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Section III - Leadership Behavior Concepts
Activity #1
Relevant Reading:
- Autocratic vs. Democratic Leadership
Leadership Styles: Assume you are the leader/manager of a work group while answering the questions contained in the following survey.
Leadership Style
When completed, refer to the above reading to identify the research outcomes associated with the three leadership styles in the study and in this assessment.
This is a good tie-in to the article. Students should compare their styles with
the outcomes of the study. An interesting discussion topic is how the students feel about the external validity of the findings of the study given the nature of the participants, the setting and the
"work".
Activity #2
Relevant Readings:
- Conceptual Contributions of the Ohio State Leadership Studies
- The Managerial Grid
- Several readings in Section IV
Leadership Behaviors
Combinations of high and low initiating structure and consideration
lead to four different leadership styles; specifically low task, high relationships; high task, high relationships, low task, high relationships; low task, low relationships. Mean scores of 38 for initiating structure and 40 for consideration enable a rough estimate of scores interpreted as high or low for each dimension.
Treat this as an
"early" indicator of the students' levels of consideration and initiating structure. Ample opportunities to validate these scores will be coming up.
The predominant or most comfortable style can be obtained by identifying scores above or below the mean. For example, a student who scores 44 on consideration and 32 on initiating structure would have a primary style of High on consideration and Low on initiating structure.
Activity #5
I have found this simple exercise to be interesting and rich in implications and providing a stimulating basis for discussion. Simply put, and in my experience, about 90% of respondents score higher on Theory Y when they make their
"before test" prediction than they actually score on the test. Question them as to why they think this is so. It is useful to go back to the questionnaire items and examine responses to the questions used to assess Theory X. The same process can be followed for Theory
Y if their test score deviates significantly from the pre-test prediction. An excellent way to open up the issue of the relationship between attitudes and behavior.
Relevant Reading:
- Leadership and the Nature of Man
Before completing this assessment place an x on each of the two continua below to indicate the extent to which you believe each theory. For each, the lowest level of agreement is 12 and the highest level of agreement is 84.
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Theory X: |
12 |
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84 |
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Theory Y: |
12 |
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84 |
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21 |
30 |
39 |
48 |
57 |
66 |
75 |
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Theory X/Y Beliefs
Compare your score on the assessment with your "estimate" of your belief in each theory. Is there a difference? In what direction? What do you think might be the explanation of this?
Activity #7
First, students should compare their results here with the results of Activity #2.
Second, the Grid has been much maligned for being a normative as opposed to a contingency theory. But, contingency factors are clearly discussed in the passage. This can be an interesting discussion topic.
Third, the Grid is clearly an attitude model. An interesting discussion involves the debate as to whether attitude or behavioral models are equal in terms of their internal and external validity or whether one or the other is superior.
Relevant Reading:
Complete this assessment
Refer to the above reading for an interpretation of your results.
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