Leadership Styles

Leadership style reflects different types of leaders. Types of leaders can be discussed
under the following categories :-

1. Autocratic leaders
2. Participative (democratic) leaders
3. Laissez-fair or free-reign leaders

1. Autocratic Leaders

Meaning:- Autocratic leaders make decisions and issue orders and instructions by
virtue of their position and authority. The threat of punishment and penalties make
workers obey the orders. They retain decision-making power with them and do not
delegate authority and responsibility. They may also offer rewards (positive
motivation) to followers for good performance. I such cases, they are called
benevolent autocratic leaders.

Suitability

There are, however, some situations when autocratic style of leadership may be
appropriate.

 Situations that call for urgent action.

 When people are familiar with autocratic leadership and, therefore, have
less trouble adopting that style.
 Subordinates may prefer an autocratic style when they are unskilled,
inexperienced and submissive.

Autocratic leadership can be diagrammatically represented as follow :

(Orders and instructions flow from the leader)

2. Participative (democratic) Leaders

The democratic leader make decisions by consulting his team, but maintains control
over the group activities. The leader allows his team to decide how the task will be
done and who will perform which task.

A good democratic leader encourages participation and delegates wisely, but does
not lose sight of the fact that he bears the responsibly of leadership. He values group
discussion and input from his team and drawn from a pool of his team member’s
strong points in order to obtain the best performance from his team. He motivates his
team by empowering then to direct themselves and guides them with a loose reign.

Suitability : Democratic leadership is suitable when :

 Employees are considered a part of the system.

 Leader promotes sharing of decision-making than taking the decisions alone.

Leadership can be diagrammatically represented as follows :

(Free interaction amongst the leader and followers)

3. Laissez-Fair or Free-Reign Leaders

Meaning : leaders give responsibility of setting goals and devising means to

achieve them to the group members. They allow group members to carry out the
work on their own. The leader plays a minor role in affecting the group goals.
The laissez-faire manager exercises little control over his group, leaving them to
sort out their roles and tackle their work, without participating in this process
himself. In general, this approach leaves the team floundering with little direction
or motivation.
 The laissez-fair technique is usually appropriate when leaders lead a team of
highly motivated and skills people, who have produced excellent work in the
past. Once a leader believes that his team is confident, capable and motivated, he
often steps back and lets then get on with the task. By handing over ownership, a
leader can empower his group to achieve their goals.

Leadership

Laissez-fair leadership style can be diagrammatically represented as follows :

Different leadership styles-At a glance

The following table highlights the important characteristics of different leadership

style :

Autocratic style Democratic Laissez-faire style

Decision- Decision are made by leaders Followers participate in the Decisions are made by
making (centralized decision- decision-making the subordinates
making) process(decentralized- (decentralized decision-
decision making) making)

Authority Leaders retain the authority It is partly delegated to It is completely delegated

for decision-making subordinates. to subordinates.
Motivation Negative motivation Positive motivation Self-motivated to work.
(Threats and Punishment) (Rewards and Incentives)
Behaviour- Task-oriented Relationship-oriented Relationship-oriented
orientation behaviour behaviour behaviour
Need saits- Lower-order needs Lower-order and partly Higher-order needs
faction higher-order needs
Communication Vertical, one way, Vertical, two way, top to Vertical and Horizontals
top to bottom bottom and bottom to top
Scope for No scope for development Employee’s innovation and Full scope for employees
development of employees creative skills are developed development.
 Classification on Basis of Authority

Formal leaders Informal leaders

1. They enjoy formal authority over the They do not have formal authority over the
subordinates. subordinates.
2. They help to achieve organizational goals. They help to satisfy individual goals along
with formal goals.
3. They are formally appointed by managers. They emerge out of interaction amongst
member of informal groups.
4. Employees comply to their orders. Employees are committed to leaders’
orders.
5. They do very little to increase morale and They increase subordinates’ morale and job
job satisfaction of subordinates. satisfaction

Theories of Leadership

Some of the popular theories of leadership are :

 Trait Theories {see para 12.6.1}

 Behavioural Theories {see para 12.6.2}

----- Iowa Studies

----- Michigan Studies
----- Ohio State Studies
----- The Managerial Grid
----- Rsnsis Likert’s systems of management

 Situational or Contingency Theories {see para 12.6.3}

----- Tannenbaum and Schmidt’s leadership continuum.

----- Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

----- House’s Path Goal Theory

----- Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership Theory.

Trait Theories

Traits are “distinctive internal qualities or characteristics of an individual, such as

physical characteristics, personality characteristics, skills and abilities, and social
factors.

Based on the qualities of leaders, trait theories identify and compare the :

1. traits of leaders with those of non-leaders (followers).

2. traits of effective leaders with those of ineffective leaders.
1. As regards first aspect of trait theory, i.e. identifying traits of leaders and non-
leaders, it is generally believed that leaders are born, not made. It is based on
researches conducted by psychologists and other researches who identified
personal characteristics of individuals with leadership.

Warren Bennis Conducted a study of 90 leaders and their subordinated and

concluded that all the 90 leaders had the following four traits in common :

(a) Management of attention .

(b) Management of meaning.

(c) Management of trust.

2. As regards the second aspect of identifying and comparing the traits of
effective leaders with those of ineffective leaders, the studies have not been
able to identify any set of traits which can distinguish effective or successful
leaders from ineffective or unsuccessful ones. The “ Great Man Theory”
which asserts that leaders are born but not made has not proved to be true.

(a) Supervisory ability

(b) Occupational achievement.

(c) Intelligence.

(d) Decisiveness.

(e) Self-assurance.

(f) Initiative.
 Even on the basis of these traits, one cannot always say that those who posses
these traits are always successful leaders. Different combinations of traits is
totally dependent on the situation that leader face.

Behavioural Theories

Failure of trait theories to differentiate successful leaders from unsuccessful ones

on the basis of common traits led to the emergence of behavioural theories. These
theories focus on what the leaders do rather than who the leaders are. The same
group of leaders show different behaviour in different situations. Social skills
may be important in one situation while the skill of being decisive and tactful
may be important in the other situation.
while dealing with subordinates, leaders adopt styles based on their behaviour.
These
are:-

1. Task-oriented
2. Employee-oriented.

Task-oriented style aim at getting the work done without emphassing on growth
and development of employees.

Employee-oriented style aim at completion of the task where leaders show friendly
behaviour towards the followers and allow them to participate in the decision-
making processes.
The effectiveness of leadership style and leader behaviour is discussed in different
studies, and theories. Some of these are discussed below:

1. Iowa Studies : Kurt lenin, Ronal Lippitt and Ralph White conducted a research
where the impact of three leadership styles; autocratic, democratic and laiseez-fair,
was studied on the behaviour of 20 boys. The data collected on their behaviour
revealed that the boys were attracted more by the democratic style that the other two
style of leadership. The emphasis was, thus, on employee-oriented approach towards
the leadership style.

2. Michigan Studies : The Michigan Studies identified two work groups consisting
of people from business and non-business organisations. They studied leader’s
behaviour towards these work groups. Two types of leader behaviour were identified
as (1) employee-centred behaviour, and (2) job or production-centred behvaiour.
Results : The results showed that-

(a) Effective leaders invite worker’s participation in decision-making processes, and

(b) The group which produced more had leaders with employee-centred approach
rather than production-oriented approach.

Employee-oriented approach towards the group, thus, produced results better than
the production-oriented approach.

3.Ohio State Studies : In 1945, the Bureau of Business Research at Ohio State
University conducted a research to identify leader behaviour in directing the group
towards accomplishment of group goals. Two dimensions of leader behaviour were
identified.
(a) Consideration
(b) Initiating structure
Consideration is “behaviour indicative of friendship, mutual trust, respect, and
warmth in the relationship between the leader and the member of his staff. Initiating
structure is similar to production-oriented leader behaviour and consideration is
similar to employee-centred leader behaviour.
(a) One, to be filled by the leader, containing details of how he perceives himself
as a leader and what appropriate leadership style would he adopt in a
particular situation. This questionnaire was called Leader Opinion
Questionnaire (LQQ).
(b) Second, to be filled by leader’s superiors, peers and subordinates. It contained
factor pertaining to initiating structure and consideration and identified
respondents’ perception about their leader’s behaviour.
Results : The data revealed that leaders depicted neither of the two behaviours on a
single continuum, with initiating structure at one end and consideration at the other
end. Rather, these two behaviour together depicted four leadership styles.

