Leadership and Blake-Mouton grid

Leadership

Leadership is the process of influencing others to work willingly towards group goals. It involves guiding, motivating and inspiring people.

Blake and Mouton's Managerial (Leadership) Grid

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton (1964) described leadership styles on a two-dimensional grid: concern for production (task) on the horizontal axis and concern for people on the vertical axis, each scored from 1 (low) to 9 (high).

People
 9 | 1,9                      9,9
   | Country club          Team
 5 |            5,5
   |         Middle road
 1 | 1,1                      9,1
   | Impoverished      Authority-
   |                    obedience
   +--------------------------------
     1                          9  Production

Five main styles

1. Impoverished management (1,1): Little concern for either; minimum effort. Leads to poor results.
2. Authority-obedience / task management (9,1): High concern for production, low for people. Focus on efficiency and strict control; morale suffers.
3. Country club management (1,9): High concern for people, low for production. Friendly atmosphere but low output.
4. Middle-of-the-road (5,5): Moderate concern for both; compromise. Average results.
5. Team management (9,9): High concern for both; commitment, trust and participation. Considered the best style.

Use: the grid helps managers assess their own style and move towards the ideal 9,9 team style through training in team building.

Criticism: it does not consider the situation (contingency); the 9,9 style may not always be best.