Leadership in Organizations
Perspectives on Effective Leaders Behavior
(Ch 3)
Presented by
K.C.TAI
During the past five decades, hundreds of
studies were conducted using methods to
investigate how leader behavior affects
subordinate satisfaction and performance.
Much of the research on leadership behavior
has followed the pattern set by the research at
Ohio State University and the University of
Michigan.
BEHAVIOR DESCRIPTION
QUESTIONNAIRES
1. The Ohio State Leadership Studies
(1) identify categories of leadership behavior:
Consideration & Initiating Structure
(2) develop questionnaires:
LBDQ: The Leader Behavior Description
Questionnaire
SBD: The Supervisory Behavior Description
LOQ: The Leader Opinion Questionnaire
LBDQ XII: The Leader Behavior Description
Questionnaire Form XII
(3) Results from the Survey Research
They found that increased consideration
or decreased initiating structure have no
effect on turnover or grievance rate.
These two categories are weak and inconsistent for
most criteria of leadership effectiveness.
Limitations of the questionnaires
(1)Response Bias: Response bias may attribute
desirable behavior to a leader who is perceived to
be effective, even though the behavior was not
actually observed.
(2)Ambiguous items: The use of ambiguous items that
can be interpreted in different ways by different
respondents
(3)Interpreting Causality in survey studies:
There is often more than one plausible
interpretation of causality, and more than one form
of causality may occur at the same time.
2. The Michigan Leadership Studies
focus on the identification of relationships among
leader behavior, group processes, and measures of
group performance.
(1) The studies found that three types of
leadership behavior differentiated between
effective and ineffective manager
a. Task- Oriented Behavior
b. Relations-Oriented Behavior
c. Participative Leadership
(2)Peer Leadership
a. Among the Michigan leadership studies,
Bowers and Seashore were the first
researchers to survey peer leadership.
b. Group effectiveness will depend more on
the overall quality of leadership in a work
unit than on who actually performs the
functions.
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON TASK
AND RELATIONS BEHAVIOR
1. This research demonstrated that causality
operates in both directions, from behavior to
outcomes and vice versa.
2. Limitations of laboratory experiments
(1)They are unrealistic, which makes it difficult
to generalize the findings to employee in
real organizations.
(2)Only a small number of organizations have
been used to investigate the effects of
leadership behavior.
CRITICAL INCIDENT RESEARCH
1. This method is based on the assumption that
respondents such as subordinates, peers, and
superiors can provide descriptions of effective
behavior for a particular type of manager.
2. Limitations of critical incident research:
(1) The respondents may be biased in their
perception of what is effective, and
report incidents that are consistent with
their stereotypes or implicit theories about
effective leaders.
(2). It is difficult to compare the categories
across studies with different types of leaders.
HIGH-HIGH LEADER RESEARCH
1. Blake and Mouton (1964) developed the managerial
grid theory: Effective managers have a high concern
for both people and production.
2. Misumi & Peterson (1985) developed PM
Leadership Theory: Effective leaders are high in both
performance behavior and maintenance behavior.
3. Most theorists generally agreed that both task and
relations behaviors are important for effective
leadership, they differed in their assumptions about
the way the two aspects of leadership behavior are
related.
LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR
TAXONOMIES
1.Taxonomies that differ in purpose can be expected to
have somewhat different constructs. Even with the
same purpose is the possibility that behavior
constructs can be formulated at different levels of
abstraction or generality.
2.Methods used to develop behavior taxonomies.
(1) Factor analysis---- by examining the pattern of
covariance among behavior items on a behavior
description questionnaire describing actual manager
(2) Judgmental classification---- by having judges
group behavior examples according to perceived
similarity in content or purpose
(3) Theoretical-deductive approach----by deduction
from theory
3. An integrating framework for classifying
behavior
Some recent research suggests a threedimensional taxonomy to group specific
behaviors into general categories. Effective
leaders must be flexible and adaptive in their
behavior as conditions change.
SPECIFIC TASK BEHAVIOR
Planning: deciding about objectives, priorities,
strategies, allocation of resources, assignment of
responsibilities, scheduling of activities
Clarifying: explaining job responsibilities,
explaining rules and procedures, setting specific
performance goals, and giving instructions in how
to do a task.
Monitoring: getting information needed to evaluate
the operations of the work unit and the performance
of individual subordinates.
SPECIFIC RELATIONS
BAHAVIOR
Supporting: A manager shows consideration,
acceptance, and concern for someone’s needs and
feelings.
Developing: To increase job-relevant skills and
facilitate a person’s job adjustment and career
advancement.
Recognizing: giving praise and showing
appreciation to others for effective performance,
significant achievements, and important
contributions to the organization.
Thank You !!!