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Having come to understand the leadership styles that we learned during this course, I
chose the Situational Leadership style as being the most relevant because of its ease of
understanding, its rather common sense approach to leading, and because I believe that at various
time throughout my career I have unknowingly employed this style as a project leader.
What is the Theory of Situational Leadership?
Situational Leadership was created by Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson and is defined as
the manner in which managers lead subordinates based on the subordinates level of maturity
(Hersey, Blanchard, & Natemeyer, 1979). Maturity is defined as the combination of subordinate
commitment and competence (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009, p. 837). Hersey, Blanchard and
Johnson combined the leadership style and maturity level into the following four combinations.
For subordinates lacking in skills, motivation, and confidence, the lowest level of maturity,
leaders must provide a telling style of supervision where they offer extensive direction on how
to do the work (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009, p. 837). The next level describes subordinates who
are unable, but willing and confident, and require leaders to provide a selling style of
supervision where the leader spends more time explaining the work to be performed, acting as a
coach or teacher (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009, p. 837). The next level is the opposite of the
selling style and is called the participating style of supervision (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009, p.
837). In the participating style, subordinates are able to perform the work, but are unwilling and
insecure. Leaders acting in the participating style will allow subordinates to assume more
responsibility for completing the work, but offer significant support and encouragement to help
the subordinate gain motivation and confidence. The final level describes subordinates who have
a high level of maturity, thus are able and willing to complete the work and have the confidence
Gail Wingate
DEPM 604 Section 9040
April 14, 2013
Assignment 3: Leadership Style Analysis/Discussion
to do so. This level is defined as the delegating style of leadership (Thompson & Vecchio,
2009, p. 837). In the delegating style of leadership, leaders hand over the work to the
subordinates with guidelines, such as objectives and due dates. By delegating the work, leaders
empower their subordinates by allowing them to work autonomously and make decisions.
Opportunities and Challenges
While the Situational Leadership theory is one of the most widely-known theories and
has many opportunities, it is not without its challenges (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009, p. 837).
The opportunities are explained by Nworie (2012) as
Nworie (2012) explains that Situational Leadership is good for Distance Education (DE)
leaders needing to adapt to new technologies, pedagogies, and innovations, and working with
many people at various levels of maturity.
The challenges leaders face when using the Situational Leadership style of leadership are
highlighted in a study (Farmer, 2005) from the Journal of Nursing Management that aimed to
help health care leaders use this style to manage telecommuters. This study is pertinent because
telecommuters and their leaders face many of the same challenges as DE students and teachers.
For example, Nworie (2012) states DE leaders face the challenge of shifting the organizational
structure from a face-to-face centralized academic setting to a (global) virtual environment
(para. 24). Leaders of telecommuter must also face this challenge when leading their
geographically dispersed subordinates.
Gail Wingate
DEPM 604 Section 9040
April 14, 2013
Assignment 3: Leadership Style Analysis/Discussion
The challenges leaders in Farmers (2005) study faced when leading subordinates and
that apply to DE leaders are as follows:
subordinates.
Leaders must provide the necessary resources allowing the subordinate to complete
their work.
Leaders must provide clear objectives, goals, and expectations to allow for more
effective feedback. (Farmer, 2005)
In another study of the use of Situational Leadership to lead virtual project teams in
Clinical Research Organizations, Lee-Kelley (2002) explains that leaders must establish an
effective form of communication between the leader and the subordinate and the subordinate and
their peers. DE teachers must also effectively communicate with students and facilitate
communications between students. Lee-Kelley (2002) also states that leaders must be prepared to
control and motivate subordinates over long lengths of time. This mirrors the DE teachers
challenge of controlling the course and helping to motivate students for the duration of the
course.
Examples
Situational Leadership has been implemented in many different organizations. The
following examples of how Situational Leadership has been used, while implemented in business
organizations, parallels DE in that leaders and subordinates work in a virtual environment where
communication among leaders, subordinates, and peers is executed via technology.
Gail Wingate
DEPM 604 Section 9040
April 14, 2013
Assignment 3: Leadership Style Analysis/Discussion
Gail Wingate
DEPM 604 Section 9040
April 14, 2013
Assignment 3: Leadership Style Analysis/Discussion
When the student first began his freshman year, the advisor needed to tell him what courses to
take. When the student began his senior year, however, he had obtained the ability, commitment,
and confidence to choose the courses needed to graduate while the advisor merely provided
assurance that he had chosen correctly.
