ABSTRACT
The central thrust of this section is on the leadership of groups, departments and plants within organisations. Leadership is here defined in the formal (as opposed to the informal) sense. The concerns at issue include the leader's relationship to subordinates, superiors and peers within the context of an organisational structure and organisational behaviour as a whole, and his influence on obtaining at least satisfactory work performance from the people in his unit. In some important senses this section builds upon the knowledge and skills implicated by Section One, Two and Three: motivation, group behaviour and technology offer opportunities as well as constraints within which the formal leader must develop a leadership style which will help produce behaviour functional for organisational objectives. The point of view underlying this section is that the leader is not placed in an organisational situation in which he is virtually perfectly constrained by the many pressures in his immediate working environment. On the contrary, he may take action to influence the forces acting upon him and his people: he can diagnose problems and take steps to remedy them.
