BEHAVIORAL THEORY VS.

PARTICIPATIVE THEORY

Advantages of behavioral leadership theory

There are two main advantages of behavioral leadership theory:

1. It addresses key questions on an organization’s leadership model

A couple of points that can be addressed by this study is if leaders expect you to
cooperate among various departments on different tasks or if teams are consistently
involved in decision-making to foster support on related projects. If there is a lag when it
comes to the work being completed on a marketing project, the behavioral theory of
leadership can answer why there may be a lag and who is directly responsible for it.

If a marketing manager did not communicate expectations for the approval process on
client deliverables, then a change of direction is needed to get a project back on track to
keep the clients satisfied with your brand.

Related: Setting Goals to Improve Your Career

2. It identifies the leadership style of your manager

Behavioral theories of leadership only assess behavior, not traits or capabilities. Trait
theory goes in-depth on how managers and employees have characteristics like being
adaptable to changing circumstances and alertness in a social environment that show if
they’re qualified to be a leader. Executing a behavioral leadership theory evaluation
highlights the events a manager acts upon given the situation. 

If you feel like your means of communication differs from your manager, determine
which leadership style your manager has, such as: 

Coaching leadership

This kind of leader helps you set you and your department’s goals and is proactive in
giving feedback about performance. For example, a manager can assign your team a
project as a growth opportunity in addition to setting expectations and creating a
positive work environment for staff.

Each month, a sales director can set goals for their team to reach a quota of outbound
calls to prospects, leads generated and deals closed over a set period. Once the sales
director gathers all performance metrics, they determine if they met or exceeded their
targets for these three categories, suggest improvements and answer questions or
concerns from the team about how to proceed.

Visionary leadership
These types of leaders can inspire progress from their employees while earning trust for
new ideas and creating a bond between you and other organizations’ employees. This
is helpful if you’re a part of a smaller organization that is growing fast or a larger
organization that is experiencing a corporate restructuring. If your manager forms a
group with you and your coworkers to resolve anxieties about workload, this is an
example of a visionary leader.

Servant leadership

Servant leaders have a people-first mindset and are fulfilled when you feel personally
and professionally fulfilled. Many managers have the belief that if you’re fulfilled in all
aspects of your life, then you’re more likely to produce great work regularly. They can
raise employee morale and help you re-engage with your work. Say the CEO of your
company has coffee with you once a month to address concerns, questions or thoughts
about a product that is launching soon. This is intended to help alleviate the confusion
you may have about your work and to help the client receive a highly valuable product. 

Autocratic leadership

An autocratic leader makes a company decision without consulting you about it directly.
If a decision needs to be made quickly, then it makes sense to not loop you in,
especially if you’re not an upper-level employee in an organization. This strategy can
save you time if you’re working on a project that has a stringent client deadline so you
don’t have to be pulled into a meeting that doesn’t require your input.  

Laissez-faire or hands-off leadership

This approach is the opposite of autocratic leadership where its approach is centered on
delegating tasks to different employees without or with little supervision. if you’re highly
experienced in your field, then you would be in favor of this style as it requires little
oversight. It’s also beneficial if you like the freedom of creating your own schedule that
meets the department’s goals. 

Democratic leadership

Democratic leaders ask their team to provide input before making a managerial
decision. This can be a chance for you to shine by presenting your ideas in a way that is
correlated to the teams’ performance. Even though each leader differs in how much
input they ask from their team, an agreement matters if there is an unbreakable bond
between coworkers.

Related: 10 Common Leadership Styles (With Examples)

Disadvantages of behavioral leadership theory

There are two main disadvantages of behavioral leadership theory:
1. Behavioral theories are a learned process and take time.

Whether you’re a leader or an employee, determining certain behaviors that fit

scenarios come with trial and error. Leaders have to be willing to put themselves in an
environment to be tested, and they have to acknowledge that their behavior is worth
monitoring. With the vast deadlines pending and clients to attend to, a CEO or impactful
leader may be a difficult test subject to access. However, if they show a willingness to
be vulnerable, they’ll know more about themselves than they did going into the
evaluation, and it can have a direct effect on how they interact with you as time
progresses.

2. Leaders have other considerations for how to manage employees.

Leaders may consider power and influence approaches to getting work done and how
to work with you. This way, your role and how you operate within an organization factors
into what decision you make and when. 

