MGT3002

Situational Leadership

Considering the situational factor, Fred Fiedler's studies led to what are referred to as

the Contingency Theories of Leadership. In his initial studies, Fiedler allocated simple tasks to small

groups of children with a designated leader. The leaders in different groups were told to behave in

speci�c ways and conditions for each group were varied. To his surprise, Fiedler found that the children performed tasks well under a people-oriented leadership style only when conditions were

moderately favorable or unfavorable. However, when conditions were highly favorable or highly

unfavorable, performance was high under autocratic leadership.

Inspired by the contingency approach, Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard developed a model called

the Situational Leadership Theory which has become very popular. This theory focuses on employees

as well as management. Hersey and Blanchard looked at two factors, employee skills and attitude. They identi�ed four kinds of leadership behaviors or styles that are dependent upon the skill and

attitude factors:

Delegating

Selling

Participating

Telling

Contemporary Issues in Leadership - Recently people have begun to express a need for strong leadership that inspires trust, faith, and a sense of security—physical, emotional, and economic. These

needs have arisen as a consequence of the events of September 11, 2001, and their impact on the

economy, as well as some high-pro�le cases of fraudulent and illegal activities by some large

corporations. As a result, the issue of trust has become a priority for Americans as well as for

employees and management. This issue becomes even more important during an election year and

managers need to understand the emotional and theoretical nature of this issue.

Leaders of today's corporations must cope with a unique set of challenges. Technological, social, and

economic forces compel leaders to address these issues in order to stay ahead of the competition.

Some of these challenges include:

Globalization of business leading to

cross cultural competency requirements

greater demands of travel

Geographic shifts in economic power

Growth of strategic alliances

An accelerating avalanche of information and democratization of access to information

Daily innovations in technology

Changing demographics and a changing workforce

Changing expectations of a more educated workforce

Flattening of organizations, increased workloads and expanding skill requirements

Additional Materials

Contingency Theories, Situational Leadership, Issues in Leadership

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