INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Behavioral Leadership
Mahatma gandhi

By: ; Akhil Lakhani

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 BEHAVIORIAL LEADERSHIP
Leadership trait theory is the idea that people are born with certain character traits or
qualities. Since certain traits are associated with proficient leadership, it assumes that if
you could identify people with the correct traits, you will be able to identify leaders and
people with leadership potential. Most of the time the traits are considered to be
naturally part of a person’s personality from birth. From this standpoint, leadership trait
theory tends to assume that people are born as leaders or not as leaders. There is a lot
of value in identifying the character traits associated with leadership. It is even more
valuable to identify the character traits that followers look for in a leader. These traits
would be the characteristics of an individual who is most likely to attract followers.

However, the idea that leadership traits are inborn and unchangeable appears to be
incorrect. It is true that many of our dispositions and tendencies are influenced by our
personalities and the way we are born. However, most people recognize that it is
possible for someone to change their character traits for the worse. Someone who is
known for being honest can learn to be deceitful. The whole idea of saying that
someone was “corrupted” is based on the fact that people can learn bad character
traits.

If people can learn bad character traits and become different than the way they are
naturally through conditioning, it logically follows that they can learn good character
traits as well. A person who is prone to being dishonest can learn to be honest. A person
who avoids risks can learn to take risks. It may not be easy, but it can be done. The book
The Leadership Challenge identifies 20 character traits that are generally associated with
good leaders. The top five traits are honest, inspiring, forward-looking, competent and
intelligent. These are all traits that someone can learn to implement. It may not be easy,
but with practice you can become more inspiring, with practice you can become more
honest, with practice you can become more competent.

What makes this less difficult than it first seems, is that these are character traits that
followers are looking for in a leader. By simply displaying these character traits more
consistently an individual is able to change how they are perceived. Sometimes it isn’t a
problem with changing your internal characteristics—it is just an issue of displaying
those characteristics more openly. By focusing on your own character and developing
traits associated with leadership, you can increase your ability to lead.

Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made,
not born. Rooted in behaviorism, this leadership theory focuses on the actions of
leaders not on mental qualities or internal states. According to this theory, people can
learn to become leaders through teaching and observation.

Both Cattell’s and Eysenck’s theory have been the subject of considerable research,
which has led some theorists to believe that Cattell focused on too many traits, while
Eysenck focused on too few. As a result, a new trait theory often referred to as the "Big
Five" theory emerged. This five-factor model of personality represents five core traits
that interact to form human personality. Extroversion includes characteristics such as
excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and high amounts of emotional
expressiveness. Agreeableness includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness,
affection, and other prosocial behaviors. Common features of conscientiousness
dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-
directed behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of
details. Individuals high in neuroticism trait tend to experience emotional instability,
anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness. Openness feature characteristics such as
imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of
interests.

Behavioral theories
Partially as a result of the disenchantment with the trait approach to leadership that
occurred by the beginning of the 1950s, the focus of leadership research shifted away
from leader traits to leader behaviors. The premise of this stream of research was that
the behaviors exhibited by leaders are more important than their physical, mental, or
emotional traits. The two most famous behavioral leadership studies took place at Ohio
State University and the University of Michigan in the late 1940s and 1950s. These
studies sparked hundreds of other leadership studies and are still widely cited.
Ohio State Studies: - The Ohio State studies utilized the Leader Behavior Description
Questionnaire (LBDQ), administering it to samples of individuals in the military,
manufacturing companies, college administrators, and student leaders. Answers to the
questionnaire were factor-analyzed to determine if common leader behaviors emerged
across samples. The conclusion was that there were two distinct aspects of leadership
that describe how leaders carry out their role. Two factors, termed consideration and
initiating structure, consistently appeared. Initiating structure, sometimes called task-
oriented behavior, involves planning, organizing, and coordinating the work of
subordinates. Consideration involves showing concern for subordinates, being
supportive, recognizing subordinates' accomplishments, and providing for subordinates'
welfare.

