ACCA SBL Syllabus A. Leadership - Behavioural Theory - Notes ^{4 / 10}

As the early researchers ran out of steam in their search for traits, they turned to what leaders did - how they behaved (especially towards followers).

This became very popular in organisations in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Different patterns of behaviour were grouped together and labelled as styles.

This became a very popular activity within management training – perhaps the best known being Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid (1964; 1978).

The four main styles that appear are:

1. Concern for task: 

   Here leaders emphasise the achievement of concrete objectives. 

   They look for high levels of productivity, and ways to organise people and activities in order to meet those objectives.

2. Concern for people:

    In this style, leaders look upon their followers as people - their needs, interests, problems, development and so on. 

   They are not simply units of production or means to an end.

3. Directive leadership: 

   This style is characterised by leaders taking decisions for others - and expecting followers or subordinates to follow instructions.

4. Participative leadership: 

   Here leaders try to share decision-making with others.(Wright 1996: 36-7)

Often concern for task is set against concern for people; and directive is contrasted with participative leadership.

If you have been on a teamwork or leadership development course then it is likely you will have come across some variant of this in an exercise or discussion.

Many of the early writers that looked to participative and people-centred leadership, argued that it brought about greater satisfaction amongst followers (subordinates).

Problems with Behavioural Theory

No 1 style is best

However, as Sadler (1997) reports, when researchers really got to work on this it didn’t seem to stand up. There were lots of differences and inconsistencies between studies. It was difficult to say style of leadership was significant in enabling one group to work better than another.

Different styles suit different situations

Perhaps the main problem, though, was one shared with those who looked for traits (Wright 1996: 47). The researchers did not look properly at the context or setting in which the style was used. Is it possible that the same style would work as well in a gang or group of friends, and in a hospital emergency room?

The styles that leaders can adopt are far more affected by those they are working with, and the environment they are operating within, than had been originally thought.