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Behavioral Approach to Leadership

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Behavioral Approach to Leadership

Raluca Gaspar

Organizational Leadership / LDR531

February 2, 2013
Shasta Nicholson

Behavioral Approach to Leadership

Over the years there have been multiple attempts at defining leadership in the hopes that a clear definition will create better leaders in the future. There have been many studies devised by researchers in order to come up with the definition of leadership. The behavior approach is one of many used in those studies.
Description
The behavior research approach came about when researchers, discouraged with the lack of results of other research approaches, started paying more attention to the behavior of managers, what did they actually do when at work. One category of this approach looks at how managers spend their time, how they cope with demands, constraints, and conflicts, their activities, responsibilities and job functions (Yukl, 2010). Another category of behavior research looks at what behavior makes leaders effective. According to Yokl (2010), leadership effectiveness depends on how well a manager resolves role conflicts, deals with demands of the job, recognizes opportunities, and overcomes restraints (p. 14).
Strengths
One of the strengths of the behavioral approach is that it takes into account the complexities of individuals. It goes beyond the previous belief that leaders are born, that they possess certain traits (personality, values, skills etc) with which they are born that make them leaders. It makes the statement that leadership can be taught by experience, and coaching and traing.
Weaknesses
Even though the behavioral approach to leadership went a step further from trait theory, in that it dismissed the idea that leadership is inborn, it is still excluding the situational factors that affect the effectiveness of leadership. It is still excluding the effect the

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