Managerial Grid Model of Leadership

Explained
Developed by R. R. Blake and J. S. Mouton, the Managerial Grid Model helps
Managers to analyze their leadership styles through a technique known as grid
training.

Also, Managers can identify how they concerning their concern for production and
people with the Managerial Grid Model.

The two dimensions of leadership, viz. concern for people on ‘vertical’ axis and
concern for production on the ‘horizontal’ axis have been demonstrated by R. R.
Blake and J. S. Mouton in the form of Managerial Grid Model.

They identified 5 basic leadership styles of practicing managers representing various

combinations of the aforesaid two dimensions as shown in the following figure;

Managerial Grid Model is based on two behavioral dimensions:

1. Concern for people: This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs
of team members, their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding
how best to accomplish a task.

2. Concern for production: This is the degree to which a leader emphasizes

concrete objectives, organizational efficiency, and high productivity when deciding
how best to accomplish a task.

As shown in the figure, the model is represented as a grid with concern for production
as the X-axis and concern for people as the Y-axis; each axis ranges from 1 (Low) to
9 (high).

The five resulting leadership styles are as follows:

(1,9) Country Club Style Leadership High People
and Low Production
(1,9) Country Club Style Leadership style of leader is most concerned about the needs
and the feelings of members of his or her team.

In this environment, the relationship-oriented manager has a high concern for people
but a low concern for production.

He pays much attention to the security and comfort of the employees. He hopes that
this will increase performance.
He is almost incapable of employing the more punitive, coercive and legitimate
powers. The organization will end up to be a friendly atmosphere but not necessarily
very productive.

The (1,9) boss mainly uses reward power to preserve discipline and to support his
subordinates in accomplishing their goals.

Conversely, this manager is virtually incapable of employing more disciplinary

coercive and legitimate powers. This inability results from his fear that using such
powers could jeopardize his relationships.

This inability results from his fear that using such powers could jeopardize his
relationships.

Thus, the supervisor seldom attempts to impose his will on other people, preferring to
accept the ideas of others instead of forcing his own.

Employees in this type of work environment go about their day working at their own
pace on projects that they enjoy and with coworkers that they are attracted to.

(9,1) Produce or Perish Leadership- High

Production and Low People
(9,l) Produce or Perish Leadership management style is characterized by a concern for
production as the only goal.

Employees are viewed as obstacles to performance results unless obedience to the

manager’s wishes is explicitly granted.

In this style, the manager is authoritarian or compliance. A task-oriented manager, he

has a high concern for production and a low concern for people.

He finds employee needs unimportant and simply a means to an end. He provides his
employees with money and expects performance back.

There is little or no allowance for cooperation or collaboration. He pressures his

employees through rules and punishments to achieve the company goals.

This type of leader is very autocratic, has strict work rules, policies and procedures,
and views punishment as the most effective means to motivate employees.
(1,1) Impoverished Leadership-Low Production and
Low People:
(1,1) Impoverished Leadership is a delegate-and-disappear management style and a
lazy approach. The manager shows a low concern for both people and production.

He or she avoids getting into trouble. His main concern is not to be held responsible
for any mistakes.

Managers use this style to preserve job and job seniority, protecting themselves by
avoiding getting into trouble.

This leader is mostly ineffective. He or she has neither a high regard for creating
systems for getting the job done nor for creating a work environment that is satisfying
and motivating.

A result is a place of disorganization, dissatisfaction, and disharmony.

(5,5) Middle-Of-The-Road Leadership-Medium

Production and Medium People
(5,5) Middle-Of-The-Road Leadership is a kind of realistic medium without ambition.
It is a balanced and compromised style.

The manager tries to balance the competing goals of the company and the needs of the
workers.

The manager gives some concern to both people and production, hoping to achieve
acceptable performance. He believes this is the most anyone can do.

Consequently, compromises occur where neither the production nor the people’s
needs are fully met.

The supervisor views it as the most practical management technique. It is also an

outcome when production and people issues are seen as in conflict.

The defining characteristic of this style “is not to seek the best position for both
production and people… but to find the position that is in between both, about
halfway.”
When dealing with subordinates, the (5,5) manager prefers relaxed and shared
conversations – these allow’ him to slay popularly. Group membership is also enjoyed
as committees allow’ the supervisor to spread the responsibility for decision-making.

(9,9) Team Leadership-High Production and High

People
At (9,9) Team Leadership, the manager pays high concern to both people and
production. Motivation is high. This soft style is based on the propositions of Theory
Y of Douglas McGregor.

The manager encourages teamwork and commitment among employees.

This style emphasizes making employees feel part of the company-family and
involving them in understanding the organizational purpose and determining
production needs. This method relies heavily on making employees feel they are
constructive parts of the company.

And this will result in a team environment organization based on trust and respect,
which leads to high satisfaction and motivation and, as a result, high production.

