The Michigan leadership studies were a program of research conducted at the University of Michigan. Michigan leadership studies defined job-centered and employee-centered leadership as opposite ends of a single leadership dimension.
The goal of this work was to determine the pattern of leadership behaviors that result in effective group performance. From interviews with supervisors and subordinates of high and low productivity groups in several organizations, the researchers collected and analyzed descriptions of supervisory behavior to determine how effective supervisors differed from ineffective ones. Two basic forms of leader behavior were identified - job-centered and employee-centered.
These two styles of leader behavior were presumed to be at opposite ends of a single dimension. Thus, the Michigan researchers suggested that any given leader could exhibit either job-centered or employee-centered leader behavior, but not both at the same time. Moreover, they suggested that employee-centered leader behavior was more likely to result in effective group performance than was job-centered leader behavior.