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Four Leadership Theories

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The many leadership theories which exist today fall within eight categories. These are the great man theories, trait, contingency, situational, behavioral, participative, management and relationship theories respectively. In great man theories, leadership is presumed to be inherent, that is, leaders are born not made. Similarly, trait theories hold this ideology but based on the leadership qualities. Relative to contingency theories, the environmental factors determine the leadership style whereas on situational theories the situation dictates. Unlike great man 's theories, behavioral theories hold that leaders are not born but made: leadership develop from learning either through teaching or observation. Further to participative and management …show more content…

The situational leadership theory stipulates that different situations of varying degrees influence leadership effectiveness. Most notably, the situations in this model vary between the task behavior and related behavior of the leaders to the followers. The task behavior refers to the degree upon which the leader clearly explains the duties and responsibilities of the followers. Task behavior is characterized with one way communication where the leader closely directs and supervises employees in their tasks. Relative to the relationship behavior, the focus is on the degree of support that the leader provides to the employers. Unlike in the task behavior, the relationship behavior uses a two way channel of communication. Here, the leader plays both the role of a facilitator and the listener. Therefore, an effective leader is the one able to determine the extent of task behavior and relationship behavior to accommodate based on employees readiness. In this context, readiness refers to the employees ' ability and willingness in directing their behavior towards the task at hand. Ability defines the knowledge, skills and experience of followers whereas willingness the confidence, motivation and commitment possessed by the followers. Therefore, situational model of leadership revolves about the task and relationship behaviors provided by the leader and the follower readiness (Thompson, and …show more content…

Situational model of leadership is mostly employed by military forces worldwide particularly the United States Air Force for the purposes of training and developing its leading officers. However, the military forces are keen to know that the skills acquired and used in one situation mostly does not apply to other situations. Therefore, the context of situational leadership model is a significant tool for providing training to leaders. Additionally, this model of leadership is presently in educational leadership. This was based on a study conducted by a district school in Ohio where the situational model of leadership was found to be the most effective form of leadership for superintendents. Taking into consideration the readiness level, superintendents led both the school administrators and principals in achieving the common goal (Thompson, and

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