Situational Leadership: Hersey's & Blanchard's Model

Adding on to the various theories of leadership is Contingency Theory, a tool often used to assess organizational behavior. The Contingency Theory explicates that there are specific situational factors that can impact the direct relationships between independent and dependent variables in the study of organizational behavior. The notion of Situational Leadership is a sub-theory drawn from understanding the Contingency Theory.

Situational Leadership Theory provides that a leader is capable of adjusting their leadership style to different situations to reflect employee needs. Essentially, situational leadership suggests that there is no single best leadership style that can be applied to all situations. The employee's skill set and attitude (maturity) must be considered in order to define the most appropriate form of leadership.

Blanchard and Hersey have developed a model that formulates four different types of leadership behaviors, based on the application of both directive and supportive behavior, in order to determine what type of leadership is best suited for what kind of situation. These four leadership types are:

1.) Telling (High Directive, Low Support)

2.) Selling (High Directive, High Support)

3.) Participating (Low Directive, High Support)

4.)Delegating (Low Directive, Low Support)

In my experience in the hospitality industry, there have been cases when a leader's style of leadership did not "match" to the maturity of my skill set, while other leader's have been able to match better to my "maturity".

In discussion of an experience in which a leader did not match my level of maturity in task and psychological related variables, I will be discussing when I worked as a banquet server for a small catering company. The leadership in this catering company was poor to say the least, and here is why. Myself as well as a majority of the banquet servers who have at least spent a few months working, were already familiar with catering procedures. Most of us, myself included, were very self-reliant, dependable, and capable of understanding all accepted procedures of the given task . Our demonstrated skill and knowledge of service during the event was oftentimes acknowledged by clients, but rarely recognized by leadership. In fact, we were quite criticized often by leadership and they lacked trust in us and implemented irrational procedures and policies (such as not being allowed to switch shifts with other workers, or resting in spaces where a client might slightly see you). A lot of associates worked hard, but also maintained an "I don't really care" attitude as a result of Leadership behavior. In this situation, associates maintained a high maturity level in tasks, but a low maturity level in attitude. We required a leader who is Less Directive, but High Supporting, or a "Supporting" leadership style, but the leader we were getting was very High Directive and Low Supportive, or a "Directing" leadership style. This did not match with the maturity levels of the associates and as a result, this company still experiences very high turnover.

In discussion of an experience in which a leader did match my level of maturity in task and psychological related variabls, I will be discussing when i worked as a front desk agent a 1000+ room hotel. The leadership in this specific property were admirable. In training, when I required more support and direction, the leaders were great at applying that. They were able to understand, based on the maturity of my beginning development, what type of leadership to apply. Because I was still learning a lot of the new procedures, the Leaders of this hotel appropriately applied a "Coaching" Leadership style, in which they supplied me with High Support and High Direction. When I got more familiar with the procedures, almost a year into the job, I was very self reliant and capable of making my decision. The leaderships were able to see that. I required less direction and less support, and the leaders began to appropriately apply a more "Delegative" type of leadership.