Development Level and Development Style
The situational leadership theory incorporates the group of theories in which the effectiveness of the leaders accounts for traits and behaviors of the leader in accordance with the situation. The situational leadership accounts for the leader’s ability to integrate his leadership and management style in accordance with his subordinates’ extent of maturity. In this manner, the right leadership style is based on the group of individuals who are led by the leader and hence, the right leadership style is selected on the basis of the subordinates’ maturity, which is comprised of four levels (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009).
The first level of maturity style encompasses the group of individuals who lack the skills that are required to carry out their job related tasks and these individuals also tend to remain unwilling in order to address their job related responsibilities in an effective manner. The second level of maturity style encompasses the group of individuals who want to carry out their work related activities in an effective manner, however, they fail to do so due to lack of skills that are required to complete their job tasks (Papworth et al., 2009).
The third level of maturity style addresses the group of individuals who possess adequate experience and skills to carry out their work related activities, however, they lack confidence in order to utilize their experience and skills in an effective manner and accomplish their work related tasks. The fourth level of maturity encompasses the group of individuals who possess experience, skills and confidence to carry out their work related tasks but they want to take charge of their work activities. In this manner, the lack of control over the work activities makes such individuals to become unwilling to utilize their skills in an effective manner (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009).
The different levels of maturity require the specific extent of leadership so that the subordinates remain satisfied and contribute in the achievement of the work related objectives. The development of leadership style that is required to address the types of maturity also accounts for four leadership styles that are developed on the basis of the task behavior and relationship behavior. The first leadership style encompasses the one-way communication and the leader tends to provide the instructions to his subordinates so they can carry out their work related tasks. The second leadership style encompasses the two-way communication mechanism in which the leader provides direction to his subordinates and also supports his subordinates with the social and economic help (Chen & Silverthorne, 2005).
The third leadership style incorporates the decision making mechanism in which the perspectives of the subordinates by means of accomplishing the work related tasks are taken into account by the leader and hence, a higher extent of relationship behavior is maintained. The fourth leadership style also incorporates the shared decision making mechanism, however, the final decision is made by the subordinates and the leader remains responsible to monitor and support the performance of the subordinates (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009).
Discussion
In this instance, the example of the customer support team is enlightened in which the subordinates are responsible to address the issues that are faced by the customers. The subordinates are required to communicate and empathize with customers and utilizing their interpersonal skills and demonstrate a higher extent of emotional intelligence while incorporating the problem solving skills in order to facilitate the customers. Considering the fact that the subordinates’ maturity resides in the second level in which the subordinates are willing to carry out their work related responsibilities and possess the required skills. However, they are not confident enough to utilize their skills and knowledge while providing services to the customers due to lack of experience and adequate experience (Papworth et al., 2009).
In this manner, the second leadership style is required to be adopted by the leader in which the leader will be responsible to provide the adequate direction, by means of providing support and guidance in order to provide services to the customers. The leader can provide the subordinates with the knowledge in which he can share his experience and can motivate the subordinates to confront their work related tasks with confidence. The leader can incorporate the efficient feedback mechanism in which subordinates can discuss their challenges and leader can provide them with the adequate direction in order to overcome their challenges (Papworth et al., 2009).
Effectiveness of Action
The leader can provide the subordinates with the emotional support in which the subordinates will believe that they are supported by their leader and will understand this mechanism as a learning procedure and will consider their leader as a mentor. Moreover, the leader will determine the motivating factors, by means of monetary and non-monetary awards, and will provide them in accordance with their performance so that subordinates utilize their skills in an effective manner. In this way, the leader can determine the problems that subordinates are facing in providing the adequate services to the customers and accomplishing their work related tasks (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009; Sims et al., 2009).
The leader can assist the subordinates to utilize their skills in an effective manner and can also provide with the emotional support so that subordinates can feel being supported and become confident in experimenting and implicating their skills. This action is considered appropriate in the organizational setting because the leader is providing his assistance to subordinates in order to build their confidence. The leader is also identifying the factors that can help the subordinates to utilize their skills in an effective, which eventually indicates the effectiveness of the leadership style (Sims et al., 2009).
Effectiveness of the Situational Leadership Approach
The situational leadership approach focuses on the adaptability of the leadership style in accordance with the maturity need of the subordinates. The approach would be useful in understanding the leadership that is applied to the situation because it provides the systematic levels in which the subordinates’ maturity and their need is determined. Moreover, it also provides the leadership styles that are able to address the identified extent of maturity in an effective manner. In this way, the clear understanding of the situational leadership approach can provide the leader with the ability to understand the need of the subordinates so that the leader can adopt his leadership style in such manner that the subordinates can become efficient in accomplishing their work related objectives (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009).
The leaders face the challenge related to the identification of the required leadership traits that are required to be utilized in order to enhance the performance of the subordinates. In this manner, the leaders can identify the adequate extent of balance that is required to be maintained between the task behavior and relationship behavior by means of the situational leadership approach. It also provides the leaders with the ability to adapt their leadership style in accordance with the subordinates’ extent of maturity due to which the leaders can become sustainable in leading their teams and meeting the team objectives (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009).
References
Chen, J. C., & Silverthorne, C. (2005). Leadership effectiveness, leadership style and employee readiness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 26(4), 280-288.
Papworth, M. A., Milne, D., & Boak, G. (2009). An exploratory content analysis of situational leadership. Journal of Management Development,28(7), 593-606.
Sims, H. P., Faraj, S., & Yun, S. (2009). When should a leader be directive or empowering? How to develop your own situational theory of leadership.Business Horizons, 52(2), 149-158.
Thompson, G., & Vecchio, R. P. (2009). Situational leadership theory: A test of three versions. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(5), 837-848.
