08 MAY 2020
    B.A. PART II (H) PAPER IV,UNIT V (LEADERSHIP)
      Behavioural Theory of Leadership:
  
   When it became clear that the trait approach 
   was unable to explain what caused effective 
   leadership, the researchers, in the late 1940s, 
   began to study the behaviour of leader. 
   According to this theory, successful leadership 
   depends more on behaviour, skills, and actions, 
   and less on personality traits. It emphasizes 
   that strong leader ship is the result of role 
   behaviour. It is shown by a person’s acts rather 
   than by his traits.
               08 MAY 2020
     B.A. PART II (H) PAPER IV,UNIT V (LEADERSHIP)
   
    In this view, rather than trying to find out who effective 
    leaders are, researchers tried determine what effective 
    leaders do—how they carry out their tasks, how they 
    motivate their subordinates, how they behave and 
    influence, how they communicate with, and so on. 
    Behavioural theory is also known as leadership-style 
    approach, since it describes the patterns of leader 
    behaviour.
           Features and Implications:
   
    i. This approach focuses on two aspects of leadership 
    behaviour—leadership functions and leadership styles.
   
    ii. It assumes that effective leaders utilize a particular 
    style to lead individuals to achieve certain goals.
              08 MAY 2020
     B.A. PART II (H) PAPER IV,UNIT V (LEADERSHIP)
  
   iii. Traits provide the latent potential, while the 
   behaviour is the release and expression of these 
   traits. Behaviour can be learned and changed, but 
   many traits, on the other hand, are relatively fixed.
  
   iv. This approach focuses on leader effectiveness, 
   not the emergence of an individual as a leader. 
   (Szilagyi and Wallace)
  
   v. This theory implies that leadership is multidimen 
   sional concept. Concern for people and concern for 
   task have been identified as important components 
   of leadership.
              08 MAY 2020
     B.A. PART II (H) PAPER IV,UNIT V (LEADERSHIP)
   
   vi. There is no one best way to lead others. Effective 
   leadership behaviour varies according to the situa tion.
   
   vii. Leadership is a learned managerial skill. In other 
   words, leadership skills can be taught.
   
   viii. Behavioural approach also focuses on the relation 
   ship between leader’s behaviour and subordinate’s 
   performance and satisfaction.
   
   In brief, this approach is concerned specifically with 
   what leaders actually do in their leadership roles. A 
   number of studies were made during the 1950s and 
   1960s that looked at leadership from the standpoint of 
   identify ing the types of behaviour or styles of leaders. 
             08 MAY 2020
     B.A. PART II (H) PAPER IV,UNIT V (LEADERSHIP)
  
   These included Ohio State and Michigan studies, 
   Likert’s sys tems of management, Blake and 
   Mouton’s Managerial Grid, and Tannenbaum and 
   Schmidt’s continuum of leadership styles. 
  
   Behavioural approach, like trait theory, has not 
   provided universally applicable guidelines for 
   identifying leaders. The basic weakness of this 
   approach was the tendency to assume that there 
   is a single best style of leadership. But, later 
   researchers recognized that an effective style 
   depends on the nature of the situation.