Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid: A Behavioural Approach towards Management and Leadership

What qualities make for a good manager? Task-oriented behaviour and people-oriented behaviour are two fundamental management behaviours that can be recognized as crucial based on behavioural research studies on leadership and management (e.g., Ohio State Studies and Michigan Studies). The work and the people must both be cared for to some degree, even if these two aspects are not the only critical management behaviours. The University of Texas’ Blake and Mouton created a two-dimensional Managerial Grid based on a manager’s concern for productivity (task-oriented) and care for people in response to these findings (relationship-oriented). The grid has nine points on each axis, with 1 denoting a low concern and 9 denoting a significant concern. You may give managers alternative management styles based on how well they do on each of the two axes. This article will go into more detail about these many types of styles and their effects.

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Concern for Production (Task-Oriented)

Management must focus on directing employees toward goals in order to maximize output. This type of manager often assigns tasks, spends time preparing, places a strong emphasis on deadlines, and provides clear timetables of work activities. They only want to do the task.

Concern for People (Relationship-Oriented)

Managers that care about people treat employees with respect, are aware of their needs, and build trust between them. These supervisors are approachable, encourage open communication, foster cooperation, and are concerned about the wellbeing of their employees.

Impoverished Management (1,1)

Managers are classified as having a “Impoverished Management” or “Indifferent Management” style if they have poor care for both productivity and people. They put up the bare minimal effort to complete the necessary task and sustain interpersonal ties. This kind of management behaviour might have a variety of motivations. For impoverished managers, avoiding accountability for errors is frequently their major focus.

Country Club Management (1, 9)

Country Club Management is a management style characterized by minimal concern for output and strong care for people. This type of manager places a high priority on the safety, happiness, and harmony of their employees. They genuinely believe that meeting subordinates’ needs would eventually boost performance because everyone will be comfortable and happy. As a result, Country Club managers place a greater focus on people than on the results of their labour. As a result, the workplace environment is often pleasant and laid back, but not particularly productive. Those employees whose attention is more on the work at hand could find this management approach to be annoying.

Authority-Compliance Management (9, 1)

“Authority-Compliance” dictum The “Management” style, also known as the “Produce-or-Perish” style, suggests that managers place a high priority on productivity and a low priority on people. These supervisors frequently have a low regard for the requirements of their employees. But the primary tendency should be toward operational efficiency. Managers utilize concrete rewards like cash bonuses to force employees to cooperate in an effort to improve performance. If goals are not accomplished, managers may even use their coercive authority to discipline employees. This management approach is mostly based on McGregor’s Theory X, which claims that most employees lack ambition, shirk responsibility, and are primarily extrinsically driven.

Middle-of-the-Road Management (5, 5)

A “Middle-of-the-Road Management” style is exhibited by managers who score medium on care for production and medium on concern for people. They make an effort to strike a balance between the requirements of employees and the performance goals of the firm. This strategy simply involves a manager who pushes for reasonable productivity while attempting to minimize disagreement with staff members. The risk that neither feature (concern for output or care for people) will be supplied to satisfactory levels is the main drawback of this strategy.

Team Management (9, 9)

Managers can be classified as having a “Team Management” style if they receive high ratings for both their care for people and their concern for output. Because team members cooperate to complete duties and keep positive connections, this approach is frequently seen as the most productive and is advised for managers. This strategy largely focuses on convincing subordinates that they are valuable members of the workforce by fostering collaboration and commitment, including them in decision-making, and demonstrating mutual respect and trust. This management approach broadly conforms to McGregor’s Theory Y, which contends that workers are self-driven, like their work, and want to improve themselves without expecting a specific reward in return. Blake and Mouton’s subsequent studies have found that the best foundation for effective leadership is team management.

More management styles

With the use of Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid, more management styles may be created in addition to these five well-known management styles. A manager who alternates between the 1,9 Country Club Management style and the 9,1 Authority-Compliance Management style is referred to as another method. With this “Paternalism-Materialism Management” approach, your boss will treat you nicely as long as you follow his or her instructions. However, disobedience is likely to result in punishment or expulsion from the group. There is also the “Opportunistic Management” approach, which is characterized as “exploit and manipulate.” These managers don’t have a set position on the grid and employ various management techniques based on how they see what is most likely to provide the most personal gain. This manner of acting is comparable to management strategies from situational leadership theory and contingency theory, such as the situational leadership model developed by Hersey and Blanchard and the contingency model developed by Fiedler. These study areas make the supposition that managers or leaders should modify their approach depending on the situation (i.e., the type of followers and/or outside influences).

Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid in Sum

The management and leadership literature’s behavioural research stream has seen significant contributions from Blake and Mouton. The approach aids managers in critically evaluating their own management/leadership style and making required behavioural modifications by graphing the variables “concern for productivity” and “concern for people” on a grid. Blake and Mouton concluded that the ‘Team Management’ approach is the most successful of all since it completely considers both a concern for productivity and a care for people.