The Behavioral and Situational Approaches to Leadership

This week’s discussion covered two other approaches in leadership theory—the behavioral and situational approach. Each of these approaches considers the leader’s behavior across two main dimensions—task and relationship behaviors. Consider this diagram from our text that depicts the behavioral approach:

Picture source: Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7^th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers. P. 76

The Behavioral Approach

Figure 4.1 depicts the behavioral approach to leadership. As you can tell the two dimensions considered are the concern for people or relationship behaviors and concern for results or task behaviors. This diagram does a great job of portraying the approach. I especially like the names given to each type of leader. Beginning in the top left we have “country club management”. These types of managers are almost wholly concerned with relationship behaviors. They are interested in being the follower’s friend and likely making the follower happy. I cannot imagine this being a terribly productive work environment. However, it might be appropriate in some environments like a social club. Moving clockwise through the diagram, in the top right section we have “team management”. The text alludes to the fact that this is the most ideal form of leadership. This leader is equally concerned with relationships and task completion. For most organizations, this type of leadership would work really well in almost any situation. In the center of the diagram is “middle-of-the-road management”. This type of leadership is like team management in that it is concerned equally with relationships and tasks. However, this type of management is not necessarily interested in being especially successful. These leaders are content and do not make great efforts, hard calls, or big changes. On the bottom left of the diagram is “impoverished management”. This type of leader is hardly leading at all. They are neither concerned with relationships or task completion and are simply there to collect a check or hold a position in an organization. The final type of leadership described in this model is the “authority-compliance management” found on the bottom right of the diagram. These managers are highly motivated in achieving tasks. However, they have little care for relationships with followers. This type of leader is often perceived as cold by followers.

I liked the simplicity of this approach, and I feel that most behaviors could be categorized in this way—few behaviors would arise out of other motivations. I also like how the text explained that leaders often have a preferred or default method but most leaders also have a secondary style. For example, a leader may typically operate in the team management mode but when a new employee is brought on or a particularly stressful project is in the works he may revert to the authority-compliance mode to get the job done. This leaves some room for change and adjustment on the leader’s part, and I believe it makes the model more practical. Now, consider this diagram which considers the situational approach to leadership:

Picture source: Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7^th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers. P. 95

The Situational Approach

The situational approach offers the most flexibility and application. Like the behavioral approach, this approach is concerned with two main leadership behaviors—directive (or task) and supportive (or relationship). Researchers have concluded that there are four main types of leading styles and four main types of follower development styles. Each leadership style is best suited for a certain development level and leaders should adjust accordingly along the spectrum as the questionnaire demonstrated. I made this table to demonstrate which behaviors researchers suggest go with which level of development:

Appropriate Leadership Approach	Follower’s Development
S1-Directing-high directive, low supportive	D1-Low competence, high commitment
S2-Coaching-high directive, high supportive	D2-Some competence, low commitment
S3-Supporting-high supportive, low directive	D3-Moderate competence, variable commitment
S4-Delegating -low supportive, low directive	D4-high competence, high commitment

Beginning in the bottom right section of the table is the directing style of leadership which is appropriate with low competence, high commitment individuals. These followers are likely new hires that are highly motivated but not necessarily capable of completing the job yet. So, a very explicit type of training manager is appropriate for them. On the top right of the main diagram is the coaching style of leadership. This style of leadership is equally directive and supportive and is appropriate when followers have some capability of completing the job and low commitment to the task. This might be appropriate in the case of an apprehensive freshman member of a team or club. On the top left of the diagram, is supporting leadership which is appropriate when followers are fairly capable of doing their job with a variable commitment to the task. This could perhaps be a veteran employee learning a new way of doing things. They are unsure if they are willing to change but are likely fairly capable of making the change.  On the bottom left of the table is the delegating style of leadership. This style of leadership is best when followers are highly capable and committed. This type of follower could possibly be a veteran employee that has just received a promotion. They are happy and motivated while also capable.

Conclusion

The behavioral and situational approaches to leadership provide two more analytical approaches to leading. They are the most practical approaches we have studied yet, and they are often used in leadership training throughout organizations. These models provide individuals with a challenge to consider how they lead. Self-awareness in leaders is very important. Because only when we are aware of how we are now, can we improve our behavior and become better team players in our respective organizations.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this week’s post. Be sure to check in next week for another discussion of leadership. You can find my blog anytime at http://exploringleadershipinpublicadmin.blogspot.com/

References

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7^th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publishers.