Behavioural Theories of Leadership

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Behavioural Theories of Leadership
Human behaviour is experienced throughout an individualā€™s entire lifetime. It includes the way they act based on different factors such as genetics, social norms, core faith, and attitude, for behavioural theorists, a leader behaviour is the best predictor of his leadership influences and as a result, is the best determinant of his or her leadership success. These theories concentrate on what leaders actually do rather than on their qualities. Different patterns of behaviour are observed and categorized as ‘styles of leadership’. anyone can be made a leader by teaching them the most appropriate behavioural response for any given situation, rather than seeking inborn traits this theory looks at what leaders actually do by studying their behaviours in response to different situations, assessing leadership success by studying their actions and then correlating significant behaviours with success

when it comes to the behavioural studies then there are two important Behavioural studies

1-Ohio State University Leadership Studies Series of studies on leadership was done by the Ohio State University in 1945 to identify observable behaviours of leaders instead of focusing on their individual traits, They found two critical characteristics of leadership either of which could be high or low or independent of one another. the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LDBQ). and the Supervisor Behaviour Description Questionnaire (SBDQ). Ultimately, these studies narrowed the description of leader behaviour into two dimensions: 1.Initiating Structure Behaviour: The behaviour of leaders who define the leader-subordinate role so that everyone knows what is expected, establish formal lines of communication, and determine how tasks will be performed. 2-Consideration Behaviour: The behaviour of leaders who are concerned for subordinates and attempt to establish a warm, friendly, and supportive climate. Initiating structure and consideration are two distinct initiating structure and consideration are two distinct dimensions and not mutually exclusive, a low score on one does not require a high score on the other. Michigan Leadership Studies (1950s). The Michigan leadership studies, along with the Ohio State University studies that took place in the 1940s, are two of the best-known behavioural leadership studies and continue to be cited to this day. The studies identified two broad leadership styles: an employee orientation and a production orientation. They also identified three critical characteristics of effective leaders: task-oriented behaviour, relationship-oriented behaviour, and participative leadership. The Michigan Leadership Studies identified the leadership styles that produced the highest employee satisfaction and productivity, categorized leadership styles as either employee orientation, which emphasizes human relations, or production orientation – which focuses on task-oriented activities, identified that employee orientation with general supervision produced more favourable results compared to production orientation and direct supervision.

Transactional Leadership Theories

The power of transactional leaders comes from their formal authority and responsibility in the organization,Ā  a transactional leader is someone who values order and structure, they are likely to command military operations, manage large corporations, or lead international projects that require rules and regulations to complete objectives on time or move people and supplies in an organized way, transactional leadership focuses on results, conforms to the existing structure of an organization and measures success according to that organizationā€™s system of rewards and penalties. penalties and reward motivate people may someone follow a religion because he or she want to go to the Paradise maybe someone else follow it because he or she afraid of the hell anyway both of them are following this religion and doing everything it asking, and this underpins transactional leadership theories. There must be a well-defined hierarchy, where everyone knows who the leader is and who is following, the subordinates need only to obey their leader, nothing more is required but why there is someone have to follow a dictatorial leader? when we think in a military leader there is a solder follow him because his safety needs or may the money that make him buy a food, then may this dictator leader is following another dictator leader is more powerful than him, so he following him because he is looking forward to be like him or best than him in some day, all this needs are explained by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as following. transactional leader takes advantage of these in presenting them as rewards to a following that does the leader’s bidding, Maslow stated that self-actualization was the highest value and that this would make a transactional-based leader’s job even easier, physical needs need to be satisfied first and foremost. To get to that point of self-actualization, people require more than just their basic needs satisfied. It is the anticipation of the reward that keeps a person obedient.

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