THE BYSTANDER

The five stages of radical change are Planning, Enabling, Launching, Catalyzing and Maintaining. While each stage needs a leader with varying leadership styles, I will focus on the most important leadership styles for each.  Planning   stage requires an inspirational leader above all else (Reardon et al, 1998). The planning stage requires a leader that can get people excited about changes that might otherwise be uncomfortable or scary. A leader has to be able to convince people that change is good and will have extraordinary results, and that the status quo is worth changing.  Enabling   stage requires a leader that is mostly logical. Enabling involves examining and analyzing next steps in a way that is easy to explain to team members/employees (Reardon et al, 1998). A leader in the Enabling stage of radical organizational change will need to be accessible and able to assist employees in the next steps in a practical way. Launching   stage requires a leader who ...

            According to Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012), “cultural intelligence is your ability to successfully adapt to unfamiliar cultural settings.” (p. 68). Cultural intelligence is an important business instrument that highlights the behavioral nuances based on cultural differences. The increasing workforce diversity has pluses and minuses based on how cultural intelligence is used in managing it.             The basis for   cultural intelligence   has: knowledge (Acquire), strategic thinking (Build), motivation (Contemplate), and behaviors (Do) (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).               Acquire   is the step where the information and knowledge are obtained. The knowledge of a different culture is essential for a manager in order to better manage and interact in a multic...

Leadership is a critical area of an organization.   A good leadership propels success in every organization. Researchers have come up with a number of theories that discuss and elaborate on the leadership styles that are required for good progress in the organization.  Contingency theories carry the idea that success in leadership relies on a certain situation at hand. There are certain factors which dictate the specific leadership style that will be effective in a given situation (Vroom, & Jago, 2007). The basic assumptions of Fielder’s Contingency theory, for instance, put forth the notion that proper leadership lies on style adopted by a leader and control that is held over the situation that is under control.  According to this theory, success is only achievable when there is a strong leader-member relation (Waters, 2013). The leaders are expected to present duties clearly having goals and procedures properly outlined. The theory also has the notion that lea...

Situation leadership is described as an adaptive leadership style because it conforms to “ the existing work environment   [or situation]   and the needs of the organization ”, ( McCleskey ,   2014   , page 1)     He  adds that si tuational leadership is not based on a specific skill of the leader; instead, he or she modifies the style of management to suit the requirements of the organization. The Situation Theory based on fact that “real causes of effective and ineffective organization leadership reside in structural features rather that the characteristics of the people who lead those organizations, Vroom quoting Perrow(1970) on page 1.  Leaders are identified based on their traits however the behavior is dictated by situations they have to tackle described as “structural antecedents and organizational outcomes” (   Vroom & Jago ,   2007 , page 19) .   Vroom & Jago ,   2007   supports this position with a ...

Contingency theory suggests that leadership style is un-changing regardless of one's environment, while situational theory suggests that the organizational structure already in place dictates the type of leader that someone is (Vroom & Jago, 2007). I choose to elaborate on the latter theory, situational. The foundation of situational theory is that a leader is a product of their environment. The criteria by which the leader is   chosen   dictates who holds the position (Vroom & Jago, 2007), therefore predicating how one will behave in the organization. Situational theory is the most logical of the two theories because people are adaptive creatures. They behave in ways that meet the goals they have in the moment. Another reason situational theory is the most logical is that environments ultimately choose their leaders (Fairholm & Fairholm, 2009). Whether top management that is out of touch with employees does the hiring, or if it is a more democratic hiring...

Situation Leadership more formally called the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory, this model focuses on leadership style and the maturity of those being led. Situational Leadership means “choosing the right leadership style for the right people,” according to Blanchard and Hersey. It also depends on the competence and maturity of the followers. In this era, leaders look less like bosses and more like partners. The theory puts forth the idea that leadership styles hinge on four behaviours: telling, selling, participating and delegating. Spahr, P. (2015, Oct 30) The maturity levels range from an incompetence or unwillingness to perform the task, to a willingness and ability to perform.  The idea is that a successful leader will adapt leadership techniques to fit the maturity level of the group in question on a situational basis. However, even if you’re a top leader in the organization, you can’t achieve your goals without the support and   contributio...

