Situational Leadership

An approach to leadership research based on the premise that different situations demand different kinds of leadership.

Emphasizes adapting leadership style

• No universal style

• The situation dictates the best actions of the leader

• The situation

• The followers

• The leader

• directive behavior

• supportive behavior

• Leadership behaviors that help group members in goal achievement via one-one way communication

  • Giving directions

  • Establishing goals & how to achieve them

  • Methods of evaluation & time lines

  • Defining roles

• Leadership behaviors that assist group members via two-way communication in feeling comfortable with themselves, co- workers, and situation

  • Asking for input

  • Problem solving

  • Praising, listening

• High Directive, Low Supportive

• Leader focuses communication on goal achievment

• Spends less time using supportive behaviors

• High directive, high supportive

• Leader focuses communication on BOTH goal achievement and supporting subordinates’ socioemotional needs

• Requires leader involvement through encouragement and soliciting subordinate input

• Low Directive, Low Supportive

• Leader offers LESS task input and social support; facilitates subordinates’ confidence and motivation in relation to the task

• Leader lessens involvement in planning, control of details, and goal clarification

• Gives subordinates control and refrains from intervention and unneeded social support

• Low Directive, high supportive

• Leader does NOT focus solely on goals; uses supportive behaviors to bring out employee skills in accomplishing tasks

• Leader delegates day-to-day decision-making control but is available to facilitate problem solving

Paul Hersey & Ken Blanchard

Followers have different levels of development based on:

• Skills & Capibilities (Competence)

• Level of Motivation (Commitment)

  
  

  -> Development levels change, moving up and down

  -> Those development levels correspond directly to the type of leadership behaviors necessary for the task or assignment.

• Developing

• Low competence, high commitment

• New to the task

• Eager

• Needs to be told what to do and how to do it

-> Directing

• Still developing

• Low to some competence

• Low commitment

• Is learning how to do the task

• May have lost some of that original enthusiasm

• Can do some tasks unsupervised

  • The final decision is still made by the leader

-> Coaching

• Developed

• Moderate to high competence

• Variable commitment

• Can perform the tasks assigned fairly autonomously

• Still needs feedback and support

• Frequently moving up and down on the development scale

-> Supporting

• Fully developed

• High competence

• High commitment

• The motivated expert

• Very little need for direction, motivation, or supervision

-> Delegating

• Leader flexibility. Situational Leadership® stresses that effective leaders are those who can change their styles based on task requirements and subordinate needs.

• Differential treatment. Situational Leadership® is based on the premise that leaders need to treat each subordinate according to his/her unique needs.

• Lack of an empirical foundation raises theoretical considerations regarding the validity of the approach.

• Further research is required to determine how commitment and competence are conceptualized for each developmental level.

• Conceptualization of commitment itself and why it varies is very unclear.

• Replication studies fail to support basic prescriptions of the Situational Leadership® model.

• Does not account for how particular demographics influence the leader-subordinate prescriptions of the model

• Failstoadequatelyaddresstheissueofone-to-one versus group leadership in an organizational setting

• Often used in consulting because it’s easy to conceptualize and apply

• Straightforward nature makes it practical for managers to apply

• Breadth of situational approach facilitates its applicability in virtually all types of organizations and levels of management in organizations