4/11/2020 Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES | B2U

B2U – Business-to-you.com
 ABOUT ARTICLES STRATEGY  BUSINESS GROWTH  MANAGEMENT  CASE INTERVIEW  FRAME

Leadership Management

Leadership  

Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid: A

Behavioural Approach towards
Management and Leadership
 March 22, 2020  Administrator  0 Comments  Authority-Compliance Management,

Blake and Mouton, Country Club Management, Fiedler, Hersey and Blanchard, Impoverished

Management, Leadership, Management, Managerial Grid, Middle-of-the-Road Management, Team

Management

What constitutes a good manager? Based on behavioural research studies on

leadership and management (e.g. Ohio State Studies and Michigan Studies), two
basic management behaviours can be identi ed as important: task-oriented
behaviour and people-oriented behaviour. Even though these two factors are
not the only important management behaviours, concern for both the task and
the people must been shown at some reasonable level. Inspired by these
ndings, Blake and Mouton from the University of Texas proposed a two-
dimensional Managerial Grid based on a manager’s concern for production
(task-oriented) and concern for people (relationship-oriented). Each axis on
the grid consists of a nine-point scale with 1 meaning a low concern and 9 a
high concern. Depending on a manager’s score on each of the two axis, you can
assign di erent types of management styles to managers. This article will
Recent Posts
elaborate on these di erent kind of styles and its implications.

Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid Hersey and Blanchard Situational

Leadership Model: Adapting the
Figure 1: Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid Leadership Style to the Follower

Blake and Mouton Managerial

Concern for Production (Task-Oriented) Grid: A Behavioural Approach
towards Management and
A concern for production means that managers direct subordinates towards Leadership

goals. Managers with this style typically give instructions, spend time planning, Crossing the Chasm in the
emphasize deadlines and provide explicit schedules of work acitivities. They Technology Adoption Life Cycle
simply want to get the job done. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make
the Competition Irrelevant

Concern for People (Relationship-Oriented) AIDA Model: From Attention,


Interest and Desire to Action

https://www.business-to-you.com/blake-mouton-managerial-grid/ 1/6
4/11/2020 Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES | B2U

A concern for people means that managers are mindful of subordinates, Value Disciplines: Customer
 ABOUT ARTICLES STRATEGY  BUSINESS GROWTH  MANAGEMENT 
respect their ideas and feelings, establish mutual trust. These managers are
CASE INTERVIEW  FRAME
Intimacy, Product Leadership and
friendly, provide open communication, develop teamwork, and are oriented Operational Excellence
toward their subordinates’ welfare.

Impoverished Management (1,1)

Managers that score low on concern for production and low on concern for
people are labelled as having an ‘Impoverished Management’ style or
‘Indi erent Management’ style. They exert minimum e ort to get required work
done and to maintain interpersonal relationships. The motives for this type of
managerial behaviour can di er. The main concern for Impoverished Managers
is often to not be held responsible for mistakes.

Country Club Management (1,9)

Managers that score low on concern for production and high on concern for
Top Frameworks
people are considered to have a ‘Country Club Management’ style. Managers
with this style pay a lot of attention to the security, well-being and harmony of
Anso Matrix: How to Grow Your
subordinates. They rmly belief that being accomodating to the needs of Business?
subordinates will ultimately increase performance, as everybody will be happy
Porter’s Five Forces
and contented. As a consequence, the primary emphasis of Country Club
managers is given to people rather than to work outputs. The resulting work Scanning the Environment: PESTEL
Analysis
atmosphere is therefore usually quite friendly and easy-going, but not very
productive. Individual subordinates that are more task-focused might BCG Matrix: Portfolio Analysis in
experience this management style as frustrating. Corporate Strategy

SWOT Analysis: Bringing Internal

Authority-Compliance Management (9,1) and External Factors Together

VRIO: From Firm Resources to

The dictorial ‘Authority-Compliance’ Management’ style (or ‘Produce-or-Perish’ Competitive Advantage
style) implies that managers score high on concern for production and low on
concern for people. These type of managers usually believe that subordinates’
needs are relatively unimportant. E ciency in operations, however, should be
the dominant orientation. In order to boost performance, managers try to make
subordinates comply by using tangible rewards such as monetary bonuses.
Managers may even use their coercive powers to punish subordinates if targets
are not being met. This style is largely based on McGregor’s Theory X that states
that employees generally have little ambition, avoid responsibilities, and are
mostly extrinsically motivated.

