Leadership Assignment
Leadership
Chapter 4 - Style Approach
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Overview
Style Approach Perspective
Ohio State Studies
University of Michigan Studies
Blake & Mouton’s Leadership Grid
How Does the Style Approach Work?
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Style Approach Description
Emphasizes the behavior of the leader
Focuses exclusively on what leaders do and how they act
Comprised of two general kinds of Behaviors
Task behaviors
Facilitate goal accomplishment: Help group members achieve objectives
Relationship behaviors
Help subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, each other, and the situation
Perspective
Definition
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Ohio State Studies
Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)
Identify number of times leaders engaged in specific behaviors
150 questions
Participant settings (military, industrial, educational)
Results
Particular clusters of behaviors were typical of leaders
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Ohio State Studies, cont’d.
LBDQ-XII (Stogdill, 1963)
Shortened version of the LBDQ
Most widely used leadership assessment instrument
Results - Two general types of leader behaviors:
Initiating structure – Leaders provide structure for subordinates
Task behaviors - organizing work, giving structure to the work context, defining role responsibility, scheduling work activities
Consideration - Leaders nurture subordinates
Relationship behaviors – building camaraderie, respect, trust, & liking between leaders & followers
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University of Michigan Studies
Exploring leadership behavior
Specific emphasis on impact of leadership behavior on performance of small groups
Results - Two types of leadership behaviors conceptualized as opposite ends of a single continuum
Employee orientation
Strong human relations emphasis
Production orientation
Stresses the technical aspects of a job
Later studies reconceptualized behaviors as two independent leadership orientations - possible orientation to both at the same time
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Blake & Mouton’s Managerial (Leadership) Grid
Historical Perspective
Leadership Grid Components
Authority-Compliance (9,1)
Country Club Management (1,9)
Impoverished Management (1,1)
Middle-of-the-Road Management (5,5)
Team Management (9,9)
Paternalism/Maternalism (1, 9; 9,1)
Opportunism
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Historical Perspective Blake & Mouton’s Managerial Leadership Grid
Developed in early 1960s
Used extensively in organizational training & development
Designed to explain how leaders help organizations to reach their purposes
Two factors
Concern for production
How a leader is concerned with achieving organizational tasks
Concern for people
How a leader attends to the members of the organization who are trying to achieve its goals
Development
Purpose
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The Leadership Grid
Authority-Compliance (9,1)
Efficiency in operations results from arranging conditions of work such that human interference is minimal
Heavy emphasis on task and job requirements and less emphasis on people
Communicating with subordinates outside task instructions not emphasized
Results driven - people regarded as tools to that end
9,1 leaders – seen as controlling, demanding, hard-driving & overpowering
Definition
Role Focus
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Country Club (1,9)
Thoughtful attention to the needs of people leads to a comfortable, friendly organizational atmosphere and work tempo
Low concern for task accomplishment coupled with high concern for interpersonal relationships
De-emphasizes production; leaders stress the attitudes and feelings of people
1,9 leaders – try to create a positive climate by being agreeable, eager to help, comforting, noncontroversial
Definition
Role Focus
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Impoverished (1,1)
Minimal effort exerted to get work done is appropriate to sustain organizational membership
Leader unconcerned with both task and interpersonal relationships
Going through the motions, but uninvolved and withdrawn
1,1 leaders - have little contact with followers and are described as indifferent, noncommittal, resigned, and apathetic
Definition
Role Focus
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Middle-of-the-Road (5,5)
Adequate organizational performance possible through balancing the necessity of getting work done while maintaining satisfactory morale
Leaders who are compromisers; have intermediate concern for task and people who do task
To achieve equilibrium, leader avoids conflict while emphasizing moderate levels of production and interpersonal relationships
5,5 leaders - described as expedient; prefers the middle ground, soft-pedals disagreement, swallows convictions in the interest of “progress”
Definition
Role Focus
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Team (9,9)
Work accomplished through committed people; interdependence via a “common stake” in the organization’s purpose, which leads to relationships of trust and respect
Strong emphasis on both tasks and interpersonal relationships
Promotes high degree of participation & teamwork, satisfies basic need of employee to be involved & committed to their work
9,9 leaders - stimulates participation, acts determined, makes priorities clear, follows through, behaves open-mindedly and enjoys working
Definition
Role Focus
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Paternalism/Maternalism
Reward and approval are bestowed on people in return for loyalty and obedience; failure to comply leads to punishment
Leaders who use both 1,9 and 9,1 without integrating the two
The “benevolent dictator”; acts gracious for purpose of goal accomplishment
Treats people as though they were disassociated from the task
Definition
Role Focus
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Opportunism
People adapt and shift to any grid style needed to gain maximum advantage
Performance occurs according to a system of selfish gain
Leader uses any combination of the basic five styles for the purpose of personal advancement
Leader usually has a dominant grid style used in most situations and a backup style that is reverted to when under pressure
Definition
Role Focus
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How Does the Style Approach Work?
Focus of Style Approach
Strengths
Criticisms
Application
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Style Approach
Primarily a framework for assessing leadership in a broad way, as behavior with a task and relationship dimension
Offers a means of assessing in a general way the behaviors of leaders
Focus
Overall Scope
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Strengths
Style Approach marked a major shift in leadership research from exclusively trait focused to include behaviors and actions of leaders
Broad range of studies on leadership style validates and gives credibility to the basic tenets of the approach
At conceptual level, a leader’s style is composed of two major types of behaviors: task and relationship
The style approach is heuristic - leaders can learn a lot about themselves and how they come across to others by trying to see their behaviors in light of the task and relationship dimensions
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Criticisms
Research has not adequately demonstrated how leaders’ styles are associated with performance outcomes
No universal style of leadership that could be effective in almost every situation
Implies that the most effective leadership style is High-High style (i.e., high task/high relationship); research finding support is limited
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Application
Many leadership training and development programs are designed along the lines of the style approach.
By assessing their own style, managers can determine how they are perceived by others and how they could change their behaviors to become more effective.
The style approach applies to nearly everything a leader does.
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