Managerial Grid: What Is the Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid?

The Blake-Mouton managerial grid model was developed by Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton in 1964. The managerial grid charts two behavioral dimensions on a single graph. One input, represented on the X-axis, is a concern for production and organizational output. The other input, represented on the Y-axis, is a concern for people and their emotional needs.

Blake and Mouton’s leadership grid aligns with similar leadership studies conducted by teams at the University of Michigan and Ohio State University. Like these related studies, the Blake and Mouton model suggests great managers have both high production concerns and high people concerns. By balancing both elements, they can lead healthy, sustainable businesses.

The study of behavioral leadership, by Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton as well as other teams, has led to different types of leader profiles. Each one emphasizes different levels of concern for employees and concern for output and falls within a quadrant of the managerial grid:

1. 1. Democratic leadership: Behavior leadership research describes democratic leadership behavior as emphasizing employee input and group decision-making. This is also known as participative leadership. Democratic leaders often have happy workforces but may sometimes struggle to make deadlines or embrace change.
2. 2. Laissez-faire leadership: A laissez-faire leadership style is a hands-off approach that removes the key leader from major decision-making. In behavioral leadership theory, a laissez-faire behavioral style will typically preserve the status quo, but to make lasting change, it can be helpful to turn to different leadership models.
3. 3. Authoritarian leadership: Standing in stark contrast to democratic leadership or laissez-faire leadership, the authoritarian managerial style involves a downward flow of communication and singular power at the top of the organization. Authoritarian leaders can ably get large groups on the same page, but paternalistic team management can easily descend into micromanaging or even bullying. This can lead to disharmony and diminishing employee satisfaction. This management style is also known as authoritarian management and produce-or-perish management.
4. 4. Middle-of-the-road leadership: Companies with a middle-of-the-road management style can expect team leaders to seek the status quo when it comes to task management, production needs, and employee satisfaction. While this approach causes far less strife than a produce-or-perish style, it does not get high marks for promoting teamwork and innovation. It can promote a “working for the weekend” mentality with little emotional investment in company achievement.
5. 5. Country club leadership: The country club style of leadership prioritizes an enjoyable workplace. Country club management typically promotes good relationships among managers and their teams, but this management style rarely challenges workers to engage in high production or rigorous personal development. This can make country-club-style leadership ineffective in the long run.
6. 6. Impoverished leadership: In an impoverished management model, people’s needs take a back seat to productivity. Managers typically show low concern for employee well-being. Workers are given few venues to offer input, and their work environment may be bleak or even dangerous. Most workers, if given options, will leave an impoverished leadership situation.
7. 7. Transactional leadership: Transactional leadership focuses on doing what is necessary to get work accomplished. Transactional leaders often cut deals that help them achieve short-term goals—both with team members and with other companies. Transactional leaders consider employee morale only insofar as that morale contributes to employee retention and cost savings for the company.
8. 8. Transformational leadership: Transformational leadership seeks to combine a leader’s abilities with those of their employees. These combined powers are used to effect transformational change upon a company or institution. Transformational leaders show high concern for employee growth and display strong situational leadership. For it to be an effective leadership style, the transformational approach requires a knack for communication, emotional intelligence, and continual self-assessment.
9. 9. Task-oriented leadership: Task-oriented leaders get inspired by information accumulation and goal-setting. They tend to be self-starting and highly organized but often must be mindful of their emotional attentiveness. A task-oriented leader who can also summon high people skills stands a chance of being a very effective leader.
10. 10. Servant leadership: This approach stands out among the many different leadership styles as it focuses on serving others above all else. This spirit of altruism typically works well among charitable organizations. Leaders with a servant mentality must balance their natural desire to help with a need to keep their business thriving and robust. Sometimes servant leaders must build a set of behaviors that help them focus on business needs to the same degree they focus on societal needs.

Business leaders can apply the Blake-Mouton managerial grid using a three-step method.

1. 1. Conduct a self-assessment. Consider five past events that required your leadership. Write down a summary of each event and a summary of your leadership actions. Then compare your actions to the described leadership styles in the Blake-Mouton managerial grid. Decide which leadership styles most align with your own.
2. 2. Aspire to improve. Reflect on the leadership styles you aspire to practice that did not align with your actions. Look for ways to shift and improve your leadership performance to align with your aspirational management styles.
3. 3. Find a balance. Some of the most effective leaders succeed because they are not overly rigid. They recognize that different situations may call for different management styles. You may find moments that call for democratic leadership and other moments that call for task-oriented leadership. Keep the Blake-Mouton archetypes in mind, but know that you can adopt more than one of them as you travel through your career in management.

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