(a) High consideration – High initiating structure.

(b) Low consideration – Low initiating structure.
(c) High consideration – Low initiating structure.
(d) Low consideration – High initiating structure.
None of these four styles of leadership was considered to be the best depended on
the situation that leaders faced.

four leadership styles arising out of two leader behaviours are shown as follows :

gh
Hi
Considerati High consideration High consideration
Low initiating Low initiating
structure structure
on

Low consideration Low consideration

Low initiating High initiating
Structure Structure
Lo

Low High
w

Initiating structure

Leadership styles as per Ohio States Studies

4. The managerial grid : This approach to leadership styles was developed in 1960s by Robert
Blake and Jane Mouton. According to them, leadership style, employee-oriented or production-
oriented, depends on where the leader positions himself on the managerial grid. Managerial gird
is a two dimensional matrix with points ranging from 1 to 9 on either axis. Horizontal axis
represents leader’s concern for production and vertical axis represents his concern for people.
Used on the managerial grid, five leadership styles have been identified with varying degrees of
concern for people and task. There are as follows :

(1) 1,1 Impoverished management : This represents a leadership style where leader has low
concern for both people and production.

(2) 1,9 country club management : This represents low concern for production and high
concern for people.

(3) 9,1 Task management : Leaders are concerned more with task or productions and less with
people.

(4) 5,5 Middle of the road or organisation man management : In this style of leadership,
leader satisfy both, organizational (production) and human needs through moderate concern
for production and people.

(5) 9,9 Team management : This is the most effective style of leadership where leaders show
maximum concern for people and task. They show high concern for worker’s job satisfaction
and their contribution to the job.

According to this approach, the ideal style of leadership is 9, 9 and training programmers should
be conducted for managers to adopt this style.
 5. Rensis Likert’s Systems of Management : Rensis Likert and his associates
studies leadership styles (employee-oriented and production-oriented) by studying
leader behaviour in business and non-business organisation, like medical and
Government organisations, at the University of Michigan and concluded that :His
emphasis was more on human relations since effective methods for recruitment
selection and training enable the managers to convert the resources into effective
output and optimally achieve the organizational goals. The objective of production
or task accomplishment can be achieved when managers focus on employee
development and growth.

(a) Exploitative- authoritative style of leadership : System 1 : This style of aims at

production maximization and ignored human aspect of the organisational
behaviour. Decision are made solely by leaders and communicated to subordinates
down the chain of command. Control of subordinates activities lies entirely with
the leader. The motivational forces are fear, threats and punishment

(b) Benevolent authoritative style : System 2 : The aim continues to be production

maximization but with a friendly approach towards subordinates. Leaders use
economic rewards along with slight punitive measures to motivate the worker
toward organisational goals. Communication continues to flow top to bottom but
there is slight increase in the level of interaction amongst managers and
subordinated. Major decisions are made at the top and some routine decisions are
taken at the lower levels. Superiors show come confidence in their subordinates.

(c) Consultative style : System 3 : Important decisions are taken at the top level but
operating decisions are taken by lower-level managers, Communication flows in
both directions, up and down. Leaders show moderate trust and confidence in their
subordinates and subordinates are also, therefore, loyal towards the superiors.

(d)Participative style : System 4 : This system represents optimum situation for the
management or leadership style. Leaders extensively interact with their
subordinated and involve them fully in the goal setting process. Control is not
vested at the top. Subordinates self-control and direct their activities towards
organisationl goals. Communication is both downward and upward. There is
constant flow of information between peer groups at the vertical and horizontal
level. High degree of confidence, trust and loyalty is shown by superiors towards
subordinates and vice versa. As a result, production reaches its maximum. It is
observed that system 1 is totally a production-oriented system and system 4 is
totally an employee-oriented system. Production can be maximized through
system 4 of management.
 Tannenbaum and Schmidt’s Leadership Continuum

Meaning : One of the pioneering studies in situational theories is made by Robert

Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt. According to them, there is not best
leadership style that a leader can adopt. He choose one amongst seven leader
behaviours, depending upon three factors. These factors are:

(a) The leader : The way an individual perceives himself as a leader, the
source of power, his attitude towards subordinates, attitude towards work;
extent to which he wants to retain authority and how much he is willing to
delegate to subordinates, his value systems and similar drivers influence
the leadership style.