An Imagined Implementation of Situation Leadership Based on a Real Study
The following is an imagined situation based on a real case study performed with persons
with disabilities. The study (Cubero, 2007) discusses how a Situational Leadership framework
can benefit persons with disabilities in the work environment. Cubero (2007) explains the
attitudes towards persons with disabilities and how they affect that persons integration into the
workplace. Specifically, workers with disabilities are judged based on many factors: severity of
their disability, dependability, quality of work, biases of coworkers and leaders, employer
emphasis on diversity, and prior experience leaders and coworkers may have when working with
persons with disabilities. Conversely, the person with disabilities has their own perceptions that
affect how well they integrate into the workplace: perceived stigmatization of their disability,
their own positive or negative attitude towards themselves and other disabled persons, fear of job
security, and perceived relationships with coworkers. Cubero (2007) then discusses how a
leaders use of Situational Leadership can benefit both the leader and the disabled person.
Cubero (2007) explains that a flexible leader can tailor their style of management to the disabled
person based on how much job autonomy or job guidance the worker needs. This in turn can
benefit the disabled person by leading to lower worker burnout and higher potential promotion.
Cuberos (2007) case study ends with a recommendation for further study of the applicability of
Gail Wingate
DEPM 604 Section 9040
April 14, 2013
Assignment 3: Leadership Style Analysis/Discussion
situational leadership pertaining to the needs of persons with disabilities, thus the need for the
following imagined situation (p. 355).
In the imagined situation, leaders are about to attempt to use Situational Leadership to
support disabled employees. There are two new employees, worker A and worker B. Both
workers are unskilled and motivated, but worker A has much less confidence in themselves then
worker B. Consequently, the leader gives two different tasks to the workers, a fairly simple one
to worker A and a more difficult task to worker B. The leader offers technical directions and
ongoing guidance to both workers, but also provides extensive motivational support and praise to
worker A. In the end both workers successfully complete their tasks. Worker A, however,
requires more time because of the added time required of the leader to motivate and praise
worker A as he progresses.
As a result of the success of both workers, workplace discrimination against disabled
persons has been diminished thus improving the overall organization morale. In addition,
because the individual needs of the disabled workers have been met by their leaders, workers
have successfully cultivated their skills and shown increased motivation and confidence, albeit at
differing rates. Further, because the disabled workers have proven their abilities to improve and
ultimately contribute to the organization, their nondisabled peers have begun to look at and treat
them as equals.
Conclusion
None of the examples discussed in the prior sections use Situational Leadership in an elearning or DE environment, although several do take place in a virtual environment where
subordinates are geographically separate from their leaders. One can deduce from the examples,
Gail Wingate
DEPM 604 Section 9040
April 14, 2013
Assignment 3: Leadership Style Analysis/Discussion
however, that the Situational Leadership model can be successfully applied to a DE environment
because of the similar situations found in the examples. Situational Leadership can be very
effective in a DE environment because:
DE leaders must be able to respond quickly and adeptly in an environment where the
different cultures.
DE leaders must teach students who have differing learning styles and needs.
References
Cubero, C.G. (2006). Situational leadership and persons with disabilities. Work: Journal of
Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation, 29(4), 351-356. Retrieved from
http://www.iospress.nl/journal/work/
Farmer, L.A. (2005). Situational leadership: A model for leading telecommuters. Journal of
Nursing Management, 13(6), 483-489. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2934.2005.00573.x
Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H., & Natemeyer, W.E. (1979). Situational leadership, perception, and
the impact of power. Group & Organization Studies, 4(4), 418-428. Retrieved from
http://gom.sagepub.com/content/4/4/418.short
Lee-Kelley, L. (2002). Situational leadership: Managing the virtual project team. The Journal of
Management Development, 21(6), 461-476. doi:10.1108/02621710210430623
Lerstrom, A.C. (2008). Advising Jay: A case study using a situational leadership approach.
NACADA Journal, 28(2), 21-27. Retrieved from http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/
Gail Wingate
DEPM 604 Section 9040
April 14, 2013
Assignment 3: Leadership Style Analysis/Discussion
Nworie, J. (2012). Applying leadership theories to distance education leadership. Online Journal
of Distance Learning Administration, 15(3). Retrieved from
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter154/nworie154.html
Thompson, G. & Vecchio, R. P. (2009). Situational leadership theory: A test of three versions.
The Leadership Quarterly, 20(5), 837-848. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.06.014