PPM Assignments – Sep 2019

Elaborate Any 2 Leadership Theories:

Theories of leadership
There are many theories that have attempted to explain the characteristics required by individuals to be
effective leaders. There are three important theories that have attempted to explain leadership –
personality trait theories, behavior theories and contingency theories.

I) Trait Theories:

Initial research into leadership concentrated on the traits of the leaders. It was believed that there was
something unique about the individual that enabled him to emerge as a leader. This theory emphasizes
that leaders are born and not made and that leadership is a function of inborn traits. Some of these
inborn traits are intelligence, understanding, perception, high motivation, socioeconomic status,
initiative, maturity, need for self actualization, self assurance and understanding of personal
interpersonal relations.

One trait theory is the “great person” theory of leadership. According to this theory, leadership traits
can be acquired with training and experience. They may not be inborn. However, the trait theory of
leadership has suffered from lack of conclusiveness and oversimplifications. As Eugene E. Jennings has
concluded, “fifty years of study have failed to produce one personality trait or a set of qualities that can
be used to discriminate leaders from non leaders”. The critics have charged that the theory focuses
attention only on the leader and disregards the dynamics of the leadership process. Also, the theory
ignores the situational characteristics which may result in the emergence of a leader. History is replete
with non trained, non academics Fords, Edison‘s and Carnegies who could not even claim a grammar
school education, yet managed to become leaders whose influence was felt around the globe.

II) Behavioral Theories:

Since the trait theories failed to establish the relationship between traits and effective leadership,
researchers turned their attention to the behavioral aspects of successful leaders. They attempted to
identify the behaviors that were unique to leaders, and which distinguished them from non-leaders.
Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not born. This
leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders not on mental qualities or internal states. According
to this theory, people can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation. There are three
important behavioral theories – the Ohio State studies, the University of Michigan Studies and the
Managerial Grid – that have sought to identify the specific behaviors exhibited by effective leaders. Let
us see details of one such, the Managerial grid.

The Managerial Grid:

The managerial grid model (1964) is a behavioral leadership model developed by Robert
R. Blake and Jane Mouton. This model originally identified five different leadership styles
based on the concern for people and the concern for production. The optimal leadership
style in this model is based on Theory Y.
Figure 1.2 The Managerial Gid:

The Managerial Grid is based on two behavioral dimensions:

 Concern for People– This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team
members, their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding how best to
accomplish a task.
Concern for Production– This is the degree to which a leader emphasizes concrete
objectives, organizational efficiency and high productivity when deciding how best to
accomplish a task.
The model consists of nine rows and columns. The rows represent the leader‘s concern
for production and the column represents concern for people. Blake and Mouton found
five intersection points in this model – 1,9; 1,1; 9,1; 5,5; 9,9.
1. Management Style 1,1 (impoverished management)
This management style has low concern for people and low concern for
tasks/production. In this situation manager‘s major emphasis is to stay out of trouble.
They exert minimum effort to get required job done and simply passed orders from
superiors. The organizations just survive.
2. Management Style 1,9 (country-club management)
This management style has high concern for employees but low concern for production. Here
peoples‘ needs are satisfied and a friendly atmosphere remains in the organizations. However
this situation does not help organizations to achieve desired goals.

3. Management Style 9,1 (task or authoritarian management)

This management style has high concern for production and efficiency but low concern for
employees. They may see personal needs for members as irrelevant or harmful to
organizational goals and use their authority to pressure their subordinate to meet high
production targets.
4. Management Style 5,5 (middle-of-the-road management)
This management style is having a moderate, intermediate amount of concern for both
production and employee satisfaction. But this too is not the most suitable one.
5. Management Style 9,9 (team or democratic management)
This management style has high concern for both production and employee morale and
satisfaction. Blake and Mouton believed that this style is the most effective management style. It
provides improved performance, low absenteeism and turnover, and high employee satisfaction.
9.9 managers try to develop combine, committed work groups for both high production and high
satisfaction.
One critic of the model is that it provides a framework for conceptualizing leadership styles but
fails to reveal any new facts or establish any new relationships which could clarify the conflicting
views on leadership.

III) Contingencies Theories

Contingency or situational theories of leadership propose that leaders have to change their style
depending on the situation they face. A leader should carefully analyze the nature of the
situation before deciding on the appropriate style of leadership to be adopted. Contingency
theories gained prominence in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Four of the more well-known contingency theories are Fiedler's contingency theory, path-goal
theory, the Vroom-Yetton decision-making model of leadership, and Hersey and Blanchard‘s
situational leadership theory. Let us see 2 of these in detail.

1. Fielder's Contingency Theory

One of the most well validated situational theories is Fielder‘s contingency model. Whilst Grid
theory advocates adopting a high relationship – high task approach in all situations, contingency
theory suggests that leaders should consider three contextual factors before deciding on the
best people-task mix to any situation.
 a. Leader-member relations – This indicates the extent to which a leader is accepted by
his subordinates. If a leader has friction with majority of his subordinates then he scores
low on this dimension.
b. Degree of task structure – This refers to the degree to which the task on hand can be
performed efficiently by following a particular method.
c. Leader’s positional power – It refers to the power, that the leader is bestowed within
the organization. For example if a leader has more power if he is in a position to decide
the rewards and incentives of his team.
The model has been shown to work best when situations are classified into one of three
categories:
1. Favorable
2. Moderately favorable
3. Unfavorable
A situation is considered favorable to the leader if the scores on all the three dimensions are
high. One of the major conclusions that can be drawn from this theory is that a particular
leadership style maybe more effective in one situation and the same style may be totally
ineffective in the other situation, and since a leadership style is more difficult to change, the
situation must be changed to suit the leadership style which can be done by enhancing
relationship with subordinates, by changing the task structure and getting more power.

2. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory

The life cycle theory of leadership has been developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard.
The model focuses on the ‗maturity‘ of the followers thus affecting the leadership style. The
‗maturity‘ of the subordinates can be defined as their ability to carry out a given task and
willingness to perform the task. If the manager gives appropriate guidance to an employee, he is
likely to develop the necessary job related abilities in a short time. However, all employees do
not have the same level of competence and commitment; therefore, leaders are required to
adopt various leadership styles:
i. Telling – If an employee is low in his ability and willingness to perform a task then the
manager must constantly give directions to the employee to perform his task.
ii. Selling – If an employee is low in ability but high in willingness then the leader apart from
giving directions has to give required support to perform that task.
iii. Participating – If an employee is capable of performing but is not willing to perform then the
leader should give fewer directions and more responsibilities and extend maximum support to
the employee.
iv. Delegating – If an employee is capable as well as willing to perform then the leader is not
required to give detailed instructions and extensive support to the employee.

The strength of this model lies in its simplicity and intuitive appeal. Also, the model emphasizes on an
individual‘s ability and willingness to do a task. This factor was mostly ignored by most of the
researchers. However, the model ignores certain factors like leader‘s attitude that is the reason it is not
widely accepted by most researchers.