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topic_2_leadership_behaviour.pptxBUSM 4177 / 4194 Leading for Change Topic 2: Effective Leadership Behaviour
Leadership Behaviour:
Understand what research methods have been used to study leader behaviour.
Understand why task and relations behaviours are important for leadership effectiveness.
Understand why change-oriented behaviours are important for effective leadership.
Understand how specific types of task, relations and change management behaviours can be used effectively.
Learning Objectives
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Early research on leader behaviour conducted by US psychologists in the 1950s and 1960s
Ohio State University
“identify categories of leadership behaviour and develop questionnaires to measure how often a leader uses these behaviours”
University of Michigan
“Identify the relationships among leader behaviour, group processes and measures of group performance”
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Ohio State University studies
Ohio State University research logic
X
1.
Identified various categories of leadership behaviour
2.
Developed questionnaires to measure how often these categories were used by leaders
3.
Refined categories according to followers’ perception of the leader
4.
Discovered that they were broadly groupable as “consideration” and “initiating”
5.
Refined the questionnaires, which have since been used in hundreds of surveys since!
Ohio State University questionnaire sample
DIRECTIONS:
READ each item carefully.
THINK about how frequently the leader engages in the behavior described by the item.
DECIDE whether he/she (A) Always (B) Often, (C) Occasionally, (D) Seldom or (E) Never acts as described by the item.
DRAW A CIRCLE around one of the five letters ( A B C D E) to show the answer you selected.
A = Always B = Often C = Occasionally D = Seldom E = Never
1. Does personal favors for group members. A B C D E
2. Makes his/her attitudes clear to the group A B C D E
3. Does little things to make it pleasant to be a member of the group. A B C D E
4. Tries out his/her new ideas with the group. A B C D E
5. Acts as the real leader of the group. A B C D E
6. Is easy to understand. A B C D E
7. Rules with an iron hand. A B C D E
8. Finds time to listen to group members. A B C D E
9. Criticizes poor work. A B C D E
10. …….. (continues through to question 40) A B C D E
X
The meaning behind “consideration” and “initiating structure” in the Ohio studies
Consideration
Leader:
has concern for employees
has concern for interpersonal relationships
acts in a friendly and supportive manner
Examples of this behaviour:
does a personal favour for employee
finds time to listen to problems
defends workers in his / her section
consults with employees
accepts that employees have something to contribute
Initiating Structure
Leader:
has concern for completing tasks
defines leader role
defines employee role(s)
focusses on goal achievement
Examples of this behaviour:
assigns tasks to employees
maintains performance standards
focuses on deadlines
criticises poor work performance
separately coordinates the work activity of different employee groups
X
E.A. Fleishman and E.F. Harris " Patterns of Leadership Behavior Related to Employee Grievances and Turnover." Personnel Psychology, 1962, 15, 43-56.
Early findings of the Ohio studies:
Relation between turnover rate and (a) Consideration and (b) Initiating Structure.
Inverse correlation between turnover and consideration leader behaviour
Positive correlation between turnover and initiating structure leader behaviour
X
Daniel Katz
1903 - 1998
Rensis Likert
1903 - 1981
The Michigan studies
X
The Michigan studies (continued)
X
1.
Field studies with variety of leaders (insurance companies, railroad gangs)
2.
Information collected via interviews and questionnaires
3.
Objective measures of group productivity to classify managers as effective / ineffective
4.
Comparison of effective vs ineffective managers identified differences in behaviour
5.
Effective leaders were more likely to be task oriented, relations oriented and partcipative
Broad Behaviour Categories in the Michigan studies
Copyright© 2013 Pearson Education Leadership In Organizations
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Version Woodruff 2014 SIM
task
Concentrated on task-oriented functions such as planning, scheduling, coordinating, ensuring resources, realistic goals
relations
Showing trust and confidence, friendly and considerate, develop employees, keeping employees informed, recognise performance
participative
Group (rather than individual) supervision, conflict resolution, group decision-making, supportive, constructive.
