Strengths and weaknesses of situational leadership model

Strengths and weaknesses of partal leading modelAccording to steadal lead models in general, leading should adopt contrasting leading approaches depending on the spatial relations that they encounter. leadership compe xcies which work in one keep backn situation may non be stiff under different circumstances (Graef, 1983). In separate(a) words, otherwise factors must be parcel outn into account when deciding which leadership style to use in a given situation. Therefore, prospering leaders sack be characterised as those who be cap fitted to adjust their leadership styles consort to situations which warrant their intervention.The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model is built on the concept victimisation follower maturity as the key issue which affects adjust custodyt in leadership styles.1Follower maturity, which defines the set of chase to fulfill in a given situation, is based on two major factors the big businessman and corporate trust in practi ceing the tasks. Four leadership styles which emerge from this two-by-two matrix model (see T fitted 1) ar Participating, Selling, Telling and delegation. on the whole these four leadership styles arouse varying levels in terms of follower ability and confidence.Table 1 Hersey-Blanchard Situational Table Leadership ModelHighPARTICIPATING STYLE chase ar capable saveRelationshipBehaviourun spontaneous and not confidentSELLING STYLE pursual ar unable but impartinging and confidentDELEGATING STYLEFollowers atomic number 18 capable,willing and confidentTELLING STYLEFollowers atomic number 18 unable,unwilling and not confidentLowTask Behaviour Low HighManagers who be keen to use the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model must branch fully understand or be able to assess/gauge the level of maturity of its subordinates with reference to their readiness or commit workforcet to perform their hire out tasks.2Based on the case analysis dumbfounded and the leadership model d epicted in the flurry above, it apprise be concluded that conjuration Terrill had adopted the Delegating Leadership Style in traffic with the situation at DGI Internationals skilful Services stratum.Delegating Leadership StyleLooking at the two-by-two matrix, the Delegating Leadership Style is described as Low Task, Low Relationship, whereby intervention from managers is kept to a nominal with the assumption that the subordinates are able, willing and confident of accomplishing the tasks at hand. Managers who adopt this style of leadership will forgo their following or subordinates to take responsibility for their assigned tasks with minimal supervising from them.In the case of DGI Internationals expert Services category, John Terrill practiced the delegation style based on the profile of the team up in his division. Since it was stated that both 20 of his subordinates are engineers who are highly paid and trump meliorate, it can be deduced that this group of employee s are high performers in their area of expertise within the organization. Manage workforcet will not be willing to pay them highly if they do not possess high level of bloodline maturity, which refers to their job capabilities and confidence in accomplishing their tasks as engineers. Based on their aptitude and the fact that the engineers requested screen forethought to stop making them spend too much time on compose publishs, Terrill was able to gauge that the employees possess high capabilities of performing their tasks and are too willing and confident to do their job provided that they were given the opportunity and time needed to accomplish their tasks. The engineers did not need much prompting and directions from him to take on new initiatives which attend contribute to their productiveness.Terrills delegating style can be encourage place when he promised to stay off the engineers backs and in addition make sure that top charge did the same. This indicates that Ter rill will not interfere much with the fooling tasks of the engineers because he believes the engineers know what are expected of them, what they are supposed to do and do not need much direction from Terrill to accomplish their tasks.Strengths of Delegating StyleThis style of leadership em actors followers to be responsible for their own actions and decisions. For example, the engineers are given high autonomy in completing their tasks with minimal supervision by Terrill.For mature followers who stick out high level of job readiness, this leadership style will give them a great sense of accomplishment which acts as motivator to give their best and extend productivity (Hersey and Blanchard, 1988). In this case, the engineers are able to concentrate on accomplishing their tasks and productivity of the division will improve.Em demarcation leaderment allows for a certain degree of independence which promotes accountability and creativity in individuals.A leader who is able to deleg ate his authority in terms of job accomplishment will exhaust time to focus on other strategic matters.Followers of this leadership style will flavor much trusted and will build a closer working relationship with the leaders and harbor better team work. Inadvertently, it will be easier for Terrill to turn around the part because his engineers will deport to a greater extent respect for him and will not hesitate to help him achieve their coatings.Weaknesses of Delegating StyleMeasurement of job readiness is subjective and based on several factors, mainly job ability and job confidence (Hambleton et al., 1977(. However, if a leader wrongly gauged the job readiness of his followers and leave it to them to accomplish certain tasks, he may not achieve the desired results at the end of the day.This style of leadership is open to abuse. Followers may be able, willing and confident to perform the tasks but they may also take usefulness of the low intervention from their managers so that the tasks may not be completed on time or productivity is not up to par as expected.A leader is able to delegate the tasks to his followers but accountability of the job still lies with