Managerial Grid Theory in Today\'s Globally Competitive

¶ … Managerial Grid Theory

In today's globally competitive environment, an organization needs to pay far more attention to human resources management in order to be able to adapt quickly to a rapidly changing environment and remain profitable. Indeed, an organization has the greatest chance of being successful when all its employees work towards achieving its goals. However, the ability of an organization to motivate its employees into achieving organizational goals depends a great deal on the quality of leadership exhibited by its managers and supervisors (Allen, 1998, para 1). It is in the light of this context that Robert Blake's "Managerial Grid" theory assumes significance. Developed initially with his colleague, Jane Mouton, the "Managerial Grid" is a model that measures and defines managerial or leadership styles.

Blake and Mouton first developed the "Managerial Grid" as a two-dimensional model of managerial style or leadership, based on the theory that managers are simultaneously and to varying degrees task or people-oriented:

"The model evolved from the Ohio State leadership studies, which attempted to describe leader style in terms of 'initiating structure' attitudes and 'consideration' behavior. The Managerial Grid measures similar leader behavior: on the vertical axis, 'concern for people,' and on the horizontal axis, 'concern for production.' Relative amounts of each attitude are plotted on the axes in numerical units of 1 through 9. A '9,1' manager shows high concern for production and low concern for people -- a 'taskmaster' style. A '1,1' manager shows little concern for people and little concern for production -- an 'impoverished style.' The Managerial Grid is a normative model whose authors advocate the '9,9' managerial style, the one by which the leader shows dedication to production as well as people, thereby creating a 'common stake' in organizational accomplishment and mutual trust and confidence in the work group." (Robinette, 1987, p. 92)

Blake and Mouton's original model defined five possible leadership postures: (1) 9,9 or Team Management. The recommended ideal, this leadership style demonstrates a high concern for people and production, leading to a managerial strategy that allows for excellence in team and personal achievement. (2) 9,1 or Authority-Compliance. In this posture, the leader is primarily concerned only with the task and shows little regard for relationships, resulting in a directing and controlling managerial style. (3) 5,5 Middle of the Road. Enforcing rules, not rocking the boat, and generating adequate results are the mainstays of this type of managerial style, leading to rather mediocre performances. (4) 1,9 Country Club Management. By placing an overemphasis on interpersonal relationships, this leadership style usually fails to achieve organizational goals. (5) 1,1 Impoverished Management. With a low concern for people and tasks, this leadership style exerts a minimum of effort to either motivate colleagues or get the job done (Harris, 1993, p. 380-381).

Although, Blake's management model initially comprised of five leadership styles, over a period of years, he further developed the "Managerial Grid" to define seven basic styles that characterize workplace behavior and the resulting relationships. However, the foundation of the model remained unchanged and the definition of the seven styles continued to be based on how two fundamental concerns (concern for people and concern for results) were manifested at various levels whenever people interact. The two additional leadership styles that were later introduced were "paternalistic" and "opportunistic" (Grid International, 2004, para 1).

The "paternalist" style combines the "9,1" or authority-compliance strategy with the tactics of the "1,9" or country club management method, depending on the response of the subordinate. The "opportunist" style, on the other hand, adopts the tactics of a chameleon and switches to whichever approach is appropriate to the situation (Flower, 1992, para 5).

In addition to defining two more leadership styles, Blake also developed the "Managerial Grid" from a two to three dimensional model to bring in the critical leadership aspect of motivation. As Blake himself observes, "The third dimension is critical: it's motivation. It's a bipolar scale, running from a minus motivation (below the Grid) through neutral to a plus motivation (above the Grid). The negative motivations are driven by fear, the positive ones by desire." (Flower, cited Blake, 1992, para 11)

Interestingly, Blake and Mouton's original model, which first appeared in 1964, was restricted to managerial behavior, including managerial conflict behavior. However, in 1970, Blake and Mouton asserted that the concerns and resulting styles of conflict management could equally well be applied to all people and not just managers. In fact, the authors claimed that the "Managerial Grid" could also be applied to social conflicts other than managerial conflicts since any reaction to a conflict -- including avoiding, accommodating, compromising, problem solving, and competing -- can be assumed to result from concern for the production of results for oneself as well as for other people (Turner, 2001, p. 269-270).

Indeed, it is the universal nature of the "Managerial Grid" model that has perhaps led to its wide usage in organizations, which wish to transform its managerial and employee working styles. In fact, Grid International, the company founded by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in 1961, claims that the Grid theory translates into practical use through Grid style relationship skills that people experience day in and day out when they work together. These relationship skills depict the typical and vital behaviors for each style that make relationships ineffective or effective. By studying each of the seven leadership Grid styles and the resulting relationship skills behaviors, teams can examine how behaviors help or hurt them (Grid International 2004, para 9-10).