(b)The Followers : The leader studies the behaviour of subordinates.

Whether or not followers are willing to take additional responsibility,
whether or not they find the work interesting to what extent are they ready
to subordinate.

(c) The Situation : Even if leaders and followers are ready to work together,
the situation may not allow them to do so.

Leadership Styles : Depending of these three factors, the theory developed a

leadership continuum with task-oriented, autocratic leadership style at one end of the
continuum and employee-oriented democratic style at the other end. Depending on
the situation as reflected by these three forces, leaders adopt a style varying between
these two extremes.
The leadership continuum is shown in the following diagram:
Autocratic Democratic
(production-oriented) (employee-oriented)

Use of managers’ Freedom enjoyed

authority by subordinates

Leader retains Leader sells Leader invites Leader’s Leader makes Leader wants Leader allows
the entire the decision- suggestions decision is decisions the group to subordinates
from only after inviting make to function
authority. He continues
subordinates tentative-It is suggestions- decisions within the
to make within the
subject to limits
decisions change limits defined
by him
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

Meaning :The contingency theory propounded by Fred E. Fiedler asserts that

leadership style depends on three elements in the work situation. There are :

(a) Leader-member relations :This describes relationship between leader and the
members. It is easy for the leader to influence the followers if the leader-
member relations are good.
(b) Task Structure : Task structure defines whether the task in structured
(routine) or instructed (complex). Structured task in divided into well-defined
units, people know their responsibility and accountability.
(c) Position Power : This is the power of leader by virtue of his position. If the
leader has more position power (legitimate power), it is easy for him to
exercise control over subordinates.

Using these eight combinations and two styles of leaders behaviour (employee-
oriented or task-oriented), Fiedler concluded the following :

(a) Task-oriented leadership style is more appropriate in extreme situation,

that is, situations where leader-member relations are good, task in
structured and position power of the leader is strong.
(b) Situations between favourable and unfavorable, that is situations which are
intermediate in favourableness, can be best tackled by employee-oriented
leaders.

Favourableness of situation is defined by Fiedler as “the degree to which the

situation enables the leaders to exert influence over his group”.

Fiedler’s contingency theory is depicted as follows :

Leader-member Good Bad
Relation
Task structure Structured Unstructured Structured Unstructured
Position power Strong Weak Strong Weak Strong Strong Weak
Cells 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
House’s Path Goal Theory

Leadership styles depends on the situation that leaders face. Two situational
variables, that leaders not are :

(a) Characteristics of the subordinates : Leaders adopt a style that subordinates

want them to adopt. If employees feel they are dealing with structured
situations where everything is clear as to who is to do what and when, believe
they are skilled and have faith in their potential to perform organisational
tasks, they will prefer their leader to adopt employee-oriented style of
leadership.
(b) Characteristics of the environment and the work place: These features fall
into three groups :
(i) The subordinates tasks :The nature of task that employees perform
largely determines the leadership style. Employees performing highly
structured tasks prefer a supportive leadership behaviour.
(ii) Formal authority system : If formal organization structure does not
clearly specify the link between performance and rewards to the
employees, directive, leadership style is adopted to make them
understand the structure but if the link is clear, leader can adopt
participative leadership style.
(iii) The work groups :If all members of the group work in a coordinated
and integrated manner, a supportive or participative style is adopted by
the leader If the group has low desire to work and is not motivated to
achieve its goal achievement-oriented style is adopted by the leaders.

Leadership Styles :Based on these situational variables, leaders adopt one of the
following four leadership styles.

(a) Directive leader behaviour

(b) Supportive leader behaviour
(c) Participative leader behaviour
(d) Achievement-oriented behaviour

The theory suggest that leader can influence emplyees’s behaviour by understanding
their needs, nature of task, liking for superiors and co-workers, liking for their work,
understanding of the organization structure and help them reach the goals by
adopting an appropriate leadership style.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory

Meaning – The situational leadership model development by Hersey and Blanchard
relates leadership style to situation and maturity level of employee. They believe as
maturity level of employees increases, leadership style also varies.

