have to answer several questions:

— Whose assessment of the company’s performance is most significant for you as an employee?

— Who would you prefer to work with if you have the opportunity to take a higher position?

Also, consider the following points, which will also help you recognize an informal leader in an organization:

• Pay attention to who the majority of employees' eyes fall on, tracking leadership reactions when announcing any news, for example, at a meeting or gathering.
• Find out who company employees usually ask for help or advice.
• The informal leader of the organization often visits the smoking room with different employees.
• He can form a circle in which there is an active discussion of any issues.

Based on these signs, the official head of the organization can easily identify an informal leader.

Informal leader in an organization and ways to work with him

Many managers believe that informal leaders in the organization must be constantly encouraged and motivated. This is a completely logical approach, since in order to achieve common goals, it is possible to create optimal and favorable conditions for such an employee to work. Remember that unofficial leaders in the organization act as transmitters of information among colleagues, unite the team, and help newcomers find their way. A lot depends on the manager’s ability to direct the abilities of an outstanding employee in the right direction. They respect him, ask for advice, etc. In addition to helping organize the company's current activities, leaders can assist in organizing holiday events.

If the head of the organization wants to cooperate with such an employee, then he needs to determine his strengths and vulnerabilities.

But there are also negative informal leaders in the organization who undermine the leader’s image and reduce the overall performance of the company. HR specialists have developed methods to deal with such employees. You can give them more tasks or send them to another department. If these methods do not work, then experts suggest taking measures to reduce the authority of the leader, compromising him in front of ordinary employees and then saying goodbye to him.

But first, find the root of the problem. Perhaps the matter is not at all in the individual characteristics of the person, but in a misunderstanding of the organization’s policies or in the difficulties that have arisen within the team. If your attempts to improve relationships and direct the employee’s energy in a direction useful for the company do not bring the expected results, then it is better to fire this employee. But if the initial cause of the emergence of a negative informal leader in the organization is not eliminated, then the situation will repeat itself, and people will have to be fired again and again.

6 tips on how formal and informal leaders in an organization should get along

An informal leader in an organization understands perfectly well that he has a serious influence on the team; he strives not to lose his authority. A situation that could put him in a stupid position in front of other employees may have a negative impact on his image, which is why he will try to prevent such a development of events or eliminate its cause.

For example, an employee of the accounting department was recognized as an informal leader in the organization; her authority was not in doubt among the team in areas that are not related to work activities - fashion, makeup, style, etc. But the new employee had the imprudence to express his ridicule at her taste preferences in front of the majority of colleagues. Naturally, the authoritative woman immediately reacted, starting an operation to complicate the life of the employee she disliked: every day she complained to her superiors about the girl, seeking her dismissal.

An ordinary employee puts his job at great risk by demonstrating disagreement with the informal leader in the organization. Remember that an authoritative employee has many more ways of influencing than others, and he can also use official leadership to achieve his goals. You should not show your competence, even if you are actually more professional than the leader. This is often what newbies do. Having settled in a company, they try to prove to the rest of the employees their high level of abilities. Too much activity will only irritate the informal leader. Moreover, you should not evaluate an authoritative employee and point out his work or personal shortcomings. There is no point in evaluating a leader at all.

You should not arrange competitions with an informal leader, even comic ones. This also includes corporate competitions, because winning such games sometimes turns into a serious problem for an ordinary employee. A leader tries in any way to maintain his high position in all areas; he is very sensitive to his reputation and tries to seem the best in everything.

At a corporate party, one of the employees defeated an authoritative employee in a power competition. It would seem, what does this have to do with the work process? But the leader was so wounded that he decided to use his official position to take revenge. He provided the employee with incorrect information to prepare the financial report. It is not difficult to guess in what position the informal leader of the organization was able to put the employee he hated.

What is the reason for this behavior? It's all about five sources of power:

1. Violence (if the leader has physical power; such situations are not uncommon in the army).
2. Reward power (if the boss can influence financially: pay bonuses, bonuses, give benefits).
3. Information power (if a manager knows something that other employees do not know, he will be able to manage by releasing information in parts).
4. Expert power (if the boss has knowledge and has skills and experience superior to ordinary employees).
5. The power of charisma (the ability to competently use charm, attractive appearance, or successfully adjust one’s behavior).

Officially, the leader is able to use most of these sources of power. His influence extends to the payment of wages, he can control certain information and force employees to perform duties. This and much more is dictated by the high position held. The leader perceives criticism more balancedly, because nothing threatens his power. With an informal leader, everything is different; his only leverage can be charisma, so he very carefully shapes his image and tries with all his might to support it, because the authoritative position of such an employee is less stable.

He has only three possibilities for gaining power:

• Win fairly.
• Win by dishonest means.
• Lose and then eliminate the winner.

Tip 3. Accept feedback from an informal leader

As already mentioned, informal leaders do not tolerate criticism well, but they actively evaluate other employees, which a manager can use. If you strive to cooperate fruitfully with the main authority of the team, then you should pay attention to his recommendations, both professional and everyday.

Some employees try to distance themselves; they are in no hurry to follow the informal leader, having own opinion on many issues. Unfortunately, this position is not sustainable. Ultimately, you will need to decide whether to confront the informal leader in the organization or cooperate with him.

An easy version of confrontation, which is based on the return of one’s own power.

For example, a group of accountants of an organization carried out an inventory, and this is a very long and complex process. The informal leader proposed changes to the standard procedure; the counting system he invented turned out to be much more effective. In this case, you need to support a useful idea, but take control of the process into your own hands.

Seizing the initiative is necessary in order to maintain the authority of the official leader.

Another soft way is to ignore the activity of the informal leader. Managers resort to it when it is necessary to “punish” an authoritative employee who has crossed certain limits of what is permitted.

For example, the chief accountant of an organization regularly accompanied him to important meetings by an employee who was a recognized leader of the department. At one of these meetings, an employee made a harsh statement, and the next time he was simply not included in the list of invitees.

The image of an informal leader is firmly based on two foundations: the loyalty of ordinary workers to him and the favor of his superiors. The team very subtly determines that the attitude towards their representative has changed. And the authority of the informal leader begins to decline rapidly.

Sometimes circumstances force you to take conflicting actions in relation to the informal leader. This option cannot be called the best, because such an employee is necessary for the team, especially if he takes on some of the functions of the boss. For example, if the manager is very different from his colleagues in his age category.

