5. Managerial Grid
A graphical representation of two dimensional view of leadership style was developed by Blake and Mouton. They emphasize that leadership style consists of factors of both task oriented and relation oriented behavior in varying degrees. They proposed managerial grid based on styles of ‘concern for ‘ people’ and concern for production’, which essentially represent the Ohio State dimensions of consideration and initiating structure or the Michigan dimensions of employee-oriented and production-oriented.
Their concern for production means the attitudes of superior towards quality of decisions, procedures and processes, creativeness of research , quality of staff services, work efficiency and volume of output. The concern for people means degree of personal commitment towards goal achievement, maintaining the self esteem of workers and satisfying interpersonal relations.
The managerial grid has 9 possible positions along each axis, creating 81 different positions in which the leader’s style may fall. But the author’s main emphasis is on 5 main styles that we see most often.
These are as under:
1,1 Impoverished
Here the management shows leas concern both for production as well as people. The manager wants just enough being done to get by. He also ignores human relationships.
1,9 Country Club
Here the management concern for people and least concern for production. Thoughtful attention to needs of people leads to a friendly and comfortable organisational atmosphere and work tempo.
9,9 Team Management
Here the management shows maximum concern both for production as well as people. Maximum concern for production is based on decision arrived at with worker’s participation and maximum concern for people is based on worker’s task related morale and not just good social relations.
9, 1 Task Management
Here the management shows maximum concern for production and least concern for people. Therefore, it is also called authority-obedience approach.
5,5 Middle Road
Her adequate performance is maintained through balance of work requirements and maintaining satisfactory morale.
The most desirable leader’s behavior is 9,9 (maximum concern for people and production). Managerial grid, especially the team leader model, has enabled many organisations to determine their multi phase training as well as development programmes required to achieve specific leadership behavior.
