SOLUTION MANUAL FOR LEADERSHIP RESEARCH

FINDINGS PRACTICE AND SKILLS 7TH EDITION

DUBRIN 113343522X 9781133435228
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CHAPTER 4
Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an understanding of basic leadership behavior
and attitudes, as well as styles. Some of the information goes back to classic studies conducted in the
1950s and 1960s, and some is recent. Several other topics are featured: servant leadership, and how
leaders use 360-degree feedback to fine-tune their behaviors, entrepreneurial leadership styles, and
gender differences in leadership.

CHAPTER OUTLINE AND LECTURE NOTES

This chapter covers pioneering information about leadership behaviors and attitudes that served as the
basis for studies of leadership styles and contingency theories of leadership. A sampling of these styles
is presented as well as current information about behaviors, attitudes, and styles. An effective leader is
one who helps group members attain productivity, including high quality and customer satisfaction, as
well as job satisfaction. Leadership effectiveness is typically measured by both objective data and
subjective data in terms of judgments by others.
I. THE CLASSIC DIMENSIONS OF CONSIDERATION AND INITIATING STRUCTURE
The Ohio State studies developed questionnaires about leaders that included self-assessments and
assessments by subordinates. This research became the foundation for most of the future research
about leadership behavior, attitudes, and styles. Two dimensions (as identified by factor analysis)
accounted for 85 percent of the variance in descriptions of leadership behavior. Consideration is
the degree to which the leader creates an environment of emotional support, warmth, friendliness,
and trust. Leaders who score high on the consideration factor typically are friendly, trustful, earn
respect, and have a warm relationship. Making connections with people is part of consideration.

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30 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles

Initiating structure is the degree to which the leader organizes and defines relationships in the
group by activities such as assigning specific tasks, specifying procedures to be followed,
scheduling work, and clarifying expectations with team members.
An important output of the research on initiating structure and consideration and initiating
structure was to categorize leaders with respect to how much emphasis they place on the two
dimensions. As implied by Figure 4–1, the two dimensions are not mutually exclusive.
A current examination of the validity of consideration and initiating structure indicates that these
classic dimensions do indeed contribute to an understanding of leadership because they are related
to leadership outcome such as satisfaction and performance.

II. TASK-RELATED ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR

Task-related means that the behavior, attitude, or skill focuses more on the task to be performed
than on the interpersonal aspects of leadership.
1. Adaptability to the situation. Effective leaders adapt to the situation by choosing a
tactic based on the unique circumstances at hand (the contingency approach).

2. Direction setting. The leader must set the direction of change. According to Kotter,
leaders gather voluminous data and search for patterns, relationships, and linkages that
help create events. Direction setting creates vision and strategies.

3. High performance standards. Effective leaders consistently hold group members to

high standards of performance. Setting such standards increases productivity, partly
because of the Pygmalion effect.

4. Concentrating on the strengths of group members. Making good use of the strengths of
group members rather than concentrating effort on patching up areas for improvement
is an effective tactic. The effective leader helps people improve, yet still capitalizes on
strengths.

5. Risk taking and execution of plans. To bring about constructive change, the leader
must take risks and be willing to implement these risky decisions.

6. Hands-on guidance and feedback. The leader who provides hands-on guidance helps
the group accomplish important tasks, and at the same time group members learn
important skills. Too much guidance, however, can lead to poor delegation and
micromanagement. The leader can rarely influence the actions of group members with-
out appropriate performance feedback.

7. Ability to ask tough questions. Many times leaders can be effective by asking tough
questions rather than providing answers. A tough question is one that makes a person
or group stop and think about why they are doing or not doing something.

8. Organizing for collaboration. This behavior is on the borderline between a task

orientation and a relationship orientation. The task focus is that information sharing
takes place, whereas the relationship focus is that group members must work

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 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 31

collaboratively with each other. One task approach to enhance collaboration is to

select technologies that will improve or speed up existing workflows.

III. RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS

Leadership involves influencing people, so it follows that many effective leadership attitudes,
behaviors, and practices deal with interpersonal relationships.
1. Aligning people. Many people have to be aligned (a state of pulling together) to create
significant change toward a higher purpose. Alignment enables people to have a clear
sense of direction because they are pursuing a vision. Alignment of people also
incorporates getting the group to work together smoothly. Mobilization is easier with
an agreed-upon mission.