If the relationship with an authoritative employee does not work out, then he needs to be eliminated. Constant conflicts can undermine your position in the eyes of ordinary employees, and at the same time, the influence of an informal leader will only increase.

How to fire an informal leader

You should not advertise your actions in such a situation, because the position of a leader is usually based on the image of an expert and his charisma, which means that you can prove to the team that in reality he is not a professional and undermine his authority.

Method one. Look for errors

Even highly qualified specialists sometimes make mistakes, but an informal leader should avoid them as much as possible. If you notice mistakes in the work of such an employee and demonstrate them to the team, and in the future you repeatedly mention this, you can reduce his influence on people.

Method two. Give an impossible task

The informal leader of the company constantly tries to demonstrate his unique abilities. Give him this opportunity in the form of a special assignment. A person will not refuse the chance to show his superiority. But remember that the task should be difficult, not absurd.

Method three. Grow a new leader

If an established informal leader negatively affects the image of management, then it is necessary to find a worthy competitor. There are various ways to do this. You can hire “your” employee who will have the appropriate professional training and leadership qualities. The problem is that a newcomer, regardless of the level of professionalism, is not able to quickly earn authority in the team. The easiest way is to single out one of the current employees of the organization. For example, assign him a fairly complex task, assign assistants, and after completion, demonstrate your approval in the presence of the majority of employees. If the team did not accept the new informal leader at the first attempt, then actions to build authority must be carried out again.

If an informal leader demonstratively laughs at the boss, provokes conflicts, and makes sarcastic remarks about him, then you will have to fight him openly. If possible, emphasize his incompetence and point out the mistakes he has made. But remember that your claims must not only be justified, they must take your opponent by surprise, so be tough and confident. Prepare in advance for retaliatory accusations, think through all possible options and worthy reactions. After such a battle, the employee will quit or change his position to a more favorable one for you.

Let's summarize. For efficient work it is necessary to identify the informal leader of the team. It is most profitable to build a company policy taking into account its presence. In any organization there is a place for cooperation between the official management and the informal leader, but if it is not possible to establish a profitable relationship, then the employee will have to be fired.

Is an informal leader in an organization amenable to education?

Is it possible to train such an employee specifically? It must be remembered that the informal leader is not endowed with any special powers; he has at his disposal only the personal qualities that are given to him by nature. Naturally, people are capable of developing different abilities, but this is very difficult and not very justified in this situation.

There is an informal leader in every organization, his position is consolidated naturally in accordance with his individual characteristics. Such a person becomes a strong, energetic, interested and responsible employee. He is able to lead the entire team. It is for these reasons that it is impossible to raise an informal leader from scratch, but it is quite possible to use for this purpose an employee in whom you saw the necessary inclinations. Try to develop them in the right direction.

Situations in which it is really justified to train an informal leader in an organization:

• If the boss needs a successor. Such a need may arise if a manager seeks to actively grow up the career ladder and decides to put someone in his own place.
• The boss intends to split his department into two, then he will need a head for the second group of employees.
• The boss intends to form an informal leader in order to better control the team. Then the manager will have information about the mood among employees and great way influence on the situation.

A potential leader in an organization must be identified at an early stage, then it will be easier to form profitable cooperation. Good ways of effective interaction are considered to be communication as equals, assignment of important tasks and financial motivation. This way you will acquire a useful employee who, with your input, will be able to regulate the mood of the entire company team.

Practicum Group business coach Evgeniy Kotov will tell you more about the rules of interaction with informal leaders at his own trainings “Strengthening Leaders. Personnel motivation" and "Effective personnel management".

Development of leadership qualities in older schoolchildren

2.1 Identifying leaders in the student body

The purpose of the experiment is to identify leaders in the student body. 33 students from the class took part in the study. We divided the students into two groups: experimental (15) and control (18). At the first stage of the experiment, we conducted diagnostics to identify the leadership qualities of each subject. To do this, we used the generally accepted methods “Method of Sociometric Measurements”, the Cattell Multifactor Questionnaire, and the “Personality Differential” test.

Using a sociometric test designed to diagnose emotional sympathies between group members, we measured the degree of cohesion - disunity in the group, and identified the relative authority of group members on the basis of sympathy - antipathy (leaders, stars, rejected). The answer form for this method is presented in Appendix 1.

The next technique that we used to identify leadership qualities in the subjects was the Cattell multifactor questionnaire. Raymond Cattell's outstanding achievement is the development of the 16PF (Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire). The questionnaire was first published in 1950. The questionnaire was designed to measure 15 factors and intelligence (16 personality traits). Each of these factors received a double name, characterizing the degree of its expression - strong and weak.

The question of how many factors are necessary and sufficient for an adequate psychological description of a personality remains open. Some researchers believe that for a complete psychological characterization of a personality it is enough to consider only three factors (G. Eysenck), others argue that it is necessary to evaluate 5 independent traits (R. McCrae), and others that 20 traits are not enough (R. Meili ). For my work, I chose the 16PF test questionnaire, because... he, in my opinion, gives more full description personality. In addition, it is very easy to process. The polar values ​​of the factors of the 16PF questionnaire are given in Appendix 2.

To more accurately determine the qualities characteristic of a leader, an attempt was made to take for comparison the personality of the rejected person in our class. But when analyzing the answers, it was revealed that the answers of the rejected person do not correspond to reality, that is, what is desired is presented as reality, and this confirms Cardell’s theory about the existence of qualities - “disconnectors”, which have a sharply negative impact on the formation of such a quality as leadership. In histogram 1 we see the distribution of personality profiles.

Histogram 1

If you analyze all 16 traits presented in this diagram, you can determine which of them are characteristic of a leader in a given social group (my class).

(I) empathy, sympathy, gentleness, understanding, etc.

(Q4) increased motivation in implementation, active dissatisfaction of aspirations

(B) intelligence

(M) imagination, high creativity

(Q1) intellectual interests, desire for awareness.

(E) independence

Many of the personality traits of a boy and a girl are not the same. This is explained by the fact that, firstly, we have been studying with the boy since the first grade, and the girl came to our school only two years ago, so, of course, in addition to the qualities that the boy possesses, she also needs others - such as, for example , sociability. Secondly, boys mature and develop later than girls, and this to some extent affects the fragmentation of their personality traits.

