LEADERSHIP:

TYPES AND PRINCIPLES OF LEADERSHIP1

Dr. Oscar G. Nalzaro2
I.

Introduction
Attempts to influence behavior are integral to the leadership process. It
ranges from very subtle and indirect ways to very visible and direct means. It
includes emulation, suggestion, persuasion and coercion. Leaders use various
means over time to influence followers behavior.

II.

Objectives
At the end of the presentation, the participants are expected to:
1. explain the different types of leadership; and
2. identify and discuss the principles of leadership.

III.

Leadership Style
Leadership style is the pattern of behavior and actions that leaders make
over a period of time as perceived by followers. It is how leaders behave, over
time when they are trying to influence the performance of others. Style is the
visible aspect of leadership. It can be seen in the day-to-day interactions of
leaders with followers. It is manifestation of a leaders assumptions, philosophies
and attitudes.
Any management style is the pattern of behavior and actions that leaders
make over a period of time as perceived by followers. Don Andres R. Soriano
practiced paternalistic style of management.

1. He viewed workers as human beings with needs, men of dignity and

honor.
2. He looked after the welfare of his employees and
this concern
extended their personal needs.
3. He expected his subordinates to show their jobs.
4. He compensated his workers well, but he demanded utmost loyalty
from them.
5. He gave due recognition to a job well done.
6. He hesitated to lay off personnel, but if this had to be done during a
business downtown, he issued directives that laid personnel must be
rehired as soon as operation returns to normal.
_____________
1

A lecture presented to the Master in Educational Management students of the Western Philippines
University Puerto Princesa Campus, Puerto Princesa City.
2
Associate Professor V & Campus Administrator, Western Philippines University, Puerto Princesa
Campus, Puerto Princesa City.

Kind of Leadership
a. Transactional leadership occurs when one person takes the initiative
in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of
valued things.
b. Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons
engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise
one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. Various
names are given to it: elevating, mobilizing, inspiring, exalting,
uplifting, preaching, exhorting, and evangelizing leadership.
o Transcending leadership, a variant of transforming
leadership in the sense that the leaders throw themselves
into a relationship with followers who feel elevated by it
and often become more active themselves, thereby creating
new cadres of leaders.
o Reform leadership is one that seeks change through gradual
means.
A reformer is an insistent exclusivist
particularist.
o Revolutionary leadership, is one who seeks complete,
pervasive, profound, and radical transformation of the
entire social, economic or political system.
Leader Continuum
Early research by Lewin, Lippit and White suggested a continuum
theory of leadership that identified three basic styles of leadership:
Autocratic, Laissez-faire and the Democratic leader. Leadership style has
been classified in various ways and one of which distinguishes how
leaders use power and authority.
Autocratic,
o an individual who has little trust in group members;
o believes that money is the only reward that will motivate;
o workers, and issues orders to be fulfilled with no questions
asked;
o rely primarily on their power and authority;
o centralized decision-making;
o members have little opportunity to make contributions;
o leaders expect discipline, obedience and compliance from
members; and
o threats and punishment are used.

Laissez-faire leader (Free-Rein)

o has little or no self-confidence in his or her leadership
ability;
o sets no goals for the group and minimizes communication
and group interaction;
o use power sparingly;
o participation in the affairs of the group is minimal; and
o communication is irregular.
Democratic leader
o shares and decentralize decision-making with the group
members;
o share power and authority with the members are able to
participate;
o explains to the group reasons for personal decisions when
necessary;
o members are consulted;
o encouraged to express their positions; and
o objectively communicates criticism and praise to
subordinates.
Robert McMurry described the benevolent autocrat as a leader
who listens carefully to followers, gives the impression of being
democratic but always makes his or her own personal decision. He argues
that the democratic leadership style is too slow and unworkable in our
fast-moving business world.

Autocrat

Democrat

Laissez-faire

Benevolent
Autocrat
Figure 1.

Leader Continuum

Source: Principle of Management (Terry/Franklin)

A Basic Model (The Ohio State University Studies).