The theory divides maturity level of employees into four categories :

M4 – Low level of maturity : People are neither willing nor able to do the job, that
is , their readiness to do the task is very low.
M2 & M3 – Moderate level of maturity :People are either willing but not able or able
but not willing to perform a task. They are moderately ready to do the work.
M4 – High level of maturity : People are both and willing to perform the job. They
are different maturity levels appear as follows :

M1 M2 M3 M4

Low Moderate High

Given the maturity level of employees, leaders adopt different behaviours :

(a) Task-oriented behaviour.
(b) Relationship-oriented behaviour.

Leadership Styles : Relationship between leader behaviour and maturity level of

employees gives rise to style of leadership. Four leadership styles emerge out of this
relationship L1, L2 , L3 and L4
(a) L1 Style : Telling : This style deals with people who have low level of maturity;
who do not readily take responsibility for a particular task. Communication flows
from top to bottom. The leader solely initiates the problem-solving and decision-
making Leaders are more task-oriented and less relationship-oriented in their
behaviour. This is called the telling or directive style of leadership.
(b) L2 Style : Selling : As maturity level of employees increases from M 1 to M2, they
accept added responsibility of work but they are still not fully skilled to do so. While
communication is two-way and leader support is increased control over decision-
making remains with the leader. Selling or supportive leadership characterised by
high-task and high-relationship behaviour.

(c) L3 Style : Participating : As maturity level of employees increases further (from

M2 to M3), they are not only willing but also able to assume added responsibility.
They have the skill, knowledge and competence to handle the jobs on their own. The
focus of control for day-to-day decision-making and problem-solving shifts from
leader to the group member. The leader’s role is to provide recognition and to
actively listen and facilitate problem-solving and decision-making by followers. The
leadership style is, thus, participative where leaders continue to emphasis on high
relationship-oriented behaviour but as employees are matured to manage their jobs,
the emphasis on task behaviour gets reduced. This is characterised by high-
relationship and low-task behaviour.

(d)L4 Style : Delegating : High level of maturity (M4) is shown by employees. They
are now ready, able and willing to assume responsibilities with respect to their jobs.
They are highly motivated to achieve their targets and are directed by self-control.
They no longer want their leaders to direct them regarding the way the work is to be
done or to support them in discharging their functions. The leader discusses the
problems with the group members until joint agreement is achieved on the problem-
definition. The leadership style is ‘delegating’ where the job is delegated to workers
to be done on their own. The group thus, has significant control on how tasks are to
be accomplished. Main features of this style are low-task and low-relationship
behaviour of leaders. The leaders therefore, keep constant tract of this and change
their leadership style. There is no best style that leaders can adopt in all situation.
They change their styles as desired by the situation. This is a complex and difficult
task for the leaders.
 Transactional Leadership Transformational Leadership

1. It is traditional leadership in nature 1. It is ethical leadership in nature.

2.The leader specifies what subordinates need 2. The leader inspires followers through vision
to achieve objectives, classified task and energy.
requirement
3. He has a vision of his own and 3. He creates a shared vision with his
subordinates follow to achieve the leader’s subordinated where every subordinate identifies
vision. that vision as his own.
4. He has to be approached to solve the 4. He prepares subordinates to solve the
problems. problems themselves.
5. He monitors people to achieve the 5. He inspires people to do the unexpected,
expected targets, according to the plan. above and beyond the plan
6. It is based on personal traits of the leader. 6. It is based on inter-relations between the
leader and subordinates.

Leadership in Indian Organisation

The society of 1900s has few, small-sized institutions managed by the family heads.
For fulfilling the needs of the society, Government was the only institution banked
upon by.

Leadership today is viewed as a-

1. Force to bring economic, organisaitonal and social reforms.

2. work with its own tools, skills and techniques.
3. discipline with an organised body of knowledge which can be applied in almost
every situation and every organisation-business or non-business.
4. Culture with a set of traditional values, customs and beliefs. This helps in
moulding the culture aspects of the society.
5. multi-institutional force, where the need for leadership is felt in all institutions,
business as well as non-business. Leadership helps the institution perform the
functions for which it exits.