Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles of Executives

Author(s): Sameer Limbare

Source: Indian Journal of Industrial Relations , July 2012, Vol. 48, No. 1 (July 2012), pp.
172-180
Published by: Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources

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Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles of
Executives

Sameer Limbare

Introduction

Leadership has been defined as in

terpersonal influence exerted in a situa
tion and directed using communication
The present study examines the re
system towards the attainment of spe
lationship between leadership styles
cific goals. It is basically the ability to
and the conflict management styles
form and mould attitudes and behavior
of the executives of the large and
middle scale industries in Nashik. of other individuals. It is the process of
influencing others to mobilize and direct
Two scales were used, one each for
their efforts towards specific goals and
leadership styles and conflict man
agement styles. The results indi attain these goals through them. It
should be noted that a formal head of a
cated that leadership styles and con
department may not necessarily be an
flict management styles of the execu
effective leader and that there would be
tives are related. The study further
an informal leader who may exert more
revealed that the missionary lead
influence on the workers than the for
ership was most preferred among
mal leader. Despite the differences, the
executives. Deserter leadership
task of managerial leader is to get things
style was rejected by the executives.
done through people by motivating them.
Appeasement conflict management
This can be achieved effectively by us
style was the most preferred by the
executives and the resignation was ing human relations, techniques involv
ing understanding of human factors,
the most rejected conflict manage
ment style. communication processes, interpersonal
and intergroup behavior and organiza
tional dynamics.

Sameer Limbare is Assistant Professor, Department of
Psychology. Late BRD Arts and Commerce Mahila
Mahavidyalaya, Nashik Road, Nashik. E-mail:
sameerlimbare@vahoo.com
Leadership Styles
In the present study the leadership
styles undertaken for the research are

172 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 48, No. 1, July 2012

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Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles of Executives

the ones proposed by Reddin (1970) who Executive is a good motivator who
developed a manager behavior model sets high standards, treats everyone dif
consisting of eight styles, which are: ferently, and prefers team management.

Deserter leadership style is Conflict Management Styles

uninvolved and passive.
Avoidance styles of conflict manage
Missionary style of leader is prima- ment aims at preventing or postponing
rily interested in harmony. conflicts in a variety of ways. There are
four main avoidance styles studied here:
Autocrat leadership style shows no
confidence in others, feels unpleasant, i) Resignation is an extreme avoidance
and is interested only in the immediate style adopted in helpless situations.
job at hand. These leaders direct orders ... ,,, , ...
. . . j ,, , j u) Wedrawal style is used to get away
to their associates and usually keep de- ' , b J
, . - . , . from the conflict situation,
cisions and controls to themselves be

cause they have assumed full responsi- iii) Defusion style buys time for d
bility for decision making. with the conflict.

Compromiser style leader is a poor iv> Appeasement style buys tempo

decision maker who is over influenced Peace and aêrees some of the
by the pressures of work, who minimizes mands of the out-group, not b
it is convinced about them but because
immediate pressures and problems.
it wants to postpone the conflict.

Bureaucrat is primarily interested in Approach Styles of Conflict

rules and procedures for their own sake. Management
They want to maintain and control situa
tions by their conscientious enforcements. Approach modes or styles may
more aggressive or understanding forms
Developer leadership style trusts by taking positive steps to confront
people, and is concerned with develop- fl¡ct and find solution. There are f
ing them as individuals. This style as- approach modes or styles:
sumes that individual members of a group
who take part personally in the decision- j) Confrontation is applied to fig
making process will have greater com- an issue t0 get a solution in on
mitment to the objectives and goals of vor> and is often adopted by m
the organization. ment or trade union. The confronta
tion may involve coercion and is likel
Benevolent Autocrat knows what he to fa¡i ¡n reaching a solutio
wants from the people, situations and
how to get things completed in his way Compromise is the pro
without causing resentment. in8 t'ie 8a^n without resolv

