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Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model
Situational theory was popularised in the 1950s. Hersey and Blanchard’s (1977) situational leadership theory proposed that leaders should vary their behaviour according to the member’s maturity and they classified leader behaviours along two dimensions: directive behaviour and supportive behaviour. Hersey and Blanchard (1977) claimed that the levels of directive and supportive leader behaviour should be based on the level of readiness of the followers.
The effectiveness of the leadership style depends on the situation. Directive behaviour refers to one-way directional communication that is from leader to employee. Supportive behaviour refers to bi-directional communication from the leader providing the employee with emotional support socially. These behaviours are labelled as delegating, participating telling and selling. As an employee become mature he/she grows in capacity, ability, experience, motivation, self-esteem confidence, the need for socio-emotional support increases.
House’s Path-Goal Model
The path-goal leadership was developed by House (1971) to explain the performance and satisfaction of subordinates through the behaviour of their leaders (House, 1971). As a result the function of the leader was to provide coaching, guidance and personal support to employees. The path-goal theory proposed that group members preferred a highly structured regime when presented with ambiguous and interdependent tasks.
Leader-Member Exchange Theory
Leader-Member Exchange theory (LMX) was developed by Danserau et al. (1975) as a response to the Average Leadership Style (ALS), which assumed that leaders maintain similar relationships with all of their employees.
Subordinates become in-group members based on how well they get along with the leader and whether they are willing to expand their roles and responsibilities (Danserau, et al., 1975). The contingency approach assumes that leaders are merely shaped by their situation, when it might be possible that truly effective leaders can shape situation around them (Kotter, 1990). In-group members receive extra opportunities and rewards, while out-group members receive standard benefits.
Therefore, in-group members have high quality exchanges characterised by mutual trust, respect and obligation (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995).
The weakness of the contingency approach is that it failed to provide some universal principles of leadership (Bass, 1990). The principles such as integrity are not governed by any particular situation (Robbins, 1996). The theory has not explained the link between styles and situation (Rice, 1978). The basic approaches also do not pay attention to the needs of the follower and this is contrary to literature on motivational theories (Tosi, et al., 1986). Yukl (2002) states that although situational leadership theories provide insights into reasons for effective leadership, conceptual weakness limit the approach’s usefulness. Kotter (1990) noted that the contingency approach assumes that leaders are merely shaped by their situation, when it might be possible that truly effective leaders can shape situations around them.
The contribution of the contingency approach is to demonstrate the importance of situational factors in leadership in a systematic leadership research. Ivancevich and Matteson (1993) indicate that behavioural and contingency approaches have advocates and each attempts to identify the leader behaviours most appropriate for variety of different situations.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1. INTRODUCTION
1.2 BACKGROUND AND INFORMATION OF THE STUDY
1.3 BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
1.5. THE RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
1.6 LITERATURE AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
1.7 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
1.8 SCOPE OF STUDY
1.9 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY
1.10 ASSUMPTIONS
1.11 DEFINITIONS
1.12 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY
1.13 SUMMARY
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.3 LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND ONTOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.5 SUMMARY
CHAPTER FOUR: QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
4.1. INTRODUCTION
4.2 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONDENTS
4.3 KEY STUDY CONSTRUCTS
4.4 INFERENTIAL ANALYSIS
4.5 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
4.6 SUMMARY
CHAPTER FIVE: QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
CHAPTER SIX: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
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A framework for enhancing Organisational Performance through linkages between Leadership style and Organisational Culture: the case of the South African Police Service (SAPS)
