Situational Leadership Styles Paper

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Situational leadership is a leadership style where, managers or supervisors within an organization or group alter their style of leadership to meet the development level of the members they are striving to impact Hersey & Blanchard (2014). It is the obligation of the leader or leaders to conform his style and not the followers to adjust to their style of leadership within the organization or group (Swatz, 2014). On the other hand, the leadership style might constantly change as indicated by the circumstances to address the needs of others in the organization (Swatz, 2014) There have been numerous studies carry out to find the most appropriate style of leadership. According to Hersey & Blanchard (2014), there is not a different style of leadership …show more content…

The two dimensions ranges from democratic and autocratic and employee oriented to product oriented. The model shows that there are four main styles of leadership. S 1 which is the telling stage- This leader advises his followers what to do and precisely how the work should be carried out and is constantly, high on task behavior and low on relationship behavior. This style of leadership is one of an autocratic leader where communication is in one direction from the top down. The second stage is S 2 which is selling. The leader continues to offer direction and information to followers but with more communication and less directives. Rather, the leader offers his message to get the support of followers; in this instance both task and relationship are high. The third stage is S 3 which is also as participating this is where the leader is focused on relationship and less on task; as a result, he or she works with everyone on the team and also shares the decision-making responsibilities with everyone. In the fourth stage which is S 4 also know as delegating, here the leader confidentially gives most of the duties to his followers, examine their progress but is less involved in decision making of the team.
The diagram also shows how each level of readiness is linked to the different styles of leadership. It shows R1which states that the followers are unable and insecure. R2, which shows that the followers are unable, but willing, R3 which demonstrated that followers are capable but is also unwilling and readiness level R4 which shows that the followers are capable and