Why style approach of leadership helps you understand your boss?

    The style approach highlights the conduct, manners, actions and performance (e.g., behavior) of the leader (Northouse, 2007). It demonstrates how leaders bring both task behaviors (e.g., goal accomplishment) and relationship behaviors (e.g., affiliation, bond, and team-building tendency) together to inspire or affect employees in their attempts to complete tasks or achieve goals. In this case, the leader that I am going to study is one of my former marketing managers, Johnny Brown, in a regional and mid-size equipment company.

        As a division manager and leader, Johnny acted determined, made priorities clear, and was a people person and very open-minded (e.g., at least he hired me as his marketing executive in his business team to open new market areas even I did not have much marketing experience at the time). He often put his new employees and co-workers first and helped them to achieve the goals, and highest commissions or rewards. He built commitment and confidence, followed through, and promoted good working relationship, and stimulated participation, especially to those new staffs and new team members (e.g., great human skills). He was a good team manager and leader.    

       Using the Leadership Grid (e.g., leadership behaviors of task and relationship), Northouse (2007) claims, “The 9,9 style (team management) places a strong emphasis on both tasks and interpersonal relationship. It promotes a high degree of participation and teamwork in the organization and satisfies a basic need in employee to be involved and committed to their work” (p.75). In the first phase, Johnny set up different teams in the division to look after various businesses (e.g., interdependence via a common objective). He recognized and empowered each of his team members. As he built relationships of trust and respect with his staffs, most of the employees enjoyed working with him very much, and the division was the best earnings with lowest employee turnover rate in the whole organization. He emphasized business plans, goals and production, and often stated: No plan, and no gain.

     After teams were building up (e.g., good conceptual skills with vision and ideas) and members understood the common objectives and goals of their teamwork, Johnny would slow down a bit and take his management work easy. In this phase, Johnny acted almost like country club management (1,9) style with a great degree toward interpersonal relationships (e.g., ensuring employees’ personal and social needs are met, and promoting a happy, friendly company atmosphere with great organizational culture, positive climate, and business ethics) and a low concern for task achievement. He did not demand or push for high production.

     Once everything was settled after a long time, Johnny became act more like middle-of-the road management (5,5) in the Leadership Grid, he had less aggressive concern for the task and employees as well than years ago. As Northouse (2007) analyzed the leaders in the 5,5 style, “They find a balance between taking people into account and still emphasizing the work requirements. Their compromising style gives up some of the push for production and some of the attention to employee needs… The 5,5 leader avoids conflict and emphasizes moderate levels of production and interpersonal relationships” (p.75). This was why at last, before Johnny retired from the firm and just as markets and organizational strategies were changing, our CEO hired a new assistant manager and advocated more production and better human resource management in the division.

    Style approach is a useful way to understand the behaviors of leaders and it “reminds leaders that their impact on others occurs through the tasks they perform as well as in the relationships they create [--kind of action and reaction, so that leaders must take their responsibilities]” (p.78). Under Johnny’s leadership, he offered structure for employees, and he fostered and encouraged them to achieve the common goal. However, when he was oriented toward production, he was less oriented toward employees (except for the initial stage of team-building), and when he was employee oriented he was less production oriented (Northouse, 2007). In order to achieve the highest returns or goals, and to be an effective leader in a changing environments and marketplaces, Johnny should balance the levels of concerns in task and relationship as much as he could. After all, increasing cost effective and efficient, improving the value of stakeholders and advancing customer services and management excellence are the main goals of organizational leadership.

 In all, in the first phase of leadership, Johnny was in the 9,9 style (team management) of Leadership Grid, and he placed a strong emphasis on both tasks and interpersonal relationship. He was an excellent team leader. In the second phase of his leadership, he was in the 1,9 style and highlighted interpersonal relationship with employees and low concern production. In the last stage of his leadership, he was in the 5,5 style, and stressed moderate levels of production and interpersonal affiliations to avoid divergence and tension. Last but not least, the style approach is a useful way to comprehend and a tool of evaluating the behaviors of leaders, and it is very significant in the study of leadership.

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2007). Leadership (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
       Publications Inc.