Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

Also known as the Managerial Grid, or Leadership Grid, it was developed in the early 1960s by
management theorists Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. It plots a manager's or leader's degree
of task-centeredness versus her person-centeredness, and identifies five different combinations
of the two and the leadership styles they produce.

Understanding the Model

The Blake Mouton Managerial Grid is based on two behavioral dimensions:

Concern for People: this is the degree to which a leader considers team members' needs,
interests and areas of personal development when deciding how best to accomplish a task.

Concern for Production: this is the degree to which a leader emphasizes concrete objectives,
organizational efficiency and high productivity when deciding how best to accomplish a task.

Leadership Styles Associated with Managerial Grid

The Indifferent or Impoverished (1,1)

These leaders have minimal concern for people and production. Their priority is to fly under the radar
while they content to seek solutions that won't bring any negative focus to themselves or their
department. Preserving their employment, position as well as their seniority is what drives their elusive
and evading behaviors. In short, the indifferent leaders are ineffective and are sorely lacking in any of the
traits that can be attributed to successful and effective leaders.
Impact on employees:

 Employees have a high degree of dissatisfaction

 No harmony within the group
 High turn over

Impact on organization:

 Inefficient operation

The Country Club or Accommodating (1, 9)

These leaders will go above and beyond to ensure that the needs and desires of his employees are met.
These leaders are making the assumption that their staff will yield maximum results as they are likely to
be self-motivated when they are led in such environment. These leaders will have behaviors that will yield
and comply with the needs of their staff. The productivity of the group however, can suffer from the lack
of attention on tasks.

Impact on employees:

 Employees are Happy

 Good team harmony

Impact on organization:

 Low productivity

The Status Quo or Middle-of-the-Road (5, 5)

These leaders balance out the needs of their staff with those of the organization, while not adequately
achieving either. These leaders will balance and compromise their decisions, often endorsing the most
popular one. They dedicate minimal efforts towards facilitating the achievements of their staff or the
production results in average or below average levels.
Impact on employees:

 Employees are not really discontent nor are they happy

 Good harmony within the group

Impact on organization:

 Average performance

The Dictatorial or Produce, Perish or Control (9, 1)

These leaders focus all of their attention to production-related matters and very little towards the needs
of their employees. These leaders will direct and dominate while holding the belief that efficiency gains
can only be achieved through rigid disciplines especially those that don't require human interaction.
Employees are considered expendable resources. Productivity is usually short lived as high employee
attrition is unavoidable. The dictatorial style is inspired by the McGregor X theory.
Impact on employees:

 Employees experience a high level of dissatisfaction

 High level of conflict within the group

Impact on organization:

 High employee turnover

 Peak performance is short lived

The Sound or Team (9, 9)

According to Dr. Robert R. Blake and Dr. Jane Srygley Mouton, the sound leader is the most effective
leadership style. These leaders will contribute and are committed, can motivate and are motivated while
holding the belief that trust, respect, commitment and employee empowerment are essential for fostering
a team environment where team members are motivated, thus resulting in maximum employee
satisfaction as well as the most efficient productivity. This sound leadership style is also inspired by the
McGregor Y theory.

Impact on employees:

 Employees are forming a highly cohesive team

 Employees are satisfied
 Employees are motivated and work as a team

Impact on organization:

 Low employee turnover

 Attracts highly skills employees
 Efficient organization

Blake and his colleagues added two more leadership styles after Mouton's death in 1987, although
neither appears on the grid itself, for the reasons explained below.

Paternalistic Management. A Paternalistic manager will jump between the Country Club and Produce-
or-Perish styles. This type of leader can be supportive and encouraging, but will also guard his or her
own position – and paternalistic managers don't appreciate anyone questioning the way they think.

Opportunistic Management. This doesn't appear on the grid because this style can show up anywhere
within it. Opportunistic managers place their own needs first, shifting around the grid to adopt whichever
style will benefit them. They will manipulate and take advantage of others to get what they want.

Applying the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid

Step One: Identify Your Managerial Style

 List five or six recent situations where you were the leader.
 For each situation, place yourself on the grid according to where you believe you fit.
 Use our self-assessment leadership quiz to help you spot your traits.
Step Two: Identify Areas Where You Can Improve and Develop Your Leadership Skills

 Look at your current approach. Are you settling for "Middle-of-the-Road" because it's easier than
reaching for more? Think about whether your style suits the situation you are in.
 If you feel that you are too task-oriented, then you can try to involve your team members
in creative problem solving , improve how you communicate with them. Or, if you tend to focus
too much on people, it may mean becoming clearer about scheduling and monitoring project
progress , or improving your decision making .
 Continually monitor your performance and watch for situations where you slip back into bad old
habits.

Step Three: Put the Grid in Context

 The Team management style is often the most effective approach, but there are situations that
call for more attention to one area than the other. For example, if your company is in the middle
of a merger or some other significant change, then it can be acceptable to place a higher
emphasis on people than on production, to guide them and reassure them through a potentially
difficult time. Likewise, when faced with an emergency, an economic hardship, or a physical risk,
concerns about people may be put to one side, for the short term at least, to achieve good
results and efficiency.

Advantages and Limitations

Advantages of the Managerial Grid Model

 Managers help to analyze their own leadership styles through a technique known as grid training.
 Managers identify how they with respect to their concern for production and people.

Limitations of the Managerial Grid Model

 The model ignores the importance of internal and external limits, matter and scenario.
 There is some more aspect of leadership that can be covered but are not.

REFERENCES:

https://www.leadership-central.com/managerial-grid.html

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_73.htm

https://iedunote.com/managerial-grid-model-leadership-styles