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Thousands of leadership studies have been published and thousands of pages on leadership have been Ritter in academic books and journals, business-oriented publications, and general-interest publications” (Para. AAA). Individuals and researchers conducting a particular leadership study state that leadership has many definitions (Yuk, 2010). Yuk (2010) states “Researchers usually define leadership according to their individual perspectives and the aspects of the phenomenon of most interest to them.
After a comprehensive review of the leadership literature which also indicates that there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept” (p. AAA). Behavioral Leadership One of the major leadership approaches is the behavioral leadership study. Yuk (2010) stated,” The behavior approach began in the early sass’s after many researchers became discouraged with the trait approach and began to pay closer attention to what managers actually do on the job. The behavior research falls into two general subcategories.
One line of research examines how managers spend their time and the typical pattern of activities, responsibilities, and functions for managerial jobs. Some of the research also investigates how managers cope with demands, constraints, and role conflicts in their jobs” (p. 13-bib). The University of Michigan and Ohio State University researched two different behavioral studies to investigate different aspects of leadership. The Ohio State research indicates two aspects of leadership. The first aspect is initiating structure that considers task- oriented behavior deal with planning, organizing, and coordinating employees’ working process.
The other area of research is the consideration aspect that indicates showing concerns by being supportive, recognizing other employee’s accomplishment, and considering the welfare of those employees. The University of Michigan study results are also in two parts; one is the employee orientation, and the other is the production orientation. According to Leadership Theories and Studies (2012), “Leaders with an employee orientation showed genuine concern for interpersonal relations. Those with a production orientation focused on the task or technical aspects of the job” (Para. B). The basis of both researches is to observe if there are any similarities that will indicate universal behavioral patterns for effective leaders. Behavioral Strengths and Weaknesses Behavioral leadership approach has its strengths and weaknesses; leaders who are relying on their leadership ability condition themselves to solve problem the name way. An example of a leader’s strength is the grasping of details very quickly, but the weakness is the leaders becomes overly controlling and have problems delegating assignments to his or her employees.
Leaders who ignore their strength of grasping details, the weakness in this strength is making incorrect decisions. Another example of a leader’s strength is leaders set higher standards for him or herself and his or her employees. This will have an impact because leaders becomes overly demanding of employees and themselves. Behavioral leaders who possess excellent leadership ability must consider his or ere strengths and weaknesses in order to effectively lead others. Organization uses of The Behavioral Approach The organization that implies the behavioral leadership approach is the Marriott International Corporation.
According to Core Values and Heritage (2012), “We believe our strength is rooted in our core values: putting people first, pursuing excellence, embracing change, acting with integrity and serving our world” (Put People First). An example of this is the consideration aspect that Marriott indicate to their employees helping them pursue educational goals and training objective that will enhance working knowledge. Conclusion In conclusion, the paper indicated the behavioral leadership approach and the strengths and weaknesses of the leadership approach.