Review Questions – Chapter 5: Situational Approach

1. What is situational leadership?
Situational leadership recognizes that different situations demand different forms of leadership. Being an effective leader within the situational approach means one can adapt their leadership style to meet the demands of the situation – specifically with regards to followers’ commitment and competency. This form of leadership is composed of two main components, both the directive and the supportive dimension.

2. What researchers are associated with the most important situational leadership studies?
Hersey and Blanchard are two researchers associated with situational leadership studies. They helped to develop the model ‘situational leadership’, which is considered to be the most important situational leadership study.

3. What are the characteristics of the four categories of directive and supportive behaviors?
1. Directing style (high directive-low supportive style); focuses communication on goal achievement (often through the form of instructions) and spends a smaller amount of time on supportive behavior.
2. Coaching Approach (high directive-high supportive style); focuses communication on the balance of achieving goals as well as meeting followers’ socioemotional needs. The leader in this approach, however still makes the final decision on the what and how of goal accomplishment.
3. Supporting Approach (high supportive-low directive style); focuses more on supportive behaviors, including listening, praising, and giving feedback, in order for followers to achieve goals.
4. Delegating Approach (low supportive-low directive style); offers less goal input and social support, which facilitates followers’ confidence and motivation with regards to their goal.

4. What are the characteristics of the four levels by which employee development can be classified?
1. DI: followers are low competence and have high commitment – they are excited about the challenge.
2. D2: followers have some competence, but low commitment. They have lost some of their initial motivation.
3. D3: followers who have moderate to high competence but may have variable commitment. They have developed the skills, but lack certainty as to whether they can complete the goals set forth.
4. D4: followers highest in development – they have high degree of competency and commitment. They have the skills and the motivation to get the job done.

5. How can a leader best determine the developmental level of followers?
Through determining the nature of the situation and answering prompt questions such as ‘What goal are followers being ask to achieve?’ and ‘Are followers sufficiently skilled to carry out the task?” the leader can identify which of the four levels of development their employee most closely matches. Once this is determined the leader should adjust their leadership style to appropriately match their employee in order to allow them to grow.

6. Why should developmental levels not be used to label followers?
Developmental levels should not be used to label followers as an employee’s level of development are constantly changing. Where the employee is placed on the spectrum is dependent on the situation, in which the same employee can vary based on their previous competency as well as the difficulty of the task at hand. As a result of this variation it is the job of the leader to be flexible in their leadership style and adapt when an employee’s developmental level changes, rather than simply labeling it.

7. How does the developmental continuum work?
The development continuum works in such a way that followers can move up and down the continuum (and four different levels) from one extreme of low competency and high commitment (D1) to the other extreme of both high competency and high commitment (D4). This occurs over a period of time, whether short or long, as levels of competency and commitment change. Leaders need to thus be highly flexible in their leadership behavior and cannot always revert to the same leadership style for every situation.

8. In the SLII Model, why does commitment go down for D3 subordinates?
In the SLII Model, commitment likely goes down for D3 subordinates as despite having moderate to high competency and the skill set needed to get the job done they are uncertain as to whether or not they can accomplish the goal set forth for them.

9. Explain why it might be difficult for some leaders to exhibit Style 4 leadership.
It might be difficult for some leaders to exhibit Style 4 leadership for two main reasons. Firstly, this type of leadership could prolong the amount of time it takes for the group to complete a goal, as well as having varying levels of commitment within the group. Secondly, this form of leadership could be seen as less effective by leaders as they are essentially taking a step back from leading and letting their followers who most likely have less experience lead.

10. What are strengths of the situational approach?
The situational approach of leadership has five main strengths as described below:
1. History of usefulness in the marketplace; frequently used for training organizations as well as being perceived as a useful model in displaying effective leadership.
2. Practicality; this leadership approach, unlike other approaches, is easy to understand and easily applicable to a variety of settings.
3. Has prescriptive value; compared to other forms of leadership the situational approach acts as guidelines for leaders to facilitate and enhance leadership, through telling them what they should or should not do in certain circumstances.
4. Emphasizes leadership flexibility; and emphasizes that leaders need to get to know their followers in order to apply the appropriate leadership style. In order for this to work effectively they have to be willing to adapt and change their personal leadership style.
5. Not every follower is the same; and they should be treated accordingly. This approach of leadership suggests followers have unique needs and it is the duty of the leader to help their leaders to become better at their job.

11. What are criticisms of the situational approach?
The situational approach of leadership has seven main criticisms which are described below:
1. Only backed up by a few research studies; the lack of a body of research on this topic raises questions about the theoretical basis of the approach including, but not limited to validity as well as the success of the approach.
2. Ambiguous conceptualization of followers; the model itself does not make clear how commitment is combined with competency to form four distinct levels of development.
3. Concern about how commitment is conceptualized; as well as why commitment varies up and down throughout the continuum as supposed to a gradual incline.
4. How the model matches leadership style with follower developmental levels; as research suggests there is not a direct correlation.
5. Fails to consider certain demographics; and the impact they have on the leader-follower prescriptions of the model such as education, experience and age.
6. Does not address how leadership within a group should be; and does not provide concrete guidelines as to whether a leader should follow the preference of the group or the particular individual they may be working with at the time.
7. Questionnaires to address effectiveness of leadership; are based on predetermined questions, which show a biased favor towards situational leadership.

12. How do demographic characteristics affect employees’ preferences for a particular leadership style?
Demographic characteristics such as age, gender and education level can impact one’s preference for a particular leadership style. Research has shown for example that level of education and job experience were inversely related to directive leadership. In other words, followers with a higher degree of education and job experience wanted less structure in their work environment. A similar model can be applied to the other demographic characteristics such as gender and age.