University of Michigan Studies: - The Michigan leadership studies took place at about
the same time as those at Ohio State. Under the general direction of Rensis Likert, the
focus of the Michigan studies was to determine the principles and methods of
leadership that led to productivity and job satisfaction. The studies resulted in two
general leadership behaviors or orientations: an employee orientation and a production
orientation. Leaders with an employee orientation showed genuine concern for
interpersonal relations. Those with a production orientation focused on the task or
technical aspects of the job.

The conclusion of the Michigan studies was that an employee orientation and general
instead of close supervision yielded better results. Likert eventually developed four
"systems" of management based on these studies; he advocated System 4 (the
participative-group system, which was the most participatory set of leader behaviors) as
resulting in the most positive outcomes.

One concept based largely on the behavioral approach to leadership effectiveness was
the Managerial (or Leadership) Grid, developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. The
grid combines "concern for production" with "concern for people" and presents five
alternative behavioral styles of leadership. An individual who emphasized neither
production was practicing "impoverished management" according to the grid. If a
person emphasized concern for people and placed little emphasis on production, he was
terms a "country-club" manager.

Conversely, a person who emphasized a concern for production but paid little attention
to the concerns of subordinates was a "task" manager. A person who tried to balance
concern for production and concern for people was termed a "middle-of-the-road"
manager.

Finally, an individual who was able to simultaneously exhibit a high concern for
production and a high concern for people was practicing "team management."
According to the prescriptions of the grid, team management was the best leadership
approach. The Managerial Grid became a major consulting tool and was the basis for a
considerable amount of leadership training in the corporate world.

The assumption of the leader behavior approach was that there were certain behaviors
that would be universally effective for leaders. Unfortunately, empirical research has
not demonstrated consistent relationships between task-oriented or person-oriented
leader behaviors and leader effectiveness. Like trait research, leader behavior research
did not consider situational influences that might moderate the relationship between
leader behaviors and leader effectiveness.

Fiedler Model

Introduced in 1967, Fiedler's contingency theory was the first to specify how situational
factors interact with leader traits and behavior to influence leadership effectiveness.
The theory suggests that the "favorability" of the situation determines the effectiveness
of task- and person-oriented leader behavior.

Favorability is determined by the respect and trust that followers have for the leader;
the extent to which subordinates' responsibilities can be structured and performance
measured; and the control the leader has over subordinates' rewards. The situation is
most favorable when followers respect and trust the leader, the task is highly
structured, and the leader has control over rewards and punishments.

Fiedler's research indicated that task-oriented leaders were more effective when the
situation was either highly favorable or highly unfavorable, but that person-oriented
leaders were more effective in the moderately favorable or unfavorable situations. The
theory did not necessarily propose that leaders could adapt their leadership styles to
different situations, but that leaders with different leadership styles would be more
effective when placed in situations that matched their preferred style.
Fiedler's contingency theory has been criticized on both conceptual and methodological
grounds. However, empirical research has supported many of the specific propositions
of the theory, and it remains an important contribution to the understanding of
leadership effectiveness.

Path-Goal Theory

Path-goal theory was first presented in a 1971 Administrative Science Quarterly article
by Robert House. Path-goal theory proposes that subordinates' characteristics and
characteristics of the work environment determine which leader behaviors will be more
effective. Key characteristics of subordinates identified by the theory are locus of
control, work experience, ability, and the need for affiliation. Important environmental
characteristics named by the theory are the nature of the task, the formal authority
system, and the nature of the work group. The theory includes four different leader
behaviors, which include directive leadership, supportive leadership, participative
leadership, and achievement-oriented leadership.

According to the theory, leader behavior should reduce barriers to subordinates' goal
attainment, strengthen subordinates' expectancies that improved performance will lead
to valued rewards, and provide coaching to make the path to payoffs easier for
subordinates. Path-goal theory suggests that the leader behavior that will accomplish
these tasks depends upon the subordinate and environmental contingency factors.

Path-goal theory has been criticized because it does not consider interactions among
the contingency factors and also because of the complexity of its underlying theoretical
model, expectancy theory. Empirical research has provided some support for the
theory's propositions, primarily as they relate to directive and supportive leader
behaviors.

