Behavior Based Theory

Behavior based theory is, as the name suggests, is the idea that a great leader is defined by how they behave and what they do as opposed to traits that they possess. Within behavior based theory, there are a couple sub-theories that have emerged; People-oriented vs Task-oriented, Theory XY, and behavior based Leadership Styles.

The People-oriented vs Task-oriented theory suggests that there are leaders that focus more on their relationships with their followers, and leaders that focus more on the tasks that need to be accomplished. Some task-oriented behaviors include organizing, information gathering, planning, clarifying, and monioring. These leaders focus their efforts on making sure that tasks get accomplished in a timely manner, and that all of their followers clearly understand their role in getting these tasks accomplished. On the other hand, people-oriented leaders focus more on their relationships with their followers. Some behaviors a people-oriented leader might practice include; encouraging, observing, supporting, developing, listening, coaching, and mentoring. These leaders like to show their team that they value each team member and what each person's opinion is. People-oriented leaders are more likely to allow mistakes to be made to use as a teaching opportunity. They are also likely to let their team take control of a task, with less monitoring, because they would rather have their followers like them than be constantly monitoring their progress. Task-oriented leaders would rather have their followers ask questions before hand if something is unclear, to avoid having to go back and fix mistakes later.

Theory XY is similar to the People-oriented vs Task-oriented theory. Theory X assumes that "employees dislike work, lack ambition, avoid responsibility, and must be directed and coerced to perform". Leaders who follow Theory X are more likely to engage in task-oriented behaviors to ensure that their employees are doing their jobs, and doing them correctly. Theory X leaders will tell their employees what to do, how to do it, and monitor their progress to make sure that the task gets done because they don't believe that employees will do the work without specific direction and monitoring. This ensures that all tasks get completed by their given deadlines, likely with fewer mistakes. Theory Y assumes that "employees like work, seek responsibility, are capable of making decisions, and exercise self-direction and self-control when committed to a goal". Leaders who follow Theory Y believe that employees do not need to constantly have someone breathing down their neck telling them what to do. These leaders believe that their employees enjoy the work and have the self-discipline and decision-making capabilities to be able to complete the work without constant direction and supervision. This allows their employees more freedom in how they get a task completed.

As you can imagine, it can be hard to determine whether one or the other for Theory XY or People vs Task oriented is better than the other for any situation. And what about somewhat of a middle ground? Well Decision-Making Leadership Styles include just that. There are three leadership styles that vary in how controlling a leader is over their followers. The most controlling is the Authoritarian leader. This leader will tell their followers exactly what to do and how to do it. They are more concerned with making sure that all deadlines are made than they are with making sure that they have a good relationship with their followers. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Delagative leader. This leader will delegate all tasks to their folowers and let them complete the tasks in whatever way they see fit. This gives their followers more contoll over the job they are doing, and likely a higher job satisfaction because they are being trusted with more responsibility. The downside to the Delagative leader, however, is there is so much freedom for the followers that deadlines are more likely to be missed as there is little to no guidance from the leader. Differing from the previous two theories, there is a third Leadership Style that covers more of the middle ground between the Authoritarian leader and the Delegative leader. This is the Participative leader. This leader will provide basic directions on how/ when to complete a task, but they are more likely to ask for their followers input on a situation or task, and are likely to try out and even implement some of their follwers ideas. These leaders take their followers oppinions into consideration when they are deciding the best course of action.

There are some benefits to the overall behavior based theory. The first is that it is fairly easy to understand and to implement. We can also look at the leaders in our own lives and categorize them based on the behavior based theories. When we have categorized the leaders that we see around us, we can compare them to each other fairly easily. It is easy to identify which leaders are more people-oriented, more task-oreinted, or if they tend to fall somewhere in the middle. Lastly, it is fairly easy for us to look at our own leadership style and see where we fall in comparison to the theories and the other leaders we see in our lives.

Though there are some benefits to the behavior based theory, there are also quite a few limitations that keep the behavior based theory from being a prefect way to categorize leaders. First, it does not take into consideration the followers or the situation. A leader might have to behave differently in any given situation compared to another. A leader who is more people-oriented might need to adjusst their style if their followers don't take a situation or deadline seriously to be more authoritative or task-oriented tomake sure that the jos gets done, or vice versa. Different followers respond differently to different leadership styles. Because each situation is different, this makes the behavior based theory very subjective, and makes it impossible to identify what a perfect mix of the behaviors would be.

So while the behavior based theory gives us more specific guidelines than the trait based theory, it doesn't provide a perfect example of what a good leader will be for every given situation.