MGT 656
Leadership Theory and Practice
STYLE APPROACH
Style Approach

Style approach emphasizes the behavior
of the leader – what leaders do and how
they act

How is it different from trait approach?

How is it different from skills approach?
Style Approach

Researchers identified two broad set of
behaviors ◦ Task behaviors
◦ Relationship behaviors
Research at Ohio State University (late
1940s) based on the works of Stogdill (1948)
 University of Michigan (about the same time)
 Blake and Mouton (1960s)

Ohio State Studies


Perceived personality based research as fruitless
Wanted to know how leaders act

Identified two general types of leader behaviors –
◦ Initiating structure – essentially task behaviors
◦ Consideration – essentially relationship behaviors

Not as two points at a single continuum, but as two
different continua

The degree to which a leader exhibits one behavior is
not related to the degree to which she or he exhibits
other behavior
Initiating Structure, Employee Grievances
and Turnover (Fleishman & Harris, 1962)
Consideration, Employee Grievances and
Turnover (Fleishman & Harris, 1962)
The University of Michigan Studies

Identified two types of leadership
behaviors –
◦ Employee orientation – strong human
relations emphasis; parallels consideration
◦ Production orientation – technical aspects
of the job; parallels initiating structure

Two independent leadership orientations
Managerial (Leadership) Grid (Blake
& Mouton)

Two leadership factors –
◦ Concern for production – refers to how a
leader is concerned with achieving organizational
goals
◦ Concern for people – refers to how a leader
attends to the people in the organization who are
trying attain its goals

Grid – two intersecting axes
◦ Leader’s concern for results – horizontal axis
◦ Leader’s concern for people – vertical axis
Managerial (Leadership) Grid (Blake & Mouton)
Authority Compliance (9,1)

The 9,1 style of leadership places heavy
emphasis on task; less emphasis on people

Controlling, demanding, hard driving,
overpowering

Critical assessment?
Country-Club Management

The 1,9 style of leadership represents a low
concern for task and a high concern for
people

They create a positive climate

Agreeable, eager to help, comforting,
uncontroversial

Critical assessment?
Impoverished Management (1,1)

The 1,1style is representative of a leader
who is unconcerned with both the task
and interpersonal relationships

Could be described as indifferent,
noncommittal, resigned and apathetic

Critical assessment?
Middle-of-the-road Management

The 5,5 describes leaders who are compromisers,
who have an intermediate concern for the task
and intermediate concern for the people who do
the task

They find a balance between task and people

Could be described as one who is expedient,
prefers middle ground, soft-pedals disagreement,
avoids conflicts

Critical assessment?
Team Management (9,9)

The 9,9 style strongly emphasize task and
relationships

Stimulates participation, acts determined,
get issues into the open, make priorities
clear, follows through, behaves openmindedly, enjoys working

Critical assessment?
Paternalism / Maternalism

Refers to a leader who uses both 1,9 and
9,1 styles but does not integrate both.

Benevolent dictator who acts graciously
but for the purpose of goal attainment.

Described as fatherly / motherly, regard
the organization as family, make most of
the key decisions, reward obedience and
punish noncompliance
Paternalism / Maternalism
Blake & McCanse (1991)
Opportunism

Refers to a leader who will use any
combination of the basic five styles for
personal advancement

Ruthless, cunning, self-motivated

According to Blake & Mouton
(1985), leaders usually have a
dominant style and a back up style
which they fall on to under pressure
Opportunism
Blake & McCanse (1991)
Strengths

Broadened the scope of leadership research by
including leadership behavior

Supported by multitude of research

Identified leadership styles which are important
for effective leadership by balancing these two
styles

Leaders can assess their own style and determine
how they might want to change the dominant
style
Criticisms

Has not given focus on the relationship between
leadership styles and outcomes (Bryman, 1992; Yukl
1994)

Only strong finding about styles is that followers of
considerate leaders are more satisfied (Yukl, 1994)

Unable to identify universal behaviors associated with
effective leadership

It implies that a high – high style is more effective.
However, there is less empirical support for that
claim