The main idea of this theory is to identify the main styles, which focus on how decisions are taken by management as well as on how much people are involved in decision-making.
1. Exploitative authoritative: the leader shows little concern for his employees and often uses fear-based methods to maintain certain discipline and to ensure that the employees conform with decisions. Communication is one-way through the organization.
2. Benevolent authoritative: decision-making is centralized. The leader shows concern for his employees and uses rewards to motivate and encourage them. Even though there is two-way communication, staff often says what they think their manager wants to hear. The leader takes decisions on all major issues.
3. Consultative: the leader listens to the the views of his employees. Decision-making is done centrally. However, employees' opinions or ideas may be often ignored.
4. Participative: the leader makes full use of participating methods of decision-making. There tends to be closer working between employees across the organization.
Fiedler's Contingency Theory
This theory addresses a concept that shows the relationship between a leader's style and group performance under differing situations. Fiedler identified 2 broad types of leader orientations:
a) relationship-oriented
b) task-oriented
He divided leaders into these categories depending on their score on a sliding numerical scale-LPC (least preferred co-worker) For example: the leader is unfriendly (1); the leader is friendly (8). A high LPC score indicates a relationship-oriented leader, who is concerned wit personal relations while a low LPC score indicates a task-oriented leader, who is impatient and eager to get on with a job.
Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid
They proposed the notion of managerial grid that contains five management styles based on the leader's relative concerns for the employees or production.
They proposed the notion of managerial grid that contains five management styles based on the leader's relative concerns for the employees or production.
1. Country club leadership: the leader is concerned about the needs of the team.
2. Produce or perish leadership: the leader views employee needs as secondary to production targets and fear of punishment is considered to be the best way to motivate workers.
3. Middle of the road leadership: Neither people nor production needs are fully met, which makes a compromise. Thia style is used for average performance.
4. Impoverished leadership: this leader is the least effective. There is no concern for getting the job or for meeting the needs of the employees. The result is disorganization and dissatisfaction.
5. Team leadership: the pinnacle of leadership styles. Workers are involved in understanding organizational purpose and therefore are committed to the success of the organization.
Tannenbaum and Schmidt (A leadership continuum)
These two writers developed a continuum of control and decision-making, shared between a leader and followers.
a) the use of a leader's authority with little participation
These two writers developed a continuum of control and decision-making, shared between a leader and followers.
a) the use of a leader's authority with little participation
b) freedom for subordinates with limited input from the boss
The amount of control each party has depends on on the leader's assessment of the degree of responsibility that the followers are willing to take on. Tannenbaum and Schmidt argued that leaders can retrieve some control if an emergency situation arises for which the subordinates have no experience.
The amount of control each party has depends on on the leader's assessment of the degree of responsibility that the followers are willing to take on. Tannenbaum and Schmidt argued that leaders can retrieve some control if an emergency situation arises for which the subordinates have no experience.
