Leadership Styles: Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton

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The managerial grid
A particular approach to the idea of leadership style is provided by ROBERT R. Blake and JANE S. Mouton. Blake and mouton managerial grid will be showed in the figure below reflect a theme that is common in many approach to leadership. That theme is that effective leadership requires attention to both task and people. We saw the theme in the Ohio state leader behavior dimensions of initiating structure and considerations. Likert also develops this theme in his theme research when he discusses job centered and employees centered supervision.
The 9.9 style represents the best of both world’s high concern for people and high concern for production. It is not always the best style, however, because the particular leader follower situation interaction may require something less than 9.9 styles.

THE LEADERSHIP STYLE
Autocratic Democratic Laissez-faire
1.All determination of policy by the leader. 1.all policies a matter of group discussion and decision, encouraged and assisted by the leader. 1. complete freedom for group or individual decision, with a minimum of leader participation.
2. Techniques and activity steps dictated by authority, one at a time, so the future steps were always uncertain to a large degree. 2. activity perspective gained during discussion period. General steps to group goal sketched, and where technical advice is needed, the leader suggests two or more alternative procedures from which choice can be made. 2.various materials supplied by the leader who makes it clear that he or she would supply information when asked. Takes little part in work discussion.
3. The leader usually dictates the particular work task and work companion of each member. 3.The members are free to work whomever they c...

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...ers. He found that “supervisors with the best records of performance focus on their primary attention on the human aspects of their subordinate’s problems and on endeavoring to build effective work groups with high performance goals.”
These supervisors were called “employee-centered.” Other supervisors who kept constant pressure on production were called “job-centered” and were found more often to have low producing sections.
Likert also discovered that high producing supervisors “make clear to their subordinates what the objectives are and what needs to be accomplished and then give them freedom to do the job.” Thus, he found that general rather than close supervision tended to be associated with high productivity.
The implication throughout Likert’s writings is that the ideal and most productive leader behavior for industry is employee-centered or democratic.

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