Vroom-Yetton-Jago decision-making model of leadership

The Vroom-Yetton-Jago decision-making model was introduced by Victor Vroom and

Phillip Yetton in 1973 and revised by Vroom and Jago in 1988. The theory focuses
primarily on the degree of subordinate participation that is appropriate in different
situations. Thus, it emphasizes the decision-making style of the leader.

There are five types of leader decision-making styles, which are labeled AI, AII, CI, CII,
and G. These styles range from strongly autocratic (AI), to strongly democratic (G).
According to the theory, the appropriate style is determined by answers to up to eight
diagnostic questions, which relate to such contingency factors as the importance of
decision quality, the structure of the problem, whether subordinates have enough
information to make a quality decision, and the importance of subordinate commitment
to the decision.

Mahatma Gandhi as behavior leader

Introduction

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati:  મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ

ગાંધી;  Hindi:  मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी, 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the
pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian
independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha. This is defined as resistance
to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded
upon ahinsa, or total nonviolence. This concept helped India to gain
independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the
world. Gandhi is sometimes referred to as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit
word mahātmā or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath
Tagore),. In India he is also called Bapu or "Father"). He is officially honoured in
India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there
as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of
Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed civil disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa,

during the resident Indian community's struggle there for civil rights. During this time,
he wrote articles for Indian newspapers about black people that some modern readers
consider racist. After his return to India in 1915, he organised protests by peasants,
farmers, and urban labourers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After
assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide
campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity,
end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to
achieve Swarjj or the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously
led his followers in the Non-cooperation movement that protested the British-imposed
salt tax with the 400 km (240 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930. Later, in 1942, he launched
the Quit India civil disobedience movement demanding immediate independence for
India. Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India.

As a practitioner of ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth and advocated that others

do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the
traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven from yarn that he had spun by hand himself.
He ate simple vegetarian food, experimented for a time with a fruitarian diet, and
undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.

Principles, practices and beliefs

Truth

"God is truth. The way to truth lies through  ahimsa  (non-violence)" –  Sabarmati
13 March 1927

Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He

tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting
experiments on himself. He called his autobiography The Story of My Experiments
with Truth.
Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own
demons, fears, and insecurities. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said
"God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God".
Thus, Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is "God".

Nonviolence

Although Mahatama Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of non-
violence, he was the first to apply it in the political field on a huge scale.[55] The
concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian
religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and
Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his
autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted as saying:

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love
has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem
invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the
holy name of liberty and democracy?"

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am
prepared to kill for."

Gandhi nurses Parchure Shastri, a sanskrit scholar afflicted by leprosy, at

Sabarmati Ashram, 1940

In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most
logical extremes in envisioning a world where even government, police and
armies were nonviolent. The quotations below are from the book "For Pacifists."

Vegetarianism
As a young child, Gandhi experimented with meat-eating. This was due partially to his
inherent curiosity as well as his rather persuasive peer and friend Sheikh Mehta. The
idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and jain traditions in India, and, in his
native land of Gujrat, most Hindus are vegetarian and so are almost all Jains. The Gandhi
family was no exception. Before leaving for his studies in London, Gandhi made a
promise to his mother putlibai and his uncle, Becharji Swami that he would abstain from
eating meat, taking alcohol, and engaging in promiscuity. He held fast to his promise
and gained more than a diet: he gained a basis for his life-long philosophies. As Gandhi
grew into adulthood, he became a strict vegetarian. He wrote the book The Moral Basis
of Vegetarianism and several articles on the subject, some of which were published in
the London Vegetarian Society's publication, The Vegetarian. During this period, the
young Gandhi became inspired by many great minds and was befriended by the
chairman of the London Vegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Oldfield.

Nai Talim, Basic Education

Nai Talim is a spiritual principle which states that knowledge and work are not
separate. Gandhi promoted an educational curriculum with the same name based
on this pedagogical principle.

