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Leadership
Definition: The Leadership Styles are the behavioral patterns that a leader adopt to influence
the behavior of his followers, i.e. the way he gives directions to his subordinates and motivates
them to accomplish the given objectives.

The leadership styles can either be classified on the basis of behavioral approach or situational
approach. These approaches are comprised of several theories and models which are explained
below:

Based on Behavioral Approach

1. Power Orientation: The power orientation refers to the “degree of authority” that a leader
adopts to influence the behavior of his subordinates. Based on this, the leadership styles can be further
classified as:

o Autocratic Leadership
o Participative Leadership
o Laissez-Faire
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 Leadership as a continuum: This model is given by Tannenbaum and Schmidt, who

believed that there are several leadership styles that range between two extremes of autocratic and
free-rein, which are shown below:

 Employee-Production Orientation: Several types of research were conducted to study

the leadership behavior that gets affected by the several characteristics that are related to each other. It
was found that employee orientation and production orientation play an important role in determining
the leadership style.The employee orientation is based on the premise that an employee is an important
part of the group and is in parallel to the democratic leadership style. Whereas the production
Orientation focuses on the production and technical aspects of the job and the employees are
considered as the tools for accomplishing the jobs. Thus, the production orientation is parallel to the
autocratic leadership style.
 Likert’s Management System: Rensis Likert along with his associates studied the
patterns and behavior of managers to identify the leadership styles and defined four systems of
management. These four systems are: Exploitative Authoritative, Benevolent Authoritative, consultative
system and participative system. For a detailed description of these systems click on the link below:
Likert’s Four systems of Management
 Managerial Grid: The managerial grid is the tool designed by Blake and Mouton to
determine the leadership style. According to them, the leadership style gets influenced by both the task-
oriented and relation-oriented behavior in varying degrees. For a detailed description click on the link
below:
Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid
 Three Dimensional Grid: The three-dimensional grid is also called as a 3-D leadership
model given by W.J. Reddin. Reddin included the effectiveness dimension along with the task-oriented
and relationship-oriented dimensions to study how a leader behaves in a given situation and a specific
environment. To know more about this grid, click on the link below:
Reddin 3-D Leadership Model
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Based on Situational Approach

1. Fiedler’s Contingency Model: This theory is given by Fred Fiedler, who, along with his associates
identified the situational variables and their relationship to determine the leadership styles. Thus, this
model is comprised of three elements, leadership styles, situational variables and the interrelationship
between these two. For a detailed description of this model, click the link below:
Fred Fidler’s Contingency Model
2. Hursey and Blanchard’s Situational Model: According to this model, the leader has to adopt the
leadership style that matches up with the subordinate’s maturity i.e. his willingness to direct his
behavior towards the goal. To know more about this model, click on the link below:
Hursey & Blanchard’s Situational Model
3. Path-Goal Model: The Path-Goal Model is given by Robert House, who, along with his associates
tried to predict the effectiveness of leadership styles in varied situations. He believed that the foremost
function of any leader is to define the goals to the subordinates clearly and assist them in finding the
best path to accomplish that goal. The detailed description of this model is given in the link below:
Robert House’s Path-Goal Model

Thus, a manager behavior and the situational demands give rise to several leadership styles as
discussed above.

robert House’s Path-Goal Model

Definition: The Path-Goal Model of leadership is given by Robert House and others, who
studied the relationship between the leadership styles and the situations. According to them,
there is no single leadership style that fit in all the situations and therefore, they tried to predict
the effectiveness of leadership styles in different situations.

Robert House and Mitchell have identified four types of leadership styles:
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1. Supportive Leadership: Here, leader emphasizes on establishing the interpersonal

relationships with the subordinates by showing concern for their welfare and building a friendly
environment within the organization. This kind of leadership style is adopted with the intent to
make the job more interesting when the work is more stressful or hazardous.
2. Directive Leadership: The directive leadership style is followed when the subordinates
are inexperienced, or the job is quite complex that cannot be performed without the manager’s
directions. Here, manager properly tells the subordinates about the task and the ways to perform
it.
3. Participative Leadership: This kind of leadership style is adopted when the
subordinates are experienced, and the job is complex. Here, the leader involves the team
members who are experts to give their input in the decision-making process.
4. Achievement-Oriented Leadership: Here, the manager sets high standard goals for his
teammates with the intent to motivate them to achieve those goals. The leader has full confidence
in his subordinates and adopts this leadership style for the self-improvement of each group
member and to make a task more exciting. Generally, this style is followed when the task is quite
complex, and the subordinates are less motivated.

Thus, the path-goal model posits that the foremost function of the leader is to clarify and set
goals with subordinates, help them in identifying the best path for achieving the goal and
removing the obstacles if coming in the way. In order to do so, the leader adopts different
leadership styles that best suits the situation.

Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

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Definition: Robert Blake and Jane Mouton have developed the Managerial Grid, also called as
a leadership grid. According to them, the leadership styles can be identified on the basis of
manager’s concern for people and production.

Here, concern for people means the degree to which an individual is committed towards the goal
achievement, maintaining self-esteem to workers and satisfying interpersonal relationships.
Whereas, the concern for production means an attitude of superiors towards the quality of
procedures and policies, creativeness of research, effectiveness of staff, work efficiency and
volume of output.

The managerial grid identifies five leadership styles based on two behavioral dimensions as
shown in the figure below:

In the figure,
there are 81 possible categories where the leader’s style may fall.

