Business – 7.3 Leadership – Theories of leadership | e-Consult
7.3 Leadership – Theories of leadership (1 questions)
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Trait Approach
- Assumes that effective leaders possess innate personal characteristics (e.g., intelligence, self‑confidence, determination).
- Strengths: (i) Easy to identify potential leaders through psychometric testing; (ii) Provides a clear, intuitive link between personal qualities and leadership success.
- Limitations: (i) Over‑emphasis on innate qualities ignores development possibilities; (ii) Inconsistent findings – no single set of traits guarantees effectiveness across contexts.
Behavioural Approach
- Focuses on observable actions of leaders rather than personal attributes; categorises behaviours such as task‑oriented vs people‑oriented.
- Strengths: (i) Offers practical guidance for training and development; (ii) Empirical research (e.g., Ohio State, Michigan studies) provides measurable dimensions.
- Limitations: (i) Ignores situational factors that may affect the appropriateness of a behaviour; (ii) May oversimplify complex leadership dynamics into a limited set of behaviours.
Overall, the behavioural approach is generally more useful for contemporary managers because it emphasizes learnable actions and can be adapted through development programmes, whereas the trait approach offers limited guidance for improvement.