Unit 4 (P 33) Leadership: Approaches of leadership (Trait and Behavioral)

Approaches to leadership

Trait Approach to leadership:

• This style of leadership gives more credence to the qualities a person is born with rather than what they develop or the relationships they develop with followers. 
• Leadership trait theory is the idea that people are born with certain character traits.  This is the style that is attributed to a leader who others see as “a born leader”.  
• The innate qualities and characteristics possessed by strong leaders.  
• These traits, while not totally responsible for an individual's success as a leader, are influential in the success of the leader.  
• This theory assumes that if you could identify people with the correct traits, you will be able to identify leaders.
• Scholars taking the trait approach attempted to identify physiological (appearance, height, and weight), demographic (age, education and socioeconomic background), personality, self-confidence, and aggressiveness), intellective (intelligence, decisiveness, judgment, and knowledge), task-related (achievement drive, initiative, and persistence), and social characteristics (sociability and cooperativeness) with leader emergence and leader effectiveness.

Among the core traits identified are:

• Achievement drive: High level of effort, high levels of ambition, energy and initiative
• Leadership motivation: an intense desire to lead others to reach shared goals
• Honesty and integrity: trustworthy, reliable, and open
• Self-confidence: Belief in one’s self, ideas, and ability
• Cognitive ability: Capable of exercising good judgment, strong analytical abilities, and conceptually skilled
• Knowledge of business: Knowledge of industry and other technical matters
• Emotional Maturity: well adjusted, does not suffer from severe psychological disorders.
• Others: charisma, creativity and flexibility

Behavioral Approach to leadership

• Behavioral Leadership is a study of the actions, or behaviors, that define a leadership style.  This theoretical approach to understanding leaders creates categories of styles, which are aligned with the actions the leader may take, or the methods they use to reach their goals.
• Trait research provides a basis for selecting the ‘right’ persons to assume formal positions in groups and organizations requiring leadership. In contrast, if behavioral studies were to turn up critical behavioral determinants of leadership, we could train people to be leaders. 
• The difference between trait and behavioral theories, in terms of application, lies in their underlying assumptions. Trait theories assume leaders are born rather than made. However, if there were specific behaviors that identified leaders, then we could teach leadership we could design programs that implanted these behavioral patterns in individuals who desired to be effective leaders. 
• This was surely a more exciting avenue, for it meant that the supply of leaders could be expanded. If training worked, we could have an infinite supply of effective leaders. The three leadership behavior studies that attempt to identify the leadership behavior are explained below.

         Ohio State Studies

• The Ohio State studies utilized the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ), administering it to samples of individuals in the military, manufacturing companies, college administrators, and student leaders. Answers to the questionnaire were factor-analyzed to determine if common leader behaviors emerged across samples. The conclusion was that there were two distinct aspects of leadership that describe how leaders carry out their role.
• Two factors, termed consideration and initiating structure, consistently appeared. Initiating structure, sometimes called task-oriented behavior, involves planning, organizing, coordinating the work of subordinates and high productivity or performance. Consideration involves showing concern for subordinates, being supportive, recognizing subordinates' accomplishments, providing for subordinates' welfare and teats subordinate fairly.

    University of Michigan studies.

• The Michigan leadership studies took place at about the same time as those at Ohio State. Under the general direction of Rensis Likert, the focus of the Michigan studies was to determine the principles and methods of leadership that led to productivity and job satisfaction. The studies resulted in two general leadership behaviors or orientations: an employee orientation and a production orientation. Leaders with an employee orientation showed genuine concern for interpersonal relations. Those with a production orientation focused on the task or technical aspects of the job.
• The conclusion of the Michigan studies was that an employee orientation and general leadership behavior instead of close supervision yielded better results. Employee orientation leader are associated with high group productivity and higher job satisfaction than production oriented leaders.

     The Managerial Grid:

• One concept based largely on the behavioral approach to leadership effectiveness was the Managerial (or Leadership) Grid, developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. The grid combines "concern for production" with "concern for people" and presents five alternative behavioral styles of leadership. An individual who emphasized neither production nor people was practicing "impoverished management" according to the grid. If a person emphasized concern for people and placed little emphasis on production, he was terms a "country-club" manager.
• Conversely, a person who emphasized a concern for production but paid little attention to the concerns of subordinates was a "task" manager. A person who tried to balance concern for production and concern for people was termed a "middle-of-the-road" manager.
• Finally, an individual who was able to simultaneously exhibit a high concern for production and a high concern for people was practicing "team management." According to the prescriptions of the grid, team management was the best leadership approach. The Managerial Grid became a major consulting tool and was the basis for a considerable amount of leadership training in the corporate world.
• The five different leadership styles found in the managerial grid are presented below:

1. Country Club Leadership - High Concern for People/Low Concern for Production 
• A country club leader is mostly concerned about the needs and feelings of his/her employees or team members. This leader probably supposes that members of the organization will work hard if the feel happy and secure. However, production may suffer under this leadership style, and the effectiveness of the organization may suffer due to a lack of direct supervision and control.
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2. Task Leadership - High Concern for Production/Low Concern for People 
• A task leader is very concerned about production effectiveness, and probably sees workers as means to achieve great results. This leader also sees workforce needs as secondary to the need of a productive and efficient workplace. He/She might have very strict and autocratic work rules, and perhaps views punishment as the best motivational force.
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3. Impoverished Leadership - Low Concern for Production/ Low Concern for People
•  This leader is very ineffective. The leader has neither a high regard for creating efficient systems or rules to structure work processes, nor for creating a motivated or satisfied work environment. The result of this leadership style could be a highly disorganized workplace with low satisfaction and motivation.
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4. Middle of the Road Leadership - Medium Concern for Production/Medium Concern for People 
• This style tries to balance the two competing concerns. It tries to compromise different needs, and may seem as a great solution. However, when compromising, leaders risk that neither the concern for people nor the concern for production is fully met. This may lead to average performance, where top results may not be achieved. Workers may end up moderately motivated and satisfied, and production may only become moderately effective.
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5. Team Leadership - High Concern for Production/High Concern for People 
• According to the Blake Mouton model, this is the best and most effective leadership style. These leaders both stress the importance of workforce needs and production needs. This leader manages to engulf workers into the importance of production efficiency, and manages to motivate employees. This creates an atmosphere of team spirit, where each team member is highly motivated and satisfied, which commits the worker to work hard and increase productivity.