2. Openness to worker opinion. Management openness is a set of leader behavior

behaviors particularly relevant to subordinates’ motivation to voice their opinion.
Being open to worker opinions is part of the consideration dimension, and also central
to participative leadership.

3. Crating inspiration and visibility. Inspiring others is an essential leadership practice.

An example of an inspiring practice is building enthusiasm about projects and
assignments. Being visible and available facilitates inspiration.

4. Satisfying higher-level needs. Motivation and inspiration energize people by satisfying

needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, and a feeling of
control over one’s life.

5. Giving emotional support and encouragement. Supportive behavior toward team

members usually increases leadership effectiveness. A supportive leader gives frequent
encouragement and praise, and also displays caring and kindness even about non-work
related matters such as the health of a worker’s ill family member.

6. Promoting principles and values. A major part of a top leader’s role is to help promote
values and principles that contribute to the welfare of individuals and the organization.
Covey advises that an organization’s mission statement must be for all good causes.
What constitutes the right values depends on the leader’s core beliefs.

7. Being a servant leader. Wanting to serve others as a leader is a relationship behavior

that encompasses several other key behaviors. A servant leader serves constituents by
working on their behalf to help them achieve their goals, not the leader’s own goals. A
servant leader is a moral leader. Key aspects of servant leadership include the
following:
a. Place service before self-interest.
b. Listen first to express confidence in others.
c. Inspire trust by being trustworthy.
d. Focus on what is feasible to accomplish.

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32 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles

e. Lend a hand.
f. Provide emotional healing.
Research with 182 workers indicates that servant leadership has a positive relationship
with organizational citizenship behavior, job performance, and staying with the
organization. A study in Kenya also found a link between servant leadership and
organizational citizenship behavior.

IV. 360-DEGREE FEEDBACK FOR FINE-TUNING A LEADERSHIP APPROACH

Many leaders solicit systematic feedback to improve their leadership behavior and attitudes. 360-
degree feedback is a formal evaluation of superiors based on input from people who work for and
with them, sometimes including customers and suppliers. 360-degree feedback is more frequently
used for leadership and management development than for performance evaluation. When used
for development, 360-degree feedback should emphasize qualitative comments rather than strictly
quantitative ratings. Professional counseling can sometimes help a person benefit from critical
feedback and place it in perspective.
A potential problem with 360-degree feedback is it anonymity. As a result, nasty comments can
be made without much thought, much like a posting on a website.

V. LEADERSHIP STYLES
A leader’s combination of attitudes and behaviors leads to a certain regularity and predictability in
dealing with group members. Leadership style is the relatively consistent pattern of behavior that
characterizes a leader. Most classifications of leadership style are based on the dimensions of
initiating structure and consideration.
A. Participative Leadership

Sharing decision making with group members, and working with them side-by-side, has
become the generally accepted leadership approach. Participative leaders share decision
making with group members. The style encompasses three subtypes: (1) consultative
leaders confer with group members before making a decision, but retain the final authority;
(2) consensus leaders strive for consensus; and (3) democratic leaders confer final
authority on the group. The participative style is based on management openness because the
leader accepts suggestions from group members for managing the operation. The same style
encompasses the teamwork approach.
The participative style is well suited to managing competent people who want to get
involved in making decisions and giving feedback to management. However, the style often
results in extensive and time-consuming team meetings and committee work.
If democratic leadership goes one step further, it results in extreme macromanagement,
referred to as the laissez-faire leadership style. A study with Norwegian workers found that
laissez-faire leadership created role ambiguity.

B. Autocratic Leadership

In contrast to participative leaders, autocratic leaders retain most of the authority.

Autocratic leaders are considered task-oriented because they place heavy emphasis on

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 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 33

getting tasks accomplished. Daniel Ackerman, the CEO at General Motors (as of 2012), is
offered as an example of a successful autocratic business leader.
C. Leadership Grid® Styles

