Behavioural Leadership Case Study

focus on. In addition to the great man/ woman theory, the trait theory investigated the effects that specific traits had on the determination of the greatness of a leader, but much like the first theory, this is somewhat narrow and only focuses on one aspect of the person that can predict greatness and effectiveness as a leader.

Nonetheless, the 1940’s led to an increase in the research of the behavioural leadership theories which claim that all leaders possessed certain behavioural characteristics in common. Much of the research was done in the University of Michigan and Ohio State whereby self examination tests were given to participants to determine the relationship between the two variables. These researches then lead to discovery of 4 types of leadership behaviours:

• Initiating structure: “leader behaviours that define, organize, and structure the work situation” (Riggio, 2009, p.345)

• Consideration: these are the types of behaviours whereby the leaders “show a concern for the

For example, for a country club manager, the type of behaviour that would be effective supportive behaviour simply because it is worker focused and the well being of the workers are ensured as well as a good working relationship between the manager and the work group. Having said the above there are advantages and disadvantages to each of the behaviours although they are effective in organisational basis.

Similarly a development of a theory that “matches characteristics of a situation” (Riggio, 2009, p.356) in which a leader made their decisions highly impacted the success of the organisation. This good model is called the Decision- Making Model developed by Vroom and colleagues in 1973& 1988. Research that has been supportive of this model includes a study that was done to examine if work- related decisions made by managers were effective, this had statically significant results thus proving the efficiency of the