Behavioral Theories of Leadership

Behavioral-based studies focused on the relationship between leader behavior and employee reaction and task accomplishment.

Instead of focusing on what effective leaders are, behavioral researchers tried to find out what leaders actually do.

One of those studies was done at The Ohio State University.

After World War II, the study began to identify the major dimensions of leadership and to examine the effects of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction and performance.

A list of leadership behaviors developed in the study; such as instruction, communication, production emphasis, task assignment, evaluation, fraternization, consultation, fair treatment, and etc.

The study found that consideration and initiating structure as two major dimensions of leadership.

Consideration refers to leadership behavior that can be characterized by the respect, trust, supportiveness, and concern a leader has for employees.

Initiating structure refers to leadership behavior that defines and organizes group tasks, assigns the tasks to employees, and supervises their activities.

Almost at the same time a similar research group studied the leadership styles associated with high-performing and low-performing groups at the University of Michigan in US.

This research also identified two leadership styles that were similar to those used in OSU studies.

In the new study, they called the styles as production-centered and employee-centered.

The production-centered leader closely supervised employees to ensure that tasks are being performed according to specified procedures.

This type of leader uses formal authority to influence behavior and achieve performance.

The employee-centered leader uses general supervision, delegation, and supportiveness to supervise employees.

This type of leader shows concern for employee’s personal growth and task achievement.

Contingency Theory of Leadership

Fred Fielder argued that the leadership is a function of the leader’s characteristics and situational factors.

Effectiveness increases when these two factors are well matched.

There are basically two types of leadership; task-oriented and relationship-oriented.

According to this theory, leader-member relations refer to the degree to which leaders maintain good relations with subordinates who are willing to comply.

Task structure involves the degree to which the task is well defined and standardized, or ambiguous and vague.

Position power categorizes the formal power of the leader, which involves the extent to which the position enables the leader to gain compliance from subordinates.

The contingency theory predicts that task-oriented leaders will perform better in high and low control situations and that relationship-oriented leaders perform best in moderate-control situations.

It is highly possible that a task-oriented leader would match well in both highly structured and unstructured situations.

The leader is well suited for either maintaining or creating structure.

The value of contingency theory rests in its attention to the fact that leadership style and situations are not always compatible.

Although there are limitations in this theory, contingency theory helps explain why some leaders are good fit in some organizations but fit poorly into other organizations.

A leader could be successful in a small organization, but may not be as successful at bigger organization.

Path-Goal Theory of Leadership

Robert House developed the path-goal theory of leadership, which explains how and why certain leadership behaviors are more effective than others in various situations.

It also specifies situational conditions under which each style can be used effectively.

Path-goal theory holds that leaders can influence behavior by helping to clarify for employees the path to goal attainment.

The term path-goal is used because the theory focuses on how a leader influences employees’ perceptions of valence, instrumentality, and expectancy.

A manager can became a path-goal leader by matching rewards to employee needs, matching rewards to performance, and matching jobs to people.

Thus, path-goal theory views motivating employees to be the same as leading them.

Leadership behaviors can be directive, supportive, participative, or achievement-oriented.

For instance, directive leadership behavior clarifies performance expectations and helps employees or work groups see what must be accomplished, when it must be accomplished, and how it is to be accomplished.

Supportive leadership behavior focuses on the humanistic side and includes concern for subordinates as people and assisting them to satisfy their needs.

Supportive leaders are open, friendly, and approachable.

Participative leadership behavior includes consulting with employees and seriously considering their ideas before making decisions.

This helps empower employees and makes them actively involved in decision making.

Achievement-oriented leadership behavior emphasizes the idea of excellence and high standards in performance.

In this theory, there are also two contingency factors, which are personal factors and work environment factors.

Personal factors can be described as the perception of employees toward the leader or authority.

Work environment factor include tasks, the nature of the system of authority in the organization, and the primary work group.

The path-goal model helps us understand why different leadership behaviors are necessary depending on the nature of the work group and the organization.

Additional Ideas about Leadership

There is no consensus exists on predicting who will be a successful leader.

Leadership still contains some intangible elements.

There are some other theories that conceptualize leadership as a sense of mission, a capacity for power, and a will to survive and to persevere.

During the 1970s, a new wave of theories based on charisma emerged.

One such theory is transformational leadership.

In this model, charisma tends to give a leader power, as well

as high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem.

Transformational leaders use their charisma to lead, but recognize variations in skills and abilities, and encourage growth for subordinates.

