Leadership Theory in Action

¶ … Leadership Applied There are various modes of leadership that are applied and can work well within organizations depending on the kind of assignments to be handled as well as the employees and even the management that is in place. These are the major factors that dictate the kind of leadership that can b used from time to time. One of the most fundamental leadership styles that have been proven over time is the situational leadership style.

This is a leadership style that calls for application and exemplification of good leadership qualities and capabilities depending on the situation that arises within the organization at a particular time. The situational leadership has been widely preferred by leaders and managers alike since it has a double benefit effect on the employees of any given organization. It leads to the appropriate leadership applied where and when needed, as well as enabling the development of employees in their levels within the organization right from the subordinates levels (Northouse, P.G., 2013:Pp102).

The situational leadership style is discreet and complex in a manner hence making it very applicable to thorough employee development and offering right leadership for the employees as they transcend the various levels at different times and paces depending on individual capabilities and qualities. This approach assumes that employees within an organization move up and down along the development continuum which is a direct reflection of their commitment and competence.

This means that the leader has the duty of first identifying where the employee is, and at what level and then they must adapt their leadership styles to the individual employee at the personal level they are at in order for the employee to gain maximum possible grown through to anther level (Ibid, Pp. 103).

This approach is peculiar and very suitable in career development of employees since it takes into account personal weaknesses and strengths of each employee as opposed to other approaches that have a blanket approach and application on almost all employees of the organization.

These other approaches often fail to meet the 100% success rates since they work on assumption that all employees have the same level and rate of career development and capabilities, and in this process end up losing out on the employees who may be having a few challenges in adapting to changes around them or even personal challenges hence hindering their growth.

The tragedy with this assumption is the ultimate suffering of these employees on the accusation of nonperformance yet it is inadequate mentoring, molding and leadership that rendered them in the situation they are in. There are fundamental issues therefore that situational leadership takes into account while trying to determine the nature of a situation, unlike other leadership styles. These are the pertinent issues that most leaders ignore or take for granted as will be seen in the case analysis below.

These factors fronted by situational leadership often ignored in other styles; the leader must ask himself what kind of task are the employees being asked to perform, how complex is the task assigned, are the employees skilled enough to carry out the task, are the employees motivated enough to carry the task to completion once it is began.

Once a leader is able to answer al these questions, he will be I a position to know what developmental level the employee is at hence know the leadership assistance the individual employee may need. Scenario (Dialogue between an employee and manager) Training and Leadership: Part I-Scenario 2. This is a case of a younger employee who has a problem with a co-worker of higher level within the organization about data remittances.

The new employee finds it hard to get the relevant data from Cindy in order to compile her reports on a monthly basis. For months she has consistently handed in her reports late due to a problem that came from a higher level, Cindy, yet she is unable to come up with the data herself. The new employee decides to go to her immediate manager to have the issue heard and dealt with once and for all.

However, in this case, the manager still pushes her to ensure she sorts out the issue with Cindy and hand in the reports in time henceforth, despite the fact that the manager is aware that Cindy is much senior to the new employee and the new employee having demonstrated her several attempts to have the data in time through mails, calls, personal follow-ups and such like. Discussion There are various challenges that the new employee faced in this situation.

First, it is important to know that the new employee and Cindy were at different levels of their careers. The manager should have recognized the different levels at which these two employees are at before pushing the new employee to get the data from Cindy despite her extended effort, he did not consider the type of task the employee is being asked to undertake and the skills or capability she had as well.

The second aspect that situational leadership style would have helped in is the lack of flexibility in the manager who instead of training the new employee on assertiveness and how to get the data in good time in a different way from the conventional blanket approaches she has been using, he insisted on getting the work done in time without peculiar and individual guidance to the new employee.

It is also apparent that in the situation, the manager did not look at the situation in totality but just concentrated ion the errors that the new employee made and not offering a way out, there was more focus on what needs to be done as opposed to how it needs to be done.

He totally turned a blind eye to the possibility that Cindy could be contributing to the stalemate in the report compilation and in effect the entire burden crushing on the new employee, a situation that can demoralize the employee totally. The manger lacked the prescriptive value or approach that is advocated for by the situational leadership style rather than the descriptive approach that is often employed by other leadership styles including this manager in the case scenario.

Lastly, the manager failed to treat each employee differently and in an individualized manner depending on the task at.