Case Study 1
Situation
Last year I undertook a position as a summer associate at a German law firm in Burma for a period of three months. Despite my relative lack of a legal background, I was intrigued with the inner workings of the law when I working on a complicated client case as a management consultant. To enable interns in adjusting to the workplace, the firm has in place of assigning senior associates as mentors to each pair of incoming interns. I would be working alongside a French law student and an attorney with practice licenses in Germany and China. The legal atmosphere in Burma is rather vague and undisputedly hard to navigate, although to a lesser extent than when the military junta was in power. Regardless of the initial
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Implication
The ongoing dynamics between the leader and follower closely follows the approaches of situational leadership. Instead of utilizing a one-fit all model in delegating tasks and training, the leader has taken into account the various development levels of his followers. Taken our present competencies into account, the leader was successful in providing both a coaching style leadership for myself, whereas my colleague, an advanced law student appropriately received a more delegating style approach. What situational leadership entails is that ultimately, leadership being ultimately a dyadic relationship between two people while simply not revolving around the traits of a leader, and those traits need to evolve as people change in their motivational skills. However, the effects of this case show that what’s particularly important in situations for leadership which is not fully encompassed in situational leadership, is not just people’s motivations but also team composition, types of people recruited and different personalities. Leaders are required to be flexible in adapting to changing followers’ competencies that may or may not occur over time. Although I was given extensive coaching in the beginning, as time passes on I longed for increased self-dependency and a need for challenge. In a way, boredom
The text here identifies four distinct types of situational leadership, indicating that Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating are all viable incarnations of situational leadership. In the case of Jacobs, this leadership is of a Directorial orientation, largely necessitated by the
Today’s potential leaders who have enhanced there skill with education in leadership, believe in the elements that they 've learned. The rational, technical reducible in today 's marketplace could be ill-equipped without the proper motivation and mentoring because motivation of followers isn 't created out of thin air. It’s accomplished by aligning individuals and members who take pride in their contributions and have an understanding of shared goals and values.
Herschey and Blanchard, in their Situational Leadership theory, recommend that a leader adapts their leadership style on the basis of the maturity of the group or individual in dealing with specific situations. If an individual is new to the organisation and have a low level of expertise but a high level of motivation then a directing leadership style is likely to be most suitable, whereas an employee that has a higher level of skills but variable commitment may respond to a supportive style in order to build confidence.
Situational leadership focuses on adapting your leadership style or approach based on the situation and the amount of direction and support that is needed by followers. As Jesus trained and equipped his disciples from simple fishermen to fishers of men, who carried on his ministry after he ascended to heaven, he integrated different styles and theories of leadership that best served and supported his followers (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003). Depending on the level of competency and commitment of their people, leaders will adjust their style to provide the necessary support and direction. The core competencies of situational leaders are the ability to identify the performance, competence and commitment of others, and to be flexible (Paterson, 2013). From being highly directive, telling their people exactly what to do and how, to delegating, clearly stating the objective and allowing them to complete the task with little direction and support, situational leaders adapt their approach to the needs of their people and the particular situation.
Personality, experience, general operating style and learning of leadership are all contributors in determining what style of leadership an individual will adopt. To be a leader and decide upon a style, one must know their self and have an understanding of their own abilities, as well as having a knowledge base on their prospective followers (Sellgren, Ekvall, & Tomson, 2006). I will be discussing two leadership styles, situational and authoritarian. Situational leadership is a style of leadership developed by Dr. Paul Hersey, which is categorised under the core theory of contingency. This theory was first introduced as “Life Cycle Theory of Leadership”, which was renamed to “Situational Leadership” in the mid 1970s. This style teaches that there is no one particular style that is efficient for every situation and effective leaders adapt their style to accommodate the range of individuals within a group. An effective leader must have the ability to diagnose, adapt and communicate based on the readiness of followers and other situational variables. Dr. Paul Hersey describes the “an individual’s readiness level as their willingness and ability to complete a particular task. He proposes that a situational leader is able to change their leadership style depending on the situation and a follower’s readiness level. This is a significant element in ensuring the task gets completed successfully (Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, 2011). According to this style, there are four readiness levels. Style one is when the followers are unable and unwilling to perform the task. Upon identifying this, the leader is able to explain to followers what, where, how and when to do this particular task. This particular style is also known as “telling” and is optimal when attempting to influence followers with low readiness levels. Style two, also called “selling” is described as when
Legalism is an ancient Chinese philosophy of administration that believes that humans are more inclined to do wrong than right because they are motivated entirely by self-interest. Shi Huangdi was the founder of the Qin dynasty. After conquering the seven kingdoms in ancient China, he halted the Warring States Period and took the throne as the first emperor of the unified Chinese nation. He ruled on the basis of Legalism. To prevent criticism of his rule, Shi Huangdi ordered that all books that seemed to be useless or against him be burned. This included all poetry from the Chou dynasty and all books written by Confucian scholars. The only books from previous eras that Shi Huangdi let off were the practical ones about medicine and farming. Focusing on the issue of media censorship, the current Chinese government governs in a similar way to the way Qin Shi Huangdi once governed. China still blocks and monitor citizens access to several social media services and shuts down media entertainment programs during government events. While some may see this as an extreme form of censorship, we must consider the fact that several other countries have similar policies in place.
