Leadership styles and behaviour profiles of managers

Abstract

Purpose

A variety of organisational leaders, workers, managers and academics had previously been classified on the basis of characteristics of their jobs including how they spent their time. This study investigated the extent to which managers from various UK industries could be meaningfully grouped on the basis of the leadership styles and behaviour patterns which they exhibited in the performance of their jobs.

Design/methodology/approach

Names of the potential respondents were randomly obtained from leaders and managers working in the UK key British enterprises. This comprised a variety of organisations and industries, namely: manufacturing, financial services, utilities, IT\telecommunications, public sector and others. A total number of 409 managers completed and returned usable questionnaires giving a response rate of 28.4 per cent. A cluster analysis methodology was used to group the respondents into three distinct units.

Findings

The managers were grouped into three categories: practical leaders (group 1), unity leaders (group 2) and uncaring leaders (group 3). Attention then focused on the distinctive styles and behaviour of the practical, unity and uncaring leaders who formed 12, 69 and 19 per cent of the managers, respectively.

Research limitations/implications

The naming of the groups should not be allowed to give the impression that there was complete uniformity within each category. Furthermore, absolute statements about the effectiveness of the groups cannot be made with certainty; effectiveness of each group is relative.

Originality/value

Organisations can examine their managers and determine to which group they belong. For example, it was found in this study that practical and unity leaders formed 81 per cent of the managers in UK organisations. Since the major characteristics of the styles and behaviour profiles of uncaring leaders (19 per cent) were also identified, attention by organisational leaders should focus on suggestions aimed at making these managers more effective in the performance of their jobs.

Citation

Oshagbemi, T. and Ocholi, S.A. (2006), "Leadership styles and behaviour profiles of managers", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 748-762. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710610684231