Surveys have two key weaknesses
Limitations of data in fixed-response questionnaires
Bias
Objectivity limits
Repetition familiarity
Attribution of characteristics that are not objectively present
Confirming causality
Cant be sure that behaviours caused the outcome observed
May be other factors influencing outcome
Outcome may cause the observed behavior (reverse causality)
Copyright© 2013 Pearson Education Leadership In Organizations
A critical view of the survey approach taken at Ohio and Michigan
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And so to other research methods
Latham,G.P., & Wexley, K.N., (1977) behavioural observation scales for performance appraisal purposes. Personal psychology 30, 255-268
Sims, H.P., & Manz, C.C., (1984) Observing leader verbal behaviour:
Towards reciprocal determinism in leadership theory. J Applied Psychology, 69, 222-232
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Experiments
e.g. Sims & Manz (1984)
Studies have shown causality in both directions (behaviour to outcome and vice versa)
Difficult to set up in “real world”
Critical incidents
e.g. Latham & Wexley (19977)
Examining leader behaviour in relation to positive or negative critical incidents may indicate link.
Some good results in intervention studies where leader training resulted in better outcomes
Limited by lack of objectivity
But what about change?
So far, we’ve explored models that attempt to predict the extent to which behaviours achieve certain “static” pre-determined organisational outcomes.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook) organisations can no longer afford to remain static.
The environment is turbulent and fast changing – calling for change management behaviours as well!
In short:
Task oriented behaviour is concerned with accomplishing a task efficiently and reliably
Relations oriented behaviour is concerned with increasing employee trust, cooperation, job satisfaction with the organisation
Change oriented behaviour is concerned with understanding the environment, finding innovative ways to adapt to it and, where possible, developing strategies to control it.
Change as the third element in leadership behaviour
Swedish researchers Ekvall & Arvonen (1991) and US researcher Yukl (1999) built the case for this new third (change) element in leadership behaviour.
Today we take it for granted that change management is a critical skill in any leadership position.
We will return to change management elsewhere in the course!
Ekvall, G., & Arvonen, J., (1991) Change-centered leadership: An extension of the two-dimensional model Scandinavian Journal of Management, 7, 17-26
Yukl, G., (1999) An evaluative essay on current conceptions of effective leadership.
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8, 33-48
REFLECTION POINTS
Are today’s leaders more change-aware than those from the past?
Has the pace of change increased?
Is change equally disruptive in all industry sectors?
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So, how can we draw on these behaviours to improve our leadership effectiveness?
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task
relations
change
Understanding the environment
Planning
Supporting
Clarifying
Monitoring
Developing
Recognising
Adapting to environment
Implementing change
Reflecting on your own emerging leadership behaviours
How confident are you that you could:
Plan work activities?
Clarify roles and objectives?
Monitor operations and performance?
Support staff?
Develop staff?
Recognise staff achievements?
Predict the future?
Manage staff through change?
TASK - ORIENTED
RELATIONS - ORIENTED
CHANGE - ORIENTED
X
Review questions
What did you learn about leadership effectiveness from the Ohio and Michigan studies?
What problems have limited questionnaire research into leadership ?
What are critical incident studies?
Can a leader exhibit both task and relations orientation at the same time?
Why are planning, clarifying and monitoring important for leadership effectiveness?
Why are supporting, developing nd recognising important for leadership effectiveness ?
What are the key attributes of the change management orientation in leadership?
Images included in this presentation are licenced under creative commons. Learn more about the creative commons scheme here.
RMIT is proud to partner with Pearson Australia in the development of the customised resources for this course.
This presentation draws on material from chapter two of the course textbook Sustainable Leadership people, technology and design – an RMIT Custom Publication, Pearson ® Australia and is subject to copyright.
Presentation developed by Ian Woodruff, School of Management,
RMIT University
