Behavioral Approach

Chapter 4

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 Overview
 Behavioral Approach Perspective
 Ohio State Studies
 University of Michigan Studies
 Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid

 How Does the Behavioral Approach Work?

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 Behavioral Approach Description

Perspective Definition

 Emphasizes the  Composed of two general kinds

behavior of the leader of behaviors
 Task behaviors
 Focuses exclusively on  Facilitate goal
what leaders do and how accomplishment: Help group
they act members achieve objectives
 Relationship behaviors
 Help subordinates feel
comfortable with themselves,
each other, and the situation

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 Ohio State Studies (1 of 2)
 Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire
(LBDQ)
 Identify number of times leaders engaged in specific
behaviors
• 150 questions
 Participant settings (military, industrial, educational)
 Results

• Particular clusters of behaviors were typical of leaders

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 Ohio State Studies (2 of 2)
 LBDQ-XII (Stogdill, 1963)
 Shortened version of the LBDQ
 Most widely used leadership assessment instrument
 Results--Two general types of leader behaviors:
• Initiating structure--Leaders provide structure for
subordinates
 Task behaviors--organizing work, giving structure to the work
context, defining role responsibility, and scheduling work activities
• Consideration--Leaders nurture subordinates
 Relationship behaviors--building camaraderie, respect, trust,
and liking between leaders and followers

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 University of Michigan Studies
 Exploring leadership behavior
 Specific emphasis on impact of leadership behavior on
performance of small groups
 Results--Two types of leadership behaviors
conceptualized as opposite ends of a single continuum
 Employee orientation
• Strong human relations emphasis
 Production orientation
• Stresses the technical aspects of a job
 Later studies reconceptualized behaviors as two
independent leadership orientations--possible orientation
to both at the same time

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 Blake and Mouton’s Grid
Historical Perspective
 Leadership Grid Components
 Authority-Compliance (9,1)

 Country Club Management (1,9)

 Impoverished Management (1,1)

 Middle-of-the-Road Management (5,5)

 Team Management (9,9)

 Paternalism/Maternalism (1,9; 9,1)

 Opportunism

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 Historical Perspective
Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Leadership Grid

Development Purpose
 Designed to explain how leaders
 Developed in early 1960s
help organizations to reach their
 Used extensively in purposes
organizational training &  Two factors
development • Concern for production
 How a leader is
concerned with achieving
organizational tasks
• Concern for people
 How a leader attends to
the members of the
organization who are
trying to achieve its goals

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 Authority-Compliance (9,1)

Definition Role Focus

 Efficiency in operations results  Heavy emphasis on task and job

from arranging conditions of requirements and less emphasis
work such that human on people
interference is minimal  Communicating with
subordinates mainly for task
instructions
 Results driven--people regarded
as tools to that end
 9,1 leaders--seen as controlling,
demanding, hard-driving, and
overpowering

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 Country Club (1,9)

Definition Role Focus

 Thoughtful attention to the  Low concern for task

needs of people leads to a accomplishment coupled with
comfortable, friendly high concern for interpersonal
organizational atmosphere and relationships
work tempo  Deemphasizes production;
leaders stress the attitudes
and feelings of people
 1,9 leaders--try to create a
positive climate by being
agreeable, eager to help,
comforting, noncontroversial

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 Impoverished (1,1)

Definition Role Focus

 Minimal effort exerted to get  Leader unconcerned with

work done is appropriate to both task and interpersonal
sustain organizational relationships
membership  Going through the motions, but
uninvolved and withdrawn
 1,1 leaders--have little contact
with followers and are
described as indifferent,
noncommittal, resigned, and
apathetic

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 Middle-of-the-Road (5,5)

Definition Role Focus

 Adequate organizational  Leaders who are

performance possible through compromisers; have
balancing the necessity of intermediate concern for task
getting work done while and people who do task
maintaining satisfactory morale  To achieve equilibrium, leader
avoids conflict while emphasizing
moderate levels of production and
interpersonal relationships
 5,5 leader--described as
expedient; prefers the middle
ground; soft-pedals disagreement;
swallows convictions in the
interest of “progress”

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 Team (9,9)

Definition Role Focus

 Work accomplished through  Strong emphasis on both

committed people; tasks and interpersonal
interdependence via a relationships
“common stake” in the  Promotes high degree of
organization’s purpose, which participation and teamwork,
leads to relationships of trust satisfies basic need of
and respect employee to be involved and
committed to their work
 9,9 leader--stimulates
participation, acts determined,
makes priorities clear, follows
through, behaves open-
mindedly and enjoys working
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 Paternalism/Maternalism

Definition Role Focus

 Reward and approval are  Leaders who use both 1,9 and 9,1
bestowed on people in return without integrating the two
for loyalty and obedience;  The “benevolent dictator”; acts
failure to comply leads to gracious for purpose of goal
punishment accomplishment
 Treats people as though they were
disassociated from the task
 Regards the organization as a
family
 Makes most of the key decisions
 Rewards loyalty and punishes
non-compliance

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 Opportunism

Definition Role Focus

 People adapt and shift to any  Performance occurs according

grid style needed to gain to a system of selfish gain
maximum advantage  Leader uses any combination
of the basic five styles for the
purpose of personal
advancement
Leaders usually have a  May be seen as ruthless and
dominant grid style used cunning
in most situations and a  May also be seen as
backup style that is adaptable and strategic
reverted to when under
pressure

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How Does the Behavioral Approach Work?
 Focus of behavioral approach

 Strengths

 Criticisms

 Application

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 Behavioral Approach

Focus Overall Scope

 Primarily a framework for  Offers a general means

assessing leadership as of assessing the
behavior with a task and behaviors of leaders
relationship dimension

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 Strengths
 Behavioral approach marked a major shift in leadership
research from exclusively trait focused to include
behaviors and actions of leaders
 Broad range of studies on leadership style validates and
gives credibility to the basic tenets of the approach
 At conceptual level, a leader’s style is composed of two
major types of behaviors: task and relationship
 The behavioral approach is heuristic--leaders can learn a
lot about themselves and how they come across to
others by trying to see their behaviors in light of the task
and relationship dimensions

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 Criticisms
 Research has not adequately demonstrated how leaders’ styles are
associated with performance outcomes.

 No universal style of leadership that could be effective in almost

every situation. Contextual factors such as team goals or cross
functional team membership may require varied leadership styles.

 Implies that the most effective leadership style is High-High style

(i.e., high task/high relationship); research finding support is limited.

 Most of the research comes from United States--centric perspective.

Different cultures may prefer different leadership styles than those
favored by current U.S. management practices.

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 Application
 Many leadership training and development
programs are designed along the lines of the style
approach.
 By assessing their own style, managers can
determine how they are perceived by others and
how they could change their behaviors to become
more effective.
 The style approach applies to nearly everything a
leader does.

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