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Situational Leadership Theories

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A CRITICAL REVIEW OF SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY

Situational Leadership Theory is arguably the most widely known and practiced theory of leadership and managerial effectiveness. In this essay, the origins and fundamentals of the theory are considered, as well as the available evidence that supports or contradicts the its validity. Background Situational Leadership Theory as presented by Hersey and Blanchard developed from the work of J. W. Reddin’s 3-Dimensional Management Style Theory. That theory hypothesizes the importance of a manager’s relationship orientation and task orientation in conjunction with effectiveness (Reddin 1967, 8). From the interplay of these dimensions, Reddin proposes a variety of management styles and theorizes that effectiveness as a manager can be explained as a function of matching a leader’s style to a specific situation. However, his theory does not specify whether certain situational characteristics could be unequivocally incorporated into a predictive model (Vecchio 1987, 444). From Reddin’s suggestion that a leader’s effectiveness varies according to style, Hersey and Blanchard proposed a life-cycle theory of leadership. According to this theory, degrees of task orientation and relationship orientation are to be examined in conjunction with the maturity of a follower or group of followers in order to account for leader effectiveness (Hersey and Blanchard 1969, 29). The main principle of the life-cycle theory is that as the level of maturity in a follower increases, effective leader behavior will involve less task orientation as well as less relationship orientation. However, this decline in both orientations is not straightforward. Hersey and Blanchard theorize that a low level of relationship orientation coupled with a high task orientation is ideal in the early stages of an employee’s tenure

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