M a n a g e m e n t T h e o r y i n E d u c a t i o n

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

Overview

An investigation into the area of management theory revealed the

importance of knowing situational leadership. The authors recommended for

study are Paul Hersey, Kenneth Blanchard and Dewey E. Johnson who, in

1996, co-authored Management of Organizational Behavior. Chapters 8-10

and 12-17 have been denoted as important to the comp questions.

Chapter 8: Situational Leadership

Chapter 9: Situational Leadership, Perception, and the Impact of Power

Chapter 10: Developing Human Resources

Chapter 12: Building Effective Relationships

Chapter 13: Communicating with Rapport

Chapter 14: Group Dynamics

Chapter 15: Implementing Situational Leadership: Managing People to Perform

Chapter 16: Implementing Situational Leadership: One Minute Manager

Chapter 17: Implementing Situational Leadership: Effective Follow-Up

Specific areas in each chapter were reported to have greater relevance

than other areas. This report will highlight the designated areas of relevance.

Chapter 14 was indicated as an extremely important chapter.

Chapter 8: Situational Leadership

Managers must be able to identify clues in an environment, adapt their

leadership style to meet the demands of their environment and have the

personal flexibility and range of skills necessary to vary their own behavior.

Situational Leadership was developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth H.

Blanchard at the Center for Leadership Studies in the late 1960's. In 1982 the

original Situational Leadership was modified to include diagnostic

instruments and training materials. The new approach is called SLII. The

best description of this approach to Situational Leadership can be found in

Leadership and the One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard.

According to Situational Leadership, there is no one best way to

influence people. Which leadership style to use varies upon the situation and

people involved. The following descriptions apply to the four styles:

Style 1 (S1). This leadership style is characterized by above-

average amounts of task behavior and below-average

amounts of relationship behavior.

Style 2 (S2). This leadership style is characterized by above-

average amounts of both task and relationship behavior.

Style 3 (S3). This style is characterized by above-average

amounts of relationship behavior and below-average

amounts of task behavior.

Style 4 (S4). This style is characterized by below-average

amounts of both relationship behavior and task behavior.

The authors state the leadership situations involving the family,

schools or other settings, different words may be more appropriate than task

and relationship-for example, guidance and supportive behavior or directive

behavior and facilitating behavior-but the underlying definitions remain the

same.

Figure 1: Effective Leader Behavior (page 192)

Readiness level is a key factor in situational leadership and choosing

which style to implement. Readiness levels range from high to low.

Adapted from Paul Hersey, Situational Selling (Escondido, Calif.: Center for Leadership Studies, 1985), p. 20.

R4 (high). Able and willing or confident

R3 (moderate). Able but not willing or confident

R2 (moderate). Unable but willing or confident

R1 (low). Unable and unwilling or insecure

HIGH LOWR4 R3 R2 R1

Able andWilling

or Confident

Able butUnwilling

orInsecure

Unable butWilling

orConfident

Unable andUnwilling

or Insecure

Adapted from Paul Hersey, Situational Selling (Escondido, Calif.: Center for Leadership Studies, 1985), p. 27.

Figure 2: Continuum or Follower Readiness (page 195)

Study closely the figures below:

MODERATE

Adapted from Paul Hersey, Situational Selling (Escondido, Calif.: Center for Leadership Studies, 1985), p. 19.

Figure 3: (page 200)

Figure 4: (page 208)

Chapter 9: Situational Leadership, Perception, and the Impact of Power

Power is one of the means by which a leader influences the behavior

of followers. Power is influence potential-the resource that enables a leader

to gain compliance or commitment from others. Authority is a particular

type of power that has its origin in the position that a leader occupies.

Adapted from Paul Hersey, Situational Selling (Escondido, Calif.: Center for Leadership Studies, 1985), p. 35.