Two leadership styles that fit this paradigm include: 

Pacesetter leadership

This approach is geared toward driving fast results from team members where they hold
high standards for you and your colleagues for meeting your goals. Your manager can
change a weekly staff meeting from one hour in the boardroom to a 15-minute standup
meeting to go over the past week’s performance. 

Transactional leadership

This method is also centered on a leader who is only measuring the performance of
their team. This leader offers predetermined incentives, usually a monetary one for
success or disciplinary action for failure. However, the leader still provides mentorship
opportunities to achieve those goals. A sales director meets with their team biweekly to
see how they can exceed their targets to earn their bonuses. This is not an optimal
management style if you’re seeking to move into a creative field.

**
Behavioral Theory: Strengths,
Weaknesses, and
Current Theorists
Behavior Theory
 Behavior theory consists of skills and styles that differ from traits since behaviors can be
developed. In the beginning of the 1900s, behaviors were studied to understand how
leaders can make more effective decisions regarding organizational issues (Mumford,
Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman, 2000; Yammarino, 2000; cited in Northouse, 2013,
p. 43). According to Derue, Nahrgang, Wellman, and Humprey (2011), leadership behaviors
are composed of task-oriented behaviors, relational-oriented behaviors, and change-
oriented behaviors. Task-oriented behaviors consist of contingent reward, directives, and
initiating structure. Relational-oriented behaviors are comprised of consideration,
empowerment, developing and enabling others. Change-oriented behaviors are
transformational and exhibit charisma (p. 10). Overall, behavior theory provides a map for
how to conduct effective leadership in organizations (Northouse, 2013, p. 58). Behavior
theory will largely be examined based by analyzing The Five Practices of Exemplary
Leadership® from Kouzes and Posner.
Strengths
 
 There are two main strengths of Behavior Theory. First, Behavior Theory supports the idea
that leadership traits can be learned through development and experience. This steps away
from the “Great Man” Theory by arguing that leaders can be made, and are not necessarily
born with innate traits. Further, behavior theory looks at the word “leadership” as a
characteristic that one can develop. Second, this new idea that leaders can be made has
allowed more recent leadership theory research that is based on developing the leaders to
produce intended results.
Weaknesses
 
There are two limitations to Behavior Theory worth noting. First, the largest limitation to
behavioral theory, and specifically Kouzes and Posner’s research, is that just because people
learn the practices and behaviors does not mean they will be able to enact the theory
properly. It is easy to learn why or how to do these behaviors, but knowing when to behave
one way or another, and becoming adept in these behaviors is a far more challenging task.
A second weakness, related to both behavior theory and Kouzes and Posner’s work, is
adaptability. There is a lack of knowledge on how behavior theory can be used in various
cultural contexts and situations. One behavior that works in one situation may not be
universal enough to work in another situation.
Current Theorists
 
More research is starting to support the idea that leadership is developed through learning
and experience. Current theorists, such as Avolio, Walumbwa, and Weber (2009), have
supported that the “life context” a person grows up around is more influential than
heritability in showing career leadership success (pp. 425). According to DeRue and Myers
(2013), in order to be a successful leader, there must be development past knowledge and
skills. Leadership development occurs primarily through action-based learning and
experience (pp. 849). DeRue, et al. (2011), state that there has been a lot of new
behavioral theory research done, but not much of it has been compared to previous
research. One of the few agreements within this research is that behaviors can be
categorized into: task-oriented, relational-oriented, change-oriented, and passive leadership
(pp. 15-16).
**

ADVANTAGES OF BEHAVIORAL
THEORY
 It helps determine the leadership styles of managers and team
leaders
 It helps managers determine how their leadership style affects
their relationship with the team and promotes commitment
towards business goals
 It guides managers to find the right balance between different
leadership styles and helps them decide how to behave in
different situations

DISADVANTAGES OF
BEHAVIORAL THEORY
 Behavioral theories are learned processes that take time and
may not always be successful
 Personal biases may influence a manager’s decision because
they’re expected to make independent decisions and respond to
different situations differently

CONCLUSION
 Behavioral Theories of
Leadership
Behavioral Theory of leadership is a big leap from Trait Theory, as it was developed
scientifically by conducting behaviour focused studies. The theory emphasizes that
leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. This theory is based
on the principle that a leader's behaviors can be conditioned in a manner that one can
have a specific response to specific stimuli.

