Situational Leadership Style Analysis

Situational approach defines the different leadership style based on combination of supportive or directive behavior. It also considers the development level of the followers. The development status is defined by commitment and competence level of followers. Development status and commitment level are not very easy to determine by a leader/ supervisor. There is no quantifiable measure to indicate commitment and competence level of any employee, it become more difficult when you are new in any organization working with new people and supervisor. I will explain two situations where commitment and competence are overestimated and underestimated.
Most of the people face discrimination because of misunderstanding about their commitment and competence level in organization. I have experience the same when I was working as a research scientist in a pharmaceutical industry. I joined a team working on development of the modified release dosage form. I have previous experience in technology used for current project, but my supervisor choose another guy, who was worked before with him, to lead the experimentation design and planning and execution part to me. It is an example of overestimating competence and commitment level of any one follower, without evaluating capabilities of other team members. I felt

very bad because my supervisor has selected a person who does not have the practical experience on that particular technology. He preferred him as a lead scientist over all other members because he has shown commitment and competency in previous projects.
This kind of partial behavior leads to non-commitment nature of the other members in the team.

You cannot expect full participation of the team in such environment. This has reduced my participation and involvement in project. I felt very non-supporting and demoralizing working environment. I lost my interest and commitment in project for some time. In such situations, leaders also loose trustworthiness and credibility. To overcome this problem, I have discussed this with my superior with open mind and explained him my previous experience and achievements. Then he realized the situation and assigned the work of designing and planning to me along with another

member.
Situational leadership style provides prescriptive approach towards different situation based on follower’s competency and commitment. Big question arise, what if leader is not able to judge the development status of the followers? If leader is not ready to adapt or change his/her leadership style based on the development status of the followers or subordinates then the whole idea of situational leadership is irrelevant. Leader should be capable enough to evaluate the competence level based on the work experience or educational background of the candidate as well as he/she should be flexible enough for appropriate change in leadership style.
I think organizations should train their managers and leaders, how to evaluate the competency and commitment level of individuals. There should be structured protocol for assessment of commitment and competence level of employees. It should not be left only on discretion of the leader. Leaders should be transparent in their behavior and communicate their approach to followers clearly.