Leadership

Chapter Four

Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes,

and Styles
 An Effective Leader
… is one who helps group members
attain productivity, including high
quality and customer satisfaction.
 Research on Leadership
Styles
• Many research studies could be categorized
under the heading of style approach, only a
few strongly represent the idea
– Ohio state

– University of Michigan

– Studies by Blake and Mouton

 Behavioral Approaches

In the late 1940s, researchers began to explore

the notion that how a person acts determines
that person’s leadership effectiveness. Instead
of searching for traits, these researchers
examined leader behaviors and their impact
on the performance and satisfaction of
followers.
 The Michigan Studies

• The Michigan Studies were conducted

to determine the pattern of leadership
behavior that result in effective group
performance.
University of Michigan Studies
• Studied leaders’ behaviors performance on small
group performance

• Two behaviors identified:

– Employee orientation
• Leaders approach with strong human relations
emphasis
– Production orientation
• Leadership behaviors that stress technological
advancement and production aspects of the job
 The Michigan Studies
Job-Centered Leader
Behavior
Attempts to build work
group performance by
paying attention to the
efficient completion of
the task. Primary
emphasis is on the task.
Employee-Centered
Leader Behavior
Attempts to build work
group performance by
paying attention to the
human aspects of the
group. Primary emphasis
is on the person.

The studies suggested that a leader could exhibit either

behavior, but not both at the same time.
 The Ohio State Studies

• The Ohio State Studies were conducted

at about the same time as the Michigan
Studies.
• The Ohio State Studies found that
leaders engaged in two separate sets of
leadership behaviors, referred to as
consideration and initiating structure.
 Ohio State Studies
• Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire
(LDBQ)

• Administered to hundreds of individuals in

various fields

• Two general types of leader behaviors

– Initiating structure (Task)
– Consideration (Relational)
 The Ohio State Studies
Consideration Initiating Structure

Involves being concerned Involves clearly defining

with subordinates’ the leader-subordinate
feelings and respecting roles so that subordinates
subordinates’ ideas. know what is expected of
them.

Unlike the Michigan Studies variables, consideration and initiating

structure were not thought to be on the same continuum. Instead,
they were seen as independent dimensions of leadership behavior.
 Initiating Structure
• Organizing and defining relationships in
the group by engaging in such activities
as assigning specific tasks, specifying
procedures to be followed, scheduling
work, and clarifying expectations for
team members
• Also referred to as production emphasis,
task orientation, and task motivation
 Consideration
• The degree to which the leader creates
an environment of emotional support,
warmth, friendliness, and trust
• Involves being friendly and
approachable, looking out for the
personal welfare of the group, keeping
the group abreast of new developments,
and doing small favors for the group
Four Combinations of Initiating
Structure and Consideration
 Results
• Behaviors viewed as distinct and independent (two different
continua)

• The degree to which a leader exhibited one behavior was not

related to the degree to which he or she exhibited the other
behavior

• When two behaviors were treated as independent orientations,

leaders were seen as being able to be oriented to both

• Determining how a leader optimally mixed task and

relationship behaviors has been the central task for research
in style approach
 Why Trait and Behavior
Approaches Fall Short
Trait
Trait approaches
approaches consider
consider
personal
personal characteristics
characteristics of
of the
the
leader
leader that
that may
may be
be important
important A
A shortcoming
shortcoming of of both
both
in
in achieving
achieving success
success inin aa of
of these
these approaches
approaches
leadership
leadership role.
role. is
is that
that they
they fail
fail to
to take
take
into
into account
account thethe
interaction
interaction between
between
people,
people, tasks,
tasks, and
and
Behavioral
Behavioral approaches
approaches attempt
attempt environment.
environment.
to
to specify
specify which
which kinds
kinds of
of
leader
leader behaviors
behaviors are
are necessary
necessary
for
for effective
effective leadership.
leadership.
 Style Approach
• Emphasizes the behavior of the leader

• Focuses exclusively on what leaders do and

how they act

• Explains how leaders combine two kinds of

behaviors to influence subordinates in efforts
to reach a goal
 Task-Related Leadership
Attitudes and Behaviors
• Adaptability to the situation
• Direction setting
• High performance standards
• Risk taking and a bias for action
• Hands-on guidance and feedback
• Stability of performance
• Ability to ask tough questions
 Task Behaviors vs. Relational
Behaviors
• Task Behaviors
– Facilitates goal accomplishment

