Leadership Approach - Essay Example

Different approaches tackle different ways of scrutinizing leaders in different organizations. However, they have a common feature which is the determination of effective leadership. The leadership study approaches have been in existence since the early 90’s. The approaches have evolved to more efficient and appropriate approaches. The leadership study approaches include the trait approach, behavior approach, power influence approach, situational approach and the integrative approach. All the approaches have three key variables; characteristics of the leader, characteristics of the followers and the characteristics of the situation.

This paper will focus on behavior approach of studying leadership (Yuki, 2010). It will give an insight in the characteristics of this leadership study approach. Additionally, the paper will include an insight on its strengths and weaknesses and an example of its application in studying leadership. Behavioral approach of studying leadership was established in the early 1950’s after the trait approach failed to provide researchers with the required results to evaluate leaders (Yuki, 2010). The behavior approach pays close attention to managers and leaders in organizations.

It evaluates some personal attributes and skills at a closer perspective. The approach is divided into two categories of scrutiny. The first category focuses on the research on the manager’s job description, how they spend their time, their daily pattern of activities, their responsibilities and the functions of their managerial jobs. In this category some researches also focus on how managers deal with constraints and demands and how they resolve conflicts in their line of duty. In this category data collection is mainly done through observation, job description questionnaires, diaries and anecdotes from retrieved from interviews (Griffin, 2011).

The mangers effectiveness in this subcategory is their ability to solve role conflicts cope with demands, deal with constraints and recognize opportunities. The other subcategory in behavior study approach entails the identifying of effective and appropriate leadership behavior. In this subcategory research methodology is mainly done by a survey of the research field and using an appropriate questionnaire. The questionnaire is an inclusion of behavior description questions. Since the establishment of this approach researchers have been able to identify the correlation between a manager’s behavior and effective leadership (Yuki, 2010).

This leadership approach has several weaknesses and strengths when it comes to application and results. According to Yuki (2010) the strengths of this approach revolve around the personal knowledge of a leader. This approach enables researchers to know a manager more when not and when in their job description. The personal attributes of a manager are very important in analyzing their effectiveness. By its method of data collection a manager’s skills and effectiveness is able to be scrutinized in a personal basis.

The evaluation of a manager’s ability to solve conflicts is also a unique feature in this leadership study approach (Griffin, 2011). Additionally, this approach provides a perspective on the correlation between the personal attributes of a manager and their effectiveness in their job description. This approach mostly questionnaires as a tool of data collection. This