Reference no: EM132306536

Respond to...

Leadership is the influencing of behaviors of individuals and groups to work toward a predetermined set of goals. Creating a contrast between leadership and management is the focus of many researchers of organizational behavior. For example, John Kotter in 1990 suggests that management focuses more on coping with complexity using planning, organization, and control - the essential managerial functions. "In contrast, leadership concentrates on coping with change and providing guidance" (Baack, 2017, sec 8.1).

In leadership, I believe that both being well-liked and focus on production is essential to be the most effective. My belief is proven by the leadership grid that was a result of Ohio State's study on effective leadership. Blake and Mouton in 1985 relied on the conclusion that "effective leaders exhibit both initiating structure and consideration" (Baack, 2017, sec 8.2).

A leader with low concern for their employees but has high concerns about production and results were not effective leaders and were trained on people skills while leaders with high interest for their people and low interest with production aren't sufficient either and would benefit from training on the importance of production with methods like goal setting (Baack, 2017).

Finally, the downside to the leadership grid is that there isn't enough evidence through the studies done at Ohio State to prove that a leader that scores high on both concerns for people and production will always be the more effective leader in every single situation. I don't believe there will ever be a one size fits all way of leading a group. I think that there is a general guideline and adjustments will always need to be made depending on the situation (Baack, 2017).

Sources:

Baack, D. (2017). Organizational behavior (2nd ed.).