Anita Satterlee makes an obvious, but profound observation stating, “A leader cannot lead without followers (Satterlee, pg. 6, 2013).” Essentially, a leader without subordinates who are engaged can not lead properly. While this concept is easy to comprehend, what is most intriguing is Satterlee’s claim that “by mastering the role of followership, a subordinate prepares for the role of leadership (Satterlee, pg. 7, 2013).” Instead of viewing leaders as being static, it is important to view the process of leadership as more
According to Institute of Medicine (2011) capabilities of situational leaders include skill presentation recognition, flexibility including competence and pledge of others. Situational leaders relate with their subordinates by encouraging and directing them. Situational leadership is an association between the subordinates’ development level and leaders ' behaviour to offer encouragement and direction. (Carter et al, 2005; Northouse, 2013) The
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
Research on leadership is a subject that has been approached in many different ways. Theories on leadership can be classified according to the type of variable that is emphasized the most. Three types of variables relevant to these theories include (1) characteristics of leaders, (2) characteristics of followers, and (3) characteristics of the situation (Yuri, G., 2010). In the textbook Leadership in Organizations, Yuri, G. classifies these theories into the following five approaches: (1) the trait approach, (2) the behavior approach, (3) the power-influence approach, (4) the situational approach, and (5) the integrative approach. This paper briefly discusses the situational approach of studying leadership.
Two-communication characterizes relationships behavior: the encouragement, listening, facilitating, and supportive behaviors. Situational leadership theory is a form of transformational leadership that claims that there is not one leadership style that works for all situations. The design of an agent-based leadership support system exploits a computational model for the development of individuals or groups. The article will be appropriate for my doctoral study in the conceptual framework section as it pertains situational leadership and pointing out different behaviors such as task and
The communication used by a Situational Leader varies according to the style the Leader has to employ with his follower. The communication is focused on goal achievement when directing, while coaching and supporting tacks on encouragement to reach goals (Northouse). Proper communication is essential during these stages. However, communication is in the follower’s court when the leader is delegating, as “[…] followers take responsibility for getting the job done the way they see fit (Northouse, p. 95-96).
In the reading, Globalization and the Decline of Legal Consciousness: Torts, Ghosts, and Karma in Thailand by David M. Engel, I was overwhelmed by the Thais people’s response to globalization in Thailand. Instead of globalization pushing the people of Thailand towards legal formal remedies, it seems to have pushed the people even closer to their religious remedies. The religious remedies that the people of Thailand use are in conjunction with their faith and practices of Buddhism. More particularly, this approach by the Thais people to chose religious remedies over legal ones speaks loudly about the credibility of government as a whole. Moreover, this is because I compared Thais people’s hesitancy for legal remedies with my own observations
This is an introduction to the Situational Leadership Model by Hersey & Blanchard (1964), introduced in Chapter 5 of the textbook “Leadership: Theory and Practice” by Peter Northouse, a model that suggests that leadership should adapt to the development and commitment level of the employee (Northouse, 2016). The model suggests that at a lower level of employee development, i.e. competence & commitment, leaders should engage in a directing style of leadership, and at the other end employees with a high level of competence and commitment can be led with minimal directive and support (Northouse, 2016). The following is
This leadership model has been helpful in and managerial training class. This approach has been successful because of the different ways that it can be used in situations. There is not a go-to management styles that works for every situation. This theory gives leaders the opportunity to get to know their followers and figure out what best approach is. Reddin’s basic management styles result from the different levels of concern for the people and the task. When comparing the Redding’s planes of styles to the situational approach these levels are equivalent to D1, D2, D3, and D4. The situational approach also makes leaders look at the different developmental domains their followers are on. It is best for the leader to be around the same developmental level as their followers. Problems can arise if leaders and follower are not on the same page developmentally.