Style Theory

Style theoires of leaderships were developped after the trait theories.
Attempts to identify behavioural pattersn of individuals traits that results in certain patterns of behaviour.
Lewin and others described 3 categories of the behaviours of leaders:
1. Autocratic leader
2.Democratic leader
3.Laissez-faire leader

Trait Theory

• Leadership trait theory states that people are born with certain leadership traits. As some traits are found in effective leadership, the theory states that if if you could find people with the above traits, you will be able to identify leaderss.
• it is important to identify the characters found in a leader. It is more important to know what characters the followers search for in leaders.
• Ideas pertaining to this theory were present even prior to the emergence of leadership theories.
• The basic presumption in this theory is that the leadership qualities and characteristics of a person are either inherited or developed in the early stage of a life of a person.

These are the 3 assumptions of the Trait Theory:

1. Individual should have certain personal characteristics to become a leader.
2. Such a person has fixed charachteristicss hence he can function as a leader in any situation.
3. Characteristics are identifiable amd measureable so the leadership ability of a person can be predicted in advance.

Though many researches are available to focus on the traits, there is no consistency in findings. However, some mention 5 characteristics as important:

1. Intelligence
2. Dominance
3. Self Confidence
4. High level of Energy
5. Task Related Knowledge

Short comings of Trait Theories

Critics of the Trait theory point out the following shortcomings:

1. Characteristics found to be important for leaders are found in followers as well.
2. There is no agreement in the characteristics considered to be important as some of them are not even characteristics of recognized leaders.
3. Identification of an effective leader is a subjective judgement. The process of defining the traits of a leader is also difficult and subjective.
4. Success of a leader depends, not only on personal characteristics, but also in external factors.
5. Some of the traits are also behavioural characteristics subjective to variation depending on the situation.

Validity of Trait Theory

Though treated as defective and invalid, even the critics of the trait theory accept that there are some usefulness in this theory:

1. Ability to identify accurately the requirement of a given situation.
2. Having the ability and the flexibility to decide a behavioural pattern appropriate to the given situation.

Leadership Theories and Models

There are several theories of leadership. Most of these theories have been developped in America. Most of the studies have been conducted considering the managers holding leadership positions as leaders, though there is a difference between management and leadership.

Leadership theories can be classified according to following headings:

1. Breath of Application Categorization (To which range of situations is the leadership applied)
1) Universal Approach
a. Trait Theory
b. Style Theory

2)Situation Specific Approach
a.Fiedler's Contingency theory
b.House's Path Gaol Theory
c. Vroom-Yetton-Jargo Theory
d. Contingency Theory of Hersey and Blanchard

2. Level of Focus Categorization (What does the thoery focus on?)

1)Person -Centred Theories
a.Trait Theories
b.Fiedler's Contingency Theory

2)Behaviour-Centred Theories
a.Style Theory
b.House's Path Goal Theory
c.Vroom-Yetton-Jago Theory