Leadership styles

Leadership research at major universities, such as the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focused on defining just what it was the leaders did while interacting with others in task situations. It appeared that there were two distinguishable types of behaviour, one type was essentially task-centered and the other was people-centered.

In groups that were observed performing tasks, it appeared that some person or persons provided focus and emphasis upon getting the work done. It also appeared that they helped maintain social/emotional conditions for the group so that they could be a group and work together. There were thus two leadership functions: task performance and group maintenance. Sometimes the same leader contributed to both functions. Sometimes the functions were accomplished by different persons.

The kinds of activities that highly task-centered leaders perform are: assigning tasks to the group, explaining the work procedures to follow, emphasizing the need to meet deadlines, stressing beating the competition or past performance, and letting everyone know just what is expected. The essence of this leader’s style is overriding concern with the task and its accomplishment. The task-centered style has been described as a style that stresses initiating structure, as showing concern for production, as being production-centered or task-oriented. Other labels that have been applied to variations on the basic style are autocratic, restrictive, directive, and socially distant.

Research findings on the effects of task-centered leadership on productivity, satisfaction, and group cohesiveness can be summarized as follows:

• more often than not, task-centered leadership correlates positively with productivity. Particular kinds of task-centered leadership - socially distant, directive, and structuring behavior - tend to be associated with productivity. But other task-centered styles - specifically autocratic and restrictive behaviour - tend to be inconsistently related or unrelated to productivity.

• task-centered leadership tends to depress satisfaction and cohesiveness. There is an important exception, however. Structuring the subordinates’ task, in the sense of letting them know what is expected of them, tends to increase their satisfaction and cohesiveness.

The kinds of functions that highly people-centered leaders perform are: listening to group members, being friendly and approachable, helping subordinates with personal problems, and standing up for group members. The essence of this leader’s style is sensitivity to subordinates as persons. The people-centered style has been described as a style that stresses consideration, shows concern for people, is relation-centered, employee-centered, or people-oriented. Other labels that have been applied to variations on the basic style are democratic, participative, and permissive.

Research findings on the effects of people-centered leadership on productivity, satisfaction, and group cohesiveness can be summarized as follows:

• people-centered leadership is not consistently related to productivity. There is no assurance that group productivity can be increased by the leader’s being more people-centered.

• people-centered leadership does tend to enhance employee satisfaction; it also tends to enhance group cohesiveness.