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 Sameer Limbare

flict. This may be done by bargain- ships between supervisor and subordi
ing. nates evolve.
iii) In Arbitration a third party is so
to assess the situation Employees and provide are m
solution acceptable leader, therefore,
to boththe leader hasthe
to pa
ties. focus all his attention to the needs
of the organization rat
iv) Negotiation style is used for jointly th
confronting the problem and explor
ing its solutions.
Taylor ( 1911 ) suggested
Review of Leadership ees are mane
fore, the leader has to focus all his at
McGregor (1957) gave two types of tention to the needs of the organization
leadership styles, Theory X and Theory rather than on the needs of the indi
Y. Theory X assumes that most of the vidual. Mayo (1927) emphasized that
people dislike work and will try to avoid tbe ieacjer was expected to facilitate the
it if possible. Theory Y assumes that attainment of organization goals and si
people are not inherently lazy. Theory Z multaneously ensuring the atmosphere
by Ouchi (1981), proposes that long - for personal growth and development of
term employment is the basis of effec- the employees. Fleishman and Harris
tive organizations. (1962) revealed that supervisors with
low scores on consideration and high
A managerial grid model leadership SCOres on initiating structure had high
style of managers was given by Blake turnover rates
and Mouton (1964). Fiedler (1967) even
suggested that as the situation varies, Dwivedi (1967) revealed the impor
leadership requirement also varies, tance of management skills such as abil
Reddin (1970) have considered the task ¡ty to make rapid decisions, high intelli
and relationship orientation of the mana- gence, readiness to accept new ideas,
gerial grid and brought forth styles: (a) technical ability, ability to understand
less effective style (deserter, missionary, people, verbal ability, willingness to ask
autocrat and compromiser), (b) more ef- other people for their opinion, willingness
fective styles (bureaucrat, developer, to admit own mistakes, available for dis
benevolent autocrat and executive), eussions with workers and willingness to
Vroom and Yetton (1973) indicated that pass on information to others. Mant
the supervisory approach is expected to (1983) gave tw0 basic styles of leader.
be most effective in a particular situa- ship. binary & ternary In b¡nary mode
tion. Leader-member exchange theory of the individuai controls, dominates or se
Dansereau (1975) proposed that super- duces the others in the interest of per_
visor treated individual subordinates dif- sonal survival. In ternary mode the in
ferently and that over time the relation- terpersonal power is regulated by an in

174 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 48. No. 1. July 2012

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Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles of Executives

stitution, motivated by a purpose or en- cation, empowerment and proper feed

thralled by an idea. back.

Hay and McBer (2000) in his study Review of Co

of 4000 executives identified six differ
ent leadership styles; coercive, authori- Jongtae, Jong and Dong (2006) study
tative, pace-setting, democratic, on managers of multinational companies
affiliative and coaching. The study re- revealed that the active participation of
vealed that more the styles the leader managers would increase the conflict
uses, the better. On the contrary Adair with headquarters whereas it decreases
(2003) proposed that qualities of the the conflicts with local end users. A study
leader play an important role in different of Malaysian companies by Lee (2008),
situations. High-high leadership hypoth- revealed that integrating style, compro
esis proposed that the most effective mising style and, to some extent obliging
leaders exhibit high levels of both types style, is associated with each other. Raj
of behavior. Hence the study was called (2008) found that soft skills are an es
High-high leadership hypothesis. sential component of enhanced compe
tency levels, which the emerging busi
Binney and Williams (2005) stated nesses are extensively seeking out.
ways to reconceptualize change and see ___
organizations as adaptive, self organiz- ^omtn exceIIed
men on using
mg, interdependent with their environ- ... .... , , ...
. , r,, • avoiding, obliging and dominating
mem Ghosh and Shejwal (2006) sug- whcr(,as m
gested .hat the perce.ved organ,zat.onal y
values and eadersh,p styles are related. of conn{cl man
Ayo and Oluseyi (2009) in their study
conducted in Nigeria revealed that lead
ership effectiveness contributes mostly Furumo (200
to workplace performance and followed members who pe
by work motivation. A global research lot of relationship
on a sample of 1541 chief executive of- avoidance conflict
ficers by the Global Chief Executive Of- On the other ha
ficer Study (2010) concluded that lead- bers are more like
es have to embody leadership, reinvent ing conflict m
customer's relationship and build oper- Chaudhry, Sham
ating dexterity. Bisht and Yadav (2010) findings revealed
revealed that psychological and active was the most prefe
involvement of employees was equally women in handling
important to encourage and flourish the with their immed
real and genuine participation. This can revealed that wom
be achieved through the focus on del- using avoiding, obl
egation of work, transparent communi- styles, whereas m

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 48, N

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 Scimeer - Limbare

grating and compromising style of con- 3) Leadership styles are positively re

flict management. lated to conflict management styles.

