Modern Management: concepts and skills, 14/e

A Special Situation: How Leaders Make Decisions

The Tannenbaum and Schmidt Leadership Continuum

Because one of the most important tasks of a leader is making sound decisions, all practical and legitimate leadership thinking emphasizes decision making. Tannenbaum and Schmidt, who wrote one of the first and perhaps most-often-quoted articles on the situational approach to leadership, discuss situations in which a leader makes decisions.³³ Figure 13.5 presents their model of leadership behavior.

Figure 13.5 Continuum of leadership behavior that emphasizes decision making

This model is actually a continuum, or range, of leadership behavior available ...