preview

Essay on Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

Decent Essays

Abstract This brief document endeavors to deliver upon three objectives. First, an explanation of Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid will provide the reader with insight regarding the intent and mechanics behind the theory. Secondly, the feasibility of employing this theory in today’s workplace will be briefly explored. Finally, we will identify some of the challenges that may present themselves when referencing this theory within the context of a global marketplace.

Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid was originally developed in 1962 as an organizational development model (Thomas, 2006, p. 45). The premise of this theory involves two dimensions systemic in all organizations: people and productivity. Through their …show more content…

It is plotted at 5, 5 on the grid. While this style may seem ideal at first, it does ultimately ensure that neither the needs of people or productivity are ever fully realized.
• Task Management Leadership (high production / low people): This style is plotted at 9, 1 on the managerial grid. The leader who relies upon this style is exercising dissonant leadership and can “leave employees feeling pushed too hard by the leader’s relentless demands” (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2002, p. 72).
• Team Leadership (high production / high people): This category of behavior represents “the pinnacle of managerial style” on the managerial grid (Borowa & Darwish, 2007, p. 19). Plotted at 9, 9 on the grid, this style epitomizes the prospect of successfully integrating intrapersonal purpose with the organization’s vision. According to Borowa and Darwish (2007), “when employees are committed to, and have a stake in the organization’s success, their needs and production needs match” (p.18). To correspond with this grid, Blake and Mouton devised a 35-question instrument to help managers measure the extent of their orientations toward each dimension (Ward, 2006, p.67). However, according to Brooks (2006), “Blake and Mouton found that, left to rank themselves, some 80 percent of people give themselves a 9, 9 rating” (p.1116). In other words, an

Get Access