All these factors can be divided into three groups:

B,M,Q1 - intelligent features

C, G, I, O, Q4 - emotional-volitional

A,H,F,E,Q2,N,L-communicative

It follows from this that to be a leader in our class, intellectual and emotional-volitional personality traits are necessary. This is confirmed by the following experience.

At the end of this stage we used the Personality Differential test. The personality differential (LD) technique was developed on the basis of the modern Russian language and reflects the ideas about personality structure that have formed in our culture. The LD technique was adapted by the staff of the Institute named after. V. M. Bekhtereva. The purpose of its development was to create a compact tool for studying certain personality traits, self-awareness, and interpersonal relationships, which could be used in socio-psychological practice. The criteria for carrying out this technique are given in Appendix 3.

The purpose of using this test was to study the internal factor structure of a unique “personality model” that exists in culture and develops in each person as a result of the assimilation of social and linguistic experience.

From explanatory dictionary Ozhegov's Russian language selected 120 words denoting personality traits. From this initial set, features were selected that most characterize the poles of the 3 classical factors of the semantic differential:

3. Activities.

We showed the interpretation of the factors of the Personality Differential test in histogram 2.

Histogram 2 Interpretation of LD factors

Legend:

(O+) self-esteem, self-concept, self-satisfaction

(O-) critical attitude towards oneself

(C+) self-confidence, independence, self-reliance - strong-willed qualities

(C-) dependence on assessments and circumstances

(A+) high activity, impulsiveness, sociability, extroversion

(A-) introversion, passivity

From the obtained results it is clear that the leader in our class is characterized by an increased strong-willed side of the personality, and the other two characteristics do not play a role in obtaining the status of a leader. All this testifies only to the subjective point of view of the subject, but these results also confirm the importance of high emotional and volitional qualities characteristic of the leader of our class.

As a result of the assessment of the main sociometric characteristics of the members of the team under study (sociometric status, emotional expansiveness, indices of volume, intensity and concentration of interaction), as well as the analysis of a generalized concentric sociogram emphasizing the hierarchical structure of relationships in the group, conclusions were drawn regarding informal leadership in the team. The study revealed that in the group under study there are no leaders who unite the entire team or most of it. The study group is represented by several small subgroups, in which 7 informal leaders were identified: Nos. 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15 and 16.

It is also worth noting that informal leaders have a different impact on the team. Thus, 4 students (Nos. 7, 8, 11, 13) are positive leaders and gravitate toward a favorable situation in the group structure. 3 people (Nos. 5, 15, 16) were identified as negative leaders leading the team to disunity and the establishment of a conflict situation.

The degree of influence of both positive and negative leaders also varies. Among the positive leaders, Nos. 7 and 8 clearly stand out. These group members have close to the maximum volume of interaction (0.94), which indicates their connection with almost all members of the group. They are able to concentrate the main flows of psychological information on themselves. At the same time, the indicators of the group’s attitude towards leaders as an object of communication and the latter’s attitude towards the team as a subject of communication are the highest among group members. It should also be noted that the position that the group ascribes to leaders Nos. 7 and 8 is equivalent to the position they wish to take (the sociometric status index is equal to the emotional expansiveness index).

Leaders No. 11 and 13 have less influence on the group than their colleagues No. 7 and 8. At the same time, the connection between leader No. 13 and the latter two is quite close, in contrast to leader No. 11, who is connected by constant positive relationships with only one of the leaders (No. 7). Another fact indicates a higher position of leader No. 13 in the group structure: his need for communication and interaction with others is very high (emotional expansiveness index is 0.63), in contrast to leader No. 11, whose desire for communication is lower than this assessed by the group. Also, the concentration of interaction of leader No. 13 is higher than No. 11, which indicates a more significant position of the first in the group structure.

Negative leaders can also be divided according to the degree of influence on the team. The influence of leader No. 5 is not as great as leaders No. 15 and 16, who closely interact with each other and represent a single group, which leads to an increase in their influence on the team as a whole.

As for the connection between positive and negative leaders, positive interaction, although quite weak, takes place only between negative leaders and leader No. 8. Leader No. 11 has practically no such connection. Leaders Nos. 7 and 13 interact very weakly, but negatively, with almost all negative leaders.

In the team, 4 people have a positive index of influence on the group (No. 4, 9, 10, 2). At the same time, Nos. 4 and 10 influence the group independently of others, in contrast to Nos. 2 and 9, whose status in the group increases due to their close connection with leaders No. 8 and 13, respectively.

Six people in the group have practically no influence on the team as a whole (Nos. 1, 3, 6, 12, 14, 17): their connection with others is unstable and weak. Two of these 6 people are students who rarely attend classes. Perhaps this explains their low degree of influence on the team. However, there is no point in talking about any regularity in this case. Of all its members, students No. 12, 17 have the least influence on the group. However, these people have a very weak, but positive connection with the group.

Using the results of a sociometric analysis of the study group, we made an attempt to organize the activities of the members of the team under study, taking into account their socio-psychological characteristics and the structure of informal leadership when developing a set of classes for the development of leadership qualities in senior schoolchildren.

The influence of the class team on the formation of organizational abilities

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Identifying motivations for business and friendly communication in a team

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Leadership in informal youth groups

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Leaders in children's teams and educational work with them

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Interpersonal conflicts in the educational team

Political leadership

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Problems of leadership in groups of neutral convicts

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Psychological characteristics of criminal group leaders

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Ways to detect and counter manipulation

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Children's fears and their correction

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The phenomenon of leadership and management. Leader training and self-training

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Formal leaders of student groups

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The problem of leadership and leadership in the student body is one of the most acute and pressing in the educational system of the school. The leader in the class is the support of the class teacher and the head teacher of educational work. Leaders are the guys who organize their peers in the most natural way and contribute to the affirmation of socially significant values ​​and orientation. That is why it is very useful for both the class teacher and subject teachers to know the informal leader in the class, at school, and to be able to identify them according to various criteria.

The most in a simple way is a direct question: “Who is your leader?” The answer is a confident: “We don’t have it.” The one about whom the question was asked will say this. In another case, different guys are named, but everyone looks in the same direction. This is where you need to look to get the answer. In the third case, one of the guys, to everyone’s delight, exclaims: “I am.” Only a jester can be identified by this delight, and the leader is the one with whom he communicates most often. You can freely seat the children in the room. The leader's place will always be in the last row, usually in the middle or in the corner opposite the front door. From there he sees everyone, but no one sees him unless he turns around on purpose. He can manage the class, address everyone, but responding back is difficult: you need to turn around, and this is a kind of communication barrier.

