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situational leadership
analysis of leadership practice as it relates to situational leadership
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Northouse’s (2013) book presents a case study of a training series at a pharmaceutical company. The training specialist realized his approach with attendees was not effective half through the series. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the training series using the Situational Approach. The attendees’ development level and Jim’s initial leadership style will be identified. Using the leadership perspective, weaknesses in Jim’s approach will be identified and potential changes recommended.
The Situational Approach to leadership focuses on the leader’s ability to assess and adapt to the demands of a situation. Hersey, Blanchard, and Johnson (2009) stated no one leadership style is consistently effective given the diverse individuals and tasks making up each situation (as cited in Ramkissoon, 2013). Thus, the contexts requiring leadership must be assessed for their diversity and an appropriate leadership style selected.
Assessment of the Situation
The situation is a six-week training series on listening and communication skills. The series’ attendees are managers from the research and development department. The managers have some skills in listening and communication but have low levels of commitment for trainings in general. These aspects put the managers in a D3 level of development (Northouse, 2013). The lack of commitment to fully participate in the training shows limited readiness. Readiness is the ability or willingness to take responsibility to direct one’s behaviors (Hersey & Blanchard, 2009 as cited in Ramkissoon, 2013). The lack of readiness is seen in managers’ relaxing attendance over the four weeks.
Jim’s initial leadership is a supporting style. Northouse (2013) included social support and giving control to t...
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...ation and subordinates. Jim initially used a continuous supporting style which did not match the managers’ development level involving little commitment. The mismatch of style to the situation caused the leadership to be ineffective and the training series to be unsuccessful. Jim needs agility to use various and concurrent leadership styles as situations and subordinate’s readiness are complex and consistently changing. The Situational Approach calls leaders to assess, adapt and repeat.
Works Cited
Chamberlin, J. (2013). Situationally speaking. Management Services, 57(2), 42-47.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Ramkissoon, A. (2013). A preliminary investigation of the applicability of situational leadership in other cultures. International Journal of Business Strategy, 13(1), 43-48.
Hoy, W. K., & Tarter, C. J. (2010). A Theory of Leadership: A Situational Approach. Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://www.waynekhoy.com/pdfs/theory_of_leadership.pdf
The paramount between all the leadership philosophers to deliberate regarding the situational variables, in accordance with Fred Fiedler, the competence of the leadership technique is contingent on the circumstances. Accordingly, he in consort with his colleagues characterized the situational variables and scrutinized their connection with the appropriateness of leadership approaches. (Business Jargons, n.d.)
Sims Jr., H. P., Faraj, S., & Yun, S. (2009). When should a leader be directive or empowering? How to develop your own situational theory of leadership. Business Horizons, 52, 149-158. DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2008.10.002
Working at a large healthcare organization, it is important that managers are aware of the different management styles. This will help in becoming effective leaders. The theory I have identified in my organizations Situational Theory. Situational leadership
Situational theory tends to look at the situation in isolation from the leader and the followers. Just as the trait approach views personality traits in isolation, so too, the situational approach fails to give adequate attention to the total process that results in leadership. Once again, we need to emphasize the idea of leadership as an interaction influence system involving a leader, follower, and situational variables.
Situational leadership is a theory which was designed in 1969 by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. The “contingency theories of leadership” states that a leader’s effectiveness is dependent on their behaviours in relation to different situational factors. Thus, situational leadership theory, relates to how a leader 's effectiveness is depend on their ability to adjust their leadership behaviour to the required level of the “followers” capability or if the situation is modified.
The third type of leadership style is described as situational leadership. Situational leaders assess the environment and the readiness of the employee before assigning a task (Giltinane, 2013, Grimm, 2010). Situational leaders provide direction and support based on the need at the time. Thus if an employee needs more direction than others, situational leader is able to identify the employees need and provide support accordingly. According to Giltinane (2013) situational leaders relationship with their subordinates and provide guidance and direction as needed.
The situational leadership theory states that leaders use different styles and strategies depending on the situation. There are two models that support this theory. The Fiedler’s Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness states that an “effective leadership occurs only when there is an ideal match between the leader’s style and the group’s work situation” (pg
Hersey, P. & Blanchard, K. (n.d.) Situational Leadership. In Wren, J.T. (Ed.). (1995). The Leader’s Companion (pp. 207-211). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Peus, C., Braun, S., & Frey, D. (2013). Situation-based measurement of the full range of leadership model—Development and validation of a situational judgment test. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(5), 777-795.
First let us look at what situational leadership is. Situational leadership is seen as a leadership method according to the present situation you may be in. A true exceptional leader is not one who has a set method on how he/she leads, but rather an evolutionary method that situational leadership requires. Let me elaborate more on this. Let us say Roger Smith (a project manager from XYZ Construction Company) worked on a project down at Seattle for about a year and had to deal with the common problems associated with projects such as change orders, sub-contractor disputes, scope issues, and weather conditions. Roger Smith handled the Seattle project as he saw fit with prior experience and knowledge that he has about the industry. Now let us modify the situation. Let’s give Roger Smith the same type of project. Identical in size, cost, and scheduling but this time it will take place 4 years later along with the location being in China rather than Seattle. Will Roger Smith’s way of leading that he used in Seattle be successful in China? The outcome points towards no. Why would that be the case if the project is basically identical? For one, we have a different setting location. The labor issues, construction specifications, and laws are dealt with differently in China. Not only that, but the people he would be working with are raised and exposed to a totally different culture. With that, Roger can not approach or deal with people the same way. He would have to understand their culture to better adapt which is an aspect of empathy which I will get into more detail later. That is just one example of situational leadership needing to be applied to succeed in a project. For an additional clarification, http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/sitleader.htm defines situational leadership as, “In simple terms, a situational leader is one who can adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation.” With those aspects at hand, someone can apply this concept in their progression of becoming a successful leader.
A situational leader is the one who will use a different leadership style according to the need and specific situation at the moments.
The contemporary era is the time with constant changes and new demands. In view of this point, we can't put unitary leadership into real work. Accordingly, the term of "contingency leadership theory" (also namely "situational leadership") is given rise to by those situational factors. This theory notes that managers can vary their styles to suit different circumstances.
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 Theories of leadership explain how leadership style must be tailored to the demands of the task and the qualities of subordinates.