This is one of the most widely known leadership studies behaviors and
investigates the effect of various leadership styles on group performance and job
satisfaction. These investigators identified two major factors or dimensions with
which managers-leaders are concerned: initiating structure and consideration.
Initiating structure, is the degree to which leaders are concerned with
organizational structure, definition of the jobs to be done, pressure for
work output, definition of communication channels, and evaluation of
group output. It is task-oriented leadership.
Task Orientation is a management style that emphasizes control, rather
encouragement, of employees work, focusing on work results, task
responsibilities, and work standards.
Consideration, involves the leaders concern for mutual trusting and
respectful relationships, friendship, employee support, and effective
informal communication. It is employee-oriented leadership.
Employee (People) Orientation is a style of management that emphasizes
motivation, social cohesions, and a concern for employees.
The most effective leadership style would be the one that had a high
concern for both consideration and structure. However, the results indicated that
no single style was the most effective in all instances.
Autocratic, a directive style of leadership with power centered in one or a
few key individual; autocratic leaders typically focus on tasks, centralize personal
power, and have a low concern for people.
Autocratic style manager seem to have less success with employees.
Although their subordinate accomplished tasks within reason, they were likely to
display maladaptive behavior and to resist innovative work methods
Supportive leadership, a style of leadership that encourages employees
through motivation techniques and acceptance.
Supportive leadership style resulted in more cohesive work groups, more
productive organization, and fewer problems associated with turnover,
absenteeism, and grievances.
Democratic leadership an approach to leadership that involves employees
in decisions through group efforts and team-building techniques.

Conclusion: There is no one best leadership style in all places and in

circumstances and at all times.
HIGH
2
High Consideration

3
High Consideration

Low Structure

High Structure

1
Low Consideration

4
Low Consideration

Low Structure

High Structure

Consideration
LOW
HIGH

LOW
Initiating
Structure

Figure 2. Leader Grid (Ohio State)

Source: Principle of Management, (Terry/Franklin)

HIGH

Concern
for
People

Supportive

Participative

High concern for

people.
Low concern for
tasks.

High concern for

people.
High concern for
tasks.

Abdicative

Directive

Low concern for

people.
Low concern for
tasks.

Low concern for

people.
High concern for
tasks.

LOW
HIGH
Tasks

LOW
Concern

for

Figure 3. Two Dimension Leadership Model

Source: Management (Holt)

The Managerial Grid

The Managerial Grid is an organizational development model created by
Robert Blake and Jane Mouton that is based on a matrix of values between 1 to 9
for two primary variables explaining a managers orientation, concern for tasks
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and concern people. Each style is identified by a set of coordinates on two

dimensions of concern for production and concern for people.
Table 1. The Managerial Grid (Blake and Mouton plotted five major Leadership
Styles).
Style
of Leader

Effectiveness

1,1

Little concern for

either production
or people.

The impoverished
type.

Worst Leadership
style.

1,9

Lowest concern for

production, highest
for people.

The country-club
type.

People oriented style.

9,1

Highest concern for

production, lowest for
people.

The autocrat type.

Production style.

5,5

Comfortable concern
for both production
and people.

The middle-of-theroad type.

Maintain present
balance style.

9,9

Highest concern for

both production
and people.

The team type.

Peak of leadership
styles.

Four (4) Systems of Management

Developed by Rensis Likert, it is a description of four approaches to
leadership taken by managers, ranging from autocratic to participative.
Each
leadership style or system is defined by at least seven operating characteristics,
which include:
o
o
o
o
o
o

Character of motivational forces.

Character of communication process.
Character of interaction-influence process.
Character of decision-making process.
Character of goal setting or ordering.
Character of control processes.

o Performance characteristics.
System 1 - Exploitive-authoritative. Fear is used as a motive. Communication is
mostly downward. Little interaction is experienced. Decisions are made and
orders are issued solely by the leader, Likerts observations suggest that
productivity under this system is mediocre.
System 2 Benevolent authoritative, is an improvement (according to Likert)
over system 1. Economic rewards are used more than fear or motivational forces.
Communication is only slightly better. Productivity is fair to good. There is much
room for improvement in other operating characteristics.
System 3 Consultative, is consider to be the ideal leadership style. Productivity
is good. Control is still primarily at the top but is shared with middle and lower
managers. Goals are set after discussion with subordinates. Operating decisions
are made at lower levels in the organization.
System 4 Participative Group, considered as the optimal approach to leading all
people in our dynamic and educated society. Motivational forces come from ego,
economics and group involvement in decision-making and goal setting. There is
extensive interaction with a high degree of mutual trust and respect. Management
controls are widely self-monitored. Productivity is excellent under their system of
leadership.
IV.

