4. Employee-Production Orientation
The leadership studies initiated by Bureau of Research at Ohio State University attempted to identify various dimensions of leader behavior. Such studies identified two dimensions :
i. Initiating structure
ii. Consideration
i. Initiating structure
Initiating structure refers to the extent to which a leader is likely to define and structure his or her role an those of employees in the search for goal attainment. It includes behavior that attempts to organise work, work relationships and goals. The leader characterized as high in initiating structure could be described as someone who ‘assigns group members to particular tasks,’ ‘expects workers to maintain definite standards of performance’and ‘emphasizes the meeting of deadlines’.
ii. Consideration
Consideration is described as the extent to which a person is likely to have job relationships that are characterized by mutual trust, respect for employee’s ideas and regard for their feelings. The person shows concern for followers’s well being, status and satisfaction. A leader shows high in consideration could be described as one who helps employees with personal problems, is friendly, approachable and treats all employees as equals.
Research studies shows that initiating structure and consideration are two separate distinct dimensions and not mutually exclusive. A low score on one does not necessitate high score on the other. Thus leadership behavior can be plotted on two separate axes rather than on a single continuum. The four quadrant shows various combinations of initiating structure and consideration. In each quadrant,there is a relative mixture of initiating structure and considereation and a manager can adopt any one style.
| High consideration and low structure | High structure and high consideration |
| Los structure and low consideration | High structure and low consideration |
Leadership studies undertaken at Michigan’s Survey Research Center, at about the same time as those being done at Ohio State, had similar research objectives to locate behavioural characteristics of leaders that appeared to be related to measures of performance effectiveness. The Michigan group also came up with two dimensions of leadership behavior that they labeled as:
i. Employee-oriented
ii. Production-oriented
i. Employee-oriented leaders emphasized on interpersonal relations, took personal interest in needs of their employees and accepted individual differences among members.
ii. Production-oreinted leaders emphasized on technical and tasks aspects of the job. Their main concern was in accomplishing their groups’ tasks, and the group members were a means to that end.
These dimensions are closely related to Ohio State dimensions. Employee- oriented leadership is similar to consideration and production-oreinted leadership is similar to initiating structure.