behavioral approach Flashcards
Behavioral Approach
Focuses exclusively on what leaders do and how they act composed of two general types of behaviors
• Task behavior (facilitate goal accomplishment)
• Relationship behavior (help subordinates feel comfortable)
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN STUDIES
Central purpose of this leadership approach is to explain
- How leaders combine the two kinds of behaviors (task/people)
- To Influence followers in their efforts
- To Reach a given goal
THEORY X AND THEORY Y (DOUGLAS MCGREGOR)
Explained how managers’ beliefs about what motivates their people can affect their leadership style
• Authoritarian (Theory X): e.g. people dislike work, have little ambition and are unwilling to take
responsibility
• Participative (Theory Y): e.g. people are self-motivated and enjoy the challenge of work, more decentralized
LEADERSHIP GRID MODEL: 5 MAJOR LEADING STYLES (BLAKE & MOUTON)
Two factors of leadership orientation that explain how leaders help organizations to reach their purposes
• Concern for people: describes how a leader attends to the people in an organization
• Concern for production: describes how a leader is concerned with achieving organizational
tasks
Middle of the Road Management (5,5)
- Leader: expedient, prefers middle ground, balanced
- Maintains the equilibrium to receive an outcome
- Avoiding conflicts: outbalances personal needs/ work productivity
Team Management (9,9)
• Participative leadership: Leader makes priorities clear and acts with determination
• Gets issues into the open
• Enjoys work
• Succeeds through follower’s commitment ->
consulting between leader and followers
• Seek intrinsic motivation -> develops trust and
respect
Country Club Management (1,9)
- Leader: agreeable, eager to help, comforting, uncontroversial
- Producing an atmosphere (family feeling) -> not about results but service • e.g. sailing clubs, boat clubs
Impoverished Management (1,1)
- Leader: uninvolved, withdrawn, indifferent, resigned, apathetic
- Little contact with followers, not looking for commitment
- e.g. external investors, big firm not caring about smaller subsidiaries
Authority Compliance (9,1)
- Leader: controlling, demanding, hard driving • Result-driven style
- Sees follower as a tool to get job done
- e.g. Factories in Bangladesh
Additional Behaviors
Paternalism/Maternalism:
• 1.9 + 9.1 uses both, but does not integrate the two styles organization is like a family - rewarding loyalty and punishing noncompliance
Opportunism:
• Using any combination of the basic 5 styles for the purpose of personal advancement (self- interest goes first)
• Can be part of toxic leadership
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES OF THE BEHAVIORAL APPROACH
Pro
- Adds leaders’ behavior to traits and skills
- Contribution to our understanding of the leadership process
- Idea of differentiating between task and relationship process
Contra
1.No universal style identified that could be effective in almost every situation
- Only limited support for the notion that „high-high style“ is most effective
- Most research come from U.S.-centric perspective (reflecting the norms and values of U.S. culture)