Vokic and Sontor (2009) revealed Sample

that gender, marital status and parent
The sample included a survey of 150
hood were significantly related with the
—J • - ;""" executives from large and medium scale
usage of accommodating conflict han- . , . . f , , _. .,
... . , o /innnN i j ,u . industries located in and around Nasik.
dung styles. Sauna (2009) revealed that . , , . ...
j « • . j These executives were from the middle
the managers used many styles instead , ,
r j ... .u . level to top-level management,
of any one. It was important to note that v b
there is no single style that fits all the _ _ _ „ „ . , .
.• t u inrnm i a tu . ,u Data Collection &Analysis
situations. Iqbal (2009) revealed that the
top management exercised initiating _. _ .
.t iiru-i .u i-. . l 1■ The Management Style Diagnosis
structure style. While the literature has „ , . : . .
.. ... .. , . * . . . r, . 7¿íí(Reddin, 1988) is designed solely
highlighted consideration style or leader- . . T . ,. /
.. „ r .. j . „ .. , for the use of managers. It is directly
ship as most favorable and influential , , , .... .
.... . XT cu i . t> tt related to the eight styles based on
style. Ahmed, Nawaz, Shaukat & Usman „ ^ ° J. , „
(2010) revealed that the future manag- 3"D ,he°r>
ers had extraversion personality traits and ness an it as e
....... , . . ( business, government and universi
used both avoiding and compromising of . . f -
ties in various countries. It has a to
conflict handling style.
tal of 56 pair of statements and re
Ohiectives spondents have to choose between
'A' or 'B' based upon its applicabil
,x T. • .. . . r a a ity for their context. Later the re
1) To investigate the most preferred and J , ......
• . . - , , . . , ... sponses were taken on individual
rejected leadership styles by the ex- v , .........
ecutives score sheet which helps in obtaining
preferred managerial style; support
2) To explore the most applied conflict ing style and an over rejecte
management style by the executives. The reliability of the test was
tv , , ..... to be .69 and validity.76.
3) To explore the relationship between
the leadership styles and the conflict 2. Op
management styles. Conflict (Pareek, 1997; 2002) Sur
„ , . vey of Organizational Conflict has
been designed to help m
amine their style of confl
1) Missionary is the most preferred
ment so as to improve t
leadership style
tiveness in managing conf
2) Confrontation is the most preferred tains 24
conflict management style of the ex- styles o
ecutives. of these 4 are avoidance styles and
the remaining 4 are approach

176 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol

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Leadership Styles <£ Conflict Management Styles of Executives

The responses are to be indicated on style (Mean = 7.82). The table also indi
a 5-point scale. The reliability of cates that appeasement is the most pre
OSOC was found to be .89 by using ferred conflict management style (Mean
test-retest method. The validity = 12.52) followed by arbitration style
scores range between .54 and .69. (Mean = 10.67).
Pearson correlation coefficient & t u, i u .u w ci j
. . , , . Table 2 shows the correlation of lead
mean were used for statistical analysis: . , i . „ .
J ership styles and conflict management
styles. The table indicates that mission
Results
ary leadership style has positive and defi
"™—'~ nite correlation (r = 0.30) with resigna
Missionary leadership is the most tion conflict manag
preferred leadership style dicates the fact that executives believe
followed
by the developer leader style. in managing conflict but in harmony. The
table also shows that missionary leader
., , , . r ship style has positive and definite cor
Table 1 shows the mean scores of . . , n.m r „ .
, , .. , relation (r = 0.28) with confrontation con
leadership styles and conflict manage- _. , „. . . .
t , c . x ., . flict management style. This indicates the
ment styles of executives. The table in- r . ° . ...
, . . , , .. ... fact that executives believe in managing
dicates that missionary leadership (Mean . ... r . ,r
„ . . r j « « ,. conflict but in their own favor itself.
= 8.79) is the most preferred leadership
style followed by the developer leader