Theories of Leadership
The situational approach to leadership holds that the most effective style
of leadership depends on the particular situation. The goal of the situational
leader theorists is to predict the most effective leadership style under varying
circumstances.
1. The Hersey and Blanchard Life Cycle Theory
Life Cycle Model. Developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard,
which is based on the maturity of subordinates. Leadership is described by a
perspective course containing four general modes of leader behavior: delegating,
participating, selling and telling. Each is dependent on the maturity of
subordinates.
Delegating. Managers adopt a low-profile style that provides little support
and little direction for subordinates, who are given the responsibility for carrying
out plans.
Participating.
Managers with work groups at this moderately high
maturity level face a motivation problem. Subordinates are capable but lack the
confidence to take full responsibility for performing expected tasks.

Selling. Managers with subordinates at this level of maturity adopt a

selling style of leadership. They try to get workers to buy into desired
performance through support tempered by direction.
Telling. Managers must assume maximum responsibility for subordinates,
who lack both the ability and the willingness to carry out plans.
To understand the life cycle model, one must know what heresy and
Blanchard mean maturity. They do not rely on age or seniority to define it,
although these may be factors. It relates more to job ability and psychological
willingness to assume task responsibility.
In terms of job ability maturity, means having the skill, knowledge,
experience and confidence to perform necessary tasks and meet job-related
expectations. Psychological maturity, means having the intrinsic motivation, the
willingness, to accept responsibility.
2. Contingency Leadership
An approach to leadership that suggests the most effective management
behavior depends that on adaptation to circumstances in a variety of situations.
The situational perspective on leadership identified various factors that can
influence leadership behavior. The contingency approaches to leadership attempt:
o To identify which of these factors is most important under a given
set of circumstances; and
o to predict the leadership style that will be most effective under
those circumstances.
Fiedlers Contingency Theory
Fred Fiedlers contingency theory, the first to be developed,
described successful leadership as a direct result of matching managers
styles with situational variables. Fiedler grouped situational variables into
three areas of concern:
Leader-Member Relations. Leader-member relations refer to the
leaders acceptance by group members, whether it is based on referent
expertise, or friendly legitimate sources.
This category refers to the
compatibility between group members and managers. If group members
respect the manager and also feel a personal attachment to him or her,
formal authority will be less important to accomplish work.
Tasks Structure. The nature of jobs and how tasks are structured
influence leadership.

Position Power. The organization culture, the formality of

management hierarchy, and the type of work environment influence the
position power leaders. It includes the power to hire, fire, promote,
demote give salary increases, or withhold rewards.
3. Tannenbaum and Schmidts Situational Continuum
Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt theorized that the most
effective leadership style is contingent on what they called forces in:
o the leader;
o the follower; and
o the situation.
Based on the prevalence and interaction of these forces, a leader has
continuum of styles from which to choose for maximizing organizational
productivity.
4. The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
The Path-Goal theory is a contingency approach to leadership that
holds managers responsible for influencing employees to work for reward
linked to specific tasks.
Robert House and Terrence Mitchell proposed that leadership
effectiveness is contingent upon two basic propositions.
The first is that leadership effectiveness is determined by the extent
subordinates believe leader behavior will immediately or in the future be a
source of satisfaction.
The second proposition is that leadership behavior will positively
affect subordinates output if it provides ample coaching, support, guidance,
and rewards for performance.
In their model, the strategic functions of a leader consist of the
following:
o Recognizing and/or arousing subordinates needs for outcomes over
which the leader has some control.
o Increasing personal payoffs to subordinates for goal attainment.
o Making the path to those payoffs easier to travel by coaching and
directing.
o Helping subordinates clarify expectancies.
o Reducing frustrating barriers.
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o Increasing the opportunities for personal satisfaction contingent on

