Relationship Vs. Task Leadership style

Task vs. relationship leadership

We all have to identify who in our lives are our leaders and who we are leaders to. Whether that may make you go on a “power trip”, you should identify and understand that both the leader and follower of that specific organization, group, company etc. are all in it for the same end goal. How would the style of that leader benefit from its followers? Would it be by getting straight to the point or getting to know their followers to achieve that goal?

When examining a leader and their styles is good to categorize them by what they value as a leader. A leader who is mainly about achieving a specific goal regardless of other circumstances, then he/she are most likely a task-based leader. A leader who encourages on relying on procedures and assigning tasks based on the employee’s strengths and weaknesses is going to be categorized as a relationship-based leader. According to Northouse, task leadership considers the elements involved in task accomplishments from organizing work and defining roles to determining policies and procedures to facilitate production (Northouse, 2021, pg. 85). A better understanding of what this leadership is according to Northouse is that the task-oriented style is the opposite from what the relationship orientation style of leadership. Relationship oriented leadership behaviors focus on the well being of its followers and how they all relate with one another (Northouse, 2021, pg. 85). In this blog, behaviors of both task and relationship styles will be explored as well as, examples from real world scenarios will be explained.

First and foremost, when we think of our favorite leaders, we often think of the ones who motivate, encourage, and relate with us the most. When we think of bad leaders, we often think about the ones who may act like they don’t want to be there, inconvenience staff (aka, the followers), and don’t care about guests or customers. The list could go on in many different directions. When we think about a good leader and how they are with their employees, a good foundation for their work is getting to know their staff and how to implement the tasks needed to reach their goal. In the Ohio State studies, it was believed that the results of studying leadership as a personality was pointless and rather so, they decided to analyze how individuals acted when leading a group instead (Northouse, 2021, pg. 85). In a questionnaire, given to the leader’s followers, they had to rate the behavior of that leader. Examples of those questions asked were:

“He/She lets subordinates know when they’ve done a good job.

He/She sets clear expectations about performance.

He/She shows concern for subordinates as individuals.

He/She makes subordinates feel at ease. (PSU WC, 2022, L.5).”

This questionnaire that was used is called the Leader behavior description questionnaire (LBDQ). This questionnaire was to analyze and depict the kind of behaviors used during their leadership. Followers categorized the behaviors into two clusters, and those were if they initiated structure or consideration for the followers. The Ohio state studies came to a conclusion that a leader can be either high in initiating structure or high or low on consideration (PSU WC, 2022, L.5). Based on these studies, a way to determine if a leader is task oriented or relationship oriented in their leadership style is based on the Ohio studies is to see how followers answered the questions and if the leader scored high on the consideration aspect of the questionnaire. A leader who got a higher score would mean that they are nurturing to their followers and associate their success with the importance of their trust, respect and liking amongst themselves with their followers. Someone who scored higher on the initiative of structure may focus mainly on assigning roles, organization, and schedules (PSU WC, 2022, L.5).

Along with determining whether someone’s leadership style is task oriented or relationship oriented, these all come with certain traits that distinguish the two apart. According to Northouse, there are five major leadership traits and those are: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability (Northouse, 2021, pg. 32). Out of those five traits, the one that would most likely resonate with task-oriented leaders would be determination. “Determination is the desire to get the job done and include characteristics such as initiative, persistence, dominance and drive (Northouse, 2021, pg. 33).” A task-oriented leader would need to contain this trait in order to even be considered a “task oriented” leader. Hence, the description of “getting things done.” On the other hand, a relationship-oriented leader would need the sociability trait out of those five traits. “Sociability is a leader’s inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships (Northouse, 2021, pg. 34).” Connecting with followers and understanding them to work toward the end goal that is shared among the leader and other followers is important. A leader who is oriented this way finds it easier to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their followers as mentioned before. By doing this, it is easier to assign specific roles to the followers liking. This also enhances the follower’s motivation to completing a task.

Personally, I have worked with both task-oriented leaders and relationship-oriented leaders. Traits that come out from task-oriented leaders from my experiences were one’s that were determined and had self-discipline. They took the responsibility for being in charge or their followers and made sure that all tasks were done correctly. On the other hand, a relationship-oriented leader that I had also was very successful because of the relationships amongst the followers (employees). When you build that trust and connection with those who need to take orders from, they respect you more to do it right. Many employees will do the bare-minimum work because of that lack of connection between them and their leader. I think that is a common issue among leaders and followers and that is their lack of respect and integrity. Another trait that most of those relationship-oriented leaders contain is a high level of emotional intelligence and extraversion. Those traits help leaders become closely connected with their followers. I think this because without that emotional intelligence trait, leaders wouldn’t be able to understand the needs of their followers.

When you look at both of these approaches and combine them together, you find a very great leader who is able to get jobs done while also gaining the trust and respect from their followers.

Northouse, P.G. (2021).  Leadership: Theory and Practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2022). PSYCH 485 Lesson 5: Style and situational approaches. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2177519/modules/items/33991684