DQ No.1: Why study situational approaches to leadership?
DQ No.1: Answer:
Any leadership process consists of
three major components such as the leader, the follower, and the situation. ‘Situational
approaches to leadership’ refers to the interplay among these three components
in order to find the relationships that will have potential impacts on
understanding and predicting individuals’ behaviors. Nowadays the relationships
among leader, follower and situation are becoming increasingly complex with
rapidly changing environment. To cope with these changing difficulties, it is
essential for leaders to have different approaches according to different
situations so that they can perform effectively in order to achieve organizational
goals.
Herbert Spencer (1884) (and Karl Marx) said that the times produce the
person and not the other way around.[30] This theory assumes that different situations call for
different characteristics; according to this group of theories, no single
optimal psychographic profile of a leader exists. According to the theory,
"what an individual actually does when acting as a leader is in large part
dependent upon characteristics of the situation in which he functions."[31]
The following four theories and
models try to provide a clear concept about situational approaches to
leadership: Tannenbaum-Schmidt Continuum of leader behavior, Fielders
contingency Model, the House-Mitchell-goal theory, and The Hersey-Blanchard
Tridimensional Leader Effectiveness Model. There are various reasons about why
we need to study situational approaches to leadership. Some of the major
reasons are explained in the following paragraphs.
1. To
behave in a flexible manner:
A leader cannot be
effective without knowing how to behave with followers in the given
situations. Leaders must know what level
of flexibility is needed to perform given tasks effectively so that attainment
of goals would be easy. Thus, situational approaches could be paramount to
understand the followers and situations with sufficient levels of
flexibility. It would be hard for
leaders to behave if they are not well familiar with the other two components:
Follower and situation. Every leader
wants to be flexible with them, but for that he/she needs to study ‘situational
approaches to leadership’.
2. To
be able to diagnose the leadership style appropriate to the situation:
A leader may not
know which leadership style is the best to fit the situation unless he/she is
aware of ‘situational approaches to leadership’ concept. These leadership
approaches can provide a platform where leaders can find out which leadership
style is the most appropriate. In short, we can say that these will help the
leaders to diagnose a better style so that organizational goals can be
accomplished.
3. To
be able to apply the appropriate style:
Finding which
leadership style is the best is not enough for leaders. They must know how to
apply that style effectively in the situations. To do this, leadership
approaches play a pivotal role and can contribute a lot for maintaining good
leadership process in any organizations. A leader, for instance, is totally
unknown about how and what leadership styles will have a greater impact on
given situations but he/she would like to pursue a higher productivity in the
organization. What do you think? Is it easy to apply all of a sudden without
knowing its application? Obviously, I do not think that it is easy because
leader should be well-known about its implications and how does it matters in
the performance of organization.
To nutshell, it
can be said that situational approaches need to be studied not only because of
above mentioned reasons but also they examine the fit between the leader and
the situation and provide guidance for leaders for achieving the organizational
effectiveness.
References:
-
P. Hersey,
Kenneth H.Blanchard, Dewey E. Johnson. (2008). Management Of Organization
Behavior: Leading Human Resources. New Jersey: Pearson prentice Hall.
DQ No.2: what is meant by the term
“degree of integration of goals” and how can we achieve true integration?
DQ No.2: Answer:
Before talking about the degree of integration of goals, it is
better to have an idea about goals. A goal is nothing more than a desired
result or purpose that an individual or organization plans to achieve in the
future. To be an effective goal, the goals must be SMART enough where S stands
for Specific, M stands for Measureable, A stands for Achievable, R stands for
Realistic and T stands for Time-bound. In the context of organizations, there
are various types of goals set up by the organization.
The degree of integration of goals
refers to extent that individuals and groups perceive their own goals as being
satisfied by the attainment of organizational goals. In other words, it is the
certain level of integration in which organizational goals and objectives are
congruent with individuals/ groups’ goals.
On the other hand, a true
integration refers to the process of sharing organizational goals by all:
Individuals, management and organization. In other words, it is the best
integration among individual goals, groups’ goals and organizational goals in
which the highest level of performances can be achieved. As shown in the
figure, this can be done by reducing the gap between the individuals’ goals and
organization’s goals. To achieve a true
integration, the leader should always try to move from left side to right side
by matching both individual and management goals with organizational goals.
The true integration can be achieved
by applying the following actions:
1.
By setting up goals clearly: The organization
should set up the goals precisely and it should be like –KISS “Keep It Simple
and Straight”.
2.
By creating a loyalty environment among
themselves: Leaders should be able to create a loyalty between themselves and
followers.
3.
By being an influential spokesperson: Leaders should have speaking ability to
influence others to do the certain tasks very effectively. Leaders should
communicate organizational goals with accomplishment of their own need
satisfaction.
References:
-
P. Hersey,
Kenneth H.Blanchard, Dewey E. Johnson. (2008). Management Of Organization
Behavior: Leading Human Resources. New Jersey: Pearson prentice Hall.
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