Leadership
Chapter 4 - Style Approach
Northouse, 5th edition
Overview
Style Approach Perspective
Ohio State Studies
University of Michigan Studies
Blake & Mouton’s Leadership Grid
How Does the Style Approach Work?
Style Approach Description
Perspective Definition
Comprised of two general
Emphasizes the
kinds of Behaviors
behavior of the
Task behaviors
leader
Facilitate goal
Focuses exclusively accomplishment: Help group
on what leaders do members achieve objectives
and how they act Relationship behaviors
Help subordinates feel
comfortable with themselves,
each other, and the situation
Ohio State Studies
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
Ohio State Studies, cont’d.
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, scheduling work
activities
Consideration - Leaders nurture subordinates
• Relationship behaviors – building camaraderie, respect,
trust, & liking between leaders & followers
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
Blake & Mouton’s Managerial
(Leadership) 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
Historical Perspective
Blake & Mouton’s Managerial Leadership Grid
Development Purpose
Designed to explain how
Developed in leaders help organizations to
early 1960s reach their purposes
Used extensively – Two factors
in organizational Concern for production
• How a leader is concerned
training & with achieving
development organizational tasks
Concern for people
• How a leader attends to the
members of the organization
who are trying to achieve its
goals
Authority-Compliance (9,1)
Definition Role Focus
Efficiency in Heavy emphasis on task
operations results and job requirements and
from arranging less emphasis on people
conditions of work Communicating with
such that human subordinates outside task
interference is instructions not emphasized
minimal Results driven - people
regarded as tools to that end
9,1 leaders – seen as
controlling, demanding, hard-
driving & overpowering
Country Club (1,9)
Definition Role Focus
Thoughtful attention Low concern for task
to the needs of accomplishment coupled
people leads to a with high concern for
comfortable, friendly interpersonal relationships
organizational De-emphasizes production;
atmosphere and work leaders stress the attitudes
tempo and feelings of people
1,9 leaders – try to create a
positive climate by being
agreeable, eager to help,
comforting, noncontroversial
Impoverished (1,1)
Definition Role Focus
Minimal effort exerted Leader unconcerned with
to get work done is both task and
appropriate to interpersonal relationships
sustain Going through the motions,
organizational but uninvolved and
membership withdrawn
1,1 leaders - have little
contact with followers and
are described as indifferent,
noncommittal, resigned, and
apathetic
Middle-of-the-Road (5,5)
Definition Role Focus
Adequate Leaders who are
organizational compromisers; have
performance intermediate concern for task
possible through and people who do task
balancing the To achieve equilibrium, leader
necessity of getting avoids conflict while emphasizing
work done while moderate levels of production and
maintaining interpersonal relationships
satisfactory morale 5,5 leaders - described as
expedient; prefers the middle
ground, soft-pedals disagreement,
swallows convictions in the
interest of “progress”
Team (9,9)
Definition Role Focus
Work accomplished Strong emphasis on both
through committed tasks and interpersonal
people; relationships
interdependence Promotes high degree of
via a “common participation & teamwork,
stake” in the satisfies basic need of employee
organization’s to be involved & committed to
purpose, which their work
leads to 9,9 leaders - stimulates
relationships of participation, acts determined,
trust and respect makes priorities clear, follows
through, behaves open-mindedly
and enjoys working
Paternalism/Maternalism
Definition Role Focus
Reward and Leaders who use both 1,9
approval are and 9,1 without integrating
the two
bestowed on
The “benevolent dictator”;
people in return
acts gracious for purpose of
for loyalty and goal accomplishment
obedience; Treats people as though they
failure to comply were disassociated from the
leads to task
punishment
Opportunism
Definition Role Focus
People adapt and Performance occurs
shift to any grid according to a system of
style needed to selfish gain
gain maximum Leader uses any
advantage combination of the basic five
styles for the purpose of
personal advancement
Leader usually has a
dominant grid style used in
most situations and a backup
style that is reverted to when
under pressure
How Does the Style
Approach Work?
Focus of Style Approach
Strengths
Criticisms
Application
Style Approach
Focus Overall Scope
Primarily a Offers a means of
framework for assessing in a
assessing leadership
general way the
in a broad way, as
behavior with a task behaviors of leaders
and relationship
dimension
Strengths
Style 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 style 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
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
Implies that the most effective leadership
style is High-High style (i.e., high task/high
relationship); research finding support is
limited
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.
