Leadership Behavioral Approaches

Leadership Behaviors

• Leadership encompasses two main types of behaviors: task behaviors and relationship behaviors.
• Task behaviors aim to facilitate goal achievement by helping group members reach their objectives.
• Relationship behaviors focus on fostering comfort among followers, enhancing their self-feeling, connections with each other, and situational comfort.

Behavioral Approach

• The behavioral approach seeks to elucidate how leaders blend task and relationship behaviors to influence followers towards goal attainment.

Key Studies in Behavioral Leadership

• Notable foundational research on the behavioral approach originated from the Ohio State University studies during the 1940s.
• Blake and Mouton’s research in the 1960s examined how managers applied task and relationship behaviors within organizational contexts.

Ohio State University Studies

• The Ohio State studies assessed leader behaviors through a questionnaire completed by followers.
• The questionnaire included 150 questions that evaluated different aspects of leadership.

Types of Leader Behaviors

• Analysis of the questionnaire responses revealed two core leader behavior types: initiating structure and consideration.

• Initiating structure behaviors:

  • Primarily aligned with task behaviors.
  • Involve organizing work, creating structure, and defining roles and responsibilities.

• Consideration behaviors:

  • Focus on relationship dynamics.
  • Include building camaraderie, trust, and respect between leaders and followers.

LBDQ-XII and Core Behaviors

• The two behaviors identified by the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ-XII) are fundamental to the behavioral approach and define key leadership functions.

Michigan Studies

• Research at the University of Michigan categorized leadership behaviors into two frameworks: employee orientation and production orientation.

• Employee orientation:

  • Emphasizes strong human relations and is akin to the consideration behaviors identified in Ohio State studies.

• Production orientation:

  • Focuses on the task-related and technical aspects of work.
  • Corresponds to the initiating structure behaviors recognized in the Ohio State findings.

Comprehensive Research Efforts

• Extensive research by both Ohio State and Michigan universities aimed to identify optimal combinations of task and relationship behaviors.
• The goal was to enhance leader effectiveness, ultimately improving follower satisfaction and performance.