CHAPTER 4
Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles
The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an understanding of basic leadership behavior
and attitudes, as well as styles. Some of the information goes back to classic studies conducted in the
1950s and 1960s, and some is recent. Several other topics are featured: servant leadership, how leaders
use 360-degree feedback to fine-tune their behaviors, entrepreneurial leadership styles, and gender
differences in leadership.
CHAPTER OUTLINE AND LECTURE NOTES
This chapter includes pioneering information about leadership behaviors and attitudes that served as the
basis for studies of leadership styles and contingency theories of leadership. A sampling of these styles
is presented as well as current information about behaviors, attitudes, and styles. An effective leader is
one who helps group members attain productivity, including high quality and customer satisfaction, as
well as job satisfaction. Leadership effectiveness is typically measured by both objective data and
subjective data in terms of judgments by others.
I. THE CLASSIC DIMENSIONS OF CONSIDERATION AND INITIATING STRUCTURE
The Ohio State studies developed questionnaires about leaders that included self-assessments and
assessments by subordinates. This research became the foundation for most of the future research
about leadership behavior, attitudes, and styles. Two dimensions (as identified by factor analysis)
accounted for 85 percent of the variance in descriptions of leadership behavior. Consideration is
the degree to which the leader creates an environment of emotional support, warmth, friendliness,
II. TASK-RELATED ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
Task-related means that the behavior, attitude, or skill focuses more on the task to be performed
than on the interpersonal aspects of leadership.
Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 31
2. Direction setting. The leader must set the direction of change. Direction setting is part
3. High performance standards. Effective leaders consistently hold group members to
4. Concentrating on the strengths of group members. Making good use of the strengths of
5. Risk taking and execution of plans. To bring about constructive change, the leader
6. Hands-on guidance and feedback. The leader who provides hands-on guidance helps
the group accomplish important tasks, and at the same time group members learn
7. Ability to ask tough questions. Many times leaders can be effective by asking tough
8. Organizing for collaboration. This behavior is on the borderline between a task
orientation and a relationship orientation. The task focus is that information sharing
takes place, whereas the relationship focus is that group members must work
collaboratively with each other. One task approach to enhance collaboration is to
select technologies that will improve or speed up existing workflows.
III. RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS
Leadership involves influencing people, so it follows that many effective leadership attitudes,
behaviors, and practices deal with interpersonal relationships.
1. Aligning people. Many people have to be aligned (a state of pulling together) to create
significant change toward a higher purpose. Alignment enables people to have a clear
2. Openness to worker opinion. Management openness is a set of leader behavior
3. Creating inspiration and visibility. Inspiring others is an essential leadership practice.
4. Satisfying higher-level needs. Motivation and inspiration energize people by satisfying
5. Giving emotional support and encouragement. Supportive behavior toward team
members usually increases leadership effectiveness. A supportive leader gives frequent
6. Promoting principles and values. A major part of a top leader’s role is to help promote
7. Being a servant leader. Wanting to serve others as a leader is a relationship behavior
that encompasses several other key behaviors. A servant leader serves constituents by
working on their behalf to help them achieve their goals, not the leader’s own goals. A
servant leader is a moral leader. Key aspects of servant leadership include the
following:
a. Place service before self-interest.
b. Listen first to express confidence in others.
c. Inspire trust by being trustworthy.
IV. 360-DEGREE FEEDBACK FOR FINE-TUNING A LEADERSHIP APPROACH
Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 33
Many leaders solicit systematic feedback to improve their leadership behavior and attitudes. 360–
degree feedback is a formal evaluation of superiors based on input from people who work for and
V. LEADERSHIP STYLES
A leader’s combination of attitudes and behaviors leads to a certain regularity and predictability in
dealing with group members. Leadership style is the relatively consistent pattern of behavior that
characterizes a leader. Most classifications of leadership style are based on the dimensions of
initiating structure and consideration.
