Professional Documents
Culture Documents
S3: Participating - this is how shared decisionmaking about aspects of how the task is accomplished and the leader is providing fewer task behaviours while maintaining high relationship behavior;
S4: Delegating - the leader is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility has
been passed to the individual or group. The leader
stays involved to monitor progress.
Leadership styles
S1: Telling - is characterized by one-way communication in which the leader denes the roles of
the individual or group and provides the what, how,
why, when and where to do the task;
M4 - They are experienced at the task, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They
are able and willing to not only do the task, but to
take responsibility for the task.
4 SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP II
Developing
motivation
people
and
self-
A good leader develops the competence and commitment of their people so theyre self-motivated rather than
dependent on others for direction and guidance.[1] According to Herseys book,[1] a leaders high, realistic expectation causes high performance of followers; a leaders
low expectations lead to low performance of followers. According to Ken Blanchard, Four combinations
of competence and commitment make up what we call
'development level.'"
D1 - Low competence and high commitment[5]
D2 - Low competence and low commitment
D3 - High competence and low/variable commitment
D4 - High competence and high commitment
In order to make an eective cycle, a leader needs to motivate followers properly.
Situational Leadership II
4.1
Research
The Situational Leadership II (SLII) Model acknowledged the existing research of the Situational Leadership Theory and revised the concepts based on feedback
from clients, practicing managers, and the work of several
leading researchers in the eld of group development.[5]
The primary sources included:
3
In the Blanchard SLII Model, the belief is that an individual comes to a new task or role with low competence
(knowledge and transferable skills) but high commitment.
As the individual gains experience and is appropriately
supported and directed by their leader they reach Development Level 2 and gain some competence, but their
commitment drops because the task may be more complex than the individual had originally perceived when
they began the task. With the direction and support of
their leader, the individual moves to Development Level
3 where competence can still be variableuctuating between moderate to high knowledge, ability and transferable skills and variable commitment as they continue to
gain mastery of the task or role. Finally, the individual
moves to Development Level 4 where competence and
commitment are high.
4.3
Criticisms
Despite its intuitive appeal, several studies do not support the prescriptions oered by situational leadership
theory.[7][8] To determine the validity of the prescriptions suggested by the Hersey and Blanchard approach,
Vecchio (1987)[8] conducted a study of more than 300
high school teachers and their principals. He found that
newly hired teachers were more satised and performed
better under principals who had highly structured leadership styles, but the performance of more experienced and
mature teachers was unrelated to the style their principals
exhibited. In essence, the Vecchio ndings suggest that in
terms of situational leadership, it is appropriate to match
a highly structured S1 style of leadership with immature
subordinates, but it is not clear whether it is appropriate
to match S2, S3, or S4, respectively, with more mature
subordinates. In a replication study using University employees, Fernandez and Vecchio (1997)[7] found similar
results. Taken together, these studies fail to support the
basic recommendations suggested by the situational leadership model.
See also
Contingency theory
Three Levels of Leadership model
Trait Leadership
Resources
Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1977). Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human
Resources (3rd ed.) New Jersey/Prentice Hall, ISBN
978-0132617697
7 References
[1] Hersey, P. (1985). The situational leader. New York, NY:
Warner Books. ISBN 978-0446513425
[2] Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1969). Management
of Organizational Behavior Utilizing Human Resources.
New Jersey/Prentice Hall.
[3] Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1969). Life cycle theory of leadership. Training and Development Journal 23
(5): 2634.
[4] Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1977). Management of
Organizational Behavior 3rd Edition Utilizing Human Resources. New Jersey/Prentice Hall.
[5] Blanchard, Kenneth H., Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi. Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Eectiveness through Situational Leadership. New
York: Morrow, 1985. Print.
[6] Motivation
and
cognitive
abilities:
An
integrative/aptitude-treatment interaction approach to
skill acquisition.. Journal of Applied Psychology 74 (4):
657690. Aug 1989. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.74.4.657.
[7] Fernandez, C. F., & Vecchio, R. P. (1997). Situational leadership theory revisited: A test of an acrossjobs perspective. The Leadership Quarterly 8 (1): 6784.
doi:10.1016/S1048-9843(97)90031-X.
[8] Vecchio, R. P. (1987). Situational Leadership Theory: An examination of a prescriptive theory. Journal
of Applied Psychology 72 (3): 444. doi:10.1037/00219010.72.3.444.
8 External links
Situational.com
kenblanchard.com
9.1
Text
9.2
Images
9.3
Content license