Authority is the power that is legitimatized by virtue of an individual's

formal role in a social organization. Position power and personal power have

been discussed by Amitai Etzioni. Etzioni sees power as the ability to induce

or influence behavior. Etzioni claimed power is derived from an

organizational office, personal influence, or both. Individuals who are able

to induce other individuals to a certain job because of their position in the

organization are considered to have position power; individuals who derive

their power from their followers are considered to have personal power.

Some individuals can have both position power and personal power.

Additional bases of power include coercive power, connection power,

reward power, legitimate power, referent power, information power, and

expert power. Referent and expert power were associated with the greatest

satisfaction, legitimate and reward power were intermediate, and coercive

power was associated with least satisfaction.

Chapter 10: Developing Human Resources

Managers need to devote time to nurture the leadership potential,

motivation, morale, climate, commitment to objectives, and the decision-

making, communication, and problem-solving skills of their people. An

important role for managers is the development of the task-relevant

readiness of their followers.

Rensis Likert found that employee-centered supervisors who use

general supervision tend to have higher-producing sections than job-centered

supervisors who use close supervision. Likert found that employees

generally respond well to their supervisor's high expectations and genuine

confidence in them and try to justify the supervisor's expectations of them.

Chapter 12: Building Effective Relationships

The Center for Leadership Studies examined the use of Leader

Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD) instrument. The LEAD

instrument was designed to measure three aspects of leader behavior: 1)

style, 2) style range, or flexibility, and 3) style adaptability. The leadership

style of a person is the behavior pattern a person exhibits when attempting to

influence the activities of others--as perceived by those others. LEAD Self

measures self-perception of how an individual behaves as a leader; the

LEAD other reflects the perceptions of a leader's followers, supervisors, and

peers or associates.

Extensive research revealed that all leaders have a primary and

secondary leadership style. A leader's primary style is defined as the

behavior pattern used most often when attempting to influence the activities

of others. A leader's secondary style is the leadership style that a person

tends to use on occasion. All leaders have one primary leadership style, but

may have up to three secondary styles as described in Situational

Leadership.

Style range, or flexibility is the extent to which a leader is able to vary

her or his leadership style. Leadership situations vary in the extent to which

they make demands on flexibility.

Style adaptability is the degree to which they are able to vary their

style appropriately to the demands of a given situation, according to

Situational Leadership.

A wide style range will not guarantee effectiveness; style range is not

as relevant to effectiveness as style adaptability. The importance of a leader's

diagnostic ability cannot be overemphasized. It is the key to adaptability.

The concept of adaptability implies that the effective leader is able to use the

right style at the right time.

Figure 4: (page 302)

To diagnose an organization both the LEAD Self and LEAD Other

instrument is used. Both are used to determine if there is any discrepancy

between self-perception and the perception of others. A useful framework

developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham is used to analyze that data and

feed it back to participating managers. This framework is called the Johari

Window and depicts leadership personality, not overall personality, as it is

sometimes used. The difference between leadership personality and

leadership style in this context is that leadership personality includes self-

perception and the perception of others; leadership style consists only of an

individual's leader behavior as perceived by others, that is supervisors,

employees, associates, and so on. Thus, leadership personality equals self-

perception plus perception of others.

Leaders who engage in some attitudes or behaviors that they

themselves know about are referred to as known to self. Leadership

personality that includes behaviors and attitudes known to others, as well as

areas unknown to others. The arena that is known to self and also known to

others is called public arena--it is known to all (the leader and others) within

the organizational setting. The arena that is unknown to self (the leader), but

is known to others, is referred to as the blind arena. The arena that is known

to self but unknown to others is referred to as the private arena. The last

arena, unknown to self and unknown to others, is called the unknown.

Figure 5: Johari Window (page 304)

Two-style profile includes either 1) a basic style that encompasses two

of the four possible configuration styles or 2) a basic style and a supporting

style. It is important to remember that unless you have gathered specific data

on how your leadership style is perceived by others, your perception of your

own leadership style is only that--your perception.