The Leadership Grid is a framework for simultaneously specifying concern for production
and concern for the people dimensions of leadership. The Grid changes frequently, and we
present the latest version. Grid styles are based on the extent of a person’s concern for
production and people: Controlling (Direct & Dominate) (9,1); Accommodating (Yield &
Comply) (1,9); Status Quo (Balance & Compromise) (5,5); Indifferent (Evade & Elude)
(1,1) and Sound (Contribute & Commit) (9,9). Two other styles are Paternalistic (Prescribe
& Guide), and Opportunistic (Exploit & Manipulate). In both styles, the leader attempts to
take advantage of people.
The ideal position is the 9,9 orientation, which integrates concern for production and
concern for people. This sound management style usually results in improved performance,
low absenteeism and turnover, and high employee satisfaction. The manager should use
principles of human behavior to size up the situation.
D. Entrepreneurial Leadership
Many entrepreneurs use a similar leadership style that stems from their key personality
characteristics and circumstances. A general picture emerges of a task-oriented and
charismatic leader. Even if it is not a true leadership style, at least there are some traits and
behaviors characteristic of entrepreneurs:
1. Strong achievement drive and sensible risk taking.
2. High degree of enthusiasm and creativity.
3. Tendency to act quickly when opportunity arises.
4. Constant hurry combined with impatience.
5. Visionary perspective combined with tenacity.
6. Dislike of hierarchy and bureaucracy.
7. Preference for dealing with external customers.
8. Eye on the future.

E. Gender Differences in Leadership Style

Several researchers and observers argue that women have certain acquired traits and
behaviors that suit them for relations-oriented leadership. Consequently, women leaders
frequently exhibit a cooperative, empowering style that includes the nurturing of team
members. The other facet of this stereotype is that men are inclined toward a command-and-
control, militaristic leadership style.
1. The Argument for Male-Female Differences in Leadership Style

Based on self-reports, Rosener found that men tended toward a command-and-control

style. In contrast, women tended toward a transformational style, relying heavily on
interpersonal skills. Bass found that women are less likely to practice management-by-
exception and are slightly more likely to be described as charismatic.
Gender differences in communication are also reflected in leadership style. Women are
more likely than men to use spoken communication for building relationships and

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34 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles

giving emotional support. Women might therefore feel more natural in using a
relationship-oriented style.

2. The Argument Against Gender Differences in Leadership Style

Based on a literature review, Grant concluded that there are apparently few, if any,
personality differences between men and women managers. As women move up the
corporate ladder, they identify more with the male model of managerial success. An
important point is that both men and women differ among themselves in leadership
style. As researchers put it, “The within-group variance is greater than the across-group
variance.”
More important than searching for differences is to capitalize on both male and female
leadership tendencies. To compete in the global marketplace, companies need a diverse
leadership team including men and women. Not recognizing that both male and female
styles are needed can leader to confusion for women managers.
F. Selecting the Best Leadership Style

A study with 3,000 executives revealed that leaders who get the best results do not rely on
one style. Instead, they use several different styles in one week, such as being autocratic in
some situations and democratic in others. The cultural setting must also be considered, such
as using a strong task orientation with German workers. The organizational culture also
influences which leadership style will be effective, such as a collaborative culture calling for
a more consensus style of leadership.
As suggested by LMX theory, part of establishing a high-quality relationship would be for
the leader to vary his or her style to meet the needs of each subordinate.
Stogdill made a statement about selecting a leadership style that still holds today: “The most
effective leaders appear to exhibit a degree of versatility and flexibility that enable them to
adapt their behavior to the changing and contradictory demands made on them.”

VI. GUIDELINES FOR ACTION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

In choosing between a task orientation and a relationship orientation, several additional factors are
also relevant. Among them are (a) the structure of the organization and the nature of the leader’s
work, (b) the leader’s personality, (c) the boss’s style and the organization culture, and (d) the
potential for conflict. A nondirective style is safer when conflict is high.

COMMENTS ON EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-1: Feedback Skills

An important feature of this exercise is that it provides an opportunity to practice giving feedback about
performance rather than feedback about personal characteristics. A possible positive byproduct of this
exercise is that the feedback results might encourage participants to perform better.

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 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 35

Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-1: Task-Oriented Attitudes and

Behaviors
An interesting twist to this scale is that it does not assume that a low task orientation is equivalent to a
high relationship orientation. The scale treats task orientation as an independent dimension of
leadership behavior.

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-2: Clarifying Your Work Values

The importance of this instrument centers around its focus on values. Many observers of leadership
heavily emphasize the contribution of values to leader effectiveness.

