The Situational Theory Of Situational Leadership

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;

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.

Bass acknowledges that transformational leadership is not a panacea, and in certain situations other styles of leadership are indicated (Avery, Avery, Bell, Hilb, & Witte, 2004, p. 97). A flexible organization with leaders whose style is adaptable to meet the changing needs of employees and situation may ascribe the situational leadership model. Situational leaders rely on intuition and analysis of a given situation to lead in a way that makes sense based on that particular situation. The effective manager is able to utilize multiple leadership styles as conditions change. Blanchard and Hersey (Chapman, 2012) characterized the situational leadership style in terms of the amount of the direction, and the support, that the leader provides to followers. Depending on employees’ competencies in their task areas and commitment to their tasks, the leadership style varies from one person to another. This leader might lead the same person one way sometimes, and another way at other times.

Bosse, T., Duell, R., Memon, Z. A., Treur, J., & van der Wal, C. N. (2017). Computational model-based design of leadership support based on situational leadership theory. Simulation, 93 (7), 605-617. doi:10.1177/0037549717693324

According to Institute of Medicine (2011) situational leaders capabilities include skill presentation recognition, competence and pledge of others, and to be flexible. Carter et al (2005); Northouse (2013) defined situational leadership as an association between the supporter’s development level and leaders ' behaviour to offer encouragement and direction. The leaders maintaining constant communication, offering emotional support therefore, refer to their involvement as supportive behaviour. Similarly Schein (2010) noted that directive behaviour permits the leader to afford the group an amount of direction including their roles. The leader attains this by

The four styles identified by the Situational leadership model fit like a hand in a glove to the four leadership styles prescribed by the Path-Goal model. Both models identify a directive style, which calls for the leader to tell followers what to do and how to do it. These styles are also commonly employed in situations where the followers have little to no experience in performing the tasks (ChangingMinds.org, 2010, Situational Leadership Theory section). In addition, both models identify a supporting style that begins to take into account the relational aspect of followers to leaders that can be used to encourage followers

I found the situational leadership model much different from the model in the previous model. I find this model extremely resourceful because it gives a closer look at what the leader in a group is supposed to do. In contrast with that it also allows the followers to understand their leaders techniques and everything that they are responsible for. Like in pervious DBA’s i am going to use my past job as a manger to relate how i would use the situation leadership model in a group. I could see myself using this model to train other managers as well as team leaders. I think it teaches us that using more than one technique to be a leader is a very great decision. We should be more open to using our resources. to find effective way to create a group that produces results. At work I can see myself using the model to be a leader. I would be a delegator in the morning when i walked in and am assigning everyone’s tasks for the day. I would be a coach when training a new employee. I think the coaching technique is a great one because more people respond to a encouraging leader rather than a scary and intimidating one. In the power point for this module i liked the quote “It is a delicate balance between giving direction and providing support”(situational leadership slide 43) I would use the counselor technique to help correct someone, in my example if an employee wasn't

As the Situational Leadership Model suggests, different leadership strategies are appropriate for different situations and depending on those who are being led. To be a successful leader, Wooden understood how his players handle instruction, criticism, and praise; as well as how the team learns best, what level of independence will harbor the most success, and the dynamics of the team with regard to chemistry, diversity, etc. As a famous situational leader, the ability to adapt his coaching style to changing players and circumstances attributed to much of his success. The result of his situational analysis became the foundation in planning the course of action. He believed that it was necessary to change plans to fit the unexpected “call”

As I worked through my analysis I was not at all surprised by the areas that I scored the

From a situational leadership standpoint, I generally find myself able to adapt to the specific situation. A strength would be the ability to utilize supportive and directive when it comes to the goal at hand. A weakness that I have would be around which person I’m utilizing it with. I’m very aware of my audience and have a good handle if I should be directive in my communication or need to support that individual. Generally, this is with my immediate team. When it comes to anyone not on my immediate team I tend to always take the directive approach. I’ve always viewed the situation, and in some ways, created an in group and out group for specific tasks. There are the people that will be able to assist me and my team in getting the job done

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

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

Situational leadership, developed by professor Paul Hersey and author and consultant Ken Blanchard. Their approach was based off of a 1967 article by W.J. Reddin called The 3-D Management Style Theory. In his article, Reddin discusses the need to have different styles based on the demands of the leader. A leader needs to be flexible in their approach to meet the needs of the job, their superior and their subordinates (1967). Hersey and Blanchard progressed this theory by introducing the Situational Leadership II model. Their model breaks leadership into four different styles, and how a leader must alter their approach in supporting and directing their subordinates based on a given situation. These styles are directing (S1), coaching (S2), supporting (S3) and delegating (S4). The model also focuses on the development level of the subordinates by categorizing them between low (D1), moderate (D2 and D3) and

The situational leadership model was developed by two authors, Ken Blanchard, and Paul Hersey in the year 1969. These authors based this model on the concept that leadership should adapt to different management practices and approaches to fit different situations and surpass any diversity of their encounters (Lussier & Achua, 2010). In particular, this model provides guidance on how to analyze a situation, choose effaceable strategies and adopt the most appropriate leadership style. Apparently, the two developers of the model researched and found that, given some case, leadership may fail to accomplish some goals due to adopting single

Jim Anderson developed a 6 week training program on listening and communication skills to improve management at a large pharmaceutical company (Northouse, 2013). Jim decided to train the middle level managers from research and development first. The managers are highly skilled, but skeptical of the value of the seminar. After the third week, Jim begins to notice problems. Attendance has dropped and the attendees are frequently late or leave early. Jim is unsure how to turn the problem around.