A. Participative Leadership
Sharing decision making with group members, and working with them side-by-side, has
become the generally accepted leadership approach. Participative leaders share decision
making with group members. The style encompasses three subtypes: (1) consultative
leaders confer with group members before making a decision, but retain the final authority;
(2) consensus leaders strive for consensus; and (3) democratic leaders confer final
B. Autocratic Leadership
In contrast to participative leaders, autocratic leaders retain most of the authority.
Autocratic leaders are considered task-oriented because they place heavy emphasis on
34 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles
getting tasks accomplished. Daniel Ackerman, the CEO at General Motors (through 2013),
is offered as an example of a successful autocratic business leader.
C. Leadership Grid® Styles
The Leadership Grid is a framework for simultaneously specifying concern for production
and concern for the people dimensions of leadership. The Grid changes frequently, and we
present the latest version. Grid styles are based on the extent of a person’s concern for
production and people: Controlling (Direct & Dominate) (9,1); Accommodating (Yield &
D. Entrepreneurial Leadership
Many entrepreneurs use a similar leadership style that stems from their key personality
characteristics and circumstances. A general picture emerges of a task-oriented and
charismatic leader. Even if it is not a true leadership style, at least there are some traits and
behaviors characteristic of entrepreneurs:
1. Strong achievement drive and sensible risk taking.
3. Typical pattern of being proactive
5. Visionary perspective combined with tenacity.
7. Preference for dealing with external customers.
8. Eye on the future.
E. Gender Differences in Leadership Style
Several researchers and observers argue that women have certain acquired traits and
behaviors that suit them for relations-oriented leadership. Consequently, women leaders
1. The Argument for Male-Female Differences in Leadership Style
Based on self-reports, Rosener found that men tended toward a command-and-control
style. In contrast, women tended toward a transformational style, relying heavily on
2. Placing Gender Differences in Leadership Style in Perspective
More important than searching for differences is to capitalize on both male and female
leadership tendencies. To compete in the global marketplace, companies need a diverse
F. Selecting the Best Leadership Style
A study with 3,000 executives revealed that leaders who get the best results do not rely on
one style. Instead, they use several different styles in one week, such as being autocratic in
some situations and democratic in others. The cultural setting must also be considered, such
as using a strong task orientation with German workers. The organizational culture also
VI. GUIDELINES FOR ACTION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT
In choosing between a task orientation and a relationship orientation, several additional factors are
also relevant. Among them are (a) the structure of the organization and the nature of the leader’s
work, (b) the leader’s personality, (c) the boss’s style and the organization culture, and (d) the
COMMENTS ON EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-1: Feedback Skills
An important feature of this exercise is that it provides an opportunity to practice giving feedback about
performance rather than feedback about personal characteristics. A possible positive byproduct of this
exercise is that the feedback results might encourage participants to perform better.
Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-1: Task-Oriented Attitudes and
Behaviors
An interesting twist to this scale is that it does not assume that a low task orientation is equivalent to a
high relationship orientation. The scale treats task orientation as an independent dimension of
leadership behavior.
36 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-2: Clarifying Your Interpersonal
Work Values
The importance of this instrument centers around its focus on values. Many observers of leadership
heavily emphasize the contribution of values to leader effectiveness.
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-3: Applying Relationship-
Oriented and Task-Oriented Attitudes and Behaviors
An extreme environment is chosen for this skill–building exercise it dramatizes the importance of
choosing the right leadership attitudes and behaviors to get work accomplished when the work is
Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4–2: What Style of Leader Are
You or Would You Be?
This leadership style quiz focuses on behaviors particularly relevant in the modern workplace. The quiz
can also be used as a skill-development exercise if the statements are interpreted as implied suggestions
for engaging in a participative style.
Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 4-3: Entrepreneurial Thinking and
Behavior
Although the number of business startups in the last few years has declined, publicity about
entrepreneurship is quite heavy. Large numbers of members of the workforce give serious thought
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-4: Entrepreneurial Leadership
The key feature of this exercise is that it gets the role players involved in a high-impact business
activity—selling others on the merits of their business. Our informal research has shown that at least
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-5: Contrasting Leadership
Styles
Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles 37
Field testing indicates that this role-play is effective in illustrating basic leadership styles. Many
students who understand these styles intellectually have difficulty translating them into behavior.