Combining establishing objectives and reaching consensus on

performance criteria in a traditional MBO program with a similar process for

negotiating the appropriate leadership style that a manger should use to

facilitate goal accomplishments in a specific task area can be accomplished

through the following steps:

Establish objectives and performance criteria

Reach agreement on objectives and performance criteria

Introduce Situational Leadership

Complete Readiness Style Match

Meet to share data from Readiness Style Match

One warning should be given in using the Contracting for Leadership

Style process and the readiness style match rating forms. When managers go

through that process, their public arena in the Johari Window becomes very

large. If managers do not want their people to know what they think and feel

about them, then they should be careful about using the described process.

Chapter 13: Communicating with Rapport

The three basic competencies in influencing are 1) diagnosing--being

able to understand the situation you are attempting to influence; 2)

adapting--being able to adapt your behavior, and the other things that you

have control over, to the contingencies of the situation; and 3)

communicating--being able to put the message in a way that people can

easily understand and accept. This chapter is about the third competency--

communicating.

All the evidence clearly shows that written and oral communication

skills are critical not only in obtaining a job, but also in performing

effectively on the job. Written and oral communication skills were the two

most important factors in obtaining employment.

Leaders influence from both personal power and position power. You

can begin building personal power by establishing rapport. Part of

establishing rapport is being able to communicate effectively in a way that is

comfortable for people you are attempting to influence. To make people feel

comfortable, you have to get in step with them--pace with them. Key

concepts:

Rapport. Being attuned to other people verbally or

nonverbally so that they are comfortable and have trust and

confidence in you.

Pacing. Establishing rapport by reflecting what others do,

know, or assume to be true (doing something similar,

matching some part of their ongoing experience).

Leading. Getting other people to pace with you (attempting

to influence them to consider other possibilities).

Having behavioral adaptability. Having enough range in

your own behavior to pace with the person or persons with

whom you are interacting.

The secret of establishing rapport with people is pacing. To pace with

other people you need to adapt to match their behavior--to get "in sync" with

them so that they feel comfortable with you. This means getting in

alignment with their words, their voice characteristics, and their nonverbals.

When you have established rapport with people, they are more apt to follow

your lead. The general pattern can be thought of in this way:

Pace Lead

When you're interacting with other people, you're either pacing--doing

something similar--or leading--having them pace with you. If your primary

objective is to gain acceptance, then pacing may be enough. But if your

objective is to influence them to consider other alternative, then you must

also lead. Managers can sometimes lead first and then pace to get results,

since they often have position power.

Chapter 14: Group Dynamics

No matter how much we value and protect our individuality, almost

all of our goals can be achieved only in a group. Labor and management

must have shared values, and yet in most cases they don't. Another

important impediment to achieving group effectiveness is a lack of

leadership skill. Brian Dumaine suggests there are five species in the

kingdom of teams:

Problem-solving teams. Attack a problem and then disband

Management teams. Coordinate work from different

functions.

Work teams, including the most advanced species, Self-

managed teams. Do the daily work.

Virtual teams. Use advanced communications to exchange

ideas and roles.

Quality circles. Consist of workers and supervisors who

meet periodically to address problems. This species may be

becoming extinct.

Dumaine offers four guidelines for the most effective use of teams

including 1) Use the right team for the job 2) Create a hierarchy of teams 3)

Build trust 4) Address "people" issues. An important term is a group as two

or more individuals.

What is the team's readiness in the situation?

Readiness Level 1. The group resembles "Pick-up Sticks" in

terms of their orientation toward the specific objective. In

this "forming" stage, uncertainty and lack of goals and role

clarity are evidenced by a strong need for definition of the

objective. The entire group is unable and unwilling or

insecure in reference to the specific objective.

Readiness Level 2. This group is "coming around," but

groups at this "storming" stage are often divided with

intragroup dissonance and competition for recognition and

influence. The group as a whole is unable, but willing and

confident, in reference to the specific objective.

Readiness Level 3. This group is "coming together," with

group cohesion very important at this "norming" stage.