 I like to question a lot of mainstream concepts. I believe that there is a lot of opportunities for a smart and thoughtful businessman to make a lot of money on teaching leadership concepts and ideas. The fact that leadership doesn't have a standardized definition and that leadership researchers haven't been able to identify in an objective way what differentiates non-leaders from leaders (Bennis, W., & Nanus, B., 1985), there's a lot of business opportunities for thought leaders to define their own version of leadership and influence others to believe in the same leadership concepts and philosophies.  According to Germaine, M. (2008), over the last decade, we have seen several leadership theories influence the business community. Based on the work of Germaine, M. (2008), we are able to understand that we successively had the Great Man Theory (1900s), the Trait Theory (1940s-1950s), the Behavioral Theory (1950s-1960s), the Contingency Theory (1960s-1970s), the Part...

Introduction It was during the 1970’s when Drs. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard developed the initial paradigm of situational leadership, with the fundamental idea that some situations require a leader to direct others, whereas alternative situations provide an environment where support and wider delegation is better (Beheshti, 2018). This basic idea of situational leadership, effectively how situations impact leadership, has blossomed into a network of theories (Vroom & Jago, 2007). One such theory is known as the ‘Path-Goal’ theory which emerged shortly after Hersey and Blanchard’s initial work, which was built upon by the psychologists Evans (1970), House (1971), Dessler (House & Dessler, 1974), and Mitchel (House & Mitchel, 1974). As more theories emerged, situational leadership got demarcated into situational and contingency-situational theory types, with the Path-Goal theory falling into the latter (Vroom & Jago, 2007). Specifically, contingency-situational theor...

Situational leadership theory approach is that a leader should adapt to the circumstances or situation. Contingency Theory asserts that the leader should match the situation (wip5014, 2013). The theories are similar in that they focus on the importance of the situation but have different expectations of the leaders. For our discussion, I will focus on situational theory. Basic foundations The situational theory maintains that there isn't a prototypical leadership style and that a leader's strategy can be chosen to match the situation (Piyu, 2019). Vroom and Jago (2007, p. 19) state that "The traits of leaders reflect the mechanisms by which they are selected, and their behavior is constrained by the situations that they face." This definition translates into the most capable leaders match their style to the situation. Adaptability is the focus of this model of leadership, the needs of subordinates, and the requirements of the situation need to be considered (Piy...

Situational leadership style           As outlined by Russell in 2011, there are many leadership theories including the situational leadership theory. An effective leader would be able to select the right style out of four options according to the internal and external environment s/he faces and to the maturity of the followers: 1) participating, 2) delegating, 3) directing and 4) selling according to the Blanchard & Hersey theory ( Spahr, 2015).   A leader, who masters situational leadership, would probably encourage one’s skilled team to find solutions by themselves while telling new comers what to do and closely monitoring their actions.           Spahr highlight in 2015 five different prerequisites for effectively leveraging situational leadership. Firstly, the leader should be flexible and demonstrate flexibility to adapt his/her leadership style and communication to the need of...

Situational leadership is a strategic methodology that leaders use to develop people. The theory itself works on the assumption that a leader will adapt to their style based upon the needs of a given situation. ("Situational Theories of Leadership | Principles of Management," n.d.) The current version of this theory is based upon work done by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. The theory has four focal leadership styles: Telling, the leaders decides and the workers do. Selling, the leader is still in charge, but creates and motivates buy-in from team members. Participative, the leader works with the team to make decisions. Delegation, the leader assigns decision-making authority to members of the team. ("What is Situational Leadership? How Flexibility Leads to Success," 2014) The four styles are paired with the maturity level of the team members as follows: ( Maturity levels and leadership styles , n.d.) Per the work done by Hersey and Blanchard (a...