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-3: Applying Relationship-

Oriented and Task-Oriented Attitudes and Behaviors

An extreme environment is chosen for this skill-building exercise it dramatizes the importance of
choosing the right leadership attitudes and behaviors to get work accomplished when the work is
difficult. This exercise is also helpful in translating into practice several of the leadership attitudes
and behaviors. The clarity of what the workers are attempting to accomplish (dig a hole) will make
it easier for the role players to understand what they should be doing.

Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-2: What Style of Leader Are

You or Would You Be?

This leadership style quiz focuses on behaviors particularly relevant in the modern workplace. The quiz
can also be used as a skill-development exercise if the statements are interpreted as implied suggestions
for engaging in a participative style.

Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-3: What Is Your Propensity for

Taking Risks?

Reflecting on risk-taking tendencies is an important activity for leaders and prospective leaders. Most
organizations today value a sensible degree of risk taking. A fruitful class discussion is why some of
these items might reflect risk taking, such as Question 10 about flying a single-engine airplane.

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-4: Entrepreneurial Leadership

The key feature of this exercise is that it gets the role players involved in a high-impact business
activity—selling others on the merits of their business. Our informal research has shown that at least
one-third of business students aspire to entrepreneurship or self-employment at some point in their
careers, thus increasing the relevance of this exercise.
A suggestion for this exercise is to caution the role players (or “skill builders”) to project passion and
enthusiasm into the exercise.

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36 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-5: Contrasting Leadership

Styles

Field testing indicates that this role-play is effective in illustrating basic leadership styles. Many
students who understand these styles intellectually have difficulty translating them into behavior.
Feedback by class members not participating in the role-play is quite beneficial.

Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-6: The Entrepreneurial

Leadership Style

Selecting a person to study itself is a worthwhile leadership skill-building exercise because it helps
students understand who might be a true entrepreneurial leader. Ample information is available about
high-tech leaders such as Reed Hastings of Netflix or Andrew Mason of GroupOn. A difficult task is to
go beyond the financial and technology side of the business and find something about the
entrepreneur’s leadership style. Hints about the leader’s style can often be gleaned from comments he
or she makes.

COMMENTS ON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

1. How would good cognitive skills help a leader be effective at initiating structure?
Initiating structure relates to a variety of actions geared toward helping group members
accomplish the actual work, and could involve such details as a helping a worker resolve a
concern about currency exchange. The ability to provide specific directions about the details of
the work depends heavily on the intellect or cognitive skills of the person giving in instruction. In
the example at hand, you need to be smart enough to know how to understand differences in
currency exchange.
2. Give an example of high consideration behavior that a supervisor of yours showed on your behalf.
What was your reaction to his or her behavior?
Examples of high consideration behavior include giving a worker time off to deal with a personal
problem, or giving the worker encouragement. Most people react very positively to high
consideration behavior on the part of the supervisor.
3. Why is direction setting still an important leadership behavior in an era of empowerment and
shared leadership?
Empowered teams still need direction regarding what activities they should be pursuing. They
might then be empowered to figure out how to achieve these goals. Few teams or individual
employees are empowered to pursue whatever direction they think is appropriate. Similarly, when
leadership is shared, the group members will usually need some parameters, including what might
be feasible for the company.
4. Why is an effective leader supposed to provide emotional support to team members, even when
they are mature adults?
The incorrect supposition here is that mature adults do not need emotional support. Even self-
reliant, high-functioning adults require some degree of emotional support. Closely related to

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 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 37

emotional support, it is natural for even high-performers to appreciate encouragement. Giving

such support is therefore an important part of a leader’s role.
5. Which type of leader might be the opposite of a servant leader?
The opposite of a servant leader is one who cares more about glory, ambition, and wealth than
helping others. A personalized charismatic is one example because he or she seeks power and
glory to enhance his or her career. In contrast, the primary motive of the servant leader is to help
other people by helping them achieve worthwhile goals.
6. How might a manager use email and text messaging to help carry out both task-oriented and
relationship-oriented behaviors?
Task-oriented behaviors can be executed via email and texting by sending messages containing
directions, work schedules, and goals. Relationship-oriented behaviors can be executed through
email and texting through such means as sending notes of encouragement and giving
compliments. The leader can give recognition by praising the worker and include a long
distribution list.
7. Visualize yourself in a leadership position in a field of interest to you. How would you feel about
being described as a hands-on leader by the members of your team?
Many people would regard being perceived as a hands-on leader to be a compliment. On the
positive side, the term connotes a leader who understands the technical details of the operation
and wants to be helpful. A negative connotation of being a hands-on leader is that the person is a
poor delegator and micromanager. Early in one’s career, it is usually a strong compliment to be
perceived as a hands-on leader.
8. How would you characterize the leadership style of your favorite executive, athletic coach, or
television character who plays a boss?

