Introduction
The concept of leadership has been prone to much change since leadership is a clear representation of the larger society which has changed greatly because of evolution of values and attitudes. Different leadership theories (all theories which have been put together to explain the concept of successful leadership and leaders) clearly outline major developments and changes that have been taking place over a long duration of time. Initially, the main focus of leadership theories was mainly the characteristics that distinguished between leaders and followers and later, theories that followed closely focused mainly on factors related to different situations and levels of skills that have an effect on leadership. Although there are many types of theories, they are basically classified in to eight different categories which include great man theories, contingency theories, trait theories, behavioral theories, participative theories, situational theories, relationship and management theories (Daft, 2007). As much as dispersed leadership is increasingly being recognized, most theories major mainly in the individualistic perspective of each and every leader. However, the emphasis currently has shifted from developing leaders to developing organizations that can be led. As much as there are similarities between different leadership theories, there are some observable differences. Bent on that, this paper shall compare and contrast trait and behaviorist theories of leadership.
Trait Theory of Leadership
Trait theory of leadership was developed from Great Man theory in the 1920s. It focuses mainly in identifying the key characteristics of the successful leadership. People believed that by using the trait theory of leadership, it was possible to recruit leaders through isolating people with certain leadership traits. In most cases, trait leadership theory was applicable in the military although it is still currently being used to select commission candidates as studies of Bolden, Gosling, Marturano, & Dennison (2003), indicate. Several studies were conducted to research on the most common leadership traits and skills. However, it was not possible to make conclusions from the different studies conducted since results were characterized by a lot of inconsistencies. For instance, it was found out that some leaders greatly lacked some qualities that were frequently found in others and the situation did not imply that they were bad leaders. The fact that some leaders lacked some special characteristic and still made good leaders created a situation that called for more research as it was more difficult to identify leaders.
According to the studies of Bolden, Gosling, Marturano, & Dennison (2003), some of the traits that were identified in several studies are inclusive but not limited to persistence, cooperative, decisive, energetic, ambitious, dependable, alert in social environment, tolerant to stress, self confident and adaptable to situations. Moreover, most of the leaders were found to be creative, clever, social skilled, fluent in speaking, conceptually skilled and persuasive, to mention just few. The main limitation of the trait theory of leadership was lack of consistency in various researches that were conducted and the inability to measure some qualities that characterized leaders like loyalty and persistence.
Behaviorist Theory
Behaviorist theory was developed soon after the trait theory especially due to the limitations that were exhibited by the theory. For instance, inability to measure the human qualities and failure to find consistent qualities that define leaders contributed greatly to the development of a better theory. Consequently, some researchers came up with the behaviorist theories of leadership which mainly emphasized on different patterns of behaviors observed in most leaders and have been frequently referred as styles of leadership. The theory mainly focuses on the actions of leaders instead of focusing on mental qualities and capacities. In addition, various studies which were conducted focused on how leader behaved towards their followers and how their behavior contributed to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of leadership.
One of the behaviorist theorist known as McGregor came up with two different types of theories categorizing leader in to two groups as illustrated in the studies of Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison (2003). The first group of leaders believes that many human beings dislike work and always work towards avoiding it. As a result, most of the leaders who belong to this group suppose that people must be coerced, threatened, directed and punished to influence them to put in effort in order to work towards the organization objectives and goals. Finally, such leaders believe that human beings always prefer to be directed and to have people above them. On the other hand, the other category of leaders believes that human beings seek and appreciate responsibilities especially while under proper and favorable conditions. In addition, leaders under this category have it that, people are always able to exercise self control and self direction in order to meet the objectives of the organization. Lastly, leaders believe that skills like creativity and imagination that are very helpful in meeting the organizational goals are widely distributed in the population.
According to the studies of Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison (2003), a managerial grid that lays more emphasis on the task and the employee managers’ orientation was developed by Blake and Mouton. The grid also focuses on other factors related to production and the people. It identifies five leadership styles which are inclusive of team management, organization man management, authority obedience management, impoverished management and country club management. However, of all the styles, the best management style is team management since it is highly concerned with the employees and the task of production.
The main assumption of the behaviorist theory is that someone’s actions can be used to determine effectively the leadership ability and more to that, the theory illustrates that such behavior are independent of personality traits because it can be effectively learnt. However, towards 1970s, the researchers who were studying leadership declared the assumption to be invalid. As a result, many more theories have been developed still with the aim of describing leadership and its variables.
