Exploring Situational Leadership Theory in Organizations

Situational Leadership Theory and Organizational Leadership

Introduction

Generally, leadership is defined as the ability to influence an individual or a group of people, usually called the followers, in the achievement of a specific objective (Kiechel, 2012).

In the field of leadership, there have been many theories that explain different types of leadership and styles. In this paper, situational leadership theory will be discussed and its relevance in developing an effective cultured of leadership in an organization (Maslow, 1943).At the same time, the paper will describe three theories of situational leadership including the strengths and weaknesses of each theory when leading staff in the organizational environment.

Situational Leadership

In fact, this theory is considered as some of the simplest leadership theories and easy to apply in an organizational setting.

The Fiedler's Contingency Model

Fiedler's Contingency Model was created in 1976 by Fred Edward Fiedler, who was professor emeritus of management as well as organization at the University of Washington,

Seattle (Kiechel, 2012). Fiedler's contingency model addresses the effectiveness of a group depending on the style of leadership as well as the prevailing situation. Notably, the Fiedler's

Contingency Model is mostly used in helping management to choose suitable leaders for a given - 4 -

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SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP 5 group type in an organization (Chambers, 2012). One of the key advantages of this theory is that since it is prescriptive; it provides leaders with a tool of creating effective groups through modification of several variables. Further, this model has undergone a lot of research which provides enough wealth of materials in using the model in specific situations. The model

According to Hersey and Blanchard, leadership styles come from - 5 -

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SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP 6 four key behaviors, which they designated using a letter-number combination: S-1 Telling, S-2

Selling, S-3 Participating and S-4 Delegating.

The two authors argued that the style of leadership manifests itself as behavior that is related to the task as well as behavior as to relationship with a given group. “Telling” behavior refers to the behavior that is related to the unidirectional flow of information to a group from its leader (Lawler, 2014). The “selling” behavior is where a leader tries to convince the group being led by providing the members with both emotional and social support. Additionally, in

“participating” behavior, a leader includes the group members in decision making process.

Finally, “delegating” is the “parceling out” of tasks to the members (Lawler, 2014). One of the strengths of this theory is that its simplicity makes it easy to apply. The application of