Review assignment extra points

9.3 - What Do Leaders Do? Behavioral Approaches to Leadership

L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S

1. Explain the behaviors that are associated with leadership.

2. Identify the three alternative decision-making styles leaders use and the conditions

under which they are more effective.

3. Discuss the limitations of behavioral approaches to leadership.

When the trait researchers became disillusioned in 1940s, their attention turned to

studying leader behaviors. What did effective leaders actually do? Which behaviors

helped them to be perceived as leaders? Which behaviors increased their success?

Leader Behaviors

In order to understand behaviors of effective leaders, researchers at Ohio State

University and University of Michigan used many different techniques such as observing

leaders in laboratory settings as well as surveying them. This research stream led to the

discovery of two broad categories of behaviors: task-oriented behaviors (sometimes

called initiating structure) and people-oriented behaviors (also

called consideration). Task-oriented leader behaviors involve structuring the roles of

subordinates, providing them with instructions, and behaving in ways that will increase

the performance of the group. Task-oriented behaviors are directives given to employees

to get things done and to ensure that organizational goals are met. People-oriented

leader behaviors include showing concern for employee feelings and treating employees

with respect. People-oriented leaders genuinely care about the well-being of their

employees and they demonstrate their concern in their actions and decisions. At the

time, researchers thought that these two categories of behaviors were the keys to the

puzzle of leadership. See House, R. J., & Aditya, R. N. (1997). The social scientific study of leadership: Quo

Vadis? Journal of Management, 23, 409–473. However, research did not support the argument that demonstrating both of these

behaviors would necessarily make leaders effective.Nystrom, P. C. (1978). Managers and the hi-hi leader myth. Academy of

Management Journal, 21, 325–331.

When we look at the overall findings regarding these leader behaviors, it seems that

both types of behaviors, in the aggregate, are beneficial to organizations but for different

purposes. For example, when leaders demonstrate people-oriented behaviors,

employees tend to be more satisfied and react more positively. However, when leaders

are task-oriented, productivity tends to be a bit higher. Judge, T. A., Piccolo, R. F., & Ilies, R. (2004).

The forgotten ones? The validity of consideration and initiating structure in leadership research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89,

36–51. Moreover, the situation in which these behaviors are demonstrated seems to

matter. In small companies, task-oriented behaviors were found to be more effective

than in large companies. Miles, R. H., & Petty, M. M. (1977). Leader effectiveness in small bureaucracies. Academy of

Management Journal, 20, 238–250. There is also some evidence that working under a leader with

very high levels of task-oriented behaviors may cause burnout on the part of employees.

Seltzer, J., & Numerof, R. E. (1988). Supervisory leadership and subordinate burnout. Academy of Management Journal, 31, 439–

446.

Leader Decision Making

Another question behavioral researchers focused on was how leaders actually make

decisions, and the influence of decision-making styles on leader effectiveness and

employee reactions. Three types of decision-making styles were studied.

In authoritarian decision making, leaders make the decision alone without necessarily

involving employees in the decision-making process. When leaders use democratic

decision making, employees participate in the making of the decision. Finally, leaders

using laissez-faire decision making leave employees alone to make the decision; the

leader provides minimum guidance and involvement in the decision.

As with other lines of research on leadership, research did not identify one decision-

making style as the best one. It seems that the effectiveness of the style the leader is

using depends on the circumstances. A review of the literature shows that when leaders

use more democratic decision-making styles, employees tend to be more satisfied, but

the effects on decision quality or employee productivity are weaker. Moreover, instead

of expecting to be involved in every single decision, employees seem to care more about

the overall participativeness of the organizational climate .Miller, K. I., & Monge, P. R. (1986).

Participation, satisfaction, and productivity: A meta-analytic review. Academy of Management Journal, 29, 727–753. Different

types of employees may also expect different levels of involvement. In a study conducted

in a research organization, scientists viewed democratic leadership most favorably and

authoritarian leadership least favorably, Baumgartel, H. (1957). Leadership style as a variable in research

administration. Administrative Science Quarterly, 2, 344–360. but employees working in large groups

where opportunities for member interaction was limited preferred authoritarian leader

decision making. Vroom, V. H., & Mann, F. C. (1960). Leader authoritarianism and employee attitudes. Personnel

Psychology, 13, 125–140.

Finally, the effectiveness of each style seems to depend on who is using it. There are

examples of effective leaders using both authoritarian and democratic styles. For

example, Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google are known for their democratic decision-

making styles. At Hyundai USA, high-level managers use authoritarian decision-making

styles, and the company is performing well. Deutschman, A. (2004, September). Googling for courage. Fast

Company, 86, 58–59; Welch, D., Kiley, D., & Ihlwan, M. (2008, March 17). My way or the highway at Hyundai. Business Week,

4075, 48–51.

Figure 9.9: Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin (shown here) are known for their democratic decision-making styles.

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Sergey_Brin,_Web_2.0_Conference.jpg

The track record of the laissez-faire decision-making style is more problematic.

Research shows that this style is negatively related to employee satisfaction with leaders

and leader effectiveness. Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004). Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-

analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 755–768. Laissez-faire leaders create high

levels of ambiguity about job expectations on the part of employees, and employees also

engage in higher levels of conflict when leaders are using the laissez-faire style. Skogstad, A.,

Einarsen, S., Torsheim, T., Aasland, M. S., & Hetland, H. (2007). The destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior. Journal of

Occupational Health Psychology, 12, 80–92.

Limitations of Behavioral Approaches

Behavioral approaches, similar to trait approaches, fell out of favor because they

neglected the environment in which behaviors are demonstrated. The hope of the

researchers was that the identified behaviors would predict leadership under all

circumstances, but it may be unrealistic to expect that a given set of behaviors would

work under all circumstances. What makes a high school principal effective on the job

may be very different from what makes a military leader, which would be different from

behaviors creating success in small or large business enterprises. It turns out that

specifying the conditions under which these behaviors are more effective may be a

better approach.

K E Y T A K E A W A Y

When researchers failed to identify a set of traits that would distinguish effective from

ineffective leaders, research attention turned to the study of leader behaviors. Leaders

may demonstrate task-oriented and people-oriented behaviors. Both seem to be related

to important outcomes, with task-oriented behaviors more strongly relating to leader

effectiveness and people-oriented behaviors leading to employee satisfaction. Leaders

can also make decisions using authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire styles. While

laissez-faire has certain downsides, there is no best style and the effectiveness of each

style seems to vary across situations. Because of the inconsistency of results, researchers

realized the importance of the context in which leadership occurs, which paved the way

to contingency theories of leadership.

R E F L E C T I O N S

1. Give an example of a leader you admire whose behavior is primarily task-oriented, and

one whose behavior is primarily people-oriented.

2. What are the limitations of authoritarian decision making? Under which conditions do

you think authoritarian style would be more effective?

3. What are the limitations of democratic decision making? Under which conditions do you

think democratic style would be more effective?

4. What are the limitations of laissez-faire decision making? Under which conditions do you

think laissez-faire style would be more effective?

5. Examine your own leadership style. Which behaviors are you more likely to

demonstrate? Which decision-making style are you more likely to use?

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