Situational leadership is one of the most commonly used leadership models in the contemporary world. Its history is rather short; however, its impact and effectiveness boost its popularity among some of the best business leaders today.
As business environments became more intense and densely populated, business leaders started to experience the need for a more adaptive and flexible style of leadership that would allow them to match their decision-making process, actions, and solutions to the unique situations faced on a daily basis. As a result, at the end of the 1960s when the consumerism patterns were on the rise, thus making the business segment especially active and dynamic in the capitalist world, the situational leadership model came into existence.
The theory for this model was developed by Dr. Paul Hearsey for the purpose of enabling leaders of various kinds and levels to impact their followers and subordinates in a more effective manner (“Situational leadership,” n.d.). According to this model, based on the evaluation of such factors as the followers’ need for guidance, readiness to work on a certain assignment, and the amount and quality of socio-emotional support given by the leader, the latter could decide which style matched the situation the most. In total, Hearsey outlined four of such styles – telling, selling, participating, and delegating (Dems, 2010; Spahr, 2015).
It is very difficult to identify the exact individual or individuals who are known as the first ones to practice situational leadership. This model is relatively new, and it emerged in modern times where many powerful business leaders compete for influence and income maximization.
Today, the situational leadership model is known as Hearsey-Blanchard Theory of situational leadership due to the contribution of Ken Blanchard, a well-known leadership expert and book author (“Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory,” 2016). The guidance for this theory involves such steps as the identification of the priority tasks, the evaluation of the followers’ ability and readiness to perform the expected duties, and the selection of the most suitable style based on the scheme offered by Hersey (“The situational leadership model,” n.d.).
A good example of situational leadership in action that can be found in the contemporary world of business is a leader working with two types of employees – the experienced professionals and the newly recruited interns. Such a leader will vary his or her style depending on how much supervision and guidance the employees require and switch between delegating and directing styles according to the level of experience of his subordinates.
In this paper, the choice fell on this particular model of leadership due to the fact that it is considered one of the most relevant to the contemporary business settings where the leaders have to work with a variety of changing scenarios and many different teams of employees whose levels of performance and autonomy tend to vary. Naturally, the exploration of this theory is going to be very helpful for any future leader as it presents a detailed scheme according to which decision-making process can be regulated in order to match the needs of both the leaders and their subordinates.
Situational leadership has a set of limitations and applies mainly to the leaders whose positions allow more freedom and variations in styles and solutions (“Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory,” 2016). Also, this model was criticized for very brief definitions of the styles and a limiting set of factors for a leader’s decision making that does not fit many unique scenarios (McCleskey, 2014). However, it applies very well to the problem of integrating the new employees into the workplace.
References
Dems, K. (2010). A look at the situational leadership model. Web.
Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory. (2016).
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117-130.
Situational leadership. (n.d.). Web.
The situational leadership model. (n.d.).
Spahr, P. (2015). What is situational leadership? How flexibility leads to success.