Theories of Leadership (Approaches to

Leadership)
Trait Theory
According to this theory, leadership is a
conglomeration or a set of personality traits.
It is a function of personal traits of the leader.
This theory has also been called the Great Man
Theory because it is based on set of trait which
is common to great men.
It seeks to rationalize the greatness of leaders.
It follows that a leader is thought to possess
certain traits which separate him from common
mass of followers.

 Traits are innate and inherent personal qualities.

Trait is defined as relatively enduring quality of
an individual.
The trait approach seeks to determine what
makes successful leader from the leaders own
personal characteristics.
The trait theories hold that most of these abilities
and traits were inherited rather than acquired,
out of this approach came the popular belief that
leaders are born, not made

 Prior to 1949, most of the studies on

leadership did tend to concentrate on
identifying traits.
Even in more recent years, such studies
have been made Stogdill (1974)found that
the various researchers identified five
physical traits related to leadership ability
(such as energy, appearance, height,
intelligence and ability traits)

 sixteen personality traits: (for example,

adaptability, aggressiveness, enthusiasm
and self-confidence), task related
characteristics (some as achievement,
drive, persistence and. initiative) and nine
social characteristics: ( some as cooperative ness, interpersonal skills and
administrative ability).

 In general, the study of leadership traits has not

been a very fruitful approach to explaining
leadership.
Not all leaders possess all the traits, and many
leaders may possess most or all of them.

 Besides, the trait approach gives no guide as to

how much of any trait a person should have.
Furthermore, out of more than a dozen of the
studies, there is no uniformity on identified traits
or any significant correlation of traits with actual
instances of leadership.

In the light of these facts, the trait theory

suffers from many weaknesses, some of
which are as follows:
1. It is not clear as to which of the traits
are most important and which are the least
important.
2. It does not consider the influence of
situation factors in leadership

 3. Many of the characteristics stated by trait

theory writers are not inherited but can be
acquired or modified through learning.
4. Trait studies describe but do not analyze
behaviour patterns.
5. It assumes that leadership can be examined
in isolation, without considering other factors
within which it has to function.

 6. This approach to leadership offers little by way

of developing leaders since it is based on the
assumption that leaders are born, not made.
7. It has noticed that traits claimed to be
possessed by leaders are also widely exhibited
by followers as well.
8. Some studies have shown a contradictory and
confusing array of characteristics allegedly
possessed by leaders.

 9. It a has not been possible so far to

isolate and identify specific traits that are
common to all leaders.
10. Trait studies do not distinguish
between traits, which are needed for
acquiring leadership and those which are
necessary for maintaining it.

 11. In the critical way, this theory fails to

produce dear-cut results.
---It does not consider the whole
environment of leadership of which trait
may be one factor as Jennings (1961) has
said,

 Research has produced variegated list of

traits presumably to describe leadership
that, for all practical purposes, it describes
nothing Fifty years of study have failed to
produce one personality trait or set of
qualities that can be used to discriminate
between leaders and non-leaders.

Behavioural Theory (Followers' Theory)

Deficiencies in the trait approach have led

researchers to focus attention on
leadership behaviour.
Behavioural theory attempts to describe
leadership in terms of what leader's do
rather than what they are.

 According to the behavioural approach,

leadership is a function of effective role
behaviour.
In other words, an effective leader is one
who performs those acts which help the
group to achieve its objectives.
Three main models of leadership based
on the behavioural theory are given below.

1.The Ohio State University Studies

After World War II, a major leadership
research program was conducted at the
Bureau of Business Research at the Ohio
State University.
The study identified 1,800 specific
examples of leadership behavior, which
were reduced to 150 questionnaire items
of leadership functions.

 The functions are also referred to as

dimensions of leadership behavior.
A major thrust of the research was to ask
team members to describe their
supervisors by responding to
questionnaires.
Leaders were also asked to rate
themselves on leadership dimensions.

 Two Key Leadership Dimensions.

A series of studies identified two leader
ship dimensions that accounted for 85
percent of the variance in descriptions of
leadership behavior: initiating structure
and consideration.

 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 of team members.

 Leaders who score high on the initiating

structure dimension define the relationship
between themselves and the staff
members, as well as the role that they
expect each staff member to assume.
Such leaders also endeavor to establish
well-defined channels of communication
and ways of getting the job done.

Five self-assessment items measuring initiating

structure are as follows:
1. Try out your own new ideas in the work group.
2. Encourage the slow-working people in the
group to work harder.
3. Emphasize meeting deadlines.
4. Meet with the group at regularly scheduled
times.
5. See to it that people in the work group are
working up to capacity

 Consideration is the degree to which the leader

creates an environment of emotional support,
warmth, friendliness, and trust.
The leader creates this environment by 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

 An important output of research on

initiating structure and consideration was
to categorize leaders with respect to how
much emphasis they place on the two
dimensions.
The two dimensions are not mutually
exclusive. A leader can achieve high or
low status on both dimensions.

 For example, an effective leader might

contribute to high productivity yet still
place considerable emphasis on warm
human relationships.
The four cell grid is a key component of
several approaches to describing
leadership style.