Leadership Influence Processes and Factors that Affect Them

Abstract
The importance of commitment, as opposed to compliance or resistance, when leadership attempts to utilize influence processes. Compliance tactics that appeal to workers logically, emotionally, and cooperatively are examined that can assist leaders in focusing their influence processes. Specific influence processes utilized by Andrea Jung, Indra Nooyi, and Brenda Barnes are compared.

Introduction
Although there are many different styles of effective leadership, all leaders must be able to exert influence over their employees in order to achieve results. Employees can exhibit a variety of reactions to the attempts of leadership to influence them, from resistance or compliance, to commitment. Employees must be committed to leadership that they find credible, otherwise influence methods leaders utilize are ineffective.
Influence Processes and Factors that Affect Them
In order for leaders in an organization to achieve desirable results they must be able utilize their power effectively and they must be able to influence their followers. The three most common reactions to a leaders attempt to exercise their power or authority over their subordinates are; resistance, when employees actively or passively resist the leader’s authority and take action to subvert their requests, compliance, when employees accept the leadership’s authority and requests but do so without personal acceptance, or commitment, when employees not only accept leadership’s authority but also welcome their requests willingly, (Nahavandi, pp. 160-161).
Resistance is, of course, the least desirable reaction and it occurs when subordinates either directly oppose or secretly resist leadership’s requests and attempt to sabotage the outcomes, (Baldwin & Grayson, 2004). Kouzes and Posner state that leadership can overcome this reaction by decreasing resistance through “small wins”, a consistent and incremental process where demonstrated success is achieved, as employees will innately want to be associated with future successes, (p. 211). Baldwin and Grayson describe compliance as a less than ideal reaction in that although subordinates might implement leadership’s requests, they do so as a result of the acceptance of positional authority and without any real acceptance of the leader’s reasons. Compliance occurs when extrinsic motivation exists through external rewards rather than intrinsic motivation through an employee’s internal desires to accomplish, (Kouzes & Posner, p. 112). Compliance may be satisfactory initially when attempting to influence routine actions however it does not result in a change in employee attitudes concerning the authority of the leadership, and it is therefore an unsuitable reaction for the leader who wants to accomplish significant achievements. Commitment, the only truly desirable reaction, is vital and results when leaders influence employees towards self-motivation. Leaders inspire commitment from their employees and can change attitudes only when employees find leadership credible, (Kouzes & Posner, p. 34). Commitment occurs only when employees accept the influence, and therefore the authority, of a leader they deem credible and then follow through and endorse and support that person’s leadership. Baldwin and Grayson maintain that when a leader gains commitment from their employees there is less need to monitor them, there is a greater sustained effort from them, the leaders objectives are endorsed, and working relationships improve, (2004).
Baldwin and Grayson further outline three specific tactical skills that leaders can utilize to be successful through understanding the personalities, objectives, and roles and responsibilities within an organization: 1. appeal to employees logically through rational and intellect, 2. appeal to employees emotionally through promoting feelings and belonging, or 3. appeal to employees cooperatively through reciprocity and mutual goal setting, (2004). Leaders should utilize a combination of those tactical skills that they are most comfortable with to gain their employees commitment in order to achieve organizational success through influence processes that reflect their own personal style and values. Without the commitment of their subordinates an upper echelon leader has little chance of affecting an organization and implementing changes.
Comparison of Leadership Styles and Influence Methods
Andrea Jung of Avon, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, and Brenda Barnes or Sara Lee are similar in that they are all authentic and charismatic leaders with high LMX who are working to transform their organizations, though there are some subtle differences in the ways they lead their companies. As general strategic guidelines, Nahavandi outlines the following processes leaders can utilize to impact their organizations: direct decisions, allocation of resources, reward system, selection of other leaders, promotions, and role modeling, (2009, Figure 7-4). Upper echelon leaders can make direct decisions that affect organizational structure and strategy. Specifically, when Andrea Jung took over as CEO of Avon she reduced senior staff by 25%, (Ding dong, 2009), Additionally she has removed eight levels of management in her tenure and reduced staffing costs by $300m, (Georgia, 2007). An example of an