Consideration and Initiating Structure are two dimensions of

leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets v ...

behavior identified in 1945 as a result of the Ohio State Leadership Studies. Reviews of research on these dimensions are described in Stogdill's ''Handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and research'' and Littrell's ''Explicit leader behaviour''. According to the findings of these studies, leaders exhibit two types of behaviors to facilitate

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ...

accomplishment: * People-oriented (consideration) * Task oriented (initiating structure) The model is similar to the

Michigan Studies of Leadership The Michigan Leadership Studies were the well-known series of leadership studies that commenced at the University of Michigan in the 1950s by Rensis Likert, with the objective of identifying the principles and types of leadership styles that led to ...

. In his ''Handbook'', Stogdill expanded the model to twelve dimensions.

Ohio State Leadership Studies

Prior to 1945 most studies of

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets v ...

sought to identify the individual traits of effective leaders. Trait theories of leadership were the first to attempt a systematic approach of studying

. However, these studies yielded disappointing results when no set of traits were found that explained effective leadership. In 1945, a group of researchers at the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

sought to identify the observable behaviors of leaders instead of identifying

personality traits In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of ''traits'', which can be defined as habitual patterns of behaviour, ...

Leaders Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)

To accomplish this they generated a list of 1790 statements. This was narrowed down to 150 statements designed to measure nine different dimensions of leader behavior. These statements were used to develop the Leaders Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ). After further research, the LBDQ-XII, was developed, assessing 12 factors/dimensions of leader behavior.

Consideration and Initiating structure

Consideration

Consideration Consideration is a concept of English common law and is a necessity for simple contracts but not for special contracts (contracts by deed). The concept has been adopted by other common law jurisdictions. The court in '' Currie v Misa'' declar ...

is the extent to which a leader exhibits concern for the welfare of the members of the

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

. This factor is oriented towards

interpersonal relationships The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...

, mutual trust and

friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

. This

leadership style A leadership style is a leader's method of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. Various authors have proposed identifying many different leadership styles as exhibited by leaders in the political, business or other fi ...

is people-oriented. Some of the statements used to measure this factor in the LBDQ are: *being friendly *treating all group members as his/her equal *looking out for the personal

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

of group members *making him/herself accessible to group members

Initiating structure

Initiating Structure is the extent to which a leader defines leader and group member roles, initiates actions, organizes group activities and defines how tasks are to be accomplished by the group. This leadership style is task-oriented. Some of the statements used to measure this factor in the LBDQ are: *letting group members know what is expected of them *maintaining definite standards of performance *scheduling the work to be done *checking that group members follow standard

rule Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pert ...

s and

regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

References

* * * * * {{cite journal , last1=Tracy , first1=Lane , title=Consideration and initiating structure: Are they basic dimensions of leader behavior? , journal=Social Behavior and Personality, date=1987 , volume=15 , issue=1 , pages=21–33 , doi=10.2224/sbp.1987.15.1.21

External links

1957 Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire
Leadership