A distinctive feature of the leader's position in a group is closeness and protection from any unforeseen influences. The place is as far away as possible, opposite the teacher or at the end of a long table (in a confrontation position). If he sits next to you, it means that either a “joke” (joke) is being prepared, or a kind of invitation to cooperation.

You can conduct a well-known test - an image of a person made of 10 geometric shapes. The square is the most stable among them. Leadership qualities are revealed by those who have the following symbol placed on the image of a person: greatest number squares.

If you ask a class (group) with a question or proposal that requires an unambiguous answer (“Turn off the lights here?”; “Maybe I should open the window?”; “Let’s move the tennis table”), the leader will be the first to answer. The right to speak on behalf of the group is delegated to him. By the peremptory nature of his answer, he consolidates his status in the eyes of the audience. The leader, as a rule, most actively refuses official leadership, since informal leadership suits him to the greatest extent. leader of children's team teenager

Having observed, one can easily notice that a leader is one whose words in a cheerful company certainly evoke approving laughter, even if the thought is not distinguished by depth and wit; one who, without trying to attract attention to himself, fills pauses in a conversation, deftly inserting a word that can direct its further course. But the most complete description of a leading personality will still be given by her speech portrait. At the words of the leader, the most temperamental polemicists fall silent, they listen to him, never interrupting. Understanding this, the leader speaks without much concern for the expressiveness of his speech, without doubting that he is right. A person who doubts himself cannot be a leader. There is one more feature of the leader’s “verbal portrait”: he never retells other people’s opinions as support for his own; he generally avoids delegating his powers as an arbiter to anyone. He is full of jokes, funny stories for all occasions. But at the same time, he never repeats them in the same group, creating for himself a reputation as a person of phenomenal memory.

The leader speaks little about himself, but as much as possible about his interlocutors; he does not allow himself to relax, to talk about his weaknesses, about his bad mood. On the contrary, he strives every time to give the group an optimizing attitude, with his whole appearance he convinces everyone that he is acting freely: “It’s me who needs this.”

A leader is a master of dialogue; he knows how to listen, while maintaining the appearance of a thoughtful interlocutor, and talk to everyone about the problems that concern him. In a situation where it is necessary to divide the audience, communicatively isolating someone who obviously has a negative influence on the formation of the team, the leader has to create a vacuum around his opponent, without revealing his own thoughts, make them the result of the dialogue, and timely ridicule the person who is causing discord in the group, “undermining” him at the first awkwardness, and then, contrasting him with the others, bring him into the group when he has already submitted to the established pattern of behavior. Usually this is helped by a responsible assignment. The leader always focuses the attention of his interlocutors on the problem that he knows better than others. If in a group of motorists there is a better car expert than him, the leader switches to another topic, which is obviously more familiar to him.

The leader demonstratively allows other group members to show weaknesses, talk about mistakes and make mistakes in speech, but he himself speaks flawlessly in the language accepted by the group. If the asocial orientation of the group is obvious, he has an excellent command of its language and its entire communication style. Guys often turn to the leader as an evaluative authority, conducting an indirect dialogue with each other. If there is a need to reprimand someone, the leader does this, being confident that he will be supported, argues and denies something only on behalf of the group. In this case, he says not “I”, but “we”. If “we” was heard in the mouth of someone else, this is a direct threat of a “palace coup.” “We”, “with us”, “from us” - the words of a true leader. He will not say “you” to the group, thereby separating himself from it; on the contrary: he always emphasizes his unity with the others.

Often the leader speaks on behalf of the entire group in order to impose his decision on the teacher or educator. B good organized group subordination to the leader is automated; a person inertly fulfills the requirements without subjecting them to analytical comprehension. The demand itself is not emphasized, is not distinguished by intonation and tempo, the leader avoids such forms as: “I say”, “I demand”... The instinctive imperative formulation is naturally woven into the speech, not standing out in any way from the general “portrait”, although has some kind of distinctive attribute that fits into the emerging “speech appearance”.

The leader is allowed a lot, but he does not have the right to do anything that goes against the established orientations of the group, including external ones - by opposing himself to the others, he is deprived of the only mechanism of power - the ability to control some with the help of others.

Dreaming of implementing their own ideas and projects, people study other people’s biographies, take a closer look at those around them and independently try to understand how others become leaders. Initially, you need to understand the definition of this concept, highlight the main features, and also highlight the area and group of people among whom the manifestation of this trait is necessary. Leadership abilities are not always required; sometimes it is more logical and economical from the point of view of invested energy to take a performing position. And the ability to distribute and vary the manifestations of one’s nature is also one of the traits of leadership.

Advice on how to become a leader can be filled with various nuances, but there are main basic points that need to be developed. Initially, it is necessary to learn to set goals, determine their reliability, adequacy and the need to achieve them.

When learning how to become leaders, one common trend you can notice is taking responsibility and making choices. A person who is responsible for the course of his own destiny, for many, becomes a support and guideline in personal movement. In fact, the one who is able to make decisions ends up making them for other people in various crisis or incomprehensible situations. Moreover, those who do not have their own sufficient level determination or doubts, is afraid to take the last step, such an example nearby can act as a kind of insurance against mistakes.

The leader will not give decisions regarding issues that are important to him, but even in every small manifestation he will try to make a personal, individual choice. A person bears responsibility for the consequences of such decisions independently. These are wonderful feelings in case of success or rather difficult feelings in a situation of failure, since there is no one to blame, but you need to sit down and sort out the omissions, draw up a new plan or refuse to implement it.

Who is a leader

A leader is one who is constantly moving towards what is planned and leads others, so not only determination is important, but also the ability to distinguish between false values ​​and true ones. Maximum initiative and planning for the future helps develop leadership. This approach needs to be applied not only relatively global projects designed to last for decades, and even for evenings and weekends. By starting to think about details, a person develops the ability to find unique solutions where it is not accepted, and planning helps solve most problems on the fly. An important leadership skill is to distribute tasks among all participants in the process, taking into account the abilities, interests of each and the needs of the common cause.

A leader is a person who is able to lead a group of people not at the formal level of a given position, but one who, with high authority and a recognized level of trust, can influence the actions and choices of people, even without formal power.