It can be translated with the phrase 'Basic Education for all'. However, the
concept has several layers of meaning. It developed out of Gandhi's experience
with the English educational system and with colonialism in general. In that
system, he saw that Indian children would be alienated and 'career-based
thinking' would become dominant. In addition, it embodied a series of negative
outcomes: the disdain for manual work, the development of a new elite class, and
the increasing problems of industrialization and urbanization.

The three pillars of Gandhi's pedagogy were its focus on the life-long character of
education, its social character and its form as a holistic process. For Gandhi,
education is 'the moral development of the person', a process that is by definition
'life-long'.

Brahmacharya
Gandhi with textile workers at  Darwen Lancashire, 26 September 1931.

When Gandhi was 16 his father became very ill. Being very devoted to his parents,
he attended to his father at all times during his illness. However, one night,
Gandhi's uncle came to relieve Gandhi for a while. He retired to his bedroom
where carnal desires overcame him and he made love to his wife. Shortly
afterward a servant came to report that Gandhi's father had just died. Gandhi felt
tremendous guilt and never could forgive himself. He came to refer to this event
as "double shame." The incident had significant influence in Gandhi
becoming celibate at the age of 36, while still married.

This decision was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Brahmacharya —

spiritual and practical purity — largely associated with celibacy and asceticism.
Gandhi saw Brahmacharya as a means of becoming close with God and as a
primary foundation for self realisation. In his autobiography he tells of his battle
against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba. He felt
it his personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather
than lust. For Gandhi, Brahmacharya meant "control of the senses in thought,
word and deed.”

Simplicity
Gandhi having tea with  Lord Mountbatten

Gandhi earnestly believed that a person involved in public service should lead
a simple life. He first displayed this principle when he gave up wearing western-
style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. When he returned to
India he renounced the western lifestyle he led in South Africa, where he had
enjoyed a successful legal practice.

Gandhi dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use
of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving
their own clothes from thread they themselves spun on a charkha, and
encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to
unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial
manufacturers owned by British interests. The Swadeshi Movement held that if
Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British
establishment in India. Gandhian simplicity was a sign and expression
of swadeshiprinciples. Consequently, the charkha was later incorporated into the
flag of the Indian National Congress. He subsequently wore a dhoti for the rest of
his life to express the simplicity of his life.

Followers and influence

Mahatma Gandhi District in  Houston, Texas

Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements. Leaders of the civil

rights movement in the United States, including Martin Luther King andJames
Lawson, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own
theories about non-violence. Anti-apartheid activist and former President of
South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi. Others include Khan Abdul
Ghaffar Khan, Steve Biko, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Benigno Aquino, Jr. (the
Philippine opposition leader during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and
father of current Philippine president Benigno Aquino III).

"Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics." – Martin Luther King
Jr, 1955

In his early years, the former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was a

follower of the non-violent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. Bhana and Vahed
commented on these events as "Gandhi inspired succeeding generations of South
African activists seeking to end White rule. This legacy connects him to Nelson
Mandela...in a sense Mandela completed what Gandhi started."

Gandhi's life and teachings inspired many who specifically referred to Gandhi as
their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading Gandhi's ideas. In
Europe, Romain Rolland was the first to discuss Gandhi in his 1924
book Mahatma Gandhi, and Brazilian anarchist and feminist Maria Lacerda de
Moura wrote about Gandhi in her work on pacifism. In 1931, notable European
physicist Albert Einstein exchanged written letters with Gandhi, and called him "a
role model for the generations to come" in a later writing about him. Lanza del
Vasto went to India in 1936 intending to live with Gandhi; he later returned to
Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy and founded the Community of the Ark in
1948 (modelled after Gandhi's ashrams). Madeleine Slade (known as "Mirabehn")
was the daughter of a British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as
a devotee of Gandhi.

In addition, the British musician John Lennond referred to Gandhi when discussing

his views on non-violence. At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
in 2007, former U.S. Vice-President and environmentalist Al Gore spoke of
Gandhi's influence on him.

President of the United States Barack Obama in an address to a Joint Session of

the Parliament of India said that:

"I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the
United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared
with  America and the world." –Barack Obama  in an address to a Joint Session of
the  Parliament of India, 2010