the leader.To sum up, job delegation should be a tardy process until the leader is satisfied and confident that the tasks can be accomplished with minor supervision. However, in the historical world, thither is no single leadership style that can be applied in all situations. Effective leaders should be able to adjust their leadership styles according to the situation at hand. Leaders who are able to adopt different styles based on what is required of them will be approximately successful.Question 2What do you think was John Terrills source of antecedentfulness? Do you think it is effective?The concept of world mightiness can be defined in varying ways but loosely power is regarded as the ability to influence, affect and mobilize the attitudes and behaviour of others. The term power, autho rity, domination and control are often used interchangeably as there is a thin line separating their meanings (Pheby, 2004). However, power is not exclusive to only managers and leaders as opposed to authority which comes with certain legitimate grades. Power is able to shape ones actions and behaviour thus, it can be maintained that decision making can be influenced with the earthly concern of power sources in a system.In an organizational context, power is directly related to hierarchy or structure and legitimacy which come with surveys. The ability of those in higher ranking positions to influence their subordinates is driven by power. It is an element which is able to shape managers and followers, and is the key underlying factor for leadership effectiveness. In fact, one of its just about fundamental functions is to build interdependency between leaders and followers. Ogden et al. (2006) entails that power need not have goal compatibility but only dependence.Researchers F rench and Raven (1959) had studied the sources of power and successfully listed them in five decided forms. The five bases of power in organizations which are able to affect success in leadership are described as followsCategorySource of powerDescriptionPOSITIONALPOWERLegitimate powerThis source of power usually comes with specific roles and positions in organisations. This power is also embedded in ball job descriptions that are mutually retardd to by employees in an organisation. Generally, people holding higher position are able to exert more organisational power compared to those in lower ranking jobs.Reward powerNormally associated with the formal authority to allocate organisational rewards to employees. This type of power can weaken if the reward is no longer perceived as valuable by the receiver. compulsory powerThe person holding this power is able to impose punishment. In organisations, punishments can be in the form of reprimand, disciplinary action, suspension, demoti on, dismissal, etc. Coercive power is usually associated with authority and can be used as a coercion diaphysis at the workplace.PERSONAL POWERExpert powerThe ability to influence based on a persons knowledge, skills and expertise which originates from within an individual. This type of power is normally acquired by experts in certain fields. May not necessarily linked to position or authority in an organisation.Referent powerAn individual with denotive power is looked upon as a role model by others. The individual usually possesses a charm, appeal, personal magnetism or admirable qualities which others want to identify with.These five sources of power can be broadly categorised into positional power and personal power. Positional power refers to external power which is vested in an individuals formal role, position or authority. Legitimate power, reward power and coercion power fall in this category. On the other hand, expert power and referent power can be grouped as personal power because they involve internal or personal traits which belong to individuals.In DGI Internationals case study, John Terrill applied a combination of both position and personal powers to solve the problem faced by his subordinates in the Technical Services division.1. Positional powerBeing appointed as the head of Technical Services persona clearly indicated that John Terrill held legitimate power over the department. As the new boss to a team of highly paid and skilled engineers, it can be assumed that John Terrill himself possessed quality traits which do top attention at DGI International very confident that he can turn the non-performing department around.Terrill first demonstrated his legitimate power during his meeting with the engineers. First, he cleverly gained the engineers confidence by showing great concern for their welfare. Then he exerted his legitimate power by demanding to know the reasons for their lack of productivity and factors which hamper their expect ed cognitive process. His ability to influence the engineers to percentage out their grievances which affected their performance showed that he was successful in getting to the root of the departments productivity problem.In this case, Terrill did not use any reward or coercive power because he did not impose any reward or punishment in getting to the root of the problem and then making sure that his engineers would carry out their tasks after that. He used empathy and diplomacy as a leader by exerting his influence to make them follow his instructions.Terrill also exercised his authority when he issued immediate order for reports to be sent to his office instead of the headquarters as warranted by top heed. He was well aware that his orders were against top precautions instructions, but he was not horrified to use the legitimate power vested in his position to stand by his decision to keep the solicitude off the engineers backs as promised.2. Personal powerThe top centerings concern about the low productivity further showed the importance placed on his team. Terrill understood that his team of engineers is crucial to the organisations growth since they are the best educated and highly paid employees in the company. From this profile alone, Terrill knew that his division held a lot of expertise required in the manufacturing of refinery equipment. Knowledge and skills of the engineers