Leadership

BUSM 4177 / 4194

Leading for Change

Topic 2: Effective Leadership Behaviour

Leadership Behaviour:

1. Understand what research methods have been used to study leader

behaviour.

2. Understand why task and relations behaviours are important for

leadership effectiveness.

3. Understand why change-oriented behaviours are important for

effective leadership.

4. Understand how specific types of task, relations and change

management behaviours can be used effectively.

Learning Objectives

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”

Ohio State University studies

Ohio State University research logic

1. Identified various

categories of leadership behaviour

2. Developed

questionnaire s 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

questionnaire s, 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

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

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

Daniel Katz

1903 - 1998

Rensis Likert

1903 - 1981

The Michigan studies

The Michigan studies (continued)

1. Field studies with variety of

leaders (insurance companies,

railroad gangs)

2. Information collected via

interviews and questionnaire

s

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

Version Woodruff 2014 SIM

Broad Behaviour Categories in the Michigan studies

Copyright© 2013 Pearson Education Leadership In Organizations

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

And so to other research methods

• Studies have shown causality in both directions (behaviour to outcome and vice versa)

• Difficult to set up in “real world”

• Some good results in intervention studies where leader training resulted in better outcomes

Experiments e.g. Sims & Manz

(1984)

• Examining leader behaviour in relation to positive or negative critical incidents may indicate link.

• Limited by lack of objectivity

Critical incidents

e.g. Latham & Wexley (19977)

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

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?

So, how can we draw on these behaviours to improve our leadership

effectiveness?

task

• Planning

• Clarifying

• Monitoring

relations

• Supporting

• Developing

• Recognising

change

• Understanding the environment

• 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

Review questions

1. What did you learn about leadership effectiveness from the Ohio and

Michigan studies?

2. What problems have limited questionnaire research into leadership ?

3. What are critical incident studies?

4. Can a leader exhibit both task and relations orientation at the same

time?

5. Why are planning, clarifying and monitoring important for leadership

effectiveness?

6. Why are supporting, developing nd recognising important for

leadership effectiveness ?

7. What are the key attributes of the change management orientation in

leadership?

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This presentation draws on material from chapter two of the course textbook

Sustainable Leadership people, technology and design – an RMIT Custom

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RMIT University

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Acknowledgements

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