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Level 4 Diploma in Business Management

Leadership theories: trait theory, behaviour theories and leadership styles

BM405 · Leading and Managing Teams — Week 2 of 16

CourseBM405
Week2 of 16
SemesterII
TutorOnline in the course chat

This week’s topics

Leadership theories: trait theory, behaviour theories and leadership styles

  1. Trait theory
  2. Behaviour theories
  3. Autocratic style, Democratic style, Laissez-faire style

What you will be able to do

  • 1.2 Explain key leadership theories.

Study materials

Further resources

  • Organizational Behavior, ch. 12.4: The trait approach to leadership · PDF · OpenStax (2019), leadership skills and traits; pp. 339–341 · for registered students
  • Organizational Behavior, ch. 12.5: Behavioural approaches to leadership · PDF · OpenStax (2019), autocratic, democratic, participative; pp. 342–344 · for registered students
  • Introduction to Business 2e, ch. 6.4: Leading, guiding and motivating others · PDF · OpenStax (2026), leadership styles; pp. 197–201 · for registered students
  • Participative Leadership: A Literature Review and Prospects for Future Research · Open-access article · Wang et al. (2022), Frontiers in Psychology. Clear review of participative and democratic leadership: what it involves and when it helps. · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
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Course plan
  • Week 1: Leadership versus management: inspiring people and planning…
  • Week 2: Leadership theories: trait theory, behaviour theories and l…
  • Week 3: Leadership theories: situational, contingency, transactiona…
  • Week 4: Management theories: management schools and approaches
  • Week 5: Team development and high performance teams
  • Week 6: Team development models compared: Tuckman, Adair and McGreg…
  • Week 7: Improving performance: SMART goals, training, appraisals, c…
  • Week 8: Midterm evaluation
  • Week 9: Why improving performance matters to the individual and to …
  • Week 10: Motivation theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzbe…
  • Week 11: Vroom’s expectancy theory and the role of motivation in tea…
  • Week 12: Determining own capacity to lead: personal SWOT and leaders…
  • Week 13: Self-assessment tools: MBTI and emotional intelligence asse…
  • Week 14: Assessing your own ability to improve: reflective journals …
  • Week 15: Review and coursework completion
  • Week 16: Final evaluation and project assessment
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