A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Leadership Behavior
A Hierarchical
Taxonomy of Leadership Behavior: Integrating a Half Century of Behavior Research
Gary Yukl Angela Gordon University at Albany,
Tom Taber State University
of New York, Albany, NY
A
major problem leadership research and has been lack of agreement about which theory behavior categories are relevant and meaningful. It is difficult to integrate findings from five decades of research unless the many diverse leadership behaviors can be integrated in a parsimonious and meaningful conceptual An emerging solution is a framework. hierarchical taxonomy with three metacategories (task, relations, and change behavior). Confirmatory factor analysis of a behavior
A
in
effective
major problem in research leadership has been
and theory on the lack of are agreement about which behavior categories
description questionnaire found more support for this taxonomy than for alternative models.
INTRODUCTION
A large amount of the empirical research on effective leadership has sought to identify the types of behaviors that enhance individual and collective performance. The most common research method has been a survey field study with a behavior description questionnaire. In the past half century, hundreds of survey studies have examined the correlation between leadership behavior and various indicators of leadership effectiveness (Bass, 1990; Yukl, 2002). Other methods (e.g., laboratory experiments, field experiments, critical incidents) have been used much less frequently to identify effective types of leadership behavior.
relevant and meaningful for leaders. It is very difficult to compare and integrate the results from studies that use different sets of behavioral There has been a bewildering categories. proliferation of taxonomies on leadership behavior Sometimes (see Bass, 1990; Yukl, 2002). different terms have been used to refer to the same type of behavior. At other times, the same term has been defined differently by various
Taxonomy of Leadership Behavior: Integrating a Half Century of Behavior Research
Gary Yukl Angela Gordon University at Albany,
Tom Taber State University
of New York, Albany, NY
A
major problem leadership research and has been lack of agreement about which theory behavior categories are relevant and meaningful. It is difficult to integrate findings from five decades of research unless the many diverse leadership behaviors can be integrated in a parsimonious and meaningful conceptual An emerging solution is a framework. hierarchical taxonomy with three metacategories (task, relations, and change behavior). Confirmatory factor analysis of a behavior
A
in
effective
major problem in research leadership has been
and theory on the lack of are agreement about which behavior categories
description questionnaire found more support for this taxonomy than for alternative models.
INTRODUCTION
A large amount of the empirical research on effective leadership has sought to identify the types of behaviors that enhance individual and collective performance. The most common research method has been a survey field study with a behavior description questionnaire. In the past half century, hundreds of survey studies have examined the correlation between leadership behavior and various indicators of leadership effectiveness (Bass, 1990; Yukl, 2002). Other methods (e.g., laboratory experiments, field experiments, critical incidents) have been used much less frequently to identify effective types of leadership behavior.
relevant and meaningful for leaders. It is very difficult to compare and integrate the results from studies that use different sets of behavioral There has been a bewildering categories. proliferation of taxonomies on leadership behavior Sometimes (see Bass, 1990; Yukl, 2002). different terms have been used to refer to the same type of behavior. At other times, the same term has been defined differently by various
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