Table 1 Mean Scores of Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles

Leadership
Leadership Styles Styles Mean Conflict Management Styles Mean
Scores Scores

Deserter 4.94 Resignation 7.63

Missionary 8.79
8.79 Wedrawal 9.2
Autocratic 5.01
5.01 Defusion 8.69
8.69
Compromise
Compromise 6.4 Appeasement
Appeasement 12.52
Bureaucrat 7.66 Confrontation 10.32

Developer 7.82
7.82 Arbitration 10.67
Benevolent 7.76 Compromise 9.38
Executive 7.64 Negotiation 8.6

Further Table 2 shows that the auto- contradicts with the appeasement con
crat leadership style has negative corre- flict management style,
lation (r = -0.35) with appeasement con
flict management style. This indicates that Table 2 also shows that the bureau
executives using autocrat leadership style crat leadership style is negatively corre
do not agree to any demands of the other lated (r = -0.22) with appeasement con
party as they are more used to give or- flict management style. This shows that
ders and direct their associates. This executives using bureaucrat leadership

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 48, No. I, July 2012 111

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 Sameer Limbare

style believe in rules and procedures and is positively correlated (r = 0.32) w

do not make any changes in their ap- appeasement conflict management st
proach. This completely contradicts with This indicates the fact that executive lea
the appeasement conflict management ers treat everyone differently and is r
style which believes in accepting and to accept some demand of the other pa
changing approach for conflict manage- in order for conflict management. T
ment. The table also shows that the de- table also shows that the executive lead
veloper leadership style is positively cor- ership style is negatively correlate
related (r = 0.27) with appeasement con- -0.33) with wedrawal conflict man
flict management style. This indicates the ment style. This indicates that execut
fact that both the styles have a positive leaders have a positive approach to
approach of solving problem either by conflict management which the wed
consensus or by agreeing some demands conflict management style does n
of the other party. The table further hence having a*negative correlation
shows that the executive leadership style

Table 2 Coefficient of Correlation between Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Sty

ConflictManagement
Conflict Management Styles
Styles

LeadershipStyles
Leadership Styles Resg Wed App
App Def Conft
Conft Arbt Comp Negt

Deserter 0.00 0.14 -0.16 0.07 0.01 0.08 -0.14 -0.10

Missionary 0.30* 0.25* -0.07 0.31* 0.28* 0.14 0.16 0.15
Autocrat 0.11 0.23* -0.35* 0.29* 0.04 -0.05 -0.17 0.00
Compromise
Compromise 0.15 0.13 -0.08 -0.06 -0.18 0.01 -0.01 0.21*
Bureaucrat 0.06 -0.01
-0.01 -0.22* -0.02 0.01 -0.03 -0.14 -0.00
-0.00
Developer
Developer -0.25* -0.13
-0.13 0.27* -0.22* -0.12
-0.12 0.05 0.14 -0.20
Benevolent Autocrat -0.10 -0.12 0.20 -0.06 -0.04 -0.16 0.11 0.04
Executive -0.17
-0.17 -0.33* 0.32* -0.29* 0.00 -0.13
-0.13 0.12 -0.02

* indicates low but definite correlation r > ± 0.21 to ± 0.40

Resg- resignation, Wed- wedrawal, App- appeasement, Def- defusion, Conft- confrontation,
Compr- compromise, Negt- negotiation

Conclusions
ignation conflict management style
The following are the findings of the was the most rejected conflic
present study: agement style of the executives.
.. .. , , iii) Missionary leadership style is posi
,) Missionary leadership was the most tive, correlat
preferred and deserter leadership wedrawa|, defusion
style was the most rejected style by confl¡c| em
the executives.
... iv) Developer leadership style is negatively
n) Appeasement conflict management comIaKd
style was the most preferred and res

178 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations,

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Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles of Executives

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conflict management style. ings of the 41s1 Hawai International Con
ference on System Sciences.
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