Leadership Styles
Journal o] Applied Psychology 1976, Vol. 61, No. 2, 136-139
A Facet Analysis of Leadership Styles
Zur Shapira Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester
Leadership styles were defined as a function of three facets: the leader 's behavior, the locus of power, and the locus of information within a managementsubordinate system. Five leadership styles were defined by these facets: direction, negotiation, consultation, participation, and delegation. The common order that exists within each facet determined a partially ordered set of leader styles. The intercorrelation matrix of loader styles, based on survey data, was subjected to the Guttman-Lingoes smallest space analysis, which transforms correlation coefficients to distances in an Euclidean space. The hypothesized partial order relations among the different leader styles were accurately reflected in the analysis. This lends support to the potential of facet analysis in studying leadership styles.
This paper examines facet analysis (cf. Guttman, 1959, 1966) as a method for developing and testing hypotheses about structural relations of leadership styles. Heller (1971) suggested that leaders ' decision styles can be described along an influence-power continuum. Bass and Valenzi (1974) followed this approach and defined five leadership styles: direction, negotiation, consultation, participation, and delegation. These styles can be characterized according to the relative degree of authoritativeness that is inherent in the specific leader style. Bass and Valenzi (1974) postulated that leadership style is a part of a broader management-subordinate system, and that two major variables in this system are the power and the information distribution between the leader and his subordinates. Hence, the probability that a certain leader style will occur partly depends on the power and information differences between the leader and his subordinates. To test the Bass and Valenzi (1974) postulates on leader
A Facet Analysis of Leadership Styles
Zur Shapira Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester
Leadership styles were defined as a function of three facets: the leader 's behavior, the locus of power, and the locus of information within a managementsubordinate system. Five leadership styles were defined by these facets: direction, negotiation, consultation, participation, and delegation. The common order that exists within each facet determined a partially ordered set of leader styles. The intercorrelation matrix of loader styles, based on survey data, was subjected to the Guttman-Lingoes smallest space analysis, which transforms correlation coefficients to distances in an Euclidean space. The hypothesized partial order relations among the different leader styles were accurately reflected in the analysis. This lends support to the potential of facet analysis in studying leadership styles.
This paper examines facet analysis (cf. Guttman, 1959, 1966) as a method for developing and testing hypotheses about structural relations of leadership styles. Heller (1971) suggested that leaders ' decision styles can be described along an influence-power continuum. Bass and Valenzi (1974) followed this approach and defined five leadership styles: direction, negotiation, consultation, participation, and delegation. These styles can be characterized according to the relative degree of authoritativeness that is inherent in the specific leader style. Bass and Valenzi (1974) postulated that leadership style is a part of a broader management-subordinate system, and that two major variables in this system are the power and the information distribution between the leader and his subordinates. Hence, the probability that a certain leader style will occur partly depends on the power and information differences between the leader and his subordinates. To test the Bass and Valenzi (1974) postulates on leader
References: Bass, B. M., & Yalenzi, E. R. Contingent aspects of effective management styles. In J. G. Hunt & L. L. Larson (Eds.), Contingency approaches to leadership. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1974. Farley, F. H., & Cohen, A. Common-item effects and the smallest space analysis of structure. Psychological Bulletin, 1974, 81, 766-772. Guttman, L. A structural theory for intergroup beliefs and action. American Sociological Review, 1959, 24, 318-328. Guttman, L. Order analysis of correlation matrices. In R. B. Cattell (Ed.), Handbook oj miiltivariate experimental psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1966. Gutlman, L. A general iionmetric technique for finding the smallest coordinate space for a configuration of points. Psychometrika-, 1968, 33, 469-506. Heller, F. A. Managerial decision making. London: Tavistock, 1971. Kami, E. S., & Levin, J. The use of smallest space analysis in studying scale structure: An applica- LEADERSHIP STYLES tion to the California Psychological Inventory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1972, 56, 341-346. Kruskal, J. B. Multidimensional scaling by optimizing goodness of fit to a nonmetric hypothesis. Psychometrika, 1964, 29, 1-27. Lingoes, J. C. The Gittt man-Lingoes nonmetric program series, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Mathesis Press, 1973. 139 Schlesinger, I. M., & Gutlman, L. Smallest space analysis of intelligence and achievement tests. Psychological Bulletin, 1969, 71, 95-100. Taylor, J. C. An empirical examination of a fourfactor theory of leadership using smallest space analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1971, 6, 249-266, (Received April 21, 1975) Announcement of New Editor The Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association announces the appointment of John P. Campbell as editor of the Journal oj Applied Psychology for the years 1977 to 1982. Manuscripts should now be directed to: John P. Campbell Department of Psychology Elliott Hall University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota SS4SS