The Forgotten Ones? The Validity of Consideration and Initiating Structure in Leadership Research.

TLDR

This study conducted a meta‑analysis of the Ohio State leadership behaviors—Consideration and Initiating Structure—to examine their relationship with leadership. The analysis incorporated 163 independent correlations for Consideration and 159 for Initiating Structure. The meta‑analysis found that Consideration (r ≈ .48) and Initiating Structure (r ≈ .29) both have moderately strong, nonzero relationships with leadership outcomes, with Consideration more strongly linked to follower satisfaction, motivation, and leader effectiveness, and Initiating Structure more to leader job performance and group‑organization performance, and overall the findings support their validity across measures.

Abstract

This study provided a meta-analysis of the relationship of the Ohio State leadership behaviors--Consideration and Initiating Structure--with leadership. Overall, 163 independent correlations for Consideration and 159 correlations for Initiating Structure were analyzed. Results revealed that both Consideration (.48) and Initiating Structure (.29) have moderately strong, nonzero relations with leadership outcomes. Consideration was more strongly related to follower satisfaction (leader satisfaction, job satisfaction), motivation, and leader effectiveness, and Initiating Structure was slightly more strongly related to leader job performance and group-organization performance. Validities did vary by leadership measure, but in most cases validities generalized regardless of the measure used. Overall, the results provide important support for the validity of Initiating Structure and Consideration in leadership research.