Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Style
Style Approach
Approach

Leadership
Theory and Practice, 3/e
Peter G. Northouse, Ph.D.

1
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Overview
Overview
• Style Approach Perspective
– Ohio State Studies
– University of Michigan Studies
• Blake & Mouton’s Leadership Grid
• How Does the Style Approach Work?

2
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Style
Style Approach
Approach Description
Description
Perspective Definition

• Leader-focused • Comprised of Two Kinds

of Behaviors
perspective – Task behaviors
• Emphasis on • Facilitate goal accomplishment
– Relationship behaviors
what leaders do • Help subordinates feel
comfortable with themselves,
and how they act each other, and the situation

3
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Ohio
Ohio State
State Studies
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

• LBDQ-XII (Stogdill, 1963)

– Most widely used leadership assessment instrument
– Results - Two distinct, independent behaviors conceptualized along separate continua
• Leaders provide structure for subordinates (initiating structure)
• Leaders nurture subordinates (consideration)

4
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

University
University of
of Michigan
Michigan Studies
Studies
• Exploring leadership behavior
– Specific emphasis on impact of leadership behavior on performance of small groups
• Results - Two types of leadership behaviors conceptualized along a single
continuum
– Employee orientation
• Strong human relations emphasis
– Production orientation
• Stresses the technical aspects of a job
– Later studies reconceptualized as two independent leadership orientations

5
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Blake
Blake &
& Mouton’s
Mouton’s
Leadership
Leadership Grid
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)
– Opportunism
– Paternalism/Maternalism (1, 9; 9,1)
6
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Historical
Historical Perspective
Perspective
Blake
Blake &
& Mouton
Mouton Leadership
Leadership Grid
Grid
Development Purpose
• Developed in early • Designed to explain how leaders help
1960s organizations to reach their purposes
– Two factors
• Used extensively in
• Concern for production
organizational training – How a leader is concerned with
& development achieving organizational tasks
• Concern for people
– How a leader attends to the
members of the organization who
are trying to achieve its goals

7
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

The
The Leadership
Leadership Grid
Grid ®
®

High
9 1, 9 9, 9
8 Country Club Management Team Management
Concern for People

7
6
5 5, 5
4 Middle-of-the-Road

3
2 Impoverished Management Authority-Compliance Mgmt

1 1, 1 9, 1
Low
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Low High
Concern for Results 8
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Authority-Compliance
Authority-Compliance (9,1)
(9,1)
Definition Role Focus
• Efficiency in operations • More emphasis on task and
results from arranging job requirements and less
conditions of work such emphasis on people
that human interference • Communicating with
is minimal subordinates outside task
instructions not emphasized
• Results driven; People
regarded as tools to that end

9
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Country
Country Club
Club (1,9)
(1,9)
Definition Role Focus
• Thoughtful attention to • Low concern for task
the needs of people accomplishment coupled with
leads to a comfortable, high concern for interpersonal
friendly organization relationships
atmosphere and work • De-emphasizes production;
tempo leaders stress the attitudes and
feelings of people
• Positive climate fostered by
being agreeable, eager to help,
comforting, noncontroversial

10
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Impoverished
Impoverished (1,1)
(1,1)
Definition Role Focus
• Minimal effort exerted • Leader unconcerned with both
to get work done is task and interpersonal
appropriate to sustain relationships
organizational • Going through the motions, but
membership uninvolved and withdrawn
• Have little contact with
followers and are described as
indifferent, noncommittal,
resigned, and apathetic

11
Chapter 4 -Style Approach
Middle-of-the-Road
Middle-of-the-Road (5,5)
(5,5)
Definition
• Adequate organizational
performance possible through
balancing the necessity of
getting work done while
maintaining satisfactory
morale
Role Focus
• Leaders who are compromisers;
have intermediate concern for task
and people
• To achieve equilibrium, leader
avoids conflict while emphasizing
moderate levels of production and
interpersonal relationships
• Described as expedient; prefers
the middle ground, soft-pedals
disagreement
12
Chapter 4 -Style Approach
Team
Team (9,9)
(9,9)
Definition
• Work accomplished through
committed people;
interdependence via a “common
stake” in the organization’s
purpose, which leads to
relationships of trust and respect
Role Focus
• Strong emphasis on both tasks
and interpersonal
relationships
• Promotes high degree of
participation and teamwork
• Leader stimulates
participation, acts
determined, makes priorities
clear, follows through, etc.
13
Chapter 4 -Style Approach
Hybrids
Hybrids
Opportunism
Opportunism
Definition Role Focus
• People adapt and shift • Performance occurs according
to any grid style needed to a system of selfish gain
to gain maximum • Leader uses any combination of
advantage the basic five styles for the
purpose of personal
advancement
• Leader usually has a dominant
grid style and a backup style
that is reverted to under
pressure

14
Chapter 4 -Style Approach
Hybrids
Hybrids
Paternalism/Maternalism
Paternalism/Maternalism
Definition Role Focus
• Reward and approval • Leaders who use both 1,9 and
are bestowed on people 9,1 without integrating the two
in return for loyalty and • The benevolent dictator; acts
obedience; failure to gracious for purpose of goal
comply leads to accomplishment
punishment • Treats people as though they
were disassociated from the
task

15
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

How
How Does
Does the
the
Style
Style Approach
Approach
Work?
Work?
• Focus of Style Approach
• Strengths
• Criticisms
• Application

16
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Style
Style Approach
Approach
Focus Overall Scope

• Primarily a framework for • Offers a means of

assessing leadership in a
broad way as behavior
generally assessing the
with a task and behaviors of leaders
relationship dimension

17
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Strengths
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
• Based on style approach, leaders can assess their actions and determine
how to change to improve their leadership style

18
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Criticisms
Criticisms
• Research has not adequately demonstrated how leaders’
styles are associated with performance outcomes
• No universal style of leadership that could be effective
in most situations
• Implies that the most effective leadership style is High-
High style (i.e., high task/high relationship); research
finding support is limited

19
Chapter 4 -Style Approach

Application
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.

20