Hersey & Blanchard’s situational theory.

it was written by Paul Hersey, professor, and author of the book Situational Leader, and Ken Blanchard, leadership guru and author of The One Minute Manager in 1970s and early 1980s.

The term ‘situational’ indicates that leaders should vary their approach based on the people they are leading, and the circumstances that surround the task at hand, leadership depends upon each individual situation, and no single leadership style can be considered the best. So tasks are different and each type of task requires a different leadership style. so it is based around variable leadership, depending on a variety of circumstances and the leader should adapt with a variety of situations as quickly as possible,

The Situational Leadership Theory offers up four potential leadership styles, and then four maturity levels that define the members of a team

S-1 Telling the leader provides specific instructions for the team members to follow through with, he simply tells each member what to do, and how they would like them to do it. this approach is less collaborative, and more directive in nature.

S-2 Selling it’s more little collaboration, so the leader attempts to convince the group of that the leader should lead by providing social and emotional support to the individual being convinced.

S-3 Participating in its more collaboration so the leader shares decision making with the group and making more democratic

S-4 Delegating. represents the leader passing on most of the responsibilities for a given project or task to various members of the team.

Four maturity levels M1, M2, M3, M4

M1. These are the least experienced of workers. At this point, they will need to be instructed on how to do just about everything that makes up the task they are responsible for

M2. are those who are more eager to work on a job, even if they aren’t yet ready to do it correctly without the help of the leader of the group.

M3. this group would include employees who are excited to work on a job and have most of the skill they need to get it done right. While they might not be able to quite get all of the job done without some help.

M4. those are completely capable of handling a task – and they know that they can get the job done without the help of the leader.

Vroom and Yetton’s decision participation contingency theory.

it was written by Victor Vroom and Philip Yetton, and later, Arthur Jago in 1973; Arthur Jago added to theory in 1988.

The theory states that there can be many styles of leadership and no one type fits all situations, thus making this a Contingency Theory. A leader sizes up a situation, assesses the situation facing the group, determines how much support the group will give to the effort, and then effect a style of leading. There is a mechanical process to do this involving seven questions and decision points. An interactive version of the model is provided below.

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