Leadership
Leadership is the most critical and complex responsibility across any organization. It is because the leadership requires to be realistic, effective, positive, straightforward. Moreover creative, efficient, technically sound and more. When it comes to situational and behavioral models of leadership. Then certain elements come to mind in order to give an acute overview on what it exactly is. Behavioral leadership model ultimately focuses on research that highlights whether a specific behavior of the leader is effective or not.
It is absolute that leadership is the only factor behind the rise or fall of any operation. The more efficient the leadership is, the more fruitful the outcome will be. According to the learning perspective, the first most important factor of learning leadership is to identify the behavior of leaders. Also how their decisions influence the operational processes or organizational goals.
Behavioral Leadership Model
There has been a great range of research related to the behaviors of the leaders or Behavioral Leadership Model. The ultimate focus of these researches was to highlight whether a specific behavior of the leader is effective or not. As per the results, it was affirmed that mostly, specific behaviors make effective leaders, rather than focusing on traits. Individuals would be trained to be role leaders only if the behavior studies turned up the critical behavioral determinants. There were four different studies carried out in order to form strategic perspectives of leadership that influence the main aspects of the leadership.
- As per studies carried out at the university of Iowa by Kurt Lewin along with associates. There are three main leadership styles, such as democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire.
- The identification of two ultimate dimensions of leader behaviors. Such as consideration and initiating structure, was proposed by The Ohio State Studies.
- According to the studies by The university of Michigan, production oriented and employee oriented. These are the basic dimensions of leader behavior.
- Eventually, the outcome of the fourth study is The Managerial Grid. It is a two-dimensional grid for evaluating styles of leadership by putting two factors as dimension. Actually that are “concern for products” and “concern for individuals”.
University of Iowa Research
The earlier attempts to identify the effective behaviors of the leadership were conducted by the University of Iowa. So for that this study is considered as an important element associated with the behaviors of leaders. In this study, three main forms of behavior styles were found.
Autocratic The autocratic leaders are most likely to be known as selfish leaders. Since they perform unprofessional activities like they make unilateral decisions, limit the worker’s knowledge about organizational goals. Moreover even prevent them from knowing what is the next step, dictate work methods, and give punitive feedback.
Democratic A leader of democratic style involves subordinates or associates in decision making, allows workers to determine certain work methods, makes the entire goals known to everyone, and eventually uses feedback in order to improve any specific factor or as a chance for helpful coaching.
Laissez-Faire Usually, Laissez-faire leaders offer complete freedom to the group, give required materials, avoid providing feedback and participate in answers and questions only.
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Researches were conducted with the goal to find the one effective style of leadership from the above mentioned three forms. Eventually, it provided the below outcomes.
- Laissez-faire style of leadership was termed as ineffective.
- There were a few various outcomes when performing a comparison of the autocratic style to the democratic one.
- Finally, the satisfaction levels seemed higher in the groups that were led democratically.
Ohio State Studies – Behavioral Leadership Model
In order to measure the behavior of leaders and to assemble them with respect to group satisfaction and performance, a questionnaire was developed by the Researchers at Ohio State University. In the overall research, two specific behaviors were found and observed to be particularly important.
Initiating Structure It is a degree where the leader defines own and the roles of associates and subordinates in order to achieve departmental goals.
Consideration It is a degree where the leader creates mutual trust with associates and subordinates and appreciates their various ideas and eventually shows off respect for their feelings.
Mostly, those leaders who obtain these two variables and are high in initiating structure and consideration are known to be strong and the most effective. Later on, additional research affirmed that such generalization was extra simplistic. The Ohio State Studies are in contrast with two studies that are Iowa and Michigan.
Michigan Studies – Behavioral Leadership Model
As per Michigan Studies, the leadership was compared with a specific set of groups that were already marked as ineffective or effective. A continuum was proposed featuring an employee-oriented approach to the job-oriented. According to the results of this study, the possible outcome was mixed, but generally those individuals with job-oriented leaders seemed more productive and efficient. Further specifications for both approaches, such as job-oriented and employee-oriented, are as follows.
Job Oriented It is also known as Job Centered or Production Centered approach. In this approach, leaders split the work and assign it among a unit of workers as per routine tasks, elaborate work methods and deeply analyze and supervise the work in order to make sure that the given instructions and work methods are being followed.
Employee-Oriented In the Employee-Centered or Employee-Oriented approach, the leaders build a close relationship with subordinates and understand their problems with the aim to grow the work effectiveness by achieving high-performance goals.
The Mount-Blake Managerial Grid
In the Mount Blake Managerial Grid, there are two variables using the axis, such as concern for production and concern for people. By using a factor known as training, the grid enables it for the leaders to understand and feel their responsibilities and various styles. Besides, the manager’s choice in concern for people and concern for production seems an imaginary idea.
Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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