Leadership and Human Resource Management Styles of Senior and Top Level Managers

This paper reports in detail a Leadership Styles Questionnaire (LSQ) developed to measure the Benevolent, Critical and Developmental styles of manages. This questionnaire has two forms; one for self-assessment and the second for assessment by others (subordinates, boss and colleagues). This questionnaire is being used as a training instrument to help managers review and reflect about their own people management and leadership styles and beliefs underlying these. The instrument was used first on 74 senior managers to assess their own styles and the styles of their seniors. Subsequently it was used on 67 senior managers who were also assessed by their subordinates (n = 540). It was also administered on 96 top level managers who were assessed also by their subordinates (n = 871). In all the cases it was used as a training instrument. This paper presents the data available from all these groups and offers suggestions for using LSQ as a development tool in training programmes, counselling, appraisal and OD. The data indicate that the leadership styles of senior executives as well as top level managers is predominantly “Developmental”. The data also suggest that Indian managers seem to be sensitive to the perceptions of their subordinates as there was a good degree of congruence between their perceptions and those of their subordinates. In cases where the managers were perceived as “critical” by their subordinates, the managers were found to be less sensitive to such perceptions. These were however, only a few in number. Detailed data are presented in this paper for use by those interested in using the LSQ.