In a (9,9) system the manager strives for sound and imaginative opinions, letting
others partake in the decision making the process.

He is not afraid to use ideas that are divergent from his own, but rather focuses on the
value of the ideas.

Emotions and thoughts are used to solve .problems through teamwork because this
supervisor is concerned with arriving only at the best possible solutions.

A (9,9)-oriented manager is capable of acting sensibly to bring about effective results,

maintaining consistency but finding innovative solutions to fit unique problems, and
unusual circumstances”.

Another of the manager’s primary goals in this system is to identify barriers that his
subordinates may be encountering and then finding a way to remove them.

This creates a team environment based on trust and respect which leads to high
satisfaction and high satisfaction and motivation and, as a result, high production.
 Advantages of the Managerial Grid Model
 Managers help to analyze their leadership styles through a technique known as
grid training.

 Managers identify how they for their concern for production and people.

Limitations of the Managerial Grid Model

 The model ignores the importance of internal and external limits, matter and
scenario.

 There is some more aspect of leadership that can be covered but are not.

Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid Model was one of the most influential
management models to appear in the 1960s, it also provided a foundation for even
more complex contingency approaches to leadership.

Notable amongst these studies are Fiedler’s Contingency model (which considers the
match between the manager’s personality and the situation), and Tannenbaum and
Schmidt’s Continuum of Leader Behavior (which stresses that the leader not only
understands himself but also the other persons in the organization along with the
social environment as well.

The Managerial Grid Model was the next logical step in the evaluation of
management thinking.

Blake and Jane Mouton based the framework of Grid on the sound logic of noted
theorists Abraham Maslow and Douglas McGregor.

The Grid expanded upon McGregor’s and other’s theories at the time to provide a
richer and more complete design between the manager’s concerns for production
versus their concern for interpersonal relationships.

Although later criticized and subjected to further revision by its creators, the original
Managerial Grid Model remains an important model of managerial behavior that
continues to be studied and utilized.

Blake and Mouton strongly argue that style (9,9) is the most effective management
style because it improved productivity, and caused high employee satisfaction, low
turnover and absenteeism.
It is widely used as a technique of managerial training and for identifying various
combinations of leadership styles.

Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

The treatment of task orientation and people orientation as two independent dimensions was a major step
in leadership studies. Many of the leadership studies conducted in the 1950s at the University of Michigan
and the Ohio State University focused on these two dimensions.

Building on the work of the researchers at these Universities, Robert Blake and Jane Mouton (1960s)
proposed a graphic portrayal of leadership styles through a managerial grid (sometimes
called leadership grid). The grid depicted two dimensions of leader behavior, concern for
people (accommodating people’s needs and giving them priority) on y-axis and concern for
production (keeping tight schedules) on x-axis, with each dimension ranging from low (1) to high (9),
thus creating 81 different positions in which the leader’s style may fall. (See figure 1).

The five resulting leadership styles are as follows:

1. Impoverished Management (1, 1): Managers with this approach are low on both the dimensions
and exercise minimum effort to get the work done from subordinates. The leader has low concern
for employee satisfaction and work deadlines and as a result disharmony and disorganization
 prevail within the organization. The leaders are termed ineffective wherein their action is merely
aimed at preserving job and seniority.
2. Task management (9, 1): Also called dictatorial or perish style. Here leaders are more
concerned about production and have less concern for people. The style is based on theory X of
McGregor. The employees’ needs are not taken care of and they are simply a means to an end.
The leader believes that efficiency can result only through proper organization of work systems
and through elimination of people wherever possible. Such a style can definitely increase the
output of organization in short run but due to the strict policies and procedures, high labour
turnover is inevitable.
3. Middle-of-the-Road (5, 5): This is basically a compromising style wherein the leader tries to
maintain a balance between goals of company and the needs of people. The leader does not
push the boundaries of achievement resulting in average performance for organization. Here
neither employee nor production needs are fully met.
4. Country Club (1, 9): This is a collegial style characterized by low task and high people
orientation where the leader gives thoughtful attention to the needs of people thus providing them
with a friendly and comfortable environment. The leader feels that such a treatment with
employees will lead to self-motivation and will find people working hard on their own. However, a
low focus on tasks can hamper production and lead to questionable results.
5. Team Management (9, 9): Characterized by high people and task focus, the style is based on
the theory Y of McGregor and has been termed as most effective style according to Blake and
Mouton. The leader feels that empowerment, commitment, trust, and respect are the key
elements in creating a team atmosphere which will automatically result in high employee
satisfaction and production.

Advantages of Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

The Managerial or Leadership Grid is used to help managers analyze their own leadership styles through
a technique known as grid training. This is done by administering a questionnaire that helps managers
identify how they stand with respect to their concern for production and people. The training is aimed at
basically helping leaders reach to the ideal state of 9, 9.

Limitations of Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

The model ignores the importance of internal and external limits, matter and scena