Question

The traits and behavior of a leader define her/him in an organization. It is generally accepted that leadership style emphasizing proper behavior is preferable to leadership style in which the leader focuses on incorporation of desirable traits in her/his conduct.

Studies on leader behaviors and identified how leaders demonstrate two key behaviors: (i) focus on people (consideration); and (ii) focus on task (structure). Depending on a leader’s perception of the relative importance of people and tasks, leadership styles can reflect a combination of structure and consideration ranging from high structure/low consideration to low structure/high consideration.

1. Identify management one situation in which high structure/low consideration leadership behavior style will be most suitable. Briefly justify your choice.
2. Do the same for low structure/high consideration leadership behavior style.

Answer 1

answer-

One management situation where leader like project manager is assigned to complete a project within a specified period of time under specified budget then the focus of that project manager is to take approach of high structure/low consideration leadership behavior style because in this style the leader should need to show behavior and traits to achieve the target means complete the task before or on deadline.

for example- Company's management has given a project to change the information system of the whole organization before new year. It is now 1st December so project leader has to focus on completing the project by doing everything like focus on task means structure than its people.

The management situation where low structure/high consideration leadership behavior style is suitable when leader is faced with poor morale of its employees and its business is affected by that. for example- salesperson in a company are not satisfied with its manager who does not provide proper support to its sale person and take more work from them . in this situation, manager should focus on making good relationship with salesperson by supporting them like praising their achievements, focus on rewarding them by bonus etc .