Middle-of-the-Road Management (5,5)

Managers that score medium on concern for production and medium on
concern for people have a ‘Middle-of-the-Road Management’ style. They
attempt to balance between an organization’s performance targets and the

https://www.business-to-you.com/blake-mouton-managerial-grid/ 2/6
4/11/2020 Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES | B2U

needs of employees. This is essentially a compromising approach in which the

 ABOUT ARTICLES STRATEGY  BUSINESS GROWTH 
manager tries to avoid con ict with subordinates whilst pushing for moderate
MANAGEMENT  CASE INTERVIEW  FRAME

production. The major downside of this approach is the danger that neither
aspect (concern for production and concern for people) is delivered to
satisfactorily levels.

Team Management (9,9)

If managers score high on concern for production and high on concern for
people, they can be labelled as having a ‘Team Management’ style. This style is
often considered to be the most e ective and is recommended for managers
because organization members work together to accomplish tasks and
maintain good relationships. This approach relies heavily on making
subordinates feel that they are constructive parts of the organization by
encouraging teamwork and commitment, involving them in decision-making,
and showing respect and mutual trust. This management style is largely in line
with McGregor’s Theory Y that states that employees are intrinsically motivated,
enjoy their job, and want to work to better themselves without a direct reward
in return. According to multiple subsequent research from Blake and Mouton,
Team Management forms the best basis for exercising sound leadership.

More management styles

Apart from these 5 well-known management styles, more management styles
can be crafted with the aid of Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid. An
additional approach refers to a manager who swings back and forth between
the 1,9 Country Club Management style and the 9,1 Authority-Compliance
Management style. A manager with this ‘Paternalism-Maternalism
Management‘ style is seen as a kind of caring dictator who, as long as you do as
you are instructed, will treat you well. Failure to comply, however, is likely to
lead to punishment or exclusion from the group. Moreover, there is the
‘Opportunistic Management‘ style, which can be described as ‘exploit and
manipulate’. These managers do not have a xed location on the grid and use
di erent management styles depending on their interpretation of what is likely
to result in the maximum personal bene t. This way of behaving comes close to
management approaches from Situational Leadership Theory and Contingency
Theory such as Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model  and
Fiedler’s Contingency Model. These research streams assume that leaders or
managers should adapt their style based on the circumstances (i.e. type of
follower and/or external factors).


https://www.business-to-you.com/blake-mouton-managerial-grid/ 3/6
4/11/2020 Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES | B2U

 ABOUT ARTICLES STRATEGY  BUSINESS GROWTH  MANAGEMENT  CASE INTERVIEW  FRAME

Figure 2: Management Styles in Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid

Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid In Sum

Blake and Mouton have played an important role within the behavioural
research stream of management and leadership literature. By plotting the
variables ‘concern for production’ and ‘concern for people’ on a grid, the
model helps managers to think critically of their own
management/leadership style and make adjustments in their behaviour if
necessary. Ultimately, Blake and Mouton suggested that the ‘Team
Management’ style is the most e ective of all, taking both a concern for
production and a concern for people fully into consideration.

Further Reading:

Blake, R. and Mouton, J. (1964). The Managerial Grid: The Key to Leadership
Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.


https://www.business-to-you.com/blake-mouton-managerial-grid/ 4/6
4/11/2020 Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES | B2U

 ABOUT ARTICLES STRATEGY  BUSINESS GROWTH  MANAGEMENT  CASE INTERVIEW  FRAME

The Managerial
Grid
$95.29

Shop now

Share this:

    

← Crossing the Chasm in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle

Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Model: Adapting the

Leadership Style to the Follower →

Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required elds are marked *

Comment

Name *


Email *
https://www.business-to-you.com/blake-mouton-managerial-grid/ 5/6
4/11/2020 Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES | B2U

 ABOUT ARTICLES STRATEGY  BUSINESS GROWTH  MANAGEMENT  CASE INTERVIEW  FRAME

Website

Post Comment


https://www.business-to-you.com/blake-mouton-managerial-grid/ 6/6