BUSI3809: Leadership
Theories
Instructor: Siyan Guo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Management and Strategy
Faculty of Business and Economics
Behavioral
Theories of
Leadership
Behavioral Theories of Leadership
• Remember: Trait theories help us predict leadership, but they don’t
fully help us explain leadership. The question remains: What do
leaders do that makes them effective? Contingency
Situational Factors and
Leadership
Alternatives
Leadership
Emergence Leadership
Predictors of
leadership such outcomes such
as traits as effectiveness
Leadership
Behaviors
Behavioral Theories of Leadership
• Behavioral theories of leadership: Theories proposing that specific behaviors
differentiate leaders from nonleaders.
• Assumptions: The behavioral theories of leadership focus on the premise that behaviors
can be taught and traits cannot, so leaders are trained, not born.
• The Ohio State Studies: After studying over 1,000 dimensions of leaders’ behaviors, the
Ohio State studies were able to narrow it down to two dimensions – initiating structure
and consideration.
Initiating Structure vs. Consideration Scale
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
The Ohio State Studies
Initiating Structure Consideration
Performance Satisfaction
Attempts to organize work, work Concern for followers’ comfort,
relationships, and goals well-being, status, and
6 satisfaction
Blake and Mouton’s
Managerial
(Leadership) Grid
• Behavioral Leadership
Studies demonstrated that
leadership involves balancing
the well-being of the people
who work for you with the
efficiency of task completion.
• Team style is the most
effective in general, but it
depends on the situation.
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-management/chapter/behavioral-approach/
The Ohio State Studies
• Relative Impact of Initiating Structure vs. Consideration on Leadership Outcomes
Leader effectiveness
Initiating structure Employee motivation
Consideration Employee satisfaction
Unit performance
Stronger correlation
Weaker correlation 8
(Judge, Piccolo, & Ilies, 2004)
Contingency Theories
Assumption: No single leadership style is the “best”. Leadership effectiveness
depends on the proper match between leadership style and the situation.
1. Fiedler Leadership Model Contingency
2. Situational Leadership Theory Situational Factors and
3. Path-Goal Theory Leadership
4. Leader-Participation Model Alternatives
Leadership
Emergence Leadership
Predictors of
leadership such outcomes such
as traits as effectiveness
Leadership
Behaviors
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
• Fiedler leadership model: Effective group
performance depends on the proper match
between the leader’s style and the degree to
which the situation gives the leader control.
• Least-Preferred Co-worker (LPC) questionnaire
Fiedler determines leadership style (fixed trait)
• Relationship oriented (high LPC score)
Leadership • Task oriented (Low LPC score)
• Match leader’s style with degree of situational
Model
control
• Leader-member relations: trust, respect
members have
• Task structure: structured or unstructured
tasks
• Position power: hiring, firing, promotions,
rewards.
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Matching Leaders to Situations
I II III IV V VI VII VIII
Leader’s control
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Fiedler Leadership
Model: Applied
• Step one: Take the Least-Preferred Co-worker (LPC)
Questionnaire.
• Relationship oriented or Task oriented?
• Step two: Gauge the Situation
• Leader-member relations: trust, respect members have
• Task structure: structured or unstructured tasks
• Position power: hiring, firing, promotions, rewards.
• Step three: Identify the Match. Either adapt your style into
the situation/find someone with the right leadership style
OR change the environment you are leading in.
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
• You have been newly-assigned as the
project manager of a team that works on
providing clients with marketing services.
Fiedler • First day on your job, you quickly
assessed how much situational control
Leadership you have:
Model - • Trust between your team and you is low
• Task structure is low
Example • Position power is high
• What is the best type of leader for this
job? What would you do to bring out the
best performance of your team?
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Fiedler Leadership
Model - Example
• First day on your job, your
quickly assessed how much
situational control you have:
• Trust between your team
and you is low
• Task structure is low
• Position power is strong
• The best type of leader for this
job would be?
• A task-oriented leader.
• But what if you are
relationship-oriented?
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Situational
Leadership
Theory
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Expectancy Theory
1. Effort-Performance Relationship (expectancy): If I give maximum effort, will it be
recognized in my performance appraisal?
2. Performance-Reward Relationship (instrumentality): If I get a good performance
appraisal, will it lead to organizational rewards?
3. Rewards-Personal Goals Relationship (valence): If I’m rewarded, are the rewards
attractive to me?
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Path–Goal Theory
https://culccaferiu.wordpress.com/tag/path-goal-theory/ © 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Path–Goal Theory
Directive Leadership: Similar to “initiating structure”. Set clear expectations and goals, provide clear
instructions, rules and regulations.
• Helps workers cope with otherwise vague and unclear job responsibilities.
