Situational Leadership Theory Paper

All situations are different and a leadership style applied in one situation will not always work in another. A leader must use judgement to decide the most appropriate style needed for each situation. The ‘Situational Approach’ to leadership identifies four leadership styles which are;

There have been numerous theories surrounding leadership, which attempt to explain which form is most effective in the workplace. A universalistic approach was once used to rationalize leadership and it was believed that successful leaders possessed certain common abilities and traits. However, today due to external factors such as globalization and advanced technologies, there has been an evolution towards a new paradigm of leadership. Subordinates want to feel empowered and engaged at the workplace and often the behaviors and relationships between leaders and their subordinates become important to understand in order to fully understand effective leadership. Contingency theories have been developed in which people began to look at the behavior of leaders in specific situations. Two such contingency theories are: Path-Goal and Hershey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory.

Situational leadership theory is when a leader adapt’s to the situation and the management styles to the behavioral needs of the individual or group. Trait approach leadership gives more credence to the qualities and traits that people are born with that make them natural born leaders.

Situational leadership has very little in common with the other models mentioned herein. This model revolves around the leader changing leadership behaviors to meet the needs in relationship to the follower (Kouzes, 2003, p. 111). The difference between situational leadership and charismatic, servant, and transformational leadership is the lack of an organizational vision and the empowerment of the followers. Situational leadership uses followers based on their readiness level that relate to their ability and willingness to complete the task (Wren, 1995, p. 208). This aspect coupled with the leader’s task and relationship behavior is used in relation to the

Dr. Paul Hersey developed a leadership theory called situational leadership. Dr. Hersey’s theory suggests that there is not a single best style of leadership, that a successful leader will adapt the style best suited to influence, motivate, or educate the group or person they are leading. The theory also suggests that the style of leadership may change and develop along with the maturity of the group or person (Schermerhorn, 2013, p. 361-362). I understand this theory to mean, that if your group does not possess the maturity level in which a manager can consciously delegate authority, then possibly the participating and telling styles would be best suited to lead the group. As the group matures in their ability, the manager could tailor the management style

Situational Leadership is also called as Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory. Paul Hersey the author of "Situational Leader" and Ken Blanchard the author of " The One Minute Manager" are the one who introduced this theory (Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory, 2010-2015). The principle behind this theory is that every theory is not perfect in itself and the effectiveness of the theory is determined by the situation (Kreitner, 2013, p. 472). One of the important lesson that I have learned till this day is no one can be prepared for the upcoming problems. Problems may have same nature but may be different in the way it has to be solved. For instance: A Leader may motivate an employee by increasing salary but the same tactics may not work for another employee. Another employee may be seeking challenging job which may influence him/her to

The above quote defines the core idea behind one of today’s most talked about leadership theories: Situational Leadership. The model, which celebrates a multitude of leadership styles instead of a single solution, has been considered a transformative and essential new way to manage and to lead.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) asserts that a leader’s effectiveness is dependent upon the readiness, or ability and willingness, of the leader’s followers to complete a task. This leadership style is an amalgamation of task-oriented and relationship-oriented characteristics that are employed depending upon the situation and the followers involved. According to the SLT, as followers increase in readiness the leader’s style is to adapt accordingly (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009).

The Situational Approach is a leadership style that essentially focuses on leadership in different situations. "The premise of the theory is that different situations demand different kinds of leadership" (Northouse, 2015, p. 92). The idea is that in order for a manager to be successful in all situations, he or she must be able to adapt. "Effective [situational leadership} managers provide individual followers with differing amounts of direction and support on different tasks and goals, depending on the follower 's developmental level" (Avery & Ryan, 2002, para. 5). Situational leadership can be broken down into four categories that combine supportive and directive behaviors. They are a high directive-low supportive style (directing approach), high directive-high supportive style (coaching approach), high supportive-low directive style (supportive approach), and low supportive-low directive style (delegating approach) (Northouse, p. 94-95, 2015).

Situational leadership is an effective way to lead a task, project, or operation. Leaders must observe the behaviors of the employees to determine the appropriate amount of guidance and direction that is necessary to help them excel. The readiness exhibited by the employees determines the amount of direct guidance and development that is needed in each situation. The employee’s maturity and ability to direct his or her self within the organizational structure are taken into great consideration. In most cases when an employee is capable of completing the work they are assigned the less direct leadership they will require.

Northouse’s situational leadership exemplifies us four different situations to determine our leadership styles as we respond to different development levels of the team members.

The most popular and extensively researched situational theory of leadership was first proposed by Fred Piedler during the 1960s. Fiedler's model claims that group performance depends on the interaction of the leader style and the favorableness of the situation. Fiedlers major contributions consist of(l) iden-tifying the leadership orientation of the leader and developing a way to measure it, and (2) identifying three situational factors influencing leadership and developing a method of measuring them

A situational leadership model is a model that was created to make a working environment run better. The way it works is by making the management evaluate the work environment and choose what type of leadership style would fit their work environment. When this type of model is used employees are taken into consideration. No longer the management is just a boss that tells its employees what to do. Instead people are treated equally making sure that the environment that is set works for everyone.

During this class, Leading in groups it has come to my knowledge how crucial it is to use all of your resources when being a leader. Many people have thought there is just one good way of leading, but in fact some of the best leaders have used many different styles to guide how they lead. Situational leadership is great because it allows you to view different styles of leading and apply them to the group you have been put in charge of achieving their goals. There are four different types of situational leadership. Counselor, coach, delegator and director. Each type is unique in it’s own way and used to serve different kinds of groups. It is the leaders job to figure out what combination works

The situational leadership approach model has four basic styles for leaders to employ. The four styles in the situational approach are telling, selling, participating, and delegating. The four leadership styles are defined as follows: