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Behavioural Theories.
For over 20 years, a major thrust in leadership research has focused on the various behavioural patterns or styles used by different leaders and the functions fulfilled by these individuals. This research examined the impact that leadership behaviour had on the performance and satisfaction of followers. From these studies, two dimensions of leadership behaviour emerged.
Consideration: Consideration, also known as employee-centred behaviour, refers to leadership behaviour that is aimed at meeting the social and emotional needs of individuals and group members.
Initiating structure: Initiating structure, also known as job-oriented behaviour, refers to leadership behaviour that is aimed at careful supervision of employee work methods and performance levels.
Some research indicates that those leaders that were high in consideration would be more effective than those who were high in initiating structure, particularly in regard to maintaining employee satisfaction and performance and reducing turnover and absenteeism. Subsequent research argued that being high in both dimensions was necessary for effective leadership. .
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). They moved from leaders to leadership - and this became the dominant way of approaching leadership within organizations 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). Various schemes appeared, designed to diagnose and develop people's style of working. Despite different names, the basic ideas were very similar. The four main styles that appear are:.
Concern for task / production. Here leaders emphasize the achievement of concrete objectives.