A leader is possible only in a social group, with common interests and goals, which all members of the team work to achieve or maintain. In times of change, uncertainty, or the need to make life-changing decisions, all members of a given group may well place the fate of the further course of the process in the hands of the leader. This is comparable to the leader of the pack, whom everyone will obey, and his opinion will be decisive, despite the preliminary assessment of the majority.

To a lesser extent this concept used to indicate a person's achievements. This concerns leadership in sports achievements, speed of scientific developments or achievement financial situation. There are also many levels of leadership - from planetary and national to interpersonal. Even in a relationship system consisting of two people, it is possible to identify the one who makes all the important decisions and is able to influence the partner’s opinion.

But the external aspect of influencing others remains tempting for many only until it turns out that there is also an internal aspect, the need to personally correspond to the title of leader. Before you learn to control and direct other people and make decisions regarding their lives, you need to understand your own.

The leader has iron and self-control, is able to find motivation for his further advancement, set relevant goals and develop a system for achieving them. Only by possessing the perfect skill of successfully building his life does a person acquire the ability to influence others. More precisely, it comes automatically, since people will be drawn to a good mood, advice, help, example or constructive criticism.

Leadership qualities are not determined by genetics, and the development of such ability will not be helped by reading several books and articles, or even undergoing relevant training. Only constant application of recommendations collected or received from someone else’s example will help cultivate this trait in oneself. Some are lucky, and their upbringing was initially aimed at identifying unique abilities personality and the development of these qualities in a favorable atmosphere that forms adequate self-esteem and confidence. It will be more difficult for those who were brought up on artificial values, without taking into account individuality, who were in every possible way prohibited from showing activity and initiative, and who had low self-esteem. A leader is one who creates himself with his own hands, actions and aspirations, choices and judgments every moment, without stopping.

A leader would rather take full responsibility than blame others. Such a person understands his share of influence on the events of the present and distant future, not only his own, but also all those involved, and accepts responsibility for the consequences, without hiding behind others. He is able to make an important decision. Based on the benefits and logical analysis, and not on the desire to obtain the desired approval. Therefore, many decisions made by the leader may be unpleasant for others, but at the same time they will be implemented. Because the reasoning behind your choices, as well as your established reputation, will argue in favor of temporary inconveniences for the sake of further advancement.

A leader’s ability to lead does not appear as a result of manipulation or blackmail, but thanks to his own charisma, oratory skills, and the ability to present facts and analyze the situation. The one who is liked by society receives more support and help, comrades-in-arms and defenders than the one who tries to look for other levers of pressure.

Responsibility, manifested as conscious acceptance of all consequences, extends not only to one’s own life. Realizing the power of his influence on a certain group of people, a leader will always put the interests of society above his personal ones, doing everything to improve the lives of those around him.

Leader Qualities

Leadership qualities may differ for a military man and a teacher, in a family, in government, for sporting achievements and to find common ground between people. But, despite all the specifics of various areas, many studies have identified the basic qualities for a leader at any level.

Resilience, consistency and strength of character are at the forefront of leadership manifestations. Because it is character that allows one to continue the fight and not agree to compromise solutions that are convenient for others, but harmful for him. Consistency of choice directly affects reputation. Those who support different ideas do not inspire trust among followers, as do those who are able to betray the interests of the group under the pressure of fear or other emotions.

Devotion to the cause, the chosen path, to your social group is what will inspire people by example, and also what gives confidence. A leader is obliged to provide people with a sense of reliability and stability, which is achievable only by demonstrating one’s own devotion and stability of beliefs in the event of any external eventual changes.

People align themselves with those who evoke sympathy, therefore a high level of professionalism, the ability to discern potential and pleasant qualities in any person are the key to a good relationship.

A positive person who loves people, is open to meeting people and communicating, who is able to encourage and point out strengths is the one that most people need.

Maintaining fortitude and a great mood, restoring faith and strength when one gives up is one of the important functions of a leader. When such a person asks to put in a lot of effort and endure unpleasant times, they will listen and support him, but with a different character, such demands can lead to rebellion.

But the ability to communicate includes not only positivity and the ability to encourage. Leadership quality is the ability to convey information of any content to a person of any level of development, establish successful communication between two warring parties, and transfer one’s knowledge. This requires a keen sense of others, an understanding of basic psychology and well-developed communication skills.

In addition, constant improvement of your knowledge is necessary for further transfer of it to others in an accessible form. Because the leader does not so much indicate what to do, but rather opens up new paths and opportunities, determining the most optimal ways to advance. Competence is required not only in the leading area, but also in neighboring areas. So, a sports team coach, being a leader, must take into account not only sports technique. But also the psychology of each participant, the features of interaction in a team, as well as the features of diet.

Activity and initiative – important qualities for the leader. He constantly develops and implements plans himself or comes up with new ideas. The issue of external motivation is not relevant for such people. The trait of initiative fully ensures internal motivation for achievements. And a person who was able to motivate himself to activity will be able to find it for others in the future. Moreover, without using negative methods of influence for this, when a person is forced to carry out an order. Such motivation is developed on the basis of deep enthusiasm, immersion in the process, and passionate embrace of the idea. The leader himself is always internally on fire for where he strives, and this fire is able to ignite activity in others, force people to stand nearby.

But such passion among leaders always goes hand in hand with the important ability to critically assess the situation, cope with problems, and calculate risks. Anyone who fanatically delves into an idea, hovers in dreams and does not anticipate difficulties will not become a leader. Only understanding that any activity will cause difficulties, problems, and possibly failures can you move on. The ability to solve and prevent problems is an important trait that comes from life experience, the ability to analyze, perseverance and responsibility.

Responsibility is a trait that is not immediately apparent to others in leaders, but it is the core. At the first case, when the one who was entrusted with the choice and power refuses to accept the results of his decision, citing circumstances or blaming others, people will turn away, and fewer followers will remain. Usually, after several such incidents, no one remains around.

Psychology of Leadership

The psychology of a leader is determined by personal traits that manifest themselves at the behavioral level, the value and semantic field. The behavior of such a person can be identified by non-verbal signs of facial expressions and posture, as well as gestures. These will be signals of confidence and openness, striving forward and an attitude of contact. Because leaders think a little differently than most people, this is reflected in the way they walk and communicate. Behavioral features include an open, confident look, a raised chin, and an even posture.

