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Style Approach . Team S.W.A.T. Research on Leadership Styles. Many research studies could be categorized under the heading of style approach, only a few strongly represent the idea Ohio state University of Michigan Studies by Blake and Mouton. Ohio State Studies.
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Style Approach Team S.W.A.T.
Research on Leadership Styles • Many research studies could be categorized under the heading of style approach, only a few strongly represent the idea • Ohio state • University of Michigan • Studies by Blake and Mouton
Ohio State Studies • Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LDBQ) • Administered to hundreds of individuals in various fields • Two general types of leader behaviors • Initiating structure (Task) • Consideration (Relational)
University of Michigan Studies • Studied leaders’ behaviors performance on small group performance • Two behaviors identified: • Employee orientation • Leaders approach with strong human relations emphasis • Production orientation • Leadership behaviors that stress technological advancement and production aspects of the job
Results • Behaviors viewed as distinct and independent (two different continua) • The degree to which a leader exhibited one behavior was not related to the degree to which he or she exhibited the other behavior • When two behaviors were treated as independent orientations, leaders were seen as being able to be oriented to both • Determining how a leader optimally mixed task and relationship behaviors has been the central task for research in style approach
Style Approach • Emphasizes the behavior of the leader • Focuses exclusively on what leaders do and how they act • Explains how leaders combine two kinds of behaviors to influence subordinates in efforts to reach a goal
Task Behaviors vs. Relational Behaviors • Task Behaviors • Facilitates goal accomplishment • Relationship Behaviors • Help subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and with the groups situation
Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid of Style Approach • Most well-known model of leader behavior • Explains how leaders help organizations to reach their purposes through two factors: • Concern for production • How a leader is concerned with achieving organizational tasks • Concern for people • How a leader attends to the people with the organization who are trying to achieve its goals.
Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid of Style Approach • Joins concern for production and concern for people on two intersecting axes • X axis = concern for results • Y axis = concern for people • Portrays five major leadership styles: • Authority-Compliance (9,1) • Country Club management (1,9) • Impoverished management (1,1) • Middle-of-the-Road management (5,5) • Team management (9,9)
Authority-Compliance Management • Places heavy emphasis on task and job requirements • Less emphasis on people • Communication under-emphasized • Leadership is controlling, demanding, and overpowering
Country Club Management • Low concern for task accomplishment • High concern for interpersonal relationships • De-emphasis on production • Leadership characterized as agreeable, eager to help, comforting, and uncontroversial
Impoverished Management • No concern for task, as well as interpersonal relationships • Going through the motions with lack of involvement • Leaderships described as indifferent, noncommittal, resigned, and apathetic
Middle-of-the-Road Management • Leaders are compromisers • Immediate concern for task and interpersonal relationship • Leader avoids conflict and emphasizes moderate levels of production and relations with others to establish equilibrium • Leaders are described as one who is expedient, soft-pedals disagreement, and is interested in group progress over their own convictions
Team Management • Places strong emphasis on both tasks and interpersonal relationships • Promotes high degree of participation and teamwork • Satisfies a basic need in employees to be involved and committed to their work • Leaders characterized as clear, open-minded, determined, and one who stimulates participation
Combined Styles • Blake and his colleagues have identified two styles that incorporate multiple aspects of the grid • Paternalism/Maternalism • Leaders uses both (1,9) and (9,1) styles but does not integrate the two • Opportunistic • Leader uses any combination of the basic five styles for purpose of personal advancement
How does the Style Approach work? • Provides framework for assessing leadership behaviors in a broad way and general way • Gives leaders a way to look at their behavior by sub-dividing it into the two dimensions • Reminds leaders that their impact occurs through both the task they perform and the relationship they create.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Style Approach • Strengths • Easily applied • Studies on leadership style validates and gives credibility to the approach • Provides core of the leadership process • Can be used as a heuristic (cognitive map) • Approach applies to everything a leader does • Weaknesses • Hasn’t adequately shown how leaders’ styles are associated with performance outcomes • There is no universal leadership style • Implies that the most effective leadership style is the Team Management style (9,9)