• Relationship Behaviors
– Help subordinates feel comfortable with
themselves, with each other, and with the
groups situation
 Relationship-Oriented
Attitudes and Behaviors
• Aligning and mobilizing people
• Concert building
• Creating inspiration and visibility
• Satisfying higher-level needs
• Giving emotional support and
encouragement
• Promoting principles and values
• Being a servant leader
 Servant Leadership
• Place service before self-interest
• Listen first to express confidence in
others
• Inspire trust by being trustworthy
• Focus on what is feasible to accomplish
• Lend a hand
• Provide tools
 360-Degree Feedback
• A formal evaluation of superiors based
on input from people who work for and
with them
• Often referred to as multisource
feedback or multirater feedback
• Most often used for leadership and
management development
A 360-Degree Feedback
Chart
 Leadership Style
• The relatively consistent pattern of
behavior that characterizes a leader
• Often based on the dimensions of
initiating structure and consideration
• Examples: “He’s a real command-and-
control type,” “she’s a consensus
leader.”
 Participative Leadership
• Participative leaders share decision making
with group members
• Three subtypes:
– Consultative leaders confer with group
members
– Consensus leaders strive for consensus among
group members
– Democratic leaders confer final authority to the
group
 Autocratic Leadership
• Autocratic leaders retain most of the
authority for themselves
• Autocratic leaders make decisions
confidently, assume that group
members will comply, and are not overly
concerned with group members’
attitudes toward a decision
 Leadership Grid Styles
• The Leadership Grid simultaneously
specifies concern for production and
concern for people
• Leadership Grid styles include:
– Authority-Compliance
– Country Club Management
– Impoverished Management
– Middle-of-the-Road Management
– Team Management
Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid
of Style Approach
• Most well-known model of leader behavior

• Explains how leaders help organizations to reach their

purposes through two factors:

– Concern for production

• How a leader is concerned with achieving organizational
tasks
– Concern for people
• How a leader attends to the people with the organization
who are trying to achieve its goals.
Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid
of Style Approach
• Joins concern for production and concern for people on
two intersecting axes
– X axis = concern for results
– Y axis = concern for people

• Portrays five major leadership styles:

– Authority-Compliance (9,1)
– Country Club management (1,9)
– Impoverished management (1,1)
– Middle-of-the-Road management (5,5)
– Team management (9,9)
 Authority-Compliance
Management
• Places heavy emphasis on task and job
requirements

• Less emphasis on people

• Communication under-emphasized

• Leadership is controlling, demanding, and

overpowering
 Country Club Management
• Low concern for task accomplishment

• High concern for interpersonal relationships

• De-emphasis on production

• Leadership characterized as agreeable,

eager to help, comforting, and uncontroversial
 Impoverished Management
• No concern for task, as well as interpersonal
relationships

• Going through the motions with lack of

involvement

• Leaderships described as indifferent,

noncommittal, resigned, and apathetic
Middle-of-the-Road Management
• Leaders are compromisers

• Immediate concern for task and interpersonal relationship

• Leader avoids conflict and emphasizes moderate levels of

production and relations with others to establish equilibrium

• Leaders are described as one who is expedient, soft-

pedals disagreement, and is interested in group progress
over their own convictions
 Team Management
• Places strong emphasis on both tasks and
interpersonal relationships

• Promotes high degree of participation and teamwork

• Satisfies a basic need in employees to be involved and

committed to their work

• Leaders characterized as clear, open-minded,

determined, and one who stimulates participation
 Combined Styles
• Blake and his colleagues have identified two
styles that incorporate multiple aspects of the grid

– Paternalism/Maternalism
• Leaders uses both (1,9) and (9,1) styles but does
not integrate the two

– Opportunistic
• Leader uses any combination of the basic five
styles for purpose of personal advancement
 How does the Style Approach
work?
• Provides framework for assessing leadership
behaviors in a broad way and general way

• Gives leaders a way to look at their behavior by

sub-dividing it into the two dimensions

• Reminds leaders that their impact occurs

through both the task they perform and the
relationship they create.
 Strengths and Weaknesses of the
Style Approach
• Strengths
• Easily applied
• Studies on leadership style validates and gives credibility to the
approach
• Provides core of the leadership process
• Can be used as a heuristic (cognitive map)
• Approach applies to everything a leader does
• Weaknesses
• Hasn’t adequately shown how leaders’ styles are associated
with performance outcomes
• There is no universal leadership style
• Implies that the most effective leadership style is the Team
Management style (9,9)
 Entrepreneurial Leadership
• Strong achievement drive and sensible
risk-taking
• High degrees of enthusiasm and creativity
• Tendency to act quickly when opportunity
arises
• Constant hurry combined with impatience
• Visionary perspective
 Entrepreneurial Leadership
• Dislike of hierarchy and bureaucracy
• Preference for dealing with external
customers
• Eye on the future
 Gender Differences in
Leadership Style
• One researcher concluded that men tended
toward a command-and-control style. In
contrast, women tended toward a
transformational style, relying heavily on
interpersonal skills.
• While researchers found leadership style
differences between men and women, on the
dimension of overall effectiveness, the sexes
were perceived the same.