are highly valued by the organisation, which was why they were never reprimanded for their lack of productivity before. In other words, the engineers have expert power which made them indispensable to the company.Terrills source of expert power was also derived from the engineers knowledge and skills. He could anticipate that top management would agree to his recommendation that management should not grind to a halt down the engineers with chance(a) reports because their design expertise is a critical resource in meeting the companys end product objectives, whereas inte rnal reports are only administrative requirements.In this example, Terrill obviously used the divisions expert power to negotiate with top management to stay out of their way so that they can carry out their engineering work as expected, and hopefully increase productivity as expected of them.Terrill seemed to have gained support from his engineers because they cheered him when he was about to meet top management to fight for their cause. If he successfully gets top management to agree with his plight, he will undoubtedly build his referent power and be admired for his charm and charisma in carrying out his task as their leader.It can be summarized that Terrill effectively used his legitimate power to influence his engineers to confide in him about problems that they faced which hampered productivity of the division. Terrill also successfully exercised the divisions expert power to ensure top management did not impose trivial matters (such as writing internal daily reports) which c onsume much of the engineers time so that they could concentrate on accomplishing their engineering tasks.Question 3 heat content Mintzbergs research indicates that diverse manager activities can be organized into ten roles. Identify two of these roles that John Terrill performed in carrying out his duty.According to Henry Mintzberg (2004), based on his research on the various activities of managers in a business setting, the roles of managers can be classified into ten types as depicted in the chase tableCATEGORYROLEACTIVITYInterpersonalFigureheadPerform duties which are symbolic and ceremonial. Regarded as symbol of authority.LeaderDirecting, motivating, training, advising, influencing, encouraging, promoting beatment of others. intimacyIn charge of internal and external nurture links. aim in exchange of information.InformationalMonitorProcess and assess information. Maintain information and contacts.DisseminatorTransmit information to other via phone calls, memos, notes, etc. SpokesmanRepresenting organisation to outsiders in public relations capacity.DecisionalEntrepreneurProject initiation, business identification and leads for opportunities.Disturbance HandlerHandles internal crises and conflicts involving employees, and also external changes.Resource AllocatorResponsible for parcelling and sets priority for organisational resources via budgets, etc.NegotiatorNegotiates with suppliers, unions, etc.Through his research, Mintzberg (1973) also managed to conclude that all the above ten roles fall into three broad categories which are interlinked. To illustrate the point, all three interpersonal roles Figurehead, Leader and Liaison provide information. Informational roles Monitor, Disseminator and Spokesperson process the information and act as a link to all the managerial roles. Mean spot, the decisional roles make decision on how to deliver the information to other parties.All these ten roles can be applied to any managerial situation depending on the requirement of the circumstances. Based on Mintzbergs theory, in the DGI Internationals case, John Terrill played the roles of Liaison and Negotiator.LiaisonJohn Terrill applied his interpersonal skills excellently when he first approached the engineers to seek information on their current problems which affected their productivity. During his meeting, he played his role as a connectedness or intermediary between the engineers and top management. He did not reprimand the engineers for the poor performance of the Technical Services division without first finding out the cause of their low contribution to productivity instead, he offered to resolve the conflict by trying to get to the root of the problem and find a lasting solution that will help them to increase their output in the organisation. His openness may have encouraged the engineers to confide in him even though he was new to the organisation.Terrill also successfully punish this role by openly showing his concern for the staffs welfare. Perhaps this helped open up the communication acquit between him and the engineers because they feel that Terrill was acting in their interests. After that, the engineers willingly voice out their grouses and complaints when Terrill asked them point unoccupied as to why the division was not performing as expected. His networking skills were clearly demonstrated when he empathised with the engineers and responded positively that engineers in the Technical Services division should not be tied down with paperwork if top management expected them to be more productive. Instead, they should be allowed to focus more on accomplishing their engineering tasks.In his liaison role, Terrill tried to maintain positive relationship with the engineers and not take sides with the top management by development any form of coercion on his team. His objective was to turn around the division and increase the engineers productivity. Therefore, he carefully played his role by offeri ng them a possible solution. Using the power vested in his position as the manager of the team coupled with the mandate given by top management to solve the productivity issue, Terrill issued an order which was against the wish of company management. To illustrate, while the company management requires that the engineers turned in daily reports to headquarters, Terrill ordered them to turn in the reports to his office instead. However, Terrill had anticipated a showdown with top management and had already thought up a plan to back up his actions. He had proven that while the engineers were asked to turn in daily