Page 286 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 13: Communication and Leadership

These two kinds of behaviour were viewed as independent, meaning a particular Notes
leader can score high in use of one type of behaviour, the other, or both. Leaders
who scored high on IS generally led high-producing groups and were rated highly
by their superiors. However, the subordinates of those leaders tended to have lower
morale, higher grievance rates, and higher turnover. Leaders high on C, on the
other hand, generally led groups with higher morale but lower productivity. Thus,
each of the specific leader behaviours had positive and negative outcomes associated
with them. The extension of these findings by some later theorists led to the conclusion
that leaders high on both LS an C would simultaneously satisfy their superiors (by
achieving high performance) and their subordinated (by improving their morale).
(b) University of Michigan Studies: Under Rensis Likert, researchers at the University of
Michigan conducted extensive interviews with managers and the employees who
reported to them. After studying numerous industrial situations, the researchers
concluded that two leadership styles – employee-centered and production or task-
centered – influenced employee performance and satisfaction.

(i) Task-Centered Leader Behaviour: An effort to lead employees by focusing on
work and how well employees performs. The task-centered leader pays close
attention to employees' work, explains work procedures, and is deeply
interested in performance.
(ii) Employee-centered Leader Behaviour: An effort to lead employees by
developing a cohesive work group and ensuring employee satisfaction. The
employee-centered leader emphasizes employees' well being rather than the
tasks they perform.
The researchers defined these behaviours as mutually exclusive; a leader tends to use one
or the other. The Michigan studies showed that employee-centered leaders supervised
groups with higher morale and productivity, while production-centered leaders supervised
groups with lower productivity and morale. These findings led to the belief that the
employee-centered leadership style was superior to the production-centered leadership
style.
3. Contingency Theory of Leadership: Fiedler's contingency model is one of the most serious
and elaborate situational theories in leadership literature. Fiedler is probably the first
researcher who recognised the need for a broader explanation of leadership phenomena
anchored on situational variables.

Fiedler's model is called a 'contingency' model because the leader's effectiveness is partially
contingent upon three major situational variables.
(a) Leader-member relations: It refers to the degree of confidence, trust and respect followers
have in the leader. It indicates the degree to which group members like the leader
and are willing to accept the leader's behaviour, as an influence on them. If followers
are willing to follow because of charisma, expertise, competence or mutual respect,
the leader has little need to depend on task structure or position power. If, on the
other hand, the leader is not trusted and is viewed negatively by followers, the
situation is considered less favourable.

(b) Task structure: It measures the extent to which the task performed by subordinates is
routine or non-routine. Task structure refers to the degree to which the task
requirements are clearly defined, (clarity of goals) the correctness of a decision can
be easily verified (verifiability of decisions made) and there are alternative solutions
to task problems (multiplicity of options to solve problems). In other words, task
structure refers to how routine and predictable the work group's task is.

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