Leaders are accustomed to occupying a central place in the audience or the main one at the table, and this happens rather unconsciously, but, nevertheless, those around them almost never try to change this state of affairs.

The psychology of a leader has a creative orientation and diverse manifestation of oneself. Such people constantly strive for creation, at all levels - from interstate alliances to a lace napkin. The desire to improve this world, to find new, more adequate ways of working, beautiful locations and economical inventions - it all depends on the direction of the person, but it will always be a creative search for constructive directions. It is this tendency that makes them look for new methods of application instead of criticism. In principle, criticism is practically absent from leaders; it is replaced by the desire to find benefit. This is another reason why real leaders are constantly surrounded by people, since among ordinary people there are quite a lot of critical and humiliating judgments, while there is practically no support.

The peculiarity of how leaders perceive the world is that they are constantly outside the circumstances, even rooting for the idea with all their hearts. They think several steps ahead and do not get caught up in the present moment, which makes them emotionally stable. While the majority of people will be in panic over the failure of what happened yesterday, the leader can smile quietly, because he has already figured out what benefits can be derived from this six months later. Detachment helps to separate the important from the secondary, control the progress of movement and change plans, and possibly goals, in time.

A leader does not work alone or only to achieve his own interests. Devotion to your people forces you to look for ways that are optimal for the majority; at some moments, even sacrifices and personal investments are possible. Global thinking reveals the truth that if the people around you are happy, then everything will return to those who helped them achieve this state, along with gratitude. By investing in others, the leader ends up receiving more than if he sought to fill only his own vessel of needs. But caring for others does not have selfish motives - it is a manifestation of a unique, equal way of interacting and exchanging energy with space.

How to become a leader in a team

Leaders become those who have a high level of intelligence and a broad outlook, thanks to which you can not only become an example, but also be able to inspire and explain your ideas to any person. The development of a constant is also required, since the leading role involves a difficult and long journey, with periodic failures and possibly in the absence of breaks. It is impossible to give up everything halfway, then when you return, those who followed you before will no longer want to support you, fearing another stop. This does not mean continuing to do what you did before all the time - this way you will not achieve a change in the situation. But it’s worth being on the move, looking for new opportunities, paths, solutions, and especially when everyone has given up or another failure has occurred.

Advice from psychologists on how to become a leader in a team reflects a more practical direction in the development of the listed personal characteristics of a leader. It is impossible to take a leadership position in one day; this requires regular demonstrations of your skills, the first of which is the development of the communicative function. Communication means the ability to explain your position to others and inspire people with your ideas. The better communication skills are built, the easier it will be for a person to motivate others to work together, and will also simplify the decision process conflict situations. Develop communication with people of different levels, learn to communicate with representatives of all professions and ages. The more practice in interaction, the higher the likelihood of finding an approach to everyone.

It is necessary to constantly practice in order to predict your reactions, be able to resist and identify your own values. In addition, a person who understands himself well is able to better understand others, which will help in individual motivation and in creating a successful team. Success does not come from selecting unfamiliar candidates with the best letters of recommendation, but from the correct distribution of people, taking into account their abilities and interests. Knowing the values ​​of everyone, you can form successful tandems, and by understanding the specifics of ways to solve problems, people can be placed in appropriate positions.

Encourage others for any progress, do not skimp on praise - this inspires people, and for the one who gave them inspiration, many will do almost anything. You can praise for the ideas presented, as well as for the mood. The person who brought coffee to the entire office sometimes deserves more praise than the accountant who submitted the report on time. Avoid the manipulative function of praise to create competition - the leader’s task is to eliminate such manifestations as much as possible, but to provide a friendly atmosphere of mutual assistance.

Help others, teach, pass on experience, share secrets, but don’t do it for others. When you advise, you show that you believe in a person, and when you do for him, it humiliates. Many of those whom you have taught can subsequently be delegated some of their work as an option for encouragement and trust. Just don’t throw away the grunt work, but always think about a person’s development and how this type of activity will help him “pump up” his own skills and achieve success.

Constantly work on your own development, and the main part should be occupied by what the team is interested in. Soon those who know more and know better will appear, and they will begin to listen to them. But in addition to the professional line, develop personally, which will make you an interesting and comprehensively developed interlocutor. Always stay on the team and notice those around you. A designer who hasn’t gotten enough sleep can be sent home, and an employee whose child is sick can be given fruit, or a part-time student can be asked about exams. It is the human attitude that makes you pleasant to others.

Work on emotional stability, as this is what a leader needs. A person subject to emotional outbursts is not able to control the general movement, and even his life. Confidence in the chosen course, methods of achievement, as well as in the people around you helps to remain calm. Confidence allows you to refuse, which is usually difficult for most people and leads to unprofitable compromises and empty promises.

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Introduction

1. Classification of leadership

2. Leadership and power

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Although there is no uniform definition of a leader in a team, a leader is usually considered a person whose high degree of importance is recognized by the majority of group members in solving a group task. But then there are as many types of leaders as there are situations and tasks in the group. Within the framework of sociometric analysis, such people are called the more precise term “criterion star.”

Being a psychological phenomenon by its nature, that is, arising in a system of unofficial, informal relations, leadership at the same time acts as a means of organizing relations of this type and managing them. The range of development of leadership issues, as is known, is extremely wide, and this circumstance makes it difficult to systematize the relevant theoretical and empirical material. Nevertheless, such a systematization, with a certain degree of convention, is, of course, quite real: in this regard, let us refer to our own research practice.

The managerial aspect of leadership is clearly visible in a number of specific leadership roles, often identified by researchers, either in connection with the analysis of leadership functions, or in relation to individual situations of group life.

The purpose of this work is to study leadership as a phenomenon of group dynamics.

1) study the classification of leadership;

2) consider leadership and power.

1 . Leadership classification

An informal leader is a member of the team who collects a relatively large number of votes in any situation of choice-preference, in other words, in each situational private sociogram, the informal leader occupies the position of a star, or preferred, on the scale of sociometric status. From the point of view of group activity, the functions of an informal leader come down to two main ones.

Firstly, it establishes and maintains standards of acceptable group behavior: benevolence, responsibility, mutual understanding, productivity, or negative forms of group behavior: aggressiveness, isolation, acquisitiveness, etc.

Secondly, having established norms, goals, customs and traditions, the informal leader motivates the behavior of each group member, forcing him to follow the standards of group behavior. The leader carries out motivation by expressing his assessment of the actions of a group member with a look, gesture or word. The majority of group members voluntarily and not always fully consciously join the leader, approving or condemning their comrade.

