The Blake and Mouton's Managerial (Leadership) Grid

Abstract

Managing a project successfully is not a trivial task and it requires capable managers. In Project Management the terms "Manager" and "Leader" are often used with the same meaning. However, several theories about the differences between Management and Leadership have been developed over the years. Even defining exactly what characterizes a good leader is not an easy task and academics have been trying for decades to provide a definition. Despite these attempts, scholars could not find a universal definition and only theories are available.

One of the most relevant theories was firstly introduced by Blake and Mouton in the early 1960 and it has been revised by the authors for more than two decades. The original name of this theory was "The Managerial Grid", however, it was renamed "The Leadership Grid" to better describe its relevance in the Leadership field. It belongs to the group of theories that follow the Behavioral approach. They emphasize what is the behavior of the leader in the activity of leading an organization. Other relevant perspectives are the Trait approach, which is mainly focused on the personality of the leader, and the Skills approach, which emphasizes his/her capabilities.

The Leadership Grid is a matrix that shows how leaders can be effective in leading an organization by taking into account two parameters: Concern for results and Concern for people. The first one is represented on the x-axis and the second one on the y-axis of this 9x9 matrix. The combinations of the respective relevance of these two factors define five main approaches to leadership.

This article aims to describe the main aspects of this theory together with its applications, and its limitations. Appropriate documentation for further readings is also included.

Bibliography

- Robbins, S. P. and, Judge T. A. (2013), Organizational Behavior (15th Edition), Pearson Education

- Northouse, P. G. (2018), Leadership: Theory and Practice (8th Edition), SAGE Publishing