reports, actually nobody in top management would need the report daily because for three weeks, nobody in headquarters enquired about the missing daily reports.NegotiatorIn solving the low productivity issue of the Technical Services division, Terrill also played the role of a negotiator. This role was demonstrated during his first management meeting with the engineers. He e xplained to them the managements concern for the low productivity of the division despite be the highest paid and best educated group within the organisations. He also asked them to voice out their grouses and the possible reasons for their non-performance. When he found out that the engineers were demotivated by the amount of daily reporting that they had to do instead of focussing on their engineering tasks, Terrill asked the engineers to carry out their engineering duties interchangeable they were supposed to and increase the divisions productivity while he took care of the daily report generation problem with top management. He convinced them that he would stay out of their way and get the top management off their backs so that the engineers can accomplish their tasks as expected. With Terrill at the helm of the division, the engineers are able to concentrate on their prime tasks and not worry about other petty issues. The engineers were also confident that Terrill will be ab le to prove a point to top management by keeping the daily reports in his office, and they seemed to have supported his actions.During the showdown with top management in the presidents office, Terrill displayed his negotiation skills by informing top management that the main reason for Technical Services divisions low output was that the engineers were more occupied with writing daily reports than actually doing their engineering tasks. He successfully proved his point by showing top management that the high stack of report produced over the last three weeks were not read by anyone because no one asked to look at them. He evidently showed them that the amount of time spent on writing the report had gone to waste, and that the precious time should be spent by the engineers to accomplish other important engineering duties. He then suggested that management do away with the daily report and one plan report from his office on a monthly basis is sufficient.In conclusion, managers are i nvolved in a myriad of activities when performing the managerial functions. These activities can be clustered into broad categories and identified into roles. By understanding these managerial roles, managers will be able to discharge their duties more efficiently and effectively.Question 4Do you think gender makes a difference when it comes to leadership style? Use example(s) and literatures to support your stand. sexual activity is a socially constructed concept of men and women which varies according to cultures, societies, social classes and even periods in history (FAO, 1997). It is whatevertimes misunderstood as being biologically determined and solely related to the sexual characteristics of men and women. However, according to Bravo-Baumann (2000) gender relations involves how society determines the rights and responsibilities of women and men.Traditionally, the roles of women are almostly confined to household-related chores and nurturing of family. Many cultures across t he globe regarded women as the weaker sex with limited roles to play in the social system. In some countries, women are even denied doorway to education, rights to freedom, and in extreme cases are relegated to subordinate status (Bass et al, 1971). However, with the rise of movements towards equality in gender in the modern world, more societies have begun to change their mindsets and accept the fact that women also have roles to play in the development of the society and economy (Inglehart and Noris, 2003).The last several decades have witnessed the emergence of women holding managerial roles in organizations. Although men still hold the fort, more women are seen entering the workforce with an increasingly number of them being promoted to high managerial positions (Druskat, 1994). However, many women nowadays earn their organisations mandate and are appointed as CEOs and MDs of companies. Currently, some countries are headed by fe phallic premiers and presidents, for example Aust ralia and New Zealand. These show that women are fast being acknowledge in their roles as capable leaders.As a result of the increase in female leadership roles, there have been a string of researches aimed at studying the leadership styles and behaviour differences between men and women leaders (Statham, 1987 Carless, 1998 Davidson Ferrario, 1992 new wave Engen et al., 2001). Some researchers failed to find disparities in leadership styles between men and women (Pounder and Coleman, 2002 Van Eagen, Van der Leedeen Willemsen, 2001). Even though there are varying outcomes from these researches, a majority of the research results agreed that differences in leadership styles definitely exist among male and female leaders.Conceptually, ascribable to the differences in nature and characteristics of men and women, there are bound to be distinct features which affect their leadership styles. It is generally accepted that the leadership styles of men and women vary because of differenc es in behaviour of men and women which are shaped by society and culture (Eagley, woodland and Diekman, 2000). Women in leadership roles were seen to be more collaborative, less hierarchical and more cooperative, caring and promoting self-worth of others (Helgesen, 1990 Book, 2000 Rosener, 1995). In contrast, due to the masculine nature of men as perceived by societies, male leaderships tend to be more assertive, aggressive, controlling and confident (Eagley et al., 2000).The above findings are further supported by a study by Eagly, Karau and Johnson (1992) on leadership styles among school principals supported this notion. From the study, it was concluded thatFemale principals are more task-oriented compared to male principals.In the role as school principal which requires more interpersonal ability, women display