Summary Of Situational Leadership Theory

2. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERACTING LEADERSHIP VARIABLES IN SITUATIONAL/CONTINGENCY APPROACH.

Situational Leadership Theory developed from the writings of Reddin (1967). Reddin 's 3-Dimensional Management Style Theory posits the importance of a manager 's relationship orientation and task orientation in conjunction with effectiveness. Although Reddin suggested that his framework explained effectiveness as a function of matching style to situation, his approach did not identify specific situational attributes that could be explicitly incorporated into a predictive scheme. (Vecchio, 1987)

The situational leadership concept was originally developed by Paul Hersey, author of the book Situational leader and Ken Blanchard, a leadership guru

Both conceptions contain some validity. Situational leadership theory focuses on leaders’ behaviours as either task or people focused. This supports its inclusion as a behavioural approach to leadership, similar to the leadership styles approach (autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire) (McCleskey, 2014)

According to Belal, Noor, Nguyen & Aslami, 2013, situational leadership requires adapting to situations that arise because the “situational contingencies dictate your style for that moment”. Situational leadership stresses that leadership is composed of both a directive and supportive dimension and each has to be applied appropriately in a given situation. The directive dimension is similar to “task behaviours” and the supportive dimension is similar to “relationship behaviours”. Situational leadership stresses that leaders need to find out about their subordinates’ needs and then adapt their style accordingly.

According to Belal et al, 2013, there are three core competencies of a situational leader namely: diagnosing, flexibility, and partnering. A leader should be able to diagnose the different situations among the staff and be flexible in dealing with those

These variables do not operate independently of each other, but they are interactive. According to Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory, 1977, there are four types of situational leadership style namely:

• Telling / Directing

• Selling / Coaching

• Participating / Supporting

• Delegating / Observing (Peretomode, 2012)

They also introduced another dimension to the theory which was the level of maturity of the subordinates. Maturity was defined as a desire or readiness and ability to tackle the task facing the group. Hersey and Blanchard explained that the effectiveness of leaders depends on the way they diagnose the level of maturity of their subordinates. They suggested that leaders should match their style to the maturity level of the subordinates as shown in figure 1:

Figure 1: Maturity level matched with appropriate leadership style

Followers maturity level Appropriate leadership style

• M1 = Low readiness level……………………… Telling

• M2 = Moderate readiness level……………….. Selling

• M3 = High readiness level………………………