Behavior Approach to Leadership

BEHAVIORAL APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP

Marquis Grissom

May 24, 2011

LDR/531 – ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Abstract

The behavioral leadership approach is and has been used in research for finding out what managers actually do at work. The approach is put into two subcategories that cover patterns and surveying. There are positives and negatives associated with this approach which will be discussed in this document.

Behavioral Leadership

Erecting in the 1950’s, the behavioral approach focused on what managers actually do while at work. While some individuals appear to have an innate, almost effortless to lead teams, most managers benefit from systematic efforts to assess and improve their performance in this criteria area (Hobson, 2010). There are two ways of achieving this research through patterns displayed by the manager while on the job and identifying leadership behavior though survey field study with a behavior description questionnaire.

Strengths and Weakness

Having a behavior approach to leadership will allow the observer to see what that manager encounters on a day-to-day basis. This gives the observer a better gage about that manager’s ability to cope with demands, constraints, and role conflicts in their job. Research on small group interaction and leadership behavior in teams is used to identify a set of tasks, social and dysfunctional behavior roles that are critical to team leader success (Hobson, 2010). The majority of research on managerial labor is very descriptive on methods used to collecting data such as diaries, direct observation, job description questionnaires, and anecdotes obtained from interviews. This research provides useful insights to the subject of effective leadership.

In the past 50 years, hundreds of survey studies examined the correlation between leadership behavior and various indicators of leadership effectiveness (Yukl, 2010). The problem is questionnaires are not nearly 100% right....