This week, you have considered that leaders can adjust their styles and approaches for particular situations and sets of followers. For example, your expectations and approach to leading a new employee might be different from that of engaging an experienced team member. Reflect on the perspectives raised in this week’s media resource Adapt Your Leadership Style for Each Individual, and then, in a 1,000-word response, post your answers to the following questions to the Discussion Board:
Describe a situation in which a leader with whom you worked was particularly effective (you should change his or her name to protect his or her identity). Analyse this leader’s success from the perspectives of the situational leadership and the contingency theory approaches. Be sure to describe whether the leader’s behaviour was directive or supportive, your level of development at the time of the situation, and the situational variables as well as the extent to which you feel the leader ‘matched’ the situation. What new insights have you gained from this analysis?
Our textbook part of this week is :
Northouse, P.G. (2013) Leadership: theory and practice. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications. Inc.
Chapter 5, ‘Situational Approach’
This chapter describes the situational approach to leadership and the two primary factors of the approach: the development level of the follower and the corresponding appropriate leadership style. The author discusses the strengths and criticisms of the approach as well as its application to business practice.
Chapter 6, ‘Contingency Theory’
This chapter describes Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership and discusses the associated situational variables. The author discusses the strengths and criticisms of the approach as well as its application to business practice.
