behavioral approach

Question 1

Behavioral Approach

Answer 1

Focuses exclusively on what leaders do and how they act composed of two general types of behaviors
• Task behavior (facilitate goal accomplishment)
• Relationship behavior (help subordinates feel comfortable)

Question 2

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN STUDIES

Central purpose of this leadership approach is to explain

Answer 2

• How leaders combine the two kinds of behaviors (task/people)
• To Influence followers in their efforts
• To Reach a given goal

Question 3

THEORY X AND THEORY Y (DOUGLAS MCGREGOR)

Answer 3

Explained how managers’ beliefs about what motivates their people can affect their leadership style

• Authoritarian (Theory X): e.g. people dislike work, have little ambition and are unwilling to take
responsibility

• Participative (Theory Y): e.g. people are self-motivated and enjoy the challenge of work, more decentralized

Question 4

LEADERSHIP GRID MODEL: 5 MAJOR LEADING STYLES (BLAKE & MOUTON)

Answer 4

Two factors of leadership orientation that explain how leaders help organizations to reach their purposes
• Concern for people: describes how a leader attends to the people in an organization
• Concern for production: describes how a leader is concerned with achieving organizational
tasks

Question 5

Middle of the Road Management (5,5)

Answer 5

• Leader: expedient, prefers middle ground, balanced
• Maintains the equilibrium to receive an outcome
• Avoiding conflicts: outbalances personal needs/ work productivity

Question 6

Team Management (9,9)

Answer 6

• Participative leadership: Leader makes priorities clear and acts with determination
• Gets issues into the open
• Enjoys work
• Succeeds through follower’s commitment ->
consulting between leader and followers
• Seek intrinsic motivation -> develops trust and
respect

Question 7

Country Club Management (1,9)

Answer 7

• Leader: agreeable, eager to help, comforting, uncontroversial
• Producing an atmosphere (family feeling) -> not about results but service • e.g. sailing clubs, boat clubs

Question 8

Impoverished Management (1,1)

Answer 8

• Leader: uninvolved, withdrawn, indifferent, resigned, apathetic
• Little contact with followers, not looking for commitment
• e.g. external investors, big firm not caring about smaller subsidiaries

Question 9

Authority Compliance (9,1)

Answer 9

• Leader: controlling, demanding, hard driving • Result-driven style
• Sees follower as a tool to get job done
• e.g. Factories in Bangladesh

Question 10

Additional Behaviors

Answer 10

Paternalism/Maternalism:
• 1.9 + 9.1 uses both, but does not integrate the two styles organization is like a family - rewarding loyalty and punishing noncompliance
Opportunism:
• Using any combination of the basic 5 styles for the purpose of personal advancement (self- interest goes first)
• Can be part of toxic leadership

Question 11

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES OF THE BEHAVIORAL APPROACH

Answer 11

Pro

1. Adds leaders’ behavior to traits and skills
2. Contribution to our understanding of the leadership process
3. Idea of differentiating between task and relationship process

Contra
1.No universal style identified that could be effective in almost every situation

2. Only limited support for the notion that „high-high style“ is most effective
3. Most research come from U.S.-centric perspective (reflecting the norms and values of U.S. culture)