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Identifying Leader Behaviors

A number of researchers have focused
on the intriguing prospect that it may be
specific behaviors that make some
leaders more effective than others.
Whereas many inherent trades may be
difficult to change, it might be possible to
learn universally effective behaviors- if
they could be identified-and became
successful leaders.
Now we are going to highlight some major efforts by
researchers at identifying
Important leader behaviors this research
grew largely out of work at the
University of Lowa ,
the university of Michigan and Ohio state university.

University of Lowa researcher kurt lewin and colleagues
conducted some
of the earliest attempts
At scientifically identifying the leader behavior that are
most effective.
They concentrated on three
Leader behavior , or styles autocratic, democratic and
laisez-faire
Lowa and Michigan studies
Autocratic : Behavioral style of leaders who tend to make
unilateral decisions dictate work methods, limit workers,
knowledge about goals to just the next step to be performed,
and sometime give feedback that is punitive.

Democratic :Behavioral style who tend to involve the group
and decision making , let the group determine work methods ,
make overall goals known, and use feedback as an opportunity
for helpful coaching .

Laissez-faire: Behavioral style of leaders who generally give
the group complete freedom, provide necessary material,
participate only to answer questions , and avoid giving
feedback.
To determine which leadership style is more effective,
the low later on researcher found that on every criteria
in the study, group with laissez-faire leaders under
performed comparison with both the autocratic and
democratic groups. on the other hand while quantity of
work was equal in the groups with autocratic and
democratic leaders , work quality and group
satisfaction was unique in the democratic groups..!
According to Tannenbaum and Schmidt, managers in
deciding which leader pattern to adopt, need to consider
forces within themselves (such as comfort level with the
various alternative) within subordinates ( such as readiness
to assume responsibility), and within the situation ( such as
time pressures) in the short run managers need to exercise
some flexibility in their in their leader behavior depending
on the situation. The researchers advised that in the long
run managers should attempt to move towards to
subordinates-centered end of the continuum, on the
premise that such leader behavior as a higher potential for
increasing employee motivation, decision quality, team
work, morale , and employee development
Further work on leadership at the University of Michigan
seemed to confirm the usefulness of an employee-
centered approach when compared with a more job-
centered, on production-centered approach. With the
employee-centered approach, leaders focused on
building effective work groups dedicated to high
performance goals. With the job-centered approach,
leaders divided the work into routine tasks and closely
supervised workers to ensure that the prescribed
methods were followed and that productivity standards
were met.

Ohio state studies: A group of researcher at Ohio
state university developed another strategy for studying
leadership, researcher isolated a number of different
leaders behavior from which two stood out as particularly
important

1: Initiation structure

2: Consideration