Leadership from an operant perspective

How can managers motivate their employees? After conducting detailed field studies of work groups in settings as diverse as insurance company offices and regatta sailboats, Judith Komaki has identified two key behaviours that seem to distinguish effective from ineffective managers; monitoring workers’ performance and communicating consequences. Drawing on her research over the last ten years, Komaki combines behavioural and cognitive theories of leadership and puts forward a new model for the study of leadership from an operant perspective.