Likert 4 Management Leadership Styles: Explained and Analyzed

Likert's 4 Styles of Management Leadership

Likert 4 Management Leadership Styles comes from the Famous psychologist Rensis Likert, and his associates conducted an extensive survey of management and leadership patterns in many organizations.

Likert 4 Management Leadership Styles explains how four distinctive management and leadership style patterns influence the organizational environment.

Likert 4 Management Leadership Styles

Exploitative-Authoritative Leadership Style

In the Exploitative-Authoritative Leadership Style, the manager has no confidence or trust in subordinates. Subordinates feel no freedom to discuss things about the job with their superiors.

In solving job problems, the manager seldom gets the ideas and opinions of subordinates.

Benevolent-Autocratic Leadership Style

In the Benevolent-Autocratic Leadership Style, the manager has condescending confidence and trust in subordinates, motivates with rewards and some punishments, permits communication upward, solicits some ideas and opinions from subordinates, and allows some delegation of decision making but with close policy control.

Consultative Leadership Style

Consultative Leadership Style indicates that Manager has substantial but not complete confidence and trust in subordinates but still wishes to keep control of decisions.

Subordinates feel free to discuss things about the job with their superiors. The manager gets ideas and opinions and tries to use them constructively.

Democratic Leadership Style

In the Democratic Leadership Style, the manager has complete confidence and trust in subordinates, allowing them to participate directly in decision-making.

Subordinates also feel free to discuss things about the job with their superiors. The manager always asks subordinates for their ideas and opinions and uses them constructively.

Likert found styles 3 and 4 as high producing while styling 1 and 2 as low producing. Likert also suggested extensive and intensive leadership training at all management levels to move into style-4 as early as possible.

Likert 4 Management Leadership Styles study and its findings give a thorough perspective of the leadership styles and how each leadership style influences the organization’s structure, value system, attitude towards workers, productivity level, and organization’s total environment.

Likert 4 Management Leadership Styles indicates which leadership style is suitable for which organization types in a scientific method.