upper echelon leader making a direct decision that affected an organizational strategy would be Brenda Barnes’ decision to divest of Sara Lee’s non-food based businesses to improve economic performance, (Sterrett, 2009). Indra Nooyi similarly chose to divest PepsiCo of their fast food restaurant market operations and also made significant business acquisitions furthering their investment in the bottled beverage market, (Useem, 2008). Although direct decisions need not only affect organizational strategy and hierarchy, these types of decisions are almost exclusively the domain of upper echelon leadership. Allocation of resources is another area which typically defines the role of upper level leadership. When Brenda Barnes, who is noted to be a strong marketer, first stepped into the role of CEO she allocated an additional $250m towards R&D and marketing, an increase of 35%, in order to grow annual sales between 2% and 4%, (Jargon, 2005). Barnes subsequently reduced Sara Lees’ 2009 fiscal year marketing budget by 21% to expand profit margins, after she had increased it by 4.9% in the 2008 fiscal year, (Sterrett, 2008). Nahavandi credits Andrea Jung’s allocation of resources into research and development as partly responsible for an increase in Avon’s sales by 45% in 2004 that resulted in a 164% increase in stock prices, (p. 223). Additionally Jung considers the current recession a growth opportunity for the company and announced in March of 2009 they would be spending $400m in advertising in the coming year to promote Avon as a career potential for recently out of work women, the largest hiring initiative in the firm’s history, (Ding dong, 2009). Indra Nooyi influences through the allocation of resources as well, redirecting about 1/3 of Pepsi’s marketing dollars this year towards social media and digital promotions that included her “ReFresh Project” campaign, a $20m grant program seeking to award community building projects, (Zmuda, 2010). Nooyi takes her community building seriously as she describes talent sustainability at PepsiCo a force for doing good in the world by providing employees with the training, tools, and opportunities for their development; going on to describe the firm as a “meritocracy”, where hard work is recognized and rewarded, (Bingham & Galagan, 2008). Big rewards have always been a staple for top sellers in consumer direct sales organizations and this is not exception at Avon. Jung rewards her “top sellers” by sending them on extravagant summer holidays to places like Cyprus, Madeira, and Tenerife, (Hill, 2003). At Sara Lee, a company with a history of disjointed business endeavors, Brenda Barnes has relegated the idea of a developing a unified system to tie employee performance to a reward system and training to Stephen Cerrone, a newly hired executive vice president of human resources, (Sterrett, 2007). In addition to the direct hire of Cerrone, Barnes is noted for shaking up leadership having spent the previous years at Sara Lee pulling apart the existing corporate culture, (Sterrett, 2007). Furthermore Barnes had already worked to make diversity a key to bonus awards, (Burns, 2007). The other leaders maintain tight control over the selection and promotion of new leaders within their organizations. Indra Nooyi has been the subject of much criticism over the way that she micromanages marketing leadership at PepsiCo, the company has countered that although many executives have left due to her involvement, many have been brought in as well, and the situation in marketing mirrors what is going on throughout the firm, (Zmuda & York, 2009). Andrea Jung states that it is the responsibility of CEOs to increase the representation of women and minority leaders in business, noting that Avon has more women leaders than any other Fortune 500 company, with six of her thirteen top level executives and five of her eleven board members now women under her leadership, when previously they were all men, (Reilly, 2009). Jung has gone so far in modeling Avon as to change the company’s motto to “The Company for Women”, she is driven by vision to elevate other women in the economic community and a passion to make a difference in the lives of women by enabling them to become self-empowered. So too has Nooyi remodeled PepsiCo into her vision of corporate diversity including speaking engagements, developing programs to help women manage their careers, and sponsoring events to showcase the company’s diversity, (Nahavandi, pp. 64-65). Barnes, who notably left PepsiCo in 1997 to spend more time with her family, as well has modeled her role as working mother and executive actively promoting work-life balance issues at Sara Lee and promoting the value of family by re-launching the firm’s “women’s network “, (Burns, 2007).

Conclusion
Because their employees are committed to them and find their leadership credible these leaders can successfully utilize these influence methods. By virtue of the charisma and authenticity, they have inspired their workers to share in their personal visions and mission and commit to the success of these organizations. All three leaders, Andrea Jung, Indra Nooyi, and Brenda Barnes are successful due to the fact that have inspired employees to commit to the changes that they want to achieve in their respective firms.

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