People believe that nobody is born a leader in this world, instead, they are made. It is exceptionally written in the Behavioural theory of leadership. According to the theory, a person becomes an effective leader only when his behaviour is appropriate with different people in different circumstances.
But, how can we know which behaviour is suitable for which event? And, what exactly is this Behavioural theory of leadership? Come! Let’s communicate in detail.
Table of Contents
Behavioural Theory Of Leadership –
Behavioural theory is a leadership theory that is a big jump from Trait Theory & argues that the basis of a successful leader is his/her behaviour & not his or her natural attributes. Behavioural leadership theory was developed by executing scientific behaviour-focused studies.
It denotes observing or evaluating a leader’s behaviours/actions when responding to a particular situation. This theory explains that becoming a leader is not a tough job if you are interested in learning & implementing certain behaviours.
Behavioural leadership theory is also called “the style approach to leadership” & can be applied practically in numerous fields. According to the behavioural leadership theory standards, every company has project managers, CEOs, activity coordinators, and various other professional leaders assessed. And, the leaders continuously try to conform to the standards of a behavioural theory of leadership.
The theory encourages every leader to be self-conscious of their behaviour. It tells them to understand the effect of their behaviour on the company’s productivity & the team’s spirit & act accordingly. Their behaviour towards others in the workplace must be such that it is beneficial to the company & its performance. If necessary, they may adopt different behaviour towards different people in the workplace to benefit the company.
Behavioural Leadership Theory – Example
Look at a leader who is task-oriented & then at a people-oriented leader. If the team encounters any issue, a task-oriented chief will look over the process to analyse how to fix this problem and the workflow.
On the other hand, a people-oriented leader will try to fix the problem smoothly by building an interpersonal connection or communication with the supervisors, clients, other employees, etc. Their interactive behaviour with these people helps them solve the problem that emerges in their companies.
Thus, you can understand that a behavioural leader changes his/her behaviour according to the situation or complications emerging in the organization. & his behaviours depict what type of behavioural leader they are? (e.g., people-oriented, participative, paternalistic, dictatorial, task-oriented, etc.).
Features Of Behavioural Leadership Theory –
- This theory speculates the leader’s opinion, attitude, concern & behavior towards his organization or followers.
- This theory supports the study of leadership from the perspective of motivating, supervising the team members and if needed showing authoritative behavior over them.
- This theory believes that it is possible to acquire the distinctive behavioral patterns of the leaders.
- The theory says that one can become a leader only through schooling & observation.
Various Types Of Behavioural Leaders Following The Behavioural Leadership Theory:
1) People-Oriented Leaders:
These leaders believe in encouraging collaboration, observing the team’s progress, rewarding success & mentoring the team’s members.
2) Task-Oriented Leaders:
These leaders work by initiating projects, clarifying instructions, collecting relevant data & organizing processes in the organization.
3) Participative Leaders:
These leaders work by facilitating team meetings, taking suggestions for modification, delegating tasks to the team’s other members & asking for constructive feedback.
4) Status-Quo Leaders:
They behave in their office by distributing various tasks evenly, enforcing company policies legally, reacting to feedback neutrally & wanting regular progress reports.
5) Indifferent Leaders:
These leaders believe in avoiding any questions, self-preserving, allotting undesirable assignments to others & procrastinating.
6) Dictatorial Leaders:
These leaders believe in setting inflexible deadlines, ignoring feedback, dismissing excuses & attaining short-term objectives.
7) Country Club Leaders:
These types of leaders work by answering the team member’s feedback, concentrating on the well-being of the employees, ensuring the privileges & interests of the employees & favouring the verdicts of the team members.
8) Sound Leaders:
Their behaviour includes:
- Encouraging open communication.
- Permitting the employees to work without dependability.
- Hearing to & carrying out feedback & empowering the team members with training & continuous education.
9) Opportunistic Leaders:
An opportunistic leader’s behaviour includes a lack of consistency, enforcement of his standard for success, following results regardless of the expense & showing care towards his team for improved performance.
10) Paternalistic Leaders:
These types of leaders work by disciplining failure, proposing opportunities for leadership in front of the promising employees, disregarding the feedback & rewarding optimistic behaviour for success.
Upsides Of Behavioural Leadership Theory:
- It promotes the leadership style values making the concern for people & complicity its priority.
- It facilitates participative decision-making as well as team development. It is done by supporting the individual needs of each team member & aligning both the objectives of the individuals & the group as a whole.
- It benefits the managers by making them understand & appraise how their behavior as a manager affects their relationship with the members of their team. It also encourages them to contribute & commit to their organizational goals.
- With the knowledge of this theory, the managers try to maintain a proper balance between varied types of leadership. The approach helps them learn that their behavior as a leader must depend on the concerns for productiveness & people.
Downsides Of Behavioural Leadership Theory:
- This theory recommends various leadership styles. However, a particular leadership behavior may not suit every circumstance.
- This theory provides little guidance on becoming an effective leader by tackling the crises in different situations.
- After going through this leadership theory, it is difficult to pinpoint which leadership style significantly enables a group to function better than the others.
- Sometimes, it has been seen that the theoretical interpretations of a leader’s behavior don’t match with the leader’s behavior in the real world. It all depends upon the other team members & the environment in which they are working.
- No one leadership style is there in this theory that can work for every manager in every circumstance.
Conclusion –
Hope this article would have explained the concept of a behavioural theory of leadership. This theory is the most accepted theory of leadership, however, some pros and cons are also there.