greater task-orientation. However, in male dominated roles, men will appear to be more task oriented (Eagley and Jonhson, 1990).Female principals are also more democrati c or participative while male principals adopted a more imperious or directive approach.Due to social values, experience and thoughts associated with feminine characteristics (Goldberger, Clinchy, Belenky and Tarule, 1987), women leaders generally use the fruity approach when dealing with others. Hence, women naturally develop leadership styles that are more democratic and participative. Male leaders, on the other hand, adopted stronger approaches which are consistent with natural dominating and controlling characteristics of men.Differences in leadership styles have an impact on the effectiveness and direction of an organization. Leaders must be able to adopt different approaches when confronted with varying circumstances because not all situations will warrant the same types of actions. Hence, leaders are most successful and effective when they can evaluate a situation accurately and act according to the requirements of the situation instead of generally applying the same form o f leadership across all circumstances (Fiedler, 1951). Leadership styles can also be affected by external factors such as the nature of work, business environment, organizational culture and industry structure.To illustrate the point that gender differences in leadership styles do exist (Kanter, 1991), we will take a closer look at Transformational (largely associated with women leaders) and Transactional (dominant in male leaders). The following table highlights the differences in the two types of leadership3Transformational LeadershipTransactional Leadership* Leaders motivate their followers by arousing their emotions and acting beyond the framework of exchange relations.* Leaders are proactive and help form new aspirations and expectations of followers.* Leaders are differentiated by their ability to inspire and provide individual consideration, stimulation and influence to followers.* Leaders help in creating learning opportunities and stimulate their followers to find solutions to their problems.* Leaders develop emotional bonds with their followers using their management and rhetorical skills and great visions.* Leaders encourage followers to strive for their goals beyond self-interest.* Leaders are conscious of the relationship between reward and effort.* Leadership is responsive with high orientation to solve present issues.* Leaders control the actions of their followers by depending on reward, inducement, punishment and sanction.* Leaders use rewards to encourage their followers to achieve desired results.* Leaders reinforce behaviour of followers for successful execution of plan.Source http//leadershipchamps.wordpress.comIntroduced by James MacGregor Burns (1978), the transformational leadership concept defines an approach which encourages positive and valuable changes in performance and morale of followers based upon the behaviours and characteristics of leaders. Transformational leaders brought about changes in organizations by inspiring, motiva ting and sometimes acting as role models for employees to identify with (Bass, 1985). By being role models, such leaders will encourage employees to develop skills which could help them enhance their productivity. Transformational leadership style is often displayed by women leaders since women have innate nurturing ability (Kornives, 1991 Ross, 1990). This style can be effective in less-hierarchical organizations such as schools or retail outlets. In male dominated settings such as the military, transformational leadership may not be preferred.On the other hand, transactional leadership style is more visible in traditional organizational settings where male leaders are dominant (Rosener, 1990). Transactional approach values desired results in exchange for rewards, motivations or punishments thus, transactional leaders will tautness on higher productivity and offer rewards (or punishment) as motivation ( Burns, 1978).In conclusion, there are differences in leadership styles by gend er. Women leaders generally tend to adopt a softer approach such as democratic and participative. These styles involve relationship with followers through understanding of their emotions and building the self-worth through motivation, aspiration and encouragement. Women leaders try to stimulate the working environment and develop confidence through empowerment (Burke, 1986). In contrast, men display more traditional leadership characteristics such as assertive, controlling, aggressive and dominating. However, the above differences do not limit men and women to any one leadership style. Regardless of gender, successful and effective leaders will find their preferred leadership style, that can be a blend of gender-specific roles, which is most suitable to the situation that they are in.Question 5If you were the president of DGI International, would you recommend modifications in John Terrills leadership style that you would like him to adopt? Do you think it will be possible for John Terrill to make necessary changes? why?In the DGI International case study, John Terrill adopted the Delegating Leadership Style (Hersey and Blanchard, 1982) based on the assumption that the team of engineers in the division that he was heading has high level of job readiness or maturity owing to the fact that they are the highest paid and best educated employees within the organization. Also, the educational activity made by Terrill that he will stay off the engineers back and get top management to stay off their backs too indicates that he will not interfere much with the engineers daily tasks. This quality further supports the notion that the team of engineers is able, willing and confident to accomplish their tasks without much direction or supervision from Terrill.Terrill was hired by DGI International to turn around a non-performing division. When he decided to adopt the delegating style, he must have based his decision on solid grounds highest paid and best educated group of engineers must have possess