Leadership Preference Scale

Aim:
To assess the dominant leadership style of the subject using leadership
preference
scale (LPS) developed by L.I Bhushan
To assess the dominant leadership style of the subject using leadership
preference
scale (LPS) developed by L.I Bhushan
To assess the dominant leadership style of the subject using leadership
preference scale developed by L.I. Bhushan.
Introduction:
i) What is leadership?
ii) Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct,
guide and influence the
iii) behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of
specific goals in a given
iv) situation. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the
subordinates to work with
v) confidence and zeal.
Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence
the behaviour and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in
a given situation. It is the ability of a manger to induce the subordinates to
work with zeal and confidence. Leadership captures the essentials of being
able and prepared to inspire others.
Effective leadership transforms people’s goals and ambitions, even their
identities, and replace it with self-oriented behaviour with goal-oriented
behaviour. The exercise of power over people to force them, through rewards
and punishments, to comply with commands and bend one’s will is not
leadership.
According to APA. “The processes involved in leading others, including
organizing, directing, coordinating, and motivating their efforts toward
achieving certain group or organizational goals. Leadership tends to be
reciprocal, transactional, transformational), and cooperative rather than
coercive.”
ii) Characteristics of an effective leader:
a) Integrity: Integrity is an essential leadership trait for the individual and the
organization. It’s especially important for top-level executives who are
charting the organization’s course and making countless other significant
decisions.
b) Learning agility : Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you
don’t know what to do. If you’re a “quick study” or are able to excel in
unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. After all, great
leaders are really great learners.
c) Communication: Effective leadership and effective communication are
intertwined. The best leaders are skilled communicators who are able to
communicate in a variety of ways, from transmitting information to inspiring
others to coaching direct reports.
d) Self-awareness: Self-awareness and humility are paramount for leadership.
The better you understand yourself and recognize your own strengths and
weaknesses, the more effective you can be as a leader.
e) Influence: being able to convince people through the influencing tactics of
logical, emotional, or cooperative appeals is an important trait of inspiring,
effective leaders. It requires emotional intelligence and trust.
iii) Leadership Styles:
a) Democratic leadership: Democratic leadership is one of the leadership
styles that allows equal participation of everyone in a decision-making
process. It involves snot only the leaders but also their employees in every
decision-making process. Even though leaders give final word- team
members participate equally and find solution to a problem. This is also
called participative leadership.
b) Authoritarian leadership: it is a leadership style characterized by individual
control over all decisions and little input from group members.
Authoritarian leaders typically make choices based on their ideas and
judgements and rarely accept advice from followers. Authoritarian
leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group. It is also
called autocratic leadership.
A good leader will almost always choose democratic leadership.
Design:
Leadership preference scale was given by L.I. Bhushan and aims to measure
person’s preference for authoritarian or democratic style of leadership. It
consists of 30 items which are to be answered as strongly agree, agree,
uncertain, disagree and strongly disagree. There are 16 positive and 14
negative worded statements. Scoring is 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for positive and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
for negative worded statements. There is no particular time limit to finish the
test but subject is expected to finish the test as soon as possible.
Materials Required:
Leadership preference scale, manual for scoring and pen/pencil.
Particular of Subject:
Name: Tanvi Sharma
Age: 17
Sex: Female
Educational Qualification: Currently in grade 12
Previous Experience: No
Introspective Report: Before the experiment, the subject was interested to
participate the experiment. Also, she was quite happy to participate in the
experiment.
Retrospective Report: The subject found the experiment engaging.
Precaution:
1. Subject should not be a psychology student.
2. There should be no disturbance in the lab.
3. The scoring should not be told the subject before the test.
4. Nothing should be marked on the booklet.
5. The administrator should ensure that all instructions are well understood by
the subject.
Instructions:
Following instruction must be imparted carefully to the subject:
“You will be provided with a set of statements on which you may agree or
disagree. Read every statement carefully and choose from the given set of
alternatives i.e. (5) fully agree, (4) agree, (3) uncertain, (2) disagree and (1)
strongly disagree. You have to encircle the serial number of the answer which
 you think is best suited for you. There are no right and wrong responses so
mark whatever you feel is suitable according to you.”
Procedure:
1. Subject should be seated comfortably in the lab.
2. Question booklet should be kept ready before the arrival of the subject.
3. Instruction must be imparted very carefully to the subject.
Result:
Discussion:
The aim of the experiment was to assess the dominant leadership style of the
subject using leadership preference scale developed by L.I. Bhushan. To fulfill
the aim, a question booklet consisting of various statement was provided to the
subject. There were 30 statements out of which 16 statements are positively
worded whereas 14 statements are negatively worded. The subject was asked
to mark the most suitable response according to her. It should be made sure
that there is no noise in the lab. But if it is there then it should be made sure
that it remains constant so that the results don’t get affected. It was made sure
that the instructions are imparted carefully to the subject. The scoring should
not be told to the subject before-hand and should be done according to
instructions given in the manual.
My subject is 17 years old and is a female. She did not have any previous
experience of such an experiment. The subject was seated comfortably in the
lab. Subject was happy before the experiment and interested to participate in
the experiment. During the experiment subject found it engaging.