1. Impoverished Management (1,1): The managers with this leadership style exert

minimum effort to get the work done by the subordinates. They have minimal concern for both
the people and production, and they function merely to preserve their jobs and seniority.
Therefore, the disharmony, dissatisfaction, disorganization arises within the organization.
2. Task Management (9,1): Here, the leader is more concerned with the production and lay
less emphasis on the personal needs of his subordinates. This leadership style is also called as a
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dictatorial or perish style, where the subordinates are required to perform the task as directed by
the superiors. In this leadership style, the output in the short run may increase drastically, but due
to stringent rules and procedures, there could be a high labor turnover.
3. Middle of the Road (5,5): The manager with this style tries to keep a balance between
the organizational goals and the personal needs of his subordinates. Here, the leader focuses on
an adequate performance through a balance between the work requirements and satisfactory
morale. Both the people and production needs are not completely met, and thus the organization
land up to an average performance.
4. Country Club (1,9): Here, the leader lays more emphasis on the personal needs of the
subordinates and give less attention to the output. The manager adopts this style of leadership
with the intent to have a friendly and comfortable working environment for the subordinates,
who gets self-motivated and work harder on their own. But however, less attention to the
production can adversely affect the work goals and may lead to the unsatisfactory results.
5. Team Management (9,9): According to Blake and Mouton, it is the most effective
leadership style wherein the leader takes both people and production hand in hand. This style is
based on McGregor’s Theory Y, where the employees are believed to be committed towards the
goal achievement and need not require manager’s intervention at every step.The leader with this
style feels that empowerment, trust, respect, commitment helps in nurturing the team
relationships, which ultimately results in the increased employee satisfaction and overall
production of the organization.

Thus, the managerial grid is a graphical representation of different leadership styles that manager
adopts while dealing in the industrial settings.

Autocratic Leadership
Definition: In the Autocratic Leadership Style, the leader centralizes the decision-making
power in himself and give directions to his subordinates as to what they are supposed to do and
how they are required to perform the given task. Thus, a leader enjoys the full authority and
imposes his will on others.

The autocratic leadership style is also known as authoritarian, directive or monothetic style.
Here, the leader makes the decision by himself without taking any advice from others. No one
can question the decision made by the autocratic leader; he structures the complete situation, and
the subordinates are required to do what they have been told by the leader.

This kind of style is suitable for the situation, where the leader knows the solution of the problem
and can very well direct his subordinates to get the task accomplished quickly and efficiently.
Especially, in military, construction and manufacturing jobs, the subordinates prefer an
autocratic leadership style, where they can focus on the specific jobs and leave the complex
decision making to the leader.

At times, the autocratic leadership style can be negative as the group members may feel insecure
and afraid of leader’s authority. Since the autocratic leader takes a decision on his own with little
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or no input from the subordinates, may demoralize the group members, as they are not able to
contribute their ideas and use their expertise or knowledge in certain situations.

Also, it has been observed that in the autocratic leadership style less creative solutions are
obtained that may hurt the overall performance of the group. Hence, the creative group members
may detest this style of leadership.

Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

Definition: The Laissez-Faire or Free-Rein is the leadership style wherein the leader gives full
freedom to his subordinates to act on their own. Here, the leader once defines the goals, policies,
programmes and the limitations for action and then leaves the remaining process to be
accomplished by the subordinates on their own.

In Laissez-Faire leadership style, the leader maintains contact with outside people and bring in
information to the group members which they need for the accomplishment of the given task.
Although, the subordinates are given the power and authority to make decisions the leader still
takes responsibility for the actions of his group members.

This leadership style proves to be beneficial only when the group members are highly skilled,
well-motivated and capable enough to accomplish the task assigned to them. The Laissez-Faire
style is most suitable in the situations, where the group members are more knowledgeable than
the leader and possess expertise in a particular field that can be used to find a solution to the
complex problem. Thus, highly passionate team members prefer this style of leadership.

One of the major disadvantages of the Laissez-Faire leadership style is that the project may go
off track in case the group members are not knowledgeable and lacks experience in making the
effective decisions. Also, the project may suffer if no clear lines of authority and responsibility
are defined among the group members. Lack of guidance and feedback from the leader may also
affect the viability of the project which in turn may lead to inadequate integration among the
teammates.

Participative Leadership
Definition: The Participative Leadership Style often called as Democratic or
Ideographic style wherein, the leader decentralizes the decision-making process and encourages
his teammates to contribute towards the goals and share responsibility in them.

In participative leadership style, the leader motivates the team members to get physically and
mentally involved in the group situations and give their opinions and ideas, but the power to
make the final decision rests with the leader. Thus, a leader involves his subordinates in setting
goals and objectives, team building and problem-solving, but keep the authority of final decision
making with himself.
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There are four types of participative decision-making style that a leader can adopt and which are
explained in the link below:

Types of participative decision-making style

The participative leadership style is best suited in the situations where the leader wants to amend
any change in the organization and finds easy to gain the support of his subordinates as they
being the part of that decision process. Also, the group members feel that they are an important
part of the group as their opinions are being valued, and their ideas are being taken into the
consideration. They feel motivated and even perform in the absence of the leader. Their morale
gets increased, and the sense of competitiveness decreases.

Although the participative leadership style has several advantages, it can result in a delayed
decision making, and unnecessary huge cost could be incurred in the overall decision-making
process.