Administrative orders, reprimands, conversations, work-outs from superiors and lectures often have a weaker effect on the behavior of a group member than one gesture of censure from an informal leader or a silent expression of group disapproval. But one should not think that the collective is able to exert an unlimited educational influence on any of its members. More accurate protective function of small informal group: if her assessment of the actions of her member diverges from the assessment of the team, this will nullify all attempts at moral and educational influence by management. The personal core, which is often identified with the reference group, operates in the same way.

The educational role of the informal group leader is especially great. Social psychology distinguishes, but does not contrast, the concepts of management and leadership. Leadership is the process of managing the work activities of a team, carried out by a leader - an intermediary social control and authorities based on administrative and legal powers and social norms. Leadership is the process of internal socio-psychological self-organization and self-management of relationships and activities of team members through the individual initiative of the participants. The legal and administrative functions of unity of command are associated with leadership, and the psychological influence of a given person in the group is associated with leadership. The phenomenon of leadership arises in problematic situations that a group faces in its activities. However, in terms of group goals, leadership can be either positive or negative. There are two polar types of leadership - instrumental and emotional. An instrumental (business) leader is a group member who takes the initiative in solving a problem situation in accordance with group goals and has the appropriate knowledge, information, skills and methods.

An emotional leader is a group member who takes on the function of regulating group mood ( expressive functions) in problematic situations. Sometimes the position of an emotional leader is called the epicenter of emotional contacts.

In a positive sense, an emotional leader strives to prevent and resolve conflicts, smooth out and defuse the emotional tension that arises among group members in problematic situations, and thereby contributes to the achievement of group goals and increasing the effectiveness of group activities.

On the negative side, an emotional leader, under the influence of failures and difficulties, can become the instigator of panic, discontent, hysterical reactions, and antisocial behavior of the group.

All the others are distributed between these polar types of informal leaders.

The problem of classifying leaders by type is very complex. Methodologically, it is easier to indicate the tasks and functions that are performed by them in the general process of regulating group behavior. In addition to the two most important functions (establishing and maintaining group norms of behavior and motivating the behavior of group members in accordance with established norms), the leader performs the following functions:

1) group behavior coordinator (distributes roles, responsibilities, tasks);

2) controller of the behavior of each group member (monitors the performance of assigned roles, responsibilities, tasks);

3) a planner of actions and means by which the group achieves its goals (this function may include the definition of both short-term and long term plans group activities);

4) politics (establishes additional goals and main lines of group behavior, in addition to formal organizational goals, which determine the boundaries of the primary labor collective; the leader-politician can also propose goals such as competition with another team, mastering new technology, mastering related professions) ;

5) expert (in almost all cases where group members depend on a person whose technical knowledge and qualifications are necessary to achieve group goals, there is a polarization of power around this person, which he can use to strengthen his leadership role);

6) a representative of the group (represents all members of the group, their collective mind, interests, will, desires, etc.);

7) arbiter (acts as a judge - prosecutor, defender and consoler, motivating the behavior of group members; uses informal social sanctions, i.e. techniques by which people who know each other closely express respect for those whose behavior meets their expectations , and show dissatisfaction with those who do not live up to their hopes);

8) example (serves as a standard, model of behavior for the rest of the group members, i.e. provides them with visual instructions of who they should be and what to do, while special place leaders of reference groups are occupied in people's minds);

9) a symbol of a group (a group with a high degree of cohesion among members who strive not only for internal, but also for purely external differences from other individuals; members of such groups resort to certain insignia in clothing and behavior - ties, stripes, badges, greeting rituals; the leaders of such groups begin to serve as symbols;

10) bearer of responsibility (releases group members from individual responsibility for personal decisions and actions);

11) “father” (a true leader is the focus of all positive emotions of group members, an ideal object of identification and feelings of devotion, the paternal role largely explains the almost unlimited power that leaders sometimes acquire under certain conditions);

12) a carrier of group guilt (sometimes the leader in this function is called a scapegoat; indeed, a negative emotional leader, in the case when the group gets out of a problematic situation, will be the object of attacks and accusations; this also happens in cases where the group loses illusions about the real goals and personality of its leader).

To successfully perform these and all other functions, it is necessary to create special conditions for the perception of the leader’s personality by all other members of the group. The informal leader is perceived as “one of us”; when speaking about group problems, he uses the word “we” rather than “I”; he is like the majority - a person who embodies the norms, values, symbols, interests, desires and goals that matter most to the entire group.

2. Leadership and power

Let us now turn to the study of problems of power relations at the microeconomic level - in production systems where joint activities of people take place in direct personal contacts.

Let's try to understand the nature of man's power over man. The theory of management does not want to abandon the principle of the Roman emperors that it has long professed: “divide and conquer.” M. Weber tried to scientifically substantiate this principle. His monistic concept of organization points to the only possible way achieve order, controllability and discipline: for this, a hierarchical management structure must be built with a clear distribution of power relations; Each official level is assigned its own powers and responsibilities, management functions and execution functions, rights and responsibilities, and a strict control mechanism is created and the inevitability of retribution for violation of administrative norms of organizational behavior is ensured.

In socio-economic systems, power relations are not reduced to relations of domination and subordination; here they appear in the form social dependencies. Each person included in the most complex structures of organizational, communication, technological and interpersonal connections in some way limits the freedom of behavior of other participants in the labor process. He has influence and the ability to influence his microsocial environment not only by forceful methods of domination and suppression, but also by his human qualities. Influence is supported by competence, professional training, life experience, social status, etc.

Hierarchical dependencies in bureaucratic organizations are intended, in essence, to depersonalize personal relationships and remove psychological coloring from them. This carries over to the entire society. The nature of relationships in stores, schools, hospitals and businesses is increasingly becoming impersonal and automated. The exchange of goods, information, ideas and money can occur without any personal contact, i.e. at the level of role communication, when people play pre-learned social roles, putting on the appropriate “masks and clothes”. This is especially evident in organizational behavior when workers exchange ideas and skills.

The impersonality of formal relations in an organization, as neurophysiologist X. Delgado writes in his work “Brain and Consciousness,” makes people’s behavior in an economic sense more effective. After all, the formalization of relationships relieves people from the torment of choice in conditions of uncertainty, from the painful search for solutions in current problem situations that replace each other, like in a kaleidoscope.