Supportive Leadership: Resembles “consideration” behaviors. Being friendly and approachable as a
leader. Attending to the well-being and human needs of followers. Build their confidence.
• Useful with a team that is new, inexperienced, or otherwise lacking confidence.
Participative leadership: Consists of inviting followers to participate in the decision making. Involving
their inputs in your final decision-making. It enhances members’ commitment to the goal.
• Effective in situations where the follower has high abilities.
Achievement-oriented leadership is characterized by a leader who challenges followers to perform work
at the highest level possible.
• Works best when the the situation is complex, and when your worker is skilled and ready. Works better if they are
achievement-oriented.
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Path–Goal Theory
https://culccaferiu.wordpress.com/tag/path-goal-theory/ © 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Path–Goal Theory
https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2016/06/29/what-is-path-goal-theory/ © 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
The need for
control/clarity
• Sheldon
(https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=qkEdc0VdRlE)
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Leader-
Participation
Model
• Leader-participation model:
provides a set of rules to
determine the form and
amount of participative
decision making in different
situations (The way leader
makes decisions matters!)
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Broad View of Leadership
Leadership
Leader
Follower Context
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Mini Case Discussion
When Your Boss Is An Obsessive Micromanager
Go to Moodle à Lecture 4 à Leadership Mini Case
1. What could be the signs that your boss is a
micromanager? Why do many managers tend to
micromanage employees?
2. What are the pros and cons of micromanagement?
What early theories of leadership can be useful to
understand micromanagement?
3. How could employees handle a micromanaging boss?
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Mini Case Discussion
When Your Boss Is An Obsessive Micromanager
Katie worked at an events planning company, helping her boss design and execute some of the city’s biggest and most important
parties, weddings, and fundraisers. She was good at her job—creative and organized—and she’d been promoted from intern to assistant
to full-on planner in less than six months. When it came to crises, she’d proven she could handle most anything.
Which is why Katie was constantly baffled by her boss’s insistence on hovering over her every move. “She wanted the minutes of every
single client meeting, every single phone call,” Katie told me. “She wanted to know not only the solutions I’d come up with to problems,
but the thought processes that led to those solutions. Everything took twice as long.” Like many hyper-controlling managers, Katie’s boss
was working all the time—and expected Katie to do the same. “When she texted me at midnight, she wanted to know why I didn’t text
her back for seven hours,” Katie recalled. “And when I’d tell her it was because I was sleeping, she seemed suspicious, and annoyed!”
Similarly, Molly, a 30-year-old assistant in the hometown press office for a Washington politician, arrived to work to find a lengthy to-do
list from her boss detailing what she was meant to do that day—as well as how to do it, who to call, at what points along the way she
would be required to check in. “Sometimes, this list was 3 or 4 pages long,” Molly told me. “It must have taken him at least an hour to
create. But the worst was the excessive detail about how to get it all done. He simply refused to let me do my job on my terms.”
She felt suffocated and under immense pressure all the time, and began to dread coming to work. But she didn’t want to ruffle feathers,
and she didn’t want to quit. She eventually decided to confront her boss—carefully and respectfully. She started out by asking if he was
pleased with her work, and whether he saw room for improvement. When her boss replied that she was doing a great job, Molly let him
know that his constant monitoring made it seem otherwise, and that she’d been worried she’d been creating extra work for him. “Turns
out he knew he had a tendency to be hyper-controlling, but in this case, he thought he was being helpful,” Molly said. She
accommodated his desire to be involved by learning to be very communicative, and in return, he backed off and let her do her job—
eventually.
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Question #1
• Imagine that you are someone who has a relationship-oriented leadership style
(your Least-Preferred Co-worker score is high). You are assigned as the new
project manager for a software engineering team. You’ve worked with most of
them before, so you believe you have a good relationship with the team. The
tasks are highly structured – each member is assigned a couple of code-writing
assignments every morning. You also have complete power to make decisions
regarding their promotions and bonuses. Would you predict that this leadership-
situation match leads to high performance? If not, what should you do?
27
Fiedler Leadership Model
I II III IV V VI VII VIII
Leader’s control
28
Question #2
• What does the situational leadership predict what leaders should
do when their subordinates are both capable and motivated to do
their jobs?
29
Situational
Leadership
Theory
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Full Range of
Leadership
Model
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Transformational Leaders
• Those that made positive social
change.
• Not seeking to exploit others for
self-interest.
• Transcends personal interest for
larger, positive visions of the
future.
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
Transactional versus Transformational Leadership
• Transformational leadership is more • Transactional and transformational
strongly correlated with: leadership complement each other;
• Lower turnover they aren’t opposing approaches. The
• Higher productivity best leaders are transactional and
transformational.
• Lower employee stress and
burnout
• Higher employee satisfaction
© 2024 University of Hong Kong. All Rights Reserved
