Situational Leadership Theory Paper

Situational leadership has very little in common with the other models mentioned herein. This model revolves around the leader changing leadership behaviors to meet the needs in relationship to the follower (Kouzes, 2003, p. 111). The difference between situational leadership and charismatic, servant, and transformational leadership is the lack of an organizational vision and the empowerment of the followers. Situational leadership uses followers based on their readiness level that relate to their ability and willingness to complete the task (Wren, 1995, p. 208). This aspect coupled with the leader’s task and relationship behavior is used in relation to the

Situational leadership requires a leader to be mature enough to properly assess and execute the best leadership style based on the current situation that faces the organization. In many situations, if the leader can satisfy the

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.

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;

The Royal Air Force saved Britain from the Nazi regime. In the beginning of the summer of 1940, war broke out over the United Kingdom between the German Luftwaffe and the British Royal Air Force. The fighting started because of the fall of France to the Nazi’s. The Nazi’s looked to Britain as their next territory they wanted to occupy. Germany had a plan that they were beginning to draw up. Operation Sea Lion called for an assault on Britain by gaining air control over Britain. On the British side, they had a powerful air defense system. Within the air defense system there were the fighter pilots. The leader of the Luftwaffe was Herman Goring and the leader of The Royal Air Force fighter pilots was Air Marshal Hugh Dowding. He is considered

Samuel Johnson, a British author, once stated, “To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution”. While ambition is extremely crucial to everyone’s goals, it is important to know when boundaries need to be put in place. This touches base with Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” character of Macbeth. With ambition being a very strong suit of him, he also does not know where to set his own boundaries. Because of his choices, Macbeth is responsible for his own fate.

I will be discussing four situational leadership components- telling, selling, participation, and delegation. I will explain which is my strongest of the four components and why. Next, I will explain which others do I have some ability to do. Finally, I will discuss where do I need help from others in my organization to ensure all the situations are addressed.

Northouse’s situational leadership exemplifies us four different situations to determine our leadership styles as we respond to different development levels of the team members.

After researching several other leadership styles, I found that situational leadership is the leadership style most effective for myself. Situational leadership is different from most leadership styles because it is adaptable to every circumstance. While other leadership styles are very specific, situational leadership can be used to lead people that are not very knowledgable in a certain area and also people that might know more than you.

This is an introduction to the Situational Leadership Model by Hersey & Blanchard (1964), introduced in Chapter 5 of the textbook “Leadership: Theory and Practice” by Peter Northouse, a model that suggests that leadership should adapt to the development and commitment level of the employee (Northouse, 2016). The model suggests that at a lower level of employee development, i.e. competence & commitment, leaders should engage in a directing style of leadership, and at the other end employees with a high level of competence and commitment can be led with minimal directive and support (Northouse, 2016). The following is

A widely recognised situational model is the model developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969) and the revised model by Blanchard et al. (1985) (Northhouse, 2007). The theory in outline states that one's leadership style should be dictated by the type of situation and the demands of the situation at

To mention some of the strengths of the situational approach it is convenient to mention that it give emphasis to the leader flexibility (Graeff, 1983). Leaders need to know their subordinate´s aims and accommodate to them. Employees do not act or react in the same way for all tasks provided, they distinguish between each one and their behavior is different in each situation, so leaders (Northouse, 2009). Least but not less, situational leadership reminds leaders to treat each subordinate different, according to the task (Fernandez and Vecchio, 1997).

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.

About 18% of people in the U.S. use cigarettes and nicotine products. The legal age to purchase cigarettes and nicotine products is 18 in most of the United States, but California and Hawaii have raised their legal age to 21. The rest of the states are deciding if they should follow suite and change their laws to 21 as well. The legal age to buy cigarettes should be raised to 21 because of the negative health effects, the negative effects it has on teenagers and young adults, and positive effects it would have on society. Raising the smoking age will lower the negative health effects.

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