effective performance.
Two contingency variables with which leaders must contend are:
o The personal characteristics of subordinates; and
o the environmental pressures with which subordinates must cope to
accomplish their work goals and satisfy personal needs.
5. The Vroom-Yetton Theory
Victor Vroom, known for his work in expectancy theory teamed up
with Philip Yetton to provide an alternative view for contingency leadership.
The Vroom-Yetton model is a theory of leadership that suggests
conditions that influence subordinates to participate in various ways in
decision-making. It proposes that managers consciously adapt their leadership
behavior to suit the different types of decisions they face.
6. Political Leadership: Douglas MacGregor Burns
Douglas MacGregor Burns, one of Americas outstanding political
scientists and social philosopher made a study of leadership. Combining vivid
biography, dramatic history, political theory, and his own personal experience,
he came out with the following concepts:
6.1 Leadership is a relationship, whereby leaders induce followers to
act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations-the wants
and needs, the aspirations and expectations- both leaders and followers.
6.2 Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with
certain motives and purposes mobilize, in competition or conflict with others,
institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so as to arouse,
engage, and satisfy the motives of followers.
6.3
Leadership unlike naked power-wielding, is inseparable from
follower relations is the interaction of persons with different levels of
motivations and of power potential, including skill, in pursuit of a common or
at least joint purpose.
6.4 Measurement of Power and Leadership: by the degree of
production of intended effects.
7. Assumptions About People

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Douglas McGregors famous Theory X and Theory Y Model will serve

as a backdrop in the discussion of leadership theories.
7.1 Theory X assumes the following:
o People basically dislike work, are lazy, and will avoid work if
possible.
o Because of their laziness and dislike for work, people must be
coerced, threatened, and closely directed controlled (managed)
to ensure their minimum performance.
o Most people like to be managed with policies, rules, and close
control by someone in an authoritative position.
o Most people are passive, low risk takers, and therefore prefer
job security to any other element of work life.
7.2 McGregors Theory Y provides an antithesis of the general
assumptions about behavior:
o People do not avoid work because they like it. Work is as
natural as eating, sleeping, and playing.
o Given the proper environment, people will seek responsibility
and be very creative in their work.
o When organizational objectives are congruent with personal
goals, people will be highly motivated to work and exercise
substantial self-direction and control.
o Peoples commitment to the organizational objectives is a
function of the rewards they receive for achievement.
7.3 Numerous authors have conceptualized Theory Z, which suggests
that both assumptions are correct at different times with different
people- thus mandating different leadership approach depending
on certain variable in the organization.
7.4

V.

Pygmalion in Management
(McGregors self-fulfilling
prophecy) J. Sterling Living stone explains this concept by
showing the link between a managers expectations and how
subordinates perform.

Principles of Leadership
Every leader should know certain principles of leadership so that he/she
can effectively control and guide the action of his/her people which are as
follows:

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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Know your job.

Know yourself and seek self-improvement.
Know your employees and look out for their welfare.
Keep your employees informed.
Set the example.
Insure that the job is understood and accomplished.
Treat your employees as a team.
Make sound and timely decision.
Seek responsibility and develop a sense of responsibility among
subordinates.
10. Take responsibility for your action.
VI.

Summary
Leadership is an important subject for managers because of the critical
role played by leaders in-group and organizational effectiveness. Leadership
involves influencing and directing the task-related activities of group members.
Three approaches to the study of leadership have been identified: the trait,
behavior, and contingency approaches. The trait approach has not proved useful,
since no one combination of traits consistency distinguishes leaders from nonleaders or effective leaders from ineffective leaders. The behavior approach has
focused on leadership functions and styles. Studies have that both task-related
functions and group maintenance functions have to be performed by one or more
group members in order for a group to function effectively. The contingency
approach to leadership attempts to identify which of these situational factors is
most important and to predict which leadership style will be most effective in a
given situation.
The path-goal approach focuses on managers abilities to dispense
rewards. The leadership style manager uses will affect the types of rewards
offered and subordinates perceptions of what they must do to earn those rewards.
The situational theory of leadership suggests that leadership style should vary
with the maturity of subordinates.

VII.

Fiedler suggests that leadership styles are relatively inflexible and that
therefore leaders should be marched to an appropriate situation, or the situation
changed to match the leader. Others, however, believe that managers have a great
of potential flexibility in their leaderships styles and can therefore learn to be
effective in a variety of situation.
References
Martires, C. R. 2004. Human Behavior in Organizations. 3rd Edition.
Mandaluyong City: National Book Store.

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Martires, C. R., G. S. Fule. 2000. Management of Human Behavior in

Organizations. 2nd Edition. Mandaluyong City: National Book Store.
Santos. E. T. 1999. Organization and Management. Makati City, Philippines:
I/AME.
www.whitestag.org/aims/leadership_principles.html.
www.what-are-good-leadership-skills.com/leadership.

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