Behavioral Theories of Leadership, also known as “The style approach to leadership”

focuses on the behavior of the leader and what leaders do and how they act. In the
1940s, two parallel studies on leadership were in progress, one based on traits
displayed by leaders, another on the behaviours exhibited by leaders.

 Traits theory assumes that leaders are born, rather than made

 Trait theory concentrates on, what the leaders are
 Great Man Theory and Traits Theory are focused on intrinsic personal characteristics
 Behavioural theories are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not born
 Behavioural theories concentrate on, what leaders do
 Behavioral approach is based on the leader's beliefs, values, and interpersonal
relations
 Considers the Leader's attitude, behavior, opinion, and concern about his
followers/organization
 Studies leadership behavior from the point of view of motivation, supervision, and
authority
 Behavioural theories assume that specific behavioral patterns of leaders can be
acquired
 People can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation.

What are Behaviors? 

Behavior is the range of actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or
artificial entities in conjunction with their environment, which includes the other
systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment.   
What is Human Behaviors? 
Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are
influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis,
persuasion, coercion and/or genetics. In humans, behavior is believed to be controlled
primarily by the endocrine system and the nervous system. Behaviors can be either
innate or learned.  

Human behavior is experienced throughout an individual’s entire lifetime. It includes

the way they act based on different factors such as genetics, social norms, core faith,
and attitude. Behavior is impacted by certain traits each individual has. The traits vary
from person to person and can produce different actions or behavior from each
person.  

As the questions about how to measure traits continued to challenge trait theory,

researchers began thinking about measuring behavior. While you can’t easily measure
confidence or honesty in a person, they noted, you can define a behavior or a set of
behaviors that seem to embody the trait.

Beliefs are ideas that people have about the world around them and how it operates.
People tend to behave according to their beliefs. Values are assessments of the
goodness or badness of various features of one's life. Values form attitudes that guide
a person's conduct. Beliefs and values have close interaction. Beliefs become values
when they lead to certain favorable or unfavorable consequences.

Researchers define behaviors as observable actions, which makes measuring them

more scientifically valid than trying to measure a human personality trait. In this
theory, we will focus on two general kinds of behaviors by leaders called task
behaviors and relationship behaviors.

What is Behavioral Theory of

Leadership?  
Behavioral Theory of Leadership is a leadership theory that considers the
observable actions and reactions of leaders and followers in a given
situation. Behavioral theories focus on how leaders behave and assume that leaders
can be made, rather than born, and successful leadership is based on definable,
learnable behavior. Behavioral theories of leadership are classified as such because
they focus on the study of specific behaviors of a leader. For behavioral theorists, a
leader behavior is the best predictor of his leadership influences and as a result, is the
best determinant of his or her leadership success. 

These theories concentrate on what leaders actually do rather than on their qualities.

Different patterns of behavior are observed and categorized as 'styles of leadership'. 
This area has probably attracted the most attention from practicing managers.

**
What are the disadvantages of behavioral theory?

What are the disadvantages of behavioral theory?

There are two main disadvantages of behavioral leadership theory:

 Behavioral theories are a learned process and take time. Whether you’re a leader
or an employee, determining certain behaviors that fit scenarios come with trial
and error.
 Leaders have other considerations for how to manage employees.

What are the advantages of behavioral theory?

An obvious advantage of behaviorism is its ability to define behavior clearly and to
measure changes in behavior. According to the law of parsimony, the fewer
assumptions a theory makes, the better and the more credible it is.

What are the implications of the behavioral theories of

leadership?
The behavioral leadership theory focuses on how leaders behave, and assumes that
these traits can be copied by other leaders. Sometimes called the style theory, it
suggests that leaders aren’t born successful, but can be created based on learnable
behavior.

What are strengths of the behavioral approach?

Strengths. One of the greatest strengths of behavioral psychology is the ability to clearly
observe and measure behaviors. Behaviorism is based on observable behaviors, so it is
sometimes easier to quantify and collect data when conducting research.

What is the behavioral personality theory?

Behavioral theories suggest that personality is a result of interaction between the
individual and the environment. 5 Behavioral theorists study observable and measurable
behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal thoughts, moods, and feelings play a part
as these cannot be measured.

How many personality theories are there?

While there are many personality theories available to discuss, the following lesson
provides information on the three main theories: psychodynamic, humanistic, and
behaviorist. Let’s take a closer look at each of these and go over an example describing
each theory in practice.