SOCIOLOGY (BOOK HOWELL and COSTLEY) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

SOCIOLOGY (BOOK HOWELL and COSTLEY) - Essay Example n is considered to be one of the most important factors and all most all the companies look for new methods to motivate the employees and to bring out the best out of them. This paper will focus upon the different leadership behaviors and the best leadership behavior which should be adopted to meet the company’s goals. Leader effectiveness is determined by what people do, not by some inherent personal characteristic... Im not saying personal characteristics dont help; they certainly do. But leaders have to adapt their behavioral styles to fit the situations in which they find themselves" (p. 7).   Howell says the good news is most people can learn leader behaviors and learn to recognize situations in which certain behaviors are most important.   Howell and Costley (2001) argue for the match of leader behavior, leader traits and characteristics, follower characteristics, and the situation at hand.   And there are seven leader types, fit for various behavioral processes and situations in my read of their leader theory: And now we have left the obsession with one best style of leadership. There is no universal style. There is as I have suggested, a dimension of behaviors running between Transactional and Transformational. The behavior school to this point is fixated on the transactional. To find transformational we must sail to the Isle of Situation.† ( Howell and Costley, 12 September 2008). The same principles of Howell and Costley are elucidates in the paper. There are mainly five major behavior patterns namely, supportive behavior, directive behavior, participative behavior, reward and punishment behavior and charismatic behavior. Every behavior pattern has its own pros and cons. But the behavior pattern which works out the best is undoubtedly reward and punishment behavior. In this the terms and conditions are made very clear to the employees, any breach of these terms and conditions result in punishment, on the other hand if the employee performs well,