Situational leadership is considered a leadership style where a leader adapts their leadership style to match the recent work environment and the needs of the team members in an organization. Moreover, the approach does not depend on leaders’ skills; instead, it is based on their ability to make the required adjustments of an organization to ensure that they effectively lead. The two founders of the situational leadership theories are Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. In this way, leaders can employ the four leadership styles, which allow them to direct, coach, participate, and delegate duties. However, this can be aligned with the team members’ willingness level, ranging from low to high commitment and competence.
In most cases, situational leadership theory is different from other leadership theories, such as behavioral and trait theories, as it primarily emphasizes some common characteristics that a situational leader can illustrate in the organization. One trait is flexibility, where a situational leader frequently adjusts their leadership styles to align with the current situation. Also, there is a need to regularly adapt and be flexible. Delegation is another common trait that allows a situational leader to easily delegate roles/tasks to team members who can work independently. Therefore, unlike the trait theory, which majors on the inherent characteristics of a leader, this theory affirms that effective leadership depends on how the team members are ready and the context
Strength and weaknesses of situational leadership theory.
Situational leadership theory accounts for the different levels of development, especially in employees, and helps in addressing their skill level and needs independently. It also creates a positive and comfortable working environment for employees because the implemented leadership styles commonly align with their needs. In situational leadership, situational leaders can use the leadership style they think and believe is the best, depending on the current situation. However, this leadership style can confuse an organization because it frequently uses and changes different approaches to address the team’s needs. Also, it highly depends on a leader’s ability to judge an individual’s maturity level, yet some leaders cannot effectively do that; thus, it may provide a leadership style that does not suit an individual or employees in an organization.
This approach can work best in an emergency room in a health facility that has received many patients with critical injuries in a car crash. With the large number of patients in the emergency room, the supervisor in charge must implement the leadership style to efficiently direct the employees in the emergency room. Also, it requires the supervisor to regularly run the staff in the emergency room to ensure that the injured patients are provided with timely treatments.
Path goal theory
According to this leadership theory, a leader’s traits, style, and behaviors can impact team satisfaction and productivity. It also assumes that leaders can complement their employees and team members in the organization and compensate for their weaknesses. Therefore, the leaders can provide employees with clearly defined instructions to adhere to that will help them attain the set goals and remove the challenges they may encounter. The four types of leadership behavior identified are the directive path-goal clarifying, supportive, achievement-oriented, and participative.
Differences
The path-goal leadership theory also differs from other leadership theories, such as behavioral theory, as it primarily focuses on various roles in providing guidance and motivating teams toward attaining their set goals and objectives. Moreover, it also identifies leadership styles such as achievement, directive, participative, and supportive, which are chosen depending on the nature of the task and the team’s willingness to accomplish the tasks. In contrast, the behavioral theory focuses on a leader’s observable behaviors, which can be people and task-oriented, while the path-goal theory focuses on the leader’s role in clarifying the path toward attaining the objectives.