Adjustments are made between individuals and factions, and

informal leaders and experts emerge. The group itself is

now demonstrating ability with modest accomplishments,

but it is still unwilling or insecure in its efforts toward

accomplishing the objective.

Readiness level 4. This team acts "as one" and shows strong

evidence of functional role-relatedness, esprit, synergy, and

high levels of performance. The group is now a team: able,

willing, and confident in relation to the objective.

Figure 6 (page 366)

Chapter 15: Implementing Situational Leadership: Managing People to Perform

The most fundamental issue of how a leadership or management

concept might appear to be is, Does it contribute to organizational

productivity?

A strategy is a broad integrated plan of action to accomplish

organizational goals; in our frame of reference, the goal is to improve human

productivity. Performance is defined as achieving or surpassing business or

social objectives and responsibilities from the perspective of the judging

party.

Seven factors of performance, designed by Clary Carr, include: 1)

Goals 2) Standards 3) Feedback 4) Means 5) Competence 6) Motive

7) Opportunity.

Source: Used by permission of the copyright holder, The Center for Leadership Studies, Escondido, Calif. 92025. All rights reserved.

Paul Hersey and Marshall Goldsmith designed the ACHIEVE model.

ACHIEVE represents ability, clarity, help, incentive, evaluation, validity,

environment. Hersey and Goldsmith isolated these seven variables related to

effective performance management. Performance management builds upon

the basic philosophy of Situational Leadership. There is no one best way to

solve human resource problems. The manager should use the problem-

solving strategy that best fits the needs of followers in their unique

situations.

Chapter 16: Implementing Situational Leadership: One Minute Management

Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard attempted to overcome

some of the objections to the academic nature of behavior modification in

their best-selling book, The One Minute Manager. The book, and this

chapter, focus on three powerful concepts derived from behavior

modification principles: one minute goal setting, one minute praisings, and

one minute reprimands. The notion of a "one minute manager" was

developed to encourage managers to take an extra minute to make sure they

are focusing on those things that have the most impact in obtaining desired

performance from workers.

Limit the number of goals. It is advised that you set goals, set

priorities, use measurable indicators, have standards of performance, include

incentives and benefits, identify obstacles to goal accomplishment, identify

action steps, praise and reward, and use reprimands and redirection if

necessary.

Good goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable,

Relevant, Trackable.

If reprimands are necessary, reprimand the action, not the person.

Don't forget the one minute apology when you are wrong. Talk specifics,

build people up, hear people out and improve your own communication

skills.

Chapter 17: Implementing Situational Leadership: Effective Follow-Up

The book by Hersey and Blanchard, Putting the One Minute

Manager to Work is the focus in this chapter. The "ABC's of management,"

which stands for activators, behaviors, and consequences. Activators are

things you have to do before you can expect good performance. Behavior is

the performance you want. Consequences are what follow behavior.

Figure 7 (page 419)

The PRICE system is a five-step productivity improvement system

developed by Robert Lorber and his associates. PRICE stands for pinpoint,

record, involve, coach, and evaluate.

The most important thing about any management concept is whether

it works on a day-to-day basis. The proof is in the application (Hersey &

Blanchard, 1996).

Summary

In anticipation of the comps question, it is my suggestion that we

know situational leadership, its levels, and the numerous ways it can be

Source: Kenneth Blanchard and Robert Lorber, Putting the One Minute Mananger to Work (New York: Morrow, 1984).

applied and implemented in any situation. So as far as putting this in

question format, "How can situational leadership be applied in the following

scenarios?"

Links

I strongly suggest that cohort members go online and search under

"Situational Leadership" for numerous sites. The first search resulted in

1600 sites. There are a variety of applications and food for thought in areas

that are currently using situational leadership.

www.performancelearning.net (programs information)

www.bsu.edu (has links to pertinent sites)

www.qualitytalk.com (prof. development)

www.getfeedback.net (good)

References

Hersey, Paul, Blanchard, Kenneth H., Johnson, Dewey E. 1996.

Management of Organizational Behavior: utilizing human resources.

Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.