Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid

Abstract

Leadership skills involve the ability to lead, guide, motivate and direct a project team. In project management the terms leader and manager are often interchanged and to succeed in project management requires elements of both. To understand leadership, it is vital to focus not only on the leader, but on the team as a whole. Leadership a productive field of study, with many theories reaching back decades. Thoughts on leadership and the ideal characteristics of a leader have evolved through time, but many of the thoughts have passed the test of time.

In the 1950’s and early 1960’s Robert Blake and Jane Mouton developed the Managerial Grid as it was the outcome of their research for Exxon, where they worked towards improved leader effectiveness. It was developed with influence from the work of Fleishman’s, using attitudinal dimensions rather than behavioural, like Fleishman used. Blake and Mouton were humanists and wanted to represent the benefits of Theories X and Y, the work of Douglas McGregor.

The Managerial Grid is a 9x9 matrix and it quantifies the degree to which the emphasis is on tasks and the emphasis is on the relationship with the subordinates, with Concern for Production as the x-axis of the matrix and Concern for People as the y-axis. Blake and Mouton labelled and characterised the extreme corners as well as the centre of the matrix.

The Managerial Grid is a widely accepted as an important and critical analysis of the behaviour of a leader. Its simplicity captures vital truths about management styles and implications. The following consists of what is needed to know about the Managerial Grid, the application of it, how and when to use it as well as its limitations.