According to role theory, the exchange of ideas management decisions and activities in joint labor processes are underway successful as long as it is regulated by formal and conventional norms and role expectations. But if a person tries to be himself, forgets about role responsibilities and begins to openly express his real attitude towards the matter and others, i.e. If he begins to behave authentically, he will definitely enter into conflicting relationships with others. Role behavior depersonalizes power relations, removing the patina of subjectivity.

However, social dependencies still remain. The conventional role of the boss adds no less strong socio-psychological influences to the direct material and organizational-managerial dependencies of the subordinate on him. A subordinate does not have the right to choose his leader; he is forced to put up with his shortcomings, even if the autocratic leader tries to reduce him to the position of a pawn on whom little depends.

The consistently applied principle of unity of command in economic management puts the subordinate worker in the position of a day laborer. In conditions of universal wage labor, this is essentially what he is. But the day laborer, as F. Engels put it, gave birth and is giving birth to the plebs, and his further fate is to join the ranks of the lumpen. In any case, power based on dominance and submission to force spoils both the boss and the subordinate.

Unity of command always breaks the boundaries of administrative subordination and carries with it all the shortcomings of the authoritarian power of man over man.

The complete impersonality of power relations in the work collective, proclaimed in the theory of organizational management, should seemingly remove all subjective aspects in business communication between managers and subordinates. The ideal here is still the army organization with its unshakable principle of unity of command.

The process of unity of command in leadership joint activities always proceeds in inextricable unity with the processes of group self-organization. Each team has a very complex latent structure of informal interpersonal relationships; established in formal organizational structures normative power relations are replaced by complex socio-psychological dependencies. In latent structures, power, i.e. the ability to arbitrarily influence the behavior of other people belongs to informal leaders - business, emotional, informational, instrumental, charismatic, etc. In the latent structures of interpersonal interactions, the same stable hierarchy of social dependencies is revealed between those who have taken power into their own hands - leading and who voluntarily accepted their roles as followers.

This is the fundamental property of all social systems. The hierarchy of subordination between people, even if they voluntarily united for a common cause, is fundamentally irremovable. Therefore, all voluntary associations, associations, orders and communities known in history - from the Essenes sect in Wadi Qumran, the phalansteries of S. Fourier and the “New Harmony” of R. Owen to modern self-governing labor collectives based on group ownership (meaning the system “ E50P”, implementing the ideas of Aldous Huxley), which set as the main goal the liberation of man from all power over himself, turned out to be nothing more than utopias.

The asymmetry of social dependencies in social groups is the key to understanding the socio-psychological nature of power relations in economic organizations. Even in self-governing teams, leadership functions do not disappear, but are only redistributed among team members in accordance with the latent hierarchy of social dependencies. That is why, in particular, all of F. Taylor's arguments about the uselessness of line management turned out to be erroneous for the supposed reason that management is a function of servicing production, and not commanding it. And in our time, authoritative experts in social management believe that business management is a secondary service function that should be assigned to support staff and functional services. Persons performing service functions must be deprived of power, and all members of the team must be placed in equal relationships: have equal rights to own, decide, use and dispose of collective property.

The need to extend the rights of the owner to all employees without exception and to give each employee the right to a decisive vote has, according to O. Toffler, taken on the character of another global megatrend. The innovative nature of the modern economy requires that the individual, having overcome all forms of alienation, including alienation from management, be freed for creative work. Each member of a self-governing team must be given the right to a decisive vote and all opportunities for the development of personal potential. But the question remains unanswered: who will the majority follow in a problematic situation?

After all, even if everyone is ready to identify personal interests with collective ones and work conscientiously, disagreements can always arise regarding the choice of means to achieve common goal. We should not forget about the objectively irremovable inequality of abilities, experience, qualifications and competence.

In American management various shapes power in business corporations is considered in a broader context - this is the power of coercion, punishment, reward, law, example, knowledge, authority and personal charm.

Although the above classification somewhat simplifies the actual forms of power relations, the classical political economy of socialism approached the problem of power in an equally simplified manner. The power of the people was associated with public property, and the power of the money bag or predatory capital with private property. In fact, relations regarding property have a much more complex structure.

The functions of property and power relations are connected by a much more complex relationship than is reflected in the usual schemes of political economy.

Nevertheless, the very fact of separating capital-function from capital-property is of historical significance. It marked the emergence of a social institution of management in society, which means that managers received public life their significant share of power beyond the boundaries of their firms and corporations.

The further evolution of property relations from its original classical form, which contains all the necessary attributes, including the concept of power, led to the depersonalization of capital.

Conclusion

The problem of classifying leaders by type is very complex. Methodologically, it is easier to indicate the tasks and functions that are performed by them in the general process of regulating group behavior. The phenomenon of leadership arises in problematic situations that a group faces in its activities. However, in terms of group goals, leadership can be either positive or negative. There are two polar types of leadership - instrumental and emotional. It is necessary to create special conditions for the perception of the leader’s personality by all other group members. The informal leader is perceived as “one of us”; when speaking about group problems, he uses the word “we” rather than “I”; he is like the majority - a person who embodies the norms, values, symbols, interests, desires and goals that matter most to the entire group.

In socio-economic systems, power relations are not reduced to relations of domination and subordination; here they appear in the form of social dependencies. Each person included in the most complex structures of organizational, communication, technological and interpersonal connections in some way limits the freedom of behavior of other participants in the labor process. The asymmetry of social dependencies in social groups is the key to understanding the socio-psychological nature of power relations in economic organizations. Even in self-governing teams, leadership functions do not disappear, but are only redistributed among team members in accordance with the latent hierarchy of social dependencies.

List of used literature

leadership emotional role behavior

1. Vikhansky O.S. Strategic management. M.: MSU, 2013. - 534 p.

2. Dyatlov A.N. Modern management. M.: IMPiE, 2012. - 246 p.

3. Vesnin V.R. Fundamentals of management. M.: HSE, 2012. - 480 p.

4. Krasovsky Yu.D. Managing behavior in a firm: effects and paradoxes. M.: INFRA-M, 2013. - 272 p.

5. Management. / Ed. F.M. Rusinova. - M.: FBK-PRESS, 2014. - 504 p.

6. Fundamentals of management. / Ed. A.F. Andreeva and others - M.: Yurayt, 2013. - 295 p.

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