Informal Leaders within an Organization Within an organization, there may be informal leaders-individuals who have no fo

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Informal Leaders within an Organization Within an organization, there may be informal leaders-individuals who have no formal authority over others yet can influence the behavior of others. The story below points out how managers can use informal leaders to achieve desired objectives. Dr. John Alvarez was hired to be the dean of continuing education for Wilson University. Alvarez would be responsible for a large evening program of credit classes for part-time students. He inherited an efficient staff, along with Dr. Irvin Luce, the assistant dean (second in command), an administrator with many years' experience at Wilson University. Dr. Luce was to assist the dean in any way possible. The new dean was experiencing his first taste of administration, and things were moving along fairly well. Yet the new dean felt his objectives were not being achieved as rapidly as he had hoped. To better equip himself for his new responsibilities, Dr. Alvarez enrolled in a management course in a neighboring university and found the course offered great advice. One day, the professor of the management class lectured on the topic of the informal leader. The gist of the professor's lecture was this: An informal leader wields power in an organization, power of which the informal leader may not even be aware. When new challenges arise, workers tend to discover first what reaction the informal leader has to the new event. Once that knowledge is obtained, the group will usually follow the lead of the informal leader. Here is an illustration of the informal leader in action. Ellsworth Livingston took over as principal of Longfellow Elementary School on August 10. Before classes had started, he had scheduled several informal get-togethers with his teaching faculty, mostly women. Rather than read bulletins and memos from the school district headquarters, Ellsworth went out of his way to learn as much as he could about the teachers. Without being obvious, Ellsworth carefully observed each of the teachers. Seeing them interact informally told him volumes about the social networks at Longfellow Elementary School.

Ellsworth was especially interested in identifying the faculty's informal leader. By the time classes began, he had zeroed in on Mrs. Nila Pratt, a third-grade teacher. How did Ellsworth determine that Nila Pratt was the informal leader? Here are the clues from Ellsworth's observations. When teachers clumped together for conversation during refreshment breaks, the biggest circle formed around Nila, and those in Nila's circle would press her for opinions on everything. If Nila told a joke, it always received rumbling laughter. In open forums when Nila voiced an opinion, every teacher in the room turned around to see what she was saying. Also, in the open forum, other teachers would preface their remarks with a lead-in such as: "Well, it's just like Nila says...." When Nila had her students working on an autumn display for the bulletin board, all the teachers came by to get ideas on how they should do their bulletin boards. On and on the episodes went. There was no doubt in Ellsworth's mind that he had spotted the informal leader. Once Ellsworth had determined that Nila Pratt was the informal leader, he used that knowledge to help achieve his objectives. When he was about to come out with a new procedure for the teachers to follow, he quietly checked the idea with Nila Pratt. If Nila showed reservations about the new procedure, Ellsworth found out what was wrong and altered his plan until Nila would approve. If she liked the plan, Ellsworth knew he was home free. Whether she knew it or not, Nila was helping Ellsworth implement just about anything he had in mind for Longfellow Elementary School. All went smoothly because Ellsworth had been astute enough to find the informal leader in the organization. The professor of management concluded his lecture on informal leaders, and class was dismissed. The new dean, John Alvarez, walked to his car and drove back to Wilson University. As he was driving, a thunderbolt of thought and insight hit the new dean. "Great day! The informal leader in my organization is the number-two man, Dr. Irvin Luce, the assistant dean. The secretaries adore him. The program directors are constantly asking him for advice. He is the focal point of conversation groups. I must start treating him the way Ellsworth treated Mrs. Nila Pratt." The new dean returned to his office armed with a secret weapon: He knew who the informal leader was. The new dean developed a beautiful rapport with Dr. Irvin Luce and informally consulted him on just about every possible innovation for the evening program. As a result, the entire evening program began to move forward by leaps and bounds, largely because the new dean had been able to find the informal leader in his organization.

Discussion Questions: 1. Mrs. Nila Pratt was the informal leader in the management professor's illustration, and Dr. Luce, the assistant dean, was the informal leader in the new dean's organization. Why do certain individuals become the informal leaders in an organization? 2. Is it ethical for managers to "use" informal leaders in an organization to achieve their objectives?