Differences between Behaviorist Theory and Trait Theory
As much as behaviorist theory of leadership was developed from the trait theory, the two are different in various ways. To begin with, trait theory explained that leaders were born and not made and that is why it illustrated that leadership qualities are inherited. According to the theory, the main difference between leaders and followers is specific qualities that are only present in leaders. On the other had, behaviorist theory is quite different since it maintains that leaders are made and not made and not born. In addition, the theory illustrates that successful leadership is based on learnable behaviour and not qualities that are inherited. That means that it is possible for people who are not born leaders to be taught on how to act in different situations thus becoming leaders (Daft, 2007). In the behaviorist theory of leadership, actions and behaviors of leaders determines successful leadership. Given that the theory was established in the view of the fact that all human behavior can be taught and learned, that is why the theory explains that leadership concept can be learnt and taught. On the contrary, in the trait theory, leaders cannot be made because they are born with specific qualities like self confident and self controlled to name just a few.
During the era of the trait theory, studying the concept of leadership was not only complicated, but it was not possible to come up with specific qualities that characterized leaders. All the studies that were conducted came up with different qualities. Additionally, it was not possible to put a measure to some qualities of leadership. Consequently, as much as the theory maintained that leaders are born not made, critically speaking, identifying such people from the general public became pretty hard. On the other hand, behaviorist theory of leadership made it pretty easy to determine successful leaders because situational factors and the actions of leaders were used as a determinant factor. It is for the same reason that behaviorist theory was established because it is a development of the trait theory (Bradley n. d.).
Similarities between the Behaviorist theory and the Trait Theory
Trait theory of leadership and the behaviorist theory of leadership were developed with one main of trying to understand the concept of leadership. Both theories had one major aim of identifying leaders from followers. Trait theory specifies specific characteristic of leaders while behaviorist theory looks at specific behaviorist and actions of leaders under different situations. Therefore, it is clear that most of the objectives and goals of the two theories are almost the same.
Apart from the main similar aim, both theories illustrate that leaders are peculiar and unique from other people in other society. For instance, trait theory illustrates that there are specific inborn qualities that characterize leaders. Similarly, behaviorist theory illustrates that while exposed to similar situations, actions and the behaviors of leaders are different form the behaviors of the followers. It is therefore clear that the two theorists have a similar concept of leadership that leaders must have some qualities that make them different from the followers to enable them carry out their task effectively and efficiently (Daft, 2007).
Trait theory of leadership and the behaviorist theory display almost a similar perspective towards leadership. Unlike the modern theories of leadership which take in to consideration other factors like environment and the nature of organization to determine successful leadership, both theories illustrate that leaders are the key determinants of the success of leadership. This is the main reason why the main focus is identifying successful leaders among the followers. Additionally, they are developments of the initial theories of leadership. Trait theory was developed from the great man theories while behaviorist theory was developed from trait theory whose main limitation was coming up with consistent qualities of defining leaders (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison 2003).
Conclusion
As highlighted earlier in the introductory part of this paper, there are many theories of leadership which are dependent on the specific era during which they were developed. Although there are some similarities, all theories are a bit different owing to the fact that the perspective of leadership has been prone to so much change. Trait theory and the behaviorist theory of leadership are two different theories as much as they were developed consecutively. Trait theory of leadership lays more emphasis on beliefs and the values of a leader, personality, gender, orientation to power, physical, mental and emotional characteristics to mention just a few. Conversely, behaviorist theory of leadership lays more emphasis on actions and reactions of both leaders and followers that can be observed in a given situation. However, research has indicated that the two theories are similar in their perspective of defining successful leadership in relation leaders as well as in the fact that the two seek to identify specific characteristics and behaviors that define leaders and followers.
References
Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A., & Dennison, P. (2003). A Review of Leadership Theory and Competency Frameworks. Retrieved September 11, 2010, from http://www2.fcsh.unl.pt/apsociedade/Lideran%C3%A7a.pdf
Bradley, O. (n. d.). Leadership Traits and Behaviors. Retrieved September 13, 2010, from http://www.uc.edu/armyrotc/ms2text/MSL_201_L10a_Leadership_Traits_&_Behaviors.pdf
Daft, R. L. (2007). The leadership experience. Stamford: Cengage Learning.
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