These leaders have good interpersonal skills that are used to counsel and assist employees in a very personalized manner.

Transformational leaders are able to lead and inspire by stimulating subordinates, and they have the ability to make work, goals, and achievement an exciting process.

They have ability to change the organizational culture.

Research suggests that charismatic leaders seem to emerge during periods of crisis.

Charismatic leaders are able to attract followers who energetically help pursue the leader’s vision.

Theories of Motivation

Motivation is one of the most critical aspects of management.

Motivation is defined as trying to find the proper incentives that satisfy workers’ needs and cause them to work toward achieving organizational goals.

To be able to understand motivation, we need to understand human behavior.

It is believed that behavior is goal oriented.

It is generally directed to achieve some goal, whether it is a personal goal or a professional goal within an organizational context.

Individual behaviors are important in organizational context.

People join organizations for variety of reasons.

Most people depend on the organizations for their economic livelihood and to satisfy some of their social and psychological needs.

Organizations are composed of human and nonhuman components; individuals, groups, tasks, technology, and management control systems.

The question is in such a complex system, how can workers be motivated?

There are two components of behavior; motives and goals.

Knowing these, relating these two each individual worker in a work place will help the managers to motivate their employees.

For instance, an employee may want more money and a promotion to enhance prestige and a personal ego.

Content Theories of Motivation

Studying needs is important because it helps to explain the internal causes of behavior.

Needs are not full explanations of human behavior or motivation, but needs theory is important for managers to understand because in order to manage, direct, and coordinate human behavior in organizations, we need to be able to predict human behavior, at least to some degree.

Abraham Maslow (1907-1970) popularized hierarchy of needs theory.

Maslow believed that five types of needs exist that must be satisfied sequentially.

Physiological needs (the lowest level) are basic needs such as food, water, shelter, health, and like.

Safety and security needs ensure that one has a next meal, a place to live, and a sense of stability.

Social needs include companionship, affection, and friendship.

Self-esteem needs involve such things as recognition, status, and other rewards and achievements that satisfy one’s ego.

Self-actualization (the highest level) entails a higher level of growth and advancement both personally and professionally, and can involve internal growth.

Once a person has reached the highest level, the lower-level needs have been fulfilled; there is, then the freedom to strive for additional growth and satisfaction.

Lower-level needs are easier to satisfy than higher-order needs.

Higher-order needs are more important to managers than lower-level needs.

Frederick Herzberg offered a two-factor theory that examines hygiene factors and motivators.

Hygiene factors included pay, company policy and administration, working conditions, peer relationships, competency of one’s supervisor, benefits, and job security.

Motivators include achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, interesting work and pay.

“Pay” appears in both categories.

Modern management has come to believe that people are more motivated for intrinsic reasons than for extrinsic reasons.

For example, a highly motivated worker in a pharmaceutical firm may be working extremely hard because of a personal commitment to something associated with work (like finding cure for a disease that has affected a member of the worker’s family) and less because of the wages.

While organizations can offer extrinsic rewards, they can do little about intrinsic rewards other than trying to create an environment that is conductive for employees to fulfill this dimension of their needs.

There are different types of personalities in a given organization and the management’s job is to find ways to satisfy those different personalities in order to increase work productivity.

Process Theories of Motivation

Process theories are less concerned with the substantive things that motivate us to work and more concerned with the process and means by which we are motivated to act.

These theories are useful in that they have expanded our knowledge, but one point appears to be clear: there is no single magical formula for motivating workers.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a phenomenon found in all organizations.

Cultures vary greatly from one organization to the next, even if the organizations perform essentially the same functions.

Organizational culture can be thought of as the predominant value system of an organization.

Organizational culture has been described as a set of values, norms, rites rituals, ceremonies, ideologies, formal and informal rules, and even heroes in the history of an organization that shape the organization’s social and internal working environment.

It identifies those things that new employees need to learn to be accepted and to fit into the organization.

It includes the standards, expectations, and rules that all members are expected to willingly accept and follow.

It is also comprised of slogans, emblems, and symbols that represent the organization.

These help to provide an identity for the organization.

The content of an organization’s culture develops over time in response to adapting to its external environment and building internal coordinating system.

Over the time, a history develops along with traditions and patterns of behavior.

It is well established that an organization’s culture affects the behavior of its members.

Some organizations may have strong culture while others may have weak cultures.

Since management philosophies can change, so can organizational cultures.