Feedback by class members not participating in the role-play is quite beneficial.
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-6: My Leadership Portfolio
This leadership portfolio exercise is yet another opportunity for the present or aspiring leader to
examine a key part of his or her leadership functioning—this time task-oriented behavior. As with the
Leadership Skill-Building Exercise 4-7: The Entrepreneurial
Leadership Style
Selecting a person to study is itself a worthwhile leadership skill-building exercise because it helps
students understand who might be a true entrepreneurial leader. Ample information is available about
high-tech leaders such as Reed Hastings of Netflix or Andrew Mason of GroupOn. A difficult task is to
COMMENTS ON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
.
1. Give an example of high consideration behavior that a supervisor of yours showed on your behalf.
What was your reaction to his or her behavior?
2. Why is direction setting still an important leadership behavior in an era of empowerment and
shared leadership?
Empowered teams still need direction regarding what activities they should be pursuing. They
might then be empowered to figure out how to achieve these goals. Few teams or individual
3. How might a manager use email and text messaging to help carry out both task-oriented and
relationship-oriented behaviors?
Task-oriented behaviors can be executed via email and texting by sending messages containing
38 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles
4. Why do so many CEOs say they want entrepreneurial style leaders in their company even though
the company is essentially a large bureaucracy?
Entrepreneurial-style leaders fit into a bureaucracy, and are in demand by CEOs for two primary
reasons. First, they may be effective of thin king of new ventures for the company, or for major
5. Why would being a highly narcissistic, charismatic person interfere with being an effective
servant leader?
6. Visualize yourself in a leadership position in a field of interest to you. How would you feel about
being described as a hands-on leader by the members of your team?
7. How would you characterize the leadership style of your favorite executive, athletic coach, or
television character who plays a boss?
8. Why is shared or participative leadership likely to be effective with well-educated and intelligent
team members?
9. Which, if any, style differences have you noticed between men and women leaders?
10. Several people have commented that this chapter deals with the “nuts and bolts” of leadership.
What makes them say that?
The comment about nuts and bolts is insightful. The day-by-day process of being a leader
PLAUSIBLE RESPONSES TO CASE QUESTIONS
Leadership Case Problem A: Frank Won’t Accept “We Can’t” for an
Answer
This case illustrates the difficulties involved when a leader simply demands that subordinates
accomplish a task they do not know how to accomplish.
1. Based on the limited evidence, how would you characterize Frank’s leadership style?
2. Which leadership behaviors and attitudes is Frank displaying?
Frank is engaging in initiating structure as he demands what needs to be done—obtain more
3. How else might Frank approach his project managers about developing new business?
We understand that Frank is facing one of the most difficult challenges a business development
manager might encounter—generating new business when none seems available. Yet making
Associated Role Play
This role play is essentially a method of resolving the issues in the case. The person who plays the
role of Frank might continue with demanding better performance, the he or she might be more
40 Chapter 4: Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Styles
Leadership Case Problem B: Tricia and Her Facebook Friends and
Twitter Followers
This case illustrates the potential challenges of using social media to build relationships with
subordinates. The leader needs to develop a sensitivity to which type of behavior is appropriate.
1. What would you advise Tricia to do about future posts of a personal nature to the team?
Tricia might be moving too far toward attempting to develop a personal relationship with
group members. One example is that inviting a direct report to a birthday party for her
2. Which one or two relation-oriented behaviors does Tricia appear to be exagerrating?
3. If your team leader sent you a post about his or her team leadership role and your potential
friendship, how would you respond?
The answer to this question depends to a large extent on the student’s perception of the
rewards versus risk of being personal friends with the team leader. A hidden potential risk of
Associated Role Play
A key behavior to observe in this role play is whether Ken can preserve a good working relationship
with Tricia yet still express his preference for a professional than a personal relationship with her.