The Situational Approach And Contingency Theories Of Leadership

The word leadership has a lot of meanings, but its meaning is unique to the person who is giving the definition. Leadership is the ability to guide, direct, and motivate others to accomplish a mission or task. It is the ability to make subordinates see their own potential in their abilities and supervisors recognize and respect it. Leaders are entrusted with building up those they lead to ensure the individual can one day assume the responsibility of leading others. It is for this reason that the situational approach style of leadership best describes my leadership style.

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.

Leaders have a “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 402). In the past leaders have been described by certain traits or characteristics. These traits can help an organization identify potential candidates who may be strong leaders. Later behavior approaches of leaders were identified that could be taught. In short, leaders could be made. Situations have an impact on which leader behaviors will be most effect at any given time. Several contingency theories have been formulated over the years to identify how situations influence leadership behavior. Each style has strengths and

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.

This paper will address why situational leadership theory is useful and relevant in developing an effective leadership culture. In addition, it will also discuss the three theories of situational leadership and what is considered to be the strengths and weaknesses of each theory when leading staff in the organizational environment.

Situational leadership may be the case when there are several different situations to handle under one position. There might not be specific tasks given since the roles could be dispersed to every other member. A leader in situations could be dealt with emotions, academics, work, and support with another student. At orientation, when leaders meet up with students, just to chat and to see how they are doing would be considered situational leadership because you are having a bonding relationship. Also, setting up for orientation team takes a lot, and more than one person. This type of leadership may benefit me because I am good at multitasking and communication skills. When there is a task that I need help with, I would ask for guidance how to

I appreciate your brief summary of situational and contingency leadership comparisons but feel there additional similarities that can be pointed out. First, both theories are rather prescriptive in nature, meaning both have behaviors that can be categorized. In the case of the situational theory, it states that the leader adjusts their behavior based the directive need and supportive need of their subordinate, which relies on a four quadrant guide (Northouse, 2013, p. 101). Similar in the contingency theory, is the Lease Preferred Coworker (LPC) scale, where the leader’s task and relationship motivation are rated. Another similarity is that in both approaches the results of the “scale” drive a particular action.

Developed by Hersey and Blanchard based on Reddin 's 3-D management style theory, the situational approach to leadership, is a very broadly used and accepted leadership style and it is used in a lot of organizations for leadership training and development (Northouse, 2012).

Situational leadership is a leadership model, which has been large influenced and moulded by its early developers Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey. In this section we’ll examine the early development of the theory in late-60s to 70s, before looking at how the leadership model has evolved from the early inception.

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).

In today’s world, leaders are not defined by age, race or gender. They can be a high school basketball coach, the shift supervisor at the local coffee shop, or even the President of the United States of America. In as many ways that leaders can vary by appearance and responsibility, there is also a variance in the ways that they lead. This case study aims to compare three of the more popular theories of leadership. These leadership theories are situational leadership, trait theory and transformational leadership.

The Contingency Theory applied to factors unique to each situation to determine whether specific leader characteristics and behaviors will be effective. Researched findings credit Fiedler 's contingency theory as the first to specify how situational factors interact with leader traits and behavior to influence leadership effectiveness. This theory suggests high interest in the situation determines the effectiveness of task- and person-oriented leader behavior.

Over the years, scholars and management theorists have cultivated several leadership styles that they have encouraged people to apply and try to implement. However, most of these theories have shown various short comings. Typically, none of these styles has proven to work best in diverse situations. In the late 1960’s, the Situational Leadership Model was developed. In this paper, I will discuss the details about the situational leadership model. In detail, the paper begins with a defined introduction of what the situational leadership model is about and an interpretation of its origination. An outline of the model will follow after which a discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of this model will shortly follow.

1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 2 2. HERSEY’S AND BLANCHARD’S SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL ........... 3 3. SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP & HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS ........ 4

In the case study, it is evident that Jim is applying the situational style of leadership during the training program of the managers. Situational leadership refers to the style of leadership whereby the leader or a particular director of an organization has to adjust to his or her style so as to fit in the development category of the employees or follower he is influencing ( Hersey, Blanchard, & Bank of America NT & SA., 2014). The leader has the responsibility of giving an outline of how thing should be run within an organization, and it is to the employees to ensure that it is implemented. In most cases, the leader is friendly to his or her employees or followers. In the case study, Jim is aware that the managers have been to a training of a similar situation and therefore he is trying to adjust his leadership style so as to understand exactly what they should be learning(Fiedler & Chemers,2012). To influence his followers, he decides to involve them in each and every level so as to adapt to their level. This is done objectively with the aim of getting to understand the extent of their training level and what he need to