To answer this question effectively, the student must choose a style categorization presented in
this chapter. The student should also provide meaningful documentation, such as “When Coach
Summitt sees that one of the players is feeling bad about a major mistake, Summitt puts her arm
around the player. That shows she’s relationship-oriented.”
9. Why is the consensus leadership style widely recommended for providing leadership to workers
under age 35?
Workers under age 35 have a preference for being consulted extensively about key decisions. Part
of the explanation is that many young people have studied team leadership in school, and they
have also worked as teams for many school projects.
10. Several people have commented that this chapter deals with the “nuts and bolts” of leadership.
What makes them say that?
The comment about nuts and bolts is insightful. The day-by-day process of being a leader
involves behaviors, attitudes, and styles. Most of what a leader does is contained within these
concepts. Even creating visions is really contained in direction setting. Also, exhibiting the
appropriate leadership style is one of the basics of being a leader.

PLAUSIBLE RESPONSES TO CASE QUESTIONS

Leadership Case Problem A: Frank Won’t Accept “We Can’t” for an

Answer

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38 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles

This case illustrates the difficulties involved when a leader simply demands that subordinates
accomplish a task they do not know how to accomplish.

1. Based on the limited evidence, how would you characterize Frank’s leadership style?

Frank appears to be using an autocratic leadership style, at least in the high pressure situation
portrayed. He is demanding results without consulting with the group as to how such results
might be attained.

2. Which leadership behaviors and attitudes is Frank displaying?

Frank is engaging in initiating structure as he demands what needs to be done—obtain more

business. At the same time he is direction setting by telling the group what needs to be done.
Frank is also setting high performance standards because it is quite difficult to generate new
business.

3. How else might Frank approach his project managers about developing new business?

We understand that Frank is facing one of the most difficult challenges a business development
manager might encounter—generating new business when none seems available. Yet making
demands is not enough. Frank might attempt getting into more of a problem solving mode with
the group and jointly search for solutions. His willingness to put some effort into finding new
business for the firm is a step in the right direction.

Associated Role Play

This role play is essentially a method of resolving the issues in the case. The person who plays the
role of Frank might continue with demanding better performance, the he or she might be more
consultative and work with the group in finding a creative way to obtain new business. A focal
point for the role players of the project manager positions is how well they can engage Frank in
working with them.

Leadership Case Problem B: Is Margo too Macro?

The theme of this case is that not providing enough guidance, direction, and support to group members
can be interpreted negatively by group.
1. To what extent has Margo Santelli chosen the right approach to leading the manager in her unit of
the financial services firm?
The interviews conducted by Laura suggest that Margo’s approach to leadership was meeting with
mixed success. Three out of the four professionals interviewed had strong reservations about
Margo’s laissez-faire leadership style.
2. What advice can you offer Margo to be a more effective leader?
Margo needs to be more observant about the impact of her approach to leadership. She needs to
ferret out how much guidance and support she should be giving the various members of her group.
Margo is not adapting her style to the needs of each member of her group.
3. What advice can you offer Laura to help Margo be a more effective leader?

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 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 39

Laura might discuss the feedback she received with Margo, with the perspective of wanting to be
helpful rather than accusatory. She might ask Margo if she (Margo) has gone too far in giving
latitude to subordinates.
4. Explain whether or not you think Laura was justified in asking Margo’s direct reports about
Margo’s approach to leadership.

Laura asked Margo’s permission before conducting her investigation of Margo’s effectiveness as
a leader, an act which may have made her investigation more justified. Nevertheless, Laura did
take an extreme measure which will weaken Margo’s credibility within the group. Perhaps an
approach like a 360-degree survey would have seemed like less of an investigation into Margo’s
effectiveness.
Associated Role Play
A point of focus in this role play is how well the person playing the role of Margot can listen to
the problem the manager is experiencing with selling the index annuities without offering any
specific advice. Another focal point of the role play is whether the student playing the role of the
manager can get Margot